“Did you know you were followed to work this morning?” Jeremy said softly, but he may as well have screamed it in her ear, it stopped her that fast. She whipped around, her eyes wide. He didn’t wait for her to recover before dropping the next bomb. “Black sedan. Once you parked on the street, it sped off. Sound familiar?”
“How did you know about that?” How did he know about that? Did these two have some sort of superpowers? From the mind-blowing orgasm they’d just pulled from her, she wouldn’t put it past them.
“I also followed you to work today.” Jason owned up to it, putting an end to her fantasy of them being twin superheroes. “You need to get that taillight fixed if you continue to go seven over the limit.”
“You two are following me around now?” Instead of this news scaring her, it pissed her off.
“Just me,” Jason said with a raise of his finger. “Mr. Grumpy-Ass here had to go persuade your CPA to terminate your contract.”
Bree’s eyes burned as she glared at Jeremy. “I knew it. Did you threaten him?”
“I did what I had to do.”
What did that even mean? She didn’t care. She’d had enough of his air of mystery and ridiculously cryptic answers. Her shoes in hand, she made it all the way to the door before a hard form yanked her around and pushed her up against the wall. She should be pissed at the assault. Instead, her body responded by tightening her nipples when he held her hands at the wrists and kept them high above her.
“I did what I had to do,” he said again, this time his voice softer, thicker, heated by lust and hunger. He nipped at her ear and sent a jolt of chills ripping through her, centering deep in her womb. “And I’ll continue to do what I have to do until this is over. Don’t push me on this.”
But she refused to back down and instead snapped her glare to his. “Let me go, Jeremy.”
“Not going to happen, Breanne.”
“I’ll scream.”
“Go ahead,” Jason said as he joined them, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms as he watched her. Always watching. “It wouldn’t be the first time with us, now would it?”
She turned her burning glare to him. “That’s a low blow.”
“Like it or not, we are trying to save your ass.”
“Does that include fucking it? Or is that where you draw the line as his security blanket?”
His eyes rounded in shock. He lost his expression as he pushed away from the wall. “You know what? You’re on your own tonight, bro. I’ve had enough of this shit.” Jason whipped around and marched down the hall, disappearing behind a door. When he slammed it, Bree jumped.
“Let me go,” she whimpered. This time, he did. She grabbed her wrists and rubbed them where he’d held them tight. When he walked to the table and fell into a chair, she eyed the door. She could run out and make it to the elevator before he came after her. No doubt Willy worked for TREX, so he’d have her cornered even if she did escape to the lobby.
Knowing she’d never get out of here on her own, and not really sure if she wanted to, she dropped her shoes and shuffled back to the table and grabbed a fork. If he wanted to piss her off, she needed calories and a lot of them.
SIXTEEN
Jason hung his head as he sat on the edge of his bed, his jaw clenched so tight his head pounded. This was exhausting. It wasn’t the find, although that added to the fatigue racking his body. He didn’t know how much more he could take trying to help his twin, only to be shot down like he didn’t matter.
It terrified him to think of a future without his brother. Why couldn’t Jeremy see that? Why did he have to do everything the hard way?
He needed to vent and grabbed his phone to call the only other person he could talk to about this. Dialing her number—no TREX agent stored contacts in case the phone wound up in the wrong hands—and straightened out on the bed.
“Bull shit!” Bailey McKoy exclaimed into the phone. “Sorry, Jas. Can I call you later?”
“Sure,” he replied softly, doing his best to mask the disappointment. They’d agreed to never drop everything just to talk to each other. They didn’t have that kind of relationship. They didn’t have any kind of relationship.
Yet he wanted to beg her to stay on the line, to talk to him. He’d always been able to talk to Jeremy—before the attack. Now, he found more comfort in Bailey’s voice than in anything else. Maybe his brother was right. Maybe his feelings for her were deeper than casual. Maybe that was why he wouldn’t let this get too serious.
Maybe it was time to see if he was ready for one set of PJ bottoms.
