You've Got Male by Elizabeth Bevarly Page B

simply.
    She’d be a reeking distillery was what she’d be, Dixon thought. Aloud, however, he only reiterated, “It’s too dangerous for her to leave her home, and it makes no sense to insist she do it.”
    “She’s going to East Hampton,” his boss stated again in the sort of voice Dixon knew better than to argue with. And before Dixon had a chance to say anything more—not that he planned to say anything more, not with that voice coming at him with both barrels—the other man continued, “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to go home right now and pack a bag for yourself for a week. And you’re going to tell whatshisname…your partner now…”
    “Cowboy,” Dixon supplied.
    “Right. Cowboy. You’re going to tell him to go home and pack for a week, too. Then you, Dixon, will come back here and get Avery, take her to her apartment and tell her to pack for a week, too.”
    Oh, that ought to be entertaining, he thought.
    “Then you two will rendezvous with Cowboy at the Nesbitt estate in East Hampton. He’ll brief the family before your arrival. We’ll arrange to have all the necessary equipment sent up, and once you’re all settled—”
    Like anyone could settle Avery, Dixon thought.
    “—then you’re going to plug her in and watch her go.”
    Dixon wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that. “Sir?” he asked.
    “The techs are finished with her computers. Have her take whatever she needs to East Hampton and get her all set up so that she can establish contact with Sorcerer again as soon as possible. Tell her to pick up with him where the two of them left off and draw him out. Literally. She’s to arrange a meeting with him somewhere in the city. In person. And then she’s to go in to meet him. In person. That’s when we’ll nab the son of a bitch.”
    “Now wait a minute,” Dixon interrupted. “You never said anything about this. We can’t let her meet Sorcerer face-to-face. You yourself just said she’s not safe in the city. And that the city isn’t safe with her in it. You add a meeting with Sorcerer to the mix, and we’re going to have a disaster on our hands.”
    What the hell was going on? Dixon wondered. He’d been under the impression that yes, they were going to use Avery to lure Sorcerer out from whatever rock he was hiding under, but there was no reason for her to be there for the meeting. That was his job. His and Cowboy’s. Or his and She-Wolf’s, if she ever got back from Vegas.
    His boss frowned at him. “Sorcerer’s not going to come out of the woodwork unless he sees her standing somewhere, Dixon. He’s too smart for that.”
    “But Avery’s not a trained operative. She’s a civilian.”
    Now his boss looked at him as if he were nuts. Which, considering the words that had just come out of his mouth, Dixon supposed he was.
    His boss met his gaze steadily. “And the fact that she’s a civilian should concern me because…?”
    Right, Dixon thought. Silly him. Far be it from OPUS to let a little thing like an innocent human being stand in the way of getting their man. That was on page one of the official rules. Screw anybody or anything that might potentially obstruct the mission. You learned that the first day of spy school.
    “Sorry,” Dixon apologized dryly. “Guess I forgot myself.”
    There was something else going on here, he thought, and his name obviously wasn’t on the need-to-know list this time. He knew better than to question his boss’s instructions any further. For now. He hadn’t gotten as far as he had at OPUS by breaking the rules. Twisting them into an unrecognizable mess had suited him just fine. So far. But there was something else going on here. And as long as he didn’t forget that, he should be fine.
    Avery, though…
    Well. Dixon just made a mental note to pack an ice chest and plenty of lemons for the road.

CHAPTER FIVE
    I T WAS LATE AFTERNOON by the time Tanner Gillespie, code name Cowboy, real name secret, arrived at