Smoked (The Invincibles 5)

eed to tell you that I don’t want anyone to overhear.” I sat back down. “Do you remember me telling you that we both work in intelligence?”

“Yes.”

“While the mission we were on when you were shot was for a different organization, you actually work for IMI—Irish Military Intelligence.”

“Do you work for them as well?”

“I do not. I was with the agency—the CIA—up until a few months ago. Now I freelance. IMI doesn’t know the extent of your injuries nor the…challenges you’re facing. For your sake, we should do everything we can to keep it that way.”

“Why?”

I smiled. “Because you love what you do and you are damn good at it.” I never dreamed I’d say those words out loud to Siren, or anything else complimentary.

“I’ll lose my job if they find out,” she murmured.

“It might be hard for you to get much more than a desk job after this.”

“I wouldn’t like that?”

“You’d hate it.” I laughed and shook my head in disbelief that Siren and I were in the midst of a civil conversation. If her memory suddenly came back, she’d hate the fact that I’d seen her vulnerability even more than a desk job.

“What?”

My phone vibrated, and I took it out of my pocket.

“Do you always do that?” she asked.

“Do what?”

“Answer your mobile in the midst of a conversation.”

“Yes,” I answered, reading Hammer’s text. Rile will arrange for transport out of London as soon as you’re ready.

“It’s very rude, you know.”

I looked up at her, then back at my phone. Copy that. Thanks, I responded. “Where was I?”

“Being rude.”

“Maybe you’ll excuse my lack of manners when I tell you that the message I just received was regarding your transport out of England.”

“Out of England? Where am I going?”

“To the Great Smoky Mountains in the—”

“Why?”

“Siren—”

“My name is Siobhan, is it not?”

“It is.”

“Then, please refer to me by it.”

I sat back in my chair, rested my elbow on its arm, and placed my chin in my hand. She may not remember much about her life, but her personality was still intact.

4