Covert Operations by Sara Schoen Read Free Book Online Page A

anger evaporate, but not all of it. I couldn’t believe she was on a date with Camden. I slammed my fist onto the wall, causing the window to shake due to the vibration. No wonder Camden had been so cautious about mentioning the girl. He didn’t want anyone to know he was seeing a client. How could Danielle be so careless to get mixed up with the Cardozas? I don’t care how it looked, they were bad news, and now Danielle has dragged herself into the middle of a fight between CIRA and a cartel. I just prayed she didn’t get caught in the crosshairs when the bullets started flying.
     
    ***
     
    I had stayed up to talk to Camden about his date. There were a few questions I needed answered before I could sleep, but if he was any later I would fall asleep on the couch. I also needed to find a way to warn Danielle without damaging my chances of successfully completing this mission. I was about to give up waiting for him when he came home with a big goofy grin on his face. If he’d been a normal guy, someone who wasn’t about to become the leader of a cartel, I would have been happy for him. Though, right now, the only emotion I could work up was anger. I bit my tongue to prevent anything harsh from slipping out. I couldn’t let him suspect me.
    “You look happy,” I observed, causing Camden to stop in his tracks. He must not have noticed I was still awake, waiting for him to come home. There had been a guard with him, but I hoped my late night appearance would just make me seem like a worried friend and nothing more.
    “You waited for me. That’s touching,” Camden joked before rolling his eyes and taking a seat on the chair closest to me. If Camden hadn’t been the heir to a cartel, I could see him being a good friend. His demeanor reminded me of someone I once knew before I went into the Army, but I tended to not make friends with people who would order me killed for talking out of turn. “Her name is Danielle Reeves,” Camden said after a long hesitation.
    “Isn’t that the girl whose brother I’m looking into?” I asked. “I didn’t find much on him, by the way. I’ll have to try a few other things after asking André for advice, but anyway, I thought you were dating some other girl. Danielle interrupted that date, right?”
    “I was seeing someone else, and then I got interrupted by her asking me for help to find her brother.” Camden rubbed the back of his neck, as if embarrassed to talk about it. “I met her a few years ago, and took a chance, but she didn’t show. When she called again, I dropped the other girl, and this time it just worked out.”
    “If she turned you down before, how did you get her to go out with you again?”
    “I told her I would help look for him, and I wouldn’t charge her anything.”
    I raised my eyebrows in shock. The fee was a hefty one, and for him to take the blow, that meant something. I started to tell him how much it impressed me, but he interrupted.
    “I offered on the premise that she go on at least one date with me, since she skipped out on the last one,” he explained. “I was hoping that by doing that I could show her a great time. I knew when I first saw her that she was the one, and now I just have to get her to see it.”
    My jaw clenched tightly as he spoke. I tried not to show my anger, but my teeth felt as if they were starting to crack under the pressure. He was using me to get to Danielle, and I could see the plan forming in his head. He would just keep saying he was looking for me so he could keep going out with her. I saw through his charade, but Danielle would be too blinded by hope to even consider he might be lying to her.
    “The guy has been missing for four years, so it should take a while to find any relevant information,” he went on. “That just means I can take longer to look for it, giving her a little bit at a time to keep her around. She’s spent a lot of time looking for him on her own since their parents died when she was in