LUKE: Complete Series Read Online Free

home offices ever since. Since then, we had kept our interactions very business-like, except for the one time the entire CIA team went out to a teppan restaurant to celebrate the acquisition of two pages of computer code that would make us nearly $200 million. That was the night Milo and I had a few too many sake bombs and made out in the restaurant parking lot. We never spoke about it after that night.
    No doubt my ability to get hired on the first interview would be cause for celebration amongst the CIA team. But I couldn’t be seen with any of them until my assignment was complete.
    “Trust me. Men believe what they want to believe. Luke knows nothing about Operation Mirror and he never will, as long as you do your job and stick to the objective,” Milo said, and I found myself grateful for his ability to calm my nerves.
    “I just think I got in a little too easy. He seems pretty eager to welcome me in. He said I would be using his car to run his errands.”
    “The Bugatti?”
    “Yes, the fucking Bugatti. Isn’t that strange? And he’s picking me up at my house tomorrow morning for a meeting in Newport.”
    Milo paused on the other end of the line. Maybe I had said too much. He probably knew that this meant Luke and I had slept together.
    “Brina?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Do what you have to do. Don’t worry about what any of us will think. Only you can know how you have to approach this.”
    I swallowed the lump in my throat and took a deep breath. “Thanks.”
    “Now get the fucking password for that mirror network.”
     

4
    Luke’s car pulled up to the curb of my apartment building at exactly 6:58 a.m., but I didn’t run to answer the door to wait for his knock. Instead, I went into the restroom and turned the blow dryer onto the cool setting and pointed it at my head.
    I heard the faint ding of my doorbell, but I ignored it as I stared at my reflection in the mirror and watched the cool air blow my hair in all directions. I waited a couple of minutes before I switched off the blow dryer and the doorbell rang again. I opened the door and was not surprised to see Luke wearing a pristine gray suit as he gazed at the fountain in the courtyard of my apartment building.
    “How much do you pay to live here?” he asked, without looking at me.
    “More than I can afford. Come on in.”
    “You don’t even know how much I’m paying you. How do you know you can’t afford it?”
    He wiggled his eyebrows before he stepped into my apartment and I couldn’t believe how uneasy he made me.
    “The agency said the position paid 60 to 80 thousand. That’s not a lot for this area,” I replied, as I closed the front door.
    “Then, why do you live here?”
    He took a seat on the used sofa I had bought at the local Salvation Army when I moved into this apartment six weeks ago in preparation of Operation Mirror. Kip wanted me to have a nice apartment, but he didn’t provide a stipend for furniture. He probably didn’t expect Luke to be sitting in my apartment less than twenty-four hours after my interview.
    “I live here because I like to push myself. There’s no motivation to succeed better than the prospect of having your electricity cut off.”
    Something about what I said affected him. His eyes dimmed before he turned away to face the sliding glass door that led out onto my tiny patio.
    “I was homeless for five months when I was seventeen. A lot of people don’t know that about me.” He stared at the door as he continued. “My stepdad kicked me out for smoking weed in the garage with my geek friends. I was too proud to ask any of my friends to take me in. I slept in public restrooms mostly, but I spent my days at the library and the computer lab at the local community college where I had befriended a professor. It took Mr. Keller three months to find out about my living situation.”
    I did know about Luke’s homeless days, but I couldn’t tell him that because that would open up questions as to how I had