Beside her, Blake shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. The tender protectiveness of the act, so unfamiliar to her, punched at her heart, and for a moment—just a moment—her anger wavered. Coat or no coat, he’d tried to hold her hostage tonight and followed that up by trying to kill the one man certain to have answers about her sister.
“Keep walking,” Blake ordered as they approached his truck in the parking lot. “No way in hell are we getting into a truck that could have been tampered with.”
So much for her assumption that they’d had a surveillance team in place. Apparently the truck hadn’t been a priority—but then, she wouldn’t know. It wasn’t like she’d been included in the plans for tonight, and even if she wanted to ask him what had been, Blake was already punching a button on his cell phone. “Tell me you tracked us and whatever boat met up with ours,” he said into the phone. He cursed. “It was Alvarez. He met us on the boat and pretty much said he was testing us to take us deeper into his operation.” He paused and listened. “No, I didn’t kill him. And don’t ask questions I don’t have time to answer. Yeah. I know. We’ll meet you at the hotel. I left the truck at the dock. I wasn’t taking any chances it was wired. Yeah. Good. Hurry.” He listened again and glanced at her. “It was a drug she got from an FBI lab. He’ll be okay in the morning.”
Kara looked away and scanned the side street they took, lined with residential buildings, looking for trouble. She felt guilty over Kyle, but he’d be fine, she reminded herself. Her sister might not be, though. If it were Kyle’s sister, she was willing to bet he’d have done the same thing she had. And Blake too, damn it.
Blake ended the call. “Luke has eyes on us. He’s got a car coming to pick us up.”
“Did they get a trace on our boat?” she asked anxiously.
He gave a disgusted shake of his head. “We went too far out of range. The tracking device I have on me wasn’t powerful enough.”
The implications stabbed at her heart. “That’s not the answer I wanted.” They were no closer to finding her sister.
“You and me both, sweetheart,” Blake assured her. “They’re working on better technology and some off-the-record Coast Guard support.”
Kara stopped walking. “But—”
“A friend of one of our men. He’ll keep things off the feds’ radar, and we need water support.”
“You’re sure you can trust him?”
“I’m positive.”
He sounded confident. He looked confident. And while she felt uncertain about much about Blake and his brothers, after tonight, she was crystal clear on his mindset. “Since you want Alvarez’s blood too much to risk the feds or the ATF slowing things down, I’ll trust you on this one.” She started to turn away but Blake had other ideas. Before Kara knew his intent, he’d maneuvered her into a small alcove between buildings, out of the wind. Suddenly, she had a concrete wall at her back and his hard body pressed to her front. Heat rushed over her at his nearness, desire burning in her belly.
Frustrated that she wanted a man who’d betrayed her, Kara shoved his chest. “Stop manhandling me, Blake, because I swear to you, I have nothing to hide anymore. I’m going to start fighting back.”
“Do you fucking look like your sister, Kara?” he demanded, a beam of moonlight stroking the angry lines of his face.
“No,” she hissed, and—no longer forced by an audience to fight the hurt and anger he’d created in her—she let it fly. “My sister’s taller, prettier, and missing. Obviously you didn’t remember that fact when you tried to kill the man who can give her back to me.” Her lips tightened. “Or maybe you just didn’t care.”
He ignored her accusations and focused on his own. “Alvarez sure as hell thought you looked familiar.”
“Alvarez was just playing a power game. Getting inside his close circle is my way to my sister, and you knew that. You knew and still you were going to kill him.”
“To keep him from finding out who you are and killing you.”
She jabbed her finger in his chest. “Don’t use me as an excuse to carry out your grand plan. I know the risks and it’s my decision to take them.”
“My ‘grand plan’, as you call it, is to keep you alive. I didn’t forget your sister. You have to be alive to welcome her home, Kara.” He leaned in, his hands on the wall beside her head, a familiar pose she’d come to expect from him. His way of caging her, controlling her. “You ask me to stay alive for you, and then you tempt fate with your own life. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”
He hit a raw nerve. She wanted to be more to him than a temporary escape until he killed Alvarez. She wanted him to feel what she did, but now she knew he didn’t. Not after tonight. “I asked you to stay alive for me and what did you reply? I have to let you spank me.”
