Page 42 of Shadow Burn

Jasper shook his head. “Not if he’s a professional, and I doubt the CIA sends anything but.”

Her gaze dropped to the stun baton. After a moment, she nodded. “But you’ll stop him.”

“Yes.” He reached over and stole a piece of bacon.

Priss protested. Katherine took another bite of biscuit. “I don’t have any choice but to trust you.”

The bacon was the right level of crispy. “You always have a choice, Katherine, but trusting me is the right move. You let me worry about the assassin and you handle the reporting.”

“I need a way to report what happened that won’t compromise classified information, trigger internal alarms, or get me fired.”

“Easy.”

She scoffed. “Oh, really?”

“Report the attack in a narrow way. No Cinder or Vance details beyond what’s already part of your assignment. Something like, ‘I was the victim of a home invasion while on temporary assignment. Local law enforcement is investigating. No classified material was compromised.’ That satisfies the existence of the incident without handing them the fact that we know it was a targeted assassination attempt.”

She shuddered but nodded. “That’s technically true.”

“You say that like it’s a misdemeanor.”

“In my profession, technically true is where many sins live.”

“Then write it and don’t send it until we know more.”

She looked back at the blank page. “I’m not used to waiting.” Priss chose that moment to stretch across Katherine’s thigh, reaching for the plate of food.

Katherine gently shifted her away. “I forgot her favorite treats. She’s going to be incorrigible without them.”

“Rightfully so. If I can, I’ll figure out a way to get them.”

“You would do that in the midst of everything else?”

“Priss needs you to be functional, and you need her to be cooperative.”

This time the smile came fully enough to make the room feel warmer. It was brief, and it didn’t erase the shadows under her eyes or the tightness around her mouth, but it was real. Jasper let himself look at it for one second longer than he should have, then shifted his attention to her hand. “Your bandage is coming loose.”

She tucked the hand closer to her lap. “It’s fine.”

“Your definition of fine continues to be unreliable.”

“I showered. It got wet.”

“I can fix it.”

Her expression turned amused. “You don’t have to keep patching me up.”

“I know.”

“Yet here we are.”

“You’re hard on bandages.”

“You should see what I do to footnotes.”

He huffed a quiet laugh and retrieved a box of bandages and gauze from his cabinet. “Let me see.”

She hesitated for a moment before giving him her hand, palm up. He moved to the couch, and she shifted slightly to make room for him. The office was quiet except for the faint hum of the computers and Priss’s steady purr, which started the moment Jasper got close. The cat rubbed her head on his arm and showed him her big eyes.