It would be so easy for him to push her panties aside and sink a finger inside her. She only needed a few strokes, a few flicks of his thumb against her sensitive nerves and she’d fly. She just wanted five minutes alone with him before reality came crashing back down.
Reality. Oh, shit. She came to her senses and pushed him away. They were in her office, for crying out loud. Panting in mortification, she practically cried, “What was that for?”
“I missed you.” He held her gaze as a slow and steady smile spread across his face. His eyes darkened with fervent need. That look got her every time. He stepped back and pressed the heel of his hand against the engorged flesh clearly bulging between his legs. Chuckling, he shook his head. “Damn, Bree. Look what you did to me.”
“You started it.” She licked his taste from her lips.
“That I did. I’d better get out of here before we take it much further.”
At least one of them had enough sense to stop. Bree was close to stripping down and clearing the top of her desk for him to take her. Just the thought of that had the folds of her sex completely saturated, her body aching to be touched.
“Five o’clock.”
Anger and arousal waged a battle inside her for the dominant emotion. “I don’t need an escort. Besides, I drove my own car.”
He remained silent for several moments, just watching her, that destructive look piercing right through her. “You still don’t believe me.”
“You’ve given me no reason to.”
“That’s my job.” He brushed the back of his knuckles across her cheek. The touch, so gentle she wondered if she’d imagined it, burned as hot as any of his kisses. He held up her car keys. How did he get them out of her purse without her seeing it? “Jason will drive your car home.”
Before she could argue, he opened the door and closed it behind him.
FOURTEEN
Jeremy had the sauce at a gentle simmer, the noodles resting, and the croutons roasting in the oven. He glanced at his watch and adjusted his glasses. Right on time. Bree would be here any minute.
He wanted her first night in his and Jason’s place to be memorable. She’d be spending a lot of time with them, and he wanted her to be comfortable. He’d start with some comfort food, a good wine, and see where the night took them. Above all else, he’d try his best not to screw it up.
“Wow,” Jason said as he walked into the apartment and sniffed the air. “Please tell me we’re having someone for dinner.”
Jeremy chuckled at his brother’s choice of words. “Bree.”
“Hell, yeah. And since it’s our place, we won’t get kicked out before we get to the good part.” He threw his jacket on the back of the couch and walked into the kitchen to grab a beer.
“You drank the last one yesterday.”
“Wine, it is.” He poured a glass before topping off Jeremy’s. After replacing the cork, he leaned against the counter and watched him cook. Jason never hovered unless he had something to say and didn’t know how to start. He took several sips and just stood there staring at the food cooking on the stove.
“What is it, Jas?”
“What makes you think I’m hiding something?”
Jeremy stopped stirring the sauce and slowly swung his gaze to his brother. “Tell me now or I’ll beat it out of you.”
“Give me a break. You know I could take you.”
“Do we need to test that theory?”
“Fine.” He pushed away from the counter, which wasn’t a good sign. Whatever he had to say, he wanted to be away from Jeremy when he said it. He collapsed onto the couch and propped his feet on the coffee table. After sighing, he rested his head on the back and took another drink.
Rage bubbled in his veins, threatening to explode. “If you don’t come out with it before your next breath, it will be your last.”
“I tailed her to work like you said.”
He pulled the croutons out of the oven and set the baking sheet on the granite countertop to cool. “And?”
He looked over the top of the couch and rested those same blue eyes on him that Jeremy saw in the mirror every day. “I wasn’t the only one tailing her. We definitely have a threat.”
Jeremy focused on the sauce to stop himself from breaking the spoon. He knew better than to ignore the chatter. It wasn’t just his feelings for Bree drawing him in on this find. This was bigger than money missing from the operating fund. She was in trouble. “What else?”
“She tried to get into the parking garage at Goggles.” He took another drink before adding, “Her card wouldn’t work. She tried it several times before backing out and parking on the street.”
“And the tail?”
