“Sure, why not? My team is stretched thin as is, and they all need some PTO. But the agents are not welcome on the compound until I am back.”
“As you wish, Jonah. I’m going to take your mother to get some rest, and I will be back later.” His father took his mother’s arm and they walked away.
He had an errant thought. His dad had given up way too easily, and Jonah knew the old man had something up his sleeve. And here he was in no condition to ferret it out. “No point. I’m checking out in a few hours anyway.” He hated hospitals. Even the very air seemed pervasive with sickness and ammonia. He would rather take another bullet than stay for one more minute.
Before the door closed, his father turned back toward him and looked at Jaden. “I love you, son. Congratulations, but I have a feeling that she may not be as easy to win as you think.” His father laughed and closed the door behind him.
His brother, Elias, and his sister, MacLeigh, walked into the room just a moment later, and they each looked askance at the napping woman, but let her be.
“I need to stop seeing you like this. What’s this now? Six or seven?” He knew what his sister meant. But she was wrong. He hadn’t been hospitalized seven times in the last ten years.
* * * *
Jaden heard the clamor of voices, but she was too tired to do anything more than lie where she was. She heard something along the lines of marrying a black nurse in a Mack Lee office, whatever that meant. But she was too tired to acknowledge any of them. Dreams never made sense anyway, she thought.
But when she heard an escalating female tone, she shrugged the web of slumber away from her shoulders and took stock of where she was. She was in the hospital with Jonah. She could feel the strength of his heartbeat, and the cadence almost called her back to sleep again. But she could hear more snippets of what was said, so she finally let the weariness shrug from her shoulders like a favored blanket.
“Actually, it’s the tenth.” She could feel the rumble of Jonah beneath her, and to hear him speak after thinking him dead made her very soul leap with joy.
“Damn it, Sebastian Jonah! When are you going to get it through your thick head that you aren’t G.I. Joe? You are one human being, and you can’t save the world!”
“I know, MacLeigh, believe me. This could have been my last mission, if not for my partner here.”
“Her?” Jaden peeked at the other side of the room where an incredibly chic woman looked stunned at the proclamation. The newcomer was beautiful, and her lean frame would turn heads everywhere she went.
The reminder only served to make her feel even more out of place as she took stock of what she was wearing. Then she looked into the grayed-out reflection on the TV and caught sight of a fat cowlick on top of her head. The shower she’d gotten earlier must have lacked some shampoo, but now more than ever she regretted never finding an islander to braid her hair. “I know I’m not much to look at, but looks are deceiving.” The three of them were related. Jaden could not only see it in their features, but in the matching dumbfounded expressions each sported when she rose.
Jaden sat up from her bedside cuddle with Jonah and stretched her aching limbs. She would let him talk to his family in private, and she could maybe scare up a meal as she felt her stomach curl up and whimper at her backbone.
“I’ll be back, Jonah. It was a pleasure meeting ya’ll.” Take that, she thought. Southern manners at their finest, even though in the moment she wanted to cuss a blue streak.
“I liked that movie, too,” Jonah said, and she couldn’t help but chuckle at his reply on her way out.
As she wandered through the hospital, she heard snippets of the local patois as she smelled greens and the aroma of what she thought may be salt fish. Her nose led her to the cafeteria, and she grabbed a tray, thinking to make a large plate she could share with Jonah for lunch. As she ladled a large serving of the stewed callaloo, which were an island version of collards, and a yummy double portion of oxtails, she remembered something.
The random words that she dreamt about all came together in the way of puzzle pieces, and she knew Jonah had stated he intended to marry her.
And she knew that his parents didn’t like the fact at all.
The tray fell from her nerveless fingers, and she watched as the rattan rectangle dropped in slow motion before the plate hit the ground. The bowl of greens bounced and spattered the floor.
When she came to, she was wearing an oxtail that slithered off of her pants slowly and a stewed leaf on her shoe.
“Excuse me, miss, are you okay?” The lady before her had a strong local accent, dark-brown skin, and a beautiful white smile.
“Thank you…I am fine.” But was she? Jaden didn’t know.
The woman was nice enough to help her clean up her mess. Jaden walked hesitantly back to the room with another tray that the same kind soul made for her based on the old spilled one. She gave the caring stranger her thanks before she stumbled away amid a drugging haze of her own confusion and tight chest walls.
When she got back, Jonah looked at her with every emotion in his eyes, and all of them were good. She couldn’t even look at him without hurting even more.
Was this love? Deep down, she knew there was much more than something, much more than mere chemistry or easily burned lust between them. But Jaden couldn’t admit it, not even to herself, not even now when she knew he needed to hear the words most of all. He was vulnerable in a way that she couldn’t deal with. But then again, she thought, she was, too.
Her famished hungering vanished somewhere between the emergence of discovery and the walk back, so she offered Jonah the tray in silence. He was alone now, and the calm was expectant, as if there were words harbored in the void of quiet that both of them knew needed to be said.
