Her Secret Christmas Agent Read online

  “Your car would have been blown up underneath you and we’d be planning your funeral instead of our next move. Whoever this ass is, he wants to show off and he did, using a rock again. But he covered his bases, too, with the bomb.” Mitch’s interruption was full of anger, the gravity of their situation, and, dare she hope, a little fear? Did Mitch care for her?

  She shoved the thought down. Even if he did care, she wasn’t going to be able to have more than one of her usual, short-term relationships with Mitch. She couldn’t—it would be too risky. Losing someone as wonderful as him would be more than she could take. “Mitch is right. As much as I hate to keep you in the crosshairs of these nut jobs, Nika, you’re our best hope.” Colt looked at her for a long moment before moving his gaze to Claudia. “I think we need to call in some backup here. SVPD has it, and we have FBI coming in, but Nika’s our only deep undercover at this point.”

  “I’m far from ‘deep’ undercover. Let’s face it, someone might have figured out where I live and that I’m not a student.” She berated herself for not being more careful.

  “I don’t think so, Nika. Colt’s right. If the cult knew you were a cop, or where you lived, they’d have paid you a visit here. They’d hit you where you live, even go after your family. Instead they’re targeting what they think is a transfer student.” Claudia’s gaze was steady, her eyes expressive. “You do need Trail Hikers’ backup at this point. I’m glad we pulled you in when we did. Mitch, you know what’s coming. And I don’t have to ask if you’re ready for it.”

  Nika looked from Claudia to Mitch and back. “No. Absolutely not. I don’t need Mitch’s help in this. He needs to focus on being a chemistry teacher. I’ll handle Rachel and the rest of it.”

  “That’s the problem, Nika. ‘The rest of it’ involves a cult that we’ve recently found may have connections to international terrorists. It’s no longer a simple high school undercover bust.”

  “It never was, Claudia. I knew that going in. We all know about the cult, and it was on my radar when I got called in to figure out who was leaving the messages in blood on Mitch’s SMART Board.”

  “Nika, I’m not going to usurp your authority. And I promise I won’t get in the way of what you’re accomplishing with Rachel and any other students.”

  “You can’t promise that, Mitch. You’ll think you need to protect me. You can’t help yourself.”

  “Hey, give me some credit. Are we developing a friendship here? Yes. But have I worked with women in lethal ops before, treated them like any other colleague? Yes. I’m a trained Marine, Nika. I’ve worked alongside men and women and never gave favor to either. Just had their six as they had mine.” Mitch’s declaration made her blush and she wanted to bury her face in the velvety throw over her lap.

  “I can vouch for that. Here’s the deal, you two.” Claudia spoke as the Trail Hikers CEO, not as her acquaintance. It was in the sharpness of her glance, the way Colt looked at her with total acceptance of her authority. “You have to infiltrate New Thought. We can’t afford to set off any of Wise’s alarm bells. We’re taking him down for the last time and he’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars. Colt and I are going to work out how SVPD will keep Silver Valley High safe, and how to block any other plans the bastards have to get into the school. You two work on Rachel and her mother. That’s our in.”

  *

  Mitch wasn’t sure how he managed it, but he stayed in Nika’s guest room all night. He checked in on her a few times to see if she was resting comfortably and had a full glass of water on her nightstand.

  Awake early the next Saturday morning, he made them a huge breakfast. She never stirred as he worked in her small kitchen, poaching eggs for the eggs Benedict, his specialty. The Canadian bacon was almost done while he whisked the hollandaise sauce in a pan that was too big for it, but Nika didn’t have enough pots for him to fashion a double boiler.

  Shuffling steps sounded behind him.

  “I can’t stop what I’m doing or your breakfast, make that feast, will be ruined.”

  “Please, carry on.” She patted his back before she poured herself a cup of coffee from the pot he’d programmed to brew as he cooked. “I had no idea I had the ingredients for anything as fancy as eggs Benedict.”

