Live Wire Read Free

“Hello? Am I talking to myself here?”
    He gave Lexi the look and then Sugar a version of it as well. “You have one hour to go tell Jared whatever the hell you are up to, and you, darling dearest”—he squeezed Lexi—“will fess up in ten minutes.”
    Lexi giggled—a dead giveaway.
    “Brother.” He hit the unmute button. “Yeah. I’ll take Lexi’s help.” He wrapped his arms around his wife’s shoulders, taking any excuse to hang out and work with her simultaneously. “That works for me. Sugar’s headed your way; she has something to run by you first, though.”
    Sugar pointed her fingers at him, pretending to shoot, and Parker tossed a pen, ignoring her antics.
    “Fine. Done,” Jared said. “See you in five, Baby Cakes.”
    The phone’s line went out, and Sugar pushed herself out of the spinning chair with dramatic flair. “Buzz kill, Boy Genius.”
    “Out.” He grinned.
    “It’s more fun to make him work for it.”
    “Maybe for you, Sugar.”
    She winked. “Always for me.”
    Soon as the door shut, he turned Lexi in his lap so she couldn’t look anywhere but at him. “Spit it out.”
    Her smile reached her ears. “New recruits have the interviews.”
    “Yeah.”
    “The background checks.”
    He nodded. “Yes.”
    “They’re… under surveillance.”
    Surveillance. Sugar might have had field training, but Lexi had not. She was a loner, a hacker, and had survived more than her fair share of harrowing situations. Parker preferred that she stay far from anyone who could possibly be worthy of surveillance. “Nope.”
    Determination flashed on her face. “It’s not like we’re going to go watch people who are actually bad guys. They’re the good guys, just wandering around without a job—”
    “They have jobs. Deadly jobs.”
    “Well, not at home they don’t.”
    “Lex.” Christ.
    “We’ll just stay in the car or whatever. Give us some of that Titan gear you guys hang on to, and we can see through the wall.” She winked. “Come on. Sugar’s going nuts. She’s not the type to nest.”
    “Nest?”
    His wife smiled but rolled her lips as though she wanted to hide it. “It’s almost time for Sugar to give birth. Some women in her position nest . They clean the house top to bottom. They have uncontrollable urges to prepare their home for the new arrival.”
    He smirked, now knowing why Lexi hid her smile. A ridiculous image of Sugar scrubbing the rafters in leather maternity pants came to mind. “I’m sure the Westins have a top-secret-cleared cleaning staff proficient in the art of nesting .”
    Lexi’s not-so-hidden smile came out in full force. “You’re missing my point. It’s her last hurrah. And it’s safe. We’ll behave. Sugar wants a road trip, and what she said is true. She has an instinct that Titan relies on. The girl could pick a bad apple out of an orchard. Bad bullet out of a barrel. Whatever. Let her help vet the new recruits.”
    Parker shook his head.
    Lexi pursed her lips. “It’ll be a piece of cake.”
    No way would Jared allow Sugar, eight months pregnant, to search out the potential new team members and go undercover to watch their every move. “There’s not a chance that will fly.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “Well, we’re going to do it.”
    “You, maybe. He’ll give the okay to let you hack some data. But Sugar in the field? Nope.”
    “We’re going to do it.” Lexi’s statement sounded like a practiced mantra.
    “Lex—”
    “Sugar and I are going on a pre-baby, nondangerous, surveillance-only road trip!” She smacked him with a kiss. “And it’s going to be awesome .”
    “This wasn’t really a discussion, was it?”
    She kissed him again. “No, babe. It wasn’t.”
    At least he’d tried. Then again… he wondered how Jared was taking the news from Sugar.

CHAPTER TWO
     
    If there was a telltale sign that trouble was about to show up at Jared’s office doorstep, it was the cadence of Sugar’s step and the corresponding groan