Free My Spy: Last Spy Standing by Dana Marton Page B

around.
    “Thank you, Deputy.” He stood. “I’ll be in touch.” He pulled a card from his suit pocket and set it on her desk. “If you come across any information that might be relevant to this case, I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know.”
    “Of course.”
    He left with a parting nod.
    Okay, definitely handsome, if a little dry for her taste. But Lena was a big girl and had the right to pick her own poison, Bree thought with a smile as she stood to go for coffee.
    The corner of a manila envelope in her in-box caught her gaze.
    Her stomach clenched.
    So stupid. Now she was going to be scared of envelopes? It could be anything.
    But she used her shirtsleeve to carefully tug the envelope from the pile. Unmarked, it was the same size and color as the one the photos had come in. Lumpy. Not pictures this time.
    She stepped over to close her door, then pulled two rubber gloves from the box in her drawer and put them on before she opened the clasp.
    Visual first. She peered inside and could see some kind of fabric. Dark. She carefully tilted the envelope, holding it by the corners until the contents dropped onto her desk.
    Black lace panties, she registered a split second before recognizing them as hers.
    Jason had been in her house. Anger and concern pulsed through her in alternating bursts, her teeth clenching.
    He was getting braver. Of course, he was nine years older now—no longer the adolescent kid she remembered, but a man.
    When her phone rang, she picked it up without looking at the display, her attention still on the slip of black cloth in front of her. She eased it back into the envelope in case someone came in, while balancing the phone between her shoulder and ear. “Bree.”
    “Just wanted to make sure you got to work fine and everything’s okay,” Jamie said on the other end.
    Because an arrogant outsider keeping tabs on her was what she really needed. He was on some superteam. If he thought just because she was a small-town deputy and a woman she was clueless, he had another think coming. She didn’t need his “protection.”
    “Thanks for the concern, Mr. Cassidy.” She exaggerated her Texas drawl. “I might have strained my pinky, holding it out while I was sipping tea. Also, my corset pinches a little, but other than that I’m okay.”
    A moment of heavy silence passed. “Don’t mock me.” Then another pause. “And don’t talk to me about corsets.”
    The deep timbre of his voice as he said that sent a not-altogether-unpleasant tingle down her spine. She was as bad as Lena out there with Agent Hottie. Uh-uh, not going to happen. She didn’t even like Jamie Cassidy. And she had way too much going on to get tangled with a man right now.
    She filled her lungs. “Is there a particular reason you’re wasting my time this morning? Did your team find anything you’d like to share with me?”
    “Any new contact from the stalker?”
    She shoved the envelope into her top drawer. “No.” She didn’t want or need Jamie Cassidy’s help. He was too much of a distraction.
    “You hesitated.”
    She rolled her eyes, even though she knew he couldn’t see it. “My stalker is my problem.”
    “Not until I’m sure he’s not coming after you because you got involved with my team.”
    He was like a dog with a bone. She closed her eyes for a second. “He’s not. I told you.”
    “We’ll see when the envelope comes back from the lab. I’m on border patrol today. I’ll stop by tonight to talk about whatever happened since I last saw you.”
    “Nothing happened.”
    “Put another beer in the fridge for me,” he said before he hung up on her.
    She was an upbeat person normally. She really was. But Jamie Cassidy was getting on her last nerve. If he showed up at her house tonight, they were going to have to have a serious talk about boundaries.
    She was not going to let him keep on distracting her. She drew a deep breath and refocused on her work, then walked out of her office to check with