“I miss him, too. When we get him back we should take a week off. Go do something. Go somewhere.” She knew that meant she’d spend a lot of time in her own room while Ashton and Jared were disgustingly happy, but she’d do it. Because they were the only family she had left.
“What if we can’t talk them down?” Ashton turned the TV off.
“You’re a brilliant negotiator, you—”
“But what if they won’t budge?” He turned to face her, their fingers linked.
“Well...” She propped her chin up on her other hand. “Didn’t the Aegis guys say they had a back-up plan?”
“Find him and rescue him by force, yeah.” He stared at the bedspread. “They asked me earlier if I wanted to wait to hear from the kidnappers again or if I wanted them to go find him.”
“What did you say?”
“I told them to wait.” Ashton glanced up at her. “I can’t risk him.”
“That’s okay. This isn’t a business deal. You don’t have to be cut throat.”
“I wonder where he is.” Ashton’s gaze slid away from her.
“Probably thinking about you right now and how much he loves you. How you’re going to save him. It’s going to be okay. We’ll get him back.” Carla’s money was on the Aegis team getting the job done, and for far less than the ransom. But this was a decision of the heart, not logic. “In a few days this will all be behind us.”
“Yeah.” Ashton nodded. “I always thought if this happened, they’d get me. I never thought about Jared or you being targets. If I’d have known...”
“Hey? You can’t know everything.”
He bobbed his head, but misery lined his brow and sorrow darkened his eyes. Ashton wouldn’t be himself until he was reunited with Jared.
What was it like to love someone that deeply?
She had a front-row seat to their relationship, but that didn’t mean she understood love any better than she had before Jared came into their lives. With Ashton, they’d become close out of necessity. He’d stripped away her walls and loved her as a brother even when she didn’t deserve it.
“What happened with Vaughn?”
Carla glanced at Ashton. “Hello topic change?”
“I noticed after I sent him back with drinks he—and I quote—got some sleep.”
“I hate you.” She rolled her eyes and heat warmed her skin. “I totally fell for your trap. You’re a bastard.”
“Because I sent you something fun?” One corner of Ashton’s mouth hitched up and for a moment the sadness fell away.
“Ash.” She glared at him. Her wrath only lasted a moment. They could never be angry at each other for long. “On one hand, I feel guilty.”
“And the other?”
“The other says it was worth it,” she mumbled.
He tugged on her fingers, the sadness chased away by the good humor. “How worth it?”
“Worth it, okay?”
“One time worth it, or do it again worth it?”
“I don’t know.” She ducked her head so she couldn’t look in the mirror hanging adjacent to the bed. She knew she was blushing, she just didn’t want to know how bad. “I’d do it again.”
“Again and again, or just again?”
“What’s with the questions?”
“Just trying to figure out if I need to try to hire Vaughn. If you really like him?”
Carla stared at Ashton.
He was serious. She knew better than to ask him that.
That option hadn’t occurred to her. Was it really something that he’d do? Would Vaughn go for it? Was that smart? What if this fizzled out?
If Carla were interested in Vaughn, Ashton would hire him. Then there would be four people in this charade. He’d do it to make her happy. While he no doubt meant it as a touching gesture, Carla felt an overwhelming sadness roll over her.
They were living a lie.
Their relationship wasn’t real. Sure, every now and then Ashton kissed her, but it was all for show. Jared owned Ashton’s heart, and that was something no one could know about.
This had begun because Ashton wanted his grandmother to believe that he was settled and happy before she died. But the old woman showed no signs of dying any time soon, and so they carried on with the lies.
“Ash, how long as we going to do this?” Carla whispered.
“Do what?” His tone was too bright.
She stared into his eyes. “How long are we going to keep hiding the truth?”
Ashton opened his mouth. She saw the moment he realized he couldn’t brush the question off and opted to close his mouth. He dropped his gaze to the comforter and clasped his other hand around hers.
“Do we have to tell anyone? We’re all taken care of. We’re happy. Why does anything have to change?”
Carla swallowed. She didn’t want to be ungrateful, but she wanted her own life. And yet, she couldn’t turn her back on the man who’d given her the means to live comfortably. With her background, she’d been destined for minimum wage jobs and no education. But thanks to him her life was different and on top of that her mother’s final year had been spent in comfort and peace. She couldn’t turn her back on him or leave him to face his reality without her.
They were a team, and as much as it killed her to sit on the sidelines while everyone else fell in love, she’d do it. For him. Because he was all the family she had.
VAUGHN WAS SATISFIED their Cairo site security was as up to date as it was going to get. In the very near future someone needed to spend a week here swapping out equipment. With the instability in the region, they never knew when the Cairo site would become inaccessible.
Hell, he’d recommended twice now that they dump the site and set up somewhere else. Cypress was a hop, skip and jump away from a lot of places and the island much safer. But the people in charge all had other ideas.
What did he know?
He was the surveillance guy.
It wasn’t like Zain or the big boss would send him here to do the job.
Vaughn strode down the hall toward the situation room. In the large home’s former years, it had served as the dining room. When Aegis took the house over and made it their Cairo facility, they’d transformed the corner room into their one-room headquarters.
