Midnight Assignment
Victoria Dahl
Ringing in the New Year is full of wicked possibilities in this sexy novella from USA TODAY bestselling author Victoria Dahl…Working over the holidays on a messy bank takeover in the middle of nowhere is bad enough for federal agent Elise Watson, but then she's partnered with the traitorous Noah James. His highly irritating presence only reminds her of the day he stole her promotion out from under her…and of the drunken, ill-fated night before when she'd all but thrown herself at him. Now she's determined to get the job done and get out, even if it means pulling all-nighters with the one man who stokes her temper—and melts her insides—like no other…"Dahl…is fearless in creating quirky, touchingly unique characters whose love affairs are anything but predictable." – RT Book Reviews
Ringing in the New Year is full of wicked possibilities in this sexy novella from USA TODAY bestselling author Victoria Dahl…
Working over the holidays on a messy bank takeover in the middle of nowhere is bad enough for federal agent Elise Watson, but then she’s partnered with the traitorous Noah James. His highly irritating presence only reminds her of the day he stole her promotion out from under her…and of the drunken, ill-fated night before when she’d all but thrown herself at him. Now she’s determined to get the job done and get out, even if it means pulling all-nighters with the one man who stokes her temper—and melts her insides—like no other…
“Dahl…is fearless in creating quirky, touchingly unique characters whose love affairs are anything but predictable.” —RT Book Reviews
Praise for New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Victoria Dahl (#ulink_cee3ef5f-31d3-56c0-9115-59f12312d11a)
“A fun, feisty and relentlessly sexy adventure.”
—Publishers Weekly on Talk Me Down
“[A] hands-down winner, a sensual story filled with memorable characters.”
—Booklist on Start Me Up
“Dahl has spun a scorching tale about what can happen in the blink of an eye….”
—RT Book Reviews on Start Me Up (4 stars)
Midnight Assignment
Victoria Dahl
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
This story is for Jenn, because she gets me.
CONTENTS
Cover (#ub36294ff-0ff2-59c6-b5bd-97a409aee835)
Back Cover Text (#u0410cf36-4db2-5149-8523-35d30b676dbf)
Praise (#u2a228296-230f-53e8-a67a-8323971dffbf)
Title Page (#ub6035108-12aa-55e0-8a73-c105b6aa8f2c)
Dedication (#u0f94b0bd-0187-565f-a0c6-fb63a3fcc6f1)
CHAPTER ONE (#u29ed027e-75bf-5bcb-977e-70f36eb1a2cf)
CHAPTER TWO (#ubc98b73c-4032-507e-82b0-1087a7813842)
CHAPTER THREE (#uff288e0f-1f76-5548-b0bb-7ed33201a52b)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_a1827d48-f623-5123-8868-743cc6535bf7)
“I’M NOT GOING TO LET you screw this up, Noah James, is that clear?”
Noah ignored the question and watched Elise Watson’s sweet little backside as she walked ahead of him. Each of her long strides turned the gray conservative skirt into an intriguingly tight scrap of fabric before it relaxed into boring wool again. Then her next step would stretch it tight for another brief moment, cupping her muscles like a—
Elise stopped so suddenly that he almost crashed into her.
“I said, is that clear?”
By the time she’d spun toward him, Noah had forced his gaze higher, and he managed to meet her eyes with a cool glare. He, after all, hadn’t been the one to screw things up the first time around. Elise had definitely been the one who’d caused that damage. She’d started the kind of trouble for him that had lasted two long years. Trouble that hadn’t ended until he’d stolen the Denver job out from under her nose and gotten the hell out of D.C.
She was still pissed about losing the job, and her anger gave Noah an excuse to smile. “Whatever you say, Elise.”
Her mouth tightened at his insolent tone. Her eyes narrowed. Elise Watson was about to lose her temper, and the agents waiting ahead of them in the hotel lobby were cringing visibly in anticipation. When she lost her temper, heads rolled, and Noah knew she’d be pleased as punch if it was his head bouncing across the faded blue of the hotel carpet.
But hotel carpet it was, and he saw the moment Elise remembered they were in public. She couldn’t scream and cuss and threaten death, or the hotel staff might suspect that they weren’t really there for an emergency corporate meeting for a company called Workfire Industries. They’d already strained belief by holding their fake meeting two days after Christmas. If their supposed CEO started cursing like a sailor, punching Noah in the chest with her finger, suspicions would be raised. So her temper was thwarted. Noah was safe.
