“He’s handsome, too,” Tallie said. “If I wasn’t with Brett, well, I might be interested.”
Angie scoffed. “You have eyes for no one but Brett Wheeler, girlfriend. Don’t even talk like that.”
A goofy grin split Tallie’s face. “I know that, but I’m just saying. Jared is a catch. Don’t you think so, Libby?”
Libby didn’t know everything about herself yet, but she knew she was a talker. Knew she was a social person. But right now she was tongue-tied. These three had surprised her with how insightful they seemed to be about her attraction to Jared. Or maybe it was just that they assumed she must be. He was gorgeous, after all, and she wasn’t blind. Plus she was living in his house while he and the guys did whatever it was they had to do to figure out what kind of trouble she was in.
She started to say something non-committal, but then she decided fuck it. The new Libby—that was the Libby who didn’t know how the old Libby acted and reacted—decided she liked these women. And she wanted to talk about those kisses and how hot they’d been.
She needed to talk about those kisses, or she’d explode.
So she did.
Chapter Sixteen
Once Jared was certain Libby was comfortable with the three women, he went over and told her he had to go upstairs to the office. Maddy was looking at him with an arched eyebrow. Angie might have been smirking. And Tallie made a noise that might have been mmm-hmm.
He looked at the four of them sitting there, looking like they’d been besties forever, and felt something prickling the back of his neck. It wasn’t fear or discomfort or anything like that. But these women were up to no good. He’d bet his last nickel on it.
Maybe he should have told the guys to leave their women at home. Except for Angie, since she worked there. But she could have stayed upstairs and worked on her spreadsheets. That would have been infinitely safer.
Too late now.
“Take your time,” Libby said, waving a hand. “I’ll be fine.”
Colt came over to kiss Angie, then the two of them headed for the elevator. Once the doors closed, Colt laughed.
“Dude, you are in so much trouble.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Hey, you wanted the ladies to make her feel at home. Looks like they’re doing it.”
Yeah, they were. Damn it, he should have considered how this had been likely to go. Maddy, Angie, and Tallie were likable and friendly—and Libby was a talker. There was no chance she wasn’t going to tell them about what’d happened yesterday when he’d kissed her.
The elevator took them to the fifth floor where they headed to Ian’s office and the conference room attached to it. Ian was at the head of the table. Jace Kaiser, Brett Wheeler, Tyler Scott, and Dax Freed were there too. They looked up when Colt and Jared walked in.
“How’s Libby?” Ian asked.
“She’s fine. Enjoying the company of the ladies.”
“You might regret that later,” Brett murmured.
“I heard that,” Jared replied.
Brett grinned. “All I’m saying is you just put your protectee in the company of three intelligent, capable, nosy women who are going to want to know everything that’s happened since you found her.”
“Nothing’s happened,” Jared said. Nothing important anyway. He’d kissed her. And they were probably going to talk about it, but a kiss was just a kiss.
“They’ll be the judge of that,” Jace replied with a laugh.
Jared yanked out a chair and flopped onto it. “I’m protecting Liberty King, not sleeping with her. This is a mission. That’s all.” He crossed his hands in the universal you’re out sign used in baseball. “Nothing to see here. No romance. No love affair. Nothing.”
“I can transfer her protection to someone else if you’d prefer,” Ian said mildly. “Give you back your reading time.”
Jared’s blood was beginning to boil. Just a little bit. “She’s not a pet who needs constant attention. I can read just fine with her in my house.”
Ian shrugged, and Jared got the opinion the boss was enjoying this way too much. The other guys were either coughing politely or trying to hide grins behind masks of indifference.
“Just let me know if you change your mind,” Ian said.
“I’ll do that.” He didn’t clench his teeth when he said it. Barely.
“I assume she hasn’t remembered anything substantial yet.”
“No. But her memories are returning in bits and pieces. I expect she’ll get most of it back in the next few days or weeks. That’s what Dr. Puckett thinks too.”
