The ground went out from underneath me as his words registered.
Brianne. He was here for Brianne.
I’d always assumed that my sister had lost contact with Clay the same as I had, leaving our past in DC. I’d never completely forgiven her for betraying me by sleeping with Clay, but I’d done my best to move on. What had helped me was thinking that we’d both never see him again.
But she’d been in contact with him all along. That was the only possible explanation as to how he’d known she was part of this Red Care group in Costa Rica.
Unless…she hadn’t been the one keeping tabs on him. It was possible he’d found her through his job and kept an eye on her that way.
It still hurt to know that she was the reason he was here, but it was better than thinking that she’d hidden him from me.
“Now, I’ve told you why I’m here. How about the truth as to why you’re here?”
I gave him a puzzled look. Was he really that dense? “Same as you,” I said. “I’m here for Brianne.”
“Brianne?” Now, he was the one who looked confused.
I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. Was he really going to play dumb? Or was it more that he thought I was that dumb?
I moved on without acknowledging the newest lie. “My mom called me on New Year’s Day and said she hadn’t heard from Bri in a while. She was worried, and I had some vacation time, so I decided to come down and see what I could find out. If I happened on a story too, my editor would be thrilled.”
“Brianne is with the same group.” He shook his head. “What a small world.”
Lying bastard. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to rail at him or cry because I hated how much it still hurt. The wound that I’d thought had healed was just as open and fresh as the day it’d happened.
“I can’t use my badge here,” he continued, “but I still have a better chance of getting information than you do.”
I ground my teeth together. Lying and arrogant.
“Go on back to the hotel, or maybe catch a bus to the beach,” he said. “I’ll make some inquiries and let you know what I find. Tomorrow, you can catch a flight home, and I’ll call when I find Brianne.”
Everyone had their own tipping point, that thing that caused them to snap. This, apparently, was mine.
“Go fuck yourself, Clay Kurth.” His jaw dropped, and when I poked him in the chest, his eyes widened. “I’m quite capable of taking care of things myself. I might’ve only been fifteen when we last saw each other, but I’ve been an adult for a while now, and more than capable of making my own decisions.”
“Tess–”
“No!” I snapped. “I can’t tell you what to do, but you sure as hell can’t tell me either. I’m not anything to you but an old friend. I don’t owe you a damn thing!”
Eleven
Clay
I’d met Brianne first.
Chance had put us next to each other the first day of school, since the two of us were in the same grade, and we’d hit it off. She’d invited me to her birthday party that year, and that was when I met Tess. From that first moment, even as children, I’d been drawn to her.
Since Brianne and Tess were so close, it had usually been the three of us spending time together, though by the time Brianne and I were fourteen, Tess and I found our conversations more focused on each other than including her. We’d never intentionally excluded her, but there’d always been something special between Tess and me, something that Brianne hadn’t been able to touch.
That didn’t mean Tess hadn’t driven me nuts in the past, or that she wasn’t driving me nuts right now in the present.
I’m not anything to you but an old friend.
How could she say that? How could she think that?
I hadn’t had the chance back then to tell her how I’d felt about her, but I’d always thought it had been painfully obvious. Some people might not have thought that a person could be in love when they were a teenager, not in a real way, but what I’d felt for Tess back then had been more real than anything I’d ever felt before.
And if I was being honest with myself, I hadn’t felt anything that real since then either.
I wasn’t still in love with her, of course. That would’ve been ludicrous. Sure, some high school sweethearts lasted, but not ones who’d never become sweethearts, ones who’d been separated for nearly two decades before they could even see if there was anything real between them.
That hadn’t stopped me from thinking about her on and off over the years. I hadn’t gone out of my way to do it, but I hadn’t been able to stop it either, no matter how much I might’ve wanted to, no matter how painful it’d been.
Sometimes, there’d been something that reminded me of her, but sometimes I’d just wondered about her, about where she was or what she was doing.
Now, I knew both where she was and what she was doing, and I wished I didn’t because she was driving me crazy. Not like she’d driven me crazy last night when we’d kissed, but more like I want to pull my hair out and run screaming through the street nuts.
Didn’t she understand that I was trying to keep her safe? She was a journalist, for fuck’s sake! I was an FBI agent; I should be the one to ask questions and take risks. She was right that she was an adult and could make her own decisions, but she didn’t have the same skillset I did.
Hell, Rona had almost been an FBI agent, and I still wouldn’t have felt comfortable with her coming to Costa Rica alone to investigate missing workers. The thought of Tess being here by herself, going around Costa Rica asking questions that might lead to unsavory places…
Fuck. No.
“Let’s go somewhere a little more private so we can talk,” I suggested. A quick glance around the parking lot showed that no one appeared to be taking an unusual amount of interest in us, but all it took was one word to the wrong person, and I’d be screwed.
Tess shook her head. “Really? That’s the line you’re going to use to get me alone?”