Plus, he reminded himself, he was armed. Surely one five-foot-seven-in-heels woman couldn’t hurt him. Physically.
She leaned a little closer, her green eyes ablaze with violence, but before she could speak, someone else called out.
“Hey, Noah James!” Tex Harrison called. He was a forensic computer analyst, and though he looked like a scrawny seventeen-year-old boy trying to grow a beard, he was a genius. A perverted genius. Noah bit back a groan.
“Noah, I heard you got an invite to party with the flight attendant team from your flight. Where are they staying?”
Glaring, he gave a quick shake of his head, but Elise’s eyes slid back to him and caught the movement. “That’s not true,” he said, as if it could possibly matter to her.
She swept him with a scornful look. “The bank closes in five minutes. I want your team in place in four.”
“Don’t worry about my team.”
“I swear to God you missed that flight just to make my life harder.” The frustration on her face softened to compassion for a fleeting moment. “These people are about to have a very bad evening. The least we can do is handle this quickly and smoothly.”
Noah clenched his teeth. “The flight was canceled. I briefed my team at the airport while we waited. If anything goes wrong, it won’t be on our watch.”
“You’d better hope not. Or you’re going to regret the time you put into flirting with flight attendants instead of prepping for the job.” With that, she swung around and stalked out to the tiny lobby.
Noah watched the rest of the team jump at some quiet word from her. She was sharp and exacting and one of the smartest people he’d ever met. She demanded excellence and expected miracles, and everyone on her team knew it.
She was damn good at what she did, and that made him crazy. After all, it would’ve been easy to get her out of his head if she weren’t as sharp as a razor blade. That kind of weapon sunk deep and true. His only consolation was that since moving to Denver, he didn’t waste so much time looking up whenever the elevator door opened, just in case it was Elise wandering down to his floor.
Noah followed the rest of the team toward the door, sparing a second to glare promises of retribution at Tex. But Tex was busy hitting on one of the new girls and he only gave Noah a distracted wave in response.
Taking a deep breath, Noah looked down at his watch. Three minutes.
“It’s time,” he said, and his second in command stepped up to his side.
They both unsnapped the guards on their holsters but left the safety on their weapons.
Elise tossed him a glance. He gave a careful nod in answer and they both stepped toward the door, confident the other ten team members would follow. Ten more were assembled in the conference room, waiting for the signal to go, and two more teams were stationed outside the other two branches of the bank.
“Mrs. Smith!” a perky blonde receptionist called out as they moved past.
At the sound of the name she’d assumed for the case, Elise paused, her brown hair swinging forward as if she wanted to keep moving. “Yes?”
“Are you sure you guys want to go out in the cold? It’ll be below zero by eight o’clock. We’ve got an arrangement with the local market, and I’d be happy to have dinner sent over. Maybe sandwiches or barbecue?”
“No, thank you. We’re fine.”
“Oh. Well… All right. It’s just so weird to have a conference and no food service, but I guess, if it’s an emergency meeting, like you said…”
Elise stared at the girl as if she were speaking another language. The girl’s face turned pink, and Noah watched as Elise physically braced herself for the kind of polite talk people in places like Omaha expected. “Thank you so much for the offer, but we’re fine. We’ll have dinner out and then we’ll be back for another meeting later, so keep the coffee brewing.”
“Oh, I’ll get some fresh cookies in the oven!” the receptionist responded.
Noah almost laughed out loud at the horrified expression on Elise’s face. “That won’t be necessary.”
The men and women around her groaned.
“But…they’re complimentary,” the girl murmured in disbelief, but Elise was already walking away.
Noah rolled his eyes at her before following Elise out the door. “Make the cookies,” he tossed over his shoulder, happy to needle Elise any way he could.
The frigid Omaha air hit him with a cruel blow as they stepped past the heated comfort of the lobby. He was used to the occasional arctic cold front, but Elise shivered as she raised a phone to her ear.
Noah listened while she checked in with each team. Behind her, downtown Omaha rose, huddled against the dreary twilight. The sight made the air feel colder, so Noah slid his eyes toward their target.
The main branch of the bank was directly across the street, though Noah would be making trips to the other two branches soon enough. This branch looked cozy and cheerful in the darkening evening. The desks inside were decked out in faux pine boughs and holly, and a few employees moved behind the glass, waiting for the clock to strike six and send them back home to their families. One of the tellers wore a Santa hat.
