Coveted Kiss (Savage Security Book 3)

by Karen Tjebben

  “He’d be lucky to have you.” Jack chuckled and eased her other arm into the other sleeve. He settled the robe on her shoulders. “You can drop the towel now,” he said.

  Bella let the towel puddle at her feet and turned to face him. She gave him a smile as she cinched the belt around her waist. “You helped me last night, didn’t you?” She studied his face. His green eyes sparkled with life, but he was missing the cocky grin that always brightened his face.

  He wasn’t sure to which time she was referring, but he confirmed her suspicion. “Yes. I stayed with you at the hospital and then brought you here.” He paused a moment and then continued, “I stayed because I wasn’t sure if you’d need help when you woke up. I hope you’re not upset.” He tried to read her face, but the bruises and swelling were so bad that her face couldn’t make its natural expressions.

  “At you? No,” Bella said. “I’m not upset at you. I’m not sure what happened, but from what I saw in the mirror, it was pretty bad.”

  Jack paid close attention to her words. She spoke in near whispers, but he knew that was because of her throat. “Your pain meds are in the other room.” He tossed a thumb over his shoulder towards the hallway. “I’ll get them for you.”

  “Wait,” she forced out and touched his arm. She needed to get herself under control because heat fanned out from her chest and tears threatened to spill from her eyes. “Thanks, Jack.”

  An easy smile settled on his face. “Happy to help.” He knew what she was referring to. She’d never been able to hide much from him. She wore her emotions like a beauty queen donned in the winner’s ribbon. And right now, he wanted to wipe the bumps and bruises off her body the way one would brush off filth and grime. He wanted to erase all the bad things that had happened to her in the last twenty-four hours.

  But he wasn’t the Great Oz. He couldn’t magically remove pain and erase horrible memories, but he could be a friend. He’d be a shoulder for her to cry on. Giving her another smile, he said, “I’ll get the meds.”

  He made his way down the hallway and into the kitchen. He was surprised that he was nervous about what would happen between them. He was usually a confident man. He’d even been accused of being cocky, which wasn’t a surprise. There was nothing he couldn’t do or problem he couldn’t solve, but for the life of him, he didn’t know how he was going to be able to be around Bella and not act on his feelings. He’d nearly lost her once, and the reality of that spurred him on. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again and let her slip through his fingers.

  She slowly made her way into the family room and settled herself on the sofa with a groan. “My ribs are killing me,” she moaned and then took a slight inhalation, trying not to move her ribs. She watched Jack as he made himself at home in her kitchen.

  At her words, Jack felt like an ass. He opened a cupboard and grabbed a glass. Moving to the sink, he turned the tap and looked at her over his shoulder. “I’m sorry to say that Eric doesn’t get the blame for your ribs.”

  She cocked her head to the side and eyed him as he approached her. “What do you mean?” If not Eric, then why did her ribs hurt so much?

  Jack held the pain pill in his palm in front of her. Her fingertips grazed his palm as she picked up the pill. He squashed the groan that threatened to expose his feelings for her. “I did that.”

  She read the concern on his face. His eyebrows were pulled together and his lips formed a straight line. “You did it?” Now she was really confused. “What do you mean?” What he said didn’t make sense. How could he have hurt her ribs?

  Jack eased onto the sofa beside her and rested his elbows on his knees. Leaning forward, he took a breath and looked her in the eyes. He wasn’t sure how much to say. If she didn’t remember what he did to Eric, that may work to their advantage. As far as the police were concerned, Eric fled after being shot while Jack focused on reviving Bella.

  Thinking back, his stomach churned as he recalled the strangled sounds that squeaked out of her until no sound escaped her lips. That memory turned his blood cold. “Eric had beaten and choked you. When I couldn’t find a pulse, I did chest compressions.”

  Bella stared at Jack, her mouth agape as she processed his words. “You couldn’t find a pulse?” she stuttered. “I wasn’t breathing?” Heat cocooned her in a suffocating bubble and made the world spin. She hadn’t realized how close she’d come to death.

