Page 58 of Code Name: Harbor

“Is he good to you?”

“Yes, Dad, he’s good to me. In ways you couldn’t even begin to imagine.”

Like, I’d be dead without him.

“He looks at you like you’re the only person in the room.”

“Really?” I ask with a dopey smile.

“Really, and that’s definitely a point in his favor.”

He turns off the water and snags a paper towel to dry his hands.

“Wear the green dress,” he says.

It takes a moment to register. “The green dress?”

“Yeah… the one your mother sent you for your twenty-eighth birthday. It’s beautiful on you.”

I turn to face him, a wave of pure love hitting me hard, and he sees it.

“I’m just saying, kid.” My father leans in and kisses the top of my head. “Now, you better get ready for work. Are we still on for breakfast Sunday?”

“Of course we are.”

He picks his jacket up off the back of the stool and I follow him to the door. “Feel free to invite Finn to join us,” he says. “I’d like to get to know him better.”

“Oh, well… I’ll invite him, but he might have plans.”

This is all so new, and while Finn handled my dad like a pro, I’m not sure he wants to hang out with him.

“Something tells me he’ll come,” my dad says with that look on his face that’s not parental intuition but from his years working in intelligence.

And it occurs to me, I’m not sure I want my dad digging into this. In part, I’m still protecting Finn from the illegal side of his life, and my dad has his perception honed to such a fine skill that he’ll pick up on something he shouldn’t.

Regardless, it’s a tomorrow problem. Today’s problem is trying to figure out how to close the case against Voronin and then joining Finn at his gallery tonight.

CHAPTER 15

Finn

Ipull up in front of Josie’s bungalow and sit for a moment with the engine running. I contemplate the intersection between the two distinct halves of my relationship with her.

I’ve got the half that I’m all in on. The one where I’m going to take her to my gallery and have an evening with the woman I’m falling hard for.

But there’s the other half that revolves around a dangerous Russian trafficker and my involvement with him.

I’m going to have to tell her about my meeting with Cole today and just how clear it’s become those two halves are merging. Not only that but everything about this could end up driving me to ruin and possibly ending with me in prison.

Is she worth it?

I’ve asked myself that a dozen times and the answer is that I’m here, pushing forward.

I cut the engine and get out. I’m dressed in a pair of dark jeans and a charcoal suit coat with a white dress shirt open at the collar. It’s as fancy as I tend to get these days.

When Josie opens the door, the breath is momentarily knocked out of me.

She’s in a deep emerald wrap dress that silhouettes her perfect body, hitting right at the knee. She has on a pair of sky-high black heels that show off her toned legs. The neckline is modest enough to be appropriate for the gallery event but entirely insufficient for the kind of evening I would prefer to be having with her.