by Joss Wood
Sam appeared in his monitor again. “Big brother is here,” Sam said.
Thank God, they could get down to business. Sam settled behind the monitor and after a quick greeting, Stone disappeared from the screen. Seth presumed he was sitting in his usual spot, on the edge of Sam’s desk.
Seth briefly explained where they were in the investigation and what the current theory was. Stone’s initial shock quickly passed and he moved to stand behind Sam, bending so he could look into the webcam.
“That would explain the taunting emails and his obsession with Pytheon. Yeah, I think it’s a strong possibility.” Stone nudged Sam. “What do you think?”
Sam nodded. “The first trigger was you visiting him at the compound and he finally had your attention. And he realized that he really liked your attention and he started to crave it. You obviously scared him enough or he felt threatened enough for him not to engage you directly but he needed to. How could he do that? How could he satisfy his desire for attention, negative or not? He faked his death and started recruiting teenagers who looked like you.”
“There were girls and other kids who didn’t look like me.” Seth pointed out.
Sam shrugged. “Work with me. Recruiting those kids satisfied a need for him for a little while but the need for attention grew, the need for your attention grew in him. And when Pytheon started tracking him, when you started tracking him, that would’ve blown his boots off. Your direct attention was on him again.”
“So what changed?” Seth asked. “What made him move from that game onto this one? You have to agree that it’s a hell of a departure in MO.”
“It has to be another trigger, another life changing event.” Sam decided after a moment’s silence. “Something has changed in his life, and yours, and that’s made him deviate from the game.”
“My life is as it’s always been. I work.”
“Far too much and far too hard,” Sam agreed and tapped the top of the pencil against her keyboard. “Something has happened to him. He’s let you see his face, let that kid see his face. That suggests he’s not worried about being caught or that he doesn’t care anymore.”
Seth placed his elbows on the table and stared at Sam and Stone’s worried faces. “That makes him dangerous.”
“He always was dangerous.” Stone corrected.
“He wants to close the circle,” Leah said.
Seth turned to look at her but her attention was on the birds fighting over the seeds in the hanging feeder.
“Seth has also been his holy grail and he’s not leaving this life without reconnecting with Seth and, by reconnecting with Seth, I mean to take him with him. He’s not leaving Seth behind.” Leah continued.
Silence settled over the outdoor space like a frost-covered blanket. Seth couldn’t take his eyes off Leah and watched, horrified but fascinated, as a tear rolled down her cheek. She wiped it away with the tips of her fingers and, without looking at him, or anybody, she pushed back her chair and hastened out of the room. When she disappeared from view, he looked back at the monitor and sighed at Sam’s worried expression.
“I think she’s right,” Sam reluctantly admitted. “Her theory makes sense. He’s either suicidal, which I doubt, or he believes he’s not going to live long.” Sam bit the inside of her lip. “Hearing that he has a life threatening disease could have beena trigger. He wants to end this before fate does it for him. Or it could be something else entirely, something that makes sense to him but not to us.”
Seth replied, “We need a plan to flush him out, to speed up the process.”
From the time he arrived in Cape Town a couple of weeks back, he’d known—sensed—Leah was inextricably linked to the situation, to him being back in the city. From the moment he first heard about his father and his connection to Leah, he’d known—on a subconscious, gut-deep level—she was part of the situation and that he might, if needed to, have to use her in some way to resolve the situation. It wasn’t something he’d actively thought about, it was just what his experience gained in shitty places sorting out shitty situations had taught him.
He sucked in a deep breath. “I have a plan. I’m going to use Leah to get to him.”
His heart slammed against his ribs as he spoke the words that he couldn’t take back. His idea went against every instinct he had of a man sleeping with a woman he cared for, liked, the woman he might be falling for.
But when he pushed that aside and looked at the situation as the COO of Pytheon, as the man who made the tough decisions, it was the only way to stop The Recruiter.
God, he was risking Leah, putting Leah in danger, to capture his father. Fuck.
