The truck sped up suddenly.
“He noticed the tail!” Jake yelled.
The light ahead turned yellow. Cars in front of them slowed. Lexie swerved around a truck, then sped through the narrow space between vehicles as the truck raced to catch the light.
The light turned red as the pickup shot through. Lexie followed. Horns blared as they raced across the intersection.
The pickup cut across two lanes, and Lexie followed, falling behind as the truck gained speed. Jake held on to Lexie’s waist as the bike vibrated beneath them. It wasn’t big, but it had a powerful engine, and she expertly maneuvered around cars. Where had she learned to drive like this?
Another intersection loomed ahead, this one with cars stacked at a red light. The pickup slowed. Lexie sped up, zipping between cars so they could get close enough to read the tag.
The light turned green. Traffic inched forward. The pickup swerved into the oncoming lane, then lurched ahead. Lexie followed, nearly hitting a van. The driver laid on the horn and flipped them off as Lexie swerved back into the lane.
Jake looked ahead for the pickup truck. It was way in front of them now, getting farther and farther away.
Jake scanned for openings, but the traffic was bad here. Lexie whisked between lanes, gaining ground even as horns blasted behind them. The light ahead turned yellow.
“Don’t do it,” Jake said.
She leaned forward.
“Lex—”
“I can make it!”
The light turned red. The pickup braked. Jake’s pulse jumped as Lexie zoomed closer, speeding through the space between cars.
Suddenly, the truck shot through the intersection. Brakes shrieked. The pickup swerved, and Jake heard a crunch of metal as it hit a white car, sending it into a tailspin.
Lexie swerved around the car just as it careened into a lamppost with another shriek of brakes.
She looked back over her shoulder. Then she swung a U-turn and bumped up onto the sidewalk. The white car was smashed up against the lamppost, its front crumpled. The woman in the driver’s seat was hunched over the wheel.
Lexie zoomed down the sidewalk and screeched to a halt beside the wreck.
“Is she hurt?” Lexie jumped off the bike, and Jake slid forward in the seat as she rushed to check on the motorist. The woman lifted her head. She looked dazed and confused, but she was talking.
Jake glanced over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of the black pickup as it whipped around the corner.
“I’m going after him!” he said, then shot forward into the street.
“Jake, wait!”
He took off like a bullet, determined to catch up with the truck. Who the fuck was this guy? Jake wanted that license plate. He reached the intersection and hooked a sharp right, narrowly missing an SUV. Horns blasted.
He looked ahead and caught sight of the pickup. Jake rolled the throttle and leaned forward as he zoomed closer. He swerved around cars and trucks. Traffic slowed at a light, and Jake zipped between lanes, hoping his kneecaps wouldn’t get clipped as he neared the stoplight where the pickup was. Jake could almost feel the instant the driver realized he had a tail again.
The light stayed red as Jake sped between cars. He watched the pickup and knew what the driver was planning even before it happened.
The pickup lurched through the intersection, prompting a chorus of horns and squeals as drivers slammed on their brakes and screeched to a halt. The intersection instantly became pandemonium. Cursing, Jake shot through a gap in the stopped cars.
The black pickup raced ahead, and Jake zoomed to catch up, more determined than ever not to lose him. At the next intersection, the truck hung a right. Jake followed. A parked delivery van blocked the lane.
“Shit!”
Jake took a sharp right, popping onto the sidewalk. He swerved to miss a pedestrian.
The world tilted as the tires skidded and the bike slid out from under him. Fire blazed up his arm, and then he was tumbling forward, over and over, and crashing into a wall with a brutal smack.
Lexie reached her neighborhood and pulled onto her street, fuming. She checked her phone again. Nothing. Her last text had gone unanswered, and Jake hadn’t communicated since a cryptic Sidetracked. Meet at your place. Take my truck.
