Vanished Final 7.2019: An ALIAS, Enemies to Lovers Romantic Suspense

by Lisa Hughey

  Brianna’s screams echoed through the open van windows as she alternated between sweet as custard begging and threatening to cut off her cousin’s dick. Hamish wanted to cup his own in protection.

  Jillian put her hand on his forearm, the touch calming his roiling emotions. “Why did you do that?”

  “You’re worth a million Briannas.”

  “But you lost your evidence…and your fugitive.”

  Dee groaned from her spot on the floor, but they ignored her.

  “What the fuck were you thinking?” Hamish grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her, needing the reassurance that she was okay. He wanted to shake her and then kiss her for about five hundred years.

  “I knew if Dee took her, Beatrice’d disappear and get away,” Jill said defensively. “I was trying to make sure that didn’t happen.”

  “You knew Deanna Womack was dirty. That she was stealing Brianna away and you went with them?” His heart thundered all over again, threatening to beat right out of his chest. Dammit.

  “I did it for you, you big oaf.”

  “Me?”

  “Sure. You had the recording straight from her mouth. And the proof that Dee was also involved in the coverup.”

  “It also implicated your partner.”

  “He deserves whatever is coming to him.”

  About Marsh—

  “If I’d let them go, we might never have found Brianna again. And she wouldn’t pay.” She stared at the panel door. “Instead we lost her and the money that would prove she was guilty.”

  “Ah about that.” He ducked his head sheepishly.

  “What?”

  “I lied.”

  “Lied?”

  “I didn’t really find the money. It was a bluff.”

  Jillian broke away from his hold. “A bluff?”

  “Aye.”

  “I was right about you the first time I saw you.”

  “What’s that?”

  But she didn’t answer. She crawled up to the front of the van and started searching for something.

  “You need a doctor.” She gestured to his head. Now that the threat to Jillian was neutralized, the adrenaline let down hit him hard.

  He began to shake as the memory of the knife at her breastbone played on repeat in his brain. He leaned against the back of the passenger seat while he let his body process the emotions zooming through him.

  Jillian slapped the steering wheel. “Dammit, they must have taken the keys.”

  “We still won.”

  “This wasn’t exactly a win.” Jill slumped against the seat. “The criminals are getting away.”

  “Wait, where is Marsh?”

  Before he could answer, the sound of multiple cars screeching to a halt came through the open windows. Hamish threw open the sliding door and jumped to the ground. He held out his hand to help her out of the driver’s seat.

  At the top of the hill, Dee’s car was boxed in by two vans and Jill’s rental car.

  Alex Saunders and his partner Sheppard Gaffney poured out of one van. Kita, Viktor and Jake out of the second. And Marsh from her rental car. All of the them held automatic weapons trained on the Mustang.

  Jill began to run toward the takedown on the road with Hamish following closely. “Be careful.”

  Jill ignored him.

  Alex shouted, “This is the US Marshals! You are under arrest. Leave your weapons in the vehicle and come out with your hands in the air.”

  Beatrice and her cousins stumbled out of the car. Even the Walsh brothers seemed to recognize they were no match for six aggressors that included US Marshals.

  Matt Walsh stood up and held his hands up high. “Don’t shoot. Guns are on the seat.”

  Viktor jerked to a halt when he saw him. “Matt?”

  Wait. This was his rebound guy?

  Matt Walsh sighed. “What are you doing here, mate?”

  Uh-oh. That didn’t sound good.

  “Fixing a mistake, apparently.” The devastation on Viktor’s face cleared, leaving behind a blank mask. “Hands where I can see them.”

  Alex and Shep cuffed the Walsh cousins while Kita, Jake and Viktor held guns on them.

  Beatrice protested loudly, seesawing between trying to flirt with Shep, practically batting her eyelashes, and threatening her cousins.

  They were almost ready to go when Dee Womack stumbled up the hill.

  “Alex, Shep. Thank Christ you’re here.” She turned her back and lifted her bound wrists. “Get me out of these cuffs.”