“Are you okay?” Bailey asked, her tone soft, sincere. The sound washed over him, relaxing him like a warm bath.
“Yeah,” he lied and closed his eyes.
“Nice try,” she said before moving the phone away. “Hey, guys? I have to take this. Deal me out.” After a door closing echoed through the line, she came back on. “We’re playing a game.”
“Here I thought you developed a sudden case of Tourette’s.”
“Ha ha. What’s going on? You sound bummed. Is Jeremy being a dick again?”
“When isn’t he being a dick?” He sighed and opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling as he contemplated how much to tell her. He didn’t know where to begin. Hell, he didn’t even know how to begin. “It’s this find. I think it’s getting to us both.”
“Because you’re working together? Or are you sharing more than an address at the moment?”
Although they’d never talked about it openly, she knew about him sharing women with his brother. Not every detail of course, but enough to be able to fill in the blanks. Turned out Kaylee was into the alternative lifestyle and loved to tell Bailey all about it.
“Bree is Jer’s girl.”
“Do you want her as your girl?” Her voice sharpened.
“No.” Not even remotely. His tastes ran more toward the snarky girl with laughing blue eyes and silky brown hair.
“You sure about that?”
“I’m helping him. That’s it.”
“Then what’s really bugging you?” She cracked open something carbonated, releasing fizzles to fill the silence. It had to be a Diet Pepsi. She and Kaylee were addicted to the stuff. Once she took several drinks, the air grew silent again. No doubt she was in the process of topping off the contents with spiced rum. Her favorite. “Are you going to talk to me? Or did you call to breathe in my ear?”
“I’m just…” He didn’t know what to say. Something bugged him. Something had him on edge. He just wished he knew what that something was. “I don’t know.”
“I do.”
“You do?” Good. He’d love to know. “Tell me so we’ll both know.”
“Do you remember when Jeremy got stabbed?”
“Why the hell would you bring that up?” He jerked upright, immediately irritated. The drumming of his pulse pounded in his ears as he fought to contain his temper. His heart hammered. Goddamn it. He hated thinking about it, let alone talking about it.
“Do you remember what you told me?” When he didn’t answer, she added, “Do you remember what you felt?”
“We aren’t talking about this.”
“Of course we aren’t. Why would we talk about something you never want to talk about? Why would we mention the gorilla in the room? If you give me an hour, I’ll have a nice hole dug in the backyard for you to stick your head in.”
“You can be a real bitch, you know that?” Never mind that she had it right. He could always count on Bailey to pull his head out of his ass and tell him to get over it.
“You think I’m bad? You should talk to my twin. No filter, that one. She’s ten times worse.” She slurped her drink. “And so is yours. Believe it or not, we’re the happy ones of the sets. Kaylee isn’t even night and day anymore. She’s just night. It’s depressing.”
“Tell me about it,” he agreed with a nod. “Jeremy barely smiles anymore. It’s draining, both mentally—”
“And physically,” s
he finished. “Which brings us full circle to my question. You remember the stabbing because you felt it. That’s what you told me.”
“Only after too many beers. Not to mention a few too many compromising positions.” He believed in a lot of things. The twintuition he shared with his brother, for one thing. They had a way of knowing each other’s thoughts. They felt when the other needed them. It was like a calling.
Jason felt when Jeremy needed him. Hell, he felt that knife slice into his brother as if he’d been the one stabbed. The blade, cold at first, but then the agonizing burn. The confusion. The disbelief. The fear. And, finally, the acceptance that he was about to die.
Only he hadn’t gone through any of that. Jeremy had.
Bailey broke the silence. “When I was six, I was inside coloring when suddenly my wrist went all cockeyed. I was in so much pain all I could do was scream. My parents had no idea what was happening until my sister Charis told them to check on Kaylee. Turns out she fell out of the treehouse and broke her wrist.” She laughed hollowly, caught up in her memory. It pulled Jason in, both her laugh and the story. “I felt everything,” she went on. “When they took her to the hospital and reset the break, I screamed. I screamed, Jason. Know why?”
