Major Crimes

by Janie Crouch

  Cain knew the information would get around Omega as soon as Ashton and Summer saw Mason, when Cain and Hayley dropped him and Ariel off at their house. And of course Cain hadn’t denied the truth when they had asked if the boy was his son.

  “Yeah,” Cain said to Steve. “Pretty big surprise.”

  Steve chuckled. “I can only imagine. Hell, I was shocked when Rosalyn showed back up in my life six months pregnant. Surprise child has to be a lot more jarring than surprise pregnancy.”

  “It caught me off guard, that’s for sure.”

  “But she’s a good mother?”

  No matter what mistakes Hayley might’ve made in her past there could be no misinterpreting how much she loved Mason. “I couldn’t ask for anything more for the mother of my child. She loves him completely and unconditionally.”

  Steve slapped him on the shoulder. “I’m glad to hear that. And I hope you won’t make some of the same mistakes I did with my Rosalyn.”

  “And what would those be? I doubt you could have made as many mistakes as I have.”

  “I know that after Rosalyn hurt me once—well, didn’t hurt me, hurt my pride—it was hard for me to let it go. I kept refusing to think she changed. Almost lost her because of it.”

  Cain watched Hayley. He wasn’t studying the screens to make sure she was doing what she was supposed to, he was studying her.

  “I trust her.”

  “Good. That’s definitely important.” Steve took a step back. “You’ll let me know anything you find?”

  “First thing. But I’ll want to do it face-to-face. I don’t trust any communication device in this building.”

  Steve nodded. “I agree.”

  As Steve opened the door he turned back. “Can an old man give you a word of personal advice?”

  Now it was Cain’s turn to chuckle. “You have a three-month-old at home and a gorgeous wife in her twenties. Plus, I don’t think forty-one counts as old.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “But I’ll still take your advice, especially if it has anything to do with this case.”

  “No, it has to do with your Hayley.”

  Cain just raised an eyebrow. His Hayley?

  “I’m glad you guys worked out your trust issues. That you don’t feel like you have to look over her shoulder all the time.” Steve pointed in Hayley’s direction. “But that woman in there needs more than just trust. She needs someone to care for her.”

  “I do care about her. Hell, I’ve cared about her since she was fifteen years old.”

  “Right now she needs the sort of care that shows action. She knows you’ll fight beside her, particularly against anyone who will harm your child. But I think she needs to know that you’re willing to fight for her, even if it’s against her own inclinations and fears.”

  Steve didn’t explain any further, just nodded and left.

  Cain watched Hayley for a long time after the other man departed. Her hands continued to fly over the keyboards, one screen sorting through code like something out of The Matrix, another screen cross-referencing communication channels at Omega Sector. Every once in a while she would slide one section of code onto the other screen.

  She shifted in her chair, stretching out her side. He knew it had to hurt. Even though the medic had agreed that no major damage had been done by her bullet wound and stitched the openings at the edge of her waist, it still had to be causing her great pain.

  But here she was thirty-six hours later working, having only slept for about six hours the entire time.

  She leaned closer to one of the screens, which she had done a few times in the last five minutes. Cain thought it was because she was studying something interesting on the screen, until he saw her rub her eyes.

  The screen was blurry for her. Probably because of exhaustion. But she just kept soldiering on.

  And she would continue to do that until she fell over from exhaustion.

  Fighting for her against even her own inclinations. Steve was right.

  Cain opened the door. “Time for a break.”

  Hayley didn’t even turn to look at him. “I’m okay. I ate a couple hours ago.”

  He walked straight up to her chair and wheeled it back from the desk.

  “Hey.” Her brown eyes peered up at him.

  “Time for a break.”

  She let out a sigh. “A break is not going to help me. Finding out who’s trying to kill me and attacking our son...that will help me.”

  Cain crouched down so that he was directly in front of Hayley’s line of sight. “Mason is very well protected right now. You were shot a day and a half ago and haven’t gotten much rest. The nights before that you were either in a car or in a cell about to be sent back to prison. I know you didn’t get much sleep in, either.”

  Her small hand came up and rubbed the back of her neck. “That’s true, but—”

  He reached over and kissed her forehead. “Six hours of sleep, that’s what I’m asking of you. You and I both know that what you’re doing now—trying to work without all your cylinders firing—might cause you to miss something.” Not to mention collapse on the floor.

  “But—”

  “Work’s over for today.”

  “Just one more hour...”

  Cain bent down, sliding his arms under her knees and around her back, and picked her up bodily from the chair. She let out a surprised squeak before her arms flew around his neck.

  “No ‘one more hour.’ Because in an hour, you’ll want another one. You need rest.”

  This close to her he was able to see the dark circles under her eyes, the exhaustion bracketing her mouth.

  He should’ve made her rest long before now. Steve was right. Cain didn’t need to tell Hayley she was important to him, he needed to show her.

