by Rachel Grant
He pet the cat, who’d begun to purr. “I plan to. As much as possible.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Please do.”
She smiled and set the wide-tooth comb on the dresser, then crawled up the bed and settled facing him. She stroked Gandalf’s thick gray fur. “Hazel’s got a thing for Sean. This weekend is going to be awkward.”
Her words surprised him. “Really? No way. I’d have noticed.”
She laughed. “Yeah, right.” She stroked his cheek. “Honey, you’ve been so focused on work and whatever this threat is, you barely see me.”
“Sweetheart, the day I don’t see you when you’re within a thousand yards of me is the day you’ll be tossing dirt on my casket.”
She gave him a wry look, then leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his in a soft kiss. She started to pull back, but he cupped the back of her head with a palm and pulled her in to deepen the kiss, adding his tongue to the equation.
Claws bit into his leg—Gandalf didn’t like the fact that Isabel was getting his petting—but Alec ignored the pain. He’d been looking forward to this moment all day. He slid a hand under her camisole and cupped a breast. Her nipples were hard peaks he wanted to taste. He released her mouth. “Let’s get the cat out of here.”
“But what about Hazel and Sean?”
“They can get their own cat.”
She rolled her eyes. “I mean about how awkward this weekend is going to be. Sean is best man. He should get to enjoy this wedding. But he’s going to be pretending to be involved with Hazel in front of his closest friends. Can’t we save him that weirdness and just tell everyone what’s going on?”
“I wish we could, Iz. It’s not that simple. Plus, it would cast a different mood on the event. I’m freaked out enough about the threat. I don’t want to scare the others.”
“We’ve received death threats before. Why is it different this time?”
He wanted to tell her the truth, but the truth would only terrify her. “I’m sorry, love. I can’t tell you.” He stared into her eyes and remembered the worst day of his life. Hers too, but she didn’t remember it. And never would, if he had any say in the matter.
“So, Hazel likes Sean?” he said, deliberately changing the subject. “Any chance it goes both ways?” He liked the idea of them as a couple.
Sean Logan had been one of Alec’s first hires when he bought Raptor. The former SEAL had been his right-hand man throughout the transition from old management to new. Alec had considered Sean for the job of CEO when he left to run for the Senate, but Sean had nixed the offer, preferring the travel and flexibility of being an operative. He’d again turned Alec down when offered the job of Alaska Compound Director.
Isabel shrugged. “If it’s reciprocal, Sean hides it well.”
“Too bad.”
“You’re missing the point. You can’t do this to Sean. Or Hazel. This weekend is going to be excruciating for them both.”
“Sean agreed to do it, and honestly, there is no one I trust more with Hazel’s life.”
“But what if Hazel isn’t the target? You might be ruining Cressida and Ian’s wedding for Sean for no reason.”
“I can’t take that chance. And Sean didn’t want to take that chance either.” When Alec considered it in this light, he suspected Sean might have feelings for Hazel. “He could have said no.”
Isabel shook her head. “For a brilliant man, you can be dense at times. Do you really think he’d have felt comfortable saying no to you? You’re his boss.”
“Keith’s his boss. I just own the company.”
She fixed him with a look. “Right. Like he’s going to be splitting those hairs in the moment. You are his ultimate employer, and he knows it. Of course he said yes.”
Alec sighed. Isabel was right. But dammit, Sean was the best choice. Plus he was single and knew Hazel, making the charade possible. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow, give him the opportunity to change his mind before he talks to Ian about the wedding.” At her look he added. “Without repercussions, of course.”
“And what will you do if he wants out?”
“I don’t know. All the DC operatives are either on assignment or going to the wedding. I guess I’ll see if the FBI can stash her in a safe house.”
“You know she’s not a piece of jewelry, right?”
Now it was his turn to fix Isabel with a look. “Hazel, Ivy, and Laurel are the closest thing I have to siblings. It’s my fault she might be in danger. I’ll do whatever is necessary to protect her.”
“Necessary in your mind, Alec. But to Hazel? She doesn’t really believe she’s in danger. And frankly, I’m inclined to agree.” She cocked her head, her wild red curls flopped into her eyes rendering Alec’s mind blank.
Isabel was always the ultimate distraction. She made him defenseless. And stupid. He was as infatuated as when they’d first met. Even more so, because now he knew her, heart and soul, and there wasn’t a thing about her he didn’t love. She challenged him, even pissed him off at times, but his love for her would never waver.
Not being able to tell her the reason behind his fears when she was at the heart of his worry? When he would die to keep her safe? It was a painful test, and a challenge no marriage should have to endure.
Hazel paced her bedroom. She’d convinced Alec she could sleep in her room, which was at the opposite end of the house from the master suite, mostly because she knew Alec slept lightly—and assumed he’d be even more alert than usual tonight—and her pacing would wake him.
She’d managed to sleep for only an hour before the dreams started. This time, the skulls of children were interspersed with the bones in the lake, as they’d been in her mind when she fainted.
So that was a fun twist.
