Vote Then Read: Volume II

by Lauren Blakely

  “Don’t,” Jake warned. “Not with her.”

  Derek swallowed hard. “Understood. Sorry, boss.” He held the two cups out for Jake, who took them without a word.

  After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Jake asked, “What do we know?”

  “Ryker’s contact here confirmed numerous fatalities within Cetro’s organization.”

  “And Cetro?”

  Derek shook his head. “No word on him, yet. Although, Hill did blow the shit out of their compound, so it’s likely his remains just haven’t been recovered.”

  Jake didn’t like the sound of that. His concern must have shown, because Derek spoke up.

  “If he did somehow survive, they’ll find him. That scar of Cetro’s is pretty hard to miss, and Ryker’s guys know findin’ him is their priority.”

  Jake nodded, but still felt uneasy. He hated relying on someone else to figure out whether or not Cetro was still alive. Normally, he’d stay and take care of it himself, but getting Olivia settled in back home was his priority, now.

  “When do we leave?”

  “Ryker’s arranged for transport to the airstrip we used when we first arrived. He wants us wheels up by oh-eight-hundred.”

  Jake glanced at his watch. That was less than two hours away. “Alright. Make sure you and Hill are ready. I’ll wake Liv and meet you out here in an hour.”

  Derek’s expression softened. “How’s she doin’?”

  Jake drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “As good as she can be, considering. Physically, she’d alright. Woke up a couple of times during the night.”

  “Nightmares?”

  “Yeah.”

  Derek cursed softly, his hands on his hips as he rocked back on his heels. “At least we got her out of there. I can’t imagine what she must have gone through.”

  Jake appreciated his teammate’s concern. “It sure as hell wasn’t good, but at least she wasn’t raped.”

  “Thank God.”

  “Yeah.”

  It was all Jake could manage to get past the knot in his throat. Every time he thought about what could have happened to Liv, he lost his ability to breathe, let alone speak.

  Derek cleared his throat. “I’ll let you take care of things, then. We’ll see ya in an hour.”

  Jake lifted his chin as way of saying goodbye and walked back into the darkened room. Using the heel of one foot, he shut the door behind him and turned, surprised to find Olivia’s eyes glued to his.

  She was lying on her side, and Jake quickly searched for any signs of regret. He was relieved as fuck when he found none.

  “Hey, there,” he said softly.

  She smiled sleepily. “Hey, yourself.”

  Her voice was still rough and husky from sleep. It reminded him of the way she’d spoken to him during their lovemaking last night, and damn if his cock didn’t stir behind his jeans.

  Holding the sheet up to her chest, Olivia made her way into a sitting position. “Who were you talking to?”

  Jake wanted to run to her, rip the fucking thing off, and claim her again. Instead, he sat the two cups down onto the table, shoved his hands into his pockets, and planted his feet where they were.

  “Derek,” he answered, adding belatedly, “The blond one.”

  She smiled. “I remember.” With one hand still clutching the gathered sheet at her breasts, Olivia used the other to brush away some hair that had fallen into her eyes.

  Holy shit, she’s beautiful first thing in the morning.

  “What did he say? Are we going home soon?”

  Still keeping a safe distance—if there was such a thing, when it came to her—Jake walked over to the other bed and sat down across from her.

  “We’re leaving here in an hour. We’ll drive to a small airstrip, where a plane will be waiting to take us back to Texas.”

  Her relief was palpable. “Then, what?”

  This was the part she wouldn’t like, but he had to be straight with her.

  “Then, we’ll be separated. You’ll go with a government official, most likely Jason Ryker, the handler I told you about. He’s going to ask you a lot of questions. Some more than once. You’ll have to tell him everything you can remember.”

  He could see the trepidation in her eyes and wished he could do something to ease her concern. Resting his elbows on his knees, he let his hands hang loosely between them.

  “I’m sorry, Liv. I know you don’t want to talk about it with anyone, let alone some guy you don’t even know. But it has to be done.”