  “You had eggs, English muffins and the right kind of bacon. What else do you use your Canadian bacon for?” The sauce was perfect. He turned and poured it over the plump eggs, trying to keep his eyes on his task. He blew it when he caught a whiff of Nika’s shampoo. Her skin was fresh scrubbed, her lips full and inviting. Hell. “You look a lot better this morning. How are you feeling?”

  “Good. Not as if I’d been carried from a car about to explode—hey, watch it. You’re spilling.”

  “Damn it.” He put the pot on the stove and handed her the least messed-up plate. “Let’s sit at your dining room table. I’ve already set it.”

  “I could get used to this, Everlock.”

  “Call me Mitch.” Although she could call him dog poop if she ever looked at him like she was looking at her food.

  “Chef Mitch.” She slid into her wooden chair and without preamble dug into her food. He followed and they ate in companionable silence for several minutes.

  “You were here all night, and now you’re feeding me. It really isn’t necessary, Mitch.”

  “Until we figure out who put a bomb under your car, yeah, it is necessary.” He saw the defiance in her eyes and held up his hands, palms out. “I hear you. I know you’re capable of taking care of yourself. But you’d just come out of shock, no matter how brief it was. I couldn’t in good conscience leave you alone when you weren’t up to par. Besides, Colt and Claudia suggested it.”

  “They did? Figures.” She dug in to her meal. “You heard what Bryce told Colt. It was rudimentary. Any kid could do it—slice a fuel line. And the explosive—no more than a firework—was there to make sure it did its job in igniting the fuel. You know better than I do that it doesn’t take someone highly sophisticated to make that kind of explosive.”

  “We don’t know it was a kid, or whether it was a single perpetrator or a group, Nika. We really don’t know a whole hell of a lot.”

  “You agree the cult is behind all of this?” Her mouth formed around the egg on her fork and he was hypnotized by her lips. A bit of runny yolk dribbled on her bottom lip and her tongue peeked out to lick it off.

  Mitch didn’t want to be her bodyguard, her protector. He wanted to be her lover.

  “Mitch?” Her gaze leveled him with an intensity that made his erection strain against his sweatpants. If they weren’t sitting she’d see the effect she was having, and he’d have her pulled up against him.

  “Um, yeah. The cult.” He took a gulp of orange juice. “They are connected to the Rainbows de facto since Rachel is a part of the group and her mother is involved with the New Thought ministries. Whether the cult itself is behind the petty crimes, like the rock through the window and the blood on the board, that’s not so clear, I suppose. But a car bomb, no matter how amateurish, is no longer ‘petty.’ You’ve read the TH files on the cult?”

  She shook her head. “Not all of them.”

  “Of course not, you haven’t had time yet. So far the cult has been connected with the town—remember when the mayor was arrested? This second one? And Mayor Lemmon was acquitted? The cult helped fund Mayor Charbonneau’s election, and was feeding the county’s protection team false information. Right before that, we had Zora’s mother show up. You know she’d been in the original cult, right? The Female Preacher Killer was a lone operator but we now have reasons to believe he was being fed by the cult’s peripheral operators. The Leonard Wise wannabes. They picked up on the killer’s resentment against the church he worked for as a janitor and attended—Silver Valley Community Church. The cult exploited him, made his inner crazies come to life. It took us a while, but we’ve put all the parts of that web together.”

  “So why wasn’t the cult taken down after any of those eve
nts?”

  Mitch shook his head. “We didn’t have enough hard evidence. When we get them this time, we need to be able to put them behind bars for good. You heard what Claudia said last night.”

  “Isn’t that what the FBI’s for?”

  “Normally yes, but Leonard Wise is a smart man. He’ll sniff out a traditional Fed and run scared in a heartbeat.”

  Nika snorted. “Great. So you’re allowing Silver Valley and its citizens to become victims in order to make sure the cult gets the justice you all think it should? What about the future victims? What if Wise gets a hold of any of our teen girls?”

  “That’s the bitch of all of it, Nika. As far as we know, he hasn’t touched another child yet. Not since Upstate New York. We have to try to draw him into his own snare, catch him where he’s most comfortable. I’m thinking the compound he’s making the trailer park into is the best place to hit him.”

