Incognito: Sweet Submission

Chapter 5

Callum

With tepid fingers, I brought the cotton wrapped ice cubes to my jaw. My arms clenched around the edges of the desk at the painful contact. It had been a while since I even got a bruised ego, now I was sporting a face full of splits and scrapes as if it was trapped in a cat's litter box.

And it was all because of that woman. A fragile Irish temptress. Or so I thought.

"You look like shit." A low, deep voice interrupted my barely formed thoughts. My head snapped up to meet the eyes of the six feet four strawberry blonde man-boy James Archers, who I had to deal with on a daily basis. We had met each other on my first day inducted in the CIA. It was ordained, as James called it. I was fresh out of a briefing with the director and was in desperate need of a drink. It turned out that James was at the same bar almost mind numbingly troubled drunk. And seven years later, he was still a pain in the ass.

Ever since I shared the fight in the bar, he met me with those exact words each time he came into the office.

And he was my partner so this was the eleventh time for the past hour. I was getting really sick of the reminder that I almost had my ass handed to me by a woman so small.

"Did she use her heels on you?" James asked, a knowing smirk was playing around his lips. I knew he was referring to the woman who currently occupied my thoughts.

"Enough James." I threw the cotton cloth on his desk and slumped back in my chair. He only chuckled at my salty tone.

James waltzed further into the large white office that we shared and where I spent most of my days as of late. A playful glee in his eyes, it was obvious that his teasing wasn't about to end any time soon. "What happened? You didn't tip her or something?" He quipped. James was enjoying this way too much.

"I just assumed that she was a stripper." I told him what I had been repeating since forever.

James blinked once before he threw his head back in a booming laughter. "In f*****g leggings?" He managed to squeeze out between laughs.

I opened my mouth to cut off James' roars but then I froze, his brows drew together, creasing my forehead. Now that I thought about it, that was really strange.

In my twenty years of visiting clubs, I had never seen a call girl in anything past their thighs. "Oh hell." The realization hit me. "Who is she?"

James cleared his throat in all seriousness, recovering from his laughing fit. His long strides brought him to his desk then quickly pulled his chair over to me with his laptop in his grasp. "Take a look at this."

It was the footage from yesterday while I was at the club. James zoomed in on the blonde female sitting at the bar, just minutes after I entered the club, the blonde called a girl over and seconds later, that girl went over to him. “She made you before you even ordered your first lap dance.” James pointed out coyly.

I rolled my eyes, never shifting focus from the screen. “That’s- not why I followed her.”

“Huh-huh.” James’ aloof grin and tone was a tell tale that he was not convinced by my words. “Tell that to your face.”

“How did you get this?” I asked him, I was told that the FBI was still working on getting the footage from the club and now, not even an hour later, James had the same footage on his personal laptop.

My question earned me a smirk. “The FBI has their ways, I have mine.” James sang in reply.

I turned to where James sat. Maybe it was his tone but those methods didn't sound completely legal. “Did you find anything on this woman?”

James shrugged. "No." His tone was breezy, too breezy for my liking. As if he wasn't concerned about her whereabouts. This woman had to be found ASAP!

If my throbbing chest and marked face was anything to go by, this woman was a trained killer and a f*****g master profiler. It took her minutes to realize that I was an agent and by no exaggeration, I was the best undercover agent the agency had to offer.

I was pretty sure if we hadn't been interrupted, one of us would have been dead and I was still trying to figure out which one. Her large eyes had crackled with a fierce determination that I would have admired if she didn't plant her heels across my face.

Just then, an image of this blonde vixen invaded my mind, the velvetiness of her skin and the warmth of her breath against my face. It took all my restraint to not grab her and….. My head fell back and I pressed my eyes close. It hadn’t been that long since I got laid, so why was I thinking about this woman?

“The only thing you need to worry about right now is fixing that pretty face of yours.” James pointed out, completely unaware of my wrenched expression. “A shot of whiskey is what you need my friend, or maybe six just to be safe.”

“Is alcohol the solution to everything?” I released an exasperated sigh, eyes still closed.

“Maybe, it's either that or p***y which you, Callum Brady, are currently on bad terms with.” I didn’t have to see James’s face to know he was wearing his signature s**t faced grin.

“Let me worry about that.” I chuckled as I sat up and reached over to pat James’s shoulder. “I’m more concerned about why Suzanne isn’t breathing down my neck yet.” Suzanne Walker, the deputy executive director of the agency and Callum’s former aunt in law, was the sweetest woman who ever lived.

It had been almost a year since I cut all ties with his ex-girlfriend and Suzanne made it clear that she was out for my blood for ‘ruining' her niece. Even when her niece was the one that ruined me. Ever since then, just the sight of her made me miserable and she looked for every opportunity to do so. And last night was the perfect ammunition.

I had one mission, get footage of the underground dealing of the gang associated with the greatest crime syndicate in the country while the FBI did the rest. I had his fair share of beautiful women and all that came with them. A new skirt could have never distracted me from my mission yet she did so easily. It was the first time I went against protocol.

A knock sounded at the door and they turned into its direction. Thomas Reeves, a dark haired stalwart man's head was popping in through the glass door. He sent a brief glance in James's direction before focusing on me. "I need to see you in my office in 30."

I stood, more alert than he was minutes ago. I could probably guess why Thomas would want to see me now but the fact that he walked all the way to his office without his usual guards meant it was important. "Okay."

James frowned slightly as he looked between us, as if trying to figure out the unspoken words between us before he stood and left. Thomas's eyes narrowed a bit as James' footsteps became faint then turned back to me, now taking his face in. "You really do look like shi-"

"Don't-" I stopped him midway, I had James to deal with now Thomas wanted to join? "Don't even say it."

"Alright. I won't say you look like s**t, but your mother just called." Thomas chuckled, now standing in the door frame. He was adorned by a crisp black tuxedo, his starched seams could stand on their own if he wanted them to. His eyes were as bright as a new parent's first glance at their baby.

Thomas was always that man, cheerful and carefree. But this side was only reserved to me or James if he was lucky. Anyone on the outside who never came in contact with him would assume that this man was not the director of one of the most important government agencies in America.

"Mother? You do know my mother has been dead for almost 24 years!"

"You know who I mean." Thomas gave him a look.

"Aunt Helen?" I guessed.

Thomas nodded in return, then added. “Hannah sounded pretty upset with me too.”

My lips curved upwards at the mention of my niece. She was always a bit feisty, and it got worse over the years, especially when her stepfather, one of the two father figures she had in her life, practically lived at work. “They just miss you, that’s all.”

Thomas gave me a sad smile before he excused himself from the room. That left me with time to give his aunt a phone call.

I already knew why she was calling, she’d invite me over to cook with her or just catch up because it was that time again. The eve of my sister's death.