by Janie Crouch
“Jesus, Lily.” Jace hauled her to him in a fierce hug, swallowing the terror that still scratched at his insides. “What the hell happened?”
He was thankful when she didn’t try to pull away. “Masked man.” Her voice was painfully hoarse. “Saw someone crawl through a window and I followed him. He must’ve had a partner. Bastard Tasered me. When I woke up, he had me strung up, standing on a box. Then he tipped it.”
“Damn it.” Jace’s eyes closed again. “You were holding your own weight up?”
She nodded and silence fell between them as Jace realized how close to death she’d really been. The fact that she was sitting here alive right now was a testament to both her physical and mental strength. Strength very few people had.
“Sick bastard. Why didn’t he just shoot you?”
She pulled back from him and grabbed a note from behind him on the stairs. He unfolded it.
I CAN’T LIVE WITH WHAT I’VE DONE. WITH BETRAYING MY COLLEAGUES. SO MY FIGHT ENDS HERE.
It was written in block letters, which had been smart. It would’ve been difficult to prove whether Lillian had written it or not, which was exactly what the killer wanted.
“He wanted to make it look like a suicide,” she whispered.
“We need to get you to a hospital and report to Derek. Let him know what’s going on.”
She pulled away from him, shaking her head. “I don’t need a hospital. We go to Derek first. I’ll get the team medic to check me out.”
Jace grimaced but knew Lillian was probably right. There wasn’t much a hospital could do for her except help her manage her pain. “Fine. But if your throat starts feeling any worse, you have to let someone know immediately. Swelling could still be an issue. And swelling could mean airway blockage.”
She tilted her head, studying him. “How do you know that?”
“I had a little bit of medical training in the army.”
She nodded and he could tell even that small movement caused her discomfort. “Okay, I’ll tell you if it gets any worse.”
“We need to let the building guards know about that window. It shouldn’t have been missed in the security sweep.”
He kept a hand at the small of her back as they moved through the door and toward the elevators.
“Maybe they weren’t missed.” Her voice was low, husky. “Maybe someone deliberately left it unsecured.”
“You think the mole is here in Denver?”
“I think it’s awfully suspicious that the guy who broke in was wearing a mask. He would’ve blended in better without it.”
“A mask definitely screams bad guy.”
“Exactly. Why bother with it at all if nobody’s going to recognize you anyway?”
Jace nodded as he led Lillian into the main lobby of the building. The guards were surprised to see them, and they had to show their identification quickly to keep the security team from calling backup.
Backup Lillian could’ve desperately used twenty minutes ago.
Without going into too much detail—particularly until they could talk to Derek and figure out a plan—Jace informed the guards about the unsecured window and that Lillian had followed someone in.
Lillian and Jace waited as the security team followed their protocol and brought in other members of the staff, as well as police. They showed them the window so it could be secured, and the area was swept for possible DNA. Whomever Lily had fought would be long gone by now, but maybe they would get lucky and get some sort of forensic clue to point them in the right direction.
Ultimately, there needed to be a great deal more security in this building, but not just the type that was barely paid more than minimum wage. City hall would need to be reswept. If Derek didn’t make the decision to move the LESS Summit to the secondary location.
Jace kept an eye on Lillian as they left the building and walked back toward the hotel, carefully watching for signs that her throat was swelling and closing off. Although she moved stiffly—he couldn’t even imagine what sort of trauma her upper body muscles had been through trying to hold her own unsupported weight for that long—she didn’t seem to be suffering from shortness of breath.
He hated what she’d been through, what had almost happened, and it had damn well taken twenty years off his life seeing her swinging there unconscious. But tonight had also proven one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Lillian was not the mole.
There was no way she could’ve faked what had happened tonight. No way she could’ve known that Jace would come through that door when he did. If he had been another minute later, just one minute, she would’ve been dead.
And if someone was leaving a suicide note on her and trying to kill her, then Lillian Muir was not the mole.
The relief coursing through Jace now was almost as prominent as the relief of knowing she was alive after he’d seen her hanging there in the stairwell.
The proof of her innocence changed damn near everything for him. Every single reason he had for not giving in to the attraction that sparked between the two of them vanished as soon as he’d cut her down from the rope that had almost taken her life.
Jace couldn’t stop himself from staring at her. She was alive and she was innocent.
“I’m not going to collapse, Eakin, so you can stop ogling me.”
She had no idea why he couldn’t drag his eyes away from her. She would soon.
If she would still have him.
They went straight to Derek’s room. The sun was already coming up and he was awake. One look at Lillian’s neck had his eyebrow raised, and he eased his door open farther for them to enter his room.
“You two get a little too excited with the sparring?” Derek asked.
Jace explained what happened, with Lillian filling in details, speaking as little as possible to protect her strained voice.
Jace sat down at the edge of the bed and pulled Lillian down beside him. She was starting to look a little paler. Was probably in a lot of pain.