  “Let me get into the New Thought group, Mitch. They’ll think I’m another recruit. I can say I found the literature at Rachel’s and liked how it sounded. Liked her mother, and what she had to say about the New Thought.”

  “No freaking way, Nika. First, it will look too suspicious as any friend of Rachel’s would not be friendly toward the cult. And Rachel may damn well need you. Has it occurred to you that her mother might make her go to a meeting and she could be assaulted by Wise or one of his cronies?”

  Nika nodded. “Actually it has. But if I were there, I would protect her.” She shrugged. “The truth is Rachel will never do anything she doesn’t really want to. Her mother doesn’t have the control over her she thinks she does. Except that Rachel wants to protect her mother.”

  Mitch looked at her. “You heard what you said, didn’t you? It’s too dangerous to attend one of those meetings at the compound. And you need to keep her away from them, too.”

  “The problem is that I have no place to take her to hang out. I can’t bring her here; it’s obvious it’s an adult woman’s home. I can’t take her to my parents’, she’ll wonder why they’re so old for a teenager’s family.”

  “She might believe they’re your grandparents.”

  “That’s a good idea except there is no way in hell I’m bringing my parents into an undercover op.”

  “There’s something else, Nika. What is it?”

  “I like Rachel, Mitch. I don’t think she’s behind these events, as much as I know you and Chief Todd suspect her. After this all breaks I’d like to be able to be a point of contact for her. She’ll need it no matter what happens with her mother. The least amount of lying I do to her now, the better.”

  “You have the training of a fierce warrior, Nika, but you’ve got a heart of gold.”

  “Save it, Everlock—I mean, Mitch. Don’t go reading any more into this than me doing my job.”

  “Keeping the planet safe for democracy?”

  “No, just Silver Valley.” She warmed up her coffee. “Want more?”

  “No, thanks. I had two cups before you woke up.”

  “I can’t thank you enough for taking care of me yesterday. And breakfast today. It was a relief to be able to let go of the constant-vigilance gig.”

  “I hear you.”

  They sat in silence, Nika looking out at her two bird feeders that hung from the large oak she shared with Ivy’s town house. Mitch couldn’t look at birds or nature or anything but Nika. When Nika was in a room he couldn’t focus on much else. Claudia and Colt had noticed it last night, and probably before that, too.

  He didn’t expect any grief from them as it was clear the SVPD chief and Trail Hikers CEO had their own fireworks show going on.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” Her demand tugged at his affection for her. With a dash of Bunsen burner heat.

  “You know why.”

  “I suppose I do, and it’s pointless. This is only going to get us into trouble.”

  “It’s not criminal.” Hope flared when she didn’t deny their chemistry, the bond that was becoming much more difficult to ignore because it wasn’t just lust.

  She looked at him and he saw the moment her eyes flickered from interest to white-hot need. Still hard from being next to her, he stood when she did, reached for her as she did him.

  Their mouths connected with no finesse, no seduction. He made short work of her robe, letting it fall with the tie to the kitchen hardwood floor.

  She grabbed the bottom of his T-shirt and yanked it over his abs, over the arms he lifted without hesitation. He grasped her wrists, needing to make sure this was what she wanted.

  “Nika?”

  Chapter 13

  The light of desire in Mitch’s eyes made the attraction she had for him explode into need—need she’d been denying since they’d first kissed in the SVPD parking lot.

  “I want this, Mitch. I want you. No more stopping.” She lifted her arms so that he could take her sleep shirt off. As soon as her breasts were free, she pressed them against his bare chest, liberally sprinkled with hair as dark as his brows. His hands cupped her breasts and their foreheads met, breaths mingling, chests rising and falling in their fervor.

  “God, Nika, you’re so freaking hot.” He kissed her again until her moans turned to whimpers. When he pulled back, her relief that they were getting to the best parts was short-lived as Mitch had a more sweet torture in mind.

  His tongue tasted every inch of her throat, her chest, her breasts, her stomach and back to her breasts. Large hands grasped her buttocks and pulled her flush against his erection at the same moment his mouth suckled her nipple. Nika had heard of nipple orgasms but thought they were limited to fantasy. She was wrong.

