Flashpoint Read Free Page B

encountered, most of them wouldn’t even hear him coming.
    But Jimmy Nash’s hands were already shaking from clearing that roof. A cigarette would’ve helped, but last time he’d quit, he’d sworn it was for good.
    He washed his hands in the sink in the men’s, trying, through sheer force of will, to make them stop trembling.
    It was that awful picture he had in his head of Decker gunned down in the parking lot that steadied him and made his heart stop hammering damn near out of his chest.
    He’d do anything for Deck.
    They’d been Agency partners longer than most marriages lasted these days. Seven years. Who’d have believed
that
was possible? Two fucked-up, angry men, one of them—him—accustomed to working alone, first cousin to the devil, and the other a freaking Boy Scout, a former Navy SEAL. . . .
    When Tess had called him tonight and told him what she’d overheard, that HQ essentially knew Decker was being targeted and that they weren’t busting their asses to keep it from happening . . .
    The new Agency director, Doug-the-prick Brendon, hadn’t tried to hide his intense dislike of Jimmy Nash, and therefore Decker by association. But this was going too fucking far.
    Jimmy used his wet hands to push his hair back from his face, forcing himself to meet his eyes in the mirror.
    Murderous eyes.
    After he got Decker safely out of here, he was going to hunt down Dougie Brendon, and . . .
    And spend the rest of your life in jail?
Jimmy could practically hear Deck’s even voice.
    First they’d have to catch me,
he pointed out. And they wouldn’t. He’d made a vow, a long time ago, to do whatever he had to do, so that he’d never get locked up again.
    There are other ways to blow off steam.
How many times had Decker said those exact words to him?
    Other ways . . .
    Like Tess Bailey.
    Who was waiting for him in the ladies’ room. Who was unbelievably hot. Who liked him—really liked him. He’d seen it in her eyes. She pretended to have a cold-day-in-July attitude when he flirted with her in the office. But Jimmy saw beyond it, and he knew with just a little more charm and a little bit of well-placed pressure, she’d be giving him a very brightly lit green light. Tonight.
    He’d let Decker handle Doug Brendon.
    Jimmy would handle Tess.
    He smiled at the pun as he opened the men’s room door and went out into the hallway.
    Tonight he would give Tess to himself as a present. Under normal circumstances, he would never get involved with someone from support. But these weren’t normal circumstances.
    His current state of happiness wasn’t completely a result of the adrenaline charging through his system from clearing the roof. When Tess had called, he’d been looking forward to getting naked with a very lovely young tax attorney named Eleanor Gantz.
    Who wasn’t likely to welcome him back anytime in the near future. He’d left her without a word of explanation when he’d heard Decker was in danger.
    Although, truth be told, he couldn’t quite remember what she looked like—his memory was dominated by Tess Bailey in those half-unzipped jeans and nothing more.
    Ouch.
Who knew?
    Jimmy pushed open the ladies’ room door, expecting to see her, live and in person. But she wasn’t there.
Shit.
He checked the stalls—all empty.
    It sobered him fast and he stopped thinking about the latter part of the evening, instead focusing on here and now, on finding Tess.
    He spotted her right away as he went back into the hall. She was standing at the bar. What the Jesus God was she doing there? But then he knew. Decker and Mondelay had ordered drinks.
    And he hadn’t been specific enough in his instructions, assuming “Get your ass in the ladies’ room” meant just that, not “Get your ass in the ladies’ room after you fill their drink order.”
    The biggest problem with her standing at the bar was not the fact that she was bare breasted and surrounded by drunken and leering men.
    No, the biggest problem was