by LENA DIAZ,
“Plan of attack?” Melissa didn’t like how ominous that sounded.
Jace glanced at Devlin, then Mason. “Full disclosure?”
Devlin sat forward beside Jace with his arms crossed on the table and immediately nodded. Everyone else waited for Mason. He stared at Melissa from the other side of the table for a long moment before giving an obviously reluctant nod.
“I have a feeling I’m not going to like this,” Melissa muttered.
“You already know the Council consists of six members,” Mason told her. “The leader, Adam Marsh, was at your father’s house tonight, along with three others. You also know the other two were killed. A few hours after the Council meeting, the remaining four members disappeared.”
“Disappeared?” Her stomach dropped, and she was glad she hadn’t eaten much pizza. “You think someone killed them?”
“It’s possible. Or they might have been abducted,” Mason said.
“Why would someone do that?”
“I don’t know.”
She glanced around the table, her stomach dropping at the looks of sympathy in most of their eyes, and the lack of it in Mason’s. “You think my father is behind whatever happened.”
No one said anything. The answer was obvious.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Jace’s warm hand pressed against her back, his thumb rubbing slow, soothing circles, and somehow calming her. Instead of engaging in an argument with Mason, she pressed her lips together and leaned into Jace’s side, grateful to have an anchor in the stormy sea that her life had become.
“We need to keep an open mind,” Jace reminded them. “Cyprian was with Melissa and me for much of the night. It would have been difficult for him to arrange the Council members’ disappearance.”
Devlin shook his head. “I know you’re trying to be fair. But all signs point to Cyprian. He could have easily arranged everything well before tonight’s meeting, or even right after you two left. We have to assume he could be the one pulling the strings, especially since he has the most to gain. Without the Council, he’ll have free rein to do as he pleases. And he won’t have to worry about this so-called Watcher the Council assigned to keep an eye on him. Cyprian’s power will be absolute. Things just got a whole lot more dangerous around here.”
“Maybe the Watcher is the one with everything to gain,” Jace suggested. “Melissa and I think he might be Stefano Conti, an enforcer whose mother works for Cyprian as a live-in housekeeper.”
“We’ll have to check him out,” Devlin said. “We’ve been investigating several enforcers who are stationed here locally. We’ll keep looking into them as well.”
“I don’t understand,” Melissa said. “The Council works for the government to oversee my father, right?”
Devlin nodded.
“Then, if something happens to them, the government would just create a new Council, wouldn’t they?”
“Not necessarily, or at least, not right away. The Council is autonomous. EXIT isn’t like any other alphabet agency. EXIT’s true nature and association with the government is a closely guarded secret to protect the government if EXIT is ever exposed. Although there are people sprinkled in the various agencies who know bits and pieces, we don’t think there are many who know the whole picture. Mainly it’s just the Council members who know, and, of course, the few people who’ve spent thousands of hours putting it all together.” He waved at the others. “Us.”
“What he’s saying,” Jace said, “is that if the Council is destroyed, we think there will be barely a ripple among the few contacts in the government who know about EXIT’s true purpose. To them, their communiqués and requests for funding or collaboration would still come across the same, secret channels. They’d have no reason to suspect anything had substantially changed at EXIT. It would mostly be transparent. Which means, whoever is behind this current scheme stands to gain everything. And if they succeed, no one will remain to stop them. All of the power over life and death that EXIT maintains will be concentrated in one person, with no safeguards to keep them from wielding the company as the ultimate weapon. And that would make EXIT ten times more dangerous than it is today.”
She shivered as a chill of foreboding swept through her. “Even from what little I’ve learned about the power in the enforcement side, if you’re right about this, it sounds terrifying.”
Murmurs of agreement sounded from around the table.
“I agree,” Jace said. “Which is why we can’t afford to make any assumptions. While it seems that Cyprian might be behind the disappearance of the remaining Council members, we have to consider that he might not be. It could be Stefano, acting on his own. Or even one of the Council members attempting his own takeover.”
He looked at the men around the table. “And don’t forget the Watcher. I believe he’s probably Stefano. But he might be someone else. Either way, we can’t be sure of his motives and what his role is in all of this. We have no idea how he fits into the grand plan. Maybe without the Council to guide him, he’ll go back to being an enforcer. Or maybe he’s working with whoever kidnapped the remaining Council members. We really have no idea what we’re up against.”
“And on that cheerful note,” Austin said, pushing his wheelchair away from the table, “I’m going to brush my teeth and get ready for lights out. We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow.” He zipped through the room like a rocket, surprising Melissa with how fast he could maneuver even though the floor was covered in a bumpy, steel-mesh material.
“He’s right,” Devlin said, keeping his voice low. “Except for the ‘we’ part. I promised him he could help, by driving us around in his van and keeping watch. But I only did that to get him to quit asking. I don’t want my brother coming with us. He’s just a few weeks out of rehab, and he’s not a former enforcer or former Navy SEAL. It’s too damn dangerous to involve him. When we leave in the morning, everyone needs to be stealthy about it. I don’t want Austin to know we’re gone until it’s too late for him to try to tag along.”
