Agent I1: Tristan [01] The D.I.R.E. Agency

by Joni Hahn

  He loved me? If love meant the people closest to him would die because of him, Tristan wanted no part of it. Now, he understood Mitchell like never before.

  Aidan clapped him on the shoulder. Tristan stood and helped Rachel to her feet. He shook his head, refusing the tears their day. “I’m sorry, baby.”

  Rachel hugged him tight. God above, it felt good to hold her. But, he couldn’t do this to her anymore. It would be selfish of him to keep her in his life when pain and danger followed him everywhere.

  Dammit, she could’ve died today.

  “I need to get out of here.” He held her away from him. “You deserve better than a life surrounded by… this.” He nodded at the chaos that had erupted outside.

  Sheriff Andrews and the State Troopers had joined Zach Frederickson and the hospital staff that worked on Robert Naylor.

  “So, I get no say in the matter?”

  His chest burned. If he gave her a say, she’d stay in danger forever. Like Ben told him, this was one of those situations where he told her the way it was going to be.

  Any remaining life fizzled out of Rachel, all color draining from her face. She pulled in her lips over her teeth. “Fine, Tristan. I’m done.” She turned and walked away.

  Paralyzed with shock, he couldn’t believe she acquiesced so easily.

  Aidan turned him around and got in his face. “You’re a freaking asshole, you know that? She’s lost everything today and now you’re deserting her, too? You selfish bastard.”

  “I don’t want her to live like this.”

  “Use your head, Jacobs. Who’s her father? Her brothers? She’s in it, whether you want her there or not.” He left Tristan standing in the hallway alone. “Prick.”

  Aidan was right. Rachel would live in the thick of this stuff for the rest of her life. She needed him around to protect her. He didn’t trust her safety to anyone else.

  Tristan slumped his shoulders. Would he ever get this relationship crap right?

  He hoped Rachel had the patience and love to forgive him.

  #####

  Rachel sat in Ben’s chair, clutching his pillow to her chest. She couldn’t believe he was gone. He’d sat here talking to her an hour ago.

  “You’re richer than Brewster, now.”

  Aidan sat on the edge of Ben’s bed, his hands braced behind him. She’d forbidden him to touch her after what he’d done to her earlier at the house.

  “I’d rather be poor and have Ben back.”

  “With all of Dad’s medical bills paid off, you wouldn’t have been poor any longer, anyway.”

  She turned to stare at her brother. “What are you talking about?”

  Aidan sat there with a dear-in-the-headlights look. Oh no, what else?

  “Uhhh…”

  “I paid them off.”

  Her gaze shot to the door. Tristan stood just inside, his hand propped against the doorframe. Why did she feel the overwhelming need to run and throw her arms around him, when he had turned her away?

  She lifted her chin. “Why?”

  Aidan rose from the bed. “Uh, maybe I’ll step out for-“

  “No Aidan, stay.” Right now, she needed to know she wasn’t alone.

  Tristan looked at Aidan and tipped back his head. Aidan rushed from the room.

  “Aidan…” So much for brotherly support.

  Deserting her seemed more along Dar’s speed.

  Tristan stepped inside and shut the door. Looking around the room, his eyes bounced off of every item. When his gaze finally landed on her, there were tears in his eyes.

  That was her undoing.

  “Oh, Tris…” Jumping up, she took his hand. He pulled her to him and crushed her in his embrace. He buried his face in her hair.

  The poor man had never known love like this. Ben had probably been more of a father figure to Tristan than Mitchell ever had. Tristan had connected with Ben in a way few people had. They’d talked, laughed and played cards like old friends.

  For a man who didn’t want to care, Tristan had racked up quite a list these days between Ben, Glenna, Mark and Ty. After seeing them fight and make up within hours, Aidan, too.

  “I’m sorry, baby. I’m no good at this.” He pulled away to stare down into her eyes. “You’ve been through hell today – this week – and I could only think about getting you out of it. It never occurred to me that I just need to be there for you.”

  “You’re my anchor, Tris. In all of this madness, you’re the only thing that’s kept me sane.” She caressed his cheek. “I need you.”

