by Mia Downing
“Do you think Aaron is involved?” she asked.
“No, but Celia has been interested in him, and we’re not sure why besides her being a two-timing whore and Aaron being…Aaron. She’s made a few connections and has arranged a few meetings that have tossed red flags all over the place. Jake doesn’t need his brother messed up in that nonsense.”
She lifted her chin, all regal defiance. “Then going to England will be a breath of fresh air. I won’t have to fake an accent.” Her tone implied that she wouldn’t have to deal with them, either.
“There’s no need to be pissy, Char,” Chase said with disapproval. But then his face softened. “You know I love you, sweetheart, but I can’t change what happened to you. And yeah, I fucked up with Kate, but I can’t…” He blew out a deep breath. “I can’t not move forward with my life because of your past.” He glanced at Jake and corrected, “We can’t not move forward.”
She closed her eyes, and for a brief moment, the depth of sadness she carried with her every day oozed out around the armor. The dragon defiance crumbled. “I’m sorry.”
“We know you are. Come here,” Chase ordered softly. She slunk to Chase, and this time, Jake rose to hug her, too, his arm wrapped between Chase’s body and hers, the three of them intertwined. This was what Tia would have a hard time understanding, something Kate still didn’t get, how they could love Charlotte this fiercely and not be romantically involved.
But this time, Charlotte buried her face against Jake’s shirt as she whispered, “I’ve been rude. You are my boys, and I should be thrilled you’ve found women who are either brave enough or stupid enough to put up with you both. It…it hurts, though. It hurts so much.”
“We know,” they said at the same time, and it often freaked Jake out that they thought on the same wavelength when it came to Charlotte. Most of the time.
She looked up at Chase. “Promise me you’ll move on my endgame? You’ll let me put the past to rest?”
Jake met Chase’s gaze over her head, his buddy’s brown eyes echoing his own fear. She wanted to face the motherfuckers who took everything from her. She wanted revenge, knowing it was suicidal.
The fact that she’d remind them of this, now, bespoke deeper pain than either of them realized. They’d thought her happy enough, marking time, working, being busy. But the fact that her two men were settling down rattled her. Maybe their jealous dragon queen yearned for a mate of her own, only she was too scared to admit it.
“Sweetheart, we’re doing everything we can,” Jake reminded, though it was a lie. They were doing everything they could to keep her busy, out of harm’s way. Granted, their brand of busy was deadly work, but it was safer than facing the motherfuckers.
“We’ll move when it’s time,” Chase agreed. The look he shot Jake said that time would come over his dead body.
Charlotte returned her cheek to Jake’s chest, and he felt her hard swallow through his sternum. “Jacob? Try not to knock this woman of yours up too soon, okay? I don’t think I can handle two babies at the same time. Promise me?”
Jake met Chase’s gaze again with a half of a sad smile and Chase glared. If only Charlotte knew how planned Kate’s pregnancy had been. “I promise.”
She looked up at Chase. “And you. Warn Kate that I’ll do my best, but this will be hard. I haven’t dealt with a pregnant woman since…you know. It’s nothing personal. As badly as I hate to admit it…she’s not so bad.”
Chase chuckled and hugged her closer. “High praise from the dragon queen.”
Jake met Chase’s gaze again and saw relief that echoed his. It meant so much to them for Charlotte to accept their changes, their women. So hard to ask of someone so sad and lonely, despite having two men who loved her.
But theirs wasn’t the love Charlotte needed to move on. She needed toe-curling, heart pounding, life-affirming love, the kind you’d ride a bull for or leap from a plane for or… He had no clue what Charlotte would do to catch a man’s eye, but that was the kind of love she needed to make her forget her plans for suicidal missions and her need to die.
Jake made a vow to find someone for Charlotte to love. Chase wouldn’t like that, being the possessive one, but Jake liked the idea enough to decide that Charlotte needed a hot fuck and some living that had nothing to do with work and motherfuckers.
Charlotte glanced up at Chase. “Tell me you’ll feed me. I’m starving.”
