CHAPTER FOUR
Present Day – Dallas, Texas
The jerk of the plane hitting the runway brought Jessa out of her dream. She blinked, forcing her eyes to focus. Moments ago, she’d been back in a world where everything had seemed warm and perfect. She’d dreamed of the night she’d first made love with Cole and Burke. She’d been surrounded by them, feeling safe and cherished.
It had been a dream—all of it. Oh, she’d lived it, but it had been her fantasy. In reality, she had been nothing more to them than a way to kill time while they worked a job. She’d been fooling herself, and the proof of her gullible nature was currently sleeping in his new car seat. The bouncing of the plane hadn’t woken Caleb. Nor had it awakened Burke, who slept beside him, hand resting on the baby’s little belly.
“My brother can sleep through anything. I think that’s what happens when you spend too much of your life on cargo planes.” Cole rubbed his eyes and stretched.
“Burke could sleep through Armageddon,” Gavin James drawled, then eyed Angus in his new carrier. The feline gave a guttural meow of supreme displeasure. No surprise since he’d spent most of the flight throwing up.
With a grimace, Gavin unbuckled his belt, stood and buttoned his jacket, then picked up the cat carrier. “The car is waiting for us. Hannah has everything ready. You don’t need to worry about Caleb. Or this charming cat you’ve got.”
Not worry? The thought of leaving her child behind with strangers tore at Jessa’s gut, threatening to rip her open.
“I’m sorry,” Gavin James said, his eyes hooded. “That was a thoughtless thing to say. I can’t imagine what you’re going through. Of course you’re going to worry. I have two children of my own, a boy and a girl. I would die a little if I were in your shoes. But I want you to know that I will protect Caleb as though he were my own.”
Tears pricked at her eyes. She believed him. The man in the thousand dollar suit seemed genuine, despite the fact that everyone around him jumped to do his bidding. He’d been waiting at the private airport outside of D.C. with a Learjet cleared for takeoff. He’d huddled near the back of the plane while Cole filled him in on the situation. She’d heard Gavin try to talk Cole and Burke into staying at his home in Dallas, but she agreed with them. Staying far away from Caleb was safer. She couldn’t risk his little life.
Burke came awake as the airplane screeched to a halt. “Are we here?”
“Yes, princess,” Cole replied. “And you managed to get your beauty sleep in, as usual. Jessa rested a little, too. We’re going to say goodbye to Caleb and take off before Marco can catch up with us. Did Dex find a car for us?”
Gavin frowned. “Yes. He’s waiting outside with it. He also tried to get hold of Mick Landry. He’s the PI you had watching Jessa for the past year, right?”
Cole unhooked his seatbelt. “Yes. He’s the good-for-nothing son of a bitch who didn’t do his goddamn job. I have a few words to say to him.”
“That’s going to be difficult. He was murdered two days ago.” Gavin’s words fell like a ticking bomb waiting to go off.
“Fuck,” Burke said.
“Well, we knew Marco was serious,” Cole muttered.
“Why did you hire a PI?” Jessa asked.
She didn’t understand them. They had walked away without even giving her their real last name, making it impossible for her to find them. But they’d hired someone to keep tabs on her? It didn’t make any sense.
“When we realized how long we were going to be in South America, we hired a PI to make sure you were okay. We just wanted to keep tabs on you,” Cole explained. “He wasn’t supposed to do anything but check on you. Make sure you were safe and had everything you needed. He sent monthly reports to our office. Our secretary forwarded them to us.” He greeted his teeth and cursed. “The bastard was obviously working for Marco. He told us you married Angus in Scotland this past spring.”
“Married? Seriously?” Jessa shook her head. “No. I went to Scotland because I sold some work at the Soho gallery, and the owner liked me so much she let me spend some time in her house there in exchange for painting it. It’s an old monastery on a gorgeous piece of land. When I came home, I was still only a few months along, so I adopted Angus from the animal shelter.”