Do your job, Halcott. Earn the big bucks they are paying you and make the tough call. Seth knew he had to back himself, back his skills, his training. He’d never let anything happen to her.
“You’re going to use Leah, Jed’s sister, as bait?” Sam asked, her eyes wide.
“Ballsy,” Jett murmured.
“He knows his way to me is through her and our way to him is through her.”
Sam sent him a sympathetic look. “It’s complicated, a huge risk, Seth. And Jed will not be happy.”
Like his affair with Leah, Jed didn’t need to know. At least until it was all over and Leah was safe.
“I don’t like using people in our operations who haven’t been trained.” Stone stated, his tone hard. “I especially don’t like using people who have a personal connection to us.”
And Stone thought Seth did? If he could think of something else, anything else, did Stone really think Seth wouldn’t take that option? He didn’t want to do this, he had no other choice!
“It’s a hard decision, Stone, and not one I want to make but don’t have any other options. And...” Seth insisted, running his hand over his face. “I won’t be doing this alone...I have Jett, and our local Pytheon operative seems competent. I’m sure he has people who can provide backup. Look, I still need to discuss this with Leah, see if she’s on board with doing this. If she’s not then arguing about this is pointless.”
Leah, a part of him begged, please dig your heels in, and refuse to do this...
“She’ll be safe. We’ve all done this fifty times before in a lot worse places. We know how to do this,” Jett said and Seth appreciated his support.
“I’ll do it.”
Seth whipped around at Leah’s firm voice and swore under his breath as she walked back into the room and over to where he stood.
Stone looked concerned. “Are you sure, Leah? If not, we’ll get you on the first plane out of there.”
Leah lifted her chin. “I’m not going to run. I want this over with. I want my life back.” She looked down at Seth and lifted one shoulder. “I’ll be your bait.”
A part of Seth felt like screaming that she should run but they were just delaying the inevitable. His father wouldn’t give up. They needed to stand and fight. But, damn, he was super proud of her. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Leah managed a very small smile. “Because if you do, Jed will use you as shark chum.”
Seth wanted to tell her he had no intention of losing her, that he couldn’t live in a world that didn’t have her in it. They didn’t have to be a forever and ever couple for him to care, deeply, about her.
“It’s a huge risk,” Stone said, his face and eyes worried.
Leah nodded and then shrugged again. “It is, but Seth is right. He targeted me for a reason and I’m the link, the way to end this. Seth once said he has to make hard decisions, well, this is one of them. I’m doing this, it’s happening.”
Although it was his idea, Seth didn’t like it.
At—fucking—all.
“I’m glad you got arrested.”
Leah, lying half on and half off Seth’s chest, lifted her head to look at him. She’d been on the edge of falling asleep, properly relaxed from an amazing bout of lovemaking, but Seth’s comment jerked her awake.
“Getting arrested was a small
price to pay for this.” She teased as her fingers ran up and down his ribcage.
Seth squirmed and trapped her hand between his ribs and his arm. So, the big, bad operative was ticklish...good to know.
“Do you know why I was in the hotel bar that night?” Seth asked, his index fingers pushing her hair off her forehead.
When he was like this, with her, she saw another side of Seth, someone who wasn’t big and badass. This man, lying in bed with her, was softer, almost gentle, more open than he usually was. The sex was phenomenal, it really was, but peeking behind Seth’s emotional armor made her feel like she’d won the lottery.
“Tell me,” Leah answered.
Seth never spoke about the past, his or hers, so she was intrigued to hear what he was about to say.
“I had to leave the reception because I, instinctively, wanted to knock the asshat’s block off.”
“Why?”
“Because I was so effing jealous that he got to take you to bed that night and not me,” Seth admitted, his voice barely more than a growl.
Leah felt her heart stutter, stumble, before it sat in the corner and sighed.
Leah lifted her hand to place it on the side of his face. “I felt your eyes on me as I walked down the aisle. I wanted to look at you but I knew that if I did I might—”
“Might what?” Seth demanded, the tips of his fingers digging into the skin above her left butt cheek.
