Castle Investigations Box Set

by Dee Bridgnorth

  She wanted Bruno, Tobias, and even The General—he was, after all, the mastermind behind most of this—to go down. And she wanted to be there when they did.

  Chapter 15

  The motel room was just as dismal as it had been when they'd left earlier that day. Ethan wished he could take Isabel to a nice hotel, where she could soak in a large tub and sleep on a comfortable bed. Instead, she'd have to shower with flip flops on, and he feared that sleep would not come easily for either of them.

  As soon as they walked in, Isabel disappeared inside the bathroom. The evening had been stressful and disturbing. He wasn't sure that one could ever get used to seeing evil on such blatant display. He knew that he never wanted to grow accustomed to it. That would mean that it no longer impacted him, and he never wanted that to be the case.

  Moments later, Isabel exited the bathroom, her hair wet and hanging down her back, her face scrubbed clean of any makeup, and her body swallowed up in a sweatshirt and shorts. Ethan thought that she had never looked more beautiful.

  And she was his wife.

  He intended to keep her that way, if she'd have him. But for now, he'd have to play it cool, not let her know how much he wanted her.

  "Do you think—" Isabel paused. She sucked in a deep breath, as if she were controlling her emotions. "Do you think Zach will be able to get someone out there in time?"

  "He said he'd get the FBI on it. He has a contact, but there's no telling how quickly those thugs'll move the girls. Hopefully, the FBI will be able to get out there tonight."

  Isabel nodded and sat down on the bed, pulling her legs up and curling her arms around them.

  "I just keep thinking about how scared they must be."

  Ethan sat down on the bed, pulling her against his chest. Once his arms had encircled her, the tears began. Isabel didn't cry often. In fact, there were only a few times he could ever recall her losing control of her emotions. Tonight, she sobbed quietly into his chest, and he murmured quiet words of reassurance to her, wishing he could make it better somehow.

  When the tears slowed, Isabel was still in his arms. He glanced down and found her asleep. It had been a rough few days, but to him, it was telling that her tears had not come this morning, when she'd almost died trying to jump across the chasm between two buildings, or yesterday, when she'd almost been blown to smithereens. No, it had been the desperate plight of others that had finally caused her to break down.

  How could he not love this woman? She felt so much—cared about people in such a big way. Her job as a profiler with the FBI had been soul-sucking. She'd shared that with him while working a missing persons case last year.

  Isabel Castle was the strongest person he knew.

  Well, besides his mom. As a rancher's wife, she'd endured all kinds of hardship, many times not knowing if they'd have enough money for food and basic clothing. And then there’d been the miscarriages. She'd lost baby after baby before finally having him. He was her miracle.

  His dad had been a hard man. He hadn't been much for sharing feelings or emotions. Although ranching could be a good living, it was hard work and had left little time for Ethan's father to spend with him or his mother. He'd wanted Ethan to follow in his footsteps—work the ranch with him. Ethan had refused, and the fight they'd had before he'd gone off to boot camp would plague him for the rest of his life. Every day, he lived with the guilt of having disappointed his dad. The guilt of being responsible for his death.

  If only…

  Ethan shook the morbid memories out of his mind, pulling off his shirt and leaning back against the pillows. He pulled Isabel back with him, once again encircling her with his arms. She nestled in, her breathing deep and even. Closing his eyes, he acknowledged that having her here with him, in his arms, was the closest to happy he'd been in a long time.

  * * * *

  Isabel woke with a start. She was hot. Really hot. And she couldn't move. It was like she had vise grips around her arms. But something smelled heavenly.

  Her head was resting on Ethan's bare chest. His very chiseled bare chest. For just a moment, she let herself relish the feel of his arms around her. She'd fallen asleep last night after crying. She hated crying. Hated showing that kind of weakness. But sometimes life was a bitch, and crying was all you could do to cope with it.

  Sitting up slowly, Isabel carefully extricated herself from Ethan's hold. When she pulled free, he sat up suddenly, head-butting her with his forehead.

