After lunch at the Hot Dog House—where Jake ate a hot dog for the first time in years—he and Maria returned to K2 and went to work. Saint came in around two, Kincaid at three, and between all of them a plan took shape. They’d have the next day to refine it and then two days after that to go over and over it.
As they wrapped things up for the day, the boss said, “I have an announcement to make.”
Jake didn’t like the look of amusement in Kincaid’s eyes when the man glanced at him. What was he about to say?
Kincaid put his hand on Jake’s shoulder. “As of today, you’ll no longer refer to Buchanan as ‘Romeo.’ That name’s been retired.” He gave Jake a hard look. “At least, until I say otherwise. His new handle’s ‘Tiger . . .’ ”
Jake tensed and narrowed his eyes. Don’t you fucking dare.
Kincaid answered Jake’s silent message with a grin. “So, Tiger, looks like your plan’s coming together. I’ll stop by tomorrow afternoon and review your progress. Anyone got questions?”
Bayne and Stewart shook their heads. Jake hadn’t worked a mission with either one before and that worried him a little, but they had come up with some good suggestions so that eased his mind.
Maria popped her head out of her office doorway. “Logan, Jake, I need to see you a minute.”
“We have a problem,” she said when they followed her into her office. She closed the door. “I thought it might be a good idea to hack into your target’s computer . . . you know, just see if all was kosher. Turns out someone else hacked him, and I followed that trail back to a computer in Afghanistan. My educated guess is it’s the Taliban, and they’ve been watching Sinclair for over a month, which means they know he’s sent messages to the States. Whether they’ve been able to decipher his code, I have no way of knowing.”
Jake exchanged an uneasy look with Kincaid.
She handed her brother a printout. “Just thought you would want to know. You have a code specialist contact at the CIA, right? I’d send this to him and ask how easy, or hopefully how hard, your guy’s message would be to decrypt.”
Jake was beyond impressed. “You’re amazing, Chiquita.” Not caring that the boss stood next to him, Jake stepped in front of her and soundly kissed her.
“Good God, Maria, are you sure I can’t kill him?”
Maria glanced over at her brother. “Get lost, Logan.”
“With pleasure. Call me later, Tiger Toes. We need to talk about this.”
“Why’d he call you that?” she asked after Kincaid left.
“Who cares?” He pulled her back into his arms. “Have I told you how amazing you are? Yeah, I think I did, but it bears repeating.” Jake lowered his mouth to hers and just before he resumed kissing her, said, “You’ve turned my world upside down, girl. I think I just may like it.”
Her mouth was warm against his and he vowed then and there no man’s lips but his would ever touch hers. He reluctantly pulled away. “Got any plans for tonight?”
“I do.”
The level of his disappointment surprised him. His first reaction was to demand to know what her plans were and with whom, but his pride took over and he didn’t ask.
“Don’t you want to know what I’m doing tonight?”
He caught the little twitch of her lips. Ah, she was teasing him. “Couldn’t care less. I have plans of my own,” he said and kissed her again. “Have a nice evening.” He turned to go and she grabbed his arm.
“Hey, weren’t you about to ask me out?”
“Possibly, but you said you’re busy, so I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” Two could play this game, and he rather liked the fire flashing in her eyes. “I think I’ll just swing over to Buck’s, check things out. The place is always jumping on Saturday night.”
She huffed a breath. “Fine. Go play with your girlfriends until you stink of cheap perfume. Just don’t call me to come get you this time.”
He didn’t doubt he’d smelled like the inside of a whorehouse by the time she’d arrived at the bar. Had she been jealous? This was the point at which he backed off—or always had in the past. The first possessive sign on the part of a woman had him out the door before it could slam on his ass.
With this one, though, he wasn’t eyeing the door, anxious to be gone. Imagine that. He slipped his hand around hers. “You could cancel your plans, come with me . . . keep me out of trouble.”