“Took off when she parked. You don’t think the board hired another agency to track down the money, do you?”
He had no idea, but he’d definitely find out and made a note to get started on that right after dinner. “Did you get the plate?”
“I got one better. I had Bailey hack into the traffic cams and snap a shot of our driver. She’s running facial recognition on the image now.”
Jeremy diced the tomatoes for the bruschetta. “Why were you hesitant to tell me any of this? We already knew someone was shopping for a hitter. Looks like they found one. This proves the contract is real. Now we have the image of this guy in our database. We’ll find him and when we do, we’ll press him for the name of the person behind the contract. This is actually a good thing.”
“Yeah…” Jason turned his back to Jeremy. “There’s something else. I pulled up the financials for Goggles.”
His suspicious nature went into overdrive. “Why? That’s my job. I’m already on it.”
He swirled the wine in the glass. “You’re not exactly focused right now.”
“Says who?” He stabbed the cutting board with such force the tip of the knife went in a full half inch. “Tell me what the hell you’re hinting at.”
“I’m just covering for you, bro.”
As if he hadn’t had enough of Jason playing the role of big brother, more than he needed to. It’d cost the man his future. How much more was Jason willing to stick his neck out for his twin? And how much more guilt could Jeremy carry because of it?
“Fifty thousand disappeared on Tuesday. Wednesday, Bree made a deposit for the same amount into her personal account. She then went on a shopping spree. She even spent two thousand dollars on a single pair of shoes. I bet those are the ones she wore to the reunion. They looked painful, dude. Anyway, at least those and about a dozen more pairs were on her personal card. You should see what she charged to her corporate card. A car. No lie. She bought a car on her corporate card. Man, what I wouldn’t give to have a credit limit that high.”
He had the sudden, overwhelming need to defend her. “You’re wrong.”
“But—”
“You’re wrong,” Jeremy repeated with grave conviction. “Did TREX report seeing a new car anywhere on their search?”
“No.”
“Dozens of shoes in her place when they swept it?”
He shook his head.
“Because they’re wrong.”
“Hundreds.”
“Excuse me?”
“They found hundreds of pairs of shoes,” Jason explained, caution quieting his voice. He held back his accusation, but he may as well shouted it at the top of his lungs based on that tone. “She’s got a serious shoe fetish. That’s got to be expensive.”
“That proves nothing.” He jerked the knife tip out of the cutting board and got to work on more tomatoes.
Jason nodded and changed the subject. “You know red sauce gives me heartburn.”
“Everything gives you heartburn anymore.” Jeremy paused and looked at his brother, the reason why he was still breathing. “Do you want me to make you a white sauce?”
“Did you make dessert?”
“Tiramisu.”
“Then I’m good.” Jason grinned.
“You sure?”
�
��Yeah. I’ll suffer through it.”
“Then so will I,” he muttered. It was a twin thing. Jeremy felt what Jason felt. Not all the time, but enough times to make him a firm believer in the twin bond they shared.
Was that how Jason got to him so fast the night of the attack? Did he know before TREX? Was he the reason why TREX found him and not the button on the side of his phone? Jeremy never could remember pushing it. He’d never asked. “Hey, Jas?”
“Yeah?”
He chickened out and thought of something else to say. “Wash your hands before dinner.”
“Yes, Dad.”
They grinned at each other, ignoring the underlying shadow of the one thing they still couldn’t talk about.
How Jason had saved his life, and in turn cost him his dream.
* * * *
“Your car is here and with a hunky driver.”
Bree smiled at Whitney to cover the nervous flutters erupting in her stomach. “Is it—”
“It’s not Jeremy, if that’s what you’re asking. The guy doesn’t look anything like the god you had in here earlier, so it’s not his twin, either. This one has dark hair and eyes. That doesn’t make him any less yummy. He’s even got a bit of scruff on his chin, just the way I like it.”
