Taking Sides (ARC Operatives Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

she looked up. Russi was stepping out, stretching in the shade of the porch’s overhang. His blue shirt slipped up over his stomach, taut across the abdominal muscles there, and she noticed a long vertical scar running up from under his belt almost to his ribs. It looked painful, and somewhat recent, still pink.
    “They’re back at basecamp, done for the day. Not much is happening over at the surveillance site… just some pot smoking hippies,” he said as his boots hit the porch boards hard. He sat down next to her with a long sigh and she watched the dust motes float in the sunlight in front of them. “You wanna talk about it?” he finally asked after a few minutes of quiet. She shrugged her shoulders.
    “Talk about what?” She met his eyes solidly; they were a chocolate brown, warmth in them that hadn’t been there when they’d first arrived. He held her gaze until she looked away. “Not really? It’s not affecting the mission-“
    “But it’s affecting you, partner ,” he said, heavy emphasis on the last word. “And no, you both are being professional as fuck, doing your jobs as you should be. At least I’ve heard no bitching from Rykov or Balfour about him, and he sounds civil when he reports in. It’s almost like you two aren’t fighting over text message every day.”
    “We’re not fighting,” Daria said and then felt her shoulders slump with the weight of her lie. They weren’t fighting, not exactly, but they weren’t warm like they normally were, and he wasn’t sending her the little heart emojis like he usually did. Not that she wasn’t strong and independent, but a girl damn well liked to receive a few heart emojis from her sweetheart every day. It was a small thing, but an important thing, at least to her.
    “Alright, you’re not fighting,” Russi said, then leaned back on his elbows, still watching her profile. She groaned and buried her head in her hands.
    “I really don’t want to have this conversation with you. It’s awkward, and weird, and I’ve known you less than a week. Definitely not talking about my guy-troubles with someone who could be like, my friend’s younger cousin’s dad or something.”
    Russi barked out a laugh at that.
    “I’m not that old,” he complained, but his voice lilted with amusement. “You’re what, in your mid-twenties, barely outta college when ARC snapped you up? Your friend’s younger cousin would have to be pretty damn young to be my kid.”
    She looked over at him with her brows pulled together, her disbelief plain on her face.
    “Okay so, my friend’s fifteen year old cousin’s dad,” she amended. He grinned, the stubble on his cheeks dark against the white of his teeth. Nico often had a sheen of light stubble over his cheeks on longer training missions when he didn’t have a chance to shave, and she missed the feel of it rubbing against her neck as he kissed her. Her stomach gave an odd little flutter as Russi continued to smile at her. She looked away quickly to douse the feeling.
    “I’ll give you that. I could be the fifteen year old cousin’s dad. If I was stupid and reckless in my college years and didn’t use rubbers, which I did, if you’re wondering.” He added the last bit on as he looked up at the sky, squinting.
    “I wasn’t. Wondering, that is,” Daria muttered into her knees as she tugged her sweater down over them, stretching the knit out. It was an old, comfortable sweater, perfect for a recon mission where she had nothing to do all day but basic housekeeping chores and sitting on her ass in front of the monitor station.
    Suddenly he clapped a hand on her shoulder, warmth biting right through the fabric of her sweater, and his fingers curled around her bicep to squeeze.
    “I won’t push you. If you wanna talk, I’m not amazing at matters of the heart, but I can give you the straight up goods on what a man might be thinking,” he said gently, and she couldn’t help but look up at him. He was smiling