Lexie tried to cool her temper. Why had he raced off without her? And where was he that he couldn’t answer his phone? Lexie had spent more than an hour at the accident scene. The driver of the white Toyota was okay, luckily, but her car was totaled. After meeting with cops at the scene, Lexie had caught a ride with one of them to the pizza restaurant, where the store manager told her that the delivery kid’s bike had been returned and he’d gone home for the night.
Was that what Jake meant by “sidetracked”? And where the hell was he now? Lexie focused on her fury. Better that than the niggling fear that something bad had happened to him.
She pulled up to her condo and parked in front, glancing around as she cut the engine. She’d hoped to find him sitting on her front steps waiting for her, but he wasn’t there. She shoved open the door and hopped out, grabbing her backpack.
As she slammed the truck’s door, she scanned the street for anything unusual. No suspicious cars or pedestrians. No shadows lurking in the bushes. Just to be cautious, she tucked her hand beneath her shirt, touching the grip of her pistol as she approached her home. Everything looked normal, exactly as she’d left it, right down to the neglected flowerpots.
She unlocked the door and stepped inside. The alarm beeped at her, and she quickly tapped in the code. She’d gotten into the habit of ignoring the system unless she went out of town, but Jake’s lecture over pancakes had shamed her into using the damn thing.
Lexie leaned back against the door and sighed. Her head pounded. Her mouth was dry and sticky. A toxic mix of anger and worry churned inside her stomach.
Sidetracked. Meet at your place.
What had happened after he raced off on the motorcycle? And where was he now? She didn’t know. All she knew was that she wanted to skin him alive. She should have known this would happen. Jake was highly intelligent, highly trained, and highly effective. But he was impossible to control. He did things his way, and she’d been naive to think she could ask for his help and then control how he gave it.
Lexie locked her door and crossed her living room, dropping her backpack onto a dining chair. She unfastened her holster and set it on the table, then stripped off her button-down shirt and tossed it over a chair. Glancing at the kitchen, she realized how hungry she was. And thirsty. And still infuriated over being ditched—although with every minute that ticked by, her anger was giving way to worry.
A loud rap at the back door had her spinning around. A shadow loomed in the window, and she instantly recognized the tall frame and wide shoulders.
She stalked over and glared at him through the glass, then flipped the latch and jerked the door open.
“Where the hell were you?”
He brushed past her. “I got sidetracked.”
She noticed the plastic bag in his hand as he crossed the kitchen and pulled open a closet.
“Where’s your bathroom?” he asked.
“Third door on the left. How did you get here?”
He walked into the bathroom and switched on the light. “Uber.”
He didn’t close the door. When she heard water running, she walked over. “What—”
She halted in the doorway. He stood at the sink, shirtless. His entire shoulder was a bloody mess.
“Oh my God! What happened?”
“Bike skidded out from under me.” He turned his back to the mirror, examining a nasty scrape that extended from the top of his shoulder to the base of his rib cage. The shallow wound was dirty and bleeding, and Lexie’s chest tightened just looking at it.
“What—”
“Hand me that bottle, will you?”
She glanced at the plastic bag on the floor beside his wadded T-shirt. She scooped up the ba
g and found bandages, gauze, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.
“You stopped for supplies?”
He had his back to the mirror now, carefully peeling bloody scraps of fabric from the cut.
“Jake?”
He winced. “What?” His fierce gaze met hers, and Lexie’s heart jumped into her throat. “I’m fine.”
“You’re a mess.”
“This is nothing, just looks bad.”
She eased around him, bumping her hip against the counter. His wide shoulders seemed to fill up her entire powder room, and she squeezed past him to examine the abrasion.
“You want to help? Here.” He poured alcohol over some gauze and handed it to her.
Lexie dabbed the cuts on his back, beginning at the top and working her way down. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she picked bits of gravel from his torn skin. Jake held his breath, but he didn’t flinch. Mr. Tough Guy, of course, even when he’d peeled half his back off. He hadn’t even been wearing a helmet. He could have been killed.
“Tell me what happened,” she ordered. “Don’t leave anything out.”
