She grabbed the bottom of his shirt and tugged until it slipped up his arms and off him. While it floated to the floor, she gave in to her desire to kiss and touch that firm chest.
A rip of a zipper drowned out their heavy breathing and soft pleas to go faster. The denim brushed down her legs. He lifted off her then returned to press his weight onto her.
Her fingers traveled down his stomach until they hit the top of his bandage. Somewhere in the back of her head an alarm bell dinged.
She broke off the crushing kiss. “Are you okay to do this?”
“You’re asking that now?” He sounded stunned at her timing.
When he ducked his head to kiss the top of her breast, she pushed against him. “I’m serious.”
“Are you really worried about this?” He was panting as need clouded his eyes.
She slipped her hand under his waistband, knowing her words and her actions collided in ways that didn’t make much sense. “I don’t want to rupture your—”
He captured her mouth and rolled her back over. When she lifted her head, her legs straddled his waist and his back rested against the mattress. “Better?”
She could hear the laughter in his voice.
When she sat up, he groaned. His erection pressed against her and his hands fell to her hips.
At the intimate touch her brain went fuzzy. “Condom?”
“One in my pocket.”
Not the answer she expected. “Really?”
“Pax and Davis brought it when they dropped off the clothes...whenever that was. Days ago? It’s all blending.” His hands slipped over her stomach and his thumb dipped lower. “Do we have to talk about this now?”
One, two, three, he brushed against her through her panties. Her body melted as her breath came on soft pants. Happiness bubbled up inside her when she saw the look of wonder on his face as he watched his hand move over her.
She leaned down and kissed him then. Sighed when she felt him unclip her bra and slip his palms around to cup her breasts. While his hands toured her body, she slipped her fingers in his pocket and pulled out the packet.
The move put her flat against him, bare chest to bare chest. “You feel so good against me,” he mumbled against her neck.
“Yes.” Every inch of her fit snug and perfect against him.
When he tugged at her shirt, she sat up and stripped it off. Those blue eyes wandered over her skin as a smile fell across his lips. “Beautiful.”
“This is a much better date.”
His hand slipped behind her neck and brought her closer. “One favor?”
She’d give him just about anything if he kissed her again. “Sure.”
“Ride me.”
Chapter Eighteen
Bruce paced the confines of his cell. The walls closed in tighter today than usual.
He’d been waiting for a status check-in for hours. The two calls to his lawyer had gone unanswered. No one had picked up to accept the collect call.
Stephen had disobeyed one too many times. Bruce detested insubordination, especially when it came from pseudo-powerful men who forgot their places. Bruce would remind him.
Firing him would be too easy. Finding a new lawyer would only push back the timing of his case and send the wrong message to the already tight-fisted judge.
No, Bruce decided to punish Stephen in a way he would remember. Give him pain only the two of them would know was self-inflicted. After all, how hard could it be to arrange for the “accidental” overdose of a college kid with access to too much cash?
But first Bruce needed to know what was happening. Killing Jeremy fed a need inside Bruce. It also satisfied his thirst for revenge. Most importantly, it put him one giant step closer to getting out of a cell and back to his life.
Then he’d turn his attention to the prosecutor. Take out Garrett Hill to complete the revenge. There was no need Bruce could see for either Hill brother to live. At least, not when Bruce had already decided to kill the women.
Steady footsteps sounded from the far end of the cell block. The pattern never changed. The guard started at one end, the same end, and walked to the other. He’d stop once or twice. Bang his nightstick against the bars to make sure he had everyone’s attention.
Bruce ticked off the pattern in his head until the footsteps slowed outside his cell. He waited for a note to drop to the floor.
Nothing.
The guard reached the far end of the cell and turned. Bruce saw the facial profile. Saw the slight shake of his head.
His blood burned through his veins. His inside man had broken contact. He’d better have a very good excuse or he’d be sharing a hole in the dirt with Jeremy.
* * *
JEREMY CLIMBED OUT of bed, careful not to shake the mattress or wake Meredith. He had to check on Pax, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t spare a minute to stare at her.
She was the woman he’d never asked for and always assumed didn’t exist. She’d seen violence and rather than cave in, she thrived. Because of him she’d been dragged all over San Diego County—with a gun pointed at her head most of the time—with no explanations, and she’d never balked.
And the sex was pure fire. If he could even call it sex. Hot and sweaty. All hands and mouths, legs and arms. But there was a spark of something else there, too. Something deep and important, and because it scared the shit out of him he pushed it out of his head.
Conquering fear and facing violence required strength. Walking willingly into it, inviting it into your life on a daily basis, required a different level of commitment and more than a little bit of a death wish. For the first time he understood Garrett’s desperation about losing Sara and being left alone, even as he feared he would destroy her.
Jeremy wanted Meredith safe but he wanted her with him, and those two things just didn’t fit together.
