Live Past The Edge (Dark Eagle Book 2)

by Julia Bright

  He was surprised his dad didn’t open the door and yell something at him, but that would mean the neighbors could hear. Alerting the neighborhood of their problems was the last thing his dad would want.

  Jackson plopped his suitcase into the back of the car and got behind the wheel. With one last look, he drove away from his father’s house. At the first stoplight, Jackson sent his brother a text, telling him to call or text at any time. He hated that his parents kept pushing him away. Maybe if everything was different he could stick around, but not with the way his parents acted.

  The ticket Kelsey had bought for him was open-ended, and he was able to hop on a flight that afternoon. After hours of travel and driving, he made it to the ranch a little after six in the evening. Jackson said hello and then goodnight to Kelsey and Adam as he headed to his room. He didn’t even take off his clothes before he dropped into his bed and fell into a deep sleep.

  The ringing of his phone woke him. It took him a moment to find the device, knocking it off the table. Somehow he ended up half on the floor, half on the bed before he gained control enough to answer.

  “Hello,” he said as he tried to sit up, grunting as he went.

  “Why did you leave Virginia?” Marissa asked.

  He grunted again as he rolled to his back and flung his arm over his face. “Do you know what time it is?”

  “Nine in the morning,” Marissa said. “Where are you, Denver?”

  “No,” he grunted as he sat up.

  “I’m on my way out to see you. I have tons of questions.”

  “No thank you.” He cleared his throat as he stood and stumbled into the bathroom.

  “Listen, Jackson, or I could call you Reginald.”

  “Don’t ever call me that,” Jackson growled.

  “I have questions, and I want answers.”

  He chuckled as he flipped on the light and moaned from the brightness. “Good luck with that.”

  “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

  “Good luck with that too.”

  He hung up and pissed before heading back to bed, pulling the covers over his head as he tried to go back to sleep. Though he was exhausted from his two trips, he caught the scent of coffee and food. Bacon? Had Kelsey cooked breakfast? The smell was too strong, and he couldn’t ignore his hunger.

  When he stumbled into the kitchen, Kelsey, and Adam where there, a list written out between them with half the items marked off.

  “Hey.” The coffee pot was half full, which made him happy.

  “How’s your brother?” Marissa asked.

  The first sip was like heaven on his tongue. He turned and blinked at her for a few seconds before speaking. “He’s good.” Jackson snagged a plate and took it to the table where bacon was laid out.

  “I have eggs in the warmer,” Adam said.

  “Thank you.”

  “So tell us what happened?” Kelsey hadn’t heard the stories about his dad. He’d said a few things, but Adam knew from his drunk-mess talks in the army. They’d shared enough that Adam could probably tell her how it went.

  “The group, or whatever they were, hadn’t started picking on him yet. He was kidnapped, locked in a cage, but they didn’t do anything. The other people were raped and tortured. He said it was based on who was there the longest.”

  “That’s terrible for them,” Adam said as he put down the dish with scrambled eggs in front of him.

  He scooped out a few tablespoons then took a bite. “What are you two working on?” His question was asked between mouthfuls after washing them down with coffee.

  “The ranch,” Kelsey said. “I need to get a handle on everything that has to be accomplished. Grandpa left notes, and we’ve been doing okay, but I don’t want to let repairs get too far behind, and I know there are things we missed that we should have done.”

  “I’ll help you two once I finish with food,” Jackson said.

  “Thanks,” Kelsey said.

  “I’m putting together a website for our security company. I figured we’d call it Eagle Security then our other would be called Dark Eagle, you know, trying to keep the two separate but together.”

  Jackson narrowed his gaze. “Do you think we should associate the two with nearly the same name?”

  Adam shrugged. “Probably not. I hadn’t thought of that. This is why I need you. You’re right. I was trying to tie the two together, but we don’t need to.”

  Jackson breathed out a heavy sigh. “You know we had a few wins with Dark Eagle. I’ve been thinking about things we could do, but are we fooling ourselves? The more cases we take on, the higher chance we have of everything ending up like Italy?”

