by Lora Leigh
At least, not this week.
Thankfully she knew how to be quick as well.
The short, casual white chiffon skirt and matching white cami tank were already laid out, along with strappy, flat thong sandals. She’d intended to pack and leave after she’d had her coffee and a piece of the crumb cake she’d made the night before for the drive home. It was a good thing she’d made a full pan rather than just a few muffin-sized ones.
Brushing her hair, she pulled it over her shoulder and quickly braided it. Maybe while he was arguing with her, Falcon would braid it for her. Her hair hadn’t been properly braided since she left Arlington, come to think of it. She hadn’t had a chance to get to her favorite hairdresser either. But Falcon had always found such pleasure in playing with her hair that she actually found it quite relaxing.
Damn, this was messing with her intended schedule. Her family was expecting her home soon. She was supposed to leave in a matter of hours if she wanted to get there tonight in time to get some sleep before Sunday breakfast.
She’d promised her sister Aunjenue she’d been there tonight as well. Evidently Auna was having problems with some guy and wanted to talk to Summer about it. Auna, love her heart, had far too many admirers.
Finishing the braid and tying it off, Summer checked the mirror quickly. No makeup was required, she didn’t believe. She was going for casual yet relaxed. She looked fine.
Good enough for a former partner and his current partner at least.
The thought of that current partner had her inhaling without regret, but still, a bit of bitter sweetness. She and Falcon had worked very well together. The few times he’d convinced his brother Raeg to join them, Raeg had actually put aside his animosity for her, and they’d functioned so well that when he’d left, she’d found herself missing him.
When Raeg wasn’t being a prick, when he wasn’t trying to make her feel like she wasn’t only helpless, but just shy of an actual IQ quotient, then she’d been fascinated by him. He was quick, as intelligent as Falcon and just as instinctive on a mission. He could look at the operational plan, pick its flaws apart, and by time he and Falcon finished yelling out the strengths and weaknesses of each move, it was flawless.
Senator’s chief of staff indeed. She suspected he did far more for Davis Allen than any chief of staff had ever been wrangled into. She remembered her godfather nearly having a melt-down when Raeg had mentioned resigning the year before and perhaps doing something else. He hadn’t just gotten a handsome pay raise as incentive to stay, but several exceptional perks as well.
And when he and his half brother, Falcon, were together, it was like finally getting a glimpse of the heart and soul of both men. Apart, they simply lacked something that came together whenever they worked side by side.
They were an interesting combination. Unfortunately, she’d only had a chance to work with them together a few times. Once Raeg returned to his duties with the senator, the prick came back in full strength and it was like trying to get along with a rabid wolf.
A roughly handsome, sexy-as-hell, but still entirely rabid wolf.
Smiling at the analogy she left the bedroom and swept through the beach house. The wide hallway, open living room, dining and kitchen areas had seaside views, full-length windows, and a multitude of French doors left open, long white sheers fluttering in the sweet breeze drifting through the house.
She could have actually stayed a few more days before heading to her hometown, just to be certain she wasn’t being followed. There was an odd certainty she might be, but once she’d glimpsed the Suburban Falcon used for long-distance trips, she had a pretty good idea who was shadowing her.
He just wasn’t giving up …
Sweet Jesus.
And here she thought she was one of his favorite little Southern girls.
If that were the case, Falcon wouldn’t be standing in the kitchen as she stepped from the bedroom with the one partner guaranteed to give her a headache. Because if she wasn’t on the mission with them, then she was still public enemy number one.
This wasn’t a mission, which meant Raeg was going to make her completely insane. And no doubt, the second his lips opened …
“And here Falcon blubbered into his beer for hours over the mutilated hair,” Raeg snorted, leaning lazily against the white wood and marble counter, a smirk tilting his lips as his gaze went over her. “I even felt sorry for him.”
From the corner of her eye she watched Falcon shoot his brother a hard glare. A warning. Which wasn’t exactly unheard of between the two of them.
“I see he survived it.” She lifted a brow as she shot Falcon a grin. “None the worse for wear, right?”
Falcon merely snorted. She’d one-upped him, he wouldn’t be angry over it, but she’d never get away with it again.
Damn, there were days she was certain she just might love Falcon far more than she suspected. He hid his powerful, stubborn will with an easy charm that even managed to keep her at ease, and had a habit of charming her out of any anger she might feel far too quickly. Wicked and sensual and filled with teasing warmth, she’d missed him more than she wanted to admit.
But then, she’d missed his exasperating, infuriating brother just the same.
“He was fine after I convinced him there wasn’t a chance in hell you’d cut your crowning glory.” Raeg slid his brother a mocking look. “I’m disappointed he didn’t know better at the time though.”
Mr. Know-It-All, she thought. No wonder Falcon was glaring at him.
“I’m just curious how you knew I wouldn’t cut it,” she muttered, moving for the coffeemaker on the kitchen island. “You must have taken your smart pill that morning.”
Wasn’t she the lucky one that he didn’t take one every morning?
Raeg merely grinned rather than rising to the bait.
What the hell was up with him?