  Jack hated the fear that washed over her. He settled a hand on her knee for comfort. “Hey, it’s no biggie,” he lied with a shrug. He’d never experienced such heart-stopping fear as he did when he was trying to revive her. He’d done that shit before, save people, but never when his heart was so attached to the person.

  “No biggie?” she repeated. “You literally saved my life.” She sat in shock and eyed him. His strong features had always been attractive to her, but as she saw his gentle heart, her feelings overwhelmed her. All of this was too much. Too many emotions battled within her.

  Fear. Anger. Regret. Gratitude.

  Resting her fingers over his hand that still covered her knee, she said, “Thanks.” She shook her head back and forth. “That sounds stupid, doesn’t it?” She never heard the guys say thanks for anything when they came back from a job.

  At her touch, he slipped his fingers between hers and looked at their joined hands. “Happy to do it. You’d do the same for me. Right?” He cocked a brow at her.

  She let out a breath of air that almost sounded like a scoff. “Of course.” She’d passed the Red Cross’s Life Saving Class, but she wasn’t sure she could do it when needed in the stress of the moment. Hopefully that day would never come.

  Jack wasn’t sure what she was thinking, but her lips arced into a smile. “What?”

  She shook her head. “You helped me get undressed last night, didn’t you?”

  Jack held his hands up, palms out. “Hey, you asked for help,” he answered in his defense. “I averted my eyes.”

  She could tell from the gleam in his eyes and his flirty smile that he’d still seen plenty. “Oh,” she sighed, pressing her fingers against her forehead. “I’m sorry about that.” She was humiliated. Not only did her date try to kill her, but she’d even worn provocative lingerie for the ass, and Jack knew it.

  Sorry? That didn’t make any sense. He certainly didn’t regret it. She was fucking hot, but he sensed that she didn’t want to hear that right now. “No worries.” He shrugged his shoulders. “That’s what friends are for.”

  Shit, did he just put himself in the ‘friend’ category?

  “So, I don’t remember much.” Bella caught her bottom lip with her teeth. “Why did Eric attack me?” She needed to understand. She needed for this nightmare to make sense.

  Jack proceeded to give her the basics about Eric’s ties to the sleeper cell. She teared up a few times, so he found a box of tissues for her. This situation confirmed that his attraction to her wasn’t just physical, because no matter how puffy or red her eyes got, or how much snot she blew into the tissues, she was still the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen.

  “So,” he continued, “I’m here until this gets cleared up.”

  Her eyebrows pulled together. “What do you mean by ‘here’?” She pointed towards the floor.

  “I’m going to be your personal bodyguard until we’ve figured everything out. We don’t know who else is involved in the sleeper cell. But don’t worry, we are not going to give up until we know we’ve shut them down and the threat is removed.”

  Bella’s mouth hung open. “You mean, I’m still in danger?” When would this nightmare end? Hadn’t she been through enough?

  Jack rested his hand on her knee again. He wanted to snake it up between the fabric of her bathrobe and caress the tender flesh of her thigh that occasionally slipped into view, but he wouldn’t take advantage of her overwhelmed state. He was a gentleman after all. “You’re probably safe. You weren’t the real target.”

  “Target?” She shook her head. “Who
was the real target?” Maybe the meds and blows to her head were messing with her logic, but she was having trouble following Jack’s explanation.

  Jack hadn’t thought this through. Clearly his lust was clouding his judgement and loosening his tongue. “They were going after us. Savage Security.” Maybe she’d be safer without him. Get her as far away from the danger as possible. Maybe she’d realize this and quit her job.

  She hadn’t realized that her office job would be so dangerous. But if she needed a body guard, she was glad it was him. “So, we’re going to be besties?” She squeezed his hand and gave him a smile.

  “Besties,” he replied. At least it was a move in the right direction. Now he needed to figure out how to go from bestie to lover. “You’re not getting rid of me.”

  She laughed, and the sound eased Jack’s heart. She’d be okay. He’d make damn sure of it.