  Adam’s lips screwed up before he shook his head. “I don’t think it will. We were both emotional. This was your little brother.”

  Jackson thought about it for a moment. “If we can’t use this to help those we care the most about, then what good are we?”

  “I don’t know, Jackson. I don’t know.”

  He finished the rest of his meal in silence. They all three got up and headed out to work on the ranch. They had fences to fix, cows to move, and a corral that needed to be painted. The work here seemed almost never-ending, but he liked living here. It was loads better than living where his family could stop by to badger him about how terrible he was.

  6

  Kelsey twisted the wire and snipped the end and stepped back. “That was the easiest fence fix we’ve had so far.”

  “Well, both of us here to muscle the wire makes it easier,” Adam said.

  “Are you saying I’m not strong,” Kelsey quipped, her eyes sparkling with merriment.

  Jackson chuckled and patted her on the head as he walked past. “You’re the compact kind of strong. We’re just brutes.”

  She threw back her head and laughed. Jackson smiled. He liked how easy Kelsey and Adam were. It made him never want to leave this place. This was how a family was supposed to be, not the judgment he felt the second he stepped into his dad’s house.

  They loaded up the truck and were on their way back to the house when Adam slowed the truck.

  “Who do you think that is?” Adam asked.

  “Ugh, she really meant in a few hours.” Jackson watched as the car approached the house. “Let’s stay up here and hide.”

  Kelsey rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Hell no, I’m not letting you hide. Who is she?”

  “Agent Marissa Edwards from the FBI.” Silence filled the truck for a few beats.

  “Let’s hide up here.” Kelsey’s voice was strained though she tried to cover her discomfort with a smile.

  “We gotta hit this head-on,” Adam said.

  “She’s the one we ran into in Italy.” He shivered as the truck rolled forward, heading down the hill to the house in the canyon. They were screwed. He knew she would demand answers he wasn’t willing to give.

  Adam stopped the truck and swung the door open then reached behind him to help Kelsey out. Jackson moved slower. He wasn’t ready to face Marissa. Cowardice, maybe; out of control desire, oh heck yes he had loads of that. Lust pumped hot where she was concerned. The woman pushed buttons he didn’t even think were there.

  Marissa walked straight up to Kelsey and held out her hand. “I’m Agent Edwards, nice place you have here.”

  “Thank you. I’m Kelsey Brantley. This was my grandfather’s place. When he passed away, I inherited it. The credit for how nice it is goes to him. I’m afraid I’m not much of a rancher.”

  Marissa’s gaze flicked to Adam first then him. “Well, at least you have the muscle to help you run the place.”

  Kelsey nodded and smiled. “Come in for some tea. I think we may have cookies somewhere. We’ve been out in the fields, so I’m sure the guys are hungry.”

  “Sure, sounds wonderful.” Marissa shot him a dangerous smile that half looked like she wanted to kill him, half like she wanted to give him a cookie.

  Jackson stared after them, wondering what bizarre world he’d step
ped into. It was like Kelsey and Marissa were girlfriends as they chatted about the flowers in the beds and the rocking chairs on the porch.

  The door shut behind the pair and he turned to Adam. “What was that?”

  “I don’t know but be careful. I feel like she’ll try to trip us up.”

  He nodded, afraid of what her visit meant. Adam had to be shitting his pants. He’d been in Algeria when Zaeim had died, and now both of them had been seen in Italy. No way she’d think this was a coincidence.

  He stepped into the house and used the restroom down the hall to wash his hands. The scruffy look from days of not shaving made him look dangerous. Maybe that’s what he needed to look like to scare her off, but he knew it wouldn’t work. She hadn’t been scared of his scruffy mug when they’d met in Denver.

  For a second, he thought about shaving but decided against it. He was in his home, and she wouldn’t arrest him, he was sixty, maybe seventy percent sure of that fact.