  “He can’t do that,” Marsh said, stepping between Alex and Dee.

  “Who gave you the authority?” she snarled at Marsh.

  “He’s correct. You’re being remanded into custody for multiple offenses,” Alex said.

  “Time to call your wife and see if she can recommend one of her fancy law partners.” Shep pressed his hand on her head to protect it as he folded her into the van with the other criminals.

  “Probably not a good idea.” Jill widened her eyes. “They’re getting a divorce.”

  Dee protested the entire time Shep got her settled into the prisoner restraints. “You can’t do this to me! I’m your boss.”

  “Not for long.”

  Once they were restrained and locked in, the ALIAS employees walked over to Jill and Hamish.

  “I didn’t give away company secrets. I swear.” Viktor looked miserable. “But I’ll understand if you need to fire me.”

  Jillian had revealed the core of ALIAS to Hamish, so she couldn’t judge him. But he looked so sad.

  “We’ll deal with that later.” Jillian grabbed Hamish’s hand. “I need you to look at his hard head.”

  Viktor grabbed a first aid kit from the ALIAS van and set to work cleaning Hamish’s head wound.

  “How did you find us?” Jillian asked.

  Kita shrugged. “I tagged your burner phone. Just so I would know where you were.”

  “Kita, that’s against the rules.”

  “You can thank me later,” Kita said. “We were on our way to intercept when we ran into Marsh.”

  “You literally ran into him?”

  “I found the money. Your guy sent me the final information to nail her on the embezzlement. And one thing led to another and I…explained the situation to Alex.” She flushed. “But when he told Deanna, she pretended like there was nothing amiss, which he thought was weird.”

  “We—” Kita gestured to Viktor and Jake “—figured you’d need backup with Beatrice. So they hopped on a plane and I drove up from the Cape.”

  Jake and Viktor nodded enthusiastically.

  “Alex looked up the Walsh brothers and it turns out they are wanted for international crimes.” She frowned. “We ran into Alex and Shep on our way to intercept you. And…here we are.”

  “But why?” Jill was bewildered. “I was handling it.” Keeping everyone safe.

  “That’s what a family does,” Viktor said. “They look out for each other.”

  Family. Her heart warmed, expanded at his assertion that they were family.

  Marsh hovered on the fringe of their crowd, looking uncomfortable. Jill was trying to put it all together. First up, Marsh. “So you were….”

  “Undercover. Trying to find the money.” His eyes said he was sorry. “I realized after we put Bea in Philly that things were off. I wanted to tell you but I went to talk to Dee first.”

  “That was a mistake.”

  “I know that now.”

  “And you…found the money?” Jill directed that question at Kita.

  “Yep.”

  “While you were on your romantic getaway at the Cape?” Jill raised an eyebrow.

  “There will be time for another romantic getaway.” Kita smiled.

  Jill tried to put aside her ego and just be happy that Beatrice Winter had been apprehended, but it was hard. She felt like a spectator in her own life.

  She turned to Hamish. “You must be happy.”

  “Truthfully, I thought I�
�d be a lot happier.” He stared out at the ocean, the frothy dark blue sea. “But nothing is going to bring my brother back.”

  His head was starting to purple over the bruises from yesterday. She’d done it. She’d given him the closure he needed and he’d be leaving soon. “My email?”

  “Hypothetically, someone with good skills who’d been on your computer might be able to clone the information and then send an email to one of your contacts.”

  Part of her wanted to laugh. Hypothetically was her purview.

  “I guess I’d better call my boss.” Hamish dug his cell phone out of his pocket. And swore. “Three missed calls from her.”

  His phone buzzed while he was holding it. “I’d best take this.”

  Marsh said, “Jill—”

  She held up her hand at Marsh. Their discussion was better played out in an office with just the two of them. “Later. We’ll go over the details later.”

  Apparently Kita had no such restraint. She walked up to Marsh and punched him in the stomach. “That’s for making us all worry about you.” Then she threw her arms around his neck. “I’m so glad you’re okay, you idiot.”

