Black List: HOT Heroes for Hire: Mercenaries: A Black’s Bandits Novel

by Lynn Raye Harris

  He let go of the handle, oddly disappointed and frustrated at the same time. “If you’re sure.”

  “I am.” She took the handle, rolled the case toward her, and dropped the computer bag on top. It fit perfectly. Then she sucked in a deep breath and met his gaze again. She was smiling, but he wasn’t sure how genuine it was or if she was just being polite. Probably the latter. “I travel alone so I make sure I can handle my luggage.”

  “A good idea.”

  “Yep.” She extended her hand. Took him a moment to realize she was offering it to shake.

  He put his palm against hers, clasped her gently. The heat that rolled through him wasn’t something he expected. In another world, he’d tug her to him and kiss her right this second. She gazed at him, her mouth dropping open slightly, her eyes blinking more rapidly. She felt it too, whatever this thing was. Pissed him off he couldn’t explore it.

  “Well, good bye. If I see you around sometime, I’ll be sure to pretend I don’t know you.” She smiled and he knew she was teasing him. He didn’t tell her she wouldn’t see him unless he wanted her to.

  “Bye, Maddy Cole. For what it’s worth, I think you handled everything with class and bravery.”

  “Thanks, Andrei.” She let him go and turned to walk up the sidewalk to her door.

  “Maddy,” he called when she reached the porch.

  “Yes?”

  He hesitated for a second. And then he did something he knew he shouldn’t do. “My name is Jace.”

  She smiled again. A genuine smile this time. Jace cursed himself six ways to Sunday, but he’d had to do it. It didn’t feel right to leave without telling her. Not after everything.

  “Jace. I like it.”

  She put her key in the door and disappeared inside. Jace stood there for a long minute, wondering what the hell was wrong with him. Then he did what he always did.

  He walked away.

  Chapter Seven

  Maddy leaned her forehead against the door and sucked in a deep breath. What the heck was wrong with her? Her heart pounded and her blood beat and her skin felt way too sensitive inside her clothes.

  Jace.

  His name was Jace. She put her palm to the door, curled her fingers. Pretended it was his chest for one split second. Then she straightened and spun away from the door. She didn’t even like him, so why the regret? Why did she want to spend more time listening to him talk about his life? He was a total jerk and she never wanted to see him again.

  Except she did.

  “Stop it, Maddy. You’re being an idiot,” she grumbled. Mimi’s house—her house now—was small, but perfect in its own way. Maddy still had a lot of Mimi’s furniture. The antique pieces were her treasures. She would sell them if she had to, but she hoped she never did. They weren’t terribly valuable, but they had value to Maddy.

  She spied the treat dispenser with its camera sitting on the floor and she marched over to it, unplugged it. Indignation filled her. Somebody had been spying on her through the camera and microphone. She’d asked Jace why on the ride over here. He’d told her that hackers did it for kicks usually. Hoping to glean information like credit card numbers or other personal information. It wasn’t that someone had targeted her specifically, but the information was out there for those who knew how to find it.

  Poor Kitty. Well, Maddy didn’t need to feed Kitty treats from a dispenser when she was home anyway. She could always plug it in when she was out so she could check on her cat and give her a treat. Then unplug it again when she got home. Seemed like a pain in the behind, but she no longer trusted that it was a harmless device.

  Maddy took her phone from her purse. She’d checked everything in Jace’s car. It was all there. She hadn’t looked in her suitcase, but her purse and computer bag were fine. All her work was there. She figured the suitcase was fine too. If somebody wanted to steal something, they’d take the equipment, not her clothing. She dialed Angie’s number.

  “Dosvedanya, Mads,” Angie said on the second ring. Her friend was at work, but if she was answering then she was free of clients right now.

  Maddy laughed. “That means good bye, Ang. You mean privyet. That’s hello.”

  “Whatever. How’s it going over there? Meet any handsome Russians?”

