by Cynthia Eden
“No way!” Victor denied immediately, sounding affronted. “I covered my ass. Took every possible precaution.” Now he was at the window, too. “That’s just some lost tourist.”
But he didn’t sound convinced, and he was already reaching for his weapon, the gun he kept holstered under his left arm.
“Go upstairs, Jazz,” Victor said. “Lock the door and stay in the bedroom until Saxon or I come up there.”
Saxon pulled out a gun from the nearby desk. “Keep this with you.”
Her mouth had gone bone dry. “Because of a lost tourist?”
Saxon held her stare. “If someone comes up there and it’s not me or Vic…shoot.”
She could hear the growl of a car’s engine. Getting closer and closer. Since when did tourists race up a mountain, in the dark? Jasmine turned and hurried up the stairs.
Chapter Fourteen
Jasmine carefully shut the bedroom door behind her. She clicked the lock into place. Killed the lights. Then backed up, moving until—
She backed into something. Not the soft edge of the bed that she’d expected to hit.
A person. Big. Warm. Hard.
Jasmine opened her mouth to scream, but a hand covered her lips, choking back the sound. She twisted and squirmed, determined to bring up her weapon.
“Now why would you want to use that…” A deep voice rumbled in her ear as the gun was taken from her. “On me?”
Her heart stopped. Drake.
“I’m going to move my hand away from your mouth, and you aren’t going to scream.”
She nodded.
“Because if you scream, those two jerks downstairs will run up here, and right now, I just want to deal with you.” The words were angry. Hard.
She didn’t care.
Drake was there.
His hand lifted. She turned in his arms. “Drake, I—”
His mouth crashed down on hers. It was a hard, desperate, almost brutal kiss, and Jasmine loved it. She strained to get closer to him. She’d missed him so much. It had felt as if someone had sliced right into her heart. No, as if someone had taken her heart.
His tongue thrust into her mouth. She rose onto her toes as she arched against him. One kiss, and the desire had ignited within her like a maelstrom. She couldn’t get close enough. Couldn’t touch him enough. Couldn’t—
His mouth tore away from hers. They were surrounded by darkness and the harsh sound of his breathing filled her ears.
“If I planned to…punish you for every lie you told me…” That voice was a rasp against her ear. “What do you think I’ll do…since you let me think you were dead?”
“I’m sorry. The plans were in motion long before we met.” Jasmine Bennett had been ordered to go into Maxwell’s organization—she’d been assigned the task of gathering intel on him. Of bringing him down. He’d been her last job. She’d already gotten too close to being caught before. Her “death” had been bound to happen, no matter what. “And I…I didn’t think it would matter so much to you.”
His hold tightened on her. “It mattered.”
“D-Drake?”
Footsteps pounded up the stairs. The doorknob rattled. “Archer!” Victor snarled. “I know you’re in there.”
Drake didn’t move. “It’s Jasmine’s bedroom.” His voice drawled out. “Where else would I be?”
Victor shouted and kicked in the door. With a broken leg, the man seriously kicked in the door. Jasmine whirled around in shock as light flooded the room. “Victor, no! You have to be careful!” She tried to go to him.
But Drake hauled her back to his side. “What have you done to your hair?”
He’d noticed that?
“You can’t be here!” Victor strode toward them. She didn’t know where his crutch was, and his cast thunked a bit with each angry step that he took. “Do you know how much danger you’re putting her in? You and those two idiots downstairs!”
“One of those idiots is her brother.” Drake’s voice snapped with anger.
“I’m her brother! Me and Sax! We’re the ones who’ve always been there for her—”
Drake pushed Jasmine behind him. “You’re the two that used her. That put her life at risk again and again, and that shit is stopping. She’s not going to be in danger any longer. That won’t happen. She’s not—”
“Stop it!” Jasmine yelled.
And, wonder of wonders, they did.
Both men whirled to face her. Jasmine straightened her shoulders. “I’m the one who did it.”
A frown hardened Drake’s face. His face…how many times had she closed her eyes and seen him in the last week? But he looked different now. The faint lines on his face were deeper, sharper. His eyes blazed with a bright fire and there seemed to be a wildness clinging to him, pulsing just beneath the skin.
