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couldn’t report back to OPUS, because they’d forced me into hiding. And whattaya know, in that five months Sorcerer dropped off the face of the earth. He went into hiding, too, because he couldn’t know what OPUS was doing or where they’d be next, since I hadn’t given them any intel to go on. Without me sending in reports, his contact couldn’t send them back out again. He couldn’t know where he stood with us, so he disappeared.”

    Joel studied her hard in silence for a moment, then said, “That sounds like speculation on your part.”

    “It was at first,” she admitted. “So I started to dig a little deeper where I could at my end. And I had my partner do a little discreet checking around at OPUS. Between the two of us, we found evidence that there could definitely be a leak somewhere within the ranks of the organization.”

    “ Could be a leak,” Joel repeated. “Not that there definitely is a leak.”

    “Which is why it’s not in my report,” Lila told him. “Neither of us has proof yet, but my gut tells me there’s someone inside who’s helping Sorcerer. Who’s been helping him for a long time now.”

    “You think it’s someone who knew him when he was still working for OPUS? Or someone who’s come to work for us since? Is it possible it could even be someone he placed himself? Hell, how do you know it’s not me?”

    “I don’t know that,” she replied honestly. “But I don’t have any reason to suspect you. Yet,” she added pointedly because…Well, just because. “I’ve thought a lot about all the possibilities, and at this point I just don’t know. It would make more sense if the leak were someone Sorcerer worked with years ago, but it could be someone he recruited, too. The guy is a charmer,” Lila said frankly. “Very charismatic. Very attractive. Very sexy.”

    “Why, Miss Moreau,” Joel said in an affected, golly-gee-whiz kind of voice, “you sound like you’re the president of the Adrian Padgett aka Sorcerer Fan Club.”

    “No,” she immediately denied. She hesitated before saying the rest, then figured, what the hell. Even if Joel was only her temporary partner, he was still her partner. And she was reasonably sure he wasn’t the leak in the organization, since he wasn’t a part of the information-gathering arm. Anyway, what she was about to tell him wasn’t anything Sorcerer didn’t already know. So she added, “But I’d be lying if I said I’m immune to him. There’s something about him that is undeniably seductive.”

    Her remark seemed to surprise Joel, though whether it was what she’d admitted or the fact that she’d admitted it that caused the reaction, Lila couldn’t have said. Frankly, she’d surprised herself when she’d had a one-night stand with Sorcerer shortly after being assigned to the undercover team looking for him. But she’d found herself in a position where she could get close enough to him physically to potentially bring him down. She supposed she’d just taken a page from Adrian’s own notebook and overstepped the usual parameters of the job. Not that that had been the first time she’d stepped over the line. But to get as close to him as she could, she had done something she’d never done on an assignment before—or done since. She’d had a sexual liaison with the suspect.

    At the time, she honestly hadn’t thought much about it. Mostly because it hadn’t been any hardship to have sex with Adrian Padgett. He was a gorgeous, sexy guy, and as such, Lila had been powerfully attracted to him on a physical level. At that time, too, she’d been going through some things in her personal life that had allowed her to disengage herself from her feelings, even more so than usual. He’d turned her on, and he’d wanted her. She’d taken advantage of both facts. Unfortunately, he’d figured out she was part of the OPUS machine before she could make use of her new position in his life.

    “And were you seduced?”