  He gave her a sweet, slow kiss on the lips. “God, Rachel, I can’t do this without you, either. I love you too much to let you go.”

  She couldn’t keep the smile from her face. “I love you too, Tris.”

  Staring into her eyes, he kissed her again. “Earlier today, the old man gave me some advice…”

  She played with the hair at his nape. “He did?”

  “He said that in some situations, I need to let you have your way and in others, I need to tell you how it’s going to be.”

  “Oh really?” She gave him a haughty brow. “That sounds like Ben.”

  He took a deep breath and let it out. “Well, Rachel, this is one of those situations where I tell you how it’s going to be.”

  She gave him a haughty brow. “Do you have these dictator tendencies often?”

  Smiling, he said, “No, but they’re growing on me.” Taking her hand in his, he kissed it. “Marry me, Rachel. When all of this chaos is done, let’s go to Dunnattor Castle and get married by the North Sea.”

  Despite her horrific day, Rachel’s heart soared. Was it crazy to say yes when she’d only known him a week? Yet, she felt closer to Tristan than any other person on earth. She didn’t want to live without him.

  “Yes, yes.” She threw her arms around his waist.

  Grinning, Tristan kissed her hard on the mouth.

  “He didn’t get my permission.” Aidan walked in, a huge grin on his face.

  “He doesn’t need it.” Rachel stared into her fiancé’s beautiful blue eyes.

  “Ben wanted it, you know,” Tristan said, “I think he had us married last Tuesday.”

  With a sad smile, she hugged Tristan tight. “I’m going to miss him so much.”

  Tristan kissed her hair. “We all will.”

  Chapter 16

  Tristan held Rachel in his lap on the sofa, her head against his shoulder. Aidan, Kate and Mitchell sat around them in the otherwise deserted waiting room. Rachel wouldn’t look at Kate and frankly, Tristan couldn’t blame her. She’d been through a lot today.

  Mitchell hung up his phone. “Tristan, Robinson will be here in the morning to replace your high frequency generator. If more work is needed, we’ll have to fly you back to HQ.”

  “Brazil will be a sonovabitch if he can’t get it done here.”

  Rachel’s fingers toyed with Tristan’s hand. “Do you think the deal will still go down?”

  “Oh yes,” Mitchell said. “Bobby always has a backup plan. And with that much money involved, there is no doubt in my mind it’s going down, one way or the other.”

  “Sounds dangerous.” Rachel frowned.

  Mitchell glanced at Aidan. “That’s why I’m sending Monroe, too.”

  Aidan sat up. “You think I’m ready?”

  “Ready or not, you’re going.”

  “What’s he going to do?” Rachel gave a small smile. “Run around shocking everybody?”

  Mitchell gave her a raised brow. “Rachel, you’d be surprised what he can do.”

  The surgeon, Dr. Brentwood, walked into the waiting room, his face grim. Mitchell stood and shook his hand.

  “Mr. Naylor survived the surgery. How, I don’t know. The bullet hit an inch or so below his heart. In most cases like this, the trauma is too great for the body to bear, but he survived.” He glanced around at each of them. “The man must have something to live for. He’s in a special ICU unit, just down the hall from your
makeshift office.”

  “Thank you, doctor,” Mitchell said. “Please keep us posted.”

  With a glance and smile at Rachel, he left.

  Kate’s hands shook where they lay in her lap. “If he dies, it’ll be my fault.”

  “No,” Mitchell said, “It’ll be Dar’s fault. He pulled the trigger.”

  Rachel sat up in Tristan’s lap. “Where is Dar?”

  “Handcuffed to a toilet in the fourth floor men’s room.” Aidan grinned. “He is one pissed off prisoner.”

  Tristan said, “What happens to Naylor Interests if Robert dies and Dar is in custody?”

  Mitchell shrugged. “I assume Cassandra would take over.”

  “Who’s Cassandra?” Aidan sat forward and placed his elbows on his knees.

  Kate sniffed. “d’Artagnan’s twin sister.”

  Rachel stiffened in his lap. “He has a twin?”