“We don’t need her to remember anything to keep working on this puzzle, but it’d be nice if she did. The surveillance team watching her apartment hasn’t picked up anything out of the ordinary, by the way. Whoever cased her place hasn’t been back.”
Jared was glad to hear it. Maybe the people looking for her had moved on to a new target. Not that he really believed that, but it was a nice thought.
Ian picked up a remote and clicked it. The overhead projector came to life and a photo appeared on the screen. “Daniel Weir, CEO of Ninja Solutions.”
Weir didn’t look like a typical nerd, but he also didn’t look like someone who was outdoorsy and fit. He was thin, tall, with lanky brown hair and pale skin. He probably had a boyish sort of appeal for women who liked that kind of thing. Jared found himself wondering if Libby was one of those women. Just because she’d responded to him when he’d kissed her didn’t mean she didn’t prefer a desk dweller with a big brain.
“Formed the company three years ago, made a big splash with a software program he designed that helped increase satellite targeting accuracy in tests. Started work on the exoskeleton afterwards, known as the RIM project, and threw all his resources behind it. Moved to the Chantilly offices last year, hired more workers, expanded operations. Wines and dines with the Washington elite frequently, which is how he managed to get research funds thrown his direction. The prototype test results are spectacular, and the Army wants to move forward with the project. Everything’s coming up roses for Mr. Weir.”
“Which means he’d be pretty upset if it all went sideways,” Jared said, a hard knot sitting in his belly as he studied the slides.
“Ten-four,” Ian said, clicking over to a new slide. “Weir just got engaged to Jessica Klein, daughter of Congressman Klein. He’s building a big house in Potomac with stables for Jessica’s dressage horses, he recently bought a Ferrari, and Jessica is planning a wedding with a rumored half-mil budget.” Ian clicked a couple of slides. “It goes on and on. The usual for a newly rich man looking to get even richer and more connected.”
“Meaning he has a lot of debt,” Jared said.
“Bingo,” Ian replied. “If he sells his RIM suits to the Army—which it looks like he’s about to do—he’s got every reason to expect earnings to continue rising.”
Jared knew that Ian would have had to tap into his sources to learn that information since he wasn’t officially involved in military channels—but Ian’s contacts went deep. He could learn just about anything if he was determined enough.
“He’d have a lot of incentive to make sure his proprietary plans didn’t get into the wrong hands. If he thought someone had stolen them with the intent to sell or share, he might hire a couple of mercenaries to shake that person down for the goods and then dispose of her,” Dax said.
Jared didn’t like the thought that Libby could have stolen top secret information, but he couldn’t refuse to consider it. “She didn’t have anything on her when I found her,” Jared said. “And she didn’t have it when she was abducted either. If she had, they’d have found it.”
“Could be inside her head,” Colt said.
“It could be,” Jared replied. “It’s possible she lost her memory before she could tell them what they wanted to know.”
“Do you think she could have stolen the RIM plans and hid them somewhere? Or some other information to do with the project that co
uld blow the whole thing to pieces?” Jace asked. “It would explain why her apartment was trashed.”
Jared blew out a breath. “I don’t know. It’s possible.”
“Her background doesn’t indicate an obvious need for money,” Ian said. “There’s no relative with an incurable disease and no unusual debt. Not that others haven’t stolen top secret files and sold them to the highest bidder without obvious incentives other than money. It certainly happens. Somebody gets sick of the rat race and envisions escaping to an island, or maybe they live on the edge of wealth and want it for themselves. And if it’s not plans she possesses, but information related to the project, then what could be the end game there?”
“No idea,” Jared said. He wanted to defend her, but he didn’t. He had to look at this like he would any other operation. Coldly. Objectively. Just because he’d spent the past few days with her didn’t mean he knew who she was inside, even if he felt like he did. Even if she’d been embarrassed to let him buy clothes for her and thanked him at every turn for it, that didn’t mean she wasn’t capable of selling information for the kind of big money that could change a life.
