Double Agent by Lisa Phillips Page A

I’m some kind of spy against America?”
    Except that was exactly what people thought of her.
    He crossed the room. “You have to admit it looks pretty suspicious. Charm the general’s son. Blow up a hard drive so I have no choice but to bring you to the safest place I know, the general’s own house. Break into his office in the middle of the night to steal secrets.”
    “You forget that your dead teammate was my little brother, whose killer I will find.”
    “By breaking in here?”
    “The door was unlocked.”
    “Sabine.”
    “Your dad called me Elena, okay?”
    Surprise flickered on his face before he quashed it.
    She blew out a breath. “I need to know what he knows. If there’s information going around about me, I have to know what it says. I’m so twisted around, worried about what’s going to happen to me.”
    His lips thinned. “Most people would just say, ‘Hey, General, why’d you call me that?’”
    “I guess I’m not most people.”
    “I guess not.” He sighed. “Did you find anything?”
    “You want to know what dirty secrets I’m privy to?” She narrowed her eyes. “Sorry, but I didn’t get through the security features on his computer yet.” He smirked, which she took as a challenge. “Come back in ten minutes, then I’ll tell you something juicy.”
    “Not going to happen.” He studied her. “You couldn’t have come to me? You felt you had to sneak in here—”
    “I couldn’t sleep. It seemed like a good time, and I didn’t want to wake you.” She closed her eyes. “I don’t know why I feel like I have to justify myself to you.”
    “And yet you’ll betray our trust because you couldn’t tell us the truth?”
    She stood up, to put them on more level ground instead of having him tower over her. “Would you have?”
    “What have I said or done that gave you the feeling you couldn’t trust me?”
    “That’s not what this is about.” Besides, his whole job was secrets. Why hadn’t she seen that before? This could never work. There was no way they’d ever be able to completely trust each other, forever wondering if the other one was holding out.
    His eyes darkened. “As much as I’d love to stay and work this out with you, Sabine, I have to go.”
    “You’re leaving?” She walked around the desk. She needed to get by him with a sliver of her self-respect still intact. “I guess I should have known better, should never have told you about my parents. Ben never did. Maybe he was right not to trust you with it.”
    He grabbed her arm as she passed.
    She looked at him but didn’t let the look of pain on his face penetrate her mask. “Time will tell.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean? Sabine, I got a call. The team moves out first thing this morning. I have to go. It’s my job.”
    “Ah, yes, the almighty job. Greatest above all things.”
    “Sabine—”
    She shook her head. “Maybe I can trust you, maybe not. Maybe I’m the bad guy. I guess we’ll see, since I’m obviously stupid enough to stick around right under the noses of everyone who wants me out of commission, just to find out. Boy, do I wish attraction didn’t make me an idiot.”
    He caught up to her at the door. “You seriously like me?”
    “That’s not what I meant.” At least, she didn’t want it to be. She wanted to forget she’d said it. Why had that slipped out? She had to change the subject. “How long will you be gone? You know, so I can be waiting by the phone.”
    He sighed. “Honestly? I have no idea. I could be a day or it could be weeks.”
    “Weeks?”
    “You know how it is, Sabine.”
    She did. Ben’s schedule of being overseas versus being in the States had been erratic to say the least. “I’ll be sure to stay here like a good girl and wait for the big, strong man to come home.”
    He sighed. “Just promise me you won’t disappear. Or do anything dangerous.”
    She didn’t want it to affect her, but it did. “I don’t invite these things, you know. And