“I don’t have enough food to feed a starving dragon queen.” Chase sighed, and they untangled themselves from their embrace. He methodically began cleaning up bullet casings, making everything neat again. “What did you do with Steve?”
“He went to that club of yours,” she said with deep distaste, taking a box of ammo from Chase. “Tried to get me to join him. Thank fuck he was on the phone and not in person or I would have shot him.”
“Maybe that’s why he tried to lure you downtown on the phone,” Jake observed. He would have to look farther than Steve to satisfy Charlotte’s need for love and affection. “Can’t fault the man for trying.”
“I’ll kill any man who tries,” she vowed. “I have an endgame. Women on an endgame path do not need to be fucked and then cuddled.”
“We just cuddled you,” Chase reminded her softly with a smile.
She glared. “Because I let you. You boys are softer than women, needing cuddling and hugs from me all the time. I put up with it so you’ll shut up and leave me alone.” She huffed. “Maybe it’s good you both have women of your own now. Less hugging I’ll have to put up with.”
Jake sighed, and they headed back to the house. A man befitting of the dragon queen’s love would have to be really strong or borderline insane. But somehow, he’d find her a love of her own. And he prayed she wouldn’t kill the poor guy.
****
Jake, Chase, and Charlotte entered the house through the mud room. Jake was feeling pretty optimistic and couldn’t wait to see how Tia had faired with Kate. The bonding time had been enough to ensure they would eventually have a friendship again, and Charlotte had taken the news of the baby quite well. All would be good if he could convince Tia that Monday didn’t need to change anything.
“Kate?” Chase called as he unloaded his new rifle. “You think they killed each other?”
“I hope they’re in bed,” Jake said as he kicked the dirt from his boots. The thought of both Kate and Tia in bed together was almost too much for him to handle. So beautiful, Kate all blonde, Tia smaller, darker, so exotic. He loved a good fantasy. Girl on girl was even better.
“Perverts.” Charlotte snorted with disgust.
“Kate?” Chase frowned and took a step, and then put his hand to Jake’s chest. He put a finger to his lips and pointed down. A few droplets of blood dotted the white marble tile in the kitchen. Jake’s heart leapt to his throat, hammering at a mile a minute. Blood was never good. Chase reloaded the rifle while Jake and Charlotte pulled and readied their handguns.
On Chase’s nod, they moved. The three systematically entered each room, Jake feeling surreal having to clear his best friend’s home. Maybe they were upstairs, maybe they couldn’t hear… The house was eerily silent, the only noise being Chase’s soft, “clear,” as they finished a room. The number of rooms dwindled, and the panic Jake held at bay grew to a thundering head.
Finally, the last area was the basement, and Chase led the way. They cleared that room, and there was nothing left other than the truth—the women were gone. The blood on the floor didn’t bode well for a shopping trip.
“Fuck,” Chase whispered.
Jake echoed that. “So where do we go from here?”
“Guns. We need guns.” Chase strode to the room in the finished basement he used to store his gun collection and unlocked it with a code on a keypad. Charlotte and Jake followed through the door Chase had opened, and Jake scanned the small room. Guns of all types lined the walls, some on racks, others in cases on shelves. Rifles, pistols, some antique, some new. All deadly.
; “We don’t know what we’re up against,” Jake reminded.
“Guns always help.” Chase grabbed the hard case of the shelf that held his modified .308, the rifle he used for accuracy. Sniping off rooftops, at a distance. He opened the case, and sucked in a breath. Jake leaned in—a white envelope sat on top of the gun, lettered LOTS. Chase looked at Jake. “Lord of the Spies.”
“Kate.”
Chase tore it open and read it, then closed his eyes for a moment. Jake had never seen him look more terrified, his face paler than the paper he held.
“Jesus, what did she do?”
Chase handed Jake the letter, and Charlotte read over his shoulder.
