The Impossible Alliance by Candace Irvin Page A

own warm with gratitude and certainty. “Trust me, you don’t forget the face of the man who saved your life.”
    The second surge of heat was meant for him.
    He cleared his throat. “You’re certain Orloff saved it?”
    â€œHe could have exposed my gender. He didn’t. Not to mention, when I first awoke, my head resembled a mummy’s. There’s no way a three-inch track of stitches required that much gauze. I’m betting the man wrapped my face to hide a mustache and beard that wouldn’t grow.”
    It was possible. Probable even. “So why didn’t he remove the stitches?”
    She shrugged. “Maybe he never had the chance. Maybe he was afraid someone would come in. I don’t know. I do know I should risk contacting him.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œDammit, Jared. We’re supposed to be a team. That means we both provide input, we both execute our respective parts of the job. As former Delta Force, I’d think you’d be familiar with the concept.”
    He’d never told her he served with Delta.
    He watched the color bleed from her cheeks. A moment later she pushed forth another shrug. “Sam’s mentioned you once or twice.”
    â€œOdd. Until two days ago, Director Hatch never mentioned you. In fact, six out of the seven ARIES agents I contacted on the flight to Ramstein never heard of your existence at all.”
    This time, her color remained steady. “Who was the seventh?”
    â€œAiden Swift.”
    Her gaze widened. “Aiden’s retired.”
    He nodded. “He’s also a friend.”
    Again, no color loss. But when she turned to exit the backgrounder file on the laptop, the slight tremble in her index finger as it glanced off the touchpad gave her away. What the devil was she afraid of?
    â€œSo…what did Aiden have to say about me?”
    Nothing and but he’d give a hell of a lot to know what his friend had been withholding. “He said you were the best he trained. That I should hurry my ass up and get you the hell out of here.”
    A soft smile curved her lips. “Sounds like Aiden.”
    He swore she was still waiting. But for what? “Did Aiden forget to mention something?”
    Another smile, this one not quite real as she powered down the computer. “He helped construct my persona.”
    Her disguise.
    Jared reached down and snapped the lid of the laptop shut for her. “That must be why he seemed particularly concerned. You concealing your gender and all.”
    â€œMust be.”
    She was lying. He couldn’t put his finger on how he knew, or why. But she was definitely lying. The worse part was, it hurt. Jared hooked a boot under the bottom rung of his chair and reclaimed it, staring directly into those cool eyes as he settled back.
    Why did he find her so damned fascinating?
    She ran her fingers through her curls, then lowered her hands to drum her short nails against the table. “Now what?”
    He crossed his arms. “We wait.”
    â€œEven though I think we should contact Orloff?”
    He shook his head. “I never said we wouldn’t contact him. Just not you alone and just not yet.”
    â€œYou want to put a surveillance team on him first?”
    He nodded. “We have the time. You need to recuperate. If he checks out, we can head into Rajalla when you’re ready. In the meantime, I’ll work on constructing a new cover that will let us into his world.”
    To his surprise, she shook her head. “We already have one. All it needs is a little tweaking.”
    â€œYours?”
    â€œWhy not? Aiden always said to keep it simple, stupid and as close to the truth as possible. I’ll tell Orloff I chose to be a man in the scientific world due to stereotyping. Since I’ve been frequenting the Eastern European, as well as Asian, environmental conferences for several years for ARIES, he’ll believe me.”
    â€œAnd