No way would she be the one to break first. Jonah took no interest in the meal, but Jaden decided to make him eat anyway. She picked up the fork and offered him a bite of the oxtails. He refused to open his mouth, childishly, and she smiled then circled the utensil like an airplane. The motions made him chuckle and wince before he opened his lips. After that, he gave her no further problems.
Jaden thought she heard the door open, but when she looked back, it was closed, and she shrugged the sensation off. She would deal with her emotions for him later. For now she was content to let him heal.
Jonah weakly stood up after he finished and complained that he needed the bathroom. But he grunted at her when she offered him the silver pot they used for invalids. She watched him shuffle to the restroom in a disgusted manner with his ass out. She did her best not to laugh, but she knew he heard her chuckles based on the way he slammed the door behind him.
When he left the bathroom, she watched him as he struggled to dress himself with one arm. She felt sorry for him, but she schooled her face so he didn’t know it. Jaden helped him get the shorts on first, and his penchant for free balling smacked her in the cheek. Then she slid the shirt on him one arm at a time and buttoned the crisp short-sleeve shirt up until he was covered, then helped him back into the sling. He slid his feet into a pair of Sanuk flip flops though the hospital refused to let him walk out of the doors. When he sat in the offered wheelchair, she knew he was pissed, and the moment they left the front door, he hobbled quickly out of the chair again.
The drive was silent and framed with the wild bits of fauna, though Jaden was blind to the beauty around her. There was no notice given to the trees ripe with coconuts and mangos. She didn’t see the sapphire crystal color of the water as the SUV puttered along the highway at forty kilometers an hour. Jonah never spoke, but his hand held hers, and that was the reason she could scarcely breathe.
Jaden felt as he let one thumb speak every word that she refused to say. The digit carved her palm bloody with the barest caresses, just because the touches spoke so well to how she felt.
Before she could even get her mind right and place herself in the frame where she could accept other people in her personal space, the car stopp
ed. They were back at the compound, and even before she had the chance to think about it, they were in Stein’s capable hands. She looked out of the window and saw that all of the home team members awaited their return at the front steps to see if Jonah was all right or not, and strangely enough she saw that even Anatta looked worried.
The group of people seemed to come from every which way no sooner than they stepped from the car. “Well, at least it was only a blood transfusion.” Jaden heard that particular sentiment repeated more than once along with, “at least he didn’t almost lose his leg this time.”
Damn, Jaden contemplated, is this man that accident prone? He needs me to keep his superhero complex in line.
The camaraderie was evident as everyone cracked jokes and laughed while they gave Jonah hell about going into the hospital, as several people put it, yet again. Even Jaden was swept up in the good vibrations of the group. That was until Anatta opened her big mouth.
“The CIA is here.” Everyone outside groaned and looked at Anatta as if the woman were the village idiot. Apparently, it was supposed to be a secret, and she knew that Jonah was pissed by the way he clenched her hand.
“They will have to wait. And they better not have touched my computers.” He stormed off in the direction of the carriage house, and Jaden was forced to follow him, as he still claimed ownership of her hand. When they reached the small home, she had to walk inside first because he stubbornly refused to enter until she did. His steps rang heavily in cadence and seemed to echo hers. She knew that now was the time she had to pay the piper his due. Jonah wanted to hear her say she loved him. She just couldn’t do it.
It wasn’t that she didn’t care about Jonah, but she didn’t know if she had to ability to love anyone. Not the deep down, to-the-bone love that people proclaimed they wanted. And if nothing else, Jaden was a woman who let her actions speak more than her words ever could.
In that moment, she knew she couldn’t do it. Not now. He had to give her the time to think about what she wanted from this situation, and she refused to be pressured into making a decision that she wasn’t sure about.
When she stopped short abruptly to face the demon of love at her heels, Jonah tugged her gently into his arms and kissed the very air of life from her. Neither of them allowed the seeking of lips to end, even when breathless minutes later the doorbell rang.
* * * *
Jonah loved the taste of Jaden, and he allowed himself to indulge in the kiss he’d wanted from the minute he was certain that he was about to die. He could never get enough of her plush mouth and soft skin. The doorbell rang not even five minutes after they waltzed inside, and Jonah knew that the agents clamored to get information, but they would have to wait for it.
The conversation that lingered between him and Jaden was too important to let lie for long. The lip-lock broke reluctantly, and Jonah looked at the only woman who was strong enough to match him.
“Jaden, I love you.” The knock on the door was pervasive, but Jonah merely shook his head in the direction of the window and strolled with her back to their bedroom.
Jaden looked as if she wanted to bolt the minute the words left his lips, but he refused to let her and clasped her bicep in one hand. He may still be a bit numb from painkillers, but he knew that she wanted to go back to her life. Baking cakes for weddings and watching over her charge like an overprotective mother hen. But he wanted her with him, and maybe if he said what he felt, she would stay.
“Just give them what they need, Jonah. This”—she waved her hand between them—“will always be here.”
But somehow he was nervous, and he knew that he was getting vibes of the emotion from her. Jaden seemed shaken to him, but he wasn’t sure why. Was it him? Did she want to run? Or did was she just keyed up from their brush with adventure?
