Jewell (The Kings of Guardian Book 8)

by Kris Michaels

  "Fuck, yes!"

  Zane growled and slammed home over and over. He bent his knees and placed his feet on the bed. His hips pistoned faster and deeper. Her body drew tight, her mind gone, only primal instinct remained, and she chased her orgasm with every fiber of her being. Zane grasped her holding her down as he thrust up and ground against her. His hand snaked down and found her clit. His fingers opened her, and within seconds of his touch, she exploded. She rode out the wave of sensation and faintly registered Zane's growl as he wrapped his arms around her and brought her into his chest. She panted against him.

  Jewell lay on top of Zane as they recovered. Sweat slicked their skin and cooled rapidly, but none of that mattered. What mattered was the man under her. The way he'd always treated her with respect, even when she might not have deserved it. The way he listened to her and didn't dismiss her ideas. The fact that she missed him when he wasn't with her and enjoyed his company. She traced circles on his shoulder until he rolled her off of him, kissed her sweetly and took care of the condom. When he returned to the bed and wrapped her up in his arms again, she sank into him. "Why a tiger?" She could see the darker outlines of the animal. The artist who tattooed the big cat was phenomenally talented.

  "When I worked in the other section, my code name… I got it as a tribute to the lives I saved." Zane's chin rested on the top of her head so she couldn't see his eyes, but she could hear the emotion in his words.

  "Is it hard?" She arched her back so she could look at him.

  "What?"

  "Joseph said it was hard playing normal. I've never been normal. I don't get along well with most people. I have always felt like you were unflappable, at least you always have been around me. Is it hard being this version of you?"

  Zane hugged her into his chest. His hand played with the ends of her hair. She waited for his answer, but none came. That was fair. She always took the time to think about difficult questions. Sometimes they couldn't be answered. She adjusted her position in his arms and felt her eyes drifting shut.

  "I like this version of me because it has you in it. This version is mandated to save lives instead of taking them. Is it hard? Yes. I struggle to keep who I was from surfacing." Zane rolled onto his side, so he was facing her on the pillow. "I'm a weapon, one that is defective."

  "You're not defective." Jewell reached up to bring her palm to his cheek.

  "I am. I can no longer do the mission I was trained to perform. I started to lose my humanity. The animal I'd become to hunt and kill for missions I was assigned started to control me. There is a veneer I wear now. It cloaks the scars and wounds my past has left. I'm not comfortable in a civilized reality. I attend psychiatric sessions to try to understand how to adapt and how to let go. Your brothers understand my situation, and they don't want me near you, at least not in a personal sense."

  Jewell lifted up onto her elbow so she could see him in the moonlight. "My brothers believe that they control my life. They don't."

  "My past could come back to haunt us at any time." Zane brought her down with him again.

  Jewell rolled onto her back and put her head on his shoulder. "My past is haunting us now. How is it any different? Won't we just work together to remedy the situation like we are now?"

  Zane cocked his head to look at her, and she glanced over at him when he spoke. "Is that something you'd be willing to try? Having a future with me?"

  Jewell sat up in bed and twisted so she faced him. "Wait. What? Isn't that what we agreed to? We set this relationship up and tweak it to make things work? That's what you said. Did you change your mind?"

  "No, but I needed to make sure you haven't."

  Jewell turned to face him full on. She hated this. She didn't know how to tell him what she was thinking without coming off as cold or… what did the people in college call her… a calculating bitch. Her people skills sucked.

  Jewell glanced over at Zane. She moved the sheet up over her breasts because that seemed to be where Zane's eyes had wandered to and stuck. He looked up at her and winked. She flashed him a smile and then glanced down at her fingers that were twisting in her lap. "Okay, so I didn't know the full extent of your past. But I assimilated the information, and we talked about it, right? That was the premise for the program, remember? We gather the information, and we make decisions about the relationship based on that information. Did I misunderstand?" She searched her memory recalling their conversation. Hadn't they already determined this course of action?