In a moment, Noah and all the rest were going to rush in and change their lives. He watched twinkling Christmas lights come to life in the plate glass windows of the bank. To Noah, the sight was the opposite of cheerful.
Elise snapped her phone shut. “All teams are in place. Is everyone ready? Let’s go.”
They were only a few hundred feet away, but they needed their equipment, so they slipped into two black SUVs and pulled out onto the street to drive straight across. The team in the conference room of the hotel wouldn’t be needed for another five minutes, so they hung back.
Just as Elise slid out of the truck, the security guard approached the doors to shut the bank for the night. Elise reached into her pocket and moved forward. Ten feet from the door, Noah stepped into place beside her and signaled his men to stay close. The guard’s eyes widened. He froze for a second, then swept his hand toward the lock on the glass doors, fear taking his mouth in a grimace that looked a lot like a smile.
Elise pulled her hand from her pocket and pressed the black square against the door. Metal clanked. The gold badge glinted its reflection against the glass. “Sir,” she said so firmly that the man stood straighter, even as his expression limped toward confusion. “Please step away from the door.”
The guard lurched back, Elise pushed open the doors, and they were in control of the bank. Just like that.
* * *
ELISE LOOKED AROUND at the frightened people and felt her gut clench, but she didn’t let even a hint of pain show on her face. Yes, they were scared, but truthfully, they were better off now than they had been ten minutes ago. Platte Regional Bank had been teetering on the edge of collapse for months. Now the last tether holding them in place was about to snap, and Elise and her fellow FDIC agents were here to save this place from smashing into ruin.
“I’m Elise Watson, assistant director with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC has determined that Platte Regional Bank has become critically undercapitalized and is at immediate risk of collapse. In order to prevent this collapse, we have assumed control of the bank and all its assets and liabilities. As of 6:00 p.m., you are all employees of the FDIC.”
Elise ignored the gasps around her and hurried on. “No one has lost his or her job. Your pay will remain the same until the new buyer takes control of the bank. And you do have a buyer. The new owner will be Simpson Finance, and they have assured us that once the riskiest assets are underwritten by the FDIC, the bank will be in sound financial condition and none of the branches will close. I know this is frightening news, but…” Her throat dried. Elise was at a loss, as she always was once she reached this part of the speech. She didn’t know how to connect with people or offer comfort.
Unable to pull the right words from her brain, Elise turned helplessly toward Lara, the head of the human resources team. Lara stepped forward with a smile that promised comfort and understanding to all who walked near her outstretched arms.
“Most of you can go home in just a few minutes,” Lara started. “The bank will open at its normal hour tomorrow, and your jobs will be here waiting for you. In fact, we can expect it to be quite busy. I’m here to answer any and every question you might have, but first I want to reassure you—”
Elise slipped toward the hallway on her right, knowing she’d left the employees in good hands. Lara was only twenty-eight, but she oozed assurance like a veteran mother hen. People loved and trusted her. People did not love and trust Elise. She knew about football and finances and accounting. She did not know how to make her face show the things she was feeling inside.
But she was good at taking control. She could run a team of fifty people with efficiency and confidence. She could choose the right people for the right positions. She was damn good at her job. And lately that was all she was good at.
Passing a large room filled with half a dozen computers and just as many agents, Elise raised her eyebrows in Tex’s direction. He gave her a smile and sauntered over, letting his eyes drag down her body with a comically lecherous look.
“Cut it out,” she said quietly, “or I’ll write you up.”
“God, you are so sexy when you lie.”
He was right about the lying, unfortunately. She’d never write him up. He was her best source of comic relief on stressful trips. “You’ve got everything under control?”
“All clear here, boss. I’ll let you know if we run into any trouble.”
“Good.” She moved on, totally comfortable with Tex’s assurances. Hound dog, he might be, but she trusted him completely on the job.
Her last stop was the bank president’s office, and Noah James stood straight in the doorway, his strong shoulders promising safety.
Noah was second in command at his branch office, but on this job, he was head of security, both physical and electronic, and he answered to her.
Despite their difficult history, she was glad to have him on the team. He was cool and calm and so smart he scared her. Or…he did something else to her that made her heart beat and her skin prickle and her breath come faster. To tell the truth, she knew it wasn’t fear. She hadn’t been the least bit afraid of him on their first job together.