“Because you felt it.”
“I felt it,” she repeated, laughing hollowly once again. “My twin is a hellion. She’s broken so many bones it isn’t funny. She’s the reason I don’t do anything remotely adventurous. I’ve already experienced it through her and do not want to go through that again.”
“You’re saying I’m channeling Jeremy.” It wasn’t a question. She knew exactly what to say to get his mind back in the game. “That’s why I’m in a pissy mood.”
“And why you’re so drawn to Bree. It’s not you.”
“It’s him.” He rose from the bed and thrust his fingers through his hair. “How do I snap out of it?”
“You don’t.”
“Thanks a lot.”
“Not until you talk about what’s really bothering you,” she explained. “The gorilla?”
“He doesn’t want to talk about it.”
“A minute ago you didn’t want to talk about it. Is it really him? Or you?”
“I don’t know.” He fell to the bed once again, deflated and raw. “Maybe both.”
“Maybe the bigger question is why don’t either of you want to talk about it?”
Good question, and one he didn’t have the answer to. “It’s…”
“If you say complicated, I’m hanging up.”
“What?” he chuckled. “You say that to me all the time whenever I ask you a question you don’t want to answer.”
“Ah. So, it really is you who doesn’t want to talk about it.”
Damn her. She always found a way to get him to admit to something whether he wanted to or not. How did she do it? How did she drill under his skin and turn him inside out? “I’m not getting out of this alive, am I?”
“You called me, remember? Obviously, you want to talk. So talk.” She slurped another drink. “Look, Jas. I know you don’t want to talk about it with Jeremy, that he doesn’t want to talk about it with you, and that the world may just come to an end if you two actually do talk about it. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“Aside from the world coming to an end?” he mused, drawing a giggle. When silence settled between them, he debated telling her it was nothing and just watching Netflix until he went to bed. He’d been staying up later and later, no doubt thanks to Jeremy doing the same.
“Walk through that day with me,” she ordered when he didn’t offer anything.
“How about no?”
“How about do it now or I cut you?”
He laughed. Damn, she was fun. As soon as he focused his mind on that day, he stilled to ward off the shudder attempting to rack his body every time he thought of the hell his brother had gone through. He didn’t want to think about it, let alone talk about it. And he knew why.
Jeremy would know. He’d know how terrified Jason was when he’d heard the news. He’d know the unrelenting panic that took hold and refused to let loose. He’d know how weak his big brother was, at how Jason had failed to keep him safe by not being there in his place.
He’d know everything he had fought so hard to keep hidden.
“I’ll start,” Bailey stated when Jason didn’t volunteer. “You were having an off day. Unable to concentrate. Missing passes. Dropping the ball. That sort of thing.”
That sort of thing should have been more than enough. He’d known something was off that day. He knew it and should have never ignored his instinct. But, he did. He ignored his gut twisting and clawing like an angry storm inside of him. In turn, his brother had nearly died, all so he could snag a spot on the roster. His op ended right before he’d been due to report to the field. It had all worked out—or so he’d thought.
And then everything went to shit. Jeremy had gone in his place, gotten cornered, and nearly died.
“You weren’t paying attention when a snap went sideways. You tried to save it, but the biggest, meanest linebacker on the team dropped you like an ex-girlfriend.”
“It was a defensive end,” he corrected, remembering the explosion of pain when the guy took him down. “I just laid there staring at the sky, wondering why I had this searing pain on my left side. I thought he’d ruptured my appendix.”
“That’s on your right side, Dr. House.”
“Yes, thank you, CTB. I know that now.”
“You call me a cut-throat bitch like that’s a bad thing.” Her giggle lifted his mood. It always did.
After several seconds of silence, he admitted aloud for the first time, “I heard him, you know. Calling for me.” He swallowed his feelings before they surfaced and snuffed out his ability to speak.