“We had no idea you were pregnant,” Burke said, bitterness dripping.
She shrugged. “Would it have mattered? You still had a job to do.”
It wasn’t fair, but she was jealous of their mission. They had spent a full year saving other people’s children while their own child had been born in a county hospital. She could still remember standing outside the hospital with Caleb in a car seat, waiting on a taxi to take her home. She’d been the only new mom with no one to take care of her.
She could feel Cole’s stare burning through her. “One of us would have come back while the other stayed and did the job. We wouldn’t have left you alone.”
The door to the Lear opened, and a big man wearing a cowboy hat charged in. He wore a long-sleeved western shirt, jeans, and boots. The casual outfit didn’t hide the man’s air of authority. A lovely blonde followed behind him, her pretty face grimacing with worry.
“Dex? Seriously?” Gavin James stared at the cowboy. “You brought Hannah?”
“She’s earned a couple hundred licks.” Dex scowled. “But she wouldn’t be left behind. Slade’s back at the house making some calls. He’s working his way up the FBI ranks, screaming all the way. Unfortunately, no one can prove that this Marco asshole has taken over his father’s business. He’s been perfectly clean for years. We’re in a bind.”
“It wouldn’t matter,” Cole said, standing to shake hands with Dex. “Marco has FBI contacts. We could go into protective custody, and it would be a crap shoot. In fact, I think that’s exactly what the fucker wants us to do.”
The men started talking strategy, moving to exit the plane. The pretty blonde stepped forward and sat down across from Jessa, looking both concerned and kind. She was dressed in white slacks and a colorful sweater that had come straight off a designer’s rack. She was soft and natural, and there was no doubt this woman was well loved.
“He’s beautiful. Caleb, right?”
“Yes.” This was the woman who would take care of her baby. The blonde reached over and gently touched Caleb’s cheek, a tender look on her face. Jessa liked her right away. She had “experienced mother” written all over her.
She turned back to Jessa, holding out a hand. “I’m Hannah James. I’m married to those two and one who’s still at home. We have two babies. I promise, I will take care of yours. I love your men.”
Jessa shook her head. “They aren’t mine.”
They had never been.
Hannah’s perfectly manicured eyebrow rose on her face. “Say that all you like, but I promise you, those men have barely taken their eyes off you. They’re not going to give you up. But that’s an Alpha male for you. They can be obnoxious, but I wouldn’t have mine any other way.”
Hannah was married to three men? Jessa leaned in, her curiosity getting the better of her. She stole a glance at the two men talking to Cole and Burke. They looked…difficult. “How do you handle them?”
Hannah’s smile was brighter than the lights on the plane, her laughter tinkling through the cabin. “Oh, they don’t make it easy. They gang up on me. I rarely win a fight… But making up is worth it.” She turned serious, tears pricking her eyes. “Trust me. As difficult as this kind of relationship can be, it’s worth every moment. I wouldn’t know a damn thing about love or happiness without them.”
Jessa turned away, the look of adoration on Hannah’s face too much for her to bear. “Well, you got lucky.”
Hannah touched her knee. “I’ve known Cole and Burke for a couple of years now. They would talk about you on their brief trips home. I have never seen them as crazy about a woman as they are about you. Of course, they also haven’t had a case as bad as the one they’ve been working for the last year. If they say the
y didn’t know about Caleb, then they didn’t.”
Did that really matter? They had left her, walked away, and not returned for a year. They had only come now because they thought she was in danger. Great. They didn’t want her to die. She bet she could find a whole bunch of people who didn’t particularly want her to die. That didn’t mean they cared. And now that they knew about Caleb, whatever they said or did would be colored by the fact that she’d given birth to their son. Jessa didn’t want to be tied to them simply because her reproductive organs worked.
She glanced at Cole. He stood, looking so masculine it hurt. And Burke’s eyes strayed to hers. She looked away, too confused and angry to meet his stare.