  She stepped back from Marsh just as Alex Saunders, Kita’s new significant other, strode up to her and slung his arm over Kita’s shoulders.

  Marsh looked between the two of them, a slight frown on his face.

  “Yeah. A lot has happened since you disappeared.” Kita curled her arm around Alex’s waist. “Alex, Marsh. Marsh, Alex.”

  Alex stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “You’ve got some explaining to do.” Kita frowned at Alex. “You were just supposed to pass the information along. Are you even authorized to be on this takedown?”

  “You really wanna talk rules right now?” Alex led Kita toward the van with the criminals. “I could use your help.”

  “Really?” Her eyes lit up like a little kid.

  Jill watched them walk away. The past few days had been a weird intense bubble. Now life would go back to normal. Probably.

  “I’m sorry,” Marsh said from beside her.

  Guess they were going to do this now. “Why did you do it, Marsh?”

  “You have this unshakable moral code and I just wanted to live up to that.”

  Jill said, “By keeping me out of the loop?”

  “No. You do the right thing. All the time. After Beatrice had been gone about a week, I realized she had played me. Little things had begun to add up. Individually they were nothing, but together they painted a picture. And I’d fallen for it. And all I could think was, what would Jill do? But I was embarrassed.”

  Embarrassed?

  “I’d been taken in by a pretty face. Duped. And I wanted to fix it.” Marsh rubbed a hand over his scraggly beard.

  Hamish had been right.

  “So I took my concerns to Dee,” Marsh continued. “And we came up with a plan. It was supposed to be quick. But frankly, it took a while to catch up with her.”

  Beatrice Winter aka Brianna Walsh aka Brigid Pilsen was a brilliant woman.

  “And then I was trying to find the money. Without it, we had no proof. I had no idea that Dee was working me as a side job,” he said.

  “You slept with her?”

  “Believe me, it’s going to take a long time to wipe that stain off my soul. But we got her.”

  “Why didn’t you confide in me?” They were supposed to be friends.

  Marsh finally said, “I was afraid I was turning into my dad.”

  God knows Bobby Adams had flaws. He pretty much liked to nail any woman half his age and a few his own age as well. Marsh wasn’t like that at all.

  “You gave up so much when we started ALIAS.”

  “My choice.”

  “But was it really?” Marsh asked. “And when I realized that Beatrice had used you, used us, I wasn’t about to let that happen.”

  “You’ve got to stop rushing in to save people, women.” Jill shook her head. “We could have fixed this together.”

  “But it was my mistake.” Marsh jabbed his thumb into his chest.

  “I thought we were in this together.” Jill gestured to their employees. “Look around you, Kita is doing great, she saved herself a few months ago. And I thought when we started ALIAS that we were equal partners. Not savior and saved.”

  “We were.”

  “Clearly you don’t see me that way.”

  No one saw her the way she saw herself. Was that an issue with her? Maybe.

  Hamish had trusted her. She thought he saw her. Jill watched Hamish talk to his boss on the phone. It didn’t look like it was going well.

  But he’d be leaving soon. Going back to Scotland and putting away bad guys.

  And she’d be here. Still sticking to her code and being lonely.

  He’d leave her. Like everyone did.

  Hamish spoke into his mobile. “Hello, ma’am.”

  “What the hell, Ballard?”

  “We got her.” And her cousins but he’d let the US authorities explain that one.

  “I told you to drop it.”

  “I couldn’t. He was my brother.” His temple throbbed. And all he wanted was to hold Jillian in his arms. He needed to touch her. To reassure himself she was okay.

  “Well, at least we can salvage things. No one has to know you were unauthorized. We’ll let this Adams-Larsen take the blame.”

  “No.” Hamish didn’t embellish. A sick feeling rumbled in his stomach. Jillian was not going to suffer for his obsession. She’d helped him, at the expense of her business, her employees, and her code of ethics. He wasn’t going to betray her trust. “We keep them out of it. They are the only reason we caught her.”

