His foot tapped like automatic fire. He checked the clock again. And again, he scowled at it. Buck Baer could be a million places. Brock had a million ways to take her there. Jared’s teeth ached; his clenched jaw was near a breaking point. He needed to move on this. Immediately.
The oven dinged, and he jerked it open, grabbing the baking sheet of biscuits and then pulled the bacon off the stove. The clatter on the counter did little to alleviate his rabid irritation at his lack of control.
“Bacon and biscuits.” Jared shoved a plate at Rocco and pulled a stool up next to Rocco.
“She’ll be fine.” Rocco picked up the bacon and crunched. “Parker’s working mach speed. Eat, dude. Do something other than fester.”
“This isn’t a normal gig. And she’s not…” He grabbed a piece of bacon. It was organic and probably tasted awful. But it didn’t. The irony wasn’t lost. Lessons were everywhere. Organic bacon tasted fine, despite what he was prepared for. Labels and assumptions were worthless. Brock had served as Jared’s loyal right-hand man, but Brock had the most important thing in Jared’s life, making his second-in-command nothing more than a traitor.
Most important thing to me? Jared downed another strip of bacon. Other than Titan, Sugar held top billing. She made his gut feel something other than indigestion. She made his heart feel something, too.
Titan and Sugar. He tore apart a biscuit, then smeared organic butter on it. Or was it Sugar, then Titan? The question nearly knocked him off his barstool.
He wolfed down the biscuit and grabbed another. Why was he reprioritizing the basic tenets of his life? Sleep deprivation maybe? He hadn’t slept much in the last week or so. But lack of sleep had never affected his judgment. He should’ve seen that Brock was a backstabber long before anything went down.
“You gonna kill him?” Rocco took a swig of water.
“If he hurts Sugar. No question, yes.”
Rocco shook his head as he placed the water glass on the counter. “Somehow, I thought it’d be yes, for betraying Titan, no questions.”
That’s what he should’ve said. But it wasn’t. “Don’t be a dick.”
“I’m not.” Rocco downed a biscuit in a bite. “She’s a good woman. A damn good fit for a jackass like you.”
“Shut the—” Jared looked down at his ringing phone. Parker. He answered on the first ring. “What you got?”
“Brock’s cell signal’s back on. A mile or so south of Sugar’s.”
“Tell me where that fucker’s been.”
“Can’t, Boss Man—wait, he’s making a call.”
Beep, beep. Jared took a breath and looked at his caller ID, then clicked over without saying goodbye to Parker.
His body scowled. Every muscle tensed, and his heart banged against his ribcage. If he could have reached through the phone and crushed Brock’s windpipe with one finger at a time, the man would’ve been dead. Instead, Jared clenched his teeth together and waited for him to speak.
Brock cleared his throat. “I have to talk to you.” His voice trembled.
Never had Jared heard Brock sound anything but confident. I’d be scared, too, fucker. I’m coming after you. “Where’s Sugar?”
The groan into the phone pulled Jared’s stomach into a spin. Rocco bounced his eyebrows, asking for a read on the conversation, for confirmation that Brock was playing them.
“Brock.” His fingers flexed into the granite countertop. He wanted to break it off and throw it to alleviate his tension. “Where. Is. She?”
“You know, don’t you?” The question was empty, void of emotion. More of an acknowledgement of impending death.
“I know enough. Tell me I’m wrong, or update your will.”
A vehicle pulled into the driveway. Rocco jumped from the barstool, sidearm in hand. Jared grabbed his piece, and they headed toward the front door. Dipping his head out a window, Jared saw Brock’s truck.
The rhythm of his blood throbbing in his ears was loud and irritating. Sweat tickled between his shoulder blades, despite the cool temperature in the foyer. He glanced at Rocco, who was pressed against the opposite wall, and nodded. Jared could taste the anticipation of Brock’s arrival. Bitter and angry over the breach of his trust, Jared was enraged by the possibilities concerning Sugar.
He swallowed his emotions and ignored the dry crack in his throat. Never had he been terrified. But the seconds ticking by were like a hammer to his dome, and his heart squeezed with the unknown.