Burke walked over, his face a grim mask. “We have to go now.”
Jessa put a hand to her mouth, stifling her cry. She was leaving her baby, her very soul. A moment later, Cole stood beside his brother.
“I’m so fucking sorry, baby.” Cole started to reach a hand toward her. She flinched. Cole’s face went blank. “The faster we get out of here, the less chance Marco has of following us. We have cash. We have an untraceable vehicle. We have new IDs. I promise, I will keep you alive or I will die trying.”
With tears falling, she leaned over and kissed her sleeping child. All this time, Caleb had been her strength. How had she ever thought differently? Shame filled her as she thought of those first, dark days when he had seemed like a burden. Now, he was the light of her life. His sweet smile, his sunny disposition, had kept her going through some very lonely times. Would she ever seen him again?
“I love you, baby boy,” she whispered against his cheek. “I love you.”
She stood and followed Cole and Burke out of the plane, her heart aching, threatening to seize up. God, she’d give anything to return to a happier time.
* * * *
One year earlier – New York City
Cole looked around the richly furnished dining room of the Waldorf Astoria, an ornate echo of its grander past. “So, this is your idea of breakfast?”
Jessa’s bright smile lit up the fucking room. What the hell had she done to him? One night with the curvy redhead, and he was practically her lapdog.
“Well, after you insatiable men ravished me all night, I’m starved,” she said with a wink. “I’m ready for the whole ‘treat me like a princess’ thing.”
Oh, he could do that. He slipped his hand into hers and leaned over, kissing her. His whole body still hummed from the hours of their lovemaking. He couldn’t fool himself. It hadn’t been simple fucking. Or even mere sex. He’d made love to her. He hadn’t even understood what the phrase meant until last night.
“Then that’s what you’ll get.” He nodded toward the hostess.
“What is our sweet thing going to get?” Burke asked, looking happier than Cole had seen him in a long time. Burke’s arms wrapped around Jessa’s waist, and he buried his face in her hair. “Probably everything. Poor baby, we gave her all she could take.”
Sweet Jessa had finally begged them to stop. They’d been relentless, easing into the snug heaven of her sweet pussy and loving her over and over. Cole had also introduced her to some ass play. He could still feel the way her virgin hole had clamped down on his finger as he’d worked to open her backside up. Soon, he’d take her there, and it would be a supreme pleasure.
But all their vigorous attention had worked up her appetite for food. And made their poor sweetheart more than a little sore.
The hostess’s eyes widened as she took in the three of them, but she showed them to a table without staring too much.
“Isn’t it beautiful? I love New York at holiday time.” Jessa looked around the dining room, all decorated for the season, pleasure evident in her eyes. The haunted look he’d seen in her eyes when they’d first met was gone. A smile of contentment lingered. He and his brother had given that to her. Cole stared across the table at his brother and shared a single thought.
She’s the one.
He felt it, knew that Burke felt it, too.
“You’re having one of those silent conversations.” Jessa shook her head as she gave them both pointed stares. “That is so not fair to me. I don’t have a telepathic link with anyone.”
Burke snorted. It was something they did almost unconsciously. “It’s not telepathic, exactly. When you spend your whole damn life chained to someone as ugly as that, you just get to know what he’s thinking. Right now, he’s thinking about bacon.”
Cole rolled his eyes. “No, but I am thinking about ham. You, brother.”
Burke shrugged. “I’ve been called worse. By you mostly.”
Jessa slapped lightly at Cole’s chest. “You boys behave. I’m going to run to the more than likely outrageously decadent bathroom, then grab some of that smoked salmon. It all looks so good.”
She stood. Both he and his brother rose to their feet. She kissed them both lightly, then walked off, her sweet curves swaying.
“We’re in trouble,” Burke said, sitting back down.
Cole lost his smile. He’d had twenty-four hours to forget why he was in New York. Reality came crashing down, and she was a bitch. “I know.”