His gaze bounced back to her long hair spread over the pillow. Her body, from her long legs to those knowing hands, wrapped around what was his pillow. The lady was a cuddler. With a body like that, he didn’t complain. She could lie all over him any time she wanted.
One tanned leg peeked out from under the white sheet. Those pink toenails. He’d spent a lot of time admiring the color as he kissed every inch of her.
Much more of this and he’d be climbing back into bed and ignoring Pax’s head. Before Jeremy could weigh those options and put Pax at greater risk without good reason, he tore his gaze away from her. He scanned the floor for his pants, figuring Pax wouldn’t appreciate a naked guy hovering over him calling his name.
The jeans lay in a pile on the floor. Jeremy had no idea how they got... Oh, that’s right. He smiled at the memory of her dragging the pants down his legs. That one would stay with him for a very long time. Probably had something to do with the fact she was naked at the time.
He picked the jeans up and turned them around to double-check for another condom. A guy could hope. Since Pax was good enough to include the first, it was worth a try.
The bump under Jeremy’s fingertip had him pulling the pants closer for an inspection. At first he thought it was some type of store security tag, but the shape and size were wrong.
He rubbed and picked until the black dot came off in his hand. A closer look told him exactly what he needed to know and probably should have suspected. A tracking device. Small but effective. The bad guys knew where to race them off the road because they knew where Jeremy was at all times.
Bruce didn’t have this sort of technology. Despite his belief that he ran a huge operation, he was a loser who couldn’t find a real job so he turned to the easier occupation of drug runner.
Jeremy closed his hand, prepared to crush the device. Then he opened his fingers again.
Think.
Bruce might not know computers, but he had the money to pay off people who did. One of those people sat in a garage with his brother right now. Only a few people knew every move and could try to cut them all off with gunfire. The list narrowed significantly when it came to the la
st attack. The person had to depend on the tracker, which meant Jeremy knew who it was. A man who’d had one opportunity to plant the device.
Without rustling the curtains or causing any visible sign of movement that could be seen outside, he peeked out the window. The night remained quiet.
Jeremy squinted to get a better look. The only difference was the presence of two cars sitting up the road. Two black sedans that resembled the one Jeremy borrowed.
They were here and setting up, likely waiting for the right opportunity to move. When they attacked, he’d be in trouble because Pax couldn’t hold his head up and Meredith shouldn’t have to fight. Her stamina surpassed his, but she still wasn’t an expert. Logging in hours at the shooting range didn’t change that.
That meant Jeremy needed a new plan. One that would end this and draw out the mole. The only question was—how many people would die in the process? He didn’t have anyone on his side he was willing to sacrifice.
Except the mole.
He grabbed his cell and slipped into the bathroom, but left the door open a crack in case Meredith needed him. Since he kept staring at her, he knew which one of them was needy.
Garrett picked up on the first ring. Jeremy launched into his speech before Garrett said a word. “I’m texting you our location. We need a plan to flush out the mole. I think I know who it is, but it’s going to be dangerous.”
As if that ever mattered to him.
He glanced at Meredith’s bare leg again. Followed the line of her body to the side of her sweet face.
For some reason, it mattered now.
Chapter Nineteen
“Is everything okay?” Sara waited to ask Garrett until they were alone and crowded together over the tiny sink.
Ever since he’d answered the last call, he’d been jumpy. Not that other people would notice. No, on the surface he maintained his smooth control. She saw the cracking lines in the worried stares into nothing and constant tugging at his ear.
Instead of standing beside her, he rested his palms against the counter, trapping her between them with his chest pressed to her back. When she tried to turn around, he lowered his face to her hair.
“We have a plan.”
She froze at the sound of his whisper. She didn’t ask if this new plot was dangerous, because almost everything he did was. “What can I do?”
“I’ll need your acting skills.”
She turned in his arms then and stared into those blue eyes she loved so much. “How do you know I have any?”
“You told me you were in plays in high school.”
She’d mentioned it once in passing while he read the paper. She never would have guessed he heard her. “So, I’m part of the plan?”
“An integral part.”
“This is a first.”
“You’re not the only one who’s learned something about us.”
Her breath caught in her throat and held there. She dared to hope. “What did you learn?”
“That I can trust you. I should have known it all the time, but—”
“You were slow.”
“That’s the Coronado thing.” He reached down and took her hand in his, pressing tiny kisses along each knuckle. “I’m sorry. I’ll spend forever trying to make it up to you.”
His gaze met hers and held. The promise she saw there filled her with a giddiness she could barely contain.
But he needed to know she now had boundaries. “Just don’t lie to me again. Don’t shut me out.”
Instead of making his usual excuses and changing the subject, he nodded. “You’re in.”
He kissed her. His mouth lingered and the heat built. He chuckled when he pulled back. “Now probably isn’t the time, though it kills me to say that.”
She stepped out of his arms, thinking some space might put them back in a work mood. “Are you going to brief all of us?”
“The only ones who know about this will be you and Ellis.”
“Ellis?” Not the name she was expecting.