I’m so sorry, because if you’re reading this, then I really fucked up. I lied about being tailed. That’s why I rigged the house with surveillance equipment. I also put a GPS chip in the locket you gave me. The program to activate it is loaded into the work laptop—directions in a file labeled GPS. If you can’t understand it, call Steve. He knows about the program. You should be able to find me if he decides to take me hostage. I don’t know who he is, or why he wants me, but it’s the nature of the business, I guess. Game over—he won.
I thought I could handle this. I thought I didn’t need to be under your thumb 24/7. If you’re reading this because I’m gone, then I was definitely wrong.
If you’re reading this because you feel like sniping someone else, then you’re a jerk.
But I love you anyway.
TNT.
“Your woman is fucking crazy,” Charlotte observed, but her tone was more impressed than pissed or afraid.
Jake stared at the letter, then at Chase, who stood statue still. “I’ll get the laptop and call Steve for backup. Charlotte, you run her security footage.”
Charlotte nodded and went to do as ordered.
Chase stared at the gun, his face so emotionless. Jake had never seen him freeze like this before. It was as if he didn’t know what to do, and the man knew more than anyone. Jake slapped him on the back, needing him to start moving the mountains to bring home their women. He didn’t dare let fear in, because his mind would be filled with all of the horrible things men did to pretty girl spies. And his women weren’t suffering that, not on his watch.
“We’ll get them back, Chase. She fucked up, but at least she was smart enough to cover her ass. She left you enough to find her.”
“They could be dead already.”
“You have to believe that Kate knows her stuff. Tia is smart, she’s cunning, and she has a lot of experience under her belt. She’ll keep Kate out of trouble if she can, for the sake of the baby if nothing else.”
Jake realized with a start that he liked that about Tia—he didn’t have that driving need to protect her, like he did Kate. Sexually, yes. But not here, in a work capacity. And though a part of him thought it was wrong not to want to protect the woman he loved, a part of him said it was just right. He was scared as hell for both of them, terrified he would lose Tia, that he’d never see her again, hold her again. But his girl was a scrapper. She didn’t get this far in life with a set of wimpy balls. And he wouldn’t have her any other way.
If she did die, his only regret would be that she never believed that he loved her.
Chapter Nineteen
Tia came to with a start, realizing she was tied to a chair, facing a stove in a dirty apartment. The sun was just starting to come up by the shadows on the wall, and hell if she wasn’t surprised that she was still alive.
Blondie. Tia looked around and found Kate on her left, bound to a chair. Damn it, the bitch made bondage look good, the ropes crisscrossing her body, accentuating her breasts, her waist. Her hair was loose now, shoulder length with not a snarl. The younger woman took in a deep breath, her eyes closed, her face white but calm. Fearless, even.
“Blondie, why didn’t you run when I told you to?” Tia couldn’t believe the bitch didn’t run. She could have saved herself. But no, Blondie had to protect Tia instead. Stupid blonde.
“You’ve come to?” Blondie faced straight ahead, eyes still closed looking way too peaceful for a hostage situation.
“No, I’m cursing you from unconsciousness. What happened?”
“He knocked you out. I had to wait until he had his knife clear of your throat to run. But he jumped me and I went down. He knocked me out, too. And here we are.”
“Lovely. You know where he went?”
“No. I’ve been awake for a while, though.” Blondie shifted as much as the ropes would allow and opened her eyes to glance at Tia. “I think he used some chemical to knock us out longer, though. I don’t feel so good.”
Tia rolled her eyes. Of course he used something. She tasted inside her mouth. From the slight sweetness, she guessed plain old chloroform. “Didn’t they do that to you as practice? So you’d know what it was like, and so you’d know how to use it yourself?”
A faint smile passed her perfect lips. “I doubt Chase would allow anyone to knock me out on purpose.”
“Yeah, well, he should have.”
There was a long pause. Blondie closed her eyes and went back to looking fearless. Then she opened them and looked at Tia.
“So when he comes back, you know he’ll rape me first,” she whispered. “Just let him. Please. I don’t have the strength to fight him. If you let him take his time, Chase and Jake will come by then. They can save you.”