  "Ouch!" she yelled.

  "Sorry," he mumbled. "You scared me."

  "Obviously." He smiled at her, a slow, sexy uplifting of his mouth. The mouth that could do amazing things to her own.

  An image flashed into her mind—of his mouth on hers. His lips tracing the line of her jaw and then moving down her neck and across her collarbone. His hands on her. The feel of his body pressing into hers.

  Why did it all feel so real?

  She felt the warmth on her cheeks and cringed when she saw Ethan's smile widen.

  "Whatcha thinkin' about over there, darlin'?" he asked.

  "Nothing."

  "Right," he answered knowingly. Damn it, she hated when he could see right through her.

  "We need to talk about what we're going to do when Sully gets here," she said.

  "What do you mean, what we're going to do?"

  "What are we going to tell him about this?" she asked, holding up her left hand and pointing to the wedding ring on her finger.

  Ethan shrugged nonchalantly. "I guess we'll tell him the truth."

  "The truth?" she shrieked, her voice going up several octaves.

  "Calm down, weirdo. What's gotten into you these days?"

  "What's gotten into me? I'll tell you what's gotten into me! We're married, Ethan. Married. And Sully is going to flip his lid when he finds out."

  "Sully isn't the big bad wolf. We'll just be adults and tell him what happened. It will be fine."

  "No, it will not be fine. Not at all. And we will not be telling Sully about it. Not now, at least. And maybe not ever. Maybe he'll never find out, but we'll for sure get this thing taken care of before sharing the 'good news' with him." She made little air quotes around “good news.”

  "I'm not a fan of lying to my best friend."

  "Yeah, well, he's my brother. So I get to decide if and when we tell him. And as of right now, it's a big if. We'll get this annulled, and no one will be the wiser. Speaking of annulment, I need to call a lawyer."

  "No need," Ethan said.

  "What does that mean?" She hated that she felt a little hopeful. Hopeful that he'd say, Because I want to stay married to you for the rest of my life. Like that was going to happen.

  Ethan shrugged. "It just means that I've already researched it. A lawyer can email us the paperwork. There's a fee involved, but since we were intoxicated, we do have grounds for annulment. Unless one or the other can prove that we both went into the marriage willingly."

  She hid the tiny spark of disappointment that she felt at his words. She didn't really want to stay married to him, did she? No, of course not.

  "So we don't have to worry about the consummation thing? I mean, we didn't consummate the marriage, so it's not an issue, but even if we had, it'd be no big deal?"

  "Something like that," Ethan said cryptically.

  Isabel breathed out a sigh of what sounded like relief. Another flash of the dreams she'd been having flitted through her mind, and she could feel the warmth touch her cheeks. Ethan lifted an eyebrow in question.

  * * * *

  She'd worn that same blush this morning, after waking up in his arms. He'd wondered then what naughty thoughts she'd been having. Was she having those same thoughts now?

  He took a step closer to her, wanting to convince her that they were good together. He needed to tell her that they'd already slept together. Memories—of his lips on hers, of his hands roaming over her body, of her quiet gasps of pleasure—assaulted him.

  She was absolutely perfect.

>   He also needed to tell her that he'd gone into this marriage willingly. Sure, he'd been drunk—but not so drunk that he hadn't known what he was doing.

  Another step closer, and he was right in front of her. He could tell his nearness affected her. Isabel's breathing came in short gasps as if she'd been hiking a mountain. Her pupils were dilated, and her tongue swept out to moisten her lips. Well, if that wasn't an invitation, then he didn't know what was.

  Leaning his head down, he kissed her. Slowly and steadily at first, hoping she'd warm up to the idea. And warm up she did. Fisting two handfuls of his hair, she angled him closer to her. Their tongues tangled together in an age-old dance as his hands shoved themselves deeply into her hair. Her dark tresses were soft against his fingers, and he pulled back slightly to see the desire in her eyes.

  He dove in again, tasting, thrusting, enticing. He wanted more. He wanted all of her. And he damn well wanted her to remember it. As he pushed her gently back onto the bed, she landed with a soft thud. Ethan followed her down as they inched up the bed to the pillows.