“We have to meet with Delgado tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” Months of negotiating, and tomorrow they would finally meet the man. Up until now, they had dealt with lackeys. The day before they had met Marco, the big guy’s son, who apparently ran the legitimate side of the business. It had been a terribly civilized meeting with absolutely no mention of the business at hand. The super small recording device that Burke wore in the button of his suit coat hadn’t had anything to pick up. The recording would show nothing but three men talking about business interests and recent sporting events. Every time he or Burke would try to get the man to say something incriminating, he would simply smile and turn the conversation toward something less illegal.
But tomorrow there would be no avoiding it. Tomorrow they met with the man himself, and there would be no way around the fact that they were negotiating to buy another human being. The thought had bile rising in his throat. He wanted to keep Jessa far, far away from this shit.
“It won’t be over tomorrow. Finishing this up will take days, maybe even a week. We have to take custody of the girl to prove our case, let her tell her story, turn over the recordings and any other evidence we collect. We may have to help set up a sting…” Burke sighed and toyed with the perfectly placed silverware. “Fuck, the timing couldn’t be worse, but we can’t veer now.”
Neither of them wanted to do this. Cole knew what his brother was thinking. He wanted to be with Jessa, in their bed, passing her between them. He wanted to be happy with the one woman who handled and completed them both.
“Look on the bright side,” Cole said. “Yes, we’re going to spend an enormous amount of Rafe and Kade’s money on a slave, but at least one woman will be safe and free very soon.” But Burke was right; they couldn’t back away now. If they did, Cole knew he’d never be able to sleep at night. He would always wonder where Alea was, regret not trying harder to save her. She was only eighteen, for fuck’s sake.
From the moment he’d seen the snapshot of her young, vibrant face, he’d known that they had to save her. They were bigger and stronger than most men. And he was a predator. His life could have gone one of two ways. He was built to hunt, to kill. He could have taken advantage of those who were weaker. Instead, he chose to protect them.
It would take everything he had to walk into the fucker’s office tomorrow and not blow a hole through his skull. Delgado deserved it. He’d ruined so many lives. He lived in luxury while the families of the women he’d abducted lived victimized, without hope. He wanted nothing more than to take vengeance on the man. But they’d been hired to find a girl and collect evidence. He’d been hired to save a life.
“We could try the feds.” Burke toyed with the fork in front of him.
Cole shook his head. “No. Everything we have right now is circumstantial. And you know this bastard ha
s some men on the inside. They would squash the case, and Delgado would probably kill all the girls he still has in the States. Even if we got lucky and found the good guys, the feds won’t move overnight. If we fail to make that meeting tomorrow, Delgado will fold up his tent and disappear for who knows how long. We can’t risk either one happening.”
Burke nodded miserably. “And we can’t risk Jessa, either.”
The thought of Jessa in danger turned his stomach. All that amazing food had looked so tempting a moment before, and now he couldn’t stand the thought of it. “I pray he doesn’t know about Jessa, but this guy hasn’t risen to the top of a crime family without being ruthless and smart. I know he’s vetted us already.”
“Our cover will hold. I put it in place myself. There’s zero chance he can figure out it’s all made up. I’m a damn good hacker.”
“I know.” Burke was the best in the business. If he hadn’t gone into the Navy, Burke might have been a fine criminal. Cole stared at the hall where Jessa had disappeared. “He can believe our cover and still have someone watching us. You know he had someone at the airport. He knows where we’re staying. He hasn’t stayed in business for so many years without playing it smart and getting to know his clients. I’m worried that if he has someone watching us who I haven’t made yet, he’s going to find out about Jessa.”
“I don’t want that any more than you do, man,” Burke replied. “But it’s done now. We can’t go back and undo last night. I wouldn’t want to. All we can do is lay low. If anyone asks, she’s just a nice piece of ass.”
Their Virgin’s Secret, Masters of Menage, Book 2 Page 7