Elise shook off that memory and took a deep breath before stepping into the office. She had to slide past his back to fit into the crowded room, and her arm tingled where it rubbed him. That tingle spread through her whole body, like fingers dragging down her skin, but Elise ignored it.
The chemistry was…a phantom. An illusion. Because true chemistry couldn’t be one-sided and there was no doubt this was.
“All right, Mrs. Castle,” Elise said. “Your staff is in good hands, and they’ll all be back at work tomorrow morning.”
The white-haired old woman behind the desk nodded, and when she smiled, half her skin seemed to disappear into the wrinkles. Elise had been shocked at her first sight of this frail old woman, and she only grew more surprised. The woman had to be close to ninety. Her son, standing behind her, was at least fifty-five. He put his hand on his mother’s shoulder.
“Mother!” John Castle shouted.
Elise and everyone else in the room jumped in shock.
“Everyone still has a job!”
“Oh, that’s good,” she said.
Elise couldn’t help the way her gaze slid over to meet Noah’s pale blue eyes. He looked as dumbfounded as she did.
“Except us,” the son sighed.
Elise cut her eyes toward him and then back to Noah. He gave a barely discernable nod and turned toward the vice-president of the bank. “Mr. Castle, can we speak in your office? There are some questions we need answered.”
The man’s shoulders slumped. “Of course.”
When Noah left with Mr. Castle, it was just Elise and one other agent left with the bank president, Mrs. Amelia T. Castle.
All the documents indicated that Mrs. Castle still ran the bank. She’d been president since 1971 when her husband had died. Her signature appeared on every important document to this day. A stack of papers sat in the middle of her desk, and as far as Elise could tell, the woman had been in the office all day.
But Elise was having a hell of a time accepting that Mrs. Castle could have had a hand in deciding to pursue the high-risk loans that had eventually crumbled the foundation of the sixty-year-old bank.
“Mrs. Castle?” Elise cleared her throat and tried to speak more loudly. “Did you understand what I told you earlier about the auction?”
“Of course I did, dear. Would you like a piece of candy?” She held out a bowl filled with the kind of old-fashioned ribbon candy they used to sell at general stores.
“No, thank you. I just want you to be aware that on January 4 the bank will have a new owner. Simpson Finance.”
The woman’s eyes closed for a moment, and her smile finally faded. “Yes, I know. Simpson Finance. They took over a bank in Lincoln last year, and they’re still up and running. It’ll be fine, I suppose. It’s time for me to retire. I just worry about my little Johnny.”
Little Johnny? “Yes, well… I’m sure he’ll land on his feet. He seems like a smart…boy.”
“Oh, he is.”
A smart boy who was old enough to be a grandfather himself. Elise straightened her spine. This woman was the president of the bank and there were rules to be followed. Ninety years old or not, Mrs. Castle was going to get the spiel.
“Starting tonight, our forensic accountants will begin reviewing every account at this bank in an attempt to give the purchasing financial institution the most accurate account of bank assets—”
“Oh, I should hope so.”
“I should warn you…” Elise swallowed the sour taste in her mouth. She felt like she was threatening someone’s nana. “That any serious discrepancies will be turned over to federal prosecutors for further investigation and possible criminal charges.”
“Well, I’ve nothing to worry about there, my dear. Of course I don’t.”
“Your customers’ accounts are safe, up to and including the maximum amounts insured by the FDIC, and we will be here from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to assure every one of your customers of the safety of their deposits. However, once you are escorted from the premises, you will not be allowed to return unless you’re under the supervision of Mr. James or one of his team.”
She paused and searched Mrs. Castle’s face for some sign that she understood the permanence of all this. But Elise could make out nothing beyond the powdered, papery skin and the deep lines that framed her mouth and eyes.
A small, tasteful Christmas tree glowed behind her, the halo of white lights making the whole scene that much more surreal. Just as Elise decided that nothing was getting through to her, Mrs. Castle sighed.
“I suppose you’d better find me a good box, then. I’ve got to start packing.”
Hoping the woman’s gray eyes were simply watery with age and not grief, Elise nodded as she stepped out into the hall to call for a box. In the relative quiet of the hallway, she took a moment to remind herself that this was one of the happy endings. Yes, she was firing this sweet old lady, and John Castle would lose his job, as well, but the rest of these people would start the new year with a paycheck. So when a junior team member hurried over with a box, Elise forced herself to walk calmly into Mrs. Castle’s office and help her begin to pack. She could do this for her, at least.
Then the long hard work of combing through the accounting would begin.
