by Angi Morgan
ONE CLOSE LIGHTNING BURST and everything Jane had accomplished in the past hour would be for nothing. The broadband card Rhodes had brought was keeping its connection, but how long would it last? It was safer to shut the laptop down. But what if the storm didn’t pass for a couple of hours?
No, she had to keep working. Each step brought her closer to her son’s kidnapper. And closure with Steve.
Their lovemaking was a comforting interlude between old friends. Nothing more. They were two people who needed a few minutes to forget their worries. No matter how much she desired a relationship with Steve, she wouldn’t make anything more of it.
But making love with him had been so wonderfully right. To be in his arms again…it was magical. It had taken all the control she could gather to say it had meant nothing. Maybe he’d seen straight through her. Maybe he wanted more?
She was lying to herself. Steve Woods was a man committed to his career and she happened to be a part of that work. For now.
She heard someone at the door and knew it was Steve. The sound of his boots scraping the floor confirmed it.
“We have to talk, Jane.”
Hat in hand, drips adding to the puddle at his feet, he wavered. The brim circled through his hands again. Strong hands. Gentle hands.
He was nervous. What could possibly have happened now? She didn’t want to know. Not really. Nothing would change her mind. Leaving before she discovered exactly what the FBI knew about Rory wasn’t an option.
“You called your team.” Hating the thoughts that came to her, she asked, “Did something happen to Rory?”
“God, no. They haven’t found him yet, but they will. They know he’s been kidnapped and everyone’s working round the clock.” He tortured the brim of that hat while she caught her breath. “I’m sorry I scared you. I didn’t know how you’d take finding out that… Shoot, there’s only one way to say it. Stubblefield told me they connected Hayden to the kidnapping.”
A choking tightness crushed her chest.
Shut the emotion off. It only gets in the way, Jane. Her parents were right.
Steve had told her he would call his colleagues. Her mind logically accepted that he would. But she’d stupidly let her heart cling to the hope that he’d believe in her. Trust her. Hadn’t they just shared…?
What? She’d just spent the past hour trying to convince herself they were just old friends. Maybe they weren’t even that. No matter how much she wanted something different, she had to accept facts.
“Did you hear me? Stubblefield told me Hayden hired the men who tried to kill you at the mall.”
Emotions get in the way, Jane. They always muddy logical thought. The consequences are always too high. Don’t let anything come between you and the task at hand.
“I heard and I don’t believe you. The FBI’s information hasn’t been reliable so far. We need the information I’m decrypting to find Rory no matter who kidnapped him. We can argue later.”
“You really found something?”
“A file that’s received priority activity in the Dallas Bureau.”
“Where?”
“You wanted to know what your team had discovered. So I took a look.” She tried to sound casual. Don’t let anything come between you and the task at hand. “I’m not leaving until I know what this file contains.”
“You hacked into the FBI?”
“Hack isn’t the right word. I used your password and gained access to the program they were running. Don’t look so surprised.” Yet he was. He had doubted her ability. “Most people use a name they won’t forget. So I tried your friend’s name, the one that disappeared, and then remembered The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Zaphod was one of your favorite characters.”
He looked at her as if she was a real alien hitchhiking across Texas.
“I told you to trust me, Steve. Discovering your password was a series of logical steps. It took someone who knows you, not a genius.” She shook her head. She had to be imagining his look of admiration.
“I could have given you my password. I honestly thought I’d be locked out by now. What did you find?” he finally asked.
“Agent McCaffrey authorized an internal search.” Focusing on the screen still didn’t help her ignore the churning in her stomach. Ignore Steve, talk about the FBI agent. “I haven’t identified the originator or who recently deleted the file.”
But she would. They weren’t leaving until she was finished.
“If they’re rushing, it probably does have something to do with Rory. You’d make a heck of an agent, Janie. You’re performing under duress as well as most of my team does on a difficult day.”
She could be snide about his team’s performance, but the words were a high compliment from Steve. He had every faith in his team. A team of experts who performed above and beyond, time after time.
So why the mistakes this go around?
Pretending to look at the rolling information on the laptop, she was able to catch glimpses of Steve’s reflection. She expected him to begin pacing, but it seemed the nervous habit had been replaced with crunching the edge of his hat.
“When did you figure out Hayden was involved?” he asked.
“I didn’t.” It was hard to swallow again.
“But you’re so calm about it.” Steve leaned a little too close, trying to see the screen, and dripped water on her shoulder. He took a step back.
“I learned not to let problems or emotions distract me.” What could she say? How could she explain in a moment all the years of training her mother had put her through? “Your team discovered the death certificate was falsified this afternoon. That’s what instigated the internal search.”
He continued to torture the hat and stare at her.