  “But—”

  “Not negotiable.” The breeze off the ocean swept in with the scent of brine and cleared away any remaining qualms.

  “If you admit you were the one who performed an op on US soil without permission, your career is over.”

  “Aye.”

  “You’re willing to lose everything over this?”

  Or maybe he would gain the world. Hamish hung up and began to plan.

  Chapter 17

  Two weeks later

  Adams-Larsen was throwing their annual holiday party. If anyone felt less like celebrating the holiday season, Jill didn’t know who. Since the takedown of Beatrice and her cousins, she and Marsh had formed an uneasy truce.

  Slowly things were returning to normal, with a few changes. Kita wasn’t the only employee who regularly plopped down on her settee to share. Jill was equal parts thrilled and unsure. Never positive she was going to say the right thing, but then knowing that they would have her back even if she didn’t. And still everything felt…wrong, off. She’d started on a new life, but something was missing.

  She had Marsh had just given their “thanks for being awesome employees” speech, and now she sat next to him at the bar.

  “The judge wants a meeting with me on Monday.”

  Marsh and his father had a contentious relationship. “Be careful. The last time he came looking for you, Kita was kidnapped and almost killed.”

  “He says it’s personal.” Marsh shrugged. “We’ll see.”

  It was personal last time and still managed to put people in danger. “Let me know if there’s anything we can do.”

  “Will do.” Marsh looked out over the bar. “Good party.”

  Maria had taken over the planning of their holiday party and, with input from Kita, had chosen an Irish bar.

  Everyone from the office was there. Viktor, looking morose, sat at the opposite end of the bar, and had very publicly sworn off men. He was still recovering from the fact that Matt Walsh had tried to cultivate him for information.

  Jake had been there but cut out early. Alex and Kita were here and they brought Shep. He was currently striking out hard with Dr. Mila Patel, who had helped Kita a few months ago when she’d been poisoned.

  Maria and Dwayne sat in a booth in the corner making lovey-
dovey eyes at each other. It would have been disgusting if it hadn’t been so cute to see the normally reserved Maria and the massive former ladies’ man Dwayne behaving so sweetly.

  Everywhere she looked her employees were pairing off.

  Jill sat at the end of the bar watching her employees have a good time. The fact that they had come to her aid warmed her heart. But she still felt so alone.

  She was having a hard time sticking to her motto of No Regrets.

  Kita sat one barstool over. She leaned in when Marsh and Jill finished their conversation. “Where is your Scottish Hottie?”

  “No idea,” Jill replied. She hadn’t spoken with him since they had awkwardly said goodbye in their hotel room near Boston. The bartender poured her another Balvenie. A glutton for punishment, she’d ordered the same scotch they’d drunk the first time they’d…. Yes, she was just that sappy.

  “Ugh, if I never see another Irish bar, it would be too soon.”

  “Suck it up.” Kita was draped over Alex’s shoulder, sipping a club soda. “I am DD tonight because Alex and Shep are celebrating a trifecta. They wrapped up the cases against Deanna Womack, Beatrice, and the Walsh brothers today.”

  “Kept ALIAS out of it,” Alex said.

  That was good news. She had been worrying about the publicity. Sort of. Nothing seemed that important right now. “That’s good,” Jill said.

  “Yeah. Thanks to your Scottish Hottie.” Kita smiled.

  “What?” That got her attention.

  “Apparently he leaned hard on the National Crime Agency and negotiated with the DOJ to keep our name out of the released documents,” Marsh said. “We are named only as Agency A.”

  Why had he done that?

  “Yeah. I invited him tonight since he’s still in town,” Marsh said.

  “What are you, best friends now?” Jill sniped. Everyone seemed to have easily recovered except her.

  “Just trying to make nice with your guy.”

  “My guy?” He wasn’t hers no matter how much that brought an ache to her heart.

  “Dude was a man possessed when we realized the Walsh brothers were going to get to you. Didn’t even hesitate. He just took off running and told me to call Kita.”

  That was the first she’d heard of this.