Beginning: A PAVAD Prequel Novella (PAVAD: FBI Romantic Suspense) by Calle J. Brookes Read Free Book Online Page A

definitely.
    “Len and I will take a different route. And we’ll let it be known we have the director and are heading through Cape Girardeau. See if we can’t flush the traitor out.”
    “I’m not so certain I want to use Len as bait,” Ed said.
    But Len understood what Royal was getting at. “It’s part of the job, Ed. And I’ll be fine. Royal and I are both federal agents who know how to take care of ourselves.”
    “I think we kick ass,” Royal squeezed her shoulder. “And we’ll get the rest of our team involved. Have them split up and tail the three possibles. One will head this way, I’m sure of it. Breaking in to Len’s place was a sign of desperation. And we’re not going to figure out why until we know the who. ”
    “I think it will work.”
    She watched Ed for a moment, knowing he had to agree or they couldn’t go forward. And she knew why he was hesitating—because he was overprotective of the few people he let into his life. The people he cared about—they were his world. And she was lucky enough to be one of them. “Ed—I trust Royal. He’ll keep us both safe. And I’ll do the same. We need to catch this guy. Before everything we’ve worked for these past months crashes and burns around us.”
     

Chapter Fifteen
    SHE was looking at him with a piercing expression in her hazel eyes. Royal knew it, but he avoided saying anything until she pulled the car back out onto the road.
    “You know this will work.”
    “I hope so. And I think you’re right—if someone is after both me and Ed, I want him coming this way. Then we’ll do what it is we have to do.”
    “So do you mean it?”
    “What?”
    “When you said you trust me?”
    “Professionally.”
    “Ah, come on. You know it’s more than that.” Royal smiled at her. They had several hours’ of drive time left—quiet time, just the two of them. Other than the fact that they were trying to draw out a traitor, he couldn’t think of anything better than being alone—even in a car—with a beautiful woman he found infinitely attractive. “You know you find me the sexiest thing you’ve ever seen.”
    “Someone has a high opinion of himself.”
    But she was teasing, and they both knew it.
    They spent most of the next hour talking—about anything and everything. Including classic literature. She preferred the more adventurous—he liked the more sociologically based. But they both enjoyed reading more than watching television, going to the mountains rather than the tropics, and relaxing away from people.
    She had a cabin she’d purchased four years earlier in the south of Tennessee. He went camping every year in the same region.
    He’d never enjoyed his time alone with a woman—while clothed—more.
    They stopped for lunch in Cape Girardeau; they were enjoying themselves, but neither of them had forgotten the true purpose of them being so south of St. Louis.
    For the trap to work, they had to be found first.
    “We need to make ourselves more obvious.” She was the first one to say that.
    He tossed the wrappers from their lunch in the nearest waste basket. “I can make it obvious.”
    “How is that?”
    “Like this.” He wrapped his hands around her waist and lifted her off her feet.
    She didn’t squeal—the only reaction she had was a slightly raised eyebrow. “How is this going to be obvious?”
    “Easy. That brown Chevy parked at the fish place next door? Its occupants have been watching us for the last five minutes.”
    She didn’t look that way, and he admired her restraint. Her training. But he felt her tense beneath his hands. “You recognize anyone inside?”
    “One man, white. Other than that, I can’t see enough to distinguish.”
    “How do you want to do this?”
    “If it’s the men we’re after, we need them to catch us off guard. At least in their head. So…we need to act distracted.”
    “And how do you propose we do that?”
    “Easy.” He slipped his hand into the long dark hair. “We look