Under the Wire: Bad Boys Undercover Read Online Free PDF Page B

button on the phone. “You were attacked.”
    “Something like that.” One of the many things she’dlost during whatever happened was the expedition satphone. But she still knew how they worked, and she feared Parker was inching closer to making the call Reid wanted him to make.
    Reid went back to studying her. Treating her like a target he needed to interrogate. “I don’t understand that answer.”
    Parker nodded. “While you two work that out I’m going to keep trying to make that call to headquarters.”
    Each one was more stubborn than the other. She had no idea how to break through to them. “Listen to me. Seriously, we need to comply with my protocol on this.”
    Reid pulled her in closer. With his hands on her elbows and the heat of his body rolling into her, he stared down. “Say something that will explain why you’re dancing around all of this, asking for help with some things but not others. Holding on to rules that don’t matter right now.”
    He was right. There was no use playing games. She could put this in language he would understand. “The Russian government thinks this is a privately funded expedition. An investigation into the Dyatlov Pass incident for a documentary.”
    Reid groaned. “I had never heard about this so-called incident until a half hour ago, and now I’ve heard it twice.”
    “It’s famous.” At least she thought so.
    “Told you.” Parker dialed then tried again. “Like Yetis.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.” She laughed, but when Parker didn’t laugh with her, she sobered. “Wait . . . you know Yetis aren’t real, right?”
    “Parker believes in many things that will make your head implode,” Reid said in a voice filled with amusement.
    Parker scoffed. “Just because she’s some fancy science type.”
    “You mean doctor.” She put her hand in front of the phone and forced him to look up at her. She had full use of her mind and body now. She could probably kick if she had to. “A geologist.”
    “A doctor geologist.” Parker nodded. “I guess I should have known.”
    These two had a habit of using a certain tone, sort of a know-it-all type thing. She knew she should chalk it up to their job choice and being at the center of all that danger, but it made her back teeth slam together.
    That and he’d hit on a subject guaranteed to tick her off, depending on what he said next. “Meaning?”
    Parker froze. “What did I do wrong?”
    Reid actually smiled. “She’s not a fan of the ‘Asians are good at science and math’ assumptions people make.”
    “I didn’t know you were . . .” Parker’s eyes opened wider.
    And there it was. Her biggest pet peeve. Having a Chinese mom and a Caucasian dad sometimes left her in this nether world, one where neither side rushed to embrace her. Some of the older guys at work—the ones passed over for field assignments in favor of her—mumbled about her being a “token,” and that was some of the nicer stuff she’d overheard.
    “Don’t I look it?” she asked, prepared for him to say the wrong thing.
    Parker still hadn’t moved. “I’m afraid to answer that.”
    She continued anyway. Might as well make all of this clear now. “No tiger mom. Neither parent is a scientist or math genius.”
    “I’m not sure what’s going on.” Looking hunted, Parker glanced over at Reid then back to her. “Look, I was saying I should have known you were a doctor because Reid said we were looking for a science expedition. Science, doctor . . . I made the leap of logic.”
    With that, her anger deflated. Ran right out of her. Sometimes her defenses rose before she could catch them. “That’s fine, then.”
    “Now that we handled that.” Reid nodded at the satphone. “Try explaining again. We need to get assigned to this case and move forward.”
    She inhaled nice and deep as she prepared to fight this verbal battle one more time without saying too much. “It’s not that simple.”
    Reid held his gun as he looked around