  Her grip on the sheets tightened, inadvertently pressing her breasts together even more. Jake started to wonder if he’d be left with a permanent indention of his zipper.

  “Can’t,” she licked her lips nervously. “Can’t you at least be in the room when they question me?”

  Seeing the fear come back into her eyes instantly took care of the issue with his zipper. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. They have to separate us to make sure our stories add up.”

  Her eyebrows shot up, and her voice rose an octave. “Our stories?”

  Just like that, Olivia’s fear was replaced with good, old-fashioned anger. She stood from the bed, keeping the sheet around her.

  “There isn’t a story, Jake. There’s only the truth. Those assholes killed innocent people. They took me hostage and were going to sell me like I was nothing more than a…a piece of meat! What those men did was unforgivable, yet I’m the one who’s going to be interrogated like a criminal? What the hell?”

  He stood and approached her cautiously. Raising his hands slowly, Jake brought them to a rest on her bare shoulders. He inhaled deeply, ignoring the way her skin burned beneath his touch.

  “I’d do anything to keep you from having to do this, but the fact is you’re a United States citizen who was held captive by a well-sought-after, foreign cartel leader. You’re also the only survivor of a mass murder he orchestrated. They need information, Liv. If for no other reason, than to help prevent something like this from happening to anyone else.”

  As expected, his choice of words resonated within her. Olivia slowly gained control over her emotions, the change visible. Her chin came up and she straightened her shoulders.

  “Okay, fine. I get it. I still don’t like it, but I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

  Did she even realize how strong she was?

  “Coop and Mac have already been questioned about their part in it. Today, it’s our turn.”

  As if it just occurred to her, Olivia’s eyes filled with concern. “Jake, are you in trouble?” Her voice was a whisper, as if she couldn’t bear to say the words too loudly, for fear they’d be true. “Is your team going to be in trouble for helping me?”

  He shrugged a shoulder. “That’s always a possibility, but not likely. Cetro is one mean son of a bitch. I’m sure Ryker will rip us all a new one for keeping him out of the loop, but other than that, we’ll be fine.”

  She sat back down on the bed, still clutching that damn sheet. He could tell she was still worried for him and his team. God, he loved this woman.

  Jake sat beside her and took her free hand in his. “My team will be fine, Liv. Don’t worry about us.”

  Olivia sighed loudly. “I just want everything to go back to the way it was before.” She glanced over at him. With a little smirk, she nudged his shoulder with hers. “Well, not everything,”

  Jake put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. He kissed the top of her head. “It’s going to be fine, sweetheart. I won’t lie, today’s gonna suck, but when it’s done, you’ll have your life again. And I’ll be right by your side to help you put it back together.”

  Chapter 19

  “What the fuck?” Jake stormed into the observation room adjacent to the one in which Olivia was currently being held.

  Unaffected by the outburst, Homeland Security Agent Jason Ryker took his gaze from the large, two-way mirror and faced him.

  “You’r
e still here.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “Of course, I’m still here,” Jake growled, his arm flying out and pointing toward the glass. “She’s here. So, I’ll ask again. What. The. Fuck?”

  Ryker’s focus went to Olivia, again. “You know how this works, McQueen.”

  Jake stood with his hands on his hips, feet shoulder-width apart. This guy may throw a lot of business his way, but right now, it was taking Jake everything he had not to beat the ever-loving shit out of him.

  “What I know is that she’s been kept here for hours. She’s answered your questions. We all have. It doesn’t matter how many more times you ask, or how many different ways you try to spin them, her answers will be the same. You have what you need, so let her the hell go.”

  Without looking at him, Ryker said, “How do you know what I’ve asked, or what she’s told me, for that matter?”

  “Because I know you,” Jake didn’t miss a beat before pointing to Olivia again, “and I sure as hell know her.”

  Ryker, the cold asshole, simply shrugged. “She may have forgotten something. Or, maybe there are things she’s hiding from me.” Ryker turned and looked at Jake again. “There could be things she doesn’t want either one of us to know.”