  10

  Mike knocked on Logan’s front door and then shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. A cold wind cut through his jeans and raised goose bumps on his skin. Mojo’s bark filtered through the air from the other side of the door, and Logan’s muffled voice commanded the dog to sit.

  Looking through the peep hole, Logan pulled open the door when he saw it was Mike. “Hey, thanks for coming,” he stated and moved to the side to let Mike enter.

  Mike didn’t like the look on Logan’s face. His eyes were dull and his shoulders rolled forward slightly, as if weighed down by a massive burden. Mike stepped into the room, and Logan closed the door behind him.

  Unzipping his leather jacket, Mike shrugged it off. “Sorry to hear about Aditya.” He wasn’t sorry she was dead. She needed to die after what she did to Lieutenant Shaw, but he couldn’t imagine the mixed emotions that had to be suffocating Logan.

  Logan snorted as he took Mike’s jacket. He pulled open the closet door and hung the jacket on a hanger. “Aditya,” he said her name with disgust and shook his head. “I sure fucked that up. I’m not sure why she didn’t kill me. She had the chance.”

  There were so many ways she could have taken him out. Poison, gunshot, stabbing. He didn’t know why she’d spared him. He hoped it was because some part of their relationship hadn’t been a lie. Perhaps there was a small part of her that wasn’t a monster.

  Mike thought carefully about his response. Logan was in a difficult place. Losing a loved one always drowned the survivor in guilt. Mike had struggled against the overwhelming barrage of guilt that assaulted him when his sister was murdered. He’d blamed himself even though logically he knew it wasn’t his fault. Sometimes shit happens. It’s the way reality works.

  “Don’t blame yourself,” Mike started. “She fooled a lot of men. Smart, wary men. Just like we have a gift, she had a gift.”

  “A gift,” Logan sneered. His lip curled in a show of disgust. “If killing can be considered a gift.” He started down the hallway towards his office. He needed to feel in control again. He needed the mess in the office cleaned up so he could go back to living his life. He’d have to put this behind him, whether he understood it or not. “It’s a mess back here,” he stated and motioned with his hand towards the office.

  Mike came to a stop outside the office and took in the room. Blood splattered the wall. “Did the cops already take the pictures and clear the scene?”

  Logan set his hands on his hips and stared at the gore. He’d already disposed of the bloody tissue and brain matter that had splattered the floor. Those grey chunks of tissue on his carpet had sickened him. He’d ripped up the carpet just to get the mess out of his sight. Even though anger and disgust overwhelmed him, he couldn’t help but be sad. He’d cared about Aditya, and she’d killed herself in front of him. He wasn’t sure how to process that. How do you reconcile grief and anger?

  Now he was left with the blood splattered walls. “Yes, it’s an open and shut case. It was obvious that she killed herself.” He hated that a part of him was sorry that she was dead. After spending the day with her on Sunday, he’d hoped they had a future. He’d thought they’d connected. They shared a love for technology as their initial connection. Sure, he’d moved quickly. He’d wanted her, and he was willing to absorb her into his life. He didn’t know about long-term, but she was the first woman to captivate him physically and intellectually.

  Mike hated this part of the job. He’d seen his share of guts and gore, but it was something that never sat right. Logan had already dealt with the carpet. It sat on a plastic sheet, rolled up like a Cuban cigar in the corner of the room. They’d have to take it to the dump. But blood splatter sprayed across the walls in a telling pattern. He could guess the approximate place she stood when she’d killed herself. It was obvious that they’d have to wash and prime the walls before repainting.

  Logan stared at his desk. He’d been looking through the intelligence photos and videos when she’d come into the room with a gun. He’d like to say that she’d glared at him with the cold ice of anger, but she hadn’t. Instead, pain and sorrow, not calculation, bled from her eyes as she’d held the gun on him. That just confused him more. If being with him was all about revenge, then why had she looked so sad?

  “I’d just found Riya,” Logan said, pointing to his laptop, “in the video surveillance. I found her sister in the intel just as Aditya came into the room. She knew I’d find Riya. She was ready to act. How did she know? I never told her about the new intel or anything.” Logan stared at the computer as his mind whirled with scenarios.