Phone still pressed to his ear, Jared couldn’t wait to tangle. “Door’s unlocked. Come on in.” Clicking the phone off, he concentrated on the cool metal of the gun in his palm.
Outside, the roar of the engine silenced. The truck door opened and shut. Jared’s pulse raced. His breath fought into his lungs, warring against the tank-sized weight pressing on his chest. With his eyes glued to the door handle, he needed it to jiggle, to turn slowly, and let the showdown begin with his most-trusted ally.
The handle twisted, and a boot toe nudged it open. Jared thought Brock would surely anticipate his move. They’d gone into battle together and forged side by side through the hell of missions gone wrong. They thought, they fought, and they reacted as though they had the same brain. Until they hadn’t, and for that, Brock would pay.
A roar tore from his lungs. Jared rolled from his position, slamming the door open with his shoulder and wrapping an arm around Brock’s neck.
Brock’s arms were up. He had no weapon. Still, Jared locked hard and pulled Brock inside, smashing his weight against the man. Brock’s head cracked against the wall, his mouth gaping at the lack of air flow.
Brock didn’t flail or pull away. Jared knew enough about his training to know how long he could withstand the lack of oxygen. But he needed to know where Sugar was and why the hell Brock had taken her. As much as he wanted to pinch Brock out of existence, this wasn’t the time. But soon.
Jared released the stranglehold, replacing the pressure on his throat with the barrel of his Glock. Pressing hard and deep into his trachea, Jared forced himself not to pull the trigger.
“Asshole.” He was too emotional. His head wasn’t in the game. “Roc, check him. Weapons. Listening devices. Anything.”
Rocco did a thorough inspection, then gave a thumbs-up.
“Where is she?” Jared growled. Rage poured off him; his body vibrated. “Where the fuck is she?”
“I’m sorry.”
Jamming the gun harder into Brock’s neck, Jared fought to control the urge to destroy him. “Where?”
“With Baer.”
His pulse pounded. Any shred of hope that he’d been wrong, that this was a massive misunderstanding, all blew up in his face. Disloyal fuckin’ bastard. “Why?”
Brock’s face was strained—his first reaction since he’d come through the door. “He has my wife and kids.”
What? Jared’s brain stuttered. Logic and control were quickly dissipating. “Excuse me?”
Rocco cursed in the background, reminding Jared that he would have a witness if he pulled the trigger on an unarmed man, no matter how disloyal the man was.
He shook his head, ignoring Brock’s lie. A wife and kids? No. Brock was as single as they came. He wasn’t a lady’s man who trolled the bars for an easy lay post mission, but he wasn’t married with kids. “Liar.”
“He has my family. He has Asal. And I gave him Sugar.”
Jared pulled his free hand back and landed a punch square on Brock’s jaw. His head snapped to the side. Spittle and blood flew out, but he didn’t react. No arms thrown up. No curse of pain. Only a straightforward gaze.
“You gave him my woman.” His blood rushed, and he could barely hear his own words. “You took what was mine and put her in harm’s way.”
“I had no choice.”
“There are always choices.” He knocked Brock against the wall once more, tightening his fingers around the other man’s throat. Tighter and tighter.
Jared’s cheeks ached from the force of his sneer
. Brock’s eyelids fluttered. No oxygen. No tap out. Nothing. He would kill Brock and not have a thing to show for it. God! Taking a deep breath, Jared dropped his grip, then paced the hallway.
Sweat beaded on his brow and dampened his chest. Make this a job. Do what it takes. Interrogate and move on. He bounced a look to the men. Rocco stood ready, gun in hand and eyes trained on his former team leader. Brock didn’t move. He waited for whatever came next, and whatever that was, Jared hadn’t a clue.
He cracked his knuckles. “Why are you here?”
“Because I made the wrong choice.”
Jared hurtled toward him, hissing through his clenched teeth. “You fuckin’ think?”
Brock tilted his head a degree. A desperate, almost misty look formed in his eyes. “What wouldn’t you do for the woman you love, Jared?”
“I don’t—you come to me. You say this is what happened. This is my problem. You don’t—enough of this.”
