by Lexi Blake
“But why does it matter? Why delete her file?” He fumbled with the storage case at the bottom of the coffeemaker. It was completely empty. “Damn it, Adam.”
“Sorry. I was up all night. I needed fuel.” Adam was lost in a tangle of wires that ran from various computers.
Eve needed coffee. She was a little touchy until she’d had her morning joe. And now it was Alex’s formal job again to make sure she got it. “I’ll go buy some.”
A soft hand touched his back and then he felt her all along his spine, her face resting against his shoulder blade. “Don’t, babe. There’s a common area downstairs. Kristen showed it to me. There’s one of those single cup coffee makers. I’ll go and make a cup.”
“I can do it.” Taking care of her was his job, and now that she was allowing him to, he intended to take it damn seriously.
She giggled a little. “Alex, you don’t know how to work one. I could be standing up here slowly dying of caffeine deficiency for hours. Besides, I could use the little walk to wake myself up. Someone tired me out last night.”
He turned and had his lips on hers in a heartbeat. He tangled his hands in her hair, unloosing that bun, and gave her a proper good-morning kiss. “I’ll tire you out again tonight, angel.” He let his forehead rest against hers. “One way or another, this is all over in a couple of days.”
If Evans showed, Alex would try to take him down. If he didn’t, he was going to turn everything over to someone else because he didn’t want Eve in danger and Eve wouldn’t leave him, ergo he was off this case and soon.
Maybe it was time to let Ian just assassinate the fucker.
“I know.” She got on her tiptoes. “I’ll be back in a second. Why don’t you make me some toast?”
He could do that. It was about all he could do in the kitchen, but he could use a toaster. “Okay.”
She turned and started out of the condo. He heard the elevator ding as she went down.
He went to the fridge as his mind pondered the possibilities.
There had been an awful lot of chance that went Evans’s way. He’d eluded capture multiple times when Alex should have had the man. Once, twice, he could deal with that, but he’d had prime information on Evans’s movements right after the DC bombing. He’d found his hideout and Evans was gone, a cigarette still smoking in an ashtray as though he’d known exactly when to bail out.
And then there was the escape. He could still remember how he’d felt when Warren had called to tell him that Evans was on the loose.
Chazz had been in that jail. He’d been pulled out of the actual cell when the bedding was brought in, but he’d been housed with Evans for weeks. He very likely knew exactly how Evans had escaped.
He might know if there was a connection between Evans and Carmen Garcia.
He might know if there was a connection between Evans and someone on his old team.
Was he ready to go heavy on Chazz? Right before Evans got here?
Did he have a choice?
“You are deep in thought. Are you trying to cook the eggs with your brain?” Adam asked.
Alex turned to him. “I need you to look into the members of my old team. The ones who are still alive. You’re looking for any connection between Carmen Garcia and anyone in the FBI.”
Adam’s eyes widened and he whistled a little. “You think someone on your team deleted that file.”
“Who else could have done it?” It didn’t make a lick of sense for someone on the outside to hack in and delete a file. “There’s no point to it. Anyone who knows the case at all knows that there were seventeen victims. So why do it here?”
“No idea. All a person has to do is pull up any news article and the full list is right there. I checked with the local district attorneys and they all have the proper files.” Adam stretched and yawned. “I’ll get on it. I need hazard pay for this assignment. Every time I clean up one of Ian’s little problems, another crops up. I got him off the no-fly list, but when I tried to book him a flight for the morning, all his credit cards are maxed out. He’s been doing a lot of shopping online apparently. Did you know Ian likes high-end lingerie and wears a 36 double D? He’s got several shipments from Neiman Marcus arriving tomorrow. And apparently he really has a thing for lacy boy shorts. How the hell am I going to tell him that?”
Alex snorted a little. “I’ll tell him.”
He turned back to his eggs. When he got back to Dallas, it looked like they would have a whole new issue to deal with.
“Guilt.”
Alex turned the burner up and glanced back at Kristen, who had been the one to speak. “Guilt?”
Dressed for work in black pants and a club T-shirt, she looked no worse for her previous evening’s work. “You asked why someone would do it. You couldn’t come up with a possibility, but I can. Sometimes you erase things because you don’t want a reminder of what you did wrong. It doesn’t work. You can get rid of pictures and whatever and you still remember.”
He scraped the eggs, scrambling them. “I’ll buy that. I have Adam trying to make a connection.”
“Good. When you find the connection, you’ll know. It could be as simple as she was a friend and whoever deleted the file felt he or she had let her down. Sometimes we don’t mean to hurt the people we love. Sometimes they just get caught in our crossfire and all we can do is pray they survive it. Maybe Carmen Garcia didn’t survive it.”
Or maybe it was something more sinister.
“I need to talk to Eve.” Something she’d said the night before was playing through his brain. He had no idea how it connected to anything, but suddenly he needed to talk to her about what Warren had said to her on the night that Evans had taken her. She’d said something about Warren bringing him back to her.
Warren never mentioned going home. Warren had been steadfast at his side.
We’re going to take this fucker down together, buddy. You and me.
Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe Warren had told her he would make damn sure Alex got home. Warren was talking about not letting him die and Eve took it as physically bringing him home. Surely.
When Eve came back, he would clear it all up.
“Hey, where’s my coffee?” Kristen asked. She rounded on Adam. “You bastard. Do you know what I’m like without coffee? Have you ever seen a badger? They look all cute and cuddly until some dumbass smokes it from its hole and then the claws and fangs are out. I’m about to grow claws and fangs, Adam.”
Adam held up his phone, dialing furiously. “Eve’s getting some from the common area. Look, I’ll have her get you some, too. Nice, badger. Good, badger. No smoke here.”
Kristen hissed his way.
Okay, someone really needed to get the girl some coffee.
“It went to voice mail. Did Eve leave her phone up here?” Adam asked.
“She always carries it.” Something crawled up his spine. Something was wrong.
Alex turned off the stove and walked to the door, every instinct in him screaming that he should find his wife.
“What is it?” Kristen was right behind him.
He pressed the door to the elevator, the fountain behind him not soothing at all now. Let her be on her way up. The doors are going to open and she’ll be there with her cup of coffee and I’ll be a paranoid idiot.
The doors slid open. No Eve. Just an empty elevator. His heart seized just a little.
“Adam, hold down the fort. I’ll be right back.” He got into the elevator. “I just want to check on Eve.”
Kristen hopped in before the door closed.
Alex took a long breath and prayed his instincts were wrong.
Chapter Fifteen
Eve breathed in the heavenly scent of coffee. This was what she needed. She needed to have a nice cup of coffee and a little breakfast and then she would be ready to work. She would sit on the couch in the living room, with its gorgeous views of the Atlantic, and snuggle unashamedly up to her husband and they would work through the problem.
Her husband. They’d gotten a divorce, but he’d always been her husband. He’d stayed close. He was just a man. Men were kind of dumb. She needed to remember that.
She was female, and that brought with it a certain amount of responsibility. She had to plainly state what she needed. Oh, it would be so much better if he would understand her needs, but his reasoning skills were hampered by a really large penis. She had to make adjustments.
Eve took a long breath. Oh, it felt so good to joke, even if only with herself.
The world was opening up again. It was like someone had pushed a button and suddenly she could see in color when the last several years had been a brutal black and white. Maybe, oh just maybe, she hadn’t been completely shattered. Maybe she’d just been a little broken and she could put the pieces back together. She would be held together with hot glue and hope, but she was alive.
In the end, that was all that mattered.
She walked out of the little kitchen in the common area. The floor was a lovely marble and everything about the building was elegant. She really loved it here. Perhaps she and Alex could get more than just a house in Dallas. Maybe they could find a lovely summer home. Or winter home. Or just a getaway house.
They had options.
She got to the end of the hall. The elevator was on her left, but she turned right, wanting to sit out by the pool that overlooked the Atlantic. At this time of the morning, she could watch dolphins playing. It was so peaceful. She pressed through the door. In this particular building, there were only two condos per level. All she had to do to reach the pool was to walk around the first floor’s giant lanai. A little walkway led to the pool area, and at the back of the pool, she could shout up to their balcony and get Alex to join her. He would come down with her breakfast and they could watch the dolphins play and enjoy the gorgeous sunrise.
Or she could text him. Although throwing stuff at the window sounded like more fun. She walked outside even though she knew she couldn’t get back in without help. She’d left her keys upstairs.
Master, please save your poor sub. She’s locked out and can’t get back in without her sweet Master.
Maybe she could get him in the hot tub. That would be fun.
The clean ocean air hit her, and she stopped for a moment, just breathing it in. Everything seemed possible again. A family. A life. Everything. It really was out there just waiting for her to decide she was brave enough to grab it.
She started to pass the lanai and it’s pretty little private gate. The first floor was a rental, Kristen had mentioned. Maybe they could take a look at it while they were here. The lanai looked huge, wrapping around the whole condo. It was like a kid run. She could just toss the kids out here and they would run themselves silly.
Kids. She and Alex could have babies. They didn’t have to come out of her womb. They only needed her love for her to be a mother. Hers and Alex’s. She could have a family.
She looked out over the parking lot and decided to just text. She’d never had a great throwing arm and the hurricane glass in the windows might just bounce anything she threw right back at her face. She pulled up Alex’s number and started to text.
And then she heard the tiniest squeak.
She started to turn, but felt something press against her spine.
“Drop the phone, sweetheart.”
She brought her leg up. She would bring her stiletto down on the bridge of his foot and start running, but her pink Ugg flip-flop did not have the same effect.
“Don’t try that again. I’m doing you a favor, Amanda. I’m trying to save you, but if you scream or try anything else, I won’t have another choice but to put a bullet in your spine.”
She knew that raspy voice. “Jesse?”
His voice shook just the tiniest bit. “Yes, sweetheart. I’m not going to hurt you. God, I’m trying not to hurt you, but you have to understand that the mission is more important than you. If I can save you, I will. So we’re going to move real slowly toward your car.”
“I don’t have my keys.” She wasn’t planning on driving anywhere.