  A knock sounded at the door. Ethan cursed under his breath, grabbing his gun off the nightstand and moving to the window to check who it was.

  Another curse tore from his lips as he saw who was waiting for them.

  "Well, look what the cat dragged in," Ethan said as he opened the door. Sully, Zach, Gabriel, and Lucas all stood there, their eyebrows raised.

  Sully looked around Ethan to find his sister sitting on the bed. Her hair was a mess. Her lips were red and swollen. Ethan watched as Sully put two and two together. He took in the single bed, the rumpled sheets, and Ethan's bare chest and equally red lips.

  With a growl, Sully lunged at Ethan, his hands wrapping around his throat.

  "You son of a bitch! What did you do to my sister?"

  Chapter 16

  "Dammit, Sully! Get off him!" Isabel cried as Sully backed Ethan up against the wall, his hands still closed around Ethan's throat.

  She pulled at his arms. "Sully! Stop it!" she tried again.

  Her voice broke through his anger-filled haze, and he turned accusing eyes on her, releasing his hold from Ethan's throat.

  "You want to tell me what the hell is going on?" Sully asked.

  "I will, if you'll stop acting like a caveman!"

  Sully grunted and found a chair by the small table in front of the windows. Ethan rubbed his throat. She knew Sully wouldn't really have killed him. At least, she didn't think he would have.

  Pacing the room, Isabel realized that she still had the ring on her finger. Slipping it off, she kept it in her palm for safekeeping before walking over to talk to Sully.

  "Nothing happened here."

  Sully scoffed, clearly not believing her big fat lie. "However, if something had happened, it would be none of your freaking business. I’m a grown woman, and Ethan is a grown man. What we do or don't do with each other is up to us. Not you."

  "When you're on company time, it is my business."

  Ouch. Yeah, that was kind of true. They were here on business. Still.

  "I assure you, we've been nothing but professional." That wasn't true, either. They'd shared kisses on work time, and they were now married. So all claims of professionalism had pretty much been thrown out the window.

  Sully looked at her and then at Ethan.

  "You have anything to say?" Sully asked, directing his angry scowl in Ethan's direction.

  "Your sister is—"

  "Sitting right here," Isabel interrupted. "And she will not be talked about as if she is not. Now, why are you here so early?"

  She hoped that Sully would take the change of topic and leave her personal life out of the discussion. To her relief, he capitulated. "Fine. I'll take the bait, sis. But mark my words, we will talk about this later. Is that clear?"

  "We'll talk about it when I’m ready to."

  Sighing in frustration—she knew exactly what she did to him—Sully pushed his fingers through his short-cropped hair. His blue eyes, the only trait they shared, landed on her fidgeting hands. She stilled them, waiting for his response.

  "Called in a favor from a friend. He owns a private jet. We took off early this morning since he had need of it later on today. Saved us from hours in an airport—not to mention, our cargo would have looked a little suspicious."

  Ah, yes. Their cargo. She knew from experience that Sully and his team would be hauling a crap-ton of firepower with them.

  Sully turned to Ethan. "Was this the best you could do?" he asked, glancing around the dump of a motel they were staying in.

  "Zach's doing." Ethan didn't show any emotion, just answered the question matter-of-factly.

  "Multiple routes of escape," Zach explained.

  "Well, we're not staying here any longer. I have a place booked for us on the Strip. We need to be close to Tobias's hotel. Plus, we'll need a larger space for team meetings and such. I have two rooms booked, a suite and a regular room, which should do it."

  Eyeing Isabel's outfit, or lack thereof, he nodded towards the bathroom. "Get some clothes on, and pack your stuff. We're moving out."

  With those words tossed over his shoulder, Sully led the rest of the team out, leaving her and Ethan alone in the motel room.

  Ethan met her gaze. "I'm sorry about that."