  Mike stood with his weight on his back foot as he thought. He took in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Crossing his arms over his chest, he asked, “You never said anything to her about any of it? Something she could use to fill in the blanks?”

  “No,” Logan said as he strode to the computer. He pulled out the chair and sat. Sliding his fingers over the mousepad, he moved the cursor. The computer woke up, and he logged in. “She knew computers. That part wasn’t a lie. You can’t fake that knowledge.” She’d talked in detail with him about the advances in technology and the problems that hackers posed to national security.

  Logan navigated through his desktop and checked certain files. “I don’t think she hacked my computer. That would be nearly impossible to do without leaving a trail.” He’d already searched through his files, looking for any kind of fingerprint that would betray a breach.

  Mike came and stood beside Logan, impressed with the speed at which Logan’s fingers moved over the keyboard. It was obvious that Logan’s brain was lightning fast as he worked through scenarios in his mind. The code that filled the computer screen boggled Mike’s brain. He didn’t understand it. In a lot of ways, it was like looking at a foreign language. So instead of focusing on the numbers that Logan scrolled through, Mike’s mind went down another path.

  Mike leaned against Logan’s desk and crossed his arms as he stared at the screen. Suddenly, he tossed out a finger to get Logan’s attention and then asked, “Hey, what if she didn’t hack your computer? She’d have to know that you’d find that.”

  Logan looked up from the screen and leaned back in his chair. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Mike. “Okay. What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking old school. Something that you wouldn’t expect.”

  “Like a bug?” The notion hadn’t occurred to him, but it was certainly a possibility.

  Mike nodded his head. “She knew you were looking through intel. You had your computer with you in the meeting yesterday when we found out about the Black Widow. If she didn’t hack your computer, a bug would be the next explanation.”

  Logan thought back through his time with Aditya. She’d never been alone with his computer. He was obsessive when it came to work stuff, but she’d spent the night on Monday. Could she have planted a bug then?

  Leaning forward, Logan carefully lifted his laptop and looked for any tool markings along the edges and peeked into the ports. He didn’t see or feel anything unusual. Grabbing his cable, he pushed it int
o the port. It slid in easily, so he deduced that nothing was in there. He grabbed the headphone cord and plugged it in. It slid in nicely too. No blockage. Eyeing his keyboard, he realized the best place to hide a bug. “The keys,” he said, looking at Mike. “That’s got to be it.”

  Mike watched as Logan systematically pressed the keys, feeling for a difference in their movement. Logan started with the larger keys, pressing them one by one on each side.

  If he couldn’t detect an obstruction, he’d do a quick touch test and then pry the keys up if needed. But as he methodically tapped through the keys, an idea came to him. “She knew I used my computer constantly. She’d have to know that I’d notice a difference in the feel of the keys if something blocked them. She must have placed it under one of Function keys.” That’s what he’d do.

  That seemed reasonable to Mike. Experts could feel the slightest difference in their instruments. “Makes sense,” he replied with a nod.

  Logan started at the left of the top row of keys. They were smaller than the other keys on the board, which was a downside because the space under the key was smaller, making it more difficult to obscure a bug. But the smaller keys were more likely to ‘feel’ different if something were hidden below.

  Logan tapped both sides of each key, hoping to notice a blockage. When he tapped on the F6 key, it didn’t press down completely. He gave a crooked smile to Mike, and his heart rate ticked up.

  Mike turned so he wasn’t leaning against the desk anymore. Now he was hunched over, his hands holding his weight on the desk as he watched Logan fiddle with the key.

  Logan pried up the key and set it on the desktop. Then he clicked on the lamp that sat on his desk and positioned the gooseneck to shine into the tiny space. A tiny dot, about half the size of a grain of rice, sat in the empty space.

  Logan’s stomach clenched. She’d done a great job, not only planting the bug but playing him. How had she done that without him noticing? He was a light sleeper. He was disgusted with her betrayal and at himself for his gullibility. At least he knew she’d only spied on him that one day.