The Boss Assignment (Rogue Protectors Book 3) by Victoria Paige (summer beach reads .TXT) 📕

When he stepped up the podium to give an unplanned speech to the crowd at the Anriotech gathering, he was like a robot giving his excuses. He wasn’t seeing a sea of faces. He was seeing the ocean and the good times he’d shared with his mother. Memories he’d buried while hanging on to the bad ones.

Charly gave the light back to him.

He was addicted to her light.

But would he drag her down with him and bury them in his darkness?

Antonio’s arms tightened around Charly.

She mumbled and snuggled closer to him.

Whatever happened, he couldn’t—wouldn’t—let her go.

20

Los Angeles

9 hours later

“The Ebola-laced XZite pills are in LA? How long were you sitting on this information?” Charly fumed. “Just to let you know, John, I don’t like being blindsided when it has such an impact on the job I need to do.”

“You don’t want to piss her off,” Antonio said. “I have first-hand experience.”

Charly shot him an irritated glance, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at John with brows drawn, a sure sign of his displeasure at not receiving this information sooner as well.

“The intel came in Saturday morning,” Garrison replied. “Martinez identified an associate of the second victim who left Rio last Wednesday. Destination Los Angeles. The counterterrorism unit managed to track him down to a house in the Valley. They retrieved a box of the XZite, but we believe there’s more of them.”

“How do we do this?” Bristow asked, leaning against one of the two Suburbans parked in the hangar of a private airfield. They just touched down in the city of angels when the CIA officer suggested they split up.

“I am not getting separated from Charly,” Antonio growled, jaw set. “What if you hide her from me?”

“Fair question,” Garrison replied. “We’re going to pack the BIO-case and Charly’s laptop in Bristow’s vehicle. You go with him, Andrade. Surely you don’t think Charly would want to be separated from the virus?”

Charly had to bite back a smile. Antonio glared at Garrison. The CIA officer’s innuendo was clear that her research was more important than the billionaire. At this point, she wasn’t sure. Her heart and her brain were not on speaking terms.

“Besides,” Garrison added. “I want to suss out what we’re up against first. Don’t want a repeat of last time.”

Charly assumed he meant that time he was taken off the case and banished to a remote office and the Carillo cartel took control of the gang minions in the Valley. Another thought occurred to her, but Antonio was the one who voiced her concerns.

“Will Charly be in trouble?”

“No. We’ve cleared that up.” Garrison yanked open the door to the Suburban and jerked his head at Charly to get in. “They’re expecting us. We need to go.”

She made to go around the vehicle, away from Antonio’s side but his fingers tightened their grip on her arm. She looked up at him questioningly.

“Your phone is in your purse,” he said quietly, slipping out his device presumably to check the tracking he had on her.

“Yes.”

“I had hoped to go with you.”

“I’ll have her back before you know it,” Garrison called from the driver’s side. “Dr. Bennett? Any day now.”

Antonio’s hold on her eased and he dropped his arm. She got into the SUV beside John.

“Man, if looks could kill,” Garrison said as their Suburban passed Antonio and Bristow. “You’ve got that man wrapped around your fingers.”

“You’re imagining things.” Charly wouldn’t admit she was thrilled at the idea. The way Garrison said that last statement wasn’t meant for her, more like information for him to stash away as ammunition to use later. She was beginning to understand how the CIA officer worked.

“Can you elaborate how I’m clear of any wrongdoing from the virus?”

“We’ve fixed the records,” Garrison said. “The blame now rests on August Leigh. On record, he was the one who freed Raul Ortega and had synthesized the mutation of the Z-9 series virus which are the facts anyway. The CIA team before us found his body buried in the desert along route 15 but they wanted to keep the intel under wraps because Benito Carillo was still at large.”

“Okay.” Her tone still held a touch of doubt.

Garrison glanced at her. “Don’t worry, alright? No one is going to accuse you of bioterrorism.”

They pulled into the covered parking lot beside the entrance to the CDC and a sense of déjà vu gave her goosebumps.

“Are you all right?” Garrison asked after he cut off the engine.

She stared at him mutely and shook her head.

Understanding dawned on his face. “Fuck, I’m an insensitive asshole as you probably already know. This was where you were abducted?”

She nodded.

“Rest assured everyone involved in your kidnapping and Ortega’s escape have been arrested, including those inside the CDC.”

“What do you mean?”

“A maintenance man and a guard were involved. Surveillance had been tampered with. It was only Nadia who was able to determine it was set on a loop.”

Charly had seen that done in several movies. And, since this was Hollywood, it wouldn’t be far-fetched for that trick to be widely used.

“Nadia? Was she the one who helped coordinate the Mexico rescue?

“Yes,” Garrison clipped and shoved open his door. “Let’s go.”

They entered the sliding glass doors and were about to approach reception when Charly heard her name.

“Dr. Bennett! Charly!”

She turned to see Dr. Sandra Evans, her partner in the lab. Charly thought she was about to be mowed down. “Oh my God, I’m so glad to see you here.” The doctor’s eyes flicked to Garrison. “You must be John Stryker from Homeland Security.”

“Yes, ma’am, I’ve been instructed to assist Dr. Bennett.”

Charly held her tongue. It would be nice if John prepared her for one of his covers.

“I told our superiors to find you,” Sandra told her. “Last I heard you went on some aid mission somewhere.” They started walking down the hallway toward the elevator that would take them toward BSL-4. “You were the one who noticed the alteration to our Ebola strain that originated from