Hidden Agenda. Maggie Price

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СКАЧАТЬ OCPD. She not only had two sisters on the force, but three brothers. It turned out that Linc had gone through recruit school with Bran McCall. “Do you have any job experience other than wearing a badge?”

      “My mother owns a landscape nursery. Growing up, I worked there weekends and summers. I can talk plants, flowers and sod with an expert and not get tripped up.”

      Linc gave her a thin smile. “That how you know about… What the hell is that stuff you told me to put in my coffee?”

      “Stevia.” Shaking her hair back, she sent him a smug smile. “A perennial shrub of the aster family. Asteraceae, to be exact. It tastes sweet, but has no calories.”

      “You’ll impress all the beer guzzlers at The Hideaway with that kind of information.”

      She slid him a look from beneath her lashes. “I don’t expect my goal is to dazzle anyone with my mental capabilities.”

      Not when she could walk into a room and have every man around instantly fantasizing about getting her underneath him.

      “You’re right,” Linc conceded. “Still, knowing as much as you do about the nursery business is a good cover in case you run into some expert on petunias.”

      “Do I have a job here?”

      “Do most garden centers hire during this time of year?”

      “No. They operate with a skeleton crew.”

      “Then you haven’t snagged a job, either. That tightens our cover. We’re unemployed, but still have money to party every night. We drive nice cars, which we’ll borrow from the department’s asset forfeiture inventory. All that gives the impression we’re not above doing something against the law to get our funds. And to spend them on illegal activities.”

      “Like maybe you paying to engage in a ‘live’ sex act with one of The Hideaway’s working girls?”

      “Like that.” He leaned back in his chair. “This is another advantage to my going in with a female partner. I’ll sure as hell let any of the working girls proposition me. Name their price. That’ll get them busted during the raid. Since I’ve got you with me, I’ll decline all offers. Don’t want to mess up my deal with you by having a roll with some other woman.”

      “Where have you been all my life, Reilly?” she asked dryly. “My heart’s all aflutter, knowing my boyfriend is so devoted.”

      “Lover, McCall. I’m going in as your lover, and you mine. That means we do a lot of hand holding. Touching. Dancing. You think you can do a convincing acting job?”

      “Like I told you, I’ll be exactly what you want me to be.” She pursed her glossed lips. “Our deep commitment to each other clearly means I have to turn down any men who come on to me.”

      “That’s the idea.” Testing her, Linc leaned in. “With your looks, you’ll get offers that involve a hell of a lot more than a lip-lock session in the back seat of a patrol car.”

      Irritation flicked in her eyes. “No lip-lock session took place. That rookie’s idiot wife got jealous and couldn’t handle him riding with a female partner. It’s my bad luck she took her fictional story to the chief. Who then gave my lieutenant orders to separate me from the idiot’s husband. The next day, I was transferred out.”

      That McCall didn’t hesitate to defend herself pleased Linc. In undercover work, an easygoing personality that was sometimes punctuated by a strong showing of a refusal to let oneself get run over could be very effective.

      “Let’s get back to that flood of offers you’ll receive,” he began. “When a guy comes on to you, lays a hand on you, tell him I’ve got a hair-trigger temper. Make sure he knows if anybody touches my woman, I believe in big-time payback.”

      “So, do you have a hair-trigger temper? Believe in big-time payback if someone messes with your woman?”

      For some reason, Linc sensed the question was just as loaded as the Glock holstered at his waist. “Doesn’t matter. As long as people at The Hideaway believe I do.”

      “Well, lover boy,” Carrie cooed in a husky voice that slid over his senses. “I’ll try not to rile you up. I wouldn’t want to find out about your temper firsthand.”

      “That’s wise, sweet thing.” Linc was fast becoming aware that Carrie McCall could stir him up just by being in the same room. “While we’re on the subject of getting riled, is there a man who’ll have a problem with your spending the next handful of nights with me?”

      “No.”

      “How about some hulking cop who’ll thump me with a sap just for dancing with you?”

      “You don’t have to worry, Reilly. I have this ironclad rule about not getting involved with other cops.”

      “Guess that rookie’s wife didn’t know about your rule.”

      “Guess not. Your questions work both ways. Is there someone who’ll have a problem when you cozy up to me at The Hideaway?”

      Linc looked down at the reports spread on the table while emotion scraped at him. At one point he’d had a life outside the job. A woman he couldn’t wait to go home to. He would forever carry her blood on his hands.

      “There’s no one.” He looked up in time to see compassion flash in Carrie’s eyes.

      “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I know what happened to your wife.”

      “Yeah.”

      “I thought there might be someone…recent.”

      “No.” He never again wanted a real life. He had his job, a safe place in which he hid his grief in the ruts of routine.

      “Okay.” Easing out a breath, Carrie looked back at the stack of photos in front of her. “So, our undercover personas are new to Oklahoma City. How’d we wind up at The Hideaway?”

      His new partner asked good questions, Linc thought. When you worked undercover, you needed a believable reason to be wherever you showed up. You could die if you didn’t have one.

      “There’s a dive motel about a mile south of there,” he said. “The Drop Inn. After I snagged this assignment, I rented a room on a weekly basis. I told the clerk I was new in town and asked where I could get some booze, food and action. He told me about The Hideaway.”

      “Are you staying there during the operation?”

      “Off and on, in case someone decides to check on me. When I don’t stay there, it’ll look like I went home with you. It will help our cover if you’re seen at the Drop Inn with me. We can go into the office and I’ll ask the clerk some question. We’ll want him—and anyone else watching—to see you go into my room. We’ll stay a while, leave the bed looking like we really are lovers.”

      “When do we start?”

      “Tomorrow night. Does that give you time to get whatever clothes you’ll need?”

      “You think I work at my Mom’s СКАЧАТЬ