“What did he say?” she asked softly, her voice thick with emotion.
It took another several seconds for him to pull it together before he answered. “Help.”
“You did, Jason. He would have died if you hadn’t helped him.”
“He almost died because of me.”
“No,” she snapped. “He almost died because of him.”
Help.
“Even now, I hear him pleading for me to help him.”
“Like right now?”
Help.
“Yeah.” He stiffened and stared at the door leading from his room into the hall. “I gotta go. He needs my help.”
“Does he do this?”
Jason stopped, his hand on the doorknob. “Do what?”
“Drop everything the instant you need him? Or is it more of a one-way street with you two?”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Figure it out. I’m going back to playing cards.”
“More bullshit?”
She laughed in that knowing tone of hers. “At least I know my bullshit is just a game.”
SEVENTEEN
Thank God for Jason. If he hadn’t come out of his room and taken over talking Bree into staying at the suite for the night, Jeremy would have given in to her pleas and driven her home himself.
Now as he stood in the bowels of HQ, leaning over the shoulder of one of the best hackers in the business, he couldn’t help but say a silent prayer for two reasons. First, for Shaw being on their side and working for TREX. Second, for Jason insisting he leave the apartment to cool off.
“What the hell am I looking at, Shaw?” He stared at the large flat screens lining the wall. TREX hit the jackpot when they recruited Wolfgang Shaw. He put the rest of the sideline division hackers to shame and held the agency’s record for fastest hack.
Shaw glanced at him through his thick glasses before pushing them up the bridge of his large nose. With wavy brown hair and hooded dark eyes, and big as a house, Shaw looked more like a WWF wrestler than the hacker from hell. His deep, booming voice matched his behemoth size. The thick German accent added to his intimidation. He’d give the Terminator a run for his mon
ey. Early years, of course.
“Your bruder had me run names again in case I missed something da first time.”
“But you don’t miss anything.”
“That’s what I tell him. Niemand hört mir zu.”
“That’s not true, Shaw. I listen to you. I’m here, aren’t I?”
Turning in his chair, Shaw faced what he referred to as his Frankenputer. He had computers, transmitters, receivers, and equipment Jeremy didn’t know the names of lining the shelves from floor to ceiling. Everything tied into the Frankenputer Shaw hand built. Jeremy had computer envy staring at this thing.
Shaw tapped on his keyboard and the four monitors to their left came online. Jeremy’s apartment appeared on the screen. The top two flashed between all the entrances to the building, the bottom two between all the rooms inside the suite.
All rooms.
His gut twisted. Shit. He’d forgotten he’d told Shaw to activate the surveillance on their place. Did he have the screens on when Jason buried himself between Bree’s legs and lapped up her sweet cream? Or when they had her screaming as she came as a result?
He kept his back to Shaw as he watched Bree sitting at the table, her arms crossed, her leg swinging. She had her back to the monitor, but that didn’t matter. Jeremy knew the exact expression on her face. Thinned lips. A fire in her smoky eyes, darkening them. She was pissed.
Jason threw his arms out to the side and gave her a shrug as she no doubt asked him a question he either didn’t know the answer to or couldn’t tell her the answer to. That only increased the swinging of her leg.
Oh, yeah. Definitely pissed.
At least he’d been able to keep her calm enough for her to stay. Knowing Bree, if Jason pushed her too far, she’d get up and leave. If he tried to stop him, she’d knock him on his ass. She was one hell of a woman.
“When you done zuschauen da woman, we can start.”
“It’s my job to watch her,” Jeremy defended. Shaw looked at him. “Play it.”
He made a few keystrokes and the images changed. Suddenly Bree’s lovely face smiled down at him from the giant monitors. He recognized the image and wished Shaw would have used the one from Forbes Magazine. At least with that one she didn’t have that dark eyebrow spiked, the look in her smoky eyes driving into his nerves and strumming across his senses. And, just as he knew it would, his cock picked up on the image and pulsed with erotic energy, expanding as it throbbed to attention.
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