“You disappoint me, Summer,” Falcon told her, shaking his head as he shot her a teasing frown. “Trying to trick me rather than talking to me was not nice.”
She glanced toward the Heavens. God love his heart, talking to him had never gotten her anywhere before. He’d just end up sweet-talking her into wherever he needed her to go at any given time.
“Since when did talking to you work when you didn’t want to hear what I had to say?” she asked him, dumping some coffee beans into the grinder. “I was tired of talking, Falcon.”
She flipped the grinder on.
No one spoke as the scent of freshly ground coffee filled the air. Once it finished, she leveled the finely ground beans into the coffeemaker’s metal basket and turned the machine on.
“You didn’t have to make me think you had cut all your beautiful hair,” Falcon informed her, moving to the cabinets to collect their cups. “I was grieving, Summer. I believe I may have wanted to cry.”
She believed he was full of it.
“He was pathetic,” Raeg agreed in disgust. “Cursing and whining. Then he was waxing poetic. In Spanish even.”
In Spanish?
She slid Falcon an amused look. He rarely used his native language, but when he did, it was worth listening to. Though waxing poetic wasn’t normally his style when he erupted into a full-scale Spanish temper tantrum as she’d seen him do. It was usually some of the most inventive curses she believed she’d probably heard in her life.
Then there were the times he’d use all five languages he knew in one eruption of enraged sentences. She admitted those displays were completely mesmerizing. An education even when he really got into it.
“I’m sending him back to Arlington.” Falcon nodded toward his brother. “In a body bag. Next time I bring him out to play it will be in a muzzle.”
She almost laughed. Yeah, she could really see that one happening. There were many, many times she wished she could put a muzzle on Raeg herself. Sometimes, he actually deserved to be in one.
“I didn’t ask to be included this time,” Raeg seemed to remind him, his expression dark
ening.
“And I didn’t invite you,” Falcon retorted without any true anger. Yet. “But now that you are here, stop being an asshole and figure out where she’d be hiding that cake. I can smell it.”
She shot him an infuriated look. She simply couldn’t believe him.
Damn him. She had really hoped to get by without him detecting that cake.
“Oh for pity’s sake,” Summer muttered, pulling open the oven door to reveal the aluminum tin filled with the cinnamony fresh crumb cake. “You’re like an old hound dog sniffing out bones.”
Raeg chuckled, though Falcon dived for the pan.
“One day, I will kiss your momma’s cheek,” Falcon promised as he pulled the sweet treat from the oven as though it were gold.
He was just too easy to please sometimes.
“Too bad Summer can’t bake,” Raeg pointed out mockingly. “Or cook. I thought all good Southern mothers taught their daughters to cook before they were ten?”
Summer merely shrugged. Let him say what he wanted, she and her momma knew the truth, and that was all that mattered.
“If she baked this delight, we would marry her,” Falcon swore with almost gleeful pleasure. “Perhaps I can convince her momma to marry us. I think I could do so if I thought she’d bake for us often.”
Summer just dropped her head and stared at the floor, shaking her head. Just when she had managed to convince herself to forget the fact that it was one for all and all for one with those two, one of them just had to remind her.
At the sound of the coffeemaker completing its cycle she poured the coffee into the cups Falcon had placed next to her, aware of Raeg searching the cupboards until he found dessert plates and forks.
Carrying the three cups to the table, she placed one in front of Falcon as he guarded the cake pan—no doubt terrorists worldwide were after her cake—while Raeg set a plate and fork by each cup.
“You think he’s going to share that cake?” Raeg asked as they took their chairs and stared at Falcon expectantly.
Falcon cut the cake though, placed generous portions on each plate, then immediately dug into his with the most sensual sound of pleasure. That little hum of love went straight between her thighs and sent a pulse of aching need through her entire system.
Damn him. Far too charming by far.
“We’re going to have to make this a quick visit,” she told them. Evidently they had no intentions of telling her why they were there.
“And this would be why?” Falcon spared her no more than a quick glance as he forked another bite of cake into his mouth, obviously in no hurry to finish the sweet.
“Because I have to leave. I’d already be packing if I hadn’t spotted the Suburban parked in the carpool area where you thought you were hiding.” She gave them both a chiding look. “Really? Did you think I wouldn’t see you there?”
Evidently, that was exactly what they thought.
“How did you know who it was?” Raeg leaned back in his chair regarding her curiously rather than hatefully as he normally did.
Maybe he was ill this week.
Or maybe he was working an operation with Falcon, which meant her former partner had no intention whatsoever of paying attention when she said she was finished. Not that working with both Raeg and Falcon couldn’t be fun, because it could be.
She simply knew it was time for her to get out. To continue heading out knowing that would be the same as signing her own death warrant.
“Falcon keeps forgetting to have the Suburban painted, and the scuffs on the front are very distinctive. And they show up real good in sunlight,” she answered Raeg.
Falcon was too busy stuffing his face to do more than roll his eyes at the reminder. But since his hair had drifted over his brow, falling to partially obscure one eye, and he looked too damned sexy for words, she wouldn’t hold it against him.