Jonah sighed. If nothing else, he had to give a report to the CIA agents that were impatiently trying to put together the missing pieces of the puzzle left behind after half of the compound exploded. And the information from the hard drive that Jaden uploaded to his PC needed to be combed over.
That data was essential. Jonah needed to have someone find Jewel Oxendine, and quickly at that. Locating her would have to be the top priority as he perused the information, as the rest could be sorted out with time. The longer his team delayed, the lesser the chance of finding her alive at all.
Jewel was strong mentally, but in the hands of a depraved person, a minute would feel eternal.
But he needed first dibs on the data. At least that way he could make sure that no one else had the chance to fuck it up before he could get what he needed. There was no telling what programs Jaden had found, and some of them were likely booby trapped with crawlers, digital worms that would eat the data when mishandled.
His next thought? Damn, his father had to have requisitioned the agents before he even asked Jonah for the okay. Dad had to be digging into his business for a while, weeks or months. There was no way that even halfway-briefed agents could have arrived so quickly, and that could only mean they were issued out even before he and Jaden left the island for the auction in the first place. If nothing else, his father was too nosy for his own good.
* * * *
After three hours, Jonah was tired, and his debriefing had burned most of the daylight left. A task force was established to locate the women sold during the last auction with the exception of Oxendine. The crown Jewel would have to be reclaimed with a special mission and team of two only dedicated to her retrieval. They had a basic plan of attack for the next sale, but it was still raw and incomplete. The data was too convoluted to make any sense, and the encryptions used were nearly impossible to break. He would leave perfecting his plans for tomorrow. With luck, he could entice Jaden into having a one-on-one think tank and bouncing ideas off of each other.
In bed. But that would be best saved for another day. One where he was in slightly better health might not be too much to ask. Hell, after the blood loss, he would consider an erection a nearly impossible boon from the heavens.
But when he returned to the cottage house, he didn’t hear anything at all. There were no ambient noises, no TV, no cooking smells, nothing to greet or welcome him back. Their home was silent, and the air carried the weight of a funeral tomb. Where was Jaden? When he reached the bedroom, there was no sign of her. There wasn’t even a stray sock or single bottle of hair product, and he knew she was gone.
A closer look at the room revealed a single scrap piece of paper atop the pillows. It was hastily scripted, the print tiny and perfect, just like her. The only clue as to where the sheet came from was a pre-printed number at the square corner, and he realized she ripped the paper out of a book. Which book was the question, and his gut told him that the tome the paper came from was just as important as the message itself.
But the note held little clue as to her whereabouts.
The front side of the delicate paper read, I want you to think about what you really want
And the back side of the scrap? Hope it doesn’t take you 98 days to find me this time
He made one phone call. It was to Jaden’s sat phone, a converted Apple device.
“Jaden, this is far from amusing.” It was infuriating, she was exasperating, and he had never been so hard in his life.
“This is your one phone call, and that’s what you open with? Guess that’s that, then.” He knew what she was saying, that after the call ended, the phone was going to be destroyed to nullify the possibility of triangulation.
“Jaden, so help me, if you don’t come back to this compound I’ll—” What could he do to the one of the most dangerous women in the world? What punishment would be enough?
“Don’t say things you’ll regret, Jonah,” Jaden said. Her voice was a mere whisper. He didn’t plan on saying anything but the truth, like it or not.
“You know I’m going to find you, right?” She better know that much about him at least.
He could hear the smile in her voice before s
he even spoke. “As a matter of fact, I’m counting on it.”
Jonah chuckled. Why wasn’t he surprised at that?
“You minx. When I get my hands on you, I’m going to—” Devour you until there isn’t an original thought left within you save mine, he thought.
“What? Fuck my brains out? I’m counting on that, too...” That was good. At least she knew what to expect. But even then her voice was husky, and he grew even closer to busting the seams of his shorts. “But I think you need to find the Jewels first.”
She hung up the phone before he could reply. Jonah crumpled the paper shred of note in his one working fist and made a vow to thin air. I’m going find you, and I’m going fuck the fight out of you, maybe spank you senseless. And when I’m done, you will belong to me. For good this time, Jaden.
Chapter Seventeen:
Run, Jaden, Run
When Jonah left, Jaden was lost in a sea of her own thoughts. Jonah loves me? Like picket fence and two point five kids love? Jaden clasped her head in her hands. He could take care of himself, just the same way she could. But if she was going to be in love and have the happily ever after that came with the territory, then she wanted it all. Normalcy. It was strange, but she wanted her life filled with nine-to-five days and sleeping in the same bed with her mate each night.
Not to mention, his parents are so-o-oo against it.
She wanted in-laws that would love to have her as an addition to the family. With the way that his mother reacted, Jaden could imagine the use of thousand-thread-count white sheets in the woman’s future. But it was highly unlikely that the matriarch of the Whitmore family would disgrace herself by sullying the good fabric with clumsy homemade eye holes or poor stitchery.
The Laughing Assassin [Assassin's Diary] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 21