He entered the room and was struck by the unusual sight of Brenden and Melody sitting with their heads together.
“What are you two troublemakers up to?” he asked.
Melody clamped her lips shut and sat back.
Was that judgment? Did Melody know about the plane hook-up?
Vaughn was good at fun times, love ‘em and leave ‘em, kind of stuff. But this thing with Carla didn’t sit right with him. His bones seemed to vibrate from the memory of her touch, leaving him slightly off-balance.
Brenden glanced at her, then Vaughn. “Look at this.”
He pushed a torn piece of paper toward him.
Vaughn leaned across the table and squinted at the paper. “Boss is looking for a London site? Is that what this means?”
“I don’t know. I found it on the floor in my bunkroom.” Brenden nodded at Melody. “Thought she’d know more about it.”
“Huh.” Vaughn turned the paper over. Logistically speaking a Europe office made sense, but it meant another site to manage, more people. Did they really have enough work for that sort of thing?
It wasn’t like Lepta Team was hurting for work.
“How are our cameras?” Melody folded her hands together and crossed one leg over the other.
Vaughn shrugged. “Good.”
“Am I correct in thinking the camera on the top floor hall was never replaced?” Melody asked slowly.
“No, it wasn’t.” Vaughn knew one reason for that was deniability. There weren’t rules about bed hopping and the bosses could claim ignorance if they didn’t see it happen. “Something bothering you?”
“I just want to keep a close eye on Mr. Khoury and Miss. White,” Melody said.
That set
off Vaughn’s warning bells. “Any particular reason?”
“They don’t appear to be speaking and they requested separate rooms. I just want to be prepared for everything.”
Vaughn nodded while on the inside he sighed in relief. “I see.”
No one knew about him and Carla.
Melody pushed to her feet. “If Nolan shares his crazy theory with you, please squash it? I need to go do some work. I’ll check in later.”
Vaughn sat down in one of the rolling chairs and waited for the sound of Melody’s footsteps to fade before spinning to face Brenden. “What’s Nolan’s theory?”
“Fuck.” Brenden rubbed the side of his face. “He thinks Ashton’s gay.”
Fuck was right.
“No, man.” Vaughn shook his head. “I saw him and his girlfriend in one of those little bunk rooms on the plane when I went to take a piss. They’re together.”
Brenden held up his hands. “I don’t care.”
Shit.
Vaughn should not have gotten involved in this. When Carla wasn’t right in front of him it was obvious, but the moment he’d been alone with her his better sense had curled up and died.
“Anything for me to do?” he asked.
“No. Waiting for the surveillance report from the office to make our plan for how to proceed once inside Lebanon.”
“Cool.” Vaughn glanced at the door.
He needed to have a chat with Carla, end this thing and warn her. The guys wouldn’t say anything beyond their team, but it was better to be safe with a secret like this.
His phone vibrated, and a chime filled the room.
“That’s Mom. I’ll be back.” Vaughn pushed to his feet and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Sure enough, Mom flashed on the screen. He frowned and clicked answer. “Mom? What’s wrong?”
“Wrong? Nothing.” Her voice was weary, tired sounding.
“What time is it? Why aren’t you asleep?” He did the math.
“It’s midnight.”
“No, it’s more like one. What’s going on?”
“I just wanted to hear your voice. I’m not interrupting?”
“Mom. What’s going on?”
Muffled noises met his question.
“Mom?” Vaughn paced down the hall. It was damn frustrating to be half a world away with his mother needed him.
“I think... I think I need help with your brother.” Her voice broke and he could hear the tears.
“You got it. I’ll make sure it’s taken care of. I wish I could be there.”
“No, mijo, you have an important job to do.”
“Nothing’s more important than you.” He hated to do this next part. “Let me give my boss a call. We’ll handle it. Santiago will get help and you will get to sleep. Okay?”
“I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Vaughn shot off a text to Zain. His boss was awake at all hours, but Vaughn didn’t want to risk waking the man on the off chance he was sleeping. When no answer came, Vaughn blew out a breath and told himself they could all last a few more hours.
More voices rose from the ground floor.
Nolan and Riley.
Shit.
Vaughn needed to get a handle on things now.
He turned and jogged up the stairs to the top floor. Everything was quiet. It was just their team and the two people who kept the facility going.
Carla was in the master suite, hands down the nicest room. He knocked on the door then braced his hands on the frame, listening to the soft murmur of a TV, the distant laughter of the guys, street noise from outside.
The door cracked open, and he got a glimpse of a blue eye looking back at him.
“Hey.” Carla opened the door a bit wider.
“We need to talk.” He planted his hand on the door and nudged it open, stepping in before Carla could tell him no.
“Please, come right in. No, I don’t mind at all.” She planted a hand on her hip and stared up at him.
The scent of something floral and sweet wrapped around him. Carla’s hair was up in a towel turban. Her face was clean, the make-up wiped off, and she’d changed into leggings and a long T-shirt. She looked more like the maid now and less like the girlfriend. Which made this talk all that much harder to have.