“I made the choices. I wanted to right the wrongs. I did it all. Me, not them.” If Drake wanted someone to direct his fury at, he could stop looking at Victor.
He needed to look at her.
“You have to get out of here, Archer,” she heard Victor snap. “It’s not safe for you to be here. We worked hard to make Jazz vanish. You’re about to destroy everything!”
But Drake didn’t move. “I’m not leaving without her.”
“You don’t have a choice.” Victor was adamant. “We’ve got too much riding on this case. Jasmine is dead, and you need to move the hell on.”
Drake didn’t look at Victor. His gaze pinned Jasmine in place. “I thought that I’d watched you burn.”
“Drake…” She had to fight to keep her breathing steady. “Why did you come after me?” She’d never thought that he would. She’d already pictured him with someone else, and Jasmine had hated that other woman.
His jaw locked.
That wasn’t going to do for her. “Tell me.”
“You shouldn’t have left me.” The words were rough, bitten off. “You let me think you were dead.” A muscle jerked in his clenched jaw. “Do you know what that did to me?”
“I’m sorry.” She was. More sorry than she could ever say. “I didn’t want—”
“I’m the one who told her she couldn’t have contact with you.” Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Victor caught her hand and pulled her away from Drake. “Because you’re dangerous, Archer, and I knew you’d make this whole thing blow up around us. You’re pissed? Be pissed at me. I’m the one who made her leave you. I’m the one who did it all.”
And Drake most definitely was pissed.
Drake glared at Victor.
Victor glared back even as he tugged on Jasmine’s hand. “Let’s get back downstairs before Saxon starts swinging…if he hasn’t already.”
Jasmine let him pull her away from Drake and back down the stairs. Victor didn’t so much as flinch as he headed down all those steps, even though she knew his leg had to be hurting him. But that was Victor. Pushing through the pain, just like he’d done in their early days.
Drake followed closely behind her, and her body was so attuned to him that every muscle was taut. He’d come after her. That had to mean something, didn’t it? If she’d just been another lover in the dark to him, then Drake never would have bothered searching for her.
It has to mean something.
And maybe, just maybe, it could mean everything.
***
Drake hated Victor. The smug FBI agent was begging for an ass kicking, and if Jasmine hadn’t been standing between him and that jerk, Drake would be obliging him.
“How the hell did these guys get here?” The one called Saxon demanded. Big, blond, and with go-to-hell eyes, Drake remembered that fellow all too well.
So he was another one who’d been in on the FBI’s game all along. “You could’ve said something,” Drake snarled at him. “Instead of taking her away from my cabin and leaving me running after her in that swamp!”
Saxon lifted a brow. “Was I supposed to say something before or after you started shooting at me?”
Drake lunged forward.
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“Try it,” Saxon invited. He didn’t back away. He stepped toe-to-toe with Drake. And he was smiling. A hard flash of teeth. “You think you’re so tough because you and your boys spent some time pulling Black Ops? You’re not the only one who knows how to dish out some hell.” His hands were fisted, and Drake could see the line of scars that ran across Saxon’s knuckles.
“No one is trying anything!” Jasmine’s voice rose as she shoved her way between them. The light glinted off her hair. Blonde and shorter than before. Still sexy. Hell, the woman would always be sexy to him, but he missed that deep red of her hair. He wanted her back the way she’d been. He wanted her…just the way she was before.
Her secrets. Her lies. He just wanted her.
The floor creaked as Noah stepped forward. Noah, who’d been far too quiet on this whole mission. “Is it true?” Noah asked, his eyes locked on Jasmine. “Are you my sister?”
Her lips parted in surprise then her gaze flew right to Drake. He saw pain in her stare. Betrayal? No, hell, no, he hadn’t betrayed her. “I thought you were dead! I wasn’t really thinking of controlling my mouth.” Sonofabitch. He’d only thought of her. Drake made himself take a few steps back. He had to get his control—and hold onto it.
She didn’t understand just how much things had changed for him. For them. She would.
“Is it true?” Noah was less than a foot away from Jasmine.