  Zane lifted up and scooted back to lean against the headboard. He beckoned her closer. Jewell slid up the bed and sat next to him. He dropped his arm over her shoulders and tugged her into his side.

  "I'm not trying to renege on our agreement. I am, however, giving you all the information to make that informed decision. Being with me won't be easy."

  Jewell leaned her head onto his shoulder. "Well, that makes two of us. What does that say about us?"

  "That we are both determined, strong-willed people who are willing to fight for something we want." Zane's voice rumbled around her. He maneuvered them back down onto the bed and spooned his body behind hers. The comfort and simple indulgence of being with him like this resonated deep within her. She'd always felt guilty about spending time away from Guardian, but not tonight. In Zane's arms, she found contentment and peace.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jewell climbed the stairs to her office for the fiftieth or sixtieth time today. Three missions overseas would keep any section busy but add to that the normal day to day requirements of the domestic side of the business and her people were swamped. She glanced at Zane's empty chair and then at the clock. He'd dropped her off this morning before he'd gone to interview Darren Kowalski. Jewell checked the operational status of her systems before she folded up into her chair and tugged her keyboard toward her. There were endless tasks to accomplish, and she should be focused on them. Instead, she wondered what information Zane could obtain from the traitor. It seemed like a waste of time to her. Unless Kowalski surrendered an identity for Vista, there wasn't any real way forward. From everything she'd read, the man hadn't provided any information since he'd been apprehended in the Maldives.

  Jewell glanced at the Dark Net chat room she'd set up. When Zane got back, she'd need to outline her idea to him. The plan was as simple as it was obvious. Jewell would make a public proclamation that she'd singlehandedly defeated Vista. If the man were alive, he wouldn't be able to resist responding. Figuring out how to trap him once he surfaced, would be the issue.

  Jewell glanced at the dormant chat room again. She wasn't sure Zane was right. Something told her Vista was dead. She knew for a fact the person she tracked yesterday was Vista. Could he have left the house before Guardian's people got there? Yes. But why would he? Jewell put herself in his place. She let her imagination put her in the man's shoes. If her computer, her main computer, had just been infected with a virus like no other that she'd ever seen before, what would she do? She'd shut down, curse the stars and then replace the hard drives. She had ghosts of her systems. She'd replace the drive and bring her system up to the configuration that she'd last ghosted on her computer. Then she'd isolate the hard drive in a stand-alone system and then examine the fuck out of the virus that had attacked her. None of that would require the man to leave the house. Unless the house wasn't his? Or maybe he had his back up hard drives stored somewhere else. Jewell cast a glance toward to the safe where her backups were located. No, that was reaching. She had nothing to substantiate that theory.

  The snick of her door lock brought her out of her thoughts. A smile split her face when her sister-in-law Tori walked into her office. "Hey! How did you get away from Jacob with three missions going?"

  "Two are done, and the third is wrapping up. I've learned to escape before the hot wash begins unless there is a reason I need to be present. Once they start scrub
bing the mission, I'm stuck for at least three hours." Tori motioned toward Zane's chair as if asking permission to sit.

  Jewell smiled and waved her hand at the chair. "Thank you for dinner last night, it was fun."

  "Bullshit, you were distracted the entire evening. Hell, Joseph talked more than you did."

  Jewell's laugh exploded before she slapped her hand over her face. "Yeah, it's this Vista issue."

  Tori leaned back in the chair, slid off her heels and folded her legs up with her. "I'm not following. Vista died yesterday."

  "Zane doesn't think so. He believes it was too neatly wrapped and presented. He's with Kowalski now trying to get something from the man to track our hacker in the physical world."

  Tori wrapped her hands around her legs, leaned and rested her chin on her knees. "He doesn't have a physical footprint. Wouldn't it be easier to work the digital track?"

  Jewell mimicked Tori's position and sucked her bottom lip into her mouth to worry it while she thought. "I've searched for a digital trail. I couldn't find one."