  He stepped out into the hall and slowly made his way to the kitchen but stopped when the sound of Marissa’s laughter went straight to his balls. His foot dragged on the floor, and he stumbled, but he caught himself. An image of her arched up, her head thrown back, mouth open as he fucked her played front and center in his mind. He shook the image away, but it had been burned in his brain, featured as the main attraction for so long he wasn’t sure he would ever forget her like that.

  “Ah, there he is,” Marissa said. “I was wondering if you’d skipped out on us.”

  He plastered a smile and his face and chuckled. “Now, why would I do that?”

  “I don’t know, why don’t you tell me what you were doing in Italy?”

  “Wow, straight to the hard questions.” Jackson stalled by pulling out lunchmeat and bread, planning on making a sandwich.

  Kelsey came over and took the fixings for the sandwich right out of his hands. He wanted to tell her to back off, but she had to be crapping her pants too. At least this wasn’t Agent Hardy. That man had come around too often. Instead of making his sandwich, he grabbed a glass for tea and poured himself up a drink.

  “Italy, I don’t recall being there,” Jackson said as he took a seat.

  “Stop bullshitting me. I looked you three up. This place too. I know Kelsey is worth millions. That little stunt you two did in Algeria, sure, it got rid of a terrorist, but it could have gone so wrong.”

  Kelsey opened her mouth, but Jackson cut her off, not wanting her to incriminate herself.

  “You have a cup full of conjecture and no proof,” Jackson said.

  Marissa huffed out a breath and her nose wrinkled. He wanted to kiss the tip and see if he could get the smile back on her face. God, when she smiled at him, it was like the angels sang.

  “Do you really want me to dig for proof? I could, but I don’t think you’d like that. This is just a friendly chat I don’t intend to report back to my boss.”

  “Are you wearing a wire?” Adam asked.

  Marissa glanced over her shoulder and her back straightened. “What kind of question is that?”

  “It’s a question coming from a guy who had an FBI agent plant a listening device in his kitchen. You don’t mind, do you?” Adam held up their scanner and flipped it on.

  The device squealed, and Marissa rolled her eyes. “Seriously, my phone puts out enough interference to make that go off.” She handed her phone to him and stepped to the side, away from her phone. “Go ahead and search. I’m not here to trap you.”

  “Then why are you here?” Jackson said.

  Adam swept the device in front of her before he swept it behind her body. It didn’t go off again, which he guessed meant she was clean. After Adam finished his task, Marissa took a seat and reached for a cookie. Kelsey came over and placed a tray of triangle cut sandwiches in front of them. Jackson grabbed two and took a bite, moaning his appreciation.

  “I’m here as a courtesy,” Marissa said after she swallowed.

  He chewed, wondering what she meant. “A courtesy? How’s that?”

  Marissa dropped her hands to the table. “I can’t help you if you get arrested.”

  “We don’t plan on getting arrested,” Jackson said.

  “You almost got nicked by the Italian State Police. Do you think they would have been amused?”

  He huffed out a breath and straightened his shoulders. “Are you amused?”

  Marissa shrugged and lifted a brow. “Kind of. How did you know where to go, and why didn’t you share the information with me?”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Adam asked.

  “I could have protected you,” Marissa said.

  “How? Your friend Agent Hardy is still looking for ways to bust my ass,” Adam quipped.

  “Hardy isn’t my friend. I hardly even know the guy.”

  Adam shook his head. “But he knows us, and that’s reason enough for us not to trust the FBI.”

  Marissa’s lips thinned. “You should trust me.”

  Jackson grabbed another sandwich. He was stress eating. Having Marissa here, in his house, looking so delicious while she talked about danger and the FBI was sexy as hell. No question, he had it bad for her.

  “The people who held my brother, who were they?”

  Marissa’s eyes narrowed, and she shook her head. “I can’t comment on an open investigation.”

  “That right there is why we don’t trust you.” Adam pushed his chair back and stalked out of the room.