Brock barely nodded. “Baer has it out for you. Wants to make it personal.”
Jared’s eyes narrowed, and he snarled. “Feeling’s mutual.”
“To get my family back, I handed over Sugar. But Baer screwed me, gave me a new… project. Go to Titan and plug a flash drive into a terminal computer. Baer’s expecting it in less than an hour. If it doesn’t happen, he’ll kill my family. My head’s been a mess. I wasn’t thinking clearly before. I reacted. And now I’m trying to fix my fuckup.”
“Not my problem.”
“They’re innocents. Do what you want with me. I made the wrong move. But you won’t let them die without trying. You won’t leave Sugar—”
“Of course I won’t leave Sugar.”
“Help them all. Kill me. I don’t care.”
Jared walked down the foyer and punched the wall, leaving a hole in the painted drywall. He flexed his knuckles. No broken bones. But the pain felt good, like a reprieve from the storm in his head. “Where’s the drive?”
“Back pocket.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face. A stupid disk? It didn’t make sense. “What is it?”
“Don’t know. But he said it would ruin Titan. That he intended to take the two things you hold dear. Titan and Sugar.”
Sugar, then Titan. “Roc, grab the disk.” Jared dialed Parker at the office.
“Yo, Boss Man.”
“Parker, got a disk from Buck Baer. It was supposed to be patched into our system from inside HQ.” Jared took a deep breath, thinking about Sugar, Asal, and Brock’s out-of-nowhere family. “I’ve got some lives on the line. Kids. Baer needs to think it has happened. I need to know what it does.”
Long seconds passed.
“Parker, damn it.”
“Trying, Boss Man. Give me a second to think this out.” Parker clacked computer keys in the background. “Maybe… it might…”
“Spit it out.”
“I could build a dummy terminal. Given a time constraint, it’d be rough, but look like Titan’s system. We could get a read on it. Baer’d get shit.”
“How fast?”
“How long I got?”
They could get to Titan in thirty minutes, assuming they used a few highway shoulders and didn’t hit less than seventy miles an hour. “We’ll be there in twenty.”
He clicked off the phone and stared at Brock. Disappointment threatened to throw Jared another headache. He gestured to Rocco. “Secure him and load up into your truck. Call in the team.” An order I used to give to Brock. “I’ll be out in a second.”
Rocco nodded, and Brock complied, showing nothing on his face. Good little prisoner. Jared had taught him well. His eyes swept the foyer, and he walked into the living room, where he’d last seen Sugar. Heart in his throat, he vowed to bring her back, put her right back on that couch, and explain that he’d never meant to accuse her of killing Kip. He’d never meant to question her word.
With a deep breath and new resolve, Jared marched to Rocco’s truck and jumped behind the wheel.
“Team’s on their way in,” Rocco said.
He nodded, noticing Brock was cuffed to the oh-shit bar in the backseat. A brief worry that Brock wasn’t telling the whole truth struck him. Why wouldn’t Brock lie now? Why did I trust his whole wife-and-kids spiel? It could be a trap.
He dialed Parker again and didn’t wait for hello. “I need everything you can find on a family for Brock.”
“What, like next of kin? Parents, sister, or something?”
“No. Wife and children.”
“Wife and kids… okay.”
He looked at Brock again. “But might as well dig up next of kin. Think there’ll be a round of notifications coming soon.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Grumbling voices echoed in the background, making Sugar’s temples pulse. Her head was spinning, and her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth. The distinct feeling of rough carpet pressed against her cheek and forehead. As she swallowed a bout of nausea, everything came back with brilliant clarity. Kip’s murder. Jared’s distrust. Brock’s attack.
The first one she didn’t care about. She hadn’t killed Kip, and he’d left her in Afghanistan to die. So screw him. She did wish she’d been able to exact a little retribution.
But the second one? Her lungs caught, aching. Jared… He made her head pound with an explosion of emotional shrapnel. Her heart felt the slice and dice of the pain, as well. But if he were just in the room… If she could just look into those dark eyes and crawl into his powerful hold… Everything would be better. It was more than her desperate hope the he would play the hero. She garnered comfort and the strength from his touch. The trust—
No. Not the trust. She swallowed a pathetic laugh. He questioned her words and her actions. That wasn’t a trusting man. And she wasn’t a trusting woman. She never had been, and Jared wouldn’t change a life philosophy like that, no matter how she felt in his arms.