But everything within him told him she wasn’t the kind of person to steal top secret files and sell them for personal gain. Hell, she came from a family where the kids were named for patriotic ideals and people. She would have been raised to love her country, not hate it. That didn’t preclude someone from betraying their country for financial gain, though. Everyone in this room had seen it happen before.
“I’m setting up a meeting with Weir,” Ian said. “As an interested buyer in his exoskeleton, of which I’ve heard rumors. Since the Army contract isn’t final, he might be seeking other buyers in the interim.”
Jared perked up at that. “When?”
“I’ve got Melanie arranging for sometime this week. We’re inviting him to BDI.”
“I want to be here when it happens.”
Ian nodded. “I figured that.” He turned back to the screen. “Here’s Ninja Solutions’ organizational hierarchy. There are a few others with access to the project. Engineers especially, but also corporate officers such as the CFO. That would be Nate Anderson, pictured here.”
This guy was less of a brainy type than Daniel Weir. Forty-ish, with boyish good looks, he was the sort who would attract female attention. The sort who could manipulate it too.
“Forty-one, divorced, and pissed off about it. His wife gets a huge alimony check every month, and there’s a buttload of child support too. A leading candidate for disgruntled employee looking to make a quick buck, but absolutely no evidence that points to him. In short, no plans or files we can find anywhere, but it’s clear that someone thinks Libby took something important to the RIM project.”
“Or somebody wanted it to look that way,” Jared said.
Ian nodded. “That too.” He flicked to a new slide. “Here’s what the IT department found on those IDs you captured. The guns were registered to these men, so nothing wrong there.”
There were three men listed, with photos. Beard Man, a.k.a. Joe Boggs, and Gaiter Man, aka Luke Byrd, had served in the infantry. Eight years enlistment each with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Boggs had an other than honorable discharge, and Byrd had an honorable discharge. Robert Sorrel didn’t have any military history, but he sometimes worked with the other two in the company they’d started. It was called B&B Security and they advertised that no job was too small or too dirty to take on. They were based in Reston and they’d been around for a little over four years.
“Any bodies yet?” Jared asked.
“Not yet. Whoever cleaned the site did a professional job. I don’t imagine anything’ll turn up at any point in the next year. If ever. But the dogs are safe. They were dropped off yesterday at a no-kill shelter twenty miles from the mountain. When they were scanned for microchips, Sorrel’s name came up.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Jared said. He didn’t like the idea of innocent animals getting hurt. He’d left the dogs with Sorrel because it was clear the man cared for them. Jared had figured Ian’s clean up crew would take care of the dogs along with the man. Except nobody’d been there when they’d arrived.
“Guess one of them phoned whoever’d hired them and said they’d found Libby,” Brett mused. “When they didn’t make contact as scheduled, somebody went looking.”
Ian nodded. “And that somebody had access to a clean-up crew that could get out there fast, in the snow, and sanitize the site.”
Jared really didn’t like the implications of that thought. “Whoever wants to find Libby isn’t an amateur, no matter that B&B Security fucked up the job in the first place.”
“Nope,” Ian replied. “I expect we’ve got a state actor here. Or quite possibly someone in the Gemini Syndicate. They’d try to keep their distance at first, but I don’t think that’s possible any longer.”
A chill shot down Jared’s spine. They all knew the Gemini Syndicate meant trouble. Probably more trouble than Russia or China trying to buy American secrets. “I don’t think Boggs and Byrd were expecting this to be a hard job. They got careless—and they underestimated Libby’s will to escape.”
“Plus they damned sure didn’t count on you,” Brett said.
“They really didn’t. It probably would’ve worked out for them if she’d run into anybody but me.” A frightening thought, but true.
“Yeah, if you hadn’t been there, they’d have found her. If she’d still been alive when they did, they’d have probably gotten what they wanted out of her and whoever’d hired them would’ve been satisfied. But they lost her, and that put a serious kink in someone’s plans.”
