Matt Drake 14 - The Treasures of Saint Germain Read Online Free

a different world; free, cheerful and soothing.
    When they’d finished, Drake rolled over. “So how was it?”
    Alicia rolled onto her side, studying him. “Meh.”
    “Oh, thanks. It takes two you know.”
    “A team you mean?”
    “Well, not necessary a whole— ”
    “Good, ’cause I was gonna question that, since in my experience . . .” she paused. “Actually no, I’ll let that one hang.”
    Drake was glad she did. One never knew if the spirited southerner was joking or not.
    “Speaking of hanging.” She glanced down between his legs.
    “Bloody hell, woman, give me a minute.”
    “Hey, you got yourself into this.”
    “Oh, did I?” He flashed back on Alicia’s explosion during the ghost ships battle, the way she had chosen him to vent upon. “Haven’t we always been ‘in’ this? Together.”
    “Bollocks. That’s too deep for me.”
    She slapped his right thigh before leaping out of bed, laughing and pulling on some clothes. “C’mon, Drakey. Duty calls.”
    He grumbled about having just done his duty as he followed suit, keeping the attire purely civilian as this scheduled meeting at the office was routine, nothing urgent. Following the events of New York, the outing of Robert Price at the very least as a terrorist conspirator, the embarrassment of the CIA, and even harder lessons learned about the state of America’s true defenses, the SPEAR team had a mountain of problems to sort through. Hayden was leading the charge, but the entire team was being called upon to pitch in.
    “So long as they don’t ask me to fix any furniture in whatever new office they give us,” Alicia spoke his own worst nightmare, “I’m good. Y’know, I almost wish there was another crisis to get us outta the way.”
    “Dahl’s little escapade wasn’t enough?”
    Alicia snorted. “Torsty’s vacation? I just love the way he squirms every time I tease him about it.”
    “Tease? Alicia, you couldn’t tease if your life depended on it. It comes across as more of a fully-fledged act of war.”
    Alicia shrugged. “Whatever.”
    Drake echoed her statement in Yorkshire fashion. “Be reet.”
    Both laughed, meeting eyes at the foot of the bed in the tiny room and never feeling safer, more content. For a second neither of them moved, happy to let the moment stretch out and mature. It was a rare event for any of the SPEAR team to be able to experience a true moment of pure relaxation. Drake thought that finally, he’d found the person who might help him find those moments more often.
    “We ready?”
    “Hell yeah.” Alicia eyed the bed. “Round three?”
    “Later perhaps.”
    “Perhaps, eh? We really do have to work on your vocabulary.”
    The couple exited the apartment and the complex close to the Pentagon, heading into work, and not a cloud marred the horizon. Drake saw the great calm now that the rain had stopped and felt it in his emotions too.
    The problem was, what came next?
     
    *
     
    Smyth looked up as Lauren walked through the door. The expression on her face was breezy, innocent, but he knew where she’d been.
    “Traffic bad?”
    Lauren struggled with an answer. He wondered if she’d lie to him. “It was okay.”
    “Thought you’d have been back an hour ago. You remember we have to be at work for half-six?”
    “Yeah, but we can still make it.”
    Smyth grunted, giving nothing away. “It would have been easier—”
    She rounded on him. “Say it. Why don’t you just say it?”
    He gave her the familiar tetchy grimace. “Thought a girl from New York would have held out longer.”
    “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” There was an underlying danger in her voice, something he only understood when he re-examined his words and considered her past.
    “Your secret,” he said quickly. “I only meant your secret.”
    She looked like she had a thousand secrets to keep, probably because she did. “That is one broad statement.”
    Smyth grunted again, testy. “You know what I mean. You