Merciless (Option Zero 1)

“Hello, my dear. I understand you’ve made contact already. Good going.” The woman might have meant it as a compliment, but she made it sound like Jules had arranged a sleazy hookup.

“How do you know I made contact?”

“I have eyes and ears everywhere.”

That was no surprise. Even though this woman had hired her, Jules knew she trusted few people, which was likely how she maintained her position.

“Yes, we’ve met.”

“And?”

“And what? We’ve met. That’s it.”

“He was in your hotel room for over two hours.”

Jules closed her eyes. She had known she would be under surveillance, at least until Turner decided she could be trusted. But this? Even if she were legitimately working for the woman, this kind of scrutiny went way beyond acceptable.

“Listen, you hired me to do a job. If I have to have a tail, and you continue to keep checking up on me, then I’m not the right person for this job. You need to find someone else.”

Turner gave a huff of exasperation. “No one is impeding your job, Ms. Diamond. However, I have a lot on the line, and I—”

“And you need to either trust me to do the job or find someone else. What’s it going to be?”

Yes, she was sounding like a hard-ass, but that’s exactly the kind of person this woman respected. Jules had carefully cultivated her undercover persona. Hard-as-nails Jessie Diamond took no prisoners. Allowing the senator to bully and push her around without protest would be out of character.

“Very well,” Turner conceded. “I’ll have my people return home. But you need to give me something. You were with him for several hours. You must have learned something.”

Oh, she had learned a lot, but nothing Turner could know.

“We’re just getting to know each other. He’s not going to share anything of value until he knows he can trust me.”

“How are you going to get him to trust you? He trusts almost no one.”

With good reason.

“Let me worry about that.”

“All right, but I’m paying you a lot of money to get what I need. Don’t disappoint me, Ms. Diamond. I’m not a person you want to cross.”

“My reputation speaks for itself.”

“Of course. So what’s next?”

If the woman expected a daily briefing, she was going to be sorely disappointed. However, Jules gave her the next step, hoping to appease her.

“I’m having dinner with him tonight.”

“Then I won’t keep you. You’ll want to look your best for what comes next.”

Even though the words had never actually been said, Jules knew her employer had no issues if she chose to sleep with Asher Drake to get the intel she needed. This woman’s opinion meant less than nothing to her, but she couldn’t let on that her agenda was in direct opposition to the reason she’d been hired. Her only option was to keep up the pretense until it was no longer necessary.

“I’ll get back with you as soon as I have something to report.”

She ended the call before the woman could respond. There was nothing more to say.

Returning the phone to the drawer, Jules grabbed her running clothes. Her muscles were tense, almost bunched. She had known this would be a difficult assignment but hadn’t counted on how much it would cost her physically. The hotel had a decent gym, and she’d spent an hour there this morning. Bashing the boxing bag had helped release a lot of pent-up energy, but there was nothing like a run to work out her worries.

She dressed quickly in thin sweats and her favorite running shoes and was out the door within five minutes. As she headed down the stairway, she gathered her hair into a thick ponytail. By the time she was outside, she was limber enough to start out at a quick pace.