  Maddy thought of Jace and her skin heated. He wasn’t exactly Russian, but he fit the handsome part. Not that she was telling Angie anything about it. “Actually, I’m home. The job was cut prematurely short when the collector got sick, so I came back.”

  That’s the story Jace had told her to use, so she assumed it was the official story. It grated to lie, but on the other hand he and Ian had done a good job of impressing upon her how important it was she stick to the script and not mention them or this Calypso woman who bore such a strong resemblance to her.

  “Oh, sorry. I knew you were looking forward to spending some time in St. Petersburg for the White Nights.”

  “I was, but I’ve been before. I’m sure I’ll get to do it again.”

  “Okay, so what about handsome Russians?”

  “Sorry, not this time. The most excitement I had was leaving almost as soon as I arrived.”

  “That sucks, huh? I can’t imagine all the flying was pleasant.”

  It would have been worse on a commercial plane. At least there’d been a lay-flat seat on the private jet. Barrington’s didn’t spring for those on regular flights. “It wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t really have time to get on their schedule, so I guess I’ll get back to my own pretty quickly.”

  “Did you want to get Kitty? Or I can bring her by later.”

  Maddy wanted to see her cat pretty badly. But until she knew what Barrington’s was going to do, it was best if she left Kitty where she was. They might send her back out again. She prayed they didn’t fire her over this, though Ian had promised they wouldn’t. She wasn’t sure she trusted him. She thought of the card Jace had given her. She’d tucked it into her pocket before she’d unlocked the door. She took it out now.

  Black Defense International

  Would they really come if she needed them? “I’ll get her tomorrow. I might have to head out again since this job didn’t pan out as expected. I should know in the morning. I’d hate to bring her home and then have to take her back tomorrow.”

  “Totally understand. She’s perfectly fine, by the way. I left her sleeping in a sunbeam this morning. I expect she’ll be waiting for me in the kitchen when I get home.”

  “You know she will. She wants her evening meal.”

  “Like she doesn’t have dry food all day long. You spoil that animal.”

  “You love her and you know it.”

  “I do. Silly beast. Think you might want to get some dinner with me later?”

  Maddy gazed out the window at her neighborhood. It was still light and she wasn’t scared, but the thought of being out after dark and then coming home alone unnerved her. And that made her mad because she’d been living alone in this house for the past three years now. “I can’t tonight. I feel like I’m going to crash hard. I’ll just order something and stay in.”

  Angie sighed. “I get it. If you find you can’t sleep and you want to get out, let me know. A group of us were thinking about going to Dock Street later.”

  “I’ll text you if I change my mind. Kiss Kitty for me. Hopefully I’ll see her tomorrow.”

  “Oh hell, here comes the boss. Gotta run!”

  “Bye, Ang.”

  Angie had already ended the call. Maddy sighed and put the phone down. She really needed a shower, and then she was going to binge some TV. She knew just the show too. Covert Affairs.

  But first she checked all the doors and windows, closing the blinds as she went.

  It didn’t help. She still felt vulnerable.

  “Get over it, Maddy,” she muttered. “If it was dangerous, he wouldn’t have left you here alone.”

  Ian read a report about human trafficking in the southern states. Anger simmered ho
t just below the veneer of his cool whenever he had to think about the kind of scumbags who would drag innocent girls into such terrible situations. He felt like his skin was going to split open from all the chaotic feelings rolling beneath it.

  He looked up and met Jace’s gaze as the man strode toward him across the command center. The expression on his face made Ian sit up and pay attention. Jace walked into his office after a cursory knock. When he closed the door, Ian knew it was serious.

  “I told her my first name. I shouldn’t have done it.”

  Ian arched an eyebrow. “Is that all? I thought you’d come to resign or something.”

  “Isn’t that enough?”

  Ian sat back and flipped the folder closed so he didn’t have to feel the oiliness of the report anymore. “I knew you were going to do it. It’s fine.” There was a common thread between Jace’s life and Maddy Cole’s, and he knew Jace was thinking about it.

  Jace frowned. Hard. “You knew?”

