Page 42 of Perfect Vengeance

“I know.” She took a deep inhale. “Thanks for the pep talk.”

“Anytime.” For what must have been the tenth time tonight, their gazes locked and held. He wished that would quit happening. Every time it did, one—if not both of his heads—stopped thinking clearly.

Stay. On. Target.

Gina might be a beautiful, intelligent, sexy woman, but she was a cooperator. An essential element of his job and the mission he’d focused on nearly every waking minute of his life for the last six months.

“Remember,” he said as he jammed his arms into his jacket. “There’s only one mission tonight. We get in, do the job, and get out.”

His words were as much to himself as to her. After tonight, he’d do the same and get the hell out of her life.

Chapter Ten

“Girl, he is smokin’ hot.” Kinsey whistled for emphasis as Margo maneuvered the rented black Charger out of Gina’s parking garage. “The man makes sweaty look g-o-o-d good.”

Anna giggled from the front passenger seat. “Did you see how that black sweater stuck to his super buff bod?” She made a suggestive, gurgling sound in her throat. “Yowza.”

Resisting the urge to elbow Kinsey in the ribs and smack Anna in the back of the head, Gina leaned forward between the headrests and pointed to Jack’s SUV double-parked ahead. “Pull up behind that Expedition and try to keep your libidos in check. We’ve got a job to do, and if we botch it, we could all wind up wearing orange jumpsuits for the next decade. You should be focusing on that visual.” While she knew her friends were only teasing, it was irritating to hear them discussing Jack like he was a piece of grade A sirloin they were about to gobble up. Not that she disagreed with their observations.

Kinsey snickered. “Oooh, someone’s a little possessive.”

“What do you mean possessive?” She frowned as she caught the smirk on Kinsey’s face.

“Oh, come on, Gina,” Margo said as she pulled up behind Jack’s Expedition. “Even I can see the chemistry between you two. It was so hot in your apartment I thought the fire alarm would go off.”

“You should have seen his face when you yanked open your suit and your boobs practically popped out,” Kinsey said. “He clenched his manly jaw so hard I heard his teeth crack.”

This time, she did elbow Kinsey in the ribs, and her friend let out a little grunt mingled with more laughter.

“You could do a lot worse,” Anna added. “Take Paul, for instance. The guy might have been loaded, but he was sooo boring. I wonder what Jack’s like in bed.”

Kinsey’s dark brows bobbed. “The things you can do with a set of handcuffs.”

Gina rolled her eyes. “Do I have to remind you what Jack is?” Somehow, despite the do-what-I-tell-you-or-else choke hold he had on all of them, his hidden charms seemed to have wormed their way past her friends’ normally bone-deep sense of caution. “He’s an FBI agent, and we’re a fly’s hiccup away from getting arrested. The only thing between us and a jail cell is getting this freaking bug planted. After tonight, we should all be praying we never see Jack Gates again.”

“Point taken.” Margo put the car in park. “Beneath all that twisted steel and federal agent sex appeal is a man we should never cross.”

Headlights illuminated Jack’s tall form as he got out of the SUV. Even the street’s semidarkness couldn’t hide the man’s aura of tightly reined-in power. Power he could unleash if they got on his bad side. Again, that was. She’d lost count of how many times that had already happened.

Margo lowered her window. Jack’s cast made a thunk as he rested his forearms on the window frame. He handed Margo a slim, black radio. “It’s turned on and tuned to a discrete FBI frequency. All you have to do is key the button on the side to talk.”

“Ten-four,” Anna declared as she took the radio from Margo. She was loving this Elliot Ness thing far too much, in Gina’s opinion.

“Ready, ladies?” Jack asked, but it was Gina’s eye he caught.

“As ever.” Though she didn’t think she’d ever be ready for this job. Not in a hundred years. Not in a thousand. “Let’s get it done.”

After getting out of the Charger, she hefted her utility belt and a coil of knotted rope over her shoulder. Kinsey joined her and headed for the driver’s side of the SUV. Cold, wintry air bit through her polar fleece jacket and the microfiber of her suit.

Jack waited for Kinsey to slip in behind the wheel of his Expedition. As he shut the door, Gina realized he must have deactivated the SUV’s interior lights so they wouldn’t light up when the doors opened. She could just barely make out Kinsey stripping off her sweat suit.

She and Jack both reached for the rear passenger door’s handle at the same time. Their hands brushed, but when she tried letting go of the handle, he held his hand firmly on top of hers. The handle was cold. Jack’s fingers were warm.

“You okay?” His eyes were hooded by shadow, but there was unexpected concern in his voice.

“You asked me that back in my apartment. And yeah, I’m always okay before a B and E. Turns me on, actually.” She could have been imagining the spark in his eyes, but she definitely felt it from his touch.

He released her hand as she opened the door, then waited for her to get in before shutting the door behind her. Who’d have suspected a gentleman lurked behind the badge?