Her open mouth closed. She shrugged. A careless move, even as her chin lifted a bit into the air. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Trace stood near the fireplace. The unlit fireplace. “A DNA test will answer your question quick enough, Noah.”
Noah nodded. “Yes, it will.”
Jasmine backed up a bit. When she retreated, Drake noticed that both Victor and Saxon advanced, as if they’d protect her.
What had Victor snarled at him earlier?
I’m her brother! Me and Sax! We’re the ones who’ve always been there for her!
“Is that why you all followed me?” Jasmine’s voice was muted. Hurt. “Because you wanted to test my DNA and see if I was a match for Noah?”
Noah’s eyes flashed. “I want to know if you’re my family.”
“You have a family,” Jasmine said softly. “I saw your wedding picture. A beautiful wife who loves you. You don’t…you don’t need me.”
“Let me be the judge of what I need.” Noah’s voice was gruff and his eyes glinted with emotion. “Are you my sister?”
Almost miserably, Jasmine nodded.
He crept closer to her. “H-how?”
Jasmine’s lips quirked at that. Her dimples flashed, and Drake could tell by the expression on Noah’s face that her smile had just gotten to him.
The way it got me?
“The usual way babies are made.” Her smile slipped away. “Our mother had you first. She was sixteen then, and she gave you up. I-I have a picture of you as a baby. It’s upstairs. In my room. It’s you and the people who adopted you.” Her voice lowered. “That’s how I found you. That picture.”
Noah’s face whitened. So much emotion blazed in his eyes. “She kept you?”
There was an odd note in Noah’s voice. Confusion. Pain. And as much as Drake wanted to rush forward and grab Jasmine, to hold her tight, he knew that Noah needed this time.
So did Jasmine.
Even Saxon and Victor had retreated a bit, though they still glowered suspiciously at Drake. And as for Trace…he was at the window, keeping guard. Always on alert.
“She kept me,” Jasmine said with a slow nod. “I think maybe…at first…she had plans for us. Dreams. Because she regretted letting you go. She used to cry about that. About you.”
Noah’s face was a tense mask.
“It was better…for you not to be there.” Jasmine’s voice was so careful, and Drake knew that she wasn’t going to tell Noah the full truth about her mother. She doesn’t want to hurt him. “Life wasn’t easy then. The parents you had—they loved you, and they gave you a good life. You shouldn’t…you shouldn’t—”
“I already know,” Noah said softly, cutting through her words.
Her lashes flickered.
“Weston Securities,” Noah murmured. “You think I didn’t find out everything I could about you…and her…as soon as Drake told me?”
Now Saxon and Victor stepped forward once more, their protective instincts obviously aroused. I’m her brother! Me and Sax!
Noah waved them back, not looking even a bit intimidated. “I wish I’d known about you. I would have come for you.”
Her gaze fell to the floor. “Maybe you should do that DNA test. Make sure I’m who you think—”
Noah caught her chin and tipped her head back. “I would have come for you.”
A tear slid down Jasmine’s cheek. “I didn’t want to put you at risk.” Her attention shifted to Drake. “I didn’t want to put any of you at risk.”
“Yeah, well…” Victor’s voice had roughened. “Looks like they put themselves at risk. And now they’ve got you right back in the crossfire, too.” His furious stare was directed at Drake. “Maxwell Case thought she was dead. Everyone was supposed to think she’d burned in that fire. But now you’re here, and you could’ve tipped off Case!”
“We were careful.” It was Trace who replied. Drake was too busy staring at Jasmine. She’d just hurriedly wiped away the tear on her cheek. He hated to see her cry. “No one followed us.”
“You sure about that? Cause I’m not buying that story!” Victor started to pace. “We need to move her to a new safe house. Get her out of here so we can be sure this place wasn’t compromised.” He nodded toward Saxon. “Let’s get her bag and start moving her out of here.”
The guy really thought Drake was just going to let her vanish again? “It’s not happening,” Drake said simply.
“Did you just give me an order?” Victor glowered at him. “Cause it sounded like you tried to order me around.”