  She nodded. "Not your fault." She brushed by him to change and pack her belongings. His hand shot out, gently wrapping around her upper arm. "But Izz—"

  She tingled from his touch, her heart racing in her chest. His nearness was nearly her undoing. Isabel wanted to finish what they'd started earlier. Her eyes trailed over his lips and then up to his eyes. "Yes?"

  "This isn't over. And we will tell Sully." She tried to pull away, but he held on tightly.

  They didn't have time to fight about this now.

  She pulled away, and he released her. Locking herself in the bathroom, she tried to get her emotions under control. She would have to tell her brother. She just hoped he didn't kill them both when he found out.

  * * * *

  Ethan gathered his things, threw them into his duffel bag, and stepped out through the motel room door, finding Sully perched against his and Isabel's rental. The other guys must have taken the other car on to the hotel, since no one else was around.

  Sully's gaze was hard as he watched Ethan put his bag in the trunk. Ethan rounded the car and stood in front of Sully, his hands in his pockets. For a long moment, neither of them spoke.

  "Look," Ethan started, breaking the tense silence.

  "No, I need to go first." Sully pushed away from the car and began to pace back and forth. "Ethan, you're a great guy—"

  "Aw shucks, Sully. You planning to propose?"

  "Shut up and listen."

  Ethan shut his mouth. It probably wasn't a good idea to poke the bear.

  "You're like a brother to me. The best guy I know. I want the best guy for my sister." Sully pushed his hands through his hair as he paced. "But this lifestyle—our past—she deserves more than that."

  "I don't understand. I'm the best guy you know, but I'm not good enough for her?"

  "Ethan, you used to kill people for a living…"

  "I was a sniper in the Marines, Sully, not a hired assassin."

  "I know, but you've seen things…done things. Not to mention, you've never had a serious relationship. Ever."

  "I'd never met anyone I wanted to have a serious relationship with. That doesn't mean I'm not capable of it."

  "This life we live is hard. Danger around every corner. I'm already at risk, and I'm the only family she has. What if she fell in love with you, and she lost both of us? What would that do to her?"

  For the first time since he'd married Isabel, he stopped to consider if he was the best thing for her. Would she be better off without him? Happier without him?

  "Just think about it before it's too late to undo whatever it is you two have started."

  Sully clapped him on the back and moved to the driver's si
de, settling himself in the seat. Ethan stood there for several moments, memories of his time with Isabel scrolling through his mind. Isabel with her head thrown back in laughter as she picked out the tackiest rings available. Isabel promising to love, honor, and cherish him for the rest of her life. Isabel in his arms as she kissed him as if her life depended on it. Isabel lying underneath him as he loved her with every ounce of his body and soul.

  But was loving her enough?

  * * * *

  Ethan paced the length of the balcony of the upscale hotel suite. The view from this height was amazing. Resting his elbows on the railing, he looked out at the other hotels. He'd love to have his scope on him right now, so he could see the minute details of what was going on down below.

  He heard the door to the balcony open, but he didn't turn around. He knew it was Isabel even before she spoke. He could smell her floral scent, and he closed his eyes, remembering their stolen moments together. She moved to the spot beside him, resting her elbows in an identical pose.

  "It's beautiful up here, isn't it? Almost peaceful."

  Ethan didn't answer. There wasn't anything he could say to that, so he just kept quiet.

  "Sully said we'll be meeting shortly." He could feel her eyes on him now. "You ok?"

  Turning, he found those piercing blue orbs focused intently on him. He loved being the center of her attention. Loved that she was his. For now. But could he keep her? Would it be fair to her?

  He glanced down at her hand and found the ring gone. She followed his gaze. Pulling a chain out from under her shirt, she showed him the ring that hung there.

  "I thought it might raise questions if I kept it on my finger."

  He shrugged as if it didn't matter. But it did. He wanted his ring on her finger. Maybe not this cheap, gaudy thing that screamed Vegas, but something more permanent. But after his conversation with Sully, he now had to wonder: was he good enough for her? He didn't know the answer to that.

  "I’m sorry about Sully earlier. You didn't deserve that."