A yawn snuck up on her. She’d hardly slept since the reunion when Jeremy and Jason paid her a visit and left her sated, yet wanting more. It bothered her that neither one of them had come to personally retrieve her. So much for being her bodyguards. If Jeremy hadn’t already taken her keys, she’d cancel the car and drive home herself.
“You look tired, sweetie. Long day?”
“Something like that,” Bree said before yawning again. “I guess I should go. Thanks, Whit.” Within minutes, she relaxed in the back of a town car, her eyes closed, as Rand took her home. He didn’t talk to her and she didn’t offer any conversation. His phone rang, drawing his attention. Good. At least she had a reason to not talk to him now.
“Hey Kat. No, I’m on special assignment. It’ll have to be Thompson or Isaacs serving as your logistics on this one. First search in six months and I have to miss it. Yeah, I’m not happy about it. Is Spence with you? Good. No, no reason. Just extra cautious after our history of searches going to shit.”
As Rand talked, Bree’s mind worked out her plans for the night. Maybe she’d take a bath and curl up with a good book. She needed some down time to recover from Jeremy’s presence today.
He had something to do with Arthur Aspen terminating their contract. Why? What could he possibly stand to gain by inserting himself as the CPA for Goggles? If he wanted to see her again he could have found an easier way than firing her CPA firm and pretending to be the replacement. Did he even have the credentials to be a CPA? Did that matter? Did this fall under his mysterious ‘a little of this and a little of that’ speech? How did TREX play into all of this, if such an agency even existed?
Rand ended his call and silence once again rang inside the car. Unable to stand it, she lifted her head and watched him through the mirror. “Are you in search and rescue?”
He glanced back, snagging her gaze. “Yep.”
“‘Kay, SAR and TREX? Isn’t that a bit redundant?”
His eyes rounded. “They told you about K-SAR? I figured they’d tell you about TREX, but why K-SAR? Neither one of those morons is affiliated with our search and rescue unit.”
“They are not morons,” she defended as she fought the pounding of her heart. Holy shit. TREX was real? “I was saying ‘kay, as in okay. TREX has a SAR unit?”
He thinned his lips and stared straight ahead.
“Jeremy and I were both in the explorers in high school. We were called the—”
“Ground pounders,” he cut in, finishing her sentence. “I know. The explorers are usually my first call after calling the boss.”
“Is that Kat?”
He nodded. “She runs IC from a mobile command center we call the Com Van. Been working with her for years as her logistics.”
“You mentioned a Spence. Who’s that?” She didn’t need to know the details of the SAR unit, but it got him talking. Right now, she’d take it over the silence. She had been about to fall asleep before they’d started the conversation.
“Kat’s husband. He’s the SAC.”
“I thought Snyder was the SAC,” she pointed out without missing a beat. Maybe now she’d get some real answers. Rand had no reason to lie or hide anything from her.
“Boy,” he chuckled. “Those two pretty much laid out an org chart for you. Okay, since you’re practically family.”
“How so?”
“Your software. It finds in the virtual world what we find in the tangible world. That’s why we rely on it so much. It’s saved my ass more than once, let me tell you.”
She swallowed her gasp of surprise and simply nodded, making a mental note to follow up with the head of her development department. If anyone knew the answer, it would be Dorian Graham.
“I talked to Snyder Saturday night. Not about the next set of enhancements, of course. But, you know…” she trailed off before she gave away the fact she had no idea what she was talking about.
“You got Snyder to answer on a weekend?” He shook his head. “You have more clout than I do. Usually those boys of his keeps him pretty occupied when he’s not out on assignment. Then again, Charis—that’s Snyder’s wife—keeps him on a pretty short leash.”
“I need to write this down,” she teased. Sort of. She really did need to write this down if she had any chance at remembering enough detail to bring it up in conversation with the twins.
