I, Spy? (Sophie Green Mysteries, No. 1) (Sophie Green Mystery)

Hammond. She’s been running a shipping company in Seattle for years. Wright hasn’t even been to the west coast since they broke up. I’m pretty sure it’s not her.”
    “Then who is it?”
    “Did you consider your friend Harvey?”
    I stared at the screen. Buffy was crying about something. “Harvey? He works for a cell phone company.”
    Luke sighed. “I know you’re on medication and in shock so I’m going to ignore that. I was checking Wright’s records—hotels, plane tickets, that sort of thing—and everywhere he went, Harvey went also.”
    I opened my mouth but couldn’t think of anything to say. On screen, the Scoobies all hugged each other tearfully. “Harvey?” I repeated eventually, because it was the only thing that got to my vocal chords. “He couldn’t be the partner.”
    “He did turn up at Wright’s hotel room.”
    “Maybe he’s Wright’s boyfriend,” I said peevishly. “Did you think of that?”
    “You kissed a gay man? Was he better than me?”
    I felt myself colour. “I’m not going to answer that,” I said, “on the grounds that you’ll probably hit me.”
    Luke made a face. “Look, about what happened last night—”
    “I’ve forgotten it already.”
    He looked surprised. “Liar.”
    He didn’t cuddle you , I reminded myself. He didn’t come round to check up on you. He doesn’t really care about you.
    Oh, but he did give you those DVDs.
    “If you’d had any kind of respect for me, you wouldn’t have done that,” I said.
    “‘Done that’? I’m not a Victorian villain, Soph—” Luke began, starting to smile, twirling an imaginary moustache. Damn him for thinking of the same thing I did!
    “You bloody acted like one. You took advantage of me, Luke Sharpe, when I was physically and emotionally vulnerable. And you didn’t call me—”
    “I did!”
    “To have a go at me. You couldn’t even be bothered to come round in person. You sent Maria instead. God, I deserve a little bit more respect than that.”
    Now, in the light of the last few days, I wasn’t entirely sure if that last bit was true or not, but I was damned if I was going to give him anything.
    “Maria is a highly trained government agent. Didn’t she protect you?”
    “Yes, but I—but…” To my absolute horror, I felt my eyes prick with tears. Oh, great timing, eyes. Fabulous.
    “But what, Sophie?” Luke asked, his voice soft now, his eyes gentle, and I couldn’t look at him.
    But… But I needed you , Luke. I needed you to take me in your arms and promise me you’d protect me. I needed you to tell me that last night had been wonderful and you hoped it’d be the start of a great relationship. I needed you to tell me there was something between us that wasn’t sex or sarcasm. I was scared, and you were somewhere else .
    “But you weren’t there,” I said as strongly as I could.  
    “I was there,” Luke said. “I stayed with you all night. I was worried about you, Soph.”
    “You left before I woke up,” I said, trying not to be impressed by that.
    “I had work to do, you know that. I couldn’t stay home and baby-sit you.”
    Baby-sit me? First I was incapable of taking care of myself, now I needed to be baby-sat?  
    I hardened my resolve, and then my jaw, to match. “You yelled at me and then stayed away. That’s so damn cowardly.”
    I saw his face change, saw the anger creep in, and knew I’d hit a nerve. RAF officers weren’t cowardly. SAS operatives were not cowardly. And SO17 agents were definitely not cowardly.
    With the possible exception of me.
    “Cowardly?” Luke said, his voice carefully controlled. “Because I didn’t come round to tuck you in and pat you on the head? Because I had more important things to do, like try and figure out who had shot at you? There are more important things in this job than mollycoddling, Sophie, and if you don’t get that—”
    “No, I get that,” I snapped. “I get all of it. I know personal relationships have to take a back seat—”
    “Back seat? They’re out on the damn road—”
    “Exactly. And you knew that, but you still—”
    “Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have!”
    “Yeah, maybe you shouldn’t!”
    We glared at each other, and I’d have felt a lot better about the argument if I hadn’t still been wrapped up in my duvet with the little cartoon cats on it.
    “Well, it won’t happen again,” Luke muttered, looking away. “I do have some sense of self-preservation. Unlike some people.”
    I