Bridal Armor by Debra Webb Page A

ex-spouse.”
    “That isn’t funny.”
    “It wasn’t meant to be.”
    “Fine.” He held up his hand as if taking an oath. “I don’t have a secret wife. You know I never married.” And days like this proved why he never should. “Who else even knows me that well?”
    “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out. I took this case to help you prove your years of success as an agent and a director are legitimate.”
    He spun back to face her. “You mean to tell me a few sick people in the Middle East and a conveniently anonymous source has the committee wanting to dig into all of our cases?”
    She nodded. “Sadly, yes. If someone with your authority has sold a bio-weapon they have to consider what other sensitive data might have been compromised within your purview.”
    “What exactly was your assignment?”
    “Exactly?”
    He saw her nervous swallow. “Yes.”
    “Observe the sale of the virus. Then I could intercept you and produce proof of guilt.”
    “That doesn’t sound very impartial.”
    “Which is why I wanted to handle this case personally.”
    “Handle me.”
    “If that’s how you want to think of it.” Her chin rose in a show of defiance. “Citing my familiarity with the original mission, I told them what they wanted to hear and presented an appropriate plan of action. They gave me the green light.”
    “To railroad me.”
    She picked up their plates and moved back to the kitchen. “Someone is gunning for you, yes. I shouldn’t have to remind you we work in the gray area, Thomas. I said what needed to be said to position myself between you and the threat.”
    “Why?” It seemed like a terrible risk personally and professionally. He couldn’t fathom her motive. “Why would you do that?”
    She scraped the remnants of dinner from their plates into the garbage can. “Because if you’d sold a bio-weapon for personal gain I wanted to be the one to take you out.”
    He chuckled. “You could try.”
    “Fortunately we don’t need to test it, since you’re innocent.”
    “You’re so sure?”
    “Yes.”
    Her unwavering conviction after all this time surprised him. His Specialists had done plenty in that gray area she mentioned. Grabbing a dish towel, he stepped up beside her to dry the dishes as she washed them.
    “Then why bring the sedative?” It had been bothering him that she claimed to trust him, yet she’d been prepared to disable him.
    She drew her full lower lip between her teeth. “That was just in case they were right.”
    “A few minutes ago, right there at the table,” he jerked his chin in that direction, “you said you didn’t believe the allegations.”
    “Think about it, Thomas. In my place would you have taken the chance?”
    “No.” He had to let it go. Female agents were trained to take precautions when they were physically outmatched. She’d been honest with him so far, he shouldn’t push the issue. He folded the dish towel into smaller and smaller rectangles, opened it up, only to repeat the process. That distinct odor, just before the car blew up, haunted him. He would have been happy to never smell it again. It punctuated his one near failure during the Isely takedown.
    “But?” She caught his hands with her smaller ones, stopping the nervous movement.
    “But if you had so much confidence in me, were you expecting to need that sedative for someone else?”

Chapter Nine
    Johara rolled her eyes and pushed away from the counter. “You still think I hired someone to blow up the car?”
    “Didn’t you? It certainly forced me to go with you.”
    “You were already going with me.” She folded her arms across her chest and stared him down. “I need you alive. Mission Recovery—good grief, this entire country—needs you alive.”
    “The entire country doesn’t know who I am.”
    “But someone does know you, Thomas. Or they know what you’re capable of. The sooner we figure out who it is, the sooner you’ll get to the wedding.”
    “Show me