“How do you know they’ll come?”
“I have to apologize—I got myself into this, and you’re my collateral damage. I knew I was being followed, and I was stupid. I was going to prove to Chase once and for all I could take care of myself.”
“What did you do?” Jesus, no wonder she made a great partner for Jake. She was every bit as crazy.
“I lied about being tailed. I was, I knew it, and I wasn’t going to let Chase know. I was going to handle things on my own. And obviously it backfired.”
“You think?”
“Hindsight is twenty/twenty.”
Yes, it was, but it didn’t solve how they were going to escape. Tia struggled a bit, testing the ropes. Too tight. “How are they going to find us? We don’t even know where we are.”
“Am I still wearing a locket?”
Tia strained to look over. The gold locket was there, hanging from the perfect neck she wanted to strangle. “Yeah.”
“I installed a GPS chip in it. I left Chase directions on how to use the program I made to run it. It will get them close enough to find us if the battery doesn’t die.”
Tia stared at her. “You did all that, but you couldn’t just tell him you were being followed.”
“Did Jake tell you what Chase did? He planned my pregnancy so he could banish me from danger. He took away the last thing I had control over—whether or not I would be a mom. And quite honestly, I didn’t want to bring a kid into this. Any of this. I wasn’t going to let him lock me away in the house for six months.”
“You married him knowing he was controlling.”
“It’s what I love and hate about him.” Kate went still again, her face quiet. “All I wanted was to show them I wasn’t a damsel in distress, that I was stronger than they thought. I was wrong. So just tell them I’m sorry. Please?”
They. Them. She meant Jake as well as Chase.
“That’s it? You’re not going to fight.” Tia stared straight ahead at the dingy stove, wanting nothing more than to kick her ass from here to China, where the stove was made.
With a start, Tia finally understood what Jake meant in the danger of giving up. To give up the power meant there was no chance, like now, when Blondie just admitted that she was done. If Kate were to give in and accept the situation, she would still hold control. No way in hell was Tia going down without a fight, not when Jake waited for her.
Did she believe? Tia swallowed, hard. She didn’t know if she believed that Jake loved her, but she knew he was out there, somewhere, trying to save them. She was his partner and that right there was reason enough fo
r him to hunt them down. And Chase would go to the ends of the Earth to find Kate. If they fought, then maybe…maybe there’d be time in the future for Tia to learn to trust. Learn to believe.
Somehow, Tia had to get Blondie to give in, accept their situation, so she could fight when the time was right. “Damn you. You hold both Chase and Jake’s hearts in your hands, and you’re going to surrender.”
“I know. I m weak. Pathetic even.” The faint smile appeared again, her eyes still closed.
“Get off your ass and fight him, so we can get out of here. Be a real spy, for Christ’s sake. You have two men who want you. A baby on the way. Fight, damn you.”
“It’s all I can do to sit here and not scream.”
Tia snorted and looked away. Weak, rookie Blondie. “I don’t know why they love you.”
“You think what you want to think, but I know Jake loves you. You have his heart, now. Not me. He took you home.”
Yeah, right. Stupid, possessive house. “And what about Chase?”
“He’ll be sad.” Kate sucked in a deep breath, one that made Tia look at her with a growing concern she really didn’t want or need at this point.
“What’s wrong with you? I know he didn’t shoot you. Did you break something when you fell?”
“I’m having a miscarriage, I think. Chloroform and babies don’t mix.” She shifted in the chair.
A miscarriage… Tia stared, her heart hammering in her chest at those words. Not a glimmer of the pain Kate must be feeling showed on her perfect face. Tia knew pain. If Kate could lose a child and not scream, she was one tough cookie. And unfortunately, Tia had a thing for tough girls.
Kate sighed. The pain must have passed, but she looked sickly pale and green, all at the same time. She gave Tia an apologetic look. “I’m surprised you didn’t realize. They tell me I can’t lie for beans.”