Fay's Six

CHAPTER1

Fay Clayton satin her SUV in the parking lot of Gunny’s Watering Hole, sipping on an extra-large diet soda. The ice had melted so it was more like slightly flavored flat water, but she needed the caffeine. She lifted her sunglasses and pushed them on the top of her head. The sun shone bright in the blue Colorado sky.

It was one thing to work with Walker Nash back in the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming when Leslie, Beck’s sister, went missing. Of course, they hadn’t been given a choice, not if he wanted to keep his job with the Brotherhood Protectors and hers with Beck’s sister’s organization, the Athena Team.

Both Walker and Fay quickly put their differences aside. The bottom line was a life was at stake and Walker knew what happened a year ago wasn’t entirely her fault.

Quickly, she checked the time.

She was early. She was always early. It was something that drove many of her friends nuts and it once cost her a relationship since she found her then boyfriend kissing another woman at the front door of his apartment wearing nothing but his jeans, which weren’t buttoned. Had she not been early, she might not have known she had been involved with a cheating bastard.

But that only made her question her ability to read people, which she often needed in her job as a CIA agent.

One more reason she’d stopped dating.

Tap. Tap.

She jumped, knocking the plastic to-go cup against the steering wheel, which in turn flipped the top off and wet contents landed in her lap.

“Mother trucker,” she muttered, glancing up. “Asshole.” She hit the power window button.

“It’s good to see you again too,” Walker said with that cheesy fake smile he had. “Clearly, you didn’t learn all that much at Hank’s training.”

She narrowed her stare. She had half a mind to punch him in the throat, but what good would that do?

“I’m not on a stakeout. I was early and I didn’t feel like going into a bar.”

“It’s a restaurant too.” As usual, Walker felt the fucking need to correct her, which he’d been doing since they’d been debriefed after Operation Nashville. He pointed toward the police car. “And Officer Oakley is already here.”

“I wanted to wait for you.” She pushed open the driver’s door. Her jeans were totally soaked. She glanced down. “I need to change.”

“There’s a bathroom inside.”

“I’m not going anywhere like this.” She marched to the back of her vehicle and lifted the hatch. She opened her suitcase, then pulled out a fresh pair of jeans and panties. “Hold these.” She shoved them in his face, then she unfolded a small blanket, just big enough she could wrap around her body, tucking one end in over her breasts.

Walker held up her pink thong. “Never in a million years would I have guessed you of all people wore something this sexy.”

“Fuck off.” She wiggled out of her wet clothing and tossed them in the back of her SUV.

“What the hell are you doing?” He wadded her panties into his fist and glanced nervously around. “You’re seriously naked under that blanket.”

“And you’re naked under your clothes. What’s the difference?”

“Good point.”

“Can I have those?” She stared at his fist.

“Oh. Yeah.”

She took her underwear and stepped into them before hiking up her dry pants. “So, is this pairing another test to see if Beck’s girls are a good match, or is this punishment of some kind?” She slammed the hatch closed.

“It’s definitely not punishment.” Walker leaned against the back of her vehicle and folded his arms. “We both got nothing but praise. Hell, all of Beck’s girls were nothing short of professional and you all added something to our team.”

“Are you giving me a compliment?”

“Don’t let it go to your head,” he said with an arched brow and a tilt of his head. “I still one hundred percent believe you failed both our teams a year ago and that if you’d done your job better, three people wouldn’t be dead. And—”

“And you’d still be in the Navy,” she finished his statement. She’d heard it all before, but she knew her intel was spot on at the time her sources told her where the enemy was located, giving her time to extract the SEAL team.

Only that’s not what happened and three good people were dead and one SEAL had been forced to leave for medical reasons.

One of them had been Walker.

“You never answered my question when we were at Wind River Mountains.” He caught her gaze. His stare was intense and full of judgment.

But perhaps she owed him an explanation.

Besides, they had ten minutes before they would be on time for their meeting.

She joined him in leaning against her SUV. “You want to know why I resigned my position with the CIA if I didn’t believe I was at fault for what happened.”

“Yeah. That question.”

“Because they took away my ability to access the files for Operation Nashville.” She paused for a moment and glanced to the sky as it might have all the answers they both sought. “We still don’t know who the mole is and since I was the one who planned your extraction and I was the one who was talking with all the players, putting everything into place, at first, they wanted me on the task force to find out how the enemy found out where you and your men were. But three months after the attack, they removed me, telling me my services were needed elsewhere.” She left out the part where they took away her security clearance and took her out of the field all because they’d received an anonymous tip that she was the mole.

They soon ruled that out, but it still pissed her off enough she quit.

She and Walker might have their issues with each other, but they never once accused the other of being the mole.

Then again, he didn’t believe there was one.