Free Dangerous Defiance by Natasha Knight Page A

behind them.
    Jess rose to her feet.
    “I know what it’s like to lose a friend in this business,” he said, hands in his pockets. “Take that time and recuperate. It’s the best thing you can do for yourself.”
    “Thank you, sir.”
    “Good night, Agent Manning.”
    “Good night, sir.”
    With that he walked out and Jess exhaled, watching him through a crack in the curtains as he and the other agents climbed into a car and drove off. She noticed that one of the cars remained in the parking lot, an agent inside it. She shook her head, snorting. She was under surveillance now and they weren’t even trying to be subtle about it.

    * * *

    Jackson watched the men drive out of the hotel’s parking lot. He also noticed the one they left behind still sitting in his car. They were FBI. He could have smelled them a mile away. Rather than driving the cruiser into the parking lot and calling any attention to himself or Jess, he circled the block and picked up his cell phone to dial her instead.
    “Hey,” she said, obviously recognizing his number.
    “Just saw some agents leave your hotel room. You ok?” he asked. She was shaken up, he could hear it.
    “I’ll be ok. How did you know?”
    “You had left some papers at my office so I was dropping them off.”
    “Oh, thanks but you’d better hold on to them until tomorrow. There’s an agent outside,” she said.
    “Saw that too.”
    “Listen, maybe I’ll take you up on an early dinner after all.”
    He was about to suggest that same thing, wondering if her phone was secure. “I’ll just go home to change and be back for you. Stay put.”
    “I’m not going anywhere,” she said.
    He drove home for a quick shower, changed his clothes and drove back out to the hotel to pick her up in the truck. It wasn’t even half an hour before he was knocking on her door. He noticed from the corner of his eye the agent in the car watching.
    She opened the door and he stopped for a moment, unable not to look her over. She was wearing a very pretty, entirely too feminine pale ash-pink halter dress that cut low between her breasts. The color set off her pretty skin which had picked up more color.
    “Hi,” she said. She looked down at herself when he didn’t speak, obviously feeling uncomfortable. “I have to do laundry.”
    He was staring too hard. “You look amazing.”
    She smiled but one eye went to the agent in the car. She was nervous.
    “You’re fine, Jess,” he said.
    She nodded but her smile wavered.
    “Let’s go,” he said. “I hope you like Italian. There’s a local place that’s pretty good.”
    “Perfect,” she said. She turned to grab her bag and he noticed how the dress left most of her back exposed. Her hair, which she normally kept in a ponytail, hung loose down past her shoulders. It was still damp from her shower and was already curling. But before she even turned back to him, she had twisted it up and was setting it in a clip.
    “Leave it down,” he said, his voice sounding more hoarse than he expected.
    She glanced at him, almost confused for a moment.
    “Your hair. Leave it down.”
    She touched the clip.
    “We’ll make this look like a date so he can report that back rather than a meeting with the sheriff.”
    She smiled. “Good thinking.”
    Somehow, her relief at his explanation disappointed him. In the next moment, she had freed her hair and it hung in damp curls all along her shoulders. It was a pretty chestnut color, and was a striking contrast to her dark emerald eyes.
    “Where’s your crutch? I thought your leg hurt earlier.”
    “It’s ok, I don’t need it.”
    “You sure?”
    “M-hmm.”
    When he put his hand at her low back, she relaxed immediately into his touch. He guided her to his truck. They climbed inside and he drove off, both of them noticing that the agent followed.
    “Tell me about the visit,” he said.
    “It was the assistant deputy director,” she began. “I got the attention of the assistant deputy