In Deep with the FBI Agent by Lynne Silver Read Free Book Online Page A

working,” Sam said. “She looked great when I saw her. Speaking of eating,” he said to change the subject, “when are we grabbing hot dogs at a Nats game?”
    Mission accomplished. Subject changed.
      
    That night, Sam lay in bed, his laptop balanced on his thighs while he engaged in one of his favorite futile behaviors. It had started when he’d announced at brunch that he was thinking of asking Casey out. He had to make sure she was still single.
    Roughly every six months, he indulged his curiosity and looked up Casey Cooper on social media. For obvious reasons, he had a throwaway email for a mostly blank Facebook account, but it didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy scrolling through other people’s profiles.
    The cybersecurity expert in him cringed at the quantity of data people posted on the public forum. Come on, people were giving away everything : their birthdays, their kids’ names, their pets’ names.
    It was a hacker’s paradise, which was why he rarely got on unless the urge to get an eyeful of Casey grew too strong. He hadn’t been on in eight months, because the last time he’d checked, her profile listed her as in a relationship. He’d clicked off and vowed to stop obsessing over his high school crush. It was ridiculous since at the time he’d been in a relationship too. A good one, but two days after seeing that Casey was in a relationship, he’d picked a fight with Maggie, the woman he’d been seeing, and broke things off.
    It was as if he couldn’t let himself be happy. He told himself he was checking tonight because he was thinking of asking Casey for coffee and maybe more. He didn’t want to make a move if she was still in a relationship, but he hadn’t noticed a ring on her left hand when he’d seen her. After eight months, if she didn’t have a ring, that meant fair game to him. If he had a woman like Casey Cooper in his bed, he’d lock it down. Fast.
    His laptop screen flickered, and he smiled when he saw her picture. It was a different picture than last time. The last photo had been an obvious professional headshot done for work, the same photo he’d seen on the Montgomery Prep website. She’d looked gorgeous as always, but stiff. This newest photo showed Casey smiling widely in front of Buckingham Palace in London. She’d gone abroad for a vacation sometime over the last year. Summer, by the look of her outfit in the photo. He was glad she’d taken the time to go on a vacation. He got the sense that she was a woman who always put her career first and would forgo vacation days.
    He should know, being one of those people himself. Other than the few odd sick days here and there, he’d never taken time off to travel or gone abroad. His friends had all traveled extensively. Arianna’s and Valerie’s parents had had the money to give their daughters trips to Europe and junior years abroad. Lance’s family likely had pieds-à-terre, chalets, and flats in every major European destination. Jason hadn’t traveled until recently, but with his new position on the urban search and rescue team, he’d been all over the world.
    Sam narrowed his eyes, clicking through the thirty-plus photos of Casey’s London trip, and made a decision. He’d never made the effort to travel because he’d made the excuse that work was too busy. The truth was, he hadn’t wanted to travel alone. He’d wanted a good traveling companion, preferably one who warmed his bed after a long day of hiking around touristy spots. But he was missing out on the good stuff life had to offer. He made up his mind that this summer, in a relationship or not, he was going on a vacation. To where, it did not matter, but he was getting a stamp on his passport—a passport he kept renewed, despite never having used it.
    He also made the definite decision to ask Casey out the next time he saw her, and he’d make a point to see her. Was it a conflict of interest, since she worked at a private school and he was investigating