Driving Force (Declan’s Defenders Book 4)

by Elle James

  How could these men do this to them? Why wasn’t anyone stopping them?

  So, she did.

  “Jane?” Gus touched her arm. “Are you okay?”

  She flinched. “Don’t touch me,” she said. “I’m exactly what I hoped I wasn’t. An assassin. I shouldn’t be here. With my kill record, I could spend the rest of my life in prison.”

  “How many?” Gus asked, then held up his hand. “I don’t want to know. Like you said, who you were isn’t who you are now.”

  “Do you remember how you knew my husband?” Charlie asked, clutching the journal close to her chest.

  Jane closed her eyes, recalling the day John Halverson had come into her life. She’d been assigned the task of killing a man who’d turned in a Russian sleeper spy who was then sent back to Russia and executed for failing in his mission.

  The Russian president had hired Trinity to find and kill the man who’d forced him to eliminate a spy in one of the best positions he could be, as an American government employee of the CIA. He’d had top secret clearances and access to all the data the Russians needed to know exactly what the US was up to almost before mission personnel knew what was going to happen.

  Jane had been sent to kill the man who’d lived in the house next door. He was a history professor at a local university.

  When Jane had arrived at the man’s house, she had disguised herself as a jogger.

  Her mark routinely arrived home at a specific hour and walked from where he parked his car on the street up the sidewalk to his front door.

  Jane had faked a fall in front of him. All she had to do was stick the syringe of arsenic into his neck, get up and keep jogging.

  But the sound of a little girl’s voice made her hesitate.

  The front door had opened on the man’s house and a little girl of four or five years old smiled broadly and cried out, “Daddy!”

  The professor helped Indigo to her feet and turned to scoop his little girl up into his arms. “Hi, sweetie pie. How’s my best girl?”

  Jane hadn’t been able to breathe, much less jab the needle into his neck. He’d called his little girl the same thing her father had called her when he’d come home from work. After all those years of suppressing memories that hurt, they all came back to her, reminding her of how it had been before her parents passed.

  She’d looked at the man and his little girl, thanked him for helping her and jogged away. She would have kept running, but a man stepped in her path.

  “I met John Halverson after an aborted attempt at an assassination.”

  “Aborted?” Gus asked.

  She nodded. “I couldn’t pull the trigger. Or the plunger, in this case.” She twisted her lips in a wry smile. “John was there. He’d seen what happened and offered me an alternative to working for Trinity.”

  “What was the alternative?” Gus asked.

  She lifted her chin, her eyes narrowing. “He wanted me to help him bring Trinity down. He said that if I helped him, he’d help me to start over with a new identity, and a new life. I wouldn’t have to kill anyone else. I could start over.” She shook her head. “I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. But after I didn’t hit my mark, I knew I would be in trouble with Trinity. My days would be numbered. He told me no matter what, whether I helped him or not, he’d set me up in my new life. He gave me the coordinates of his home as a measure of his trust in me. If I was ever in trouble, all I had to do was go to him and he’d help me out.”

  “What did he want you to do for him?” Charlie asked.

  “He asked me if I’d be willing to go back to Trinity and find out who was in charge.”

  * * *

  GUS CURSED. “And you agreed?”

  She nodded. “It meant continuing to help them in their efforts to disrupt the world political arena. By the time I met John, I was ready to do whatever it took to stop Trinity from ruining young girls’ and boys’ lives.”

  “How did you end up in Syria?” Declan asked.

  Jane closed her eyes for a moment. “I hadn’t heard from John in a few weeks. He usually sent me encrypted texts from his burner phone to my burner phone. That way neither one of them could be traced back to the owner.” She drew in a breath and continued. “It had been a couple of weeks. I had been out of the country in Germany doing some intel gathering for Trinity when I received a text from John.”

  Charlie frowned. “How long ago was this?”

  “Four weeks, I think,” Jane responded.

  Charlie shook her head. “My husband was murdered four months ago.”

  Jane frowned. “I got the text from his burner phone number.”

  “Someone else sent it,” Gus said, his gut knotting. There were too many twists and turns in Jane’s tale for his comfort.

  “He wanted me to get in on a mission to Syria. Trinity was going to assassinate a high-ranking Russian general. John...or whoever...wanted me there to get the general out. He said this would be the last time I’d appear to work for Trinity. After that mission, he’d insist on me leaving the syndicate.” She gave a tight smile. “All I had to do was get the general out alive. I was in the right place at the right time with Trinity to be assigned to the mission in Syria. They tasked me to kill the very general I was to save.”

  “We all heard the news,” Gus said. “If you’re talking about Marouchevsky, he was supposedly killed when the US bombed the Shayrat airbase.”

  “That’s what they reported.” Jane shook her head. “I was there.” She raised her hand. “I didn’t kill him, but someone else did. Apparently, Trinity was onto me. The person who assassinated the general came after me. I got away from him. Unfortunately, I got too close to the bombing. I must have been knocked unconscious, because when I woke, I was in a cell being interrogated by Russians who’d been working with the Syrian rebels. They wanted to know who had called for the evacuation of the Russian planes but didn’t call for their evacuation.”

