by Maddie Wade
Mustique wasn’t going to argue that it was in no way similar. Meg and Daniel were soulmates, and she and Ash were—nothing. Not even lovers at this point.
Ash strode toward them, and Daniel met him halfway. A few words were exchanged, which she couldn’t hear, and then Daniel was gone, and it was just the two of them.
“You ready to go up?”
Mustique cocked her head. “You’re not getting any if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Ash smirked. “Get your mind out the gutter, woman. I thought we could start putting a plan together of how we’re going to approach this before we meet with Jake and Nick tomorrow morning.”
A blush stole across her cheeks. “Oh, yeah. Good idea.”
Ash pivoted, and as he did, she saw the red dot on the back of his jacket. “Get down!” Without thought, she threw herself at him as the sound of a gunshot filled the air. “Gun!”
They landed in the flower beds, and both rolled to a standing but scrooched-down position. Ash grabbed her hand, and they ran for cover in the outside bar area as she felt another bullet skim past her ear and hit the mortar on the building. As she scanned their surroundings looking for the sniper and seeing nothing, she realized no one else had seen or heard the shot either because of the loud music. Probably assuming she and Ash were drunk instead. Ash must have surmised the same because he took her hand, and in total silence they made a beeline for the elevator.
Once inside the lift, with the doors safely closed behind them, he inspected her. “You okay?”
“Yeah, fine. You?”
“Yeah, thanks to you. You saved my life.”
“It was nothing.”
Reaching under her long dress, she took one of her guns and handed it to Ash and kept her favorite in her hand.
“That is so fucking hot.”
Mustique smirked at him but shook her head.
Reaching her floor, they exited the elevator slowly, with guns raised, and found it empty. Taking the key, she carefully opened the door to her room, noting the clear tape she had put there was intact, and they silently entered. Ash cleared the bedroom as she cleared the balcony but once again kept back from the potential sights of the sniper.
“Clear.”
Mustique peered up at him as he entered. “We need to leave.”
“Agreed. I need to warn Daniel. That was too close. Five minutes earlier and…”
“Don’t say it.” She couldn’t bear to hear him say the words.
“You pack, I’ll make the call to Dan and then call Jake and Nick.”
Mustique quickly changed into her usual tight, leather pants and a tee and threw everything else she had in her bag, making sure not to leave anything behind. After giving the room a quick clean down, she wiped the handles in the bathroom too. Part of the reason Zenobi was successful as a group was nobody knew who they were or that they truly existed. Rumors were one thing, confirmation was another, and she wasn’t going to leave anything behind that could make Zenobi a reality instead of a myth.
“Ready to go?” Ash was watching her from the door.
“Yes, let’s get out of here.”
“Jake is on his way; he’ll take us to a safe house.”
Mustique nodded. As a unit, they exited the room. She spotted the cameras and motioned to him. He nodded his understanding. Taking the back stairs, they made it to the ground floor without incident and exited the fire door just as Jake pulled up with Nick. They climbed in the back seat, and Jake drove off before Ash had fully shut the door.
“The cameras will pick us up on that floor with guns in our hands.”
Jake swung his gaze to her in the rear-view mirror. “I’ll have our computer geek, Brody deal with it. What happened?”
Ash replayed the events of the last twenty minutes in full detail, leaving nothing out, and she got a glimpse of him in full SEAL mode.
Nick focused on her. “Do you think Hanley made you? You were at the same party a few weeks ago.”
The man had a point, but there was no way the senator would have made her—if there was one thing a Zenobi girl could do, it was disguises. “No way in hell; my disguise was solid.”
“Anyone else know about this?”
“No, just you.”
“What about Roz?” Ash asked, catching her eye.
Mustique kept her voice low so the men in the front couldn’t hear. “No, this isn’t being done through Zenobi. Roz would never send in a girl alone; we always work in pairs.”
Ash cocked his head in question. “So how come you’re flying solo?”
