Merciless (Option Zero 1)

Not even bothering to hide her astonishment, Jules watched as Asher Drake set to work. A flurry of texts were followed by various phone calls in which he would mutter one or two words and then listen. She counted three different languages and at least a half-dozen dialects. She had known about his talents, his skills, and that he had a tremendous warren of connections throughout the world. But this was even more than she’d anticipated. He used his abilities with amazing efficiency and his contacts with forceful arrogance. She doubted people said no to him very often.

Two hours and fourteen minutes later, he looked up with an odd gleam in his eyes. “Got her.”

“Her?”

“Libby Billings.”

“But she’s the one who hired me. Why would she ask me to find the traitor when she’s the one?”

“To throw everyone off.” He glanced down at his phone. “She knew there was going to be an inquiry. Their contract is up for renewal, and some questions were being asked. She agreed to hire an outside investigator.”

“I don’t know if I should be insulted that she thought I wouldn’t be good enough to find the truth, or impressed that she had the gall to try to pull this off.”

“I’d say this, like many things, was a desperate attempt to delay the inevitable.”

At those words, Jules’s antenna went on high alert. She studied the man beside her with care. Had that been a veiled reference to her own deception, or was she being more paranoid than usual? Seeing nothing concerning in his expression, she dismissed her fears. Everything was going exactly as planned.

His next words, lethal in their quietness, jarred her out of her self-congratulatory haze.

“So, Jules, are you ready to tell me what this is really all about, or do you want to continue to play games?”

Chapter Eight

Watching her reaction closely, Ash took in her shock but saw no real guilt. A light flush of pink rose on her face, and her pupils dilated slightly.

“What do you mean?”

“You disappoint me, Ms. Stone. I thought you would come up with a better response than that.”

She blew out a shaky sigh, and he realized she was more upset than she let on. That knowledge both surprised and concerned him. He was usually better at reading people, but just in the brief few hours he had known her, she had fooled him several times.

She gave a nervous, self-conscious little laugh. “What gave me away?”

“The case, for one. My people found your traitor faster than yours simply because of the network we’ve created. You would have found her within a week.”

She grimaced. “It took ten days. Most of the people I use are freelancers themselves. I had to get in line.”

“So I just spent an afternoon discovering a criminal you’ve already identified?”

“It was the only way I knew to get your attention. I knew you’d see past the ruse eventually…I didn’t expect you to catch on so soon, though.”

“Then let’s stop playing games. Tell me the real reason I’m here.”

“Very well. I want to work for OZ.”

“And you thought lying to me was a good way to get a job? Tell me you’re not that naïve.”

“Not naïve at all. I also wanted to see if you were as good as Kate described.”

“So this was a test, a job interview of sorts?”

“You’re angry.”

“Really? What gave me away?”

“You’re too calm.”

He couldn’t deny the anger, but it had less to do with being used and more to do with who had used him. He had thought they had a connection, and now he wondered if he’d seen what he wanted to see.