“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, do you mind if I check my e-mails while you unpack?”
She glared at him as possibly an annoyed newlywed wife would, although she realized what he really planned to do. “Promise me this will be the last time, sweetie. It is our honeymoon, after all.”
“Promise.” He dropped a kiss on her cheek. She shot him what she hoped would look like a playful nudge if anyone was actually watching them.
Mitch pulled a PDA from a case on his belt and while seemingly reading his e-mails, slowly paced around the room, checking it for bugs the way any good agent would. Especially in a case like this, where they didn’t know who in their organization might be working against them.
Dani watched him out of the corner of her eye as she examined the fruit basket. The top was, as expected, a collection of luscious fruits—peaches, figs, pears and grapes. The fruit, however, rested on some kind of platform in the basket. She wouldn’t pull it out to examine what was beneath until Mitch had cleared the room.
“Almost done, sweetcheeks? I’m ready to check out this nice bed,” she said, the tones of her voice sultry. As if to prove her need, she took a running step toward the king-sized bed in the middle of the room and launched herself onto its surface.
Mitch swung the modified PDA around one last time, but the unit didn’t register that there were any listening devices or cameras in the hotel room. It was clear. He turned his attention to the bed. Dani rolled around on its surface, doing a fair imitation of a flounder out of water rather than a needy newlywed. Not that that kept him from imagining just how things might be if she were ready for him.
Like she had been after that kiss at the front desk.
He had promised her to not make it personal. To keep to just being partners, but sweet Lord, he hadn’t expected it would be so damn difficult so damn fast.
He had forgotten just how Dani could affect him, even when she was being a total boob as she was now.
Which only made him want her more. It had been the same way when he had first met her nearly four years ago. He’d been intrigued by her bravado when she had approached him. Drawn by her beauty. But what had made him fall in love with her had been her complex nature—the mysterious side, which hid secrets behind her intense green eyes, and the goofy one she was now exhibiting as she flopped around on the bed’s surface.
Walking over to the bed, he stared down at her, a smile on his face. She met his gaze and stopped her movement. “Everything okay?”
He could have lied and jumped her bones on the bed. Taken the moment to sample another kiss and the enticing press of her body against his.
But he couldn’t do it. It would only cause more problems between them, and resurrecting old passions was the last thing either of them needed. When this mission was done, they had to go their separate ways. Like Lazarus, they might have both risen from the dead, but that didn’t mean their love had also come back to life. How could it, when it had been a love based on deception—on both their parts.
“All clear.”
At his comment, she flew from the bed back to the fruit basket, confusing him until she lifted out the fruit.
He approached, and they both looked down into the bowl of the basket, which was filled with DVDs and a portable USB drive. Judging from its size, one that could hold hundreds of gigabytes. He reached for one of the DVDs, but at the same time, his PDA rang.
The caller ID didn’t list who it was, but both he and Dani knew.
“Good morning, Mr. Lazlo.”
“Good morning, Mitch. I trust you and Dani had a nice flight on the corporate jet. Are the accommodations to your liking?” Lazlo said, the tones of his voice smooth.
Mitch glanced around the room, assessing it. It was comfortably appointed with a king-sized bed that was possible for him and Dani to share without making contact. The table and chairs on one side of the room would give them somewhere to work and the door and windows to the courtyard provided a clear view of anyone coming and going. Possibly problematic, although it did afford a way for a fast exit as well.
As he met Dani’s gaze, he noted her inquisitive look and said, “Mr. Lazlo, I’m going to put you on speaker so Dani can hear you.”
With that, he hit a button and laid the modified PDA on the tabletop.
“Good morning, Dani. I trust you liked the little gift I sent.”
“Luscious, Uncle Corbett. I assume the DVDs and disk contain some information you would like us to review?” Dani reached in and took out the slim jewel cases, shuffling through them to examine their labels.
“Cordez had her staff gather some additional information for you. There are surveillance videos of the areas where the agents were killed. Their backgrounds and other information about what they were working on. The hard drive contains their case files, along with full reports on Randy Kruger. His past activities and connections,” Lazlo said, and Mitch met Dani’s questioning gaze.
“That’s a lot of information to review before we see—”
Lazlo cut him off. “We would have provided this to you in Paris, but I had been advised by my SIS contact that Kruger would immediately be available and time wouldn’t allow it.”
“And now?” Dani asked as she removed the portable