“Do something stupid.” Leah lifted her shoulders and her nipples scraped along the warm skin on his chest. “That’s why I avoided you when you came out to see Jed and McKenna. You made me doubt myself.”
His eyes gleamed and she smiled at the satisfaction she saw on his face. “Yeah? How?”
“Well, I wondered how I could want to strip you naked and do you on the nearest surface when I was supposed to be madly in love with my about-to-be husband. I told myself that you were a very good-looking guy, that feeling attracted to someone else was normal, that it didn’t mean anything.” Leah wiggled up his body so they were eye to eye. “That could also be because I was having very infrequent, very crappy sex,” she told him.
She hadn’t meant to say that but, as she was finding out, Seth was rapidly becoming her best friend, the person she could say anything to. How had that happened? How could she, in such a short space in time—three weeks—feel so connected to someone when she’d hadn’t had a quarter of the same connection with the man she intended to spend the rest of her life with?
Seth placed his hand over her breast and squeezed, his thumb sliding over her nipple and sending little bolts of pleasure dancing over her skin.
Seth’s arm around her back tightened as he pulled her to him in a quick hug. “You dodged a bullet, Leah.”
“I really did.”
Despite the threat hanging over their heads, she was having an amazing time, in bed and out, with a man who made her feel stunningly alive and indescribably sexy. She hadn’t needed Milo’s sex toy gift after her train wreck wedding, she’d just needed Seth.
“You’re giggling,” Seth said, lifting his fingers to her cheek. “Why?”
“Um...well, I was just thinking about the present Milo brought me after Heath cheated on me and I was thinking that you are so much better,” Leah answered, her eyes going to the bedside table where she’d tossed the still boxed, unused vibrator.
Seth, as sharp as a scalpel, immediately rolled over her, yanked the drawer open and pulled out the box containing the sex toy. “He brought you a dildo?” he asked, openly amused.
“That’s Milo.”
Leah reached for the box but Seth’s arms were longer and he just held the box out of her reach. He rolled back, sat up, and pulled the lid off the package. “Let’s see how it compares.”
Leah blushed. “Will you please put it back?” she demanded, feeling panicky and embarrassed.
“C’mon, it’ll be fun.”
Jeez, she’d barely had a sex life before he came along and now he wanted her to play with a sex toy? Leah swallowed and looked at the luminous pink object he pulled from the box. How could she go back to that after he left?
And he would leave.
Oh, she knew that it was easier and safer, emotionally, to find sexual fulfillment with a toy than to take a chance on a man who might hurt her. Hell, she was taking a chance on a man and she knew he would hurt her. He was just in her bed for the sex, in a couple of days, weeks, he’d be gone and, once again, she would be left alone.
With her shocking pink dildo.
Leah felt tears in the back of her throat. She would be left holding the heart that she so badly wanted to give away, desperate for a man, for Seth, to take possession of it, to cherish it...her. She didn’t want to play games...sex games, fun games, dating games. She didn’t want to play at all. Dammit, she wanted a relationship, a shot of a future with one man who loved her. She wanted the bickering and the late night phone calls when they were apart, she wanted the random “pick up milk” or “meet me in bed” texts. She wanted the inside jokes, to exchange long looks across a crowded room, to slip a hand into his, to kiss him hello. Or goodbye. Or goodnight.
Oh, God, she was having a light bulb moment while her lover held her bright pink vibrator.
Vibrator or not, she wanted to be loved by him so badly. Leah touched the tip of her lip with her tongue, blinking away her tears. Seth was busy inspecting the latex fake-penis, playing with its buttons, and he didn’t notice how upset she was. She would give up everything, her life in Cape Town, her businesses, her properties—definitely that damn vibrator—if it meant there was the smallest chance that Seth might love her.
This wasn’t about being loved by any man, only Seth would do. He was the only person she could, would, consider spending her life with, changing her world for. And all he wanted, she thought as she watched him play with her sex toy, was sex from her.