The gauze was soaked in blood now, and he handed her a fresh wad. She tried not to think about what she was doing. It had to hurt like fire, and just looking at it brought tears to her eyes.
He took a deep breath, expanding his torso. “I tried to catch up with the truck and get the license plate. Driver spotted me, raced off. I chased him. Ouch.”
“Sorry. Gravel. This is awful, Jake. We should go to the ER.”
He snorted.
“I’m serious.”
“Why? So I can wait in chairs for two hours to get a Band-Aid and a five-hundred-dollar bill?”
“You’re injured! Look at all this bruising here.” She traced her fingers over a bluish-black welt on his shoulder. “I think you need an X-ray.”
“That’s from yesterday. This is just a scratch, trust me.”
Lexie glared at him. How many times had he said that to her today? Trust me. She had trusted him, and look where it had gotten them. He was all torn up.
She continued dabbing the cuts, trying to stay focused and not let her gaze wander over his muscular shoulders. Or his lean waist. Or the dimples at the small of his back. Her skin felt hot. She tried to focus on first aid, but she hadn’t adequately prepared herself today for the sight of Jake Heath standing in her bathroom half naked.
She took a deep breath. “Then what happened?”
“Then I lost him.”
“I said don’t leave anything out.”
He laughed. “Okay, shit. What else? I never got close enough to see the license plate. So after I skidded, I got back on the bike, returned it to the owner, and tipped him fifty bucks for his trouble and offered to pay for any damage. Then I grabbed a ride here.”
“I owe you fifty bucks.”
“Forget about it.”
Her eyes burned again as she examined the wound. She plucked out a tiny pebble that was lodged under his skin, and he jerked slightly.
“You’re probably better at this.” She soaked some more gauze, then silently continued her work, trying to block out all the emotions stirring inside her. She was upset about his injury. And deeply concerned about everything that had happened tonight.
He looked at her over his shoulder, and she tried to keep her expression neutral.
“You think that was it?” he asked. “The truck tailing you the other night?”
She didn’t answer for a moment. “I think it was. I just don’t know what it was doing there.”
“Maybe it followed us from your house.”
“Maybe.” She shook her head. “But we were there an hour before I saw him. And if he saw me, why did he drive right past me?” She tossed the bloody gauze into the wastebasket and unwound some more. He handed her the alcohol.
“I think he was there to see Mario,” Jake said. “Or to meet someone and then go see Mario. He’d pulled into a parking lot and was sitting there on his phone when I first walked up to him.”
“What did Mario know about Jerome?”
“He told me he came by a week ago, gave his name as Joe. Evidently, he’s pretending to be his brother.”
“Why?”
“Beats me,” he said. “Maybe he figures his brother’s got a legit reputation as a gun dealer.”
“So he was looking for weapons?”
His gaze met hers in the mirror. “Mario said he asked about buying some guns.”
Her pulse picked up. “What kind? How many?”
“He didn’t specify.”
“You believe that?”
“I don’t know yet.”
She searched his face, noting the glint in his eyes and the cut at the top of his forehead. He smelled earthy and sweaty, and she could feel the energy coming off him in waves. Was he all revved up from the crash? Or from being here with her?
She cleared her throat. “What else?”
He took the bottle of alcohol from her and went to work on his elbow. “Mario isn’t a dealer. He gave him another name, and then he left.”
“You believe all that?”
“Not really. There’s more to the story, but I’ll hit him up later. Hopefully he’ll talk.”
He opened a box of bandages. He selected the biggest one and peeled off the plastic, then smoothed it over his elbow. She caught a look at his shoulder in the mirror, all red and raw, and she felt a pang of regret for dragging him into this.
He turned to face her, propping his hip on the counter. His huge body seemed to fill up the tiny room.
“Don’t look at me like that,” he said gruffly.
“Like what?”
“Like your puppy just died.”
“I’m upset, Jake.”
“Why?”