His question was not one she could easily answer without telling him at least part of the truth. The problem with that was she knew a man like Ash wouldn’t stop until he had it all. When he knew her secret, he would detest her like she did herself, and the thought of Ash hating her pained her. “I just am.” She knew it wasn’t an answer, but it bought her some time.
“Fine, in that case, we need to figure out how you were made. Someone knows you’re on to them, and they’re scared, which on the flip side means you’re onto something they don’t want you to find.”
“We’re here,” Jake announced as he pulled up outside an ugly gray two-story suburban home with an internal access garage. As a safe house, it was perfect; in the middle of other family homes, it didn’t stand out, wasn’t too old and run down, nor too new and updated. It looked like every other house on the street.
“You’re sure we weren’t followed?” she asked before she stepped out. Jake rolled his eyes as he exited the driver’s seat. “Sorry, I just… It’s hard to work with new people.”
“I get that, but you have to learn to trust.”
Mustique nodded. “Maybe.”
“Okay, let’s get settled and form a fucking plan,” Ash said with a little more force than she was used to from him.
They entered the house, and while it looked ordinary on the outside, on the inside to anyone with a trained eye, it was clear it was not an average family home. The motion sensors, cameras, and perimeter lasers were all high-level stuff. Definitely not from the local hardware store.
Mustique inspected the place. “I’m guessing there’s a mini armory somewhere? You all strike me as the type of people to be prepared.”
“This way.” Nick led them up a flight of stairs and into what should have been a second bedroom, except it was set up as a mission control.
“These cameras go anywhere?” Ash stepped closer and studied the four monitors covering the outside of the property from all angles.
“Yeah, it feeds back to Trident. Brody can also monitor it from his place and will be on watch tonight, so you can get some shut-eye when we leave.”
A yapping sounded, and Mustique moved up behind Ash, laying her hand on his back as she leaned in, the heat from his body like a furnace even through his shirt. He’d discarded his tux jacket on the way over and had rolled his shirt sleeves to his elbows. She’d liked his James Bond look though; men in suits or uniform had always been her weakness.
“What in the ever-loving-fuck is that noise?”
Nick laughed at Ash. “That, my friend, is the best security you can have. Mrs. Carelli and her very noisy, very nosey Pomeranian, Joey. He barks anytime someone comes anywhere near the property line. She probably just got home from her daughter’s place.”
“She a talker?” Ash asked.
Jake shook his head. “No, she’s mostly deaf. That’s why the rat doesn’t bother her, but she’s a sweet lady.”
“Now, the armory.” Nick walked to the built-in wardrobe and opened it to reveal a steel door. He keyed in a pin and the panel slid aside to reveal two rows of handguns, four long guns, and an assortment of knives and other weapons.
“Is that an Omega Six IP7?” Ash picked up a very futuristic-looking weapon.
“Yes, it’s not on the market yet and don’t ask how we got them. You need to have the smartwatch on to fire it. Not great long-range but short-range it’s as good any other handgu
n on the market,” Jake said as he showed Ash and her to use it.
After they had been fully informed of the weapons at their disposal, they went back downstairs.
Mustique began to pace the living room. “We need to discuss our next move.”
“Who gave you the intel in the first place?” Ash asked.
She stopped mid-stride. “Fuck. It was a tip-off from a source in Germany. I’ve used him several times, and he’s never let me down.”
“Call him.” Ash handed her one of the burner phones Nick had given them along with several spares.
Mustique took it and dialed but got a pre-recorded message that the call could not go through. She disconnected and slid the phone into her back pocket. “If we assume my contact is playing both sides of the game, then they knew we were coming.”
“Maybe but nothing is certain. Let’s have Brody run some searches on your contact and see if we can pick up any chatter elsewhere,” Jake said, retaking the lead. “In the meantime, someone needs to speak with Senator Craven and let her know her daughter is a direct target, and that she could be as well if she backs this bill.”
