Read Online Sacrifice the Wicked by Karina Cooper - Free Book Online

does Sector Three want with the Mission?”
    There. Simon’s expression shifted, an almost imperceptible change. Except to her. Parker didn’t sit. She braced her hands on her desk, met his eyes directly.
    Deliberately.
    “Why is Kayleigh Lauderdale trying to seize control of Operation Domino?” she pressed.
    He raised his fingers to his lower lip, a gesture she was sure he intended to look casual. She didn’t buy it.
    “Why is Juliet Carpenter so important to—”
    “Are you looking for a funeral, Director ?” The question came slowly. Lazily. It didn’t match the calculated scrutiny of his gaze.
    “What?” Parker frowned. “I’m looking for answers. Answers to questions that are putting my people in jeopardy. And if you don’t give them, Agent Wells, I’m holding you for obstruction.”
    “Good luck with that.”
    There. Another so-casual reminder of his independence flung in her face. Her patience cracked. “I can’t nail you for witchcraft as long as the labs are held by that cheerleader,” she said flatly, “but I damn well can hold you for insubordination. The cells are on my wing.”
    His mouth quirked. “I can think of better things to do with a woman bent over a desk like that.”
    She straightened so fast that her thighs slammed into the wooden lip. Heat flooded her cheeks. Temper spiked a wrecking ball through whatever control she had left. “Are you asking me to lock you up?”
    “And if I was?” His eyes glinted.
    Parker stared at him. “I can’t, can I?” But it wasn’t defeat fueling her as she pointed at him. “You’re protected.”
    “For now.”
    “Fine.” Only one answer to that. “Leave your gun and get out.”
    He rose with the same ease with which he did everything else. “Are you firing me, Director?” His smile knowing, he rubbed one hand down his bare chest.
    Insufferable, infuriating . . . spy. She gritted her teeth. “You’re on the payroll, but I don’t have to schedule you for anything. You’re suspended. Run back to your Sector Three masters and inform them you won’t be spying for them anymore. I’ve had it.”
    “You sure you want to do that?”
    Now? Oh, yeah. “Bring them on, Mr. Wells.” She may not have much choice in regards to the slow infiltration of her own people; she may not be able to handle Sector Three directly, but she’d draw the line somewhere.
    Somehow.
    His smile twitched higher, a deeper curve echoed in his eyes. “You impress me.” His eyes glinted. “Director.”
    Parker’s fingers twitched. So close. So close to a concussion, and he didn’t even know it. Forcing herself to remain still, to glare icily at his back as he sauntered for the door, she said nothing.
    Until she realized her gaze pinned to the middle of his broad, defined back. His very bare back.
    The man was going to walk out of her office half naked. Bare-chested, smiling like a lunatic.
    For God’s sake, was he trying to ruin her? Every agent on that floor would see him leave her office like that. There’d be rumors, speculation.
    Another damned hole to climb out of.
    She gritted her teeth so hard that the noise filled her ears. “Try not to go through the main areas.”
    “Sorry.” He tossed her off a salute that couldn’t have spelled too bad more clearly if he’d said it aloud. “Only one way to leave. See you.” That pause, that grating halt before he dug in with a final drawled “ Director .”
    As the door clicked shut behind him, Parker seized the first thing that came to hand and pitched it.
    Pens clattered against the door, rained to the ground. The container glanced off the panel, leaving a dent and bending the thin metal.
    It bounced back across the floor.
    Silence descended. Silence, and the ragged edge of shame as she realized she’d let the bastard do it again. As the blood hummed in her ears, Parker stared at the mess.
    This wouldn’t do. Not as a Mission director, not as Parker Adams.
    She took a deep breath. Reached for her