by Stasia Black
Which meant Jason had the resources to devote to expanding what he considered his empire. It wasn’t just about the land or the Jacob’s Well spring, either. He’d talked about the Commander a few times, when he was especially drunk.
It was personal between them somehow. When Jason drank, he got so slurred it was hard to understand him, but he’d definitely talked about Commander Wolford by name—except he’d called him Eric. It was only through context clues she’d realized Eric was the Commander of Jacob’s Well.
Jason ranted about how Eric betrayed him. About how Jason gave up everything for Eric. Even got kicked out of the Army for him. “Annnnn how ya thannnk me, huh? You betray me, you sonnabitch!”
He’d shouted it so loud Shay had scrambled back and run out of the room for fear he’d take out his rage on her like he often did.
And now here she was.
Caught in the middle of two impossible choices.
Her kids—or all the people she was starting to care about here in Jacob’s Well? Including her two new stepsons.
She’d be a monster no matter which she chose.
But she had made a decision. After last night… there was no going back.
She couldn’t work for Jason anymore.
That was the decision she’d come to as she poured out her partial truths to her husbands.
She knew they thought that when she’d said her children were gone, she’d meant they were dead. A shudder went through her body even at the thought.
But it would have been too obvious a leap to her real purpose here if she’d let them know her kids were still alive.
She’d wanted to tell them everything.
She’d wanted to so badly.
She almost had.
But then she remembered something, and it had stopped her from blurting out the complete truth.
Jason was paranoid. He almost always had a Plan B.
Arranging for two spies in the same small group so that they could watch and report on each other was just the sort of thing Jason would do.
It was one of the reasons she’d been so adamant about having Charlie as one of her five. With him she knew there’d be one person she knew wouldn’t have a hidden agenda. Someone she could trust completely.
But she could come up with a scenario where even Charlie was the spy. Jason could twist anyone and Charlie could have easily been posing as a prisoner back in Travisville to throw Shay off.
Shay doubted Charlie would be tempted by riches or position, but what if Jason had some way to get to Audrey? Charlie would do anything to protect her. Who knew what combination of manipulation, torture, or threats Jason might have used to get Charlie to work for him?
She could imagine far less creative motives for all the others. Henry was ambitious. He made no secret of the fact that he liked the finer things in life. Was Jacob’s Well too tame a playground for a man of his drive and determination?
Then there was Jonas, Lord. She shook her head. He was so changeable. Sometimes she wondered if she knew him at all. Was he the stern dominant he could be in the bedroom, or the care-nothing stoner he’d hidden behind for years? Could a man who could change personas on the flip of a dime ever be completely trusted? Still, he had such an authenticity to him… or was that the greatest ruse of all and she was being the world’s biggest idiot to rule him out?
With Rafe it was impossible to tell because he always adopted that devil may care attitude everywhere except the bedroom. But underneath it all, sometimes, she thought she detected an… anger at life because of what had happened to him. Shay knew just how good Jason was at flaming men’s anger and directing it for his own purposes.
And Gabriel? Well, he’d do anything for those boys. It was easy to imagine Jason using the same threat he had on Shay herself. If Jason had some way of getting at the boys and threatening them, what wouldn’t Gabriel do to keep them safe?
All of which left her… stuck. She wanted to do the right thing. She just didn’t know what the hell that was in this circumstance.
Jason already had so many other agents working in Jacob’s Well, not that she knew who they were. But evidence of them was abundant.
For example—Jason knew a delegation would be going to visit the President’s Palace in Fort Worth—something that according to Sophia hadn’t been planned until last week.
But Jason had known over a month ago.
And Jason knew she’d be asked to bring a sculpture to give to the President. When Shay gave Sophia her rose sculpture, a local newspaperman had been there and taken a picture. Apparently, this paper had circulated to the capitol where notice had been taken of a promising new young artist.
The whole thing smacked of Jason’s interference, especially when she was then commissioned to make a sculpture of the President’s bust. Because Jason had given her a two-piece black device slightly larger than her hand and ordered her to install it inside said sculpture.
Shay shuddered to think how deep his spy network went in Jacob’s Well. Not to mention how difficult it would be to do what she now had to.
Because there was only one way out of this if she wanted to keep her soul intact and still protect her own children.
She had to play both sides.
She’d continue to work for Jason—or at least look like she was working for him. Just long enough to get her kids back. Then they’d escape for real.
If only she could talk to someone. Even Audrey or Vanessa. She’d grown close to the two women over the past month. And Audrey’s husband Nix was the head of the Security Squadron. He’d helped bring down another of Jason’s spies just a few months ago.
But what if that was just a ruse because the man had already exposed himself? And anyway, Audrey and Nix and their whole clan was out of town for a couple more weeks until the trip to Fort Worth. Apparently they’d decided to finally take their honeymoon.
Which was sweet and romantic… and left Shay back at square one.
She had to figure out for herself who she could trust and who she couldn’t.