“I need his men.”
But that didn’t explain the obvious question. “Why me?”
“Because there’s no one I trust more in the world than you.”
A sudden lightness burst through her. He finally said the right thing.
* * *
THE CARS ARRIVED at dawn, just like Jeremy said they would. In a weird nod to forgetting all signs of secrecy, the team piled out of the SUVs, talking but staying together in a tight formation as they headed for the opposite side of the building.
The only people missing were the Secret Service agents. Meredith wondered how Jeremy had managed that.
The men surrounded Sara, and the two suits from Garrett’s agency had also joined in the fun. The scowl on Garrett’s face could stop a man’s heart. He’d tried to keep Sara out of this side of his life and now she was all up in it. Meredith couldn’t imagine what that did to his sense of balance.
Davis turned and aimed his keys at the van. The alarm chirped. Yeah, nothing silent about this entrance.
Meredith shook her head, wondering if this was what happened when a man came up with a plan after sex. Very strange. Not what she’d seen from Jeremy so far.
A noise behind her had Meredith spinning around. Jeremy came out with a towel wrapped around his waist and another hanging around his neck. Her body flushed from the sight of him as that giddy buzz hit her head.
Her gaze touched on his chest and all the other places her mouth had explored the night before. Sara’s words came back like a lightning bolt. It was far too easy to fall for a Hill brother.
“What do you think?” he asked as he lifted his chin and turned his head from side to side.
The new haircut threw her off for a second. Jeremy now wore a military cut identical to his brother’s. The severe style made Jeremy seem older, more stiff. Something about his previous scruffier look had fit his personality. She half expected this version to start issuing orders.
“That’s just weird.” She ran her fingers over the top, missing the soft strands that had fallen through her fingers last night.
After a quick kiss, he threw the towel from around his neck to the chair by the bathroom. “The point is to fool the bad guys.”
He tossed the argument off. To him it probably meant nothing, but she wanted to be sure he saw himself as she did.
“Your identity is about more than your haircut. It starts in here.” She touched her palm to her heart. “And travels to here.” She tapped his head.
After all those hours of pillow talk, he still didn’t understand who he was, separate from the badge and the birthright.
He wiggled his eyebrows. “There are other body parts you could touch.”
“Behave.” The order died when she smiled. She couldn’t help it. Happiness flooded through her today.
Her emotions yo-yoed. One minute she thought they could try something without the threat of danger. Other times she knew to her soul this was the only time they’d have and she should treasure it.
“And for the record, you can tell the difference between me and Garrett. You and Sara.” He let his arms fall loose around her waist. “The bad guys will just see hair and react to that.”
“You’re awfully calm even though the guys you’re talking about are right outside and loaded down with weapons.”
“They have been since we got here.” He kissed the base of her throat.
She shoved against his shoulders until he pulled back and looked at her. “What?”
“I saw them last night when I went to check on Pax.”
One more secret added to all the others. “Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I knew they weren’t going to strike. They want me and Garrett together. They needed him to get here first.”
“So, naturally, you brought your brother here.”
His hands traveled down to her butt and lifted her until her body fit snug against his. “It’s going to be fine. You need to trust me on this.”
&nb
sp; She knew he’d hate this part, but she had to say it. “Promise me you won’t take any unnecessary risks. No throwing your body in front of other people or diving to take a bullet meant for a stray dog.”
He gave her a look that let her know what he thought of her exaggeration. “Meredith, I have a plan.”
“So you keep saying.”
He sobered. “No matter what happens, I need you to know I’m fine.”
“That’s just cryptic enough to make me uncomfortable.” Maybe she would have accepted that a week ago. Now she expected the comment to accompany a round of gunfire.
Pretty funny for a woman who’d spent every minute of her life since she’d fallen down the stairs insisting she’d never experience violence again.
“I need my pants.” He tapped her bottom then went looking.
“I guess I can’t convince you to jump in a car with me and run away from here.”
He shot her a look over his shoulder. “You know I can’t.”
“I do. Yes.”
His turn back to her was slow. “Meaning?”
“Next time you launch into a lecture about how terrible you are, remember this moment. When everything is on the line, including your safety, you rush in. You’re that guy.”
“What do you think about ‘that guy’ exactly?”
“I’ll tell you after you finish this operation and actually get that rest you were ordered to take.”
His grin could have broken records. “Deal.”
* * *
LESS THAN FIFTEEN minutes later, the whole team met in a small conference room on the first floor.
Jeremy scanned each of them, looking for any sign he’d tagged the wrong guy. The usual tells—sweating, talking fast, fidgeting—were absent. The collective years of training in the room got them beyond those basics.
No, if the mole was here, and Jeremy knew he was, he’d blend in. He’d cause the damage then weasel out without anyone ever knowing he’d been there.
Everyone took their positions, including the women, without complaint or tipping anyone off to a problem. The rumble of conversation added to the steady buzz of activity. Every person had a job and was doing it.
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