Undercover Heat Read Free

a specific type of agent who wasn’t in the middle of something else at the moment.”
    He lifted his eyebrows. “What type of agent?”
    “Male. Looks to be late twenties, maybe early thirties. Doesn’t have a jealous wife at home who might be annoyed by the fact that he’s going to play house with another woman for the next few weeks.”
    It took him a few moments to comprehend. He narrowed his eyes to study the man who had twenty years on him yet still had a head of thick, wavy hair and sharp, blue eyes. Nico greeted his look with a mild one of his own.
    “Are you telling me I’m going undercover?”
    Without breaking eye contact, Nico nodded.
    “As part of a married couple?”
    Nico nodded again.
    Hmmm. Among the various field agents in the Detroit office there were only three possibilities, unless Nico intended for him to be part of a gay couple.
    “With Raquel?” he said hopefully. Raquel Smith was hot. With all that dark, curly hair, chocolate-brown eyes, and slinky body, he had no problem with the idea of cozying up to her for however long it took to solve her case. Raquel had started at the Detroit office a year before Quinn, and over the years, he’d periodically gotten drunk and hit on her. She’d never taken him up on his offer. He didn’t blame her. But he still wouldn’t mind sleeping with her.
    Nico made a face. “Raquel just had a baby, not three weeks ago,” he said in a voice that indicated Quinn was an idiot for not realizing it.
    “Oh.” He raked his hand through his hair. “Now that you say that, I guess I remember she was getting pretty big here recently.”
    Nico shook his head in exasperation. “Quinn, I really feel sorry for you when you finally end up falling in love.”
    “Won’t happen,” he said with absolute conviction.
    “Sure, it will,” Nico replied. “You just won’t realize it when it does. I hope to hell you figure it out before you do something stupid and let her get away. Because she’s going to be worth keeping.”
    When in the hell had his boss started sounding like his mother, dead seven years now? He didn’t think about her very often anymore, but when he did, those thoughts were rarely positive. She’d been a timid, fearful woman who let Quinn’s father slap her around for far too many years. With those two role models, he figured he didn’t stand a chance of having a healthy, long-term relationship. Best to avoid it altogether.
    To make his comments even more bizarre, Nico knew about Quinn’s past. It was his boss who had fought to keep him as part of the team after Quinn’s father had been arrested.
    “Falling in love, all that domestic shit, it isn’t in the cards.”
    “Don’t sell yourself short, Quinn. You need to stop thinking that you or your offspring are going to turn out like your parents. You’re a good guy. You just need to believe it.”
    “Quit with the warm, fuzzy bullshit, Nico, and give me the assignment.”
    Nico slid a small stack of papers across his desk. “It’s Kyra Sanders’s case.”

Chapter Three
    Quinn was scheduled to begin working with Kyra on Wednesday. He had two days to wrap things up at his own apartment, pack a bag, and head over to the address noted in the file Nico had given him. He and his fellow agent would be living as husband and wife, every second of every day, until the case was closed.
    Which meant he had something to take care of first.
    “What a pleasant surprise to have you here on a Tuesday, Mr. Daniels.” The elderly clergyman had known him since he was a pre-teen, yet refused to call him by his first name. He called it a show of respect. Quinn called it a reminder of his asshole father.
    Not that he ever said so in front of the priest.
    “I’m going undercover, starting tomorrow.” Quinn grunted as he lifted a heavy box, full of bags of flour. He carried the box of food from the back of the truck into the community hall attached to the church and placed it next to the row of boxes he’d