  “Oh, my gosh, Mitch, don’t stop.” He grasped her bottom more tightly as he switched to her other breast, moving his pelvis into hers with no doubt of where they were headed. She came with a loud scream, grasping the counter to avoid collapsing to the floor.

  He pulled away from her and she cried out again, hating the separation.

  “Your pajama bottoms, Nika. Off.”

  “Yours, too.” Where Mitch’s voice was roughly commanding, hers was breathless, the tremors of her climax still moving through her.

  As soon as they were both free of any clothing, his hands gripped her waist and he lifted her onto the counter. The toaster slammed against the wall to make room. Mitch wasted no time and spread her legs apart, his hands hot on her upper thighs.

  “I don’t know how we’re going to do this, Mitch, but I’m game for anything.”

  Laughter rumbled from deep within him and she loved how she felt it through his shoulders, his chest. She couldn’t keep her hands off him.

  “Oh, babe. This isn’t for both of us, not yet.” He stuck his fingers into her with no warning and she bucked, crying out for him, gripping the counter.

  “Mitch, don’t, don’t...”

  “Don’t what, babe?”

  “Stop.”

  Again the belly-deep laughter that only stoked her need. She had to keep her grip on the counter or she’d fall off and this exquisite torture would end too soon.

  He licked his way to her belly button and then dipped between her legs, making her forget about falling or whether Mitch was laughing or not. Her hands were in his hair when she screamed out his name, the back of her head knocking against the spice cupboard.

  When her breathing calmed enough for conscious thought, she glanced down to see Mitch regarding her as if she were a queen. Something precious. Someone he cared about.

  “Turnabout’s fair play, Mitch. Come up here.” She tugged on his hair and he stood.

  Nika slid off the counter and dropped to her knees in front of him. His fingers were in her hair, his breath was hitched, and she made sure he thought of nothing but her tongue, her mouth.

  “Nika, let’s go to the sofa, your bedroom...”

  “No, Mitch. Here. Now. For you.”

  She reveled in his gasps of pleasure as she used her tongue on him. She wanted to make him feel as good as
he had made her feel and didn’t hold back.

  His groan was a deep prelude to the cry he let out when she brought him to climax. She loved that she had the ability to do this to him.

  “Nika.”

  *

  They spent the rest of the day hashing out various scenarios Nika anticipated if she indeed got Rachel to take her to one of her mother’s New Thought meetings. Neither mentioned what had happened in the kitchen. As if they both knew it wasn’t where their focus could remain, not with a case to solve.

  Nika had stupidly thought that once she’d been with Mitch, it would take the edge off her constant awareness of him. Instead she found herself tuning in to his every movement.

  “As much as it’s not my favorite idea, I agree that our best bet might be you getting into the New Thought meeting, to look far enough behind the curtains to see what’s going on. But as a TH you have to understand that the ultimate goal is to take them out in their entirety. We can’t piecemeal it, and if you run into trouble or need to get Rachel out of there quickly, it could turn dicey. It might get discovered that you’re undercover and that would be enough to spook Wise.”

  “You’re right. Which is why I’ll go in with Rachel, act like a gullible teen, and then get out. I won’t go in wired or with any weapons.” Although that gave her pause. Her weapon was part of her when she was on the job.

  “No, you need to be carrying, Nika. If the worst happened and one of his cronies decided to start threatening anyone, or opened fire, you’d have to be able to take them out. We won’t be far away, either.”

  “We? As in TH?” She didn’t like this. “No, Mitch. SVPD will know enough and they can sit in unmarked cars while I’m in there. But TH is too much. Remember what Claudia said—we have to handle this at the lowest level possible. And I’m not taking a weapon—for all we know Wise has his thugs frisk people at the door.”

  “SVPD has the Silver Valley High case, but TH is in the cult op, Nika, and you’re a TH agent now. You have to do it our way. You don’t go in unless you agree to our terms. TH agents always carry a weapon.”