  “Bullshit.” Jake spoke through his teeth, barely squelching his urge to pummel the guy. “Look at her. She’s beyond exhausted and in pain.”

  The agent looked at Jake with assessing eyes. “She was cleared by one of our doctors. Other than a few cuts and scrapes, Miss Bradshaw has some bruised ribs. So, nothing serious. And she hasn’t complained about anything, so how do you know she’s in pain?”

  She wouldn’t complain, you bastard. Jake took a step closer. “I told you. I know her.” He looked through the glass at Olivia again.

  She sat stoically as she spoke, her hands clenched together in white-knuckled fists on the table in front of her. Her face filled with frustration and sorrow as she answered the agent’s questions, and Jake’s heart broke a little more when he heard what she was saying.

  He and Ryker listened as she told the female agent about what went down with the bastard she called “Shorty” while Jake been subduing and killing the other one, named Mateo. His soul filled with anguish when he heard her describe how afraid she’d been when the fucker had put his filthy hands on her.

  Turning his head, Jake was surprised to find Ryker’s laser-like focus on him, rather than the fragile witness in the other room. The guy tilted his head slightly, studying him.

  “What is she to you?”

  Jake raised a brow. “Like you don’t already know?”

  Ryker was the head of a covert defense unit within Homeland. He’d been handpicked by the president, himself, so his clearance level was as high as it got. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t find out.

  “I know that you grew up with her. That her brother was your best friend. I know that you spent more time at their house than your own when you were young, most likely to escape your alcoholic father, since your mother left when you were just a baby. I know Miss Bradshaw is your…friend. I’m just wondering if there’s more to it than that.”

  Motherfucker.

  Jake never hidden the fact that his mother hadn’t wanted him, and his dad had been more concerned with finding his next bottle than making sure his son got fed. He’d always suspected that Mike had shared the story of Jake’s shitshow family with Pops, and that was reason the guy had taken him in like he had.

  From the time Jake was in junior high until the day Pops died, Mike and Olivia’s dad had been the only true father figure in his life.

  “You’re right. My parents were total fuck-ups. And yeah,” Jake continued, “James Bradshaw pretty much raised me as one of his own, but as far as Olivia and I are concerned, that shit’s none of your goddamn business.” He wasn’t about to share his feelings for her with Ryker or anyone else here.

  At that, the agent began to lose a little of that famous control he was so well known for. Ryker turned and pointed his finger toward Jake’s chest.

  “You seem to forget you work for me, McQueen. Yet, you took your entire team halfway around the world to destroy one of the most powerful drug lords in existence without my knowledge or consent. You could have caused a fucking international incident, for Christ’s sake! It’s bad enough you damn near got yourself and your teammates killed in the process, I won’t even go into amount of time, money, and favors saving your ass cost me. So you’d better believe it when I say that both you and your friend in there are absolutely my fucking business, now.”

  Unfazed, Jake took a step forward, his voice steady. “Wrong. I work for myself. I take on some jobs for you, all of which my team has successfully completed. I didn’t tell you about my plans for Cetro and his men because keeping you in the dark gave you plausible deniability. I covered your ass, Ryker. You’re welcome.” It was both lie and truth.

  The tip of Ryker’s finger dug into Jake’s chest. “Bullshit. You didn’t tell me because you knew I would have stopped you.”

  Jake looked down. Despite the urge to break that self-righteous finger poking his against chest, one corner of his mouth raised. With a feral smile, his eyes found Ryker’s again. “You could have tried.”

  The two men continued to stare each other down before Ryker finally gave in. Letting out a stream of curses, he took a step back. The man shook his head, returning his focus to the other room.

  Shoving his hands in his pockets, Ryker asked, “Does she know the truth? About her brother, I mean.”

  Of course, the guy would know about Mike. Jake looked at Olivia. “No.”

  Ryker’s head swung around, his surprise obvious. “You never told her?”