Everyone nodded as they stood and gathered their trash to throw it out.
“That doesn’t seem fair,” Melissa said to Jace, as they moved away from the table. “I’m sure Austin could help in some capacity. And he wants to. Shouldn’t that be his choice?”
“I’m sure he could, too. But he’s Devlin’s brother. That’s between the two of them.”
She wasn’t sure she agreed, but she didn’t argue. “What are the plans? What is everyone going to do in the morning?”
“Devlin, Mason, and Ramsey will follow up on some leads about where the Council members might have been taken.”
“When did you hear about these leads?”
“While you were eating, I suppose.”
“Oh, I remember,” she grumbled. “That was when everyone was ignoring me and huddled together whispering.”
“Now, Mel. We weren’t completely ignoring you.”
“Uh-huh. And what are we doing tomorrow?”
“We are going to stay here and dig into Stefano’s background to see if his identity as the Watcher holds up. If it doesn’t, we’ll look deeper into those other people you already noted that you’d seen regularly at the office in the past few months who might not have been there on a regular basis before then. Those are our most likely candidates to be the Watcher.”
“But we already discussed them.”
“We’ll discuss them again. And try to get more information about them.”
“Doesn’t sound exciting.”
“Exciting, no. Important, yes. We have to figure out who all the players are and what’s at stake. And I also want you to be safe. That’s my number one priority.”
When he looked at her with such concern, how could she complain? “Okay. I guess there could be worse assignments. Although I don’t look forward to dealing with Austin’s disappointment when he realizes the others left without him.”
A metallic scraping noise had her glancing around. Alarm shot through her
as she realized the men were setting up cots throughout the room. “Um, Jace? Where am I sleeping tonight?”
He grinned. “What, you don’t relish the idea of bunking out on a cot in a basement with a bunch of men you barely know?”
“It’s not at the top of my bucket list, no.”
Austin rolled back into the room, waving at her and wheeling over to his brother.
She counted the cots that had been set up. “Only five? There are six of us. And I’m pretty sure those are too narrow for two people.”
“That’s one of the things I like about you. That steel trap mind of yours,” he teased. He crossed to the cot nearest to them and picked it up, tucking the blanket and pillow beneath his arm. “You and I are sleeping upstairs.”
He put his other hand on her back and led her toward the elevator.
“You and me?” she whispered, her body flushing hot at the idea of spending the night with him. Maybe the cot wasn’t too narrow after all.
“Of course. You don’t think I’d let you sleep with all of these guys do you?” he whispered back, punctuating his comment with a wink.
She swatted his arm and stepped inside past the already open doors, which was one of the “smart” features Devlin had bragged about at dinner when he’d talked about the retrofitting they’d done to this house. Whichever floor the elevator was at, the doors would stay open by default: definitely a convenience instead of someone having to push the button and wait for the doors to slide open. Why hadn’t anyone else ever thought of that when designing elevators?
As soon as Jace pushed the button for the ground floor, the thick, heavy, steel doors zipped shut—instant safe room, according to Devlin’s bragging at dinner. And it had all been designed with Austin in mind.
But Austin obviously hadn’t appreciated that particular conversation at dinner. His caustic comment about people treating him like a child because he was in a damn wheelchair had ceased all conversation until Ramsey awkwardly turned it to a totally unrelated discussion about NASCAR racing.
Melissa’s heart had ached for the embarrassment and anger on Austin’s face. He obviously thought his brother was being overprotective. And since Devlin planned to leave Austin here tomorrow rather than take him on the mission with the others, she couldn’t help but agree.
When the doors opened on the ground floor, everything was pitch-black except for the lights inside the elevator and some blinking LED lights in the room announcing the presence of electronic equipment.
“Don’t worry,” Jace said, as if sensing her nervousness. “The security in this place rivals some of the best military installations that I’ve ever seen. It’s not impenetrable, but we’ll have advance warning if someone comes onto the property. And by the time they figure out how to break inside, we could be long gone. I’ve also got my gun again. But even without it, I promise you no one is going to get to you without going through me. And I’m not an easy kill.”
She shivered. “Don’t talk like that. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
He squeezed her hand, causing all kinds of warm feelings to rush through her, sweeping away her fear. Well, almost.
“What about my gun? Did you get that back, too?”
“Sorry. No.”
Her shoulders slumped.
“Come on, little warrior. I’ll show you to your suite.”
She blew out a shaky breath, hating that he’d let her hand go. And fervently wishing she didn’t light up like a match every time the man touched her, no matter how innocently. Touch? Who was she kidding? Just looking into his eyes or hearing the deep, sexy timbre of his voice had her melting inside.
She cleared her throat. “Suite, huh. I’ll believe that when I see it.” There, she didn’t sound like she was getting all soft inside just thinking about him. She hoped.
He flipped a switch on the wall beside the elevator, turning on the lights. “Maybe not a suite, but a lot more comfortable than a cot.”
“But you’re carrying a cot.”
“The cot is for me.” He took her hand and pulled her with him through a large room full of computers on one side and collections of guns in glass cases above them. She swallowed hard at the reminder of the danger they all faced and followed Jace down the hallway on their left.