“But you were right. Given time, they did discover their mistake.” She wanted to make amends for their earlier argument. How did one sincerely apologize? “Should I assume you’re ready to head back to your team?”
“Not exactly. I want to take you to a safe house. Rhodes has agreed to stay with you while I head back to the Bureau.”
“But I can help.”
“I know you can.”
She could live without honesty from Steve. But she couldn’t stand by and let him stick her in a safe house, keeping her away from the search. She could ditch the DEA agent. And then what?
“I have to do something, Steve. I’ll go crazy just sitting around.”
“They’ll make me do the same thing. Probably from a holding cell.” He placed his hat back on his head. “We have to leave.”
“I won’t stop looking for Rory.”
Don’t let anything come between you and the task at hand.
Maybe her mother had meant more with this advice than just the job. Maybe she’d meant life.
If this program would finish, it would end the arguing. They’d have answers. She didn’t know what rambled around inside that gorgeous head of Steve’s and wouldn’t if she kept to her parents’ advice of staying centered on one task. She needed a balance to her life. Come to think about it, her parents hadn’t adhered to the logic they’d preached.
Her family had moved time after time, following their hearts, trying to protect her. She’d come back to Dallas to break a cycle. She couldn’t change anything by continuing to ignore the truth. She had to admit the truth about Rory and deal with the consequences.
It was time to tell Steve he was Rory’s father.
“Steve, I’ve wanted to explain—”
“Jane, we can’t ignore—”
They spoke at once and she turned on the narrow bench to face him. “Go ahead.” He put that silly hat into the sink and pressed his lips together time and again instead of speaking. But it was easier to let him start.
“In normal circumstances, I’d probably let you talk first. But there’s nothing normal about you.” He scratched his forehead, then stuffed his hands into his pockets. “You—we can’t ignore what happened this afternoon.”
�
��There’s something much bigger that I need to speak to you about.”
“Now see, you can’t say something like that and expect a person as intimidated as me not to stop talking and just listen.”
“Intimidated?” She searched his face. He was serious. “You are the least intimidated person I’ve ever met.”
“Not around you, hon.” He scrubbed his face with his hand and ended by pinching the bridge of his nose. A sign to her that he was about to pace, but the small trailer didn’t allow for the action. “No matter what you say out loud, we weren’t just two friends relieving tension this afternoon.”
“You made me feel alive again, but I didn’t want you to feel obligated.”
Two steps and he sat next to her, his body twisted in the seat to face her. She shoved the laptop toward the front window, away from them.
“I’ve been ‘obligated’ since I first saw you on the UTA campus.” He covered her hands with his. “Four years ago.”
Did he already know about Rory? Was he opening the conversation so she could tell him the truth? “I’ve wanted to tell you, but something always went wrong and then he was kidnapped and you didn’t believe me.”
“Take a deep breath, sweetheart.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “What are you talking about?”
He didn’t know. There was concern in his look, not agitation, not disappointment. Nothing to indicate he knew she’d been lying. So she was back to determining how to tell a man he was a father and at the same time state that his son had been kidnapped.
“We’re both agreed that there’s more between us than just sex.” He replaced his hand over hers. “Right?”
She felt his warmth, but more. The strength of him and his unwavering confidence in her was transferred through his hold like a direct stream of energy. No matter what, she had to tell him he was fighting for his son.
“Steve, Rory is—”
His mouth sealed the truth from escaping her lips. She couldn’t lose her senses this time. She had to tell him the truth.
Rhodes pulled the door open. “I hate to interrupt your…um, discussion, but we have company.”
The door bounced open, not catching behind Rhodes, who now ran across the open area toward the truck.
“How much longer?” Steve asked her.
“I’m not certain. The encryption isn’t very complicated. Minutes or hours.” His hand slipped from hers. “Steve, I have to tell you—”
“Take the laptop and hide under the table. And for God’s sake, Jane. This time listen to me.”
Chapter Thirteen
Jane shoved the open laptop into the cabinet, ignoring Steve’s command to listen and obey. She couldn’t stay protected in the camper while the father of her child risked his life again. She had to help.
Careful to keep the wind from slamming the door or draw Steve’s attention, she eased her way to the outdoor carpet. The mercury light atop the pole pushed the darkness to the edge of the clearing, giving an advantage to anyone hiding in the depths of junk. One blink she and Steve were alone and the next, two huge men in black dove at him.
The three men fell into Rhodes’s motorcycle, knocking it to the ground. The helmet rolled toward the folding chair to her left, as the world suddenly became a series of grunts and oofs. She was unable to move, her feet frozen, not knowing how to help.
Why didn’t Rhodes jump in and get rid of these monsters?
Steve’s body cracked across the bike as one of the men slammed him backward. There were words in Spanish she couldn’t completely catch. The familiar smell of cheap aftershave invaded her nose—the enojadizo brothers. How did they find them?