  She blew out a breath and met Jackson’s gaze again. Stress lines framed her eyes and her brows where wrinkled. He saw a few dark smudges under her eyes. She looked tired. He wanted to pull her into a hug and hold her until she fell asleep. Just the thought of her in his bed, her body pressed up against his made him shiver.

  She turned away from him and picked up a cookie, taking a bite and chewing vigorously.

  “I’m going to check on Adam,” Kelsey said.

  They were alone, which was a little dangerous because his cock was getting hard. His lips tingled at the thought of kissing Marissa’s neck. She’d tasted so good that night, like spice and danger and a little sugar on top that left a sweet aftertaste.

  Her head whipped up, and she met his gaze. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Stripping off your clothes and tasting you again.”

  Her cheeks flamed red, and she let out a harsh snort. “I don’t guess that will happen.”

  “I don’t see why not?”

  She pinned him with a stare. “Do you really think it would be wise? Like do you think anything with us together would work?”

  He grabbed her chair and tugged it closer. Too much had happened since that night in Denver. His soul ached, and he knew Marissa’s loving arms would help. She would help him forget the pain his brother suffered, the words his dad said, she’d help him forget it all.

  Her lips parted as she let out a tiny gasp. Jackson chuckled just before their lips met. Sparks flew, and he went from kind of hard to full on stiff. No question, he wanted her. There wasn’t time to waste, so he pulled her to his lap. She straddled him, and her arms came around his shoulders. Her fingers toyed with the hair at the base of his skull, tugging gently. Her touch drew out his desire, making him want everything from her.

  Kelsey and Adam were out at the barn, and he needed this. He stood, and she let out a shriek before settling.

  “Are you sure?” Her voice was thick with lust, and her arms held on tight.

  “Oh yeah, I’m sure. Feel how sure I am.” He tugged her closer, her center riding over his cock. Her eyes went wide, and she bit her lower lip, making his cock jump. “Very sure.”

  He kicked the door to his room closed and went over to the window, closing the blinds, blocking the light out. There were so many different ways he wanted Marissa, so many positions he wanted to try, but most importantly, he wanted to be deep inside her.

  Her fingers tugged at his shirt. If he lifted his arms, he would drop her, but they needed to get naked fast
because her touch would make him come. Without any hesitation, he dropped her on the bed. She yelped and laughed before she scrambled to remove her clothes. He had his shoes off, and his shirt was on the floor when he looked down and saw her with just her panties and bra on. She stared up at him, her lips swollen from kisses. He dropped low, his lips hovering over her neck.

  “You look so good. I want to eat up every little piece of you. God, Marissa, you’re so sexy.” He closed the distance between them, his lips moving up the column of her neck to her ear. “I’m going to kiss my way down your body, and then I’ll taste you. I can’t get your sweet fragrance out of my mind. So sexy, so perfect.”

  She arched up as he moved his lips to her breasts. She undid her bra clasp, and he went for one nipple, sucking it into his mouth as his fingers trailed lower to find her wet pussy. She spread her legs and let him in.

  His moan vibrated against her skin as his tongue rolled over her nipple. This was heaven. Sex had always felt good, but with Marissa, every inch of his skin tingled, and his brain felt like mush.

  After a few more licks of her nipple, he kissed his way lower, shoving her panties out of the way. He breathed in deep, taking in the scent of her skin, her arousal, the soap she’d used. It mixed together to make him even harder. She was magic, and he was lost to her.

  The first taste of her on his tongue has his balls pulled up so tight, he feared he would come. His cock wanted her all over him. The thought of his cock deep inside her was too much. He rose and spread her legs, sliding in on the first thrust.

  She fit him perfectly, and he sighed. No question, they were made to be together. He lowered, his head resting against hers as he pumped in. She arched up and lifted her legs, wrapping them around his body. He grunted and slid his arms under her, clasping her shoulders, holding her in place. The next thrust rocked her body, and she groaned.