“We told the building’s security team about the break-in and unsecured window, but didn’t give them much info about what happened to Lillian. I wasn’t sure how you wanted to handle that. They brought in locals to process the scene and woke up every guard who’s ever worked there to get them on-site.”
Derek rubbed a hand across his face. “It’s still not enough. I’ll make a call. We’re going to need further backup for the summit. We’ll also need to move the summit to the secondary location. The bigwigs won’t like it because it’s not nearly as picturesque as city hall. Plus, we’ll need to lock down an entirely new building.” He turned to Lillian. “You need a hospital? You’ve been Tasered and strangled. Maybe you need to sit this event out.”
Lillian stood. “I’m going to pretend I didn’t even hear that. Bastard got a lucky shot, but it won’t happen again. And I’m damn well not going to miss the LESS Summit. We’re shorthanded enough as it is.”
The tough-person speech would’ve been much more convincing if her voice hadn’t broken three times during it.
Jace couldn’t help himself—his hand moved to her back to rub gentle circles. The fact that she didn’t pull away both thrilled and worried him. “She’s agreed to let the medic examine her. Then she’ll be in my room.”
He ignored Lillian’s raised eyebrow.
Derek nodded. “I don’t want to see either of you before thirteen hundred hours at the secondary location. We’ll start the security lockdown and then prep for a run-through of the summit.”
Jace and Lillian both stood and headed toward the door. Lillian turned back to Derek.
“You know what the mask means, right?” she croaked.
Derek rubbed the back of his neck. “It means Omega definitely has a mole, and that you would’ve known his face. We’ll be sure to keep an eye on any reactions today when you show up. B
ecause as far as that person knows, you died in that stairwell.”
Jace’s fists clenched. They’d come so damn close to that being the truth.
“Freihof is making his move, Derek. The summit is too good a target for him to pass up,” Lillian whispered, her voice almost gone.
“And we’ll be ready for him,” Derek responded. “This is going to end. But first, go to the ER or at least go see the medic, get checked out. Then try to get some rest. Because you’re right, we do need you. I have a feeling we’re going to need all the help we can get.”
Chapter Ten
Everybody needed to stop telling her to go to the ER. Jace. Derek. The medic. She was fine.
Lillian was angry as hell, but physically she would be fine. So the medic informing Jace—as if Jace was the boss of her—that she needed to be under constant supervision for the next twenty-four hours didn’t do much for Lillian’s temper.
“I’m fine,” she muttered as they left the medic. “I don’t need to stay in your room.”
Jace looked at her calmly as he used the card key to open his hotel door. “Less than two hours ago you were unconscious from lack of oxygen. Your body is depleted. Exhausted. I understand you not wanting to go to the hospital, but please humor me on this. Stay with me.”
His voice rolled over her like gentle waves, soothing her. Calming her.
But she also knew even soothing, calming water could drown her if she wasn’t careful.
Lillian wanted to stay. And wanted to run. Maybe she was more injured than she thought, because she truly couldn’t decide.
But finally she admitted to herself that the reason she wanted to run didn’t have anything to do with proving her health and everything to do with how sexy Jace looked standing there against the wall in his jeans and shirt, holding the door open for her.
Holding the door open to the room that had one king-size bed as the main piece of furniture.
Lillian wasn’t a coward, so she walked through the doorway, feeling Jace’s hand at the small of her back as she did. Just like she’d felt it as they’d walked down the hall.
She knew she shouldn’t read into it. He’d already made it quite clear he wasn’t interested in anything more than a professional relationship. Working together. That was it. Being a friendly colleague was enough for her with everyone else. It would be enough with Jace, too.
Plus, she owed him. If he hadn’t gotten there when he had, she’d definitely be dead now.
“Thank you for saving my life.” She stood staring at the big bed for a moment before a thought occurred to her and she turned to him. “What were you doing at city hall anyway?”
She expected an immediate quip about insomnia or the problem with having a job that wasn’t nine-to-five—with SWAT, probably the same as his time in the army, daytime and nighttime hours could run together.
Instead, Jace stepped closer. Directly into her definitely-more-than-just-professional space. There weren’t a whole lot of things that threw Lillian off balance. This was one of them.
“I was looking for you.”
Lillian took a slight step back, Jace’s proximity a little too much for her system. “Okay. I’m glad you found me or else I’d—” She stopped, realization dawning. “You were following me?”
He nodded, features unreadable.
She tried to process the possible reasons why Jace would be following her. “Why?”
Now he stepped out of her space slightly, eyes shuttered. He paused so long she thought maybe he wasn’t going to answer.
“I’m not just here to fill in for the SWAT team. I was also sent in by Ren McClement to look for the mole working with Freihof.”
The mole. Lillian stepped away from Jace and walked over to the window that didn’t provide much of a view. She leaned her forehead against the cool glass, taking in all the ramifications of Jace’s statement.
“They sent you in because they think I’m the mole,” she finally muttered. Somehow she’d always known there was a deeper purpose for Jace’s sudden infiltration into the team.
