Undercover Lovers. Джулия Кеннер

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СКАЧАТЬ Same here.”

      “Seagull. Someone’s coming. Hang tight.”

      Tori monitored the conversation through her earpiece, adrenaline pumping through her veins. The area behind the Dumpster stank to high heaven, and she longed to get out and see what was going on. But her orders had been firm—on this routine training mission, she wasn’t to do anything but observe unless she was given a direct order.

      She sighed, resting her forehead against the rusty metal. How the devil was she ever supposed to prove herself if her superiors never gave her the opportunity? Carter Sinclair had been working in the field since they left the academy. Apparently, his career hadn’t suffered from their little liaison that night at Quantico.

      She tightened her hand around the barrel of her gun, struggling to control her temper. She was just as good an agent as Carter—maybe even better—and yet she’d been locked inside an office building. Her superiors told her it was because she was good at research, and her mentor in the Bureau—an overprotective family friend—backed up that assessment.

      But Tori didn’t believe it. She was too good to be chained to a desk. Which meant the only explanation was Carter. She’d made a mistake and had agreed to go out with the super-sexy agent. And then, when the wine and the moonlight had gotten the better of them, she’d succumbed to heaven in his arms.

      She sighed at the memory. Oh, God, it had been heaven. At least until they’d been seen. She’d never discovered who their witness was, but she’d seen him in the shadows, watching her and Carter. He must have reported them; there was no other explanation. Her little tryst with Carter was reported to the higher-ups, and Carter, being a guy, still landed the primo assignments. Tori, however, got stuck in FBI hell.

      It wasn’t fair; it wasn’t fair at all.

      Bang! Crack!

      Shots fired. Tori pressed her back against the brick wall, one hand on a pile of empty paint cans for balance. Her whole body tingled as she fought the urge to leap out and see what was going on.

      Stay put, stay put, stay put. She repeated the mantra in her head, hoping the order to engage would squawk in her earpiece. More than anything, she wanted to get off the research and analysis grind. Technically, she was a field agent, but it was a rare day when she actually got to go out in the field. No, one little mistake, and she’d been stuck pushing paper in Investigative Services Division. She was good at the research, good at the analysis, but, damn it, she hadn’t joined the FBI to sit at a desk.

      Her father had been an amazing undercover operative. Legendary, even. True, he’d hardly ever been around, but that was only because his work had been so important. When he’d died, Tori and her mom had just about died, too. From that moment on, Tori had wanted to fill her dad’s shoes.

      She hoped she had what it took, but she really didn’t know. Tori had always been good in the classroom, but the real world was untested and, frankly, that made her nervous as hell. She’d always been among the best, but what if she wasn’t any more? The thought was sobering. She needed to prove herself, to live up to her father’s standards. And she’d do whatever she had to.

      But so much was working against her. She was a woman in a man’s world. True, there were more female agents in the Bureau than ever before, but that didn’t mean the women didn’t have to work harder to get to the same place.

      Her every attempt to get an undercover assignment had been foiled, and she’d spent the duration of her FBI career with her butt in a chair and her eyes on a computer monitor. The work was interesting, no doubt about that, but it wasn’t the same as going undercover. So far, her efforts had hit a brick wall, and she was angry at herself for helping to put that wall in place. She’d been attracted to Carter from the day they’d met. And, considering the many times he’d asked her out, that attraction was reciprocated.

      She’d given in against her better judgment, and she’d been paying the price for years.

      Now, though, she had a real chance. Follow orders, do the job and—hopefully—get the transfer. She held her breath, waiting for the order to engage.

      Unfortunately, her earpiece remained stubbornly silent.

      The alleyway, however, wasn’t nearly as quiet. Pounding footsteps broke the stillness. Someone running. And a voice shouting for him to halt and put his hands up.

      Closer…closer…

      She could apprehend him. She was in position. She could do it. All she needed was the go-ahead.

      But still nothing in her headphone. Damn.

      “Eagle’s Nest, this is Redbird. I’ve got a bead on the perp. Do I have the go-ahead?”

      A burst of static hit her ear. “Negative, Redbird.”

      She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it, her body thrumming like a live wire from the pent-up energy.

      Instinct and training told her to go ahead and do her job. Common sense told her to follow orders and sit tight.

      The perp pulled closer, near enough that she could hear his breathing. Damn Murphy! There wasn’t any reason she shouldn’t get this guy.

      She heard him right there on the other side of the Dumpster. Her hand closed around butt of her gun. Stay put, stay put.

      In an instant, she changed her mind, reaching for one of the empty paint cans. Her field of vision was limited, but she pulled her arm back, and when he passed, she heaved, hitting him square between the shoulders and knocking him to the ground. “Hands behind your head,” she yelled as she pulled her gun, still staying behind the Dumpster.

      On the ground, the perp groaned and locked his fingers at his neck. Mentally, Tori patted herself on the back. She’d got him. And she hadn’t disobeyed orders. Not technically, anyway.

      Special Agent Travis Murphy, his hands shoved into the pockets of his FBI parka, lumbered toward them, then bent at the side of the perp. “You okay, son?” Considering Murphy wasn’t treating the guy as a hardened criminal, Tori assumed the training exercise was over.

      The guy sat up, rubbing his back. “Fine, sir.”

      Murphy nodded, then patted him on the shoulder. “Go get yourself checked out. She got you pretty hard.”

      The perp—an agent Tori didn’t recognize—shot her a decidedly dirty look. “Yeah, she did.”

      She shrugged, trying to look innocent and vindicated. Her eyes met Murphy’s. “I got the perp. Sir.”

      “You disobeyed a direct order.”

      “No, sir. I stayed behind the Dumpster and I—”

      “Damn it, Lowell, don’t split hairs with me. That’s not a game you want to be playing.”

      She sucked in a breath, biting back her automatic retort about the whole point of training ops being to train agents to take action, not sit back like meek little bunnies. But she knew what his response would be—Hogan’s Alley was a fake town set up just for this kind of thing. The FBI had strict rules about the scenarios that went down there. Yada, yada, et cetera and so forth.

      She pulled her thoughts to the СКАЧАТЬ