  Jake kept his eyes forward. “That information is classified.”

  Ryker let out a low whistle. “Damn, Jake. If she ever finds out—”

  He didn’t finish, but he didn’t need to. Jake was well aware of what the fallout would be once Olivia finally learned the truth. It was why he planned to wait until her situation was less volatile to confess his greatest sin.

  More than ready to put an end to their separation, Jake said bluntly, “We’re done here. I’m taking her home.”

  “We’re done when I say we’re done,” Ryker responded adamantly.

  Jake moved toward him. “You don’t want to push me on this one, Jason.”

  He turned around and headed toward the door. He’d just reached for the knob when the door swung open. A woman Jake recognized walked in carrying a thick manila folder.

  Betty Stock had been Ryker’s assistant since before Jake had begun working with him. She was in her late fifties, of average height, and pleasantly plump.

  With her proper dresses, heels, and her gray hair always kept up in neat bun, she’d always reminded Jake of the stereotypical grandmother. She was a sweetheart, but he knew the woman was as tough as they came.

  “Good to see you, Jake. I’m glad your team made it back safe and sound. I’m also very glad Miss Bradshaw is okay, after all. What a horrible thing for such a lovely young lady to have to go through.”

  Jake didn’t miss the glare she gave her boss, who was standing behind him. Damn, he liked her. “Thanks, Betty.”

  She patted his arm, then stepped around him to hand Ryker the folder. “Everything you requested on Javier Cetro and the others is in there.”

  “Thank you, Betty. That will be all.”

  Betty turned to leave but stopped short. “Take care, Jake. And watch out for your lady friend in there. She’s going to need someone to help her through this.”

  Not waiting for a response, the woman left the room as quickly as she’d appeared.

  Jake looked at the door, but made no movement toward it. Taking in a deep breath, he asked, “Do I even want to know what’s in that folder?”

  “You do, if you want your girl in there to stay safe.”

  Jake squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted to ignore it. Wanted nothing more than to walk out that
door, go to Olivia, and take her somewhere no one would ever find them.

  Fucking hell.

  He blew out a heavy breath and turned back around. Choosing the chair closest to where the folder was placed—which also put his back to the glass—he sat down without another word and began to read. It took less than thirty seconds for him to wish he hadn’t.

  “Sonofabitch. The bastard’s still alive.” Jake spoke more to himself than to Ryker as he sifted through the pictures and information. Without looking up, he said, “An hour before we got on the plane to come here, we were informed that Cetro was presumed dead. When did you get this new intel?”

  “About thirty minutes after you went airborne,” Ryker answered as he sat down in the chair across from him. “Our contact sent us those”—he nodded to the pictures of a disheveled Cetro from a few yards away—“then he gave us everything else he could.”

  Jake’s mind reeled as he replayed that day at Cetro’s camp, trying to figure out exactly when and how it was possible.

  As if reading his thoughts, Ryker said, “My guess is he saw Mac and Coop hit the ground with your order to retreat. According to Sean’s statement, that’s when he got hit.”

  Jake tilted his head in confirmation.

  “With him injured, and you in the woods defending Olivia, your team was too busy returning fire to notice Cetro had slipped away. From what we’ve been told, he had two ATV’s parked in the rear, near the chopper. He and a couple of his men took off on those while all hell was breaking loose around them. With Mac and Coop no longer in the trees, they weren’t able to see what was going down behind the camp. Hill’s explosion took out the rest of Cetro’s men, but it also inadvertently gave him the cover he needed to escape.”

  “Fuck me,” Jake exhaled the words as he leaned back in his chair. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he asked, “So, where is he now?”

  “We don’t know,” Ryker answered, texting someone as he spoke.

  At least Ryker didn’t lie or give him some political non-answer. In Jake’s experience, he found that most government types loved to skirt around the truth.

  Ryker’s chin tilted toward the pictures spread out on the table in front of Jake. “Those were taken two days ago.”