Flirting With Intent by Kelly Hunter

speak.
    ‘So … I don’t know much about hacking but I do know that the term
hacker
can have multiple meanings,’ she began quietly. Careful words from a lawyer’s mind. Ruby Maguire was thinking things through. ‘What kind of hacker are you? Or perhaps the more appropriate question would be, to what
end
do you hack?’
    ‘You cross-examining me, Ruby?’
    ‘You planning on answering the question, Damon?’
    Impasse.
    ‘Because, please correct me if I’m wrong,but it sounded to me as if you hack to acquire information. Like your brother’s whereabouts, for example.’
    ‘That one’s more of an unofficial side project detour … thing. Tiny. Really.’
    ‘Right,’ she drawled cuttingly. ‘So the rest of your work relates to the
official
collection of restricted information. How very reassuring.’
    ‘Shades of grey, Ruby,’ he murmured and Ruby shot him a filthy glare.
    ‘So you’re a spy. An information thief, all jacked in, new millennium style.’ And when he said nothing, ‘God, Damon. Have you
any
idea how many ethical buttons this pushes for me? There
are
other ways of getting information. Legal ways.’
    ‘Like, for example, you asking the FBI to share whatever information they have on your father? How’s that working out for you,
    Ruby?’
    ‘Shut up.’
    ‘Second oldest profession, or so they say. It’s not as if I’m breaking new ground here. Just newer ways of doing it. I work towards maintaining peaceful power balances between nations. How is that wrong?’
    Ruby’s steps had quickened, her chestrising and falling rapidly. Damon walked too, silence clearly the best option for now. How the hell had he got
into
this mess?
    Headbands were the devil’s work, he decided grimly. The next time he saw one he’d know to run.
    ‘I knew you had secrets,’ she said and fumbled through her satchel for her car keys. ‘I chose to spend time with you anyway. But this … I’ve got to hand it to you, Damon. Even for me this is a whole new level of secrets and lies. I
knew
I should have stayed away from you,’ she muttered. ‘Why the
hell
didn’t I?’
    He had no answer for her there. ‘You can’t tell anyone, Ruby.’
    ‘Yes, I gathered that,’ she said, and raised a shaking hand to her head. ‘Who else knows?’
    ‘My immediate family. My handler. Now you. Six people in ten years.’ It wasn’t a bad effort. He didn’t think it
too
bad a record.
    ‘God.’ She looked worried and so she should be. ‘I won’t tell anyone, Damon. You have my word.’
    ‘And in an ideal world, your word would be enough,’ he said quietly, but this wasn’t an ideal world. He needed to secure her silenceand her loyalty. Bind her to him now, with whatever he had in hand.
    ‘What if I said I could help you find your father?’
    ‘What?’
    ‘That’s what you want, isn’t it?’ ‘Yes, but …’ “
    She didn’t, or couldn’t, finish her sentence. Typical lawyer. Always a But.
    ‘I’m offering to contract out to you,’ he continued. ‘In return for your silence. You get news of your father. I acquire a hold on you I currently don’t have. Everyone wins.’
    ‘That’s blackmail.’
    ‘It’s necessary,’ he cut back hard. ‘And at the end of the day you get to walk away, I get the peace of mind I need to let you walk away and the people I work for get to remain none the wiser as to what you know. That’s worth something, Ruby. More than you know.’
    ‘Well, aren’t you chivalrous,’ she murmured, and favoured him with a tight-lipped smile.
    ‘I try.’
    This discussion wasn’t exactly going according to plan, decided Damon grimly. But then, nothing involving Ruby ever did.
    ‘I’m trying to
protect
you,’ he said curtly, and maybe Ruby heard the frustration in him for she eyed him uncertainly before looking to the car-park walls for answers, only there were none to be had there. He’d already looked.
    ‘Or I could let my superiors know I’ve broken cover with you and let them