Secret Agent Reunion. Caridad Piñeiro

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СКАЧАТЬ this ongoing vendetta with Corbett Lazlo was getting…tiring.

      “You’re losing sight of the bigger picture when it comes to Lazlo.”

      She pulled her hand away and walked to the bar, poured herself a drink. When she sashayed back toward him, she said, “You can’t understand—”

      “I know he killed your brother.” He downed the last of the scotch, wincing as the burn worked down his throat.

      His mother sipped her drink and considered him over the rim of her glass before she said, “It’s more complicated than that.”

      He shot to the edge of his chair, placed his hand on her arm and applied gentle pressure to lower her glass. “So tell me why you want to hurt Lazlo so badly.”

      “He’s disrupted our financing.”

      “Merde. You sent the Sparrow after Kruger because he was stealing from us. We needed a new courier anyway.”

      “That operative in Prague—”

      “Would have taken forever to figure out how that organization was funneling us the money. This is about something else.” But as his gaze met his mother’s, he realized she was not about to reveal what drove her lately. What had been compelling her for the past three years and invading their time.

      “When you’re ready, Maman. I’m sure you’d tell me if it was something I should know.”

      “I would, mon coeur,” she said. She cradled his cheek again and leaned forward, kissed his forehead. “I promise you, Troy. This has nothing to do with you.”

      When Dani had been an agent with SIS, they had footed the bill for an apartment in Rome close to the Villa Borghese. It had been home base for her when she wasn’t traveling the world, capturing bad guys in her disguise as the Sparrow. During her non-spy times, she would “work” at the offices of a financial services company located not far from the Coliseum. The company provided a front for the local SIS headquarters and agents.

      She had met Mitch years earlier at a bar not far from those offices. The attraction had been physical at first. Mitch’s size and good looks had immediately snagged her attention. But after a few hours in his company, she had liked his humor and forthrightness.

      During the dates that followed whenever he was in Rome, Mitch had mentioned that he worked for a private investigations firm and needing to be careful, she had used her SIS connections to confirm that he was employed by the Lazlo Group. She had also seen his military records and realized that behind the good looks and elegant clothing was a bona fide hero. Not that Mitch had ever bragged about his Silver Star or Purple Heart.

      For the next year, she had come to learn more about the complex man he was and had fallen in love.

      Now they were back in Rome together, but the Lazlo Group had decided she and Mitch would stay a good distance away from either of her old locations as well as the Lazlo Group office while they were on their mission.

      The Albergo Santa Carmela hid on a small street in Rome’s Trastevere section, painfully close to the spot where she had found Mitch bleeding to death nearly three years earlier. One part of her didn’t understand why someone would chose a location bound to stir the emotional pot for both her and Mitch. Another part of her—the spy part—acknowledged that as a base of operations, the tiny hotel was close to perfect.

      The street on which it was located had defied discovery even to locals, and the hotel boasted only twenty rooms, all on one floor and opening into a central courtyard. Easy to secure and with quick access for escape. If there was anything that made the hotel not perfect, it was the rather solicitous and eager staff, who had too many questions and paid too much attention to the supposed newlyweds checking in for a two-week stay.

      Dani pasted a smile on her face as Mitch encircled her waist and with a playful wink, confirmed their status to the older woman behind the front desk. “Yes, that’s right. We’re on our honeymoon, so I hope you’ll understand if the Do Not Disturb sign is on the door often.”

      The woman tittered and handed Mitch two keys for the room. “Non lei disturbano, mai you do not want to miss seeing la citta eterna,” the clerk replied, wagging a pudgy finger in emphasis.

      Mitch friskily jostled Dani before bending his head and nuzzling her cheek. “Oh, we’ll see the la citta eventually.”

      What she wanted to do was give him a shot to the ribs, but decided a different punishment would be better. She turned and whispered against his lips, “Eventually, amore,” and kissed him to shut him up.

      Like most rash actions, it backfired on her as Mitch returned the kiss, leaving no doubt about just how well he could kiss and how it still affected her. She was soon clinging to his shoulders and opening her mouth against his until the excited squeal of the hotel clerk ripped them apart.

      “Il amore will soon have the bambini for you.”

      Mitch coughed and shifted back a bit from her. “Not yet, signora. I’m not ready to share my wife with anyone.”

      The look he shot her made her pulse race, but she tamped down her unwanted desire. Taking the keys from the surface of the front desk, she motioned with them to one of the side exits. “The room is…”

      “A la sinestra,” the clerk advised.

      “Grazie, signora,” she said and quickly turned left toward the room, wheeling behind her the modest-sized bag with her clothes and equipment. Mitch followed, a decidedly bigger suitcase trailing behind him.

      Dani had chuckled when she had first seen the bag, which confirmed to her that Mitch’s status as clotheshorse was intact. When they’d been together, no matter where they went or what the occasion, Mitch had always been sartorially splendid.

      So unlike her usual dress when she had worked for SIS. At her home base, she kept to staid, dark business suits and mannish tailored shirts, which fit her cover as a financial services advisor. While on a mission as the Sparrow, she would tone down her appearance even further, going so far as to wash a dark brown rinse into her hair to kill the auburn highlights. The clothes she wore while on an assignment were likewise dark and drab so as to not attract attention.

      It had been that lack of color combined with the calling card she left behind at her “kills”—a small bundle of feathers tied together with black ribbon—that had earned her the moniker of the Sparrow. The manufactured identity and faked assassinations had allowed her to infiltrate SNAKE, but only for a few jobs and not deeply enough to confirm who was behind the group, despite SIS’s belief that the Dumonts were the masterminds of the organization.

      When they entered the room, a large fruit-and-cheese basket and a bottle of wine sat on a long table to one side of the space. Dani walked over and pulled a card from the gift, smiled as she saw who it was from.

      “Your Uncle Corbett wishes us the best on our honeymoon.”

      Mitch came to her side and took the card from her hand. “My uncle is such a thoughtful guy,” he said with a grin.

      Dani carefully unwrapped the cellophane from the basket, just in case it wasn’t really from the Lazlo Group, but as she did so, Mitch leaned in close yet again. Too close.

      “Honey, СКАЧАТЬ