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_90d891d4-584e-52e9-a9ef-471112b9587c)
IT ALWAYS FELT GHOULISH taking over someone’s abandoned office. Elise had refused to take Amelia Castle’s office, so she’d been left with John’s instead.
Seven hours into the takeover, she was too tired to sit down, so she stood at the black window and stared out. The cold glass poured icy air over her face, helping to rouse her a little. Blinking lights lit up the neighborhood beyond the parking lot. Wreaths hung on the doors. Most of the windows were dark now, but the houses still looked cozy.
Families were in those homes, exhausted from the holidays. Happy and tired. Elise wished she were at home. Better yet, she wished she could go back two days to Christmas itself and curl up on the chair in front of her little fireplace. Or best of all, she’d return to a previous Christmas where she could be with her dad. She missed him so much.
The one place she didn’t want to be during the holidays was here, at this bank, stuck in close quarters with Noah James.
“Someone’s funneling money out of this bank.”
She jumped in shock and knocked her head into the glass. “What?”
“Are you okay?”
She waved an impatient hand as she turned toward Noah. He stood in the doorway like an avenging financial angel. Hopefully he couldn’t see the forehead print of makeup she’d left on the glass behind her. “What did you say?”
“There are discrepancies. They’re small but consistent.”
“Seriously? Someone’s embezzling from this bank?”
“Money is missing.”
“How much?” she demanded.
“The individual amounts are small enough not to draw attention, but I don’t have a definite figure yet.”
“So, not a lot. Come on, Noah. Even I can tell these people are apple-pie, small-town folks.”
“Small-town folks are no different than you big-city types, Elise. Some are good, some bad.”
“Do not try to tell me old lady Castle is a bad seed. For God’s sake, I thought she was going to make me a sandwich!”
He shrugged, the hardness of his face not even hinting at softening. “If not Mrs. Castle, then her son. You don’t really think she’s been running things, do you?”
Elise frowned down at her coffee cup, feeling suddenly exhausted. She liked these people. The old woman who still came to the office every day. The son who’d come in to help carefully pack up his mother’s office. They were real people. Good people. Elise needed them not to have dark, hidden sides. It was just too damn close to Christmas to deal with that kind of crap. “She claims to still be in charge of day-to-day operations.”
“John Castle says he started taking over some responsibilities in 1998.”
“Regardless, I don’t believe the Castles were stealing money from the bank.”
“When did you grow a heart?”
She snapped her head up and glared. “Excuse me?”
“And a soft one at that.”
“There’s never been even a hint of suspicion about their business practices. They’ve filed every report we’ve asked, taken every measure we’ve suggested and—”
“There’s a hint now. I’m heading over to the other branches to make sure everything is running smoothly, but when I come back, I’m going to concentrate my efforts on those missing funds.”
“Fine.” She closed her eyes. He thought she was heartless? He was an ice-cold bastard and always had been. “But you’re wasting your time.” I hope. “Wanna bet?”
She rolled her neck, trying to ease some of the strain from it. It was one in the morning, and though she’d started sending team members back to the hotel in shifts, she was going to be here until 6:00 p.m. the next day. “Sure. I’ll take that bet, if only to teach you a lesson in humility. And heart. How much?”
“Oh, I didn’t say anything about money, Elise.”
Her weariness vanished like a popping bubble, and her head snapped up. He’d said her name like a dare, as if he meant to demand something from her. A forfeit. A prize. A kiss.
Ridiculous. His face didn’t hint at anything more than anger.
His gaze dipped for a split second, brushing over her mouth.
“Um…”
He just stared, ignoring her uncomfortable squirm.
“Not money?”
He raised his eyebrows. “No.”
This uncertainty pissed her off. Elise set her jaw. “What, then? Are you going to lay your manly pride down on the table as a prize?”
His eyebrows lowered. Two spots of pink burned into his cheekbones.
Oh. Elise took a deep breath and replayed her words in her mind. She couldn’t stop her face from heating. “I mean…not your…I meant…”
“My pride, huh?” he said roughly. His gaze slipped down her face, and for one frightening, exhilarating second, she was sure he was glaring right at her mouth. Then he smirked. “Yeah, sure. Why the hell not? I’ve managed to restock. Pride, it is.”
Elise’s mind spun, and by the time she’d righted herself, the doorway was empty and Noah was gone. She pressed her fingertips to her mouth and cursed. Kissing that man had been a horrible, awful mistake. Even two years later she couldn’t quite believe she’d done it.