  "Ah, but you don't have the assets the CIA has." Tori's eyebrows rose. As the liaison for the CIA, her sister-in-law had access to systems Jewell would love to explore. Guardian's tech was better, but the long history of the CIA and the human contacts they employed outmatched Guardian at least five to one.

  "You think they'd play ball?" Jewell grabbed a pencil from her hair and tapped the eraser end against her lips.

  "If Jason approves it and makes a call to the director, I think they would. Every agency in America needs closure on the Bravata's human trafficking case. If we tie the trace of Vista to that closure, it should be a slam-dunk."

  "Slam-dunk?" Jewell tried to hide her amusement of her sister-in-law's comment.

  "What can I say? I live with five men. Five. Granted four are smaller, but I swear that each and every one of them secretes enough testosterone to sink a ship. You've seen my yard. Football, soccer, basketball, hockey, lacrosse and t-ball equipment long ago overtook the flowers, and the sheer volume of crap is threatening to choke out the hedge line." Tori screwed up her face and looked cross-eyed at Jewell.

  "Like you're not out there playing with them!"

  "True, but if I wasn't, I'd never see them except for bathtime and bedtime. Talon is reading so well, he's reading us his bedtime story now." The mom-pride oozed from her sister-in-law.

  "They are amazing kids, but I may be prejudiced."

  "Thank you." Tori glanced at the clock displays behind Jewell. "And those amazing kids need me to rescue their nanny in about an hour, so do you want me to hit up Jason and try to get the CIA to help?"

  "It couldn't hurt. Zane can work the physical. You can work the non-existent digital with the spooks, and I'll work on the backup plan." Because if Jewell were forced to give odds on the success of either Zane or Tori's plan, she'd end up broke.

  "Don't forget the human intelligence factor. The CIA has resources that would boggle your mind on that front. What's your backup plan?" Tori unfolded from the chair and slipped her heels back on.

  "Just an idea right now. Zane and I will flesh it out if we need to present it."

  "Zane? I thought his name was Adrian Monk, Gil Grissom, or Shawn Spencer." Tori rattled off a list of the TV cop names Jewell had called Zane during his first stint with her. Jewell wanted to hang her head in shame. She'd been such a bitch. "When did you start calling him by his real name?" Tori's question spiked a rush of blood to Jewell's cheeks. Thank goodness the lighting in her office would cover it.

  "Okay, okay… I realize I may have been a bit of a bitch to him, before."

  Tori put her hand on her hip and lifted one perfectly arched eyebrow. "A bit?"

  "Uhhggg… alright, I was horrible to him, but he still forgave me and…" Jewell hid her face in her hands. "…I like him. A lot. And he likes me, and I don't know what to do with that, but I think this might be more than like, and my brothers hate him and are also assholes who are trying to run my life." The words ran together as they poured out of her mouth. Jewell grabbed her hair and held it in front of her face, mortified that she'd confided such personal secrets to another living soul.

  She watched through her hair as Tori slowly sat back down. "Okay, first things first. I'm so happy for you and Zane. Second, forget the brothers. They mean well, but we've had to unscramble their well—meant macho screw—ups before. We can do it again. What matters is that you like Zane. You know if he makes you happy, the brothers will eventually settle down. And if not, we can pull out the big guns."

  Jewell swept her hair back from her face. "The big guns?" She had no idea what Tori was talking about.

  "Yep, your mom and my dad."

  The Cheshire grin that spread over Tori's face was too much. Jewell groaned and shook her head. "See, that's just it. This is so new and unexpected. I don't know what to do or even if what I feel is real? I mean could this just be a phase? Or what if he isn't the right person for me. Don't get me wrong, I want him to be the right person, but what if he isn't?"

  "Okay, then let's make this real simple. If Zane were to walk out of that door and leave, never to return, would you be okay with it?"