“I don’t need keys.”
What to do? She took a deep breath and thought about tossing the coffee in his face.
“Drop the cup or I’ll shoot you.”
Damn it. She kind of believed him. She let the cup drop, which was a shame because she needed that little bit of caffeine. “All right. The cup is gone.”
He wasn’t done. “Now the phone. Drop it.”
She took a long breath and let the phone drop because that gun was pressed right against her back. It would split her spine in an instant. God, Alex was going to be so upset. Tears blurred her eyes. “Please don’t do this.”
His arm wound around her waist. “I don’t want to. I know you won’t believe this, but I really don’t have a choice.”
She had to stay calm. This wasn’t like the last time, even though every cell in her body tried to tell her that it was. Her brain knew that Jesse Murdoch wasn’t Michael Evans. He’d proven it by trying to explain himself. Evans had simply taken. Jesse was a different fish, and she had to play him another way. “You always have a choice.”
She felt him sag a little. “No. You don’t, honey. Sometimes every single choice a man has is a bad one. I hope you never find that out. I’m going to try really hard to make sure you’re out of this. Now move. I know you’re in the white SUV.”
He’d been observant. Alex had rented a white SUV. It was parked close to the lanai. Now she wished they had parked farther away, in the garage, like they had the night they arrived.
“Put your wrists together.”
She wasn’t going to do that. She couldn’t. She kicked out, but he caught her ankle easily, the SIG Sauer he was carrying coming against her gut.
“I’m not playing, sweetheart.” His face was tortured, his eyes narrowed. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I have a mission. Don’t make me knock you out. I’m not sure I wouldn’t kill you, and I want to avoid that at all costs. All costs except my mission.”
He slid a set of zip ties over her wrists and had her hands bound in an instant. He pressed her along, forcing her toward the SUV. Damn. She could see that he’d already managed to get the door open. It was slightly ajar. He was prepared.
“Why are you working for him?” She still had a chance to get through to him. Jesse Murdoch wasn’t so far gone that he wouldn’t listen to some sweet reason. After all, he hadn’t killed her yet. The question was why.
Was he taking her to Evans?
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” he replied. “I could ask you the same thing, but I know the answer. Keep moving.”
He opened the back door and shoved her inside. He zip tied her feet as easily as he had her hands.
“Right? You think it’s right to work for him?” How long would Alex wait? He would notice she was missing, but how long would it be? And how would he react? Would this send him right back into his shell? She couldn’t stand the thought of it.
“Master A isn’t who you think he is.” Jesse stared down at her while he pulled off his jacket. “I know you think he’s a good guy, but a real man wouldn’t hit you. A real man wouldn’t show you off. You’re a lovely woman. You deserve someone who really loves you.”
Every word made her wonder what the hell this man was doing. A man who gave a damn about women wouldn’t work for Evans. “I have a man who loves me. Please, don’t do this. If you give me to your boss, he’s going to hurt me. Please. Take me back. You can make this right.”
His blue eyes were just the slightest bit fanatical. “I am trying to do that even now. I know you can’t see it, but I’m saving you. We’re going to drive for a while and then I need you to be quiet. If I hear a loud word from your mouth, I’ll have to knock you out. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to be like every other man you’ve ever met. I’m not a fucking pervert. I’m not.”
He slammed the back door, and she saw him moving into the front seat. He’d be
en damn sure of himself. He’d already moved his things into her car. A sniper rifle lay at the bottom of the floorboard. Who the hell was that for? Her blood chilled. Jesse said he was saving her from something. What the hell was he saving her from?
“I love him.” She put her every emotion into those three words. If that sniper rifle was for Alex, then she had to try absolutely everything she could to save him.
“Because you don’t know better.” He was playing around under the dash. He proved just how good he was when the engine immediately purred to life. His face turned back and there was nothing but sympathy in his eyes. “One day you’ll find someone worthy of you and you’ll thank me.”
“It’s not going to be you?” His actions made her wonder if he hadn’t fixated on her. His time in Iraq had obviously made him unstable, and sometimes unstable men fixated on a woman. He wasn’t trying to hurt her. He seemed to be bent on saving her. She’d read his file. She searched her memory. A woman had been on his squad. Hannah? Alannah?
His mouth turned down. “I’m not capable of what you need. I’m…I’m just not good enough. But I am good enough to know that you deserve better and I can’t just leave you to your fate, so I’m doing what I have to. I don’t have to stop at the toll on the bridge on this side of the island, and there’s no one out this early in the day. If I hear you making too much noise, I’ll just gag you. That won’t be pleasant for you, will it?”
She didn’t bother to mention that she’d been gagged many times before. He was right. She didn’t particularly like it. It really was a punishment.
He gunned the engine and put it in reverse.
“What are you going to do with the rifle back here?” Was there any way she could get it? He’d been smart to tie her hands behind her back. She couldn’t even move her feet.
“I’m going to do what I need to do.” His hands tightened on the wheel as he took a hard left and the car angled as they went up a hill and kept curving. She’d been here for a week and she knew this curve. It led to a circle at the top of the hill that overlooked the condo building.