All the while knowing that every day she didn’t speak up was one day closer to bringing all the people she was coming to care a great deal for in terrible danger.
But she had at least until the trip to the President’s Palace. If Jason wanted her to plant that device, he wouldn’t move on Jacob’s Well before she’d had the chance. That was three weeks from now.
Three weeks to figure out which of her husbands was also working for Jason. Without tipping them off.
Hence asking Rafe to join her today as she hunted for materials for President Goddard’s portrait sculpture. She planned to spend one on one time with each of her husbands to see if she could get one of them to slip up and reveal something to prove they were working for Jason.
She squinted in the sunlight as she crouched down to run her hands over a snapped off side mirror from a car. She was playing with shadow and reflection in the sculpture and this would be perfect.
Her whole clan would be going as part of the delegation, along with Clan Hale and the Commander and Sophia. Shay would have to work non-stop to finish the sculpture in time. She had the rough outline of President Goddard’s face and most of the shadowing blocked out so far, but she still had all the contour and detail work to do.
“You wanna add that to the bag, babe?” Rafe asked, his big body blocking out the sun and shading her as effectively as an umbrella.
Shay turned to look up at him. He was just a dark shadow against the bright blue sky.
“Yes, please,” she smiled at Rafe and handed him the broken off side mirror. He turned it around in his hands, eyebrows lifted.
“So you can really make something, like, arty, outta all this shit?” He dropped the mirror into the large canvas bag.
“Careful!”
“Oh, sorry.” Then he grinned at her. “Am I not treating the garbage with enough care?”
She rolled her eyes and smacked him on the arm. “It’s the mirror I want, jerk. I
t’s lasted this long without getting broken. If only it can survive you.”
“All right, all right. I’ll treat the bag of shit like it’s precious cargo.”
“You’re a charmer, aren’t you?”
He shot her another panty-melting grin and she turned away, fanning herself and trying to pretend it was because of the hot day.
Surely it wasn’t Rafe. He was so… charming.
But Jason had been charming, too.
In the beginning.
And she’d only known Rafe, what, a little more than four weeks?
Anyone could pretend to be a good guy for a month.
Shay had been around Jason long enough to know what he looked for in his agents. Ambition, but not too much. After all, Jason only wanted people working for him that he could control. No one who would actually challenge him for power. Ruthlessness and self-centeredness were plusses. Either that or desperation. Jason was always happy to capitalize on desperation. Like Shay’s desperation to have her children back.
After they were caught trying to escape, Jason had threatened their lives. And more.
It wasn’t only her who’d been branded that night the guards dragged her and the children back in front of him.
At least he’d had little Nicole taken right back out again.
But Matthew, oh God, Matthew…
“You think you can run from me?” Jason jerked her chin up roughly, and then, with his other hand, he slapped her hard.
Pain exploded through her face but what was worse was hearing Matthew scream and knowing he was so afraid.
And knowing he had reason to be. God, please don’t let him hurt my son. Please don’t let him hurt my son.
“You can never leave me, you little whore. You wanna know why?”
Jason jerked her head up by her ponytail, pressing his other thumb into the lip he’d just split open. She couldn’t help the whimper of pain in spite of promising herself she’d be strong for Matthew.
She nodded piteously, praying for Jason’s rage to work its way out quickly. And all on her. But as mad as she’d seen him in all their years together, it was nothing to the insane gleam in his eyes tonight.
“I said do you wanna know why?” he shouted.
“W-why?” she finally managed to get out, the coppery taste of blood thick on her tongue.
Jason leaned down until his face was only an inch away from hers. Then he screamed at the top of his lungs, “Because you’re fucking mine! I fucking own you!”
And then he called in the blacksmith who held a red-hot branding iron.
She’d only been able to watch on and scream uselessly as the big man pressed the T brand into the soft flesh of Matthew’s back.
By the time the man came to her, yes, the brand hurt like pain she never knew, but worse was knowing her baby had just suffered the same.
She swore to herself then and there, as the screams of her baby boy echoed in her skull, never to underestimate Jason again or do anything that could endanger her children.
She’d obeyed every order, done every task, enthusiastically fulfilled every one of Jason’s whims after that day.
Still, he’d banished her from the mansion. It had been a year and a half since she’d laid eyes on either of her children.
She only got updates through one of the maids she’d been friendly with while she’d still lived there, so she knew they were safe—well, as safe as they could be living under the same roof as that monster.
But when Jason had come to her promising he’d reunite her with her kids—and more importantly, threatening Matthew’s life if she didn’t do what he said—what choice did she have?
There’s always a choice.
Well, she was making one now. She refused to be Jason’s puppet anymore. She’d find a way to get Matt and Nicky back without sacrificing a whole town.
So. Back to the task at hand.
She studied Rafe surreptitiously as she picked through the old junk.
Ambition. Desperation. She ticked them off in her head. What else did Jason look for in his agents?
Well, he did prefer men who weren’t as smart as he was. Again, it was part of the control thing.
So where did Rafe fall in that metric?