She could hear him move closer behind her, but she didn’t turn around. “They sent me in because Ren trusts me, they needed someone with a particular skill set and because...yes, they know there’s a mole.”
“And your past with me had nothing to do with them sending you in?”
Jace sighed. “No. They knew we’d known each other before when they asked me to join the team. You were one of the suspects. Although if it helps, your boss, that Steve Drackett guy, was adamant you weren’t guilty.”
“And you?” She hated the weakness in her voice as she whispered the question. Hated that the answer mattered so much to her. “Did you think I was guilty?”
She knew it was unfair. After what had happened between them twelve years ago—or what Jace thought had happened—expecting him to trust her carte blanche just wasn’t fair. But God, how she wanted to believe he would find it impossible to conceive she was a traitor of that magnitude.
“Never mind,” she said before he could answer. Before he could say the words she knew would tear her apart even though they shouldn’t. “We don’t really know each other, and what you did know about me wasn’t complimentary. Of course you thought I was guilty.”
She tried to give a lighthearted laugh, but it came out a brittle croak even to her own ears as she continued to stare out the window with no view. When he didn’t respond, she continued, moving into a deeper register of her voice so it wouldn’t crack. “We should get some rest like Derek said. Obviously we’ve got a ton of fortification work to do in a few hours now that we’re moving to the secondary location.”
“Tiger Lily...”
Damn it, he could not call her that. Not right now. Not when every part of her felt vulnerable.
She turned from the window but didn’t meet his crystal eyes. She couldn’t. Not right now. “You know what? I really am fine. I’m just going to head on up to my own room. I promise if I feel even the slightest bit—”
“No,” he interrupted before she got any further. “I never thought you were guilty of treason. I didn’t think it when Ren recruited me a couple of weeks ago. Hell, Lily, I didn’t even think that when I felt the worst about you.”
God, she wanted to believe that more than anything. “But yet, you came here, because of me. Followed me because you thought I might be up to something.”
He took a step closer and ran a hand through his brown hair, causing short pieces to stick up at crazy angles. “I came here because of you, yes. Because, despite everything, I’ve never been able to stop thinking about you. Because I wanted to put you—put the past—behind me once and for all.”
That hurt almost as much as him thinking she was the mole. “Yeah, I can’t blame you for that, either. Although I guess I’m glad you don’t think I’m trying to kill my friends and betray my country, even if you don’t like me personally.”
His fingers gripped her upper arms. Not hard enough to hurt, and they both knew she had moves that could get her away from him if she wanted, but a firm enough touch to let her know that he was serious.
“It took me about three and a half minutes after seeing you to figure out that this heat between us was very definitely not in the past.”
She couldn’t look away from those eyes. “But what about the other day at HQ? You turning down my offer to come over? I thought you weren’t interested.”
He stepped closer. All Lillian could feel, smell, breathe...was Jace.
His volume dropped to a husky whisper. “I didn’t want to be with you that way under false pretenses. I didn’t want to have sex with you and then you think I had used it to get close to you to see if you were the mole.”
“You did want me?” It had to be the near strangulation that made her voice so weak. So thready.
His hands moved up from her arm
s to cup her face. Her eyes closed and she breathed him in. He smelled of heat and desire and a scent that was pure male. Not just any male. Jace.
It had always been Jace. Only been Jace.
“Oh, hell yeah.” His deep whisper sent chills across her skin. “But not with lies between us. And so while I hate what happened to you tonight, I’m also thankful for it. Because now there’s no doubt in my mind you aren’t the mole.”
He was so close Lillian couldn’t think clearly—all she could do was feel. And it felt so different than most interactions Lillian had with men. By this point of closeness she was normally checking out mentally. Fading away to some place in her mind that no one could touch. Even though her encounters with men weren’t violent, her brain just wasn’t able to process the intimacy.
But not now. She wanted to be here. With Jace. In every way.
She almost felt giddy. The desire coursing through her veins like a fire was heady. She felt almost tipsy on it.
“I’m a little nervous about that smile,” he said, lips so close to hers she could feel the hot sweetness of his breath. “You look like the cat that ate the canary.”
“I just want to be with you.” She couldn’t help it, her smile grew wider as she pulled him closer. She wanted to revel in this feeling. “And it sounds like you want the same.”
“Oh, you better believe it.”
She let out a soft gasp as her body was pushed up against the window while his mouth came crashing down on hers. This kiss wasn’t gentle or searching. Wasn’t the kiss of the two teenagers they’d been.
It was hot. Forceful. Encompassing.
Everything about Jace demanded that Lillian’s mind and focus stay here with him in the room. On him. On them.
Not that she wanted to be anywhere else. And hell if it wasn’t the most authentic emotion she’d had in years. In twelve years.
Desire.
He kissed her with utter absorption, as if he couldn’t get enough of her. Her fingers threaded in his hair as his hands slid down her back to her hips and he jerked her against him.