A thick arm grabbed her around the waist and her feet were lifted off the ground. She cried out and Steve’s head snapped in her direction as a second man punched him in the face…hard.
She couldn’t follow her instincts and scream. It would distract Steve. She struggled, squirming in the man’s grasp, attempting to slip through his grip. Wrapping her ankles around his shins, she tangled his feet as he tried to carry her toward the dark. She succeeded in tripping the man to the muddy ground.
None of the self-defense techniques she’d memorized worked to get her free from the massive man. Sitting across her back, he pinned her to the ground with his weight, ignoring her insignificant attempts to get away. She needed something…
Rhodes’s motorcycle helmet had rolled inches beyond her reach. She pushed her feet against the step of the camper. Shoving with all her might, stretching, her fingers just brushed the cool plastic.
“No tan de prisa!”
Not so fast? She could barely twist enough to see that the man holding her pointed a gun in Steve’s direction. God help her, less than an inch to the helmet.
As hard as he tried, he couldn’t get to her. Fury surged through Steve as he watched Jane pinned to the ground by a third man pointing a handgun in his direction. Gun Guy was trying to get a bead on him.
Steve scrambled to his feet and grabbed for his weapon at the hollow of his back. Damn! No gun. He’d lost it during the struggle. Steve exchanged punches with the man as the other tried to grab him from behind, giving him the perfect target for an elbow strike to the nose. Blood spurted as the man dropped to the ground. Steve caught a glimpse of him scrambling toward their pickup as his second assailant pulled a knife and sliced it through the air in his direction. Knife Guy was between him and Jane but also provided cover from the handgun.
“Come on, now. Is that really playing fair?” Steve spun around, aiming his foot at the knife, but caught the side of his opponent’s head instead. At least he’d connected with something.
“I don’t care how much for you alive,” Knife Guy growled in heavily accented English while wiping blood from his ear. “I will hurt you bad. You’re muerto.”
He pitched his body forward and sliced the air twice, causing Steve to hop backward. The third time, Steve wasn’t as fast and the knife slashed his arm.
“Son of a…” Ignoring the pain, Steve backed up looking for anything to ward off the switchblade as Knife Guy came at him again. Nothing.
In the middle of a junkyard with nothing to swing.
Careful to keep Knife Guy between him and the weapon pointed in his direction, he ripped his shirt off and wrapped it around his left wrist. He blocked the next swipe with his wrapped arm and followed through with a roundhouse punch to the man’s face. Not willing to give up his advantage, he continued his attack with a knee strike to the groin. The knife flew to the ground but clattered under a doorless refrigerator.
“Where’s your partner?” Steve searched the darkness and caught sight of Runt Guy pinned to the ground by Rhodes next to the truck.
“No!” Jane screamed from the other side of the clearing as a wild shot burst through the worn tarp above her head.
He didn’t have time to look for his gun as he turned toward Jane and saw her roll over and strike her assailant with a motorcycle helmet, sending the man off her back as the gun flew in the opposite direction. She scrambled forward on her hands and knees.
As Steve went for the gun, Knifeless Guy’s shoulder shoved into his side. He hadn’t seen the running tackle coming, but he grabbed on to the man and pulled him across the ground with him.
The man reached for Steve’s neck, strangling him as he sneered in his face. Steve grabbed at anything but only came up with mud. Taking a fistful of the thick gooey substance, he shoved it up the man’s nose with an open palm strike. The force of the blow sent the man reeling backward.
Steve jumped to his feet as Knifeless Guy rolled and attempted to stand. He thrust the toe of his boot into the man’s stomach hard enough to make him curl into a fetal position. Another kick to the kidney had him whimpering like a baby. He wasn’t moving, but was groaning in agony.
Steve turned to help Jane just as another shot rang out.
“I missed him. He’s running,” Jane shouted. Her hands shook from the recoil as she pointed the gun down the path after
Gun Guy.
“Jane, shoot him if he moves.”
Redirecting the barrel of the gun to her new target, Jane looked more than capable of finishing the job. Her confidence bolstered Steve to charge down the path after Gun Guy. He heard the perp hitting junk in front of him. He had to catch him. Rory’s life depended on it. The worn soles of his boots slid in the mud, but he had an advantage over his target. He knew the layout of the junkyard from his earlier exploration. Gaining on the man, Steve made an airborne leap, slamming the bastard headfirst into an open car door. He landed on top of him, prepared to do battle.
No movement.
Limp.
He grabbed a handful of the guy’s T-shirt and pulled him back to the camper.
“Heads up.” Rhodes tossed him a roll of duct tape.
“He’s out cold.” Steve pulled the man’s hands together and used the tape to secure his wrists. He frisked the unconscious third man. “Nothing.”
“Sorry to be late to the party,