They passed a bathroom and two bedrooms that were bursting with boxes and equipment before he led her into what must have been the master bedroom when the house was built. But now, even though it had a king-sized bed along the left wall, the right side was filled with more boxes like the ones in the rooms they’d passed.
She took a quick tour of the bedroom and stepped into the surprisingly large and clean master bathroom, which was stocked with fresh towels and toiletries. Seeing the soaps and shampoos almost had her whimpering with gratitude. This was like staying at the Ritz compared to that ratty motel they’d almost stayed in.
She stepped back into the bedroom to see Jace with his arms crossed, leaning back against the wall. The cot he’d brought with them in the elevator was sitting in the hallway, visible through the open doorway.
“Got everything you need?” he asked.
I need you. “Yes, thank you. I’ll, ah, have to rinse out my clothes for tomorrow, I guess. Maybe we can stop by my house and grab a few outfits when we leave here.”
He was shaking his head “no” before she’d finished. “Not happening. Too dangerous. But Devlin’s wife, Emily Buchanan, is going to drop off a go bag for you in the morning. She’ll make sure you have everything you need.”
“Shouldn’t I talk to her first, tell her my sizes?”
His gaze leisurely traced a path down her chest, to her hips, then . . . lower, before reversing with a slow thoroughness that sparked every nerve ending and made her belly clench with desire.
His lips curved in a sexy grin that had her fingers curling into her palms. “That won’t be necessary. I have a good . . . feel . . . for that sort of thing. I gave the information to Devlin to relay to his wife when we were eating downstairs.”
Her pulse was hammering so hard, she was amazed that he couldn’t hear it. “You mean while I was eating, and you were ignoring me.”
He slowly shook his head and crossed the room toward her. Good grief the man was hawt. Every cell in her body was on fire just watching him come closer. If he touched her, she just might burst into flames.
Stopping so close that she could smell the masculine mixture of soap and the subtle fragrance of his aftershave, he tilted her chin up to look at him.
Yep. Flames. She was burning. And it felt so good.
“How’s your arm?” His gaze dropped to her lips.
Yes! Kiss me. “M . . . my arm?” She remembered those lips, how they’d felt on hers. Magic. His kisses were pure, exquisite, magic. When he’d given her that life-altering first kiss in the dining room, she knew she’d never experience anything that incredible again. Until he’d kissed her in the greenhouse. That kiss had propelled her into a whole other universe of pleasure and desire. A third kiss . . . if she could be so lucky . . . just might kill her.
And she’d die happy.
“Mel?”
“Um hm.” She licked her lips.
His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat. “Your injury? Does it hurt?” His voice was tight, as if it was taking a Herculean effort to form coherent words.
“O . . . only a little,” she whispered, lifting her hands to his chest, smoothing her fingers across the delicious, hard muscles so achingly close. She wanted that shirt off him. Desperately.
He closed his eyes as if in pain and gently but firmly lifted her hands off his chest as he stepped back. “Okay. Sorry. That should have been my first concern after dinner, getting you some more pain pills. I left them downstairs.” He swallowed again. “I’ll go and—”
“No, don’t go. I’m fine.” Had she whined? She cleared her throat. “Really. No need to go to any trouble. Don’t leave.” Please.
He shook his head. “You’re in pain.
I’ll get the pills.”
He headed toward the door. No, no, no! If he left her now, she just might die, for real. But she would not die happy. The desire she’d read in his eyes, in his voice, equaled hers. And there was no way she was going to let him walk out that door and risk something happening that might delay him coming back—like him convincing himself she was in too much pain for them to spend some quality time together. Or that jerk, Mason, involving him in some long, drawn-out impromptu strategy meeting. If this was going to happen, she had to stop him from stepping into that hall.
She frantically grabbed the edges of her blouse and yanked it up over her head, careless of where it landed. He was almost to the door. She reached around behind her, ignoring the twinge of pain in her arm as she unhooked her bra and dropped it at her feet. “Jace!”
Her shout had him whirling around, his hand reaching for his gun.
He stumbled to a startled halt, his jaw dropping open.
Chapter Nineteen
Two seconds. That’s how long it took Jace to stalk across the room like a conquering warrior and crush Melissa in his embrace. In those two, agonizingly long seconds, seeing the raw hunger transform his face into a feral predator, seeing the way his body shook with need, everything inside her had softened, melted, readied itself for him.
And that third kiss? It was everything she’d hoped it would be, and, oh sweet merciful heavens, so much more.
He consumed her, drawing her into his very soul, worshipping her with his mouth, his tongue, his hands as they framed her face and he wrung every ounce of pleasure from her. And then he went in for another kiss, lifting her, turning with her in his arms, pressing her against the wall.
Yes, yes, this. This was what she’d always wanted, the way she’d always known, hoped, prayed that a man could want a woman. Not the lukewarm, sloppy kisses from high school. Not the half-drunken fumbling in the backseat of a car from college. But the full onslaught, firing on all pistons, going for it with the everything-he-had way that a man could love a woman. As if nothing else in the world mattered, nothing else existed except the two of them. And for now, nothing did.