“That was my way of saying I was with you in that moment.”
The moment they were having sex. It was all sex and escape to him. “That was you avoiding commitment.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them and she instantly felt like a deer in the headlights. Kara tried to duck under his arm. He tightened his legs around hers, holding her in place.
Her fingers curled on his chest. “Let me out of here, Blake. I need out.”
“Not until we’re done talking.”
“We’re done. I’m done.”
“I’m not,” he said, but the sound of a car pulling up behind him sent him whirling around, and Kara didn’t miss the way he sheltered her with his body, ready to take a bullet for her, before he relaxed and turned back. “It’s our ride, and yes, we’re leaving—but be clear, Kara. We’re far from done with this.”
“You’re such an arrogant, bossy asshole.”
“If protecting you makes me an asshole, then I’ll happily be the biggest asshole of your life, sweetheart.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the alcove and toward the black sedan waiting on them, like she was his property. She wasn’t his damn property and he had her fuming.
Blake opened the back door for her and she wanted inside, she wanted a private room where she could blast him, once and for all, but just as he was about to slide in, he grabbed the lapels of his coat she was wearing and pulled her hard against him. “Just remember, Kara. I’m the asshole who’d die to protect you.”
He leaned in to kiss her and she nipped his bottom lip just hard enough to let him know he wasn’t in charge. His lips quirked, wicked heat and amusement dancing in his eyes. “You can take you anger out on me in bed tonight.”
“Who says I’m going to be in your bed?”
“Me, sweetheart. You can count on it. And me, Kara.”
“Yes,” she whispered, and she didn’t have it in her to hold back. “I can always count on you to fuck me, Blake, but that’s all you ever promise. I need more.” More than she believed he could give her after tonight.
“Blake, man,” the driver called out, a voice Kara didn’t recognize. “Come the hell on.”
Kara shoved out of Blake’s arms and he let her, and a silent part of her cried out in protest. He’d said nothing about her desire for “more”. Feeling like a wounded puppy, she slid inside the car and as far away from Blake as possible, shrugging out of his jacket and setting it between them.
Blake settled into the seat and shut the door. “Kara, meet our driver, Jesse. He works for Walker Security.”
Jesse lifted a hand. “For the record, I’m smarter than Kyle and Blake. I won’t get drugged. No toilet hugging for me.”
“Funny man,” Blake grumbled. “Just drive the car.”
Kara cringed. Obviously everyone knew about Kyle now. Of course they did. She’d have a bucket load of cranky men to face soon.
Jesse pulled the car away from the curb and Blake moved the jacket, scooting closer to Kara and pulling her tight against his side, his leg molding hers, his hand possessively on her knee. Tingling sensations raced up her thigh to her sex, and guilt twisted in Kara’s gut. How could she want a man who di
dn’t care if her sister lived or died?
Kara reached for Blake’s hand, intending to move it from her leg, only to have his fingers flex on her knee and her hand rest over his. The contact triggered a flashback of him telling her about Whitney’s death. She remembered the torment she’d seen in his eyes at least a hundred times, and she knew why. Guilt. He blamed himself for not saving Whitney. Kara squeezed her eyes shut, recognizing that her emotional pain over her sister had made her blind to his pain over Whitney tonight. Killing Alvarez was all Blake had lived for these past two years, and thinking back to the boat, he’d had plenty of chances to make that fantasy reality. But he hadn’t, and if he’d really intended to, he would have. God, she was such a fool. He’d contained that desperate need, for her.
