Lopez stared at him for a long moment, her dark eyes flashing with distaste at the mention of Jarvis, but Ethan could see the tiny glimmer of intrigue flickering behind them. ‘Why the hell would I want to work for him again?’
‘You wouldn’t be,’ Ethad replied. ‘Look, he called me last night, said he had work for us on behalf of the Intelligence Director himself: legal work, up-front investigations, maybe even on behalf of Congress. I turned him down flat, said neither of us was interested. But now, seeing Bethany in that bed, healing…’
Ethan shrugged and looked at Lopez, who shot him a glance of absolute contempt.
‘I would rather shoot myself in the head than follow you about on more wild-goose chases for Jarvis and his goddamn cronies.’
Ethan sighed and opened the car door. ‘Fine, have it your way and…’
‘It’ll be Lopez and Warner Inc,’ she cut across him.
Ethan froze, and Lopez examined the tips of her fingers.
‘And you’ll be taking orders from me, got it?’
He turned back to face her. ‘You want me to take orders from you?’
‘Every goddamned day,’ Lopez snapped. ‘You walked away once, I’m not letting you waltz back in and start running the show. I’ll decide what we investigate, how we investigate it and who makes the coffee runs.’
‘You just sold me out and now you want me to do thy bidding?’ Ethan asked.
‘As soon as I learned about Bethany I stayed the damned course,’ Lopez replied. ‘You work for me. No more show-boating for the DIA, got it?’
Ethan’s jaw cracked as he smiled. ‘Got it.’
‘And no more smug grins.’
Ethan suppressed the smile. ‘Righto.’
Lopez hesitated for a moment. ‘You’re driving.’
Ethan headed for the driver’s seat without even a questioning glance as Lopez climbed into the car and shut her door. He started the engine and put the car into gear, and then looked at her.
‘I kind of like taking orders from a woman.’
‘Get used to it,’ Lopez shot back.
Ethan drove out of the hospital and onto the main road heading north, and pretended not to notice the faint smile touching Lopez’s sculptured lips.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dean Crawford is the author of the internationally published series of thrillers featuring Ethan Warner, a former United States Marine now employed by a government agency tasked with investigating unusual scientific phenomena. The novels have been Sunday Times paperback best-sellers and have gained the interest of major Hollywood production studios. He is also the enthusiastic author of many independently published Science Fiction novels.