This was going to be one hell of a long week, and with Noah James around, she wouldn’t get one second to relax. He’d make sure of it.
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_c028c274-ad4e-5640-9281-149d328489bf)
EXHAUSTION FELT LIKE anger. At least it always had to Noah. He’d been working for more than twenty-four hours without a break, and he’d been awake much longer than that. Now as he stared at the man standing before him in the parking lot, all Noah wanted to do was yell.
He didn’t.
“Sir, the bank is closed for the evening, but it will open again at eight tomorrow morning, just like always. I promise you that your money is safe.”
The middle-aged man waved a pillowcase around and screamed that he wasn’t going to let the government steal his hard-earned cash. Noah tuned him out and watched the tirade turn to clouds of white in the frigid night. Man, it was cold. His own breath froze against his lips like dry ice. He wanted to be anywhere but here, being yelled at by a stranger.
Maybe exhaustion wasn’t anger, maybe it was just a need to escape. Or maybe it was irritating introspection.
He stifled a yawn.
A security guard approached the door from inside the bank, and Noah waved him off before returning his attention to the irate customer. “Sir, I understand your frustration, but the bank closed two minutes ago. Not because we’re shutting it down, but because of normal business hours. If you’ll—”
The bank door opened, and Noah turned to snap at the security guard, but found himself scowling at Elise Watson. Well, what the hell. She deserved a scowl too.
“It’s all right, Mr. James. Let him in.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.” She must be as exhausted as Noah. The rest of the team worked in shifts, but the team leaders often refused the breaks. She’d ordered Noah to take a break at 10:00 a.m. today. He’d ignored her. And he knew for a fact that Elise hadn’t let up once.
Unlike Noah, her weariness didn’t look like anger. As the muttering, hunched customer pushed past her without a word of thanks, Elise’s face looked soft and sleepy, as if she didn’t deserve a scowl at all. Damn.
She held the door open and Noah slipped inside before locking it behind him. A glance at the teller line showed Lara smiling and speaking calmly to the man, but he shook his head and waved his pillowcase around. The teller began counting out bills.
“He called a half hour ago,” Elise explained quietly. “Told us to have his money ready to go. It’s only seventeen hundred dollars. I don’t want him losing any sleep over it.”
“Or God forbid, taking his story of government hooligans to the local news.”
When she tilted her head up and met his eyes, Noah felt his heart stop. And when a slow, tired smile crept over her face, his heart started again with a crazed rhythm.
“Exactly,” she said softly. An innocuous, everyday word that sounded impossibly sexy coming from Elise’s mouth.
For a long moment, Noah couldn’t recall what the hell they were talking about. Then her smile faded and she looked tired again.
“You should go back to the hotel,” he said. “Get some rest.”
She shook her head. “The team…”
“There’ll be here for another two hours, and they’ve already had a full night’s sleep.”
Her eyelids moved slowly when she blinked, but she glanced around and shook her head again. Noah didn’t know why he felt protective. Elise could take care of herself, and this wasn’t the toughest case they’d ever worked. But she looked so…vulnerable. Elise Watson, vulnerable? Man, he really was tired.
“Come on. We’ll both call it quits,” he offered. “Have you eaten dinner?”
She shot him a guilty look.
“Lunch?” The last customer scurried past, still glaring with righteous suspicion, despite the fact that they’d willingly handed over his money. “All right,” Noah sighed as he locked the door behind the man. “Grab your stuff. We’re leaving in two minutes.”
“But I need to—”
“They’ve got your cell number, Elise. They’ll call if they need you.”
The lobby hummed with quiet work as the last two tellers counted out their money drawers. Lara laughed at something one of the loan officers said. There were no crises in the offing. No swelling tension.
“I’ll buy you a beer,” Noah said.
“Two minutes,” she said over her shoulder as she hurried away.
The surge of triumph and anticipation that flooded his blood was something Noah chose to ignore, because he did have his pride, damn it, even if it had been so thoroughly battered and bruised by Elise two years before.
He checked in with the guys working the computers in the back room. He called the men in charge of supervising security at the other two branches. He looked over the latest numbers in the forensic investigation. And his heart never once settled back to its normal beat.
Exhaustion made him angry. Or maybe it just made him need…something.