“You’re injured. And everything went sideways tonight.”
“No, it didn’t.” The corner of his mouth lifted. “We got intel, just like we wanted. You’re upset because I changed the plan. Sorry, but that’s the way SEALs work. We improvise.”
The anger she’d been tamping down welled up again. “You ditched me! And took off after a suspect and nearly got yourself killed—”
He tipped his head back and laughed.
“It’s not funny.”
“Yeah, it is.” His smile faded. “Hey, don’t look that way.” He reached out and pulled her against him. “Everything’s fine.”
She thumped her fist against his big chest. “It’s not fine. I’m pissed off at you.”
He wrapped his strong arms around her, and she felt a rush of nerves. She tipped her head to look at him, and the intensity in his blue eyes sent a jolt of heat through her.
He touched her chin and kissed her. It was gentle at first. That lasted about a second, and then it was hot and demanding. He pulled her against him, and she went up on tiptoes, sliding her arms around his neck and pressing her breasts against the firm wall of his chest. She didn’t want to hurt his raw skin, so she kept her fingers in his hair as he kissed her.
His mouth was warm and urgent, and she slid her tongue over his, desperate to taste him as his hands glided down her body and cupped her butt. Heat rushed through her. Everything was so intense, she felt like she was spinning. Then she realized she was spinning as he turned her around and smoothly lifted her onto the counter. Next thing she knew, her knees were splayed, and Jake’s big, hard body was pressed against hers.
She opened her eyes, and the raw hunger on his face sent a shot of lust through her. She pulled his head down and kissed him.
She didn’t want to talk. Or look. Or acknowledge what was happening. All she wanted was Jake’s mouth on hers and his warm palms gliding over her thighs. He dragged her to the edge of the counter, aligning her body with his, and she felt the hard ridge of his erection through his jeans. And that was it—no more games. No more denying the attraction that flared between them, heating her from the inside out and making her feel like she might burst into flames. She’d imagined kissing him, but
she’d never imagined this frantic need building inside her as his tongue tangled with hers. She dropped her hand from his silky hair to his lean waist, tucking her fingers under the denim. And God, she felt nothing but skin. She dug deeper, digging her nails into his buttocks as she pulled him against her.
A low groan vibrated in his chest, and Lexie’s heart skittered. This was happening, finally. After all those months and months of fantasizing. His hand slid from her hip to her breast, and the desperate way he touched her made her think he’d been fantasizing about this, too. He rubbed his thumb over her nipple, and she arched against his palm as he pushed up her tank top to reveal a thin white bra that he quickly moved aside. He dipped his head down, and the hard pull of his mouth made her clamp her thighs around his waist.
She pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it away, and he gave a low groan of approval and continued kissing her. His mouth felt so good, and his big, warm hands were all over her. She gripped his hair in her hands and tipped her head back to lose herself in the feeling.
“Lexie.”
She arched against him, wanting more, but not wanting to open her eyes yet, not wanting him to stop. The hot swirl of his tongue over her nipple was all she wanted to feel right now.
“Alexa.”
She opened her eyes, and he gazed at her over the swell of her naked breast.
“Honey, your phone.”
“Huh?”
A low buzzing sound snapped her to attention, and she lurched off the counter. She grabbed her tank off the floor and rushed into the living room. Her backpack was on the chair where she’d left it before Jake had shown up all cut and bloodied.
Before she’d kissed him. And started stripping off her clothes.
The buzzing ceased as she dug the phone out, and she saw that she’d missed three calls, all from Amy Chen, one of the agents on her team. Something was wrong.
“Shit!” She swiped the screen just as the doorbell rang.
Lexie wrestled her shirt on and checked the peephole. Amy was on her doorstep now, phone in hand. She wore jeans and a windbreaker, and her long black hair was pulled up in a ponytail. The agent was supposed to be on her way to Venice Beach for a surveillance shift at Courtney Stapleton’s house.
Total Control Page 6
