Cody had taken that advice to heart. He’d never allowed himself to second-guess his actions in all the years since. Not until today. Not until he’d seen the bruises he’d inflicted on Keira.
She doesn’t blame you, he reminded himself. She said it herself—you did what you had to do to save her. But after seeing the bruises on her pale, delicate skin, the reminder was cold comfort.
* * *
Cody checked the agency’s intranet listing for McKinnon’s phone number and picked up the phone. Then he changed his mind and looked up another number instead.
He heard a crisp “Keira Jones” in his ear, but for some reason he couldn’t help remembering those two words she’d spoken to him the night they met—I will. He pushed the memory ruthlessly to one side and told her, “You’re in.”
“You’re kidding,” she said, and he heard the little edge of excitement she couldn’t suppress in her voice. “I thought you were sure Callahan would refuse.”
“He’s not unreasonable, just stubborn—I should have remembered that. If you get to know him the way I do, you’ll realize unpredictability could be defined by watching him.”
“Is he really that good? What I mean is,” she explained, “the way you and Trace and D’Arcy talk about him makes me wonder why he’s not working for the agency.”
Despite everything Cody was worried about, he laughed. “If you ever meet his wife, you wouldn’t ask that question. Mandy is...” Pictures of Mandy flashed through his mind, from when they’d been toddlers together, through their high school years, to the last time he’d seen her after the birth of her third child, the daughter she and Callahan had been hoping for. “Let’s just say any man married to Mandy could be forgiven for wanting a job that kept him home nights.”
“I see.”
There was an odd inflection to the innocuous words. I wonder what that’s about, Cody thought before dismissing it as unimportant and moving on to why he’d originally called her. “Can you and McKinnon meet me down here? I’ve started a list of things we’ll need, but now’s the time for the three of us to make plans. I want to move on this as soon as possible. And there’s something I just learned about that I need to share with the two of you,” he added, knowing he needed to inform them he was being followed.
“I think Trace went to get coffee, but I’ll round him up and we’ll be down there shortly. Where’s your office?”
He told her. After they hung up he started jotting down cryptic notes of the things he’d mentally listed, but then he paused, pen in hand, and stared at the phone for a few seconds as it hit him. The odd inflection he’d noted earlier but had dismissed suddenly made sense.
She didn’t like hearing you talk about Mandy, he told himself as his pulse unexpectedly kicked into gear. She didn’t like it, and that must mean—
Cody tried to shut down that train of thought. Keira was a fellow agent; not only that, she was also working for him now—that made her off-limits. Fraternization between agents was frowned upon and was strictly forbidden between supervisor and subordinate.
I’m not really her supervisor, though, he temporized. I’m just the agent in charge. It was a fine distinction, a legal nicety, but...it meant he could at least think about her without feeling he’d crossed a line he shouldn’t cross.
He’d been involved with a few women since he’d left Black Rock...and Mandy. But nothing that had touched his emotions. Nothing that had made him feel. He’d blocked off his heart from the moment Mandy had married Ryan Callahan and had told himself he was better off that way—a lone wolf traveled farther and faster. But deep inside he hadn’t really believed it. That hard, cynical edge was just a facade. Mandy had known the truth about him; but Mandy belonged to Callahan, heart and soul.
He’d finally, finally cured himself of loving Mandy, but he wanted a woman like her for his very own. A woman who would make him her first priority. A woman who would love him fiercely with every beat of her heart, the way Mandy loved Callahan. A woman who would kill to protect him, just as he’d kill to protect her. A woman like...