Kara turned to face him. He seemed to have turned at the same moment, and his hands slid into her hair, framing her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her hands covering his. “I’m just…my sister and—”
“Make sure you can handle what ‘more’ means before you ask for it, Kara.” His mouth came down on hers, his tongue parting her lips, delving deep, and she tasted more than desire on his lips. She tasted absolute need in him, and that need was for her. And for just a few moments, she wanted to block out the world and lose herself in Blake. But the world didn’t like that idea.
Jesse cleared his throat. “Hate to break up the back seat loving, you two,” he said. “But we have company.”
Chapter Four
It had taken them an hour to outsmart whoever was following them. Finally, Kara entered the elevator of the hotel they’d rented a room in earlier in the day. Blake followed her inside. Kara leaned against the wall, taking off her shoes, while Blake punched in their floor and leaned against the opposite wall. Their eyes locked and held, and suddenly, the elevator shrank, and the kiss in the car, the unspoken words and mixed emotions between them that they’d let simmer while running from the cartel, flamed back to life. But neither of them spoke, and she wondered if he was as afraid as she was that they’d end up fighting over the next step in the investigation. And they would. They both knew they would. Before that happened, she wanted to make sure he knew she regretted her reactions tonight.
The elevator dinged and they made their way to their room, and still they didn’t speak. Blake swiped the key and pushed open the door and Kara bit her bottom lip, hesitating with the sudden realization that Kyle was probably still here. They weren’t going to be alone at all, and a fight was definitely about to ensue. She glanced at Blake and he nodded. “Yes. He’s still here.”
She inhaled and let it out. Blake arched a brow when she still didn’t move. “Afraid to face the music?” he asked.
“That about sums it up.”
“Once it’s over, it’s over,” he reminded her.
“Right,” Kara said. “And getting it over with sounds good.” She headed into the room and dropped her shoes by the door. A few more steps inside and she just about swallowed her tongue at the sight of Royce sitting at the hotel desk, his big, burly body making it look like it was meant for a toddler. Luke lounged at a small round wooden table, his MacBook open on top. This was so not good. She needed to be her best to fight this much Walker-bred testosterone, and she wasn’t.
Kara stopped beside the nightstand, not sure what to say or do. Blake stepped to her side, shrugged out of his jacket, and tossed it on the bed. “Where’s Kyle?” he asked.
“Next door,” Royce said, abandoning a surveillance setup Kara assumed to be of the hotel, and rolled his chair around to face her, motioning to the open adjoining room.
Luke snorted. “He prefers privacy while heaving up his guts.”
Kara cringed. “I guess he’s pretty sick?”
Luke surprised her by looking amused rather than angry. “Let’s just say that he won’t live this down anytime soon, but he’ll live.”
“Interestingly enough,” Royce said, fixing a hard stare on Blake, “so did Alvarez.”
Blake leaned a shoulder against the wall, looking as cool as if they were talking about the weather, not the man who had his fiancée slaughtered. “Unfortunately, he not only survived, he thought Kara looked familiar.”
Royce narrowed his eyes on Kara. And man, what a stare that man had. “And why is that?” he asked, making her feel like a school kid reprimanded by the principle.
Kara opened her mouth to defend herself but Blake didn’t give her a chance. “She looks like her sister,” he said flatly, as if he knew for certain. Kara whirled on him, and anticipating her move, he pushed off the wall and faced off with her, and once again beat her to the punch. “He recognized you, Kara.”
“I told you I don’t look like my sister,” she rebutted, barely keeping her voice down, a sign she really didn’t have control right now. No. He did. He had the control. These men she didn’t even know were taking her life by storm.
“Alvarez sure thought you did, sweetheart.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know,” Blake ground out. “And so do you. Your cover’s blown.”
“If my cover’s blown, Blake, then by association, yours is, too.”
“I inherited you from Mendez as far as the cartel is concerned.”
Kara grimaced. “Oh, please. You’ve made sure they all know I’m in your bed.”
“Fucking you and caring about you are two different things.”
The crass words hit her like a blow and Kara stepped backwards. Clearly her romance fantasies were just that. Fantasies. “Right. Thanks for putting it into perspective.”