  “I take it someone from the US gave the Russians a heads-up that Shayrat was about to be bombed,” Declan said. “That gave them plenty of time to get their planes out.”

  Gus didn’t like that Jane had been a major pawn in a deadly game. “Funny how our enemies know more about our secrets than we do.”

  “The general was a double agent for the US and Russia. I’m not sure what kind of deal he worked out with the US, but he was supposed to be evacuated out of Syria to the US. I was supposed to be on the transport with him.” Jane sighed heavily. “Neither one of us caught our ride.”

  “The Senate is conducting an inquiry about that bombing,” Cole said.

  “When?”

  Cole pressed his lips together and stared off into a corner. “I don’t remember exactly. I saw it on the internet in passing when I was working at getting into the Dark Web. It’s either tomorrow or the next day. Whichever, it’s soon.”

  Charlie yawned, covering her mouth. “It’s getting late. I fear I’m losing focus, and others might be, as well. We have what we need for now. Let’s call it a night and pick up where we left off in the morning.”

  Gus started for the stairs leading out of the basement conference room. When Jane didn’t follow, he turned back.

  “Aren’t you afraid I’ll be a problem?” Jane asked.

  Charlie smiled and yawned again. “If my husband trusted you, I trust you.” She patted Jane’s cheek. “However, I do want to find out who sent you on that last mission. It wasn’t John. Someone else must have John’s burner phone. I want to know who that is.” She dipped her head toward the people in the room. “I trust you all will have a good night. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow. Though we know Jane is Indigo, we still don’t know who she was before Trinity. I believe we owe her a real name, not a code name.” She smiled. “Good night.”

  Jane’s gaze followed Charlie up the stairs. As she passed Gus, Jane cap
tured his glance.

  Gus held out his hand. He didn’t give a damn what the others thought. He wanted Jane to know he was there to protect her.

  She placed her hand in his.

  He chuckled as he started up the steps out of the basement. “You’re not going to argue?”

  “I’m too tired to care what anyone thinks.” She let him hold her hand all the way up the stairs to the third floor.

  Inside the suite, Gus didn’t even push the sofa up against the door. He left it in the middle of the room.

  Jane’s brow twisted. “Do you want me to make a break for it? Or are you showing me that you trust me to stay?”

  “Like you, I’m tired. I don’t think either one of us is leaving this suite until morning.” He drew her into his arms and tipped her chin up. “And if you feel like you need to run, by all means. But I, for one, would rather you stayed.”

  At his words, warmth spread through her body. “And the others?”

  “I can’t speak for them, but Charlie likes you,” Gus said. “And she’s the boss.” He bent to brush his lips across her forehead. “I’m sorry you had to go through everything you did.”

  “I don’t need anyone’s pity,” she protested. At the same time, she liked what his lips were doing to her face and wished he would drop a little lower to claim hers.

  “So, what do I call you?” Gus swept his lips along her left cheek to capture her earlobe between his teeth.

  “Not Indigo. I’m done with Trinity.”

  “What about Trinity being like the mob? Once you’re in, you can never leave.”

  She snorted. “Oh, I’m sure I can leave...in a body bag.”

  He pressed a finger to her lips. “Don’t.”

  She looked up into his eyes. “Trinity plays for keeps. As much as I’d like to think I can start over with a new identity and new life, until Trinity is eradicated, and the leader is jailed or killed, I will never be free.”

  “You don’t know what can happen.” He bent to claim her lips in what should have been a long, toe-curling kiss. When he brought his head up, he frowned down at her. “Something wrong?”

  “You deserve better,” she said.

  “You’re right. So, kiss me again.”

  When he lowered his head to do just that, she put her hand between his mouth and hers. “Why get mixed up with someone like me when you can have your choice of available, uncomplicated women?”

  “I think I’m attracted to complicated.” Again, he tried to kiss her.

  She pressed her hands against his chest. “You’re making it hard for me to resist.”

  “Then don’t.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Unless you don’t want to make love with me. In that case tell me now and I’ll walk away.” He waited for her to do that.

  Jane hesitated. He was a good man. She was tainted with a questionable past. He deserved so much better.

  Gus dropped his hands to his sides. “I don’t want to pressure you into anything you don’t want to do.”

  Knowing it might be the last time she had a chance to be with Gus, Jane didn’t want to miss this opportunity. No longer able to fight the desire, she grabbed both sides of his face between the palms of her hands. “Oh, shut up and make love to me.”

  * * *

  GUS GATHERED HER in an embrace and pulled her close. “Demanding female, aren’t you?” Every part of his body had lit on fire the moment they walked through the door of the suite.

  Yes, they’d learned Jane was the assassin Indigo. He should be keeping his distance and watching her even more closely than ever before. But he couldn’t resist her. She was strong, determined and sexy as hell. Everything about her screamed lethal, yet Gus couldn’t fight what was happening inside himself.