His mouth went dry and his mind supplied a slideshow of his favorite parts of her.
“What’s going on?” She stepped around him, an exasperated sigh finally bringing him out of the fog.
“The guys think Ashton and Jared are gay,” he said.
“Okay. So?” Carla stopped in front of a long mirror and pulled the towel from around her head. She draped the towel over the windowsill then ran her fingers through her hair. Even wet, it curled and waved down her back to her waist.
“So?” Vaughn blinked at her.
She turned to face him and shrugged. “It’s not the first time someone’s picked up on it. So long as they don’t do anything in public, people can say whatever they want to say. I mean, it’s the truth. Ashton’s only going to get so much mileage out of this story before it gives out. We all know it.”
“Oh.”
“Thanks for telling me, though. I appreciate the heads up.” Her face twisted up, and she sighed. “I’m assuming we’ll end up leaning on that NDA after you guys get Jared back. I’m not sure Ashton’ll be able to restrain himself. He’s pretty torn up about Jared.”
“They really love each other?”
“More than anything else.” Carla chuckled. “It’s adorable and disgusting. But I like both of them, so...” She shrugged.
“This—it doesn’t bother you?”
Carla pressed her lips together. Her smile was strained.
They stared at each other for a moment and he knew he’d crossed a boundary.
“Sit?” She gestured at a small, two person table and chairs in the corner
Against his better judgment, Vaughn joined her.
“I get that, looking in from the outside, what Ashton and I have is weird. It’s an unusual arrangement that probably wouldn’t work for anyone else. I’m not saying it’s perfect for us, because it’s not. I don’t always like my role in things and yeah I feel a lot of guilt about lying to people, but... I was able to take care of my mom because of Ashton. I got to go to college. I don’t have to worry about where I’m sleeping, will I have food to eat, am I safe tonight, because of him. So, whenever I get frustrated, I think about that.”
Vaughn swallowed. It was hard to stay in his seat and not crawl under the chair.
Carla smiled. “This isn’t forever. It’s just for now.”
He nodded. What could he possibly say?
“You do what you have to do. I get that. I’ve been there.” His phone chimed, and he glanced at the screen.
A single text from Zain.
It’ll be handled.
Vaughn blew out a breath.
“Bad news?” Carla asked.
“Good, actually.” He placed the phone face down on the table.
She smiled, her blue eyes softening. “That’s nice to hear.”
Vaughn tapped his phone on the table. What the hell?
He’d asked invasive questions about her life.
“My brother’s an addict and my mom’s trying to help him detox, but it’s not going well.”
The smile turned into slack jawed surprise. “Oh, no. That’s so rough. Your poor mom. Cold turkey or is he getting something to help him wean off?”
“Cold turkey.”
Carla winced. “My mom tried cold turkey, and it didn’t stick.”
Vaughn paused at that statement, recalling something Carla had said about her mother’s smoking habits. He hadn’t realized her comment wasn’t about run-of-the-mill stuff. Carla trusted him with her truths. It was humbling.
“Sorry to hear that.” He leaned forward and made the mental note to pay closer attention. “Did something help her?”
“CPS took me away. I was pretty little. It’s mostly a b
lur, but she made sure to tell me about it when I got older and wanted to do my own experimenting. She always told me that her love for me was stronger than the addiction that it saved her. Just the way she looked when she told me the story, God. I never tried anything else after that day.” Carla chuckled. “Probably not the cool thing to say, but whatever.”
“Shit, Carla...” Vaughn leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I keep opening my mouth and bringing up the worst shit.”
She shrugged and smiled at him. “I don’t mind talking about my mom. Even the bad stuff. I just like remembering her.”
He stared at her, the light catching the gold strands in her brown hair and making them glint gold. She’d been sexy earlier, but now, dressed in old clothes with no make-up, he still felt the same pull.
“What’s your favorite memory?” he asked.
“Oh, that’s a hard one.” She leaned forward, hand in her palm. “We used to pack everything into the station wagon and go camping. I’m pretty sure we were avoiding people she owed money to, but I was a kid. All I knew was that we were going on an adventure. We’d park somewhere, eat gas station food and play. Those were the best day. Just the two of us.”
What right did he have to have any opinion about Carla’s life?
He got it now. She was taken care of, happy, safe. They’d both grown up in rough situations and taken the first ticket they could to a better life. The only difference was their destination. He’d gone to war, she’d gone to a sky rise.
He was willing to bet she’d had a tougher time of it than he had. Even with it just being Mom, him and Santiago, they’d had other family and friends to lean on. From the sound of it, Carla had only ever had her mom. And now Ashton.
She reached across and poked his shoulder. “Your brother will be okay.”
“I hope so.”
Vaughn straightened.
He just didn’t know what to do with her or if she should do anything with her. What they’d done on the plane had blown his mind. He was fairly certain it wasn’t a onetime thing either. If they had a round two he’d put money on it being as good or better. But he wasn’t sure he could be a secret. That wasn’t who he was.
“Something’s bothering you,” Carla said.
“Nah. I should go.”
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