The longer I was around her, the more bewildered I felt. Sure, she could think that I’d drastically changed in the time we’d been apart, but that wasn’t the vibe I was getting. She was angry at me, and I had no clue why. It wasn’t just me not telling her the whole truth either. She’d been giving off this same vibe since the moment she’d recognized me.
“We can go somewhere private with plenty of people around,” I said. “I just don’t want to have this conversation out here in the open where we can be overheard.”
She considered my words for a moment, then nodded. “How about the courtyard back at the hotel?”
“That will work,” I said. “Meet there in twenty minutes?”
Another nod, but she didn’t move. After a moment, she spoke again. “You first.”
Twelve
Tess
I made it back to the hotel with several minutes to spare thanks to slipping the cab driver some extra cash to go a little faster, but Clay was already in the courtyard when I arrived. I cursed under my breath, then fixed my expression in what I hoped was a casual smile.
“You made good time,” I said as I slid into the seat across from him.
Under the table, our knees brushed, and I immediately pushed my chair back to put some distance between us. No matter how pissed I still was at him, his touch messed with my mind, and I needed a clear head for this conversation.
“I took a defensive driving course,” he said with a shrug. “It’s useful for more than car chases.”
Apparently.
“All right,” I said, “you’re the one who wanted us to find somewhere to talk. Here we are.”
He glanced around, the gesture itself innocuous, but because I had a general idea of the sort of training he must have received when he joined the FBI, I knew he was getting a read on our surroundings. For some reason I really didn’t like, his actions made me feel safe. I shouldn’t have felt safe with him at all. That was why I hadn’t wanted to go somewhere alone with him. I couldn’t trust
him.
Except, I thought as I allowed myself those few moments to really look at him, it wasn’t him I couldn’t trust. It was my own treacherous body and heart. I’d found guys attractive over the years, but never anything like what I’d felt when I’d seen Clay for the first time. Hell, it wasn’t anything like what I felt right now sitting across from him. Desire thick enough to coat my tongue and warm my skin.
“You said your mom called you about Brianne?”
“She said she hadn’t heard from Bri in four days, and when she started contacting the families of people Brianne had mentioned, she found out that they hadn’t heard anything either. Red Care gave her the party line about possible outages but wouldn’t say anything else. When I pressed Mom more, she said she’d gotten an anonymous call two days before New Year’s saying that Brianne had been part of a group of Red Care workers who’d disappeared.” I leaned back in my seat as I finished my summary. “Your turn.”
“I can’t tell you who contacted my partner, but I can tell you that the person who started the whole thing is involved with someone in that group. The way things came through Ray – that’s my partner’s name – makes me suspicious that there’s more to this than a missing lover.”
“You really think they’re missing,” I said, my stomach churning at the thought. “Not lost, but in trouble.”
His grim expression gave me the answer first. “You’re right, I don’t think they’re lost. I think something happened to them.”
The first real flicker of fear made me shift in my seat. I could barely get my question out. “Do you think they’re dead?”
“I don’t know.”
Really? Now was when he chose to be honest?
“What do you think, then?” I asked, not caring how sharp my voice had become.
“I think they’re in too much danger for you to be out looking for them alone.”
“You’re a real bastard, you know that?” I lowered my voice as a couple walked by hand-in-hand like they didn’t have a care in the world. “I thought we were coming here so you could tell me things that you didn’t want to say in the parking lot. Like you had, some top-secret information that couldn’t be overheard.”
He gave me a searching look, then scratched at the scruff on his jaw, clearly considering his next words. “I think someone might have found out, that one of the group, has a lover with far-reaching connections, but they didn’t know who, so they took the whole group.”
My eyes widened in horror. “If they only need one person in the group, that means, when they find out who that person is, everyone else is…”
He said it for me. “Expendable.”
“Brianne’s life could be in danger, and you want me to, what, sit here by the pool and wait for you to find her?” My temper flared. “No way. As I said before, fuck you.”
“Do you really think Brianne would want you to risk getting hurt? You know your sister would do anything to protect you.”
I stared at him, disbelieving. I couldn’t believe that he didn’t know that Brianne had told me what’d happened between them. Or was it that he didn’t know about my crush back then? It would’ve been embarrassing for him to have known all that, but it was worse knowing that my feelings had never come up in all the time he’d been talking to Bri. Had he never asked about me? Had she never talked about me?
“Tess are you okay?”
The concern in his voice took my hurt and turned it into anger. “I’m fine, Clay. And it’s not Brianne’s business or yours what risks I take. She might not have told you, but we live separate lives. We rarely talk or see each other. I have my work, and she has hers.”
I didn’t add that he’d given up the right to have a say in my life when he’d decided that having sex was more important than our friendship.
“I need to tell you something.” He folded his hands and rested them on the table.
Here it was. He was finally going to confess what he’d done all those years ago.
I cleared my throat. “Go on.”