  He’d never met a woman like Jane. She’d been through so much, and emerged fighting. They had so much more in common than he could have originally guessed. They both were from similar backgrounds, having lost their parents when they were young. They had been through tough combat training and both seen action, killed people and been shot at on more than one occasion.

  Post-traumatic stress disorder was a way of life. One they dealt with on a daily basis from all they’d lived through.

  From what he’d learned about her in the very short time he’d known Jane, she wanted roots, a place to call home and a family to welcome her there. She’d fit in easily with the team and taken to Charlie’s hospitality. He understood that feeling.

  For years, Gus thought himself immune to the desire to marry, to have a family of his own. His family was his team. He’d convinced himself it was enough.

  Now, with Jane in his arms, he realized he wanted so much more. But why this woman? She wasn’t kidding when she said she was complicated. A known assassin, she would find it hard to start over. Being a part of Trinity would make it even harder.

  At that moment, all of those thoughts were pushed to the back of his mind as he held Jane in his arms, kissing her and feeling her warm body against his.

  She was who he wanted. No matter how hard it would be to extricate her from the tentacles of the Trinity Syndicate, he would do it.

  He bent and scooped her up into his arms.

  Jane frowned. “Aren’t you afraid you’ll rip the stitches in your arm?”

  Gus shook his head. “I’m more afraid that if I don’t get a move on, you’ll wise up and change your mind.”

  She brushed her lips across his. “Not a chance.”

  Gus carried her into the bedroom and let her slide down his body until her feet touched the ground. Then he backed her up until she bumped into the bed.

  “Before we go any further, I want to be perfectly clear. You’re all in on this, right?”

  She frowned, tipping her head to the side slightly. “I told you to shut up and make love to me. What part of that confused you?”

  “Nothing. It’s just that I watched you take down two guys in under a minute. I want to be sure you’re not going to do the same to me.” He winked.

  Jane’s eyebrows rose. “Is that so?”

  He nodded and bent to nuzzle her neck. “You never know when a woman’s going to kick your butt.”

  “You are so right.” Jane grabbed the front of his shirt, spun around and pushed him backward.

  Gus landed on the bed, bringing Jane with him.

  She landed on top of him with a grunt.

  “You didn’t have to get all tough on me,” Gus said. “I was working my way to this exact position. If you wanted me to move faster, all you had to do was say so.”

  “You talk too much, marine.” Jane lowered her mouth to his, stemming the flow of words from his lips.

  “Mmm.” She moaned. “This is more like it.”

  He cupped the back of her head and pulled her closer against him. “Agreed.” Then as quickly as she’d toppled him into the bed, he flipped her onto her back and kissed her more fiercely. “I’ve wanted to do that since I saw you standing in that ballroom in that black dress.”

  “A stranger? You wanted to kiss a woman you didn’t trust?”

  “I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time.” He looked up at her. “No...that’s not right. I felt something I’d never felt before.” Gus cupped her face in his hand. “You made me feel. My heart was pumping, my blood flowing hot and fast through my veins. I think that’s why I noticed you in the first place. You looked amazing in that dress with your long black hair hanging down around your shoulders.”

  “I’ve never had a man talk to me the way you do.”

  “Then you’ve never had a man as intrigued as I am.” He kissed a path from her earlobe along the side of her jaw to capture her mouth in a searing kiss. “You make me burn inside,” he murmured.

  She chuckled. “That doesn’t sound comfortable.”

  “There’s nothing comfortable about
the way I feel about you. I want you so much it hurts.”

  “Then what are you waiting on?”

  “I want you to be sure this is what you want,” he said and trailed his lips down the length of her throat to the pulse beating wildly at the base.

  “It is what I want. You. Me. Let’s make love like there will be no tomorrow. We don’t know what’s going to happen. We can have tonight at the very least.”

  She entwined her hands behind the back of his neck and pulled him down to kiss her.

  He leaned up on his elbows and stared down into her face. “Why are you so damned beautiful?”

  She blinked up at him. “For an assassin?”

  Gus frowned. “I didn’t say that.” He brushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear. “The combination of black hair, smooth skin and brown-black eyes give you an air of mystery I would think most men couldn’t resist.”

  “Apparently, you’re the only one who couldn’t resist. Most men don’t look twice at me.”

  “Oh, darlin’, that’s where you’re wrong. You are stunningly attractive. I couldn’t take my eyes off you at the gala.”

  “Because you were worried I was going to kill or kidnap Charlie.” She shook her head. “I’m just a woman with a load of personal baggage that will make it hard for any man to get close to.”

  “But you’re letting me close,” he reminded her.

  “Only because I know it won’t last. As soon as everyone else figures out that I’m an assassin, one of a couple things could happen.”

  “Oh really?” He cocked an eyebrow. “What?”

  “I’ll be hauled off to jail for murder.”

  “Who will turn you in?” He pressed a kiss to her temple.

  “The CIA knows I’m an assassin. When they find me, they’ll arrest me, toss me in jail and throw away the key.”