“Can you do that while Ash and I dig into Ramin Hashemi? He’s attending a charity dinner for Orphans of War in three days, and I think that’s when Hanley will want to hand over the girl. We need to stop him, and if the worst case scenario happens, be there.”
Jake nodded. “It makes more sense for us to work Hashemi as we have more resources and let you two look into the kidnapping angle.”
Mustique knew he was right, but she’d wanted to avoid this at all costs. Still, she would suck it up and do what she had to if it meant protecting the innocent. “Fine. Can your geek get us on the guestlist for the event? And what about the shooter? We need to find him or her.” Mustique added.
“Ian already has people looking into that.”
“He does?” Ash asked.
“He was with us at the club when you called.”
“Ah.”
Mustique had no idea what club they were referring too but let it go; she didn’t need to know either. “So, the event?” she asked instead.
Leaning against the doorframe leading into the kitchen, Nick crossed his arms. “I’ll have Brody add us all to the guest list as a fail-safe, but let’s get this done before then. I need the name of your contact in Germany too.”
Mustique gave Nick the name and soon after the two men left. Ash followed them out to the car, and she saw him pull Jake aside. Words were exchanged that looked terse, although it was hard to tell, and then Jake glanced back at the house before speaking again. Ash had followed his friend’s gaze. He then nodded after a second, took something from Jake, and stood there while his two friends drove away. Mustique had the distinct impression they’d been talking about her. The thought made her uneasy. Was she making a mistake trusting these men she barely knew? Her gut told her no, but then her gut had been wrong before, and it had nearly ended her life. In many ways, it’d ended that portion of her life, and now, here she was almost full circle again, about to trust strangers once more.
Ash strode back into the house and offered her a set of keys. “Do you want a bike or a car?”
“What?”
“There’s a bike and a car in the garage. I assume you don’t want to be stuck here without an exit strategy just in case.” He frowned at the confused look on her face. “Are you okay?” He moved into her personal space and took her hand, his citrus and leather scent playing havoc with her senses.
“What were you and Jake talking about outside?”
“Nothing much.” Ash looked away, and she knew he was lying.
Mustique clenched her jaw and blinked as tears bit the back of her eyes. She should have known better than to trust him. Snatching her hand away, she walked over to where she’d dropped her bag earlier and picked it up.
“What are you doing?” Ash’s voice grew louder as she walked to the garage door.
“I’m leaving. I can’t work with you if you’re going to lie to me and keep me in the dark. I can do this alone.”
“Of course you can” His sarcasm was hard to miss.
Mustique rounded on him. “Excuse me? What the hell does that mean?”
“God forbid you trust someone or let anyone get close to you. Easier to risk your life and get killed than to rely on someone.” He stood with his hands on his hips, his shirt pulled tight across his broad muscled chest, and she didn’t know if she wanted to fall at his feet with desire or hit him in the balls with a throwing star.
6
Ash was pissed. First, he’d called out a friend like a jealous prick, then he had lied to Mustique knowing full well she would react badly. He just couldn’t seem to help himself around her. Jake pulling his Dom shit on her in the car had pissed him off and unlocked something inside him, even though his buddy was a married gay man. If anyone was going to do that to her it would be Ash. She was his to protect not anyone else’s. Then Jake had apologized and made him feel even worse. But his friend had made a good point when he’d said she was hiding something. He’d suspected she was too, and he needed to know what it was before they went much further.
Now, they were looking at each other, and he knew she was contemplating his imminent death, but with her eyes wild with fire, her breathing labored, her hands-on-hips stance she looked fucking amazing. Fire was a fucking good look on this woman.
He wanted nothing more than to stalk toward her and kiss the fucking bitchy out of her. Use all that pent up anger and fear she carried around for good, but he wouldn’t. When he made love to Mari, it would be because neither could stop, not because they wanted to angry fuck.