“This cake…” Falcon sighed, tipping his fork toward the few bites left. “I am in love with your momma, Summer. She has stolen my heart. I’m telling you, Raeg and I will marry her. I’m certain we could slip her right past your father and steal her completely away.”
Once again, Raeg simply slid his brother a doubtful look.
Sipping her coffee to hide her smile, she ignored the look Raeg turned on her then. God only knew what he was thinking. It was equal parts suspicion and chiding amusement, and not a look she’d ever received from him. As though he knew far more than she wanted him to know, and had every intention of using it to his advantage. The look actually excited her more than it should have and left her just a tad breathless.
Remaining silent while they finished their cake, Summer sipped her coffee, merely picking at her own portion. She knew Falcon and Raeg had something on their minds, and she was terribly afraid that saying no to both of them would be impossible.
A hunter always knew when it was time to find their hole and learn how to hide, Summer thought painfully. They realized when they couldn’t handle the blood and the death, the lies and the danger any longer. She’d reached that point before the Russian operation, but she’d kept going because she hated walking away from Falcon and Raeg forever. And it would be forever, she’d known. Whatever haunted the two men, she’d never learned, just as she had no idea how to get past it.
“Falcon, you seem to be ignoring the fact that I told you I have to leave,” she finally told him gently when he’d nearly finished his cake.
She didn’t want to argue with him. In the time she’d worked with him, she’d glimpsed a gentleness, a warmth in him that both intrigued her and endeared him to her.
“Summer…” he began.
“Falcon.” She leaned forward, staring back at him imploringly. “I don’t want to have to run from you again, but I just can’t do it anymore. You didn’t want to listen before. You keep hunting me down, and all I want is to find some peace. If I go out again, feeling this way, I’ll die, and we both know it.”
She had to make him understand before he began making his play for her to join them in whatever job they had taken.
“I realized that when I saw the lengths you would go to in escaping me.” Pushing his fingers through his hair, he sat back and regarded her silently for a moment. “I wish I could continue to leave you to find your peace, sweetheart. Raeg and I both do. But that isn’t possible now.”
“You don’t want me going out on a job with you ever again,” she advised him painfully. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise. I’ll end up getting both of us killed.”
“I know this, Summer.”
“They why are you here? With him?” She gestured angrily to Raeg as he sat silently, simply watching her, his eagle-like gaze far too intent. “For God’s sake, Falcon—”
Raeg smacked a picture down on the table.
Staring down at it, Summer felt everything inside her freeze in shock as she recognized the girl.
And she knew. In that moment, Summer knew peace was once again elusive, and hell was waiting instead.
Chapter
TWO
The picture was of a younger version of herself. Barely eighteen, her eyes more blue than violet, her smile more open, filled with warmth and joy. The young woman stood in front of a Main Street clothing store with several other girls, their expressions animated as they stared at the long, formal dress in the window.
“Aunjenue.” She whispered her sister’s name.
It wasn’t the only picture.
The four-by-six photos Raeg tossed onto the table in front of her featured her family, from at different times. Her brothers—though the picture of her eldest brother Caleb wasn’t there—Momma and Daddy, cousins, several aunts. And two of her mother shopping with Aunjenue.
They were surveillance photos.
“The envelope these came in was addressed to me,” Raeg told her quietly. “Inside was this note.”
He placed it carefully on top of the photos.
Summer Calhoun, Cliffton, Georgia
Not Summer Bartlett. Summ
er Calhoun.
“Who? How?” She shook her head.
She had been careful. Very careful. Even the name Summer Bartlett wasn’t ever used on an operation. Her codename Belle was the only one she’d ever used.
She was caught by Raeg’s gaze, the piercing golden brown predatory color was cool, watchful, waiting. Waiting to see if it was her fault? To point out how she’d messed up? She hadn’t messed up. She was too careful for that.
“Who did this?” she whispered, lips numb, fighting to process how this could have happened. “How did they do this?”
The implacable expression on Raeg’s face never changed as he answered her. “Dragovich.”
The word struck at her with a force that caused her to flinch.
The Russian crime lord had come in on her as she was retrieving a flash drive from his laptop at his office in Moscow that contained sensitive military information. Information he’d paid a premium for.
He’d shot her in her shoulder from the back as she jumped through a second-story window to the balcony. Falcon had been waiting in the SUV just below the edge of the balcony, and when she managed to drop to it and into the open sun roof, he’d sped away, ensuring no one identified her. When they’d finally managed to get out of Russia, they’d left enough suspicion that she’d died that she was certain he wasn’t even looking for her.
“How?” Linking her fingers together at her lap, she clenched tight, pulling back the shock, the fear to find that center where the cool agent rather than the woman torn with panic existed. “How did he learn my identity? Find my family? No one knew I was there but…”
That was all it took—the knowledge of who had known her identity and the fact that Dragovich would pay just about any price to acquire it.
“Just the team,” Falcon confirmed. “You, me, Gia.”
Gia. The friend Summer had been forced to kill to save Falcon.
“She sold Dragovich the information just after your arrival at that last job the three of you took to protect Alyssa Hampstead,” Raeg confirmed. “Payment was made and the file sent electronically just days before…”