“Kara,” he said softly. “You took that wrong. I wasn’t talking about reality.”
“No? It seems pretty realistic to me.”
“You know—”
“Don’t,” she bit out. “Not now. Not here.”
Luke cleared his throat. “As much as I hate throwing myself into the obvious war zone, I’m with Blake, Kara. Your cover’s blown.”
Kara threw her hands in the air and turned to Luke. “Do all Walker men think they know it all? You just got here and you weren’t with us on the boat. How can you possibly say my cover is blown?”
Luke turned his computer screen around and Kara sucked in a breath at a large picture of her sister filling the screen. Her heart ached just seeing Myla’s face, and her fist balled over the ache. Blake grabbed her hand and pulled her hard against him, her hands settling on his chest. “You don’t look like her?” he demanded.
She glared at him, all too aware of the similarities between her and Myla. “It was a risk I had to take—and don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done it, too.”
“A risk you won’t be taking again.”
The command in his voice splintered along her nerve endings and she wasn’t letting an audience silence her tongue. “Like you said, Blake, sweetheart, fucking me is not caring about me. It also doesn’t give you ownership over me, no matter how much you seem to think it does. And for the last time, stop manhandling me and let me go—or I swear to you, Blake, I will give you a knee that will make sure you don’t fuck anyone anytime soon.”
Luke barked out laughter and Blake’s eyes sharpened on hers, burning hot with anger. “We’ll finish this when we’re alone.”
“No,” Kara snapped. “We’re just finished, Blake. The end.” She couldn’t fight for her sister while on this rollercoaster of emotions he kept her riding.
“We aren’t even close to finished.”
“Kara!”
Kara jerked around at the roar of her name to find Kyle slumped in the doorway, his blond hair standing on end, his skin a kind of bluish color. “What the hell did you do to me?” he demanded before he gagged and disappeared back into the other room.
Male laugher followed him, but Kara didn’t think it was funny at all. She’d done what she had to tonight, for both her sister, and for Blake—but Kyle had paid the price. She tried to push away from Blake and go after Kyle, but Blake captured her arms, forcing her to look at him. “He�
�s pretty furious right now, Kara,” he warned.
“I can handle furious, especially when it’s deserved. And if you’re afraid I’m going to run out of the other door, I’m not. I know you’d come after me.”
“Yes,” he said softly, his eyes simmering with heat and promise. “I would and I’d catch you. Don’t forget that.”
He let go of her and Kara all but ran away, needing out of this Walker-filled room to get a grip on herself, but Royce didn’t let her. He stood up and stepped in front of her. “You’re a good agent, Kara,” he said, towering over her by about a mile. “You know when it’s time to let go of a cover.”
“If it were your brother—”
“I’d stay alive to keep fighting for him.”
Air rushed from her lungs. “I’m not giving up on my sister.”
“Neither are we.”
“Help us find her from behind the scenes,” Luke suggested. “You’ll know everything that’s happening.”
“We’re in this all the way,” Royce promised. “We would be no matter what, but you’re with Blake. That makes you family.”
A rush of unfamiliar emotions all but doubled Kara over. She wasn’t sure what impacted her more. Her doubt about being with Blake after tonight’s events or the use of the word family. She had no family. She wasn’t sure she had Blake. She wasn’t sure she had Myla.
A loud moan coming from the other room was the escape Kara claimed. “I need to go check on Kyle.” It was lame but it was all she had.
Royce stared at her another few seconds and then stepped aside. Kara wasted no time darting away, and damn it, her eyes were burning. She didn’t even know what she was feeling, just that it was powerful and she couldn’t control it any more than anything else lately, it seemed. What was it about Walker men that did this to her?
Inside the next room, Kyle was nowhere in sight and she kept moving toward the bathroom, needing to do something, anything, to keep from crumbling. Rounding the doorway, she found Kyle sitting against the wall between the toilet and the sink, head against the wall, eyes shut, knees lifted.
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