Frankly, Shay didn’t know. She had a feeling his flirty and fun side was as much a mask as her fake smiles.
What was going on in that handsome head of his behind the facade? She was determined to find out.
“Tell me about yourself,” she said as they walked down a narrow path between towering piles of junk. “I barely know anything about you.”
He squinted at her in the bright sunshine. “What do you want to know, babe?”
“Well, where do you come from?”
“Here and there.” He shrugged.
She rolled her eyes. And the winner for the most indecisive answers of all time goes to… “Okay, but where did you grow up?”
Another shrug. Was it just her imagination, or did he seem more closed off than normal? “What’s it matter? I’m here now.”
“What’s it matter?” she scoffed in disbelief. “Our pasts make us who we are.”
Then she took a breath. All right. Maybe she should share first if she was going to ask such personal things of him. “Take my mom for instance. All growing up she couldn’t have given less of a shit about me. She was always way more interested in whatever loser of the month was taking up her time and attention.” Shay looked out at the manmade hills of junk all around them. “I always swore I’d be nothing like her when I grew up.”
She’d never let her life revolve around a man, she’d told herself so self-righteously.
Ha. Hahahaha. Good one, universe.
“No one wants to be like their folks,” Rafe said. “That’s just how it is, ain’t it?”
Shay cocked her head sideways. “I hope not. I don’t think Gabriel’s boys will feel that way.”
Rafe nodded, giving yet another shrug. “Huh. Maybe not.”
“So what were yours like? Your parents?”
Rafe just kept walking for several moments, not saying anything, then he stopped and grabbed Shay around the waist. “Look, babe, I don’t do this stuff.”
Shay stopped with him, frowning. “What stuff?”
“This.” He waved a hand between them. “This small talk shit. I’m a simple guy. There’s two things I was put on this earth for. Flying fighter jets,” he leaned in close, his lips brushing against her ear, “and fucking. Seeing as I got my arm blown off and am no good for flying planes or fighting any more, I’m happy to focus on my second talent.”
With that, he pulled her several steps forward around the corner to a culvert of the junkyard where large appliances were stacked haphazardly on all sides except the one they’d come through. He flipped her around, eliciting a little oof of surprise out of her before he pushed her chest down across the stovetop of an old oven. Then he bent over her and again, his breath was scorching on her ear.
“You were so damn hot for it last night. Hottest chick I ever seen. If I rip your panties down right now, how wet you gonna be?”
Shay’s eyes all but rolled back in her head. It was wrong to get so turned on by his crude words and manner. Or was it?
She made no move to stop him as he unbuttoned her jeans and jerked them roughly down her thighs. Next went her underwear and then his thick fingers probed at her sex.
“Fuck,” he hissed. “I was right. You’re already drenched. You been thinking about me fucking you the whole time we been out here? Or you get this wet in these last couple minutes?”
He moved his pelvis against her and she could feel his hard length through his jeans, pressing against her ass. Which only made a fresh round of wetness gush. Embarrassment heated her face, but Rafe only pushed his fingers in and out of her slick sex more quickly.
“Taste how much you want it.” He slipped his fingers out of her pussy and the next thing she knew, he was shoving them in her mouth.
Where
was the relaxed, easy going Rafe who joked around the dining room table and winked while he stole an extra ladleful of stew?
Him shoving his fingers in her mouth like that, so forceful, almost brutal—
It was wrong.
Wrong.
She bit down on his fingers and he pulled them out. But she’d only done it so she could whisper breathily, “Fuck me. Fuck me hard.”
She didn’t know why she liked it this way. Considering all that had happened to her, it was probably really messed up that she did. But his hand on her back, the growl of his words… God, she couldn’t get him inside her fast enough.
She was wearing a spaghetti strap shirt that was easy to push down her shoulders. She continued tugging on it until it was pooled at her waist. Feeling the sun beat down on her exposed breasts was just another reminder of how wrong it was to ask what she was asking. They were exposed. The appliances only closed them in on three sides. Anyone passing them by would be able to clearly see her lily-white ass and breasts, and now she was asking him to—
He kicked her legs further apart and then—
“Oh,” she couldn’t help a brief cry as he thrust inside her pussy from behind. Then his hand clapped over her mouth and he pushed her chest down over the stovetop.
She felt three seconds away from coming. The unexpectedly sharp rise of pleasure took her breath away. It was so good. His cock, oh shit, oh shit, it was— He was—
She lifted her ass back against him with his every thrust so he could go as deep as possible.
“Fuck, you love that don’t you?” he grumbled, hand still over her mouth. “You love taking my huge cock in every fucking hole. You’d be howling and letting the whole goddamned yard know how much you loved it if I let you, wouldn’t you?”
He pulled his hips back and then jackhammered back in again and Shay had to bite the inside of her cheek against the pleasure lighting up her core. Oh God, he was hitting that spot, punching it with every thrust.
It was so good.
And so… familiar?
She’d been fucked like this before, except even more brutally.