“I was jealous, okay.” He watched as she slowly blinked twice, her brain obviously not expecting that.
“What?”
Ash moved toward the couch and sat down, running his hand over his hair. “In the car, when Jake was lecturing you about trust, I didn’t like it.”
Mustique dropped her bag at her feet and moved to sit beside him. Not close enough to touch but close enough he could feel her heat and smell her perfume. “But why? Jake and Nick are married. Why would you be jealous because he offered me some advice?”
Ash didn’t want to answer, but he knew if he wanted her to trust him, he needed to give her honesty. “Because you listened and you took it onboard, and all you do with me is fight me every step of the way.”
Mustique was silent for a few minutes as she leaned back against the couch; her head tipped back; eyes closed. “I fight you because you frighten me.” Her voice was so soft he could barely hear it over the banging of his heart.
He shifted toward her at the words and stared at her incredulously, as her beautiful soulful eyes met his. “I would never harm a hair on your head. You have to know that.”
Mustique gave him a tired smile and stood. His gaze followed up the lean muscle of her long legs that he’d pictured wrapped around him so many times. “I know, but it’s not my head I’m worried about, Ash.”
The sound of his name on her lips had his dick going hard, the meaning behind the words clear. Would he break her heart? Not on purpose, but could he guarantee he would never get killed on a job—no. But then neither could she, and the thought had him fighting bile in his gut. As sexy as he found her being a strong woman, her job was probably more dangerous than his as a SEAL. Could he deal with that? The truth was he didn’t know.
Ash stood as well and they were face to face, bodies almost touching. He reached out and gently tucked a wisp of hair off her face and had to fight every instinct in him to kiss her as she let her eyelids fall.
“I have no guarantees for you, Mari, just like you have none for me, but if you let me in, I can promise I will never knowingly hurt you. Can’t that be enough?”
Mustique leaned in and pressed her lips to his; they were soft and firm and held so much promise. She pulled back and rested her forehead against his. “I wish it could be.” Then she stepped back and stepped toward the
bedroom. “I’m going to crash. Do you want the couch or the bed?”
Ash was still getting his head around everything that had been said tonight, the admissions he’d never expected from either of them, but her words snapped him back into focus. “Have I got a dick?” His voice was deep and low as he spoke, evidence of his anger.
Mustique’s perfectly arched brows dipped. “Yeah, pretty sure you do, but what’s that got to do with anything?”
“Then I sleep on the couch and give the beautiful lady the bed. That is, unless she wants to share it with me.”
Mari smiled; it was small, but it still took his breath away. He wished they could find a way for them to be together, but not all things were meant to be and maybe the two of them was one of those things.
“Okay. I’ll pass on the sharing and see you in the morning then.”
Ash nodded, then turned toward the bathroom where the linen closet was situated. After a quick shower, he needed to try and get some rack time and focus on the mission.
“And, Ash?” Mustique called to his back.
“Yes?” He pivoted to see her standing in the bedroom doorway, hand on the jamb, looking like every temptation known to man.
“I do trust you. There are just some things I can’t share with anyone, but if I had to choose someone to share them with, it would be you.”
She closed the door quietly and left him fixed there wanting more. Wanting to know what it was that drove her, that tortured her, and he knew something did, he could see it in her eyes. He wanted nothing more than to help this woman heal, this woman who’d worked her way so far under his skin in the last twenty-four hours, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to let her go when this was over.
He grabbed a sheet and comforter from the closet and stepped into the shower after stripping out of his tux. Watching his cousin get married seemed like a lifetime ago already. His dick was hard with desire, and he knew he would get no relief unless he took care of it.
He had been in a state of semi-arousal since he’d laid eyes on Mustique in the restaurant yesterday evening. Sliding his hand over his heavy, thick cock he pictured her face, those plump lips taking his length in her mouth, the sounds she would make as he ate her pussy until she was screaming his name.
