with a too-serious expression showed up in front of his house. His perimeter security alarm beeped and her newer-model luxury sedan displayed on his smartphone screen. A camera situated along the driveway scanned her car’s tags and ran a DMV lookup. Another camera snapped a picture of her face and ran it through facial-recognition software.
Nothing popped up immediately on his computer, which checked his watch list first: federal and local law enforcement, known special operatives, and convicted and released felons. The woman in his driveway must be lost. Connor lived in the woods, far away from civilization, and it was how he liked it. He didn’t often get surprise visitors, and when he did, their arrival was either a mistake or delivered a problem.
Connor hoped she’d take one look at his cabin, spin her car around and hightail it off his property. He gave it an 80 percent likelihood she wouldn’t stop to ask for directions. Didn’t most people have GPS on their cars and their mobile phones? Why would she turn onto his private road? Had to be a mistake.
To his surprise, she climbed out of her car, one long, shapely leg followed by the other. She was wearing a pair of bright green shorts and a white tank top. In her hand, she grasped a small piece of paper. She looked between it and his cabin and back to the paper.
Yes, she was definitely lost.
He mentally urged her to get back in her car and not look back. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with her. Connor hadn’t seen another human being in a week and he was happy to have it that way.
To his annoyance, she walked up the stairs to his front door. Guess she wasn’t a woman who was easily put off. Connor hadn’t gone so far as to put no-trespassing signs everywhere. He didn’t think he needed them. The location spoke for itself.
The curvy blonde knocked on his door. He could either slip out of the back or pretend not to be home. She would get back in her car and he’d never see her again. He could return his attention to the book he was reading and forget this interruption to his day.
At her second knock, his curiosity overtook his annoyance. What if she needed help? If she didn’t turn and run at the sight of him, telling her she was at the wrong location and sending her down the road would take five seconds. Not difficult. She was a beautiful woman and Connor rarely had the opportunity to speak to a woman who looked like her. It would be his one social interaction for the month.
If her looks didn’t cinch it, her worried expression and terse mannerisms drew him to his feet. Leaving a woman lost and concerned didn’t sit right with him.
Connor opened the front door, expecting a startled reaction. A few months of forgoing shaves and haircuts in combination with his worn jeans and battered, holey T-shirt made for a distressingly poor appearance. She got courage points for not immediately fleeing at the sight of him.
The woman smiled. “Connor? Connor West?”
He instinctually reached for the gun tucked in the holster at his side and unsnapped the strap, letting his hand linger on the handle. Pretty face, short shorts and a tight shirt wouldn’t distract him. He was too smart to be taken out by a female assassin. He was a survivor and this woman wouldn’t get the best of him. Perhaps this visit would be more exciting than he’d first believed. “Hands where I can see them. I want your name and why you’re here. You get ten seconds and then I start shooting.”
Her hands went into the air, and unless she was a great actress, the shaking of her arms and trembling of her lips gave away her fright. She was missing the hard edge and the precise and skilled movements of a Sphere assassin. Perhaps not an assassin, then. “My name is Kate Squire. I have information about Aiden. He was a...friend of mine.”
Another surprise...and Connor hated surprises. His brother had been a friend of hers? She’d paused before that word. A friend? Or his brother’s former lover? Given Aiden’s track record, it was believable that he had been sleeping with this woman. She was his type. Tall, fit and blonde, with a smooth, sexy voice.
A stream of jealousy shot through him and Connor batted it away. What was the point of being envious of a situation he couldn’t change and that had been true all their lives? Aiden had been the handsome, fun brother. Nothing had gotten him down. Connor had wanted Aiden to be happy, had worked to make it the case, and Connor liked to believe that Aiden had been.
Aiden hadn’t mentioned this woman by name during any of their late-night conversations. Not unexpected, since Aiden had grown increasingly secretive and distant in the months before he’d died. Their last conversation had been in anger, a reality Connor deeply regretted. It made it harder to cope with losing Aiden.
“How did you find me?” Connor asked. He kept his home address off the radar. It wouldn’t be found using a typical internet search.
The blonde’s arms dropped a few inches. “Aiden gave me your address for emergencies.”
If Aiden had told her where to find his brother, they had to have been good friends. Why hadn’t Aiden mentioned he’d shared Connor’s information with someone? Why hadn’t Aiden mentioned this woman? His distrust was heightened.
“What’s your emergency?” Connor asked. This woman was at his home, claiming to have information and an emergency. How dramatic. Maybe it would feel good for her to get something off her chest, but in all likelihood, whatever she told him, Connor would already know or would find insignificant, as most everything was compared to his brother being dead.
Connor also wasn’t sure he believed her story. If they didn’t plan to outright kill him, it would be like Sphere to send an attractive woman and launch upsetting information at him to get him off guard. Sphere hadn’t given up on bringing him back in, and psychological games were their specialty. Connor wouldn’t fall for tricks. Aiden had been gone for seven months and Connor had made his peace with his brother’s death. He wasn’t getting taken in by a beautiful woman. Whatever this Kate Squire needed to say, he wouldn’t let it affect him.
“Could you please take your hand off your gun? You’re making me nervous,” Kate said.
He hadn’t realized he was clasping the handle. He removed his hand from his gun and put it at his side. If she gave him any reason to think she was reaching for a weapon, he could get to his gun before she could get to hers. “Answer my question. What is your emergency?” Connor didn’t take his eyes off her hands. A difficult task given that she had a lot of features worth a second and third long look.
She lowered her hands and he allowed it. “I heard you were tough but, wow, I didn’t expect this.”
What had she expected? If Aiden had told her about him, he would have told her Connor was a hermit who lived alone, who didn’t like visitors and who preferred the company of his books to people.
“I have something to tell you that might be upsetting for you. Do you want to sit down? Or do you want to get a drink first?” she asked.
No and no. “I don’t need to sit. I don’t need to drink. There’s nothing you can tell me about Aiden that will upset me.” Both he and his brother had worked for Sphere. They had completed missions and tasks that were difficult and dangerous. They had walked the line just shy of immoral at times, they had lived fast and loose, and they had loved the adrenaline high of working rogue missions all over the world in the name of liberty and justice. Whatever this woman had to say about his brother, whatever story she would tell, it didn’t change that Aiden was a good man with a good heart. Nothing would sully Connor’s memory or change his deep respect for his younger brother.
The woman