Jace looked grim. “You realize that if it is Gemini behind this, we really need to watch Libby’s back. Because they have the best assassin in the business and they won’t let anyone fuck this up a second time.”
Ian frowned. “Let’s pray it’s not them—because if they’ve sent Calypso to capture or kill Libby King, this job just got a whole lot harder.”
“I liked them,” Libby said. “Thanks for asking them to stay with me.”
Jared shot her a glance as he drove. He seemed more intense than he had last night, if that were possible. “I’m glad you had a good time.”
Libby bit her lip and tried not to smile. She’d told the women about Jared kissing her last night. About him backing away, too. They’d exchanged looks, of course.
“Jared keeps to himself a lot,” Maddy’d said. “But I’ve known him long enough to know that even though he’s quiet and contemplative, there’s a lot going on beneath the surface.”
Tallie had nodded. “Still waters run deep. My daddy always said that.”
“I’ve never seen him bring anyone to any of our get-togethers,” Angie had added. “Not that I’ve been around all that long, but Jared is always alone at every function.”
“Honestly, I was wondering if he was gay,” Tallie’d said.
Maddy had spluttered. Angie’d laughed. Libby’s jaw had dropped. Tallie had spread her hands. “I wouldn’t care if he was, of course. I’ve puzzled over it though, believe me. He’s neat, he reads a lot, he cooks, his house is nice, and I’ve never seen him with a woman even though he’s so gorgeous he can’t have any trouble getting a date. So I was starting to wonder. When I asked Brett once, he just laughed like I’d said the funniest thing. He told me there was no way Jared was gay, but I wondered if maybe he was just clueless.”
Libby’d grinned. “Jared is very neat. And he does read a lot. But believe me, there was definitely something going on in his pants when he kissed me.” She’d sighed. “Something I really wanted to get closer to.”
Libby still couldn’t believe she’d been so honest with three women she didn’t know, but they’d made her feel normal for a while. Like not knowing who she really was inside didn’t matter. She was a woman who wanted a man who was trying to be noble for reasons of his own, and that was enough to talk and puzzle over for better than an hour.
It was the considered opinion of all three women that if Jared kissed her again, she shouldn’t let him stop until they’d both had at least two orgasms. Preferably more, for her at least.
She swallowed a laugh as heat bloomed in her cheeks. For some reason, she hadn’t gotten embarrassed with those three, but thinking like this now, with Jared beside her, made the blushes come back.
“What are you thinking about?” Jared asked, startling her.
Libby dragged in a calming breath and shot him a smile. “Nothing much. Why?”
He studied her for a second before turning his gaze back to the road. They’d come to a stop light, so he had more time to look. His hands flexed on the wheel. “You’re blushing again, that’s why.”
Libby rolled her head back against the headrest. “Can’t a girl have some private thoughts without you always trying to butt in? I thought you liked quiet, not all this chattering.”
His eyes were wide as he looked at her again. It was all she could do not to laugh. His gaze narrowed as her lips twitched. “I don’t chatter.”
“You do when you want to know what I’m thinking about. Maybe I’m thinking about that romance novel. Did you ever consider that? It was pretty racy, you know.”
“Was it?”
“Yes. The duke was quite, er, thorough in his attentions.”
“And you liked that.”
“Who wouldn’t? He focused all his passion on the heroine and it was pretty spectacular. And yes, blush-worthy.”
He snorted. “I’m not sure I believe you.”
“Oh really? Maybe you should read the book. Then you’ll know.”
“I’m sure the book is just as you described. I’m not sure I believe that’s what you were thinking about.”
He sounded smug. So smug that she decided it would be fun to take some of the wind from his sails. “Tallie thought you were gay.”
“What?!” He drove into the parking lot of the restaurant where they were picking up takeout and turned to stare at her once they’d come to a stop.
Black Knight (A Black's Bandits Novel): HOT Heroes for Hire: Mercenaries Page 13