For the first time, she honestly asked herself if she could do the job. She’d assumed she could power through, as she always had, but today, she’d passed out in a frigging lake. Facedown. The sting of water in her sinuses had revived her, but still, that was scary as hell.
Who would she be without her job? How would she support herself? More important, her work was her life. Her frequent and lengthy trips overseas meant she was losing touch with many of her friends. Her sisters were married with children and careers of their own.
Laurel’s child was neuroatypical and thriving thanks to Laurel and her husband’s attention to their daughter’s needs. Ivy and Matt were still practically on their honeymoon, and Julian was adjusting to life with new parents after losing his biological parents in a car accident when he was four years old. Neither of her siblings had time or emotional energy to give her, and she wouldn’t ask that of them.
Alec and Isabel were probably about ten minutes away from starting a family, and the last thing they’d want was Hazel in their space as their family grew. Although they might enjoy the easy access to a babysitter.
But she hadn’t gotten a PhD in forensic anthropology so she could be her cousin’s live-in nanny. If she was going to take care of babies, they’d be her own.
But she didn’t have children or a lover or anyone in her life outside her parents, siblings, and cousin, because she’d been too consumed with work to take the time to attempt a real relationship.
In some ways, her infatuation with Sean Logan was her longest adult relationship. She paced her large room, feeling rather pathetic about it all. As soon as she got her head together, she’d sign up for a dating app. For real this time.
The few times she’d attempted online dating in the past, she’d turned cold at the initial contacts. She’d examined the bones of too many women who’d been dumped in the woods. She knew the statistics, knew the man on the other end of the message was probably perfectly safe, but knife wounds leave marks on bones, and those had left marks on her psyche.
So maybe she’d been struggling with the job longer than she thought. At least she had an appointment with her psychotherapist tomorrow. She glanced at the clock, seeing it was just after midnig
ht. Today.
There were a lot of hours between now and dawn. Maybe if she worked for a few of them, she’d be able to get some sleep.
It might be counterintuitive to think staring at the bones that were giving her nightmares would help her sleep, but she never had problems dealing with bones in the lab. It was when they were in the ground—or water—or garbage can or incinerator or trunk of the car that they got to her. Labs were where bones had a rightful place. It might not be their natural habitat, but at least they belonged there. Not like in a trunk or piled together in a mass grave.
She and Sean had put the equipment and bones in the annex, but she hadn’t had time to set up the lab. Now was as good a time as any. She picked up her cell phone. Sean had spent the afternoon configuring the alarm system on the annex so she could access and monitor it through her phone. She’d never known he’d been involved in the technical end of the business, but it made sense, considering he traveled a lot for work and was often the only point of contact for the client—no technical support staff available.
Now she entered her pass code so she could monitor the alarm system for both the house and annex. She could turn alarms off and on as she left the mansion and entered the annex. Her thumbprint and pass code were required for both, which would speak well to the security of the analysis should the bones end up being evidence in a legal proceeding.
She pulled on a thick flannel shirt and buttoned it up, then slipped on a pair of boots for the short walk across the yard and headed down the stairs. At the front door, she flicked off the alarm using her code and stepped outside. As she secured the alarm behind her, her phone vibrated, causing her to jolt with surprise.
She had a text. From her fake boyfriend.
Sean: What the hell do you think you’re doing?
She paused on the porch, staring at the screen. The wind blew across the driveway, scattering dry leaves that had just started to fall. Another message quickly followed the first.
Sean: Where are you going?
Hazel: Well, that’s not creepy or anything.
Sean: If you are safe, use the password. And sign with your code so I know it’s you.
Shit. He really was worried. She leaned against the column and tried to remember the password that meant she was safe. He wouldn’t let her choose any word that people might guess she would use. Anything to do with bones or family was out.
What else did she have? And then she remembered what she’d tossed out in frustration.
Hazel: Rum. HM3zj
Sean: Okay then. Back to my original question. What the hell are you doing?
Hazel: Going to the annex. To work.
Sean: At midnight?
Hazel: Couldn’t sleep. Figured I’d set up the lab.
Sean: You can’t leave the house. Not unless you want to get me fired.
Hazel: Alec wouldn’t fire you because I left the house when you weren’t here to stop me.
Sean: He’ll know I knew you left the house—my phone is set to alert me anytime you or Isabel turn the alarm system on or off. So you need to get your ass back inside and wait forty-five minutes so I can get there, unless you want me to be fired.
Shit.
Without wasting time responding, she turned off the front door alarm, stepped inside, and turned the alarm back on again. A moment later, her phone buzzed.
Sean: Good. I’ll be there in forty. Maybe sooner. Traffic is light.
Hazel: You don’t need to come. I’ll go back to bed.
Sean: Too late.
All at once, she saw the “is” part of the sentence, “Traffic is light.”
Hazel: You can’t already be on your way. Are you texting and driving?
Sean: I am. There’s a new invention called voice text. You should try it sometime. You type too slow. I think it took you a full minute to text the word rum.
Guilt filtered through her. She hadn’t expected to need a code word so soon, and she’d been too excited setting up the new microscope to pay much attention to the list of words they’d settled on—all with different meanings should she end up in a situation. At least she’d remembered her code signature. But that had been easy: HM for her initials, 3 because she was the third child, Z for her niece Zoe, and J for Julian.