* * *
“OH, MY GOD,” Elise groaned. “Oh, God, that is so good.” Pleasure swarmed over her in little pinpricks of relief. Eyes closed, she moaned as she pressed the bottle of golden joy to her cheek.
Noah cleared his throat. “You really needed a beer.”
“You have no idea.” She took another long draw of the bottle, but she was already anticipating the margarita she was going to have next. It wasn’t her fault. She’d settled on a chile relleno, so the margarita was required by federal law.
She let her head fall back to rest against the booth. They were alone here for all intents and purposes. The only people staying at the hotel were working for her, and at the moment they all seemed to be either working or winding down in their rooms. If there was anybody else here, they were hidden by the six-foot-tall walls of the booths.
“Thank you so much for pulling me out,” she sighed. “Sometimes when I get tired, I just get more and more focused, until I can’t see at all. That’s probably what happened in Madison….” Elise regretted the word before it left her mouth, but Noah didn’t seem to notice her hesitation.
“That was a tough job.” He took a swig from his own bottle. Elise watched the muscles of his throat work, strangely fascinated by the rough look of his jaw. He needed a shave. His light brown hair was sticking up where he’d run his hand through it. He looked more like a bank robber than a federal employee. It didn’t help that he’d slipped off his jacket and loosened his tie. As she watched, he began to roll up the sleeves of his plain white shirt.
She wouldn’t stare at his hands. She wouldn’t. Lusting after his hands had gotten her into trouble that first time. His fingers were long, but not slender and pretty. They ended in blunt lines and square nails, and his hands were so wide. Something about the sight of them made her weak and stupid.
She dug a fingernail beneath the label on her bottle, determined to distract herself. “You know, that was my first takeover.”
“I remember. It must have been an awful way to start. That one was hard even on the veterans.”
Lately, she’d been thinking a lot about Madison, and it wasn’t only because she’d worked closely with Noah on that trip. The Madison job had been close to Christmas, too, and the weather had been brutally cold. But there the similarities ended. The Madison bank had been too far gone. There hadn’t been one interested buyer. And Elise and Noah and the rest of the team had been in charge of laying off ninety-three people only two weeks before Christmas. Some of the employees had been angry, but most of them had been terrified.
One of Elise’s most vivid memories was locking herself in the bathroom stall to cry. The other one involved Noah James and his hands. And that straight, unyielding mouth of his. It was softer than it looked. That knowledge only added to the general feelings of sorrow that still clung to her thoughts of Madison.
She sighed hard. “Do you remember the senior teller? She’d just bought her first house. She kept whispering ‘What am I going to tell my kids?’”
“It was bad,” Noah said softly. “But this trip…this trip is better.”
“I’ll drink to that,” she answered, clinking her bottle softly against his and averting her eyes from his fingers curved around the glass. They both finished off their beers just as their dinner arrived.
“Two more beers?” the waitress asked with a wink.
Noah nodded, but Elise shook her head. “A margarita on the rocks for me. And…” The tension still shrieked in her shoulders. “Two shots of Patrón?”
Noah raised his eyebrows in a challenging look, but he didn’t say no. She hadn’t planned on anything more than a tension-breaker, but she was now wondering what Noah James would be like after a few drinks. She couldn’t quite imagine it. A picture of him loose and happy flashed through her mind, and Elise couldn’t stop her snort of laughter.
He’d just opened his mouth to take a bite of his bacon cheeseburger, but he lowered his food. “What?”
“Nothing.”
Frowning, he muttered something like “Nothing, my ass,” and Elise had to stifle another snort.
Then the drinks came. And the shots.
Half an hour later, Elise was laughing so hard that tears leaked from her eyes. “Shut up,” she gasped.
“And the last ones out of the hotel were Tex and some woman twice his age—”
“No!”
He put a hand over his heart. “I swear to God, he stood in the parking lot wearing nothing but his boots and a pair of boxers, completely unselfconscious. As soon as the fire alarm stopped blaring, he started introducing everyone to his ‘friend’ Jeannie, who, by the way, was wearing a bathrobe and a wedding band and not much else.”
“Who was she?”
“I have no idea, but she raced back in with Tex as soon as the fire department gave the all-clear. And that was our trip to Lubbock. Those Texans really know how to run a bank into the ground.”
Still smiling, Elise sipped the last dregs of her margarita and resisted the urge to order another. The shot had been too much. The second round of tequila had been way over the line. She needed some sleep. She needed to regroup. What she did not need was to get sloppy drunk with Noah James.
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