Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 109640 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109640 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 548(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
His nose wrinkled as he picked up her scent. His hands came up, but he avoided touching her. “Back off.”
She did the exact opposite and crowded him, instead. She was so close she could pick up his delicious scent over her gag-inducing one.
She grabbed his arms and pressed against him. “C’mon. Just a few bucks. Just some spare change. Just tell me what I need to do for it.”
“You need to back off!” he shouted and shoved her.
Cami made a big production of falling back against the privacy fence, making sure to slam her back against the wood hard enough to make it rattle. “Damn,” she groaned. “Have a fucking heart.”
His nostrils flared and his beard-covered jaw was tight. “Wait here. My heart and I will go grab you a meal.” He turned to get back on his Harley.
“Don’t wanna meal, man,” she called out. “Just need to earn a little dough. Like I said, I’ll do anything. Anything.”
He grimaced. “There’s nothing I want from you.”
“You sure?” With a huge grin, she threw her head back and stared him right in the eyes… or mirrored sunglasses.
His head twitched when he did a double take. “Cabrera,” he growled and ripped off his shades.
She threw up her hands. “The one and only.”
His narrowed gray eyes searched her face. “Holy shit.”
“Was I convincing?”
His Adam’s apple bounced and his jaw shifted. For fuck’s sake, he didn’t want to admit it.
Asshole.
“I had you going there, right?” she prodded.
“Did you lay in the grass and let your miniature horse piss on you?”
“Something like that. So, are you going to admit it or not?”
His expression went blank. “Admit what?”
“That I had you going.”
“I knew something was off.”
She rolled her eyes. “You can’t even give me a little credit, can you? What do you have against me?”
“Nothing.”
“You act like I’m some sort of burden, when I’m here to help. I was exc—” No, she wasn’t admitting to him how excited she was to join this task force. Fuck him. “I want to do buys.”
“I have you on surveillance.”
“It’s boring and unneeded.”
“Are you questioning my authority?”
“You sound like Cartman from South Park. Respect my authoritah!” she mimicked. “Now it makes sense why Decker uses that ringtone for you.”
His head jerked. “He does what?”
She dramatically slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, did I just fuck up?”
His eyes narrowed again. “He has Cartman as my assigned ringtone?”
“Maybe I’m wrong and just imagined it.”
“Right.”
“C’mon. Just let me do one buy and we’ll see how it goes.”
“What if it goes wrong?”
Then it goes wrong, she wanted to scream. Investigations and undercover work went wrong all the time. “Crew, I can think my way out of a jam and I can defend myself. I’m a goddamn federal agent just like you and want to be treated as such.”
“You’re not just like me,” he said too calmly.
“If you say it’s because I’m not a man…”
He pulled in a sharp breath. “I wasn’t going to say that. You only have a year under your belt. That’s my concern, not that you’re a woman.”
Bullshit. “I need something worthwhile to do. Let me prove myself to you.”
He stared at her for far too long, then he slowly slid his sunglasses back over his eyes. “Let me think about it.” He threw his leg over his bike and pushed the start button. “Open the gate, will you?”
She sighed but did it despite wanting to tell him to fuck off.
As he pulled past her, he yelled, “Close that behind me, then go home and enjoy your day off.”
“Yes, boss,” she muttered through gritted teeth as she shut the gate.
She had pulled off tricking him. Cabrera’s acting had been decent, the makeup even more convincing.
But he still wasn’t sure he wanted to approve of her making buys.
Why he was more cautious with her than the rest of the team members, he didn’t know.
Well, there was the little fact of who her father was.
And the fact she was a newer agent.
But the truth was, how was she going to learn without him throwing her into the mix?
He sure as fuck hoped Williams wouldn’t have added her to his task force if he didn’t believe she’d be able to handle it. Unless he’d been pressured to do so…
That was his worry.
If she couldn’t do her job properly, it could be dangerous for her. And that, in turn, could be dangerous for him.
He’d feel better if she partnered up with someone on the team first. A partnership like Fletch and Wilder.
That had worked out well.
Too well, in their case.
As he hit the top landing, he pulled his cell phone from his back pocket and pulled up his contact list. He scrolled until he found Decker’s number, then he punched in the code to the door and as soon as it unlocked, he pushed Send on his phone and pulled open the door.