Page 20 of Code Name: Harbor

I take a bite and cock my head to the side to read the little note sitting by the plate.

From Anna’s kitchen, with love. Eat up. — A.

“I’m on it, Anna,” I murmur to myself with an amused chuckle and relish the butter, brown sugar, oats and a specialty dark chocolate chips that Anna orders from Switzerland.

I take a third cookie and ponder whether I really need it. I mean… my emotions need it, but my hips do not.

“Why are you staring daggers at that poor cookie?”

I startle, looking up to see Caroline Prescott entering the kitchen. She ignores the espresso machine and crosses to the drip machine that always has a fresh pot.

“I’m wondering if I really need a third cookie,” I admit and watch as she pours herself a mug and then adds two pumps of caramel syrup that nobody on the team will admit they drink despite all of us drinking it.

Caroline turns and leans her hip against the counter to face me, eyes dropping back down to the cookie. “Want my advice?”

“Sure,” I reply.

“Always eat the cookie. Life’s too short.”

I point at her with conviction. “Sold to the woman leaning against the counter with very good common sense.”

Caroline laughs and reaches across to grab one. She takes a bite and moans much the way I did upon my first taste.

Her blue eyes crinkle with delight. “These are magical.”

“Very magical,” I agree, and polish off the last of my second cookie.

Caroline transferred from the Vegas office to help staff the new Seattle office. Like Felicity, she’s a former army helicopter pilot and has been working in the private sector for the last handful of years. Her long black hair is piled on top of her head in a messy bun, which tells me she’s here doing catch-up paperwork and reports. If she were going out in the field it would be in a secure braid, and she’d probably be wearing tactical gear. As it stands, she’s in a pair of yoga pants and an oversized sweater.

She takes a slow sip of her coffee. “It’s a Saturday. Why are you in today?”

I shrug because I’m not really sure. I’m on no active cases that require fieldwork and while I always have more computer work than enough hours in the day, I could easily do that from home.

But here I am, and I suspect it has something to do with the fact I’m restless. I had a not-so-pleasant conversation with my father this morning. He’s the most important person in my life and I love him madly. We see each other at least once a week, if not more. Dinner, coffee, a beer after work. But I’ve been putting him off this week because he’s too attuned to my moods and would know this Voronin case is weighing on me. That would lead to incessant picking at me for details, and then I’ll blab to him, and he’ll be worried.

I just can’t do that to him right now so I went with the whole, Work has me so busy I can’t meet this week, but next week for sure line.

After I hung up with him, wracked with guilt because he was disappointed, I paced around my kitchen for an hour before finally giving up and coming into the office.

As it turns out, I’m thinking about tonight’s date with Finn as much here as I did at home.

“What about you? What do you have going on?” I ask, picking off a piece of my third and final cookie and placing it in my mouth.

“I’m helping develop a security plan for the lieutenant governor. He’s apparently moved into a new home and wants a state-of-the-art system installed.”

“Oh… that’s…”

“Boring,” she inserts with an annoyed eye roll. “I’m a field agent and a trained helicopter pilot. I swear, I really do love this job, but I hate this type of work. Know what I mean?”

I think about the fact that just two days ago, I was almost killed in cold blood, and then almost drowned, and then was rescued by someone who I believe is a smuggler.

Not sure I understand boring these days.

“What are you working on today?” Caroline asks.

I wince at her tone, so completely oblivious to my fuck-up and near-death experience. I blew my cover and almost died. “Not much. I’m riding desk for the foreseeable future.”

“Yikes,” she murmurs sympathetically, but doesn’t push for details. “If it makes you feel any better, I botched one of my first assignments with Jameson and yet I’m still here and thriving.”