“I told you a fact. Jasmine isn’t going to vanish again.”
“Since when do you get to decide her life?”
Since she became my life. He didn’t tell the jerk that. What he felt for Jasmine…that was between him and her. They needed to be alone for any more revelations.
“I want to…know you.” Noah’s voice was halting as he spoke to Jasmine. “I found out you were my sister in the same moment I found out you were dead—or, I thought you were dead.” He exhaled. “I want to know you.”
And Drake just wanted her.
So he stared at Jasmine. “You don’t have to run.” Slowly, he advanced toward her. His hand lifted. Touched the blonde hair. “You don’t have to be someone else. You don’t have to start a new life in a different place. You don’t always have to be looking over your shoulder.” That was exactly what she’d do, as long as Case was out there.
“So what is she supposed to do then?” Victor demanded.
Drake didn’t look away from Jasmine. “Stay with me. I can keep you safe. I can protect you. I can stop him.”
Her lips trembled.
“Stay with me,” he told her again, and the words were as close to a plea as he’d ever come.
“No, no way.” Victor thunked closer with his cast. “You are in way over your head, Archer. You can’t keep her safe. You can just get her dead.”
“You underestimate me,” Drake said softly.
“No, I just know what you are.” Red stained his cheeks. “I mean, big deal, so you once pulled some missions when you were playing soldier.”
Playing soldier? Oh, that jerk was pushing him too far.
“But now you spend your days drinking in casinos and flirting with women. You are in so far over your head because you’re—”
Trace’s laughter stopped him.
Drake let his own lips curl. “You shouldn’t believe everything you read in your FBI files. Jasmine isn’t the only one good at pretending to be someone else.” He let his hand fall away from Jasmine’s
hair. “Maxwell is already after me anyway,” Drake told him. “So I’ll put myself up as bait. I’ll draw him out. I’ll stop him because the FBI sure as shit isn’t having any luck.”
Victor snarled at him. Yeah, the guy reminded him of an angry wolf.
“I’ll stop him,” Drake said again. “And you won’t have to run.”
But Jasmine shook her head. “He’s not the only enemy I’ve made.”
He leaned in close to her. “Do you think I’m afraid?”
She searched his eyes. Shook her head once more.
“Then stay with me.”
Silence. Tension stretched, filling that room, and…Jasmine nodded.
“No!” Victor was furious. “This is a huge mistake! Jasmine, you can’t trust this guy—”
“But I do!”
“You’re his current addiction. He wants you, and the guy is used to taking what he wants. But what happens when he gets tired of you? When he gets bored? He’ll toss you aside, and the lions will close in.”
Tired of Jasmine? “Not going to happen.” He was being patient with the FBI prick, mostly because he knew Jasmine had ties with the guy and since those ties were familial and not sexual, he was giving the man a bit of leeway.
That leeway was going to end.
“We have a helicopter waiting to take us out of the mountains,” Drake told Jasmine.
“Because your last escape flight went so well?” Victor’s face had darkened. “This isn’t happening! Jasmine, you’re going with me and Saxon. We’ll keep you safe. The way we always have. You can count on us. You know it and—”
“I want Drake.”
Victor stopped talking.
“I love you, Vic, and Saxon, you’ll always be my champion, but I…I need more.” Her voice broke. “I don’t want to start over again. I don’t want to run anymore. I want to have a real life, and I want to stop pretending.”
Victor’s face had gone slack with shock.
But Saxon…he just nodded.
Her hand curled around Drake’s. “I’ll get my bag, and I’ll go with you.”
Fuck, yes.
“But you have to promise me one thing.”
He’d promise her the whole world. And he’d give it to her.
I will never feel that agony again—I will never lose her again.
“Promise me that Maxwell won’t hurt you. That we will stop him.”
Easy enough. “I promise. Princess, I’ve got resources that you can’t even imagine.” And all of those resources were in play then.
He’d found her. He’d get Maxwell. End the nightmare.
Jasmine gave him a smile. Not the one that made her dimples wink, but one that still had his heart aching. Then she looked toward Noah. Tentatively, hopefully, her gaze flickered over him as she backed toward the stairs.