Her thigh throbbed where Brock had jabbed her with the needle. Its contents had burned like cold acid trailing into her leg for long seconds, then everything went bad-news black. How long have I been out, and where is Brock? She had several choice things to say to him.
Sugar listened without moving and tried to decipher the voices, not recognizing anyone. They echoed. One was dominant. The others only replied, never questioned. Wait… Maybe the dominant voice sounded familiar. She cracked a mascara-smeared eyelid to take in her surroundings.
Utilitarian room. Florescent lights. Two men in tactical uniforms. And Buck Baer—the voice she’d recognized. Wait, what? Brock and Buck work together? In what world?
Then again, Brock had hit her with the knockout juice. Brock and Buck. Why? She couldn’t fit the pieces together, and her head was cloudy.
Minutes passed. The voices registered more clearly. Buck was irritated, and the two men with him were little more than armed sounding-boards. Where are we? They weren’t at GSI’s office. She’d been there before, selling wholesale deals on ammo. GSI’s offices were obnoxious. Swank. Too much glitz and glitter. Nothing like Titan’s fortress.
Sugar shifted her weight. Her arm tingled with pins and needles. Lying in an awkward crumple on the floor had stymied her blood flow. Slightly uncoordinated, she tried to move without attracting attention. Her cobwebbed mind cleared slightly, but she still had serious issues with her sleeping forearm.
“Ah, she wakes.” The semi-familiar voice of Buck Baer sounded amused.
Great, no luck on avoiding his attention. She stilled like a statue, not daring a deep breath. Her pins-and-needle arm ached for her to shift positions again.
“No, don’t bother pretending to sleep, Lilly.”
Lilly. Her stomach turned. She hated that name, except when Jared used it. The jig was up. She pressed her chest off the ground, allowing the blood to rush into her arm. “Call me Sugar,” she corrected him with a gutted whisper. Clearing her throat, she offered her name again and picked herself up to sit cross-legged.
Her head swam once she was vertical, but h
er eyes were nailed to Buck. His smirk and the way he held himself above her served only to stoke her irritation. Sugar swallowed until her throat worked like normal. With all the things she planned to say, with all the punches she didn’t intend to pull, she needed a clear voice. Buck Baer would hear her out and answer her questions. If he’d thought she was a headache before, then she would convince him otherwise.
“So, Buck.” She thanked God the sound of her words hadn’t let her down. She sounded annoyed, confident, and ready to play his games. “What’s with the big takedown when you already knew I was coming in to meet you? Thought you had me on your calendar already.”
He laughed. His ruddy face was a little fuller than she remembered. “I was testing someone.”
Testing someone? What am I? An item on a to-do list? “Brock?”
“Smart girl.” Buck clapped slowly. “Very intuitive.”
“He stabbed me with a needle, and I woke up here. Didn’t take a lot of brains to figure that one out.”
“You’re a fun one. Not sure how I missed that when we met before.” His eyes raked over her, and she wanted to punch him. “Yes, you’re definitely good looking. And I like your attitude problem. No wonder Jared Westin has a thing for you.”
Was he looking for confirmation? Had Brock told him? Or was Buck still extrapolating from the Abu Dhabi video chat when she’d barged in, wearing Jared’s sweats? She refused to admit to anything. “You have the wrong idea about Jared. I’d have thought you had better intel.”
Buck sneered at her without rebutting. Maybe Brock did keep his mouth shut. She held in the sad laugh. What relationship? In bed a few times and a fun game of chase? But when it came down to it, she’d walked away, and he didn’t trust her. Jared was nowhere to be found. He’s probably still stewing over the spark plug.
She laughed. Tough guy Jared was stranded at a chick’s house because she’d disabled his Expedition. Bet that defied his world of logic. His spark plug was still in her purse, wherever that was.
The Titan Series: Military Romance Boxed Set Page 68