He caught the eyes of the dark-haired woman on the other side of the console. Grinning, Mackenzie held up four fingers.
“The body count doesn’t matter,” Maggie answered loftily. “What matters is that I don’t have a baby-sitter available for tonight. I can’t miss this banquet, Nick. Adam’s worked too hard and too long. He deserves this recognition for his work with the International Monetary Fund. I may be eight months pregnant, but I’m going to pour myself into an evening gown and strap on high heels. If I can take those extreme measures, you ought to be willing to hold down the fort for a few hours. Can you be here by seven?”
Nick gave the computerized status board on the far wall a quick glance. He had one agent in Saudi Arabia. Another agent was on his way back to D.C. after weeks in Honduras and would need to be debriefed sometime tonight. Nick was also expected at a black-tie party thrown by one of Washington’s most sophisticated hostesses.
But this was Maggie Sinclair. Code name Chameleon. A young, scrawny Nick had once offered to act as her pimp. It didn’t even occur to him to refuse her this small service. Although he had to admit, the thought of spending several hours with the nonadult residents of her chaotic household daunted even OMEGA’s acting director. Once again his glance drifted to the woman on the other side of the console.
“I’ll be there by seven,” he promised, his blue eyes on his chief of communications. “But I’m not going in alone, unarmed and without backup. I’ll bring Mackenzie with me. We can get some work done after the girls are in bed.”
The grin fell off his chief of communications’s face. With a little squawk, she bolted upright in her chair and waved both hands in a frantic negative. Maggie must have caught the strangled sound. Hastily, she terminated the conversation before either Nick or Mackenzie could weasel out.
“Great! See you both then.”
The thump of her receiver dropping down echoed through the speakers. The communications techs manning their posts turned away to hide their grins as their chief shoved out of her chair, planted both palms on the console, and directed an evil glare at her boss.
“Thanks a lot! I’m still flaking green dandruff from the last time I baby-sat for Maggie and Adam. Jilly swore that spray-on hair paint would wash out with a good shampoo.”
“Serves you right for not reading the directions on the can first.”
“Jilly said they’d tested it on Radizwell.”
“Well, that explains the dog’s new shaved-to-the-skin look,” Nick drawled. “Normally his coat is so thick Adam has to use pruning shears to cut it.”
Realizing he was less than sympathetic to either her or the sheepdog’s misadventures with Jilly’s paint can, Mackenzie changed tactics.
“You might consult me before volunteering my services as a baby-sitter,” she huffed. “I could have plans for tonight.”
“Do you?”
He knew the answer before she pursed her lips and shot him another nasty look.
Everyone at OMEGA agreed their chief of communications was a wizard at all things electronic. Since taking over the job, she’d provided field agents with miniaturized devices powerful enough to drop do-wrongs with a single zap, capture the smallest images in stunning digital detail from miles away and detect sounds as soft as a sneaker tread two floors down.
Everyone at OMEGA also agreed Mackenzie Blair needed to get a life. A short, disastrous marriage to another navy officer had spurred her decision to opt out of the military. It had also left her distinctly wary of entanglements. Since joining the OMEGA team, she’d spent most of her waking hours on the job. From all indications, her social life was nonexistent. Nick knew for a fact her evening meals usually consisted of pizza or fast food scarfed down right here at the control center.
More and more of late, he’d found himself contemplating ways to add variety to her diet…and spice up her social life. Particularly after a recent mission in San Antonio, when Mackenzie had stepped out of her role of chief of communications and into the arms of an overmuscled building contractor who’d hired a hit man to murder his wife. She’d snuggled up to the bastard, wearing a low cut dress that spiked the temperature of every male within a fifty-yard radius. Nick’s temperature had shot off the charts, as well. So, it seemed, had his objectivity where this green-eyed brunette was concerned.
Not that she had any clue how much she’d come to occupy his thoughts. Nick was her boss. For the time being, anyway. His professional code of ethics wouldn’t allow him to hit on someone who worked for him. Hers, he knew, had been shaped by her years in the navy, where fraternization between the ranks was strictly taboo.
But when Maggie had her baby and returned to work, Nick thought with a sudden tightening in his groin, he fully intended to make his move.
If Maggie ever came back to work, that is.
The prospects were looking dimmer and dimmer with each passing month and additional project she became involved with. As she’d informed Nick on several occasions, he might just have to get used to serving as OMEGA’s director. Shoving that thought aside, he offered the still reluctant Mackenzie a bribe.
“Why don’t I fix us dinner at Maggie and Adam’s place? I’ll bring the ingredients. And the wine,” he added, remembering an especially fine white he’d just added to his private cellar.
She hesitated for several moments. Nick read the doubt in her eyes. Like him, she’d sensed the subtle changes in their relationship over the past few months. Unlike him, she hadn’t yet made up her mind what to do about it.
“Dinner sounds good,” she conceded, but in the next breath made it clear she intended to keep matters strictly professional. “As you said, we can use the time to get some work done. I want to wait for Ace to check in before I leave, though. He’s scheduled to transmit a status report at six forty-five, our time.”
Nick nodded. He’d spoken with Ace yesterday and knew the agent had as yet turned up no leads as to the saboteurs responsible for the explosions that ripped through several oil refineries in Saudi Arabia. The outraged Saudis had put a million dollar bounty on the person or persons responsible for the bombings. So far, the reward hadn’t produced any results. Nor, it appeared, had Ace, who was slogging it out undercover in the oil fields with his Saudi counterpart.
“Contact me immediately if the report doesn’t come through.”
At the whiplike command, OMEGA’s chief of communications snapped to attention and popped a salute. “Aye-aye, Skipper!”
Nick’s features relaxed into a grin. “As you were, Blair. See you at seven.”
The man moved like a lion, Mackenzie decided as he strolled out of the control center. All supreme confidence, sleek muscle and lethal grace. He looked like one, too, damn him. Forget the cashmere sports coats. Never mind the silk ties and Italian leather shoes. With his dark gold hair and tanned skin, he would have been right at home roaming the African plains.
Well, Mackenzie had let one too-handsome beast maul both her heart and her pride. She wasn’t about to let another get close enough to sink his teeth in.
She dropped back into her chair, her mouth twisting in wry acknowledgment. Okay, so maybe her pride had suffered more than her heart. Even before she returned early from a cruise and caught her ex in bed with their well-endowed neighbor, Mackenzie had accepted the bitter fact that their marriage was over. She would have chosen a more civilized way to end it, though.
The mere memory of the very hard, very swift knee she’d planted in David’s groin when he’d grabbed her arm and tried to force her to listen to his pathetic excuses was enough to produce a grin. Whistling cheerfully, she went back to work.
Later that evening, Mackenzie used the short drive to Maggie and Adam’s house to prepare herself. She respected Adam, who’d served as OMEGA’s director before