“About five years ago, I met a lawyer in New York, and the two of us became friends. He had custody of an orphaned niece and, while she wasn’t a child anymore, he made me promise that I’d look after her if anything happened to him. Two years later, he was killed outside the courthouse.”
I was confused by the abrupt change in subject, but I didn’t interrupt. I’d hear him out, then say all the things I still had bottled up.
“I kept an eye on his niece, Rona, and eventually recruited her to the FBI. The two of us became…involved while she was in training.”
I’d thought nothing he could say would piss me off more, but that was before he started talking about his girlfriend as if she was relevant to what was going on between him and me.
“Without going into details, let’s just say that things were awkward between us when they ended, and I wasn’t happy with the choice she’d made.” Color stained his cheeks. “But instead of protecting her anyway, I acted like an ass and almost got her killed.” He finally raised his gaze so that our eyes met. “I’m not taking that risk with you.”
I ignored the bite of jealousy at the fondness I heard in his voice when he talked about Rona. Hearing that he wanted to protect me should have made me feel good, but it just annoyed me. Who in the hell would protect me from him when he showed his true colors again?
“I’m not going home without finding Brianne,” I said.
He sighed and rubbed his forehead, not even trying to hide his exasperated expression. “All right. If you won’t listen to reason, will you at least consider working with me instead of on your own?”
“Working with you?” I didn’t know which of those words I was having the most difficulty with.
“I won’t be able to concentrate on finding Brianne if I’m worried about you getting hurt.”
My heart gave an unsteady thump at his words, and I chided the wayward organ. He didn’t mean anything special by it. He was an FBI agent. It was his job to protect the American people. Plus, he thought Bri would be mad at him if he ‘let’ something happen to me. That’s all it was.
Still, the entire reason I was down here was to find my sister. If working with Clay made that happen sooner rather than later, it would have been foolish of me to decline.
“All right,” I conceded. “We’ll work together. Where do you want to start?”
Thirteen
Clay
The knock on my door came not long after the sun rose. Two sharp knocks that I would’ve missed if I’d been sleeping more deeply. With Tess across the hall in her own room, however, deep sleep wasn’t anything that I’d be experiencing soon. I wasn’t about to let my guard down when her safety was my responsibility – whether she liked it or not.
I rolled off the bed, blinking sleep from my eyes. I didn’t need to open the door when I reached it, and I was actually pretty sure that I wasn’t supposed to. A small piece of folded paper had been slipped under the door, I assumed when someone had knocked on my door.
I picked it up but didn’t open it right away. I needed to clear my head first. The note could’ve been something simple, like a reminder about breakfast, but I didn’t think that was the case. Someone had come up here around dawn to slip this under my door, then knocked to make sure that I wouldn’t miss it.
I took a few minutes in the bathroom, and when I came back out, I felt a little more capable of dealing with whatever information was in that note. I sat on the edge of my bed and unfolded the paper.
At first glance, the words appeared to be Spanish, but as I read them, I noticed that something was off. The words were correct, but they sounded more like the formal Spanish I’d taken in high school than any of the many conversational dialects of Spanish I’d heard in various cultures. Whoever had written this note, I was willing to bet, didn’t have Spanish as their first language.
Still, I was able to make out what the note said, and that was what was important.
No one will answ
er your questions. They’re too scared. Go to The Black Cat bar and look for a man with a birthmark on his left cheek. Follow him, and you will find what you are looking for.
This felt like something out of a spy novel. A mysterious note from an anonymous source. A stakeout at a bar. A suspect with a distinguishing mark.
Still, it was the best lead I had this morning.
It didn’t take me long to dress, but while I did, I wondered if I should leave without waking Tess up. I could lie to her later and tell her that I’d wanted to let her sleep, but I had a feeling whatever tentative truce the two of us now had wouldn’t survive if I didn’t go get her.
As much as I told myself it was only to keep her safe, a little voice in the back of my head spoke up, reminding me that if I messed up with her, I’d lose her again, this time for good. And I didn’t want that, no matter how many times my brain said I shouldn’t care.
I knocked on her door and tried not to imagine what Tess was wearing on the other side. As kids, both Gardener girls and I had slept over at each other’s houses, but I doubted she still wore shooting star pajamas. By the time she’d been old enough to start wearing anything more…mature, the sleepovers had stopped.
I sent her a text and then knocked again. This time, I heard a muffled voice from inside. I couldn’t quite make out what she said, but it was enough to let me know that she was awake.
“If you want to come with me to follow a lead, you’ll need to get up now,” I called, pitching my voice low enough that anyone else on the floor wouldn’t be able to hear me.
“Do I have time to shower?”
I heard the words clearly that time, and I wished that I hadn’t because they conjured up images of bare skin, slick with soap and water. Her hands moving up to cup small breasts and caress pebbled nipples. Palms sliding down her stomach to dark curls between her legs.
Finding Brianne: New Pleasures Book 4 Page 6