Under Fire (Love Over Duty #1)(69)

Her itch for him was getting worse. How hard could it be to get him on board with going back to where they'd been when they'd fallen into bed together? For the first time in forever, she contemplated masturbating-something she'd never really needed before, but God, a woman could only cross her legs so many times before she internally imploded.

In need of something cool, she picked up the green juice he'd bought for her at the store from the table on the covered patio and took a sip. A fan turned monotonously above her as she drank and tried not to stare at the way Six was reclined in a rattan chair, feet up on the low coffee table, a laptop perched on his lap. He'd also convinced her to get a four-ounce juice shot with ginger and cayenne in it, which had tasted foul and burned her throat as she swallowed it, but he'd just chugged it back and laughed at her expression. Now, he was shirtless, obviously reading something through. He was as focused as she was distracted.



       
         
       
        

She checked her phone. There were a number of messages from Aiden asking if everything was okay. It was rare for her to ever miss a day at the lab, so her absence was likely conspicuous. She tapped a quick reply that there had been some issues but she was safe.

"So," she said, knowing she was interrupting Six's concentration. "What else do you have?"

"Just reading through some stuff from Sherlock."

She waited for a moment for him to expand, but he didn't. Perhaps he needed a moment to finish it. Not everybody was a speed reader like her. A few more minutes ticked by as the fan whirred above them. If this were her home, she'd replace the fan as quickly as she could. The whirring and creaking were driving her mad.

Unable to wait any longer, she interrupted again. "What does it say?"

Six shook his head and shrugged with looking at her. "Nothing much. More confirmation of what we still don't know."

It was impossible to explain how, but deep down in her gut she knew Six was keeping something from her. "There's more to it than that, isn't there?"

"Lou," he warned, but she continued.

"You said Mac and Lite were following up on Lemtov. So either they suck in intelligence gathering or you know more than you are telling. You've given me zero from the cameras at Ivan's house. Has he been to the lab? Has he seen his grandfather? Is the lab just carrying on as normal? And you said you have ones set up for Kovalenko and the guy you pulverized." Six winced at this, but she bulldozed on. "Were they charged? Who did he phone? Are they out?"

Six looked across at her, his mouth set in a grim line. "There's nothing solid. Nothing that leads us to any kind of conclusion yet. Anything I told you would be pure speculation."

Leaning forward, she tapped her pen on the paper. "What are you trying to keep from me?" she asked.

Six closed his laptop and studied her. "I promise I'll tell you when there is something important. You have enough to worry about already."

"And you get to decide that?" she asked, hearing her voice go up an octave.

It was clear he noticed the angry hitch too. "Wait, Lou. It's not like that at all."

"No. Because it sounded a lot like you were deciding what I get to hear about a case I am actually paying you for."

"You have to trust us to do our job," he said, frustration lacing his words. "That's what you are paying us for. To keep you safe and figure out what's going on. To make it stop. To deal with the perpetrators."

"Well, it doesn't sound like you are doing such a great job of it, seeing as you have zero to update me on." She threw her notepad down onto the table in anger. 

"For fuck's sake," Six mumbled. "There's no need for you to hear all this."

"I'll decide that," she railed. "And I'll do it based on you telling me everything until such time as I decide I don't need to hear it."

"Some things can't be unheard, Lou, or unseen. And some of it's classified."

For a moment, she wondered if he was talking about her or his own experiences. "This involves me. You have no idea what little detail you might have that might trigger something in my head about conversations I've had in the past, or people I've met, or companies I know. You gather intel, so don't you realize how stupid not following up with me would be? And finding patterns is my freaking job. A job I am really good at. I could help."

Tears pricked the corners of eyes, but they weren't sad ones. They were tears of frustration that she'd always felt when she was marginalized by the male researchers she'd worked with in the past. Louisa stood, and Six jumped to his feet too. The look on his face could only be described as predatory, just like the time when they'd been in his bedroom together.