I groan. “You’re infuriating.”
“You’re stunning.” He kisses my bottom lip and slowly draws it into his mouth.
“Stop flirting.” I pull back, fighting my grin. “I’m being serious.”
“So am I.” He clutches my thigh beneath the oversized shirt and tightens our hips together. “You’re seriously breathtaking.”
“Thank you.” Basking in his compliment, I snuggle closer against his hard body and try to remember what we were discussing. Oh, right. “I know you don’t want to talk about this, but the two most important people in my life worked together, used to be best friends, and I just…I want to understand more about your relationship. It’s important to me.”
He plays with my hair absently, and his eyes lose focus for a few seconds before clearing and latching onto mine. “Before I was his handler, I was an operative, like him.”
I perk up, lifting on an elbow. “An operative? I don’t know what that is.”
“It’ll stay that way. Don’t go searching on the Internet. You won’t find answers, but someone will know you’re digging.”
“Someone?” A chill sweeps across my scalp. “The government? Are they watching me?”
“The government watches everyone. Especially those who are linked to people like Cole and me.” He rests a hand on my cheek and strokes his thumb across my lips, back and forth. “We were in the field together, inseparable for a few years on several missions. When you’re with someone like that, doing what we did, you get to know them on a level I can’t explain. You trust him with your weaknesses, your fears, your…life. You become brothers.”
His throat bounces, and his entire expression hardens. I wrap my hand around his and bring it to my mouth, kissing his knuckles, one by one.
As his ruminating silence lingers, everything inside me goes still, silently urging him to continue. But I force myself to be patient.
He doesn’t make me wait long. “I was offered a promotion to be his handler.”
“Like his boss?”
“Yes, I was his boss, but it’s different than what you think. It’s a relationship built on trust. I guided him through every operation, and he trusted me not to get him killed.”
“Guide him how?” I strain toward him, tense with the need for answers. “I know you can’t give away trade secrets, but I keep imagining him killing people, like an assassin. Surely, you can tell me if I’m on the right track.”
Grooves form across his brow, as if he’s considering his response. “It isn’t a secret that gathering information plays a significant role in national security.”
“Like secret intelligence? Cole was an intel guy?”
His lips quirk in a smile that says, Aren’t you cute? “Sometimes the only goal in a mission is to retrieve a piece of information. Sometimes it takes years.”
“Information from who? An enemy?”
“An enemy, informant, defector, or from our own internal agencies. I’m generalizing here, but there are those who make the laws, and those who enforce the laws on the law-makers.”
“Jesus. That sounds sneaky. And dangerous.” My heart speeds up as I search his flinty eyes. “But you can’t steal information by donning a ski mask and breaking and entering. It takes finesse, right? If you’re spending years on a single mission…”
…had to change my appearance, assume another alias, and stay far, far away from you…
My eyes go wide with realization. “It’s undercover work, isn’t it?”
“Processes and style of operation are off-limit topics. I haven’t given you classified information, but some of the terms I used might raise flags if you repeat them.”
“I won’t.”
“Not to Bree or your parents—”
“I promise, Trace.” I lower to the pillow and lean my face to his. “Thank you for sharing that with me.”
It’s far more than Cole gave me, and now I have a clearer understanding of the job they did. I lean back, studying Trace’s relaxed expression.
Suspicion creeps in. Why is he telling me this now?
He and Cole are at war. I don’t put it past either one of them to leverage every angle they have to one-up each other. And Trace just gifted me something Cole wouldn’t. Candidness. Is it just a play in his game? I hate thinking that way, and maybe I’m wrong. I hope I am.
I run my fingers through his hair. “What did you and Cole discuss tonight?”
His nostrils flare. “You already know the answer to that.”
Me, probably. “I don’t want to assume. Will you tell me?”