  “I’m really not that tired—” Her words were cut off by the huge yawn that overtook her.

  Cain raised an eyebrow. “You were saying?”

  “Fine.” Her pout was adorable. “Just get me to a couch. I’m sure I’ll be able to crash there just fine.”

  He gently set her on her feet in front of him at the door, wrapped an arm around her waist and led her out into the hall. The door automatically locked behind them.

  “There’s a studio apartment here in the complex especially for situations like this. Steve got it set up for us.”

  She was almost asleep on her feet by the time he got them to the room. He led her over to the bed and sat her down so he could bend to untie her shoes and slip them off. Then his hands moved to the snap of her jeans.

  “Let’s get these off you, too. You’ll be more comfortable.”

  It took every ounce of control Cain had to just peel Hayley’s jeans off, not touching any of the smooth skin of her legs. He got them off and was setting them to the side when he felt Hayley’s fingers on his arm.

  “Stay with me,” she whispered.

  He wanted to. More than anything he wanted to. “If I get in that bed right now, you are not going to get the sleep you need.”

  The corners of her lips rose in a temptress’s smile, blond hair spilling on the pillow all around her. Beguiling. Enchanting. His heart thundered in his chest.

  “Hayley...” His voice was husky even to his own ears. He sat down on the bed beside her.

  Her hand reached out for him again. “I’ll get the sleep I need. It just won’t be right away.”

  Cain stared at her. He wanted to do what was right in this situation, but damned if he knew what that was. “I didn’t bring you here for this. For sex. You’re exhausted.”

  “And you don’t want to take advantage of me.”

  “Yes, exactly.”

  She sat up and hooked an arm around the back of his neck, pulling him closer. “Then how about if I take advantage of you. Multiple times.”

/>   Her lips met his. Hot, wet, open. Cain didn’t even try to resist. His hands slipped into her hair and he pushed her back against the pillows, mindful of her wound, and devoured her. He couldn’t hide the affect she had on him. Didn’t even try.

  He’d waited so long for this. They’d waited.

  Pleasure arced through him. He swallowed her sigh as their tongues dueled, mated. He felt her fingers gripping his hair, keeping him close.

  As if he were going anywhere else.

  Cain eased his weight more fully on top of her, keeping off her injured side. He moaned as he felt one of her legs move up to wrap around his hips. Everything about this was right. This was Hayley. He’d been so empty without her.

  He pulled back from their kiss, just needing to look at her face.

  Eyes hooded, lips swollen from his kisses, hair tousled. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen anything as beautiful as how she looked right now.

  “Everything okay?” she asked.

  “Perfect,” he said.

  And he proceeded to show her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I’m such an idiot.”

  Cain responded from where he sat in the other room. “You have the highest IQ of anyone I know. You’re very definitely not an idiot, and you’re going to lose a couple more hours of work if I have to drag you back to bed and prove that to you.”

  She was glad he couldn’t see her face since she could feel the heat rising in her cheeks.

  She could feel heat rising in other places, too. Especially after last night.

  The lovemaking between them had always been passionate, burning hot through them both. Last night they’d had a much different perspective than they’d had when they were teenagers. Both aware of how easily love could be lost. And how precious it was when it was in your grasp.

  And although the passion had still burned just as hot, it had been undergirded with a tenderness and sense of being cherished. Nothing taken for granted.

  “No, I think that got proven plenty last night,” she said. And this morning. “But I said that because I think I’ve figured out how to draw out whoever is trying to kill me, and it’s so simple. I’ve just been looking at it the wrong way.”

  Cain came and sat down next to her. He’d been doing that on and off all day. She wasn’t sure if it was to provide moral support or to double-check what she was doing because even after last night a part of him still didn’t trust her.

  She was afraid to ask which.

  “Since the trapdoor I set before I was arrested didn’t gather much useful information, I’ve been trying other algorithms to see if I could figure out the pattern of the people using the CET exams for espionage.”

  “But no luck.”

  “Nothing. If they were smart they stopped once they found out someone was onto them. Or they may have just changed their patterns altogether. In that case, my finding them again the same way I did the first time would be a matter of sheer blind luck.”

  “But you figured out another way.”

  Hayley nodded, then brought a new set of figures up on the screen. “I don’t need to find the seller. I can find the buyers.”

  “In the foreign countries.”

  “Yes. There have to be people allowed in to take these tests who are unusual in some way. I highly doubt they’ve recruited high school students from US Department of Defense schools on foreign soil.”

  Cain leaned forward to look more clearly at the screen and data she’d pulled up. “Maybe in a couple of the schools, but definitely not in all of them.”

  “The computer will filter out most of the kids and will pull files based on the criteria I’ve set for red-flagging—not being a US citizen, over eighteen years old or any ties to criminals in any country. We should have a list of people by the end of the day.”

  “You have access to that information?”

  Maybe she should’ve asked him before pulling in all the law enforcement systems for her algorithms.