  Ian shrugged. He’d gotten good at reading people after all these years in covert ops. He’d been so deep beneath the surface of the muck himself that he sometimes wondered if he had any humanity left. But then he read about innocent girls being trafficked to disgusting old men and his humanity surged to the surface again. Still, one of the benefits of this life he’d led was that he knew people’s emotions almost before they did. He got it, and he could predict people’s breaking points with a certainty that bordered on psychic. It wasn’t psychic, but he didn’t mind letting them think so. Made him into one scary motherfucker when he needed to be.

  “You kept looking at her, but it wasn’t disgust. You knew she wasn’t Calypso.” He held up his hand when Jace started to protest. “You thought she was at first, but your instincts told you fairly quickly you’d gotten the wrong woman. Still, we had to bring her in and test her. So you doubted yourself. But you knew. And then there’s the intel on her father. He was an agent and she never knew it.”

  Jace was frowning. “Not uncommon for spies, is it?”

  “No, it’s not. You would have never known either if your parents hadn’t gotten caught.”

  “But they did.”

  “They did.” There was nothing else he could say. Even if he wanted to.

  Jace blew out a breath. “So what’s any of that have to do with telling her my name?”

  “Guilt. And attraction, I expect. She’s pretty. And feisty as hell. Told me to piss up a rope, right? Not in so many words, but her dismissal was pretty obvious. I like her. You like her more.”

  Jace shoved a hand through his hair and shook his head as if to deny it. But he didn’t. “Yeah, I like her. She’s interesting. But I meet a lot of interesting women and walk away. And I don’t tell them my name.”

  “You’ve got good instincts, Jace. Even if she talks about you, it’s not enough to jeopardize the mission. She may talk, but she won’t talk about what happened.”

  “You sure of that?”

  Ian thought of the fire in those pretty eyes of Maddy Cole’s. The dislike of him, but the curiosity toward Jace. Her eyes had dilated, her skin flushed, and her breathing quickened when she looked at Jace. Hell, if he were gay, he’d look at Jace that way too. The dude was walking, talking sex-on-a-stick. And since Maddy Cole was attracted to Jace, Ian figured she wasn’t going to do anything she feared would endanger him. “I’m sure.”

  “Are you sure Calypso won’t come after her?”

  “Nope. That’s why I put the detail on her.”

  The corners of Jace’s mouth tightened. “Maybe we shouldn’t have let her go so soon.”

  “If someone comes after her, we’ll get more information than we would if we kept her here against her will.”

  Jace straightened, his nostrils flaring. “Are you seriously telling me that you let her go so you could use her as bait?”

  Ian felt the pinch of guilt in his soul. But he did what he had to do. “Tell me what choice I had. We couldn’t keep her. The next best thing we can do is watch her closely. I’ve got assets I could be using elsewhere watching her carefully. You talked to them. You know.”

  “Put me there too.”

  Ian studied Jace carefully. Interesting twist. “You sure about that? It’s a typical stake out. Watch her every move. Could be boring as hell.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “It’s not your fault she’s a part of this, you know. You grabbed the wrong woman because you were meant to grab the wrong woman.”

  He’d been thinking about it for a while now. Why hadn’t Calypso eliminated Maddy Cole and taken her place? BDI hadn’t known about Maddy, so they wouldn’t have been able to stop the assassin. Either something had gone wrong on Calypso’s end or Maddy had always been meant to be a smokescreen. Ian’s instincts told him it was the second one, which caused him no small amount of worry.

  Why? Why her?

  Her father had been a low level operative, no one important. There was nothing in the files to indicate he’d ever been involved with the Syndicate. Still, Ian had assigned Brett Wheeler to dig into Maddy Cole’s background. Not that he expected Brett would find anything significant, but they couldn’t be too careful.

  He was also trying to get the camera feed from Sokolov’s compound. The grounds were surveilled, as were some of the hallways and public rooms of the house. Which meant they might just have footage of Calypso entering the room beside Maddy’s. He’d been interested in the maid, but Maddy hadn’t recognized her in the photo of Calypso, so that was out.