Could she pick them or what?
Seth placed the head of the vibrating latex cock against her nipple and she jerked back in surprise. Her eyes met his and she shook her head, scooting back on the bed until she could swing her legs over the side. She needed some space, needed some time to think, to find some much needed perspective. She didn’t want to play a sex game with sex toys. She didn’t want to play the game at all.
She wanted everything...or nothing. She didn’t think she could settle for half-ass, not with Seth.
“Leah? Are you okay?” Leah heard the confusion in his voice.
Leah couldn’t look at him, not now. She stood up and walked into the en suite bathroom and for the first time ever, she locked the door behind her. Sliding down the closed door, she placed her head between her knees and begged her heart to change its mind.
You don’t want to be in love with Seth.
Of course I don’t but I think I am.
You can fall out of love.
I’m going to try but I suspect that’s not going to be easy to do.
It’s going to hurt so damn much.
I know. I wish I could help the way I feel.
Seth placed his flat hand on the bathroom door and frowned at the silence behind the door. Something was wrong, he’d said or done something to upset Leah but he was in the dark as to where he’d gone off the rails. Then again, they had been discussing her super brief marriage and that was a subject that came with its own set of land mines. Seth clenched his hand into a fist, about to knock on the door but he pulled away, not sure what he’d achieve if he entered the bathroom.
Leah was a puzzle, a conundrum, a mind-boggling mystery. She was a combination of savvy businesswoman and wild child, tough when she needed to be but never brittle. She was empathetic and sensitive yet she had a strong practical streak that reminded him of Jed. She could be fierce and strong yet feminine and flirty and she fascinated him. He suspected he could live with Leah for six decades and there would still be facets of her he’d yet to explore.
She was unlike anyone he’d ever met, fascinating and mysterious, sexy
and sweet. He wanted to dive into her, explore the many worlds that made up her crazy mind, but in order to do that he’d have to lose a little control, open himself up to the possibility of a relationship, to commitment, to lo—God, he couldn’t even think the word.
Love. He tested it on his tongue. He’d have to allow himself to consider love and being in love and surrendering to love.
Truth? He’d rather be in Syria dodging bullets.
Being a part of a couple, falling into a relationship, scared the shit out of him. There were no damn guarantees that the way he felt right now would be the way he felt in ten days, ten months, ten years’ time. And, if by some miracle, Leah felt the same it was far more terrifying to think her feelings might change, that the love he’d come to rely on would disappear. What if she woke up one morning and decided he wasn’t what she wanted, that she couldn’t live with his annoying habits, with the fact he was a selfish workaholic? What if she couldn’t live with a man who sometimes had to make some very tough decisions about whether a man lived or died, who saw the stains of his soul and worried she’d be tainted, too?
Would they be able to manage a long distance relationship and, if not, who would have to relocate? Would she be able to leave Cape Town, because leaving New York would mean leaving his job? Even if he could commit—he couldn’t but he was playing the devil’s advocate here—how could he ask her uproot her life, give up her career, move continents to be with him?
Seth rested his forehead on the bathroom door and felt like a jackhammer was digging up the back of his skull. There were too many variables and far too many what ifs. The chances of them making it were sliver slim and while he was prepared to risk his ass on slim chances, he wouldn’t risk his heart. No, it was better if they stopped the madness now and put some distance between them.
Safer, smarter...and possibly the hardest thing he’d ever had to do in his life.
Chapter Ten
Seth watched as Jett steered his rented car down the driveway and out through Leah’s gates. Seth stood on the stone patio in front of Leah’s front door and looked towards the street. The skin on the back of his neck tingled and his heart rate inched upwards. He was out there, Seth thought, watching. Seth did a casual sweep of the road, noticed the few cars parked on the street. They were all empty. Too obvious for Ben. He could be in a bedroom, behind a lace curtain or hidden by the lush, summer foliage in one of the many oak trees that lined the street. But he was close, Seth could feel him.