  “Not me personally.” She hesitated. “But Omega Sector, combined with the FBI and Interpol, do.”

  His face turned grim. “Did you just hack law enforcement databases from all over the world?”

  She shrugged, not looking at him. “Technically I only had to open myself a window into the Omega system. You guys already had access to the other law enforcement and I could run it through you.”

  Cain ran a hand over his face.

  “I’m not going to apologize for using every available resource I can access. Not when it comes to keeping my son safe.”

  “Our son.”

  She looked at him now. “Our son. Even more so. I would think you would understand that.”

  He rubbed his face again. “I do. It’s just...”

  “It’s just you don’t know if you can fully trust me.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment. Finally he sat back in his chair. “You’re right. I want to do whatever has to be done to keep you and Mason safe.”

  But that still didn’t address the issue of trust. Which stung considering what they’d shared last night.

  They worked in silence for the next few hours while the computer was running her program to sort out suspects. Hayley moved her attention to the Omega mole. Cain didn’t put pressure on her to explain anything she was working on or justify any methods, but she noticed he never wandered far from where she was working.

  Trust again?

  The pressure of it seemed to crash down on her. Cain had never spoken about the future—with her or Mason—not even last night in the midst of their physical intimacy. Maybe he didn’t plan on a real future.

  And if he did, how could they even consider it when he was never going to be able to trust her again?

  Hayley took her hands off the keyboard and put them in her lap.

  “What’s wrong?” Cain asked immediately.

  “I want to see Mason.” She hadn’t seen her son in two days. Heaven knew she had gone much longer than that without seeing him, but right now with everything that was going on, and the world spiraling out of control, she wanted to see her son.

  “Right now?” Cain asked.

  She nodded, preparing herself for all the arguments he was going to make. That the work she was doing was more important than spending time with her child. That every minute not spent trying to catch the people selling secrets of the United States, the more dangerous it was for everyone, including Mason.

  But instead Cain just nodded. “Okay. Give me a few minutes to set it up.”

  Tears pricked her eyes. His willingness to understand her need to see Mason meant a lot. She touched Cain on his arm as he was grabbing his cell phone. “I—thank you.”

  His fingers trailed down her cheeks. “Your needs matter, too. God knows you spent long enough without him.”

  Just when she thought there could be no future for them, he went and said something like that.

  Gathering Mason into her arms an hour later, Hayley felt like she could breathe again. Just seeing his little face, feeling the fierceness of his hug, reassured the mother’s heart in her.

  He hadn’t forgotten her. She always worried that he would. Intellectually she knew he wouldn’t, but it was still hard to convince herself of that when her fears began to press in all around her.

  But when she held him, all the fear melted away and the truth couldn’t be denied: Mason loved her.

  He squeezed her and gave her a wet kiss on the cheek until he saw Cain.

  “Candy Cain!” Mason climbed from her over to Cain and began chattering about riding the roller coaster again. It took her a minute to realize what Mason meant.

  Cain still hadn’t quite figured it out, even though Mason kept pressing him. He looked questioningly at Hayley.

  “He wants to ride the roller coaster again. You know,
leap across a rooftop at full speed.”

  Cain threw back his head and laughed. “I don’t know about that, buddy,” he said to Mason. “But I’ll bet we can find some other roller coasters to go on.”

  Cain flipped Mason onto his belly in his arms and flew him around the room. Mason’s giggles could be heard all over the house. Hayley gave a quick hug to Ariel and shook the hands of Summer and Ashton, thanking them once again for allowing Mason to stay with them.

  “It’s really no problem. Chloe loves him and he’s very gentle with her.”

  Hayley looked over to where Cain now had Mason tucked up under one arm and Chloe, who evidently hadn’t wanted to be left out of the action, tucked under the other, flying them around the living room.

  Cain would make such an amazing father. No matter what happened between the two of them—whether her heart ended in a bloody, broken state as she was afraid it would—Hayley would never try to keep Cain from Mason’s life. She would be doing both of them a grave injustice.

  “I understand you’re trying to help bring down the mole inside Omega Sector.” Summer came to stand next to Hayley as she watched Cain play with the children.

  “Yes. I’m trying.”

  “Whoever the traitor is almost killed me, Ashton and Chloe. So when I say that we will make sure your family is safe so you can do your job, I mean it. Nothing is more important to us than catching whoever is behind these attacks.”

  “We’re getting closer every day.”

  Summer slid an arm around Hayley’s back and gave a little squeeze. Her smile was as bright as her name. “You don’t strike me as the hugging type, but I wanted to do that anyway. I know it must be hard being away from Mason. And nothing makes up for Mommy not being here, but I promise we will protect him.”

  “Thank you.”

  Summer’s words were enough, were everything to Hayley. This woman knew what it was like to have the ones she loved most targeted. Hayley could go back to Omega now, secure in the knowledge that Mason and Ariel were truly out of harm’s way.