  “I know I grabbed the wrong woman,” Jace said. “But now she’s in it. And I feel like I owe it to her to make sure she’s safe.”

  Ian made a split decision. “All right. If you want to stake out Maddy Cole’s place, then I guess I can’t stop you.”

  One of Jace’s eyebrows went up. “Really? You’re giving in that easily?”

  “Easily? No. But giving in to the inevitable? No sense fighting it. You’re not going to be worth a shit if you can’t stop thinking about that girl.”

  Chapter Eight

  Stakeouts were boring as hell. Ian was right about that. He was also right that Jace couldn’t stop thinking about Maddy. He could still see her standing on her porch, her face lighting with pleasure when he told her his name. He shouldn’t have done it, but he couldn’t take her calling him Andrei for one more second. It grated on his nerves.

  The bitch of it was that it shouldn’t have mattered at all. But it did. He still wasn’t sure why.

  So now he was here, in a rented house across the street from Maddy’s place, watching her come and go. It had been five days since he’d tackled her in Sokolov’s house. Five days in which he’d replayed that moment again and again. She’d been soft in all the right places, and she’d smelled good. His brain had been focused on the work because it’d had to be, but the rest of him had noticed. Now that it was in the past, his body was treating his brain to the memory on repeat.

  Good times.

  “She’s walking out her door,” Tyler Scott said. “Who’s following her this time?”

  “I’ve got it,” Jace replied before Brett Wheeler could, standing and grabbing the car keys. He wasn’t worried about losing her. They’d tagged her car with a GPS device so they always knew where she was. He wasn’t following her to see where she was going. He followed to make sure nobody attacked her while she was out.

  He got into the nondescript navy sedan and started it up, being careful to wait until Maddy was already at the end of the street before he pulled out. He had the GPS tracker on his phone and he glanced at it from time to time. Maddy was heading across town. She could be going any number of places, but her trajectory told him she was headed for the Oaks, the memory care facility where her grandmother was staying.

  He’d followed her there once before, waited an hour for her to reemerge. She’d gone to lunch with her friend Angie afterward and he’d watched the two of them sitting at a restaurant by the harbor, eating crab cakes and fries and laughing. M
addy lived a quiet life when she was home. She hadn’t gone out on a job again and Jace was glad. Ian had arranged that. She’d been working for Barrington’s for six years, and while she traveled a lot for work, she also did a lot of work from home. There were reports to go over, research to be done.

  Eventually, she’d have to travel again. They’d figure it out when she did.

  Jace pulled into the parking lot of the memory care facility as Maddy strolled toward the entrance. She was wearing a yellow top with a cream blazer, distressed jeans, and some kind of high heel today. Not a stiletto, but he didn’t know a whole lot about shoes so he had no clue. Her hair was loose, hanging down her back in thick dark gold curls that bounced when she walked. When he saw her like that, he had a hard time believing he could have ever thought she was a cold-blooded killer.

  Admittedly, it would be the perfect cover if she was. She was so sweet and wholesome, and she traveled a lot. She could be Calypso if she’d ever been in the same places where the assassinations took place. Hiding in plain sight would be something he’d do if he were an assassin.

  But he wasn’t and they still had no reports on her whereabouts. Or even if she’d really been the trigger person during the shooting at Sokolov’s.

  Today, however, he was concerned with Maddy, not Calypso. He waited for an hour and then she emerged again. Her expression was a little sad, a little bewildered. His protective instincts went into overdrive. He had to stop himself from opening the car door and going to her, asking her what was wrong.

  She stopped beside her car and folded her arms over her chest. Turned to stare at the building for a long moment. He got the impression she was preparing herself for something. Then she unlocked the door of her Honda Accord and climbed inside. She started the engine. He waited for her to move, but she didn’t.

  And then his heart twisted as he realized what was happening. She sat there with her forehead on the steering wheel, her shoulders shaking. Maddy was losing it. He put his hand on the door handle, determined to go to her and ask what was wrong.