Hazel: Turn the car around. Get some sleep.
Sean: No.
She climbed the stairs and paused at the top to type some more, thinking the voice thing might be a good idea, but not wanting to give him the satisfaction so soon. Plus talking might wake Alec—if he wasn’t spying on this conversation, which was entirely possible.
Hazel: I promise I’ll be good and go back to bed. I’m on my way up the stairs now. But you probably know that since you’re spying on me through my phone.
Sean: Nah, I’m using the security cameras to spy on you. You’re on the upper landing.
Crap. She forgot the interior cameras were on at night now. Alec had never used them before. She glanced up at the camera and debated how to respond. She was tempted to flip him off, but it wasn’t his fault he was spying on her. In fact, she was the one who’d dragged him out of bed. She owed him. She smiled and set her phone on the bannister and slowly began unbuttoning the flannel shirt, as if performing a striptease.
Her phone immediately buzzed.
Sean: I’m trying to drive here.
Hazel: Eyes on the road, Logan.
Sean: Keep your clothes on, MacLeod. Or at least wait until I get there.
She stared at the screen. Was Sean flirting with her? She moved away from the camera and headed toward her room. There weren’t cameras in this part of the house. She was safe from spying eyes.
Back inside her room, she kicked off her boots and settled on the bed.
Hazel: You can’t be serious about coming over. I won’t leave the house. I promise. I won’t even leave my room. Consider me grounded until morning.
Sean: I’m coming.
Hazel: Why?
The typing symbol swirled on the screen for a long moment, longer than she’d had to wait for a reply so far. It disappeared and appeared three times before a text delivered.
Sean: You said you couldn’t sleep.
Her body flushed. Was he concerned on a personal level? What were the messages he’d started then deleted?
Hazel: I’m fine. Just…wound up.
Sean: I can’t sleep either.
She touched his words on the screen, then jerked her hand away when the window popped up that would let her mark it with a heart. Yeah, she wasn’t hearting any of Sean’s messages, even if that was how she felt.
Sean: I have an idea about how we can use this for our cover story.
All at once, she deflated. She should have realized this was only about the job for him. She sucked in a deep breath and typed as if she hadn’t felt all fluttery for a moment, only to be crushed with reality.
Hazel: What’s that?
Sean: I told my mom about you tonight, just like we planned today. Tomorrow, I’ll tell her that after she went to bed, I just had to see you. So I did.
Hazel: You’re going to tell your mother you drove to Gaithersburg for a booty call??!!
Sean: No! I mean, I’m sure she’ll assume. But she also knows I wouldn’t bolt like this when she’s visiting—and wouldn’t take you to the wedding—if there wasn’t more to it. To us. So the fact that I took off tonight like I did will make it look like I really am crazy about you.
There wasn’t a single thing he’d said wrong in the text. And he was right, this was a great way to sell the sudden-relationship story. Everyone had to believe that Sean fell in love with her hard and fast for this weekend to work. It was already Wednesday. They would drive to West Virginia in two days.
She stared at the last sentence. So the fact that I took off tonight like I did will make it look like I really am crazy about you.
Like he really was. This was just a job for him. He couldn’t be more clear than if he’d straight out said he wasn’t interested.
/> And that hurt, because in spite of months of telling herself to move on, she was just as infatuated with Sean Logan as she’d been when she’d thrown herself at him on Grand Cayman.
6
Even though Sean could control the security system, he had Hazel meet him at the front door. He wanted the security team that was monitoring the grounds to see him entering the house with one of the residents so they wouldn’t wonder if he was working another side on this job.
“Wave to the camera and smile, Haze,” he said, nodding to the security camera mounted above the door.
She smiled wearily, her big eyes even larger behind glasses he was still getting used to seeing on her, and led him inside. He followed her up the stairs and across the landing to a casual family room nestled between two bedrooms, one of which was Hazel’s.
He nodded to the interior camera in the foyer and the one on the upper landing as he passed by. At least there were no cameras in the living areas of the house, not that it would matter if there were. He wasn’t here for a booty call, no matter how nice Hazel’s booty looked in yoga pants.
She’d removed the flannel top she’d been wearing earlier, revealing an oversized T-shirt with the Rwandan flag on it. If he remembered correctly, she’d worked in Rwanda for seven or eight months a year or two ago. Then there’d been a stint in Ukraine, prior to returning home to be with her sister while Ivy’s ex-husband was tried for treason and arms dealing.
It had been after Ivy’s ex was convicted that the sisters had gone to Grand Cayman to celebrate. Sean had accompanied them to guard Ivy, who’d received death threats thanks to her marriage to Patrick Hill, and months before, she’d been abducted in Palau.
But neither Hazel nor Ivy had known that Rav planned to use the vacation to reunite Ivy with the Russian spy she’d fallen in love with in Palau. He had a new identity, giving him a chance to start over with Ivy and the boy she was trying to adopt—the former spy’s biological nephew.