“I hear ya,” he replied with a nod. “I’m the head logistics officer for K-SAR. It’s my job to know who’s who and how to reach them. Here’s the rundown. You’ve got Vic Greene at the top. He runs the show for all of TREX. The agency is split into two divisions. The frontline division—that’s all our field agents—is run by Dan Weber. Hell of a mate. Just don’t get on his bad side. It’s a long journey out of that hole, let me tell you. The sideline division—that’s all the agents behind the scenes—is run by Malcolm McKoy. He’s a gigantic pri—”
“McKoy,” she jumped in. “That’s Jeremy’s boss. He must be pretty high up in the agency, right?”
“Not that one. There’s a whole litter of McKoys in TREX. Jer’s boss is Chris McKoy, Malcolm’s son. He was frontline but got hurt on a find—that’s what we call our missions—and transferred to the sidelines. Charis McKoy is Daddy’s second-in-command even though Chris runs circles around her. Well, metaphorically speaking. Spinal injury left him permanently disabled.”
“Charis is the SAC’s wife,” she recalled, proud of herself with all these names bouncing around.
“You got it. There are several other SACs in the sidelines division. It’s almost twice as big as the frontline division.”
“It takes more brains than brawn to weed out the threats,” she mused. They both laughed.
“You got that right. So, on the frontline side, you’ve got Spencer Allen as Weber’s second. David Snyder is the other Special Agent in Charge. Both SACs run their own spec ops units. There’s talk of building more spec ops teams. That’s the best of the best. They’re like TREX’s Navy SEALs. I’m retired SEAL, so I’d know.”
“Thank you.”
“For?” He paused and met her gaze through the mirror.
“For your service. Your sacrifice. After serving, you then went to work for TREX protecting our country yet again. I should thank you twice.”
He colored hard and grunted as he cracked a smile. “You’re welcome. Twice.” After clearing his throat, he went on. “Anyway, after all that, you have a bunch of leads on both sides. Too many to list. Then you have the Bowmans. They’re pretty far down on the food chain.”
“I had no idea TREX was so large.”
“TREX agents are everywhere. Your neighbors. Your friends. They may be the barista making your coffee every morning. That’s what gives us the edge. We hide
in plain sight.”
FIFTEEN
Rand pulled up to the curb in front of the wrong building. She’d been so engrossed in their conversation she failed to realize they were on the wrong side of the city. “Where are we?”
“The Bowmans.”
“Did you say Bowmans? As in plural?”
“They live together. It must be a twin thing. Hell if I know. Anyway, they’re both up there waiting for you.”
She stopped herself right before she drew in a sharp breath. Blinking up at the enormous stone building, she paused with her hand on the door. What did stepping out of the car mean? Should she demand Rand take her home? If she walked up to their apartment, would that mean she accepted him ordering her to his place without her permission?
“Don’t think about it too much,” he said, cutting into her indecision. He climbed out of the car and hurried to her door, opening it before offering his huge hand. She took it and stepped out. “It’s just one night. If you hate it, we’ll put you up in a safe house. There’s a pretty nice apartment complex we picked up from one of our agents. It’s heavily guarded.”
Her heart stopped and painfully started again. “I can’t go home?”
“Not alone.” He nodded at the building. “It won’t be so bad. They drive me bat shit crazy. Both of them. Jason needs to grow up, and Jeremy needs to lighten up.”
“Then why are you helping them? Were you ordered to?” She stayed by his side as he escorted her to the building’s entrance, his gaze constantly scanning the surroundings. Just as Jason had done.
“Jason has connections in the pros and can get tickets to just about any sporting event, but not without a price. He banks the favors. It was Jeremy who cashed them in this time. He seems genuinely concerned for your safety, and we take that seriously.”
“There’s no reason for any of this. I get threats all the time. There are a lot of people who hate the success of others.”
They stopped in front of the door. It swung open and the concierge stood there, a wide smile on his dark, handsome face. He looked more like a bodybuilder than a concierge. “Good evening, Mrs. Harrington.” He spoke with a thick Spanish accent. “I’ll be escorting you to the suite. Please, follow me. Gracias, Rand.”
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