  The question hit her hard. Harder than she expected, because it wasn't just a mental shock, it was a physical reaction. Her stomach clenched and adrenaline filled her system. Jewell inventoried the responses, both mental and physical. She'd be hurt, that was a given. When Zane had left before, the hole he left in his wake was a tangible force, and that was before Jewell had gotten to know him—intimately. No, she wouldn't be okay. Jewell lifted her gaze to Tori and shook her head. "No. I don't think so."

  "Then the chances are he is the right person for you. Will he be your forever love? Who knows, but if you don't take the chance and let him get close to you, you'll never know. You can't analyze your life the way you examine the data that pours through this office. Trust him to lead you through it. Take a chance, Button, or you might miss something fantastic."

  Jewell picked up the pen on her workstation as Tori's words sunk in. "We've already agreed to try to make it work. I'm just second guessing myself."

  "We all do that. It's normal." Tori stood and placed a hand on Jewell's shoulder. "I'm here if you need to talk. You know, girl talk."

  Jewell snorted. She'd listened to her sisters and mom talk about men and had tried to chime in when appropriate. Girl talk… lord above, she'd always thought it was a waste of time. Maybe she needed to re-evaluate that assumption, too. "Thank you." She called out the thought just before the door shut behind Tori. The woman gave her a thumbs up sign through the mirrored glass and headed down the stairs.

  Zane entered the interrogation room and sat across from one of the most notorious men Guardian had ever apprehended. The kicker was the man used to be a brother in arms. Zane leaned back in his chair as he sized up Darren Kowalski. He was big, brown hair and brown eyes. Sharp eyes that missed nothing. His manacled hands sat folded one over the top of the other. His shoulders were relaxed, and he met Zane's gaze without hesitation.

  "Who are you?" Kowalski asked as soon as Zane sat down.

  "Nobody you know."

  Kowalski huffed and shook his head. "No shit, that's why I asked."

  "I'm known by many names. The one you might have heard is Bengal." Zane saw the flare of recognition in the man's eyes before Kowalski's cocky attitude returned in full force.

  "So what, the mighty Guardian is going to kill me? Bring it on. I don't give a flying fuck." Zane leaned forward and steepled his fingers together. The information Guardian had been able to amass on Kowalski was all the leverage he needed. He'd spent the last hour going over his file, thanks to Jared King. To say such a gesture from Jewell's brother surprised him would be putting it mildly. But he was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  "You? No, not you." Ice dripped from his threat. He'd
channeled his past life and yanked that bastard front and center. Zane stared at Kowalski. He didn't blink, and he didn't give any indication that he would speak again. He'd had people in this position before, granted it was usually with him pointing a suppressor at the fucker's temple, but he could do civil. Since Kowalski had started the questioning, it was best if he kept the bastard talking. If he shut down, the upcoming threat might not have the same effect.

  "Really, then who?"

  Zane removed three pictures from his inside coat pocket. He laid them down one by one and watched Kowalski grow paler and paler. Finally, the man shook his head and spit out, "Bullshit. I worked for this organization. There is no way the Kings would go after my wife or children."

  Zane let the corner of his mouth curl up. "Vista has threatened their sister. It is a tit for tat scenario. You save their sister, they'll spare your family. You should know nobody threatens the Kings. It is, after all, the reason you are sitting in this room. You grew too bold and assumed they wouldn't respond."

  A puzzled expression crossed Kowalski's face. "Who or what is Vista?"

  "Your hacker." Zane saw the man blink in recognition. A slow shake of the man's head followed.

  "I don't know who he is. We contacted him via a landline. I know he is in the United States, or I assume he was. We called a US number and left a message. We told him what we wanted, and we'd receive a price via the Dark Net. We'd deposit the funds in his account, and it would happen."

  Zane pushed a pad and pen to where Kowalski's hands were shackled. "Routing number to the account, website address and telephone number." He tapped the photographs and then spoke again. "Do them a favor and forget them."

  Kowalski wrote the information on the pad but hesitated before he handed it over. "How do I know you'll honor your word?"

  Zane sneered at the man and growled, "I'm not the scum who dishonored the code. That was you."