  Mitchell nodded with a surefire grin. “If she’s anything like the other two, she’ll be a force to reckon with when she finds out what happened.”

  “She deserves to know.” Rachel linked her fingers with Tristan’s and rubbed her thumb along his hand. “Maybe I should go to Dar and find out how to get in touch with her.”

  “No.” Mitchell, Aidan and Tristan said in unison.

  “If I were her, I’d want to know.”

  Aidan said, “Rachel, you act like they’re our neighbors. She’s the daughter of one of the biggest crime bosses in the world.”

  Rachel’s grasp on Tristan’s hand tightened. “She’s also my sister, Aidan.”

  Kate winced, her eyes pleading with Rachel for forgiveness. “Rachel, I never wanted-“

  She cut off Kate. “What about their mother? Where is she?”

  Kate and Mitchell exchanged a glance.

  He said, “She isn’t in the picture anymore.”

  “That day in the park, Dar said something about a suicide note.”

  Kate cleared her throat. “Yes, that’s what I’d heard.”

  Rachel’s voice grew low, glum. “How sad. All the more reason to call.” She turned to Tristan. “Will you take me to see him? Maybe he’ll cooperate since he’s so upset about his father.”

  Mitchell sat back in his chair. “Don’t count on it, Rachel. He and Cassandra have been raised to hate us.”

  She lifted her chin. “Well, maybe it’s time to put a stop to that.”

  Tristan smiled despite the doubt that loomed in his head. Rachel’s good heart is what drew her to him in the first place. He had to support her in this, even if it came to a dead end.

  Setting her on the floor, he rose from the sofa. “Let’s go.”

  #####

  Nodding at the D.I.R.E. agent posted outside the door, Rachel walked inside the men’s restroom, Tristan behind her. Glancing inside each compartment, she found Dar sitting on the toilet in the last stall, one wrist cuffed to the flush stem.

  “Mitchell thinks of everything. No need for a bedpan.”

  Dar just stared her, his aqua eyes steady.

  She sighed. “Dar, your father came through the surgery okay.”

  His tense shoulders slumped a moment before he sat up straight. Dar’s gaze bounced off Tristan before refocusing on her.

  “The doctor said it was a miracle he survived the surgery. Most patients don’t make it.”

  No response.

  “I thought maybe you’d give me a way to contact your sister to let her know.”

  He barked out a laugh. “Thought wrong.”

  She placed her hands on her hips. “I didn’t have to come in here and tell you anything. I’m trying to make a goodwill gesture.”

  Leaning back against the wall, he propped up his foot on the toilet seat, giving her his profile. “Don’t waste your time.”

  “What have you got against me? You’re the one that tried to kill me and my mother, not to mention my fiancé. I thought maybe there could be some kind of truce between us since we’re family. Guess I was wrong.”

  “Yep.” He pronounced the P with a loud pop.

  Rachel knew she’d get nowhere but decided to ask anyway. What did she have to lose? “What do you know about my father’s death?”

  He barked out a sarcastic laugh. “Which one? Despite what you told me, I know they don’t expect Naylor to make it.”

  Tristan squeezed her shoulder and kissed her head.

  “I’m referring to Jim Monroe’s murder. Did you do it?”

  “What makes you think I’d talk to you? Do I have a sign on my forehead that says gullible idiot?”

  She glared at him. What an ass. “No, but you’ve got a look on your face that says total jackass.”

  Tristan snickered behind her.

  Whipping around, Dar’s eyes rounded with surprise. He sputtered out another laugh. “Well, at least I’ve made something clear.”

  “You’re going to be shipped out to D.I.R.E. soon. It would behoove you to make friends going into enemy territory.”

  He gave her a wily grin. “What makes you think I don’t have friends there?”

  Rachel gritted her teeth. He had an answer for everything, didn’t he? “Well then, at least your funeral won’t be totally devoid of people that give a damn.”

  With his arm propped on his knee, he pointed at her. “Let me give you a little piece of advice, Sis: don’t delude yourself into thinking this is over. Far from it. My real sister won’t rest until she gets me out of here.”

  Crossing her arms over her chest, Rachel said, “Are you sure about that? Once she learns you’re the one that shot her father, she may leave you here to rot.”

  About the Author

  By day, award-winning author, Joni Hahn keeps her secret decoder ring hidden while she works as a mild-mannered HR manager and accounting generalist. She believes the world can never have too many superheroes, and anxiously waits for the call when one will need help saving the world… or getting into his costume. Joni was born with a hopelessly tender heart and believes there is nothing on earth more exhilarating than falling in love (other than the rear shot of Chris Evans in The Avengers - that was pretty darn exhilarating). A native Texan, she thinks cowboys are the epitome of masculinity, and that country music is the other soul music.

  You can find Joni online at: www.jonihahn.com.

  Currently available in The D.I.R.E. Agency Series:

  Book 2: Agent E2: Aidan

  Book 3: Agent T3: d’Artagnan

  The Agency is always recruiting.

  Look for more hot, D.I.R.E. agents coming soon!

  The D.I.R.E. Agency

  Superheroes born with attitude, created with science

  Keep reading for a Sneak Peek of Agent E2: Aidan, Book 2

  Agent E2: Aidan

  The D.I.R.E. Agency Series

  Chapter 1

  To be a true super-agent, a man needed a pair of breasts and a push up bra.

  Cassandra Naylor zipped up her black jacket as she stepped over the unconscious D.I.R.E. agent lying in the hospital’s fourth floor corridor. Men were such predictable animals. Flash them some perky cleavage and they were distracted like an ADD child at an amusement park.

  Slipping off her high heel pumps, Cassandra shoved them into her tote and jogged down the hall barefoot. It hadn’t taken much to hack into the hospital’s computer network and find her father’s name on the patient roster. What had scared the manure out of her was his location: Fourth Floor ICU.

  According to the hospital’s map, ICU was on the second floor.

  Finding a door marked ICU, Cassandra pushed it open and peeked around the corner. Big, rugged Robert Naylor lay pale and unconscious, a myriad of tubes and wires connected to intimidating machines. An oxygen mask covered his face, a ventilator at his bedside.

  Letting the door swish shut behind her, Cassandra stepped over to the bed. Taking his limp hand in hers, she squeezed it, hoping to elicit some type of response. Her tears increased with her grip until she held his hand in a white-knuck
led hold.

  “What happened, Father? Who did this?”

  You know who did it. Mitchell Jacobs and his D.I.R.E. Agency.

  The hospital records showed a gunshot wound to the chest. Thank God, he’d survived. She couldn’t imagine life without him. He, Dar and Naylor Interests were her life. If he died, her entire world died with him.

  Leaning over, Cassandra gave him a feather-light kiss on the forehead. His skin felt cool against her lips, her body heated from the post-midnight excursion into the hospital. She’d never attempted anything like this alone. That had always been Dar’s specialty.

  “Where’s Dar, Father?” She stroked back the hair from his forehead. “What have they done with him?”

  Her twin could be free, in a local jail, or well on his way to D.I.R.E. Headquarters. Mitchell Jacobs would like nothing more than to interrogate Robert Naylor’s son – then kill him.

  The elevator dinged down the hall. She heard male voices, then running footsteps.

  Guess they found her unconscious agent.

  She had to get out of there.

  Pulling up her blonde waves into a ponytail, Cass shoved her feet into a pair of ballet slippers and donned her glasses. Her father wasn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. She had to find Dar so they could decide what to do. How would they get her father out of D.I.R.E. custody like this? What should she do about the weapon technology deal that was supposed to take place tomorrow night?

  She’d never been involved in that side of the business. Her father and Dar had purposely kept her away from the danger. Yet, now she found herself in charge and in doubt of what to do.

  Inadequacy weighed on her shoulders.

  Opening the door a slit, she peeked down the hall.

  Empty.

  Opening the door further, she stuck out her head and looked to her right.

  The body had disappeared.

  An agent ran toward her.

  Blast.

  Bolting out the door, Cassandra ran in the opposite direction. Taking a right at the first crossroad, she ran toward the stairwell, heavy male footsteps closing in on her. She hit the exit door and flew down the stairs, her slippers floating over the hard concrete steps.