That was all Shelly needed to hear before ice shot through her veins. She wasn’t sure what he was talking about or who with, but she was certain it was similar to the scenario Sydney had spoken about earlier.
Preston ended his call and strode back into the dining area as if nothing was amiss. But Shelly needed to know. She had lived too much of her life with secrets from men she had let close to her and she wasn’t about to do that again.
“Who was that?” she asked.
“Just an old friend,” Preston said nonchalantly, finishing the sandwich he left at the table.
“Didn’t sound like an old friend. Is it the same guy that called Dylan the other day?”
Preston’s eyes shot up at that accusation and Shelly couldn’t hide her smirk as she stood from the table.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, but he clearly realized that she knew something.
“I don’t know, Preston. Would you tell me if I knew anything about what was going on?”
“No. It’s not something that you need to be involved with,” he replied, then instantly cringed as if he knew how the words sounded coming out of his own mouth.
“So, I don’t need to be involved with anything, right? This was just a one-time thing, so I don’t need to worry about why the FBI is calling you?”
His back straightened as she continued, disclosing that she knew far more than she probably needed to.
“Look, Shelly, you’re the one that showed up here last night. Just because we had a few bouts of sex doesn’t mean I have to involve you in my work decisions.”
If Shelly had felt ice before, he cemented her feet together and drowned her in the Arctic Ocean with that statement. She was nothing more than a romp in the sheets for him. She didn’t matter and what she thought didn’t matter. He got what he wanted and that was that.
“Thanks for last night and the sandwich. I’ll see myself out.” Shelly stormed out of the house, stomping her way back to her cabin at the far end of the property. Thank goodness she couldn’t see his house from hers and that he hadn’t had the stupidity to follow her.
At some point, she was going to learn her lesson about men. She just wasn’t sure how much longer she could wait.
Chapter Nine
Preston wasn’t sure why he had spoken the way he had to Shelly, but he was so used to not having anyone to answer to. He was afraid of what that meant if she had told him not to go on the mission. Did he want to give her the power to have a say in everything he did?
And as he thought harder about it, he realized he did want her to have a say.
Glancing to the passenger seat in the non-descript sedan he drove, Preston glanced at Dylan; a man that was his best friend and confidant. And if anyone else could understand what turmoil he was going through, then it would be the burly man sitting to his right.
“So, how did Sydney take it when you told her you were leaving for a week?”
With a humph, Dylan turned in his seat and looked at Preston and looked at him as if he had grown two heads. “You know her just as well as I do. How do you think she took it?”
“Pretty sure she left you with a few choice words then spent the night reminding you of what you had to come home to.”
Cringing, Dylan added, “Shit, I forgot that you knew that side of her too.”
“Hey, you know I don’t think of her that way anymore and haven’t for a long time.”
“Yeah, I know.” The two of them sat in silence watching the warehouse in Atlanta, where the FBI informant had disclosed as a Harposia cartel delivery site. Nothing had happe
ned during the week their SAC had assigned them their position. Both men blended into the rough crowd so easily Preston had almost forgotten that they had left their full-time agency undercover work years ago.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching and waiting as they had every day since arriving. Hope bloomed in his chest as he watched a young man with a dark gray hoodie cross the street and head toward the warehouse. Nothing about the teen struck him as suspicious, but of course, after working for the department for so many years, Preston learned not to let looks deceive him.
He and Dylan waited with bated breath for the man to walk inside the building or to make a call, but he simply stared up at the building for a minute, then turned around and left. Dylan snapped a picture of the man as he passed their car, and they hoped that the facial recognition system on their laptop would breathe some new life into the case. The Harposia cartel had affected both Preston and Dylan’s lives in multiple ways and they both wanted to do whatever they could to rid the world of its presence. That was the only reason he agreed to the mission. That, and they requested only a week of work at a time. He was surprised at how readily the SAC had agreed to the terms.
“Scanning the database now,” Dylan said as he hooked the camera into the laptop. “So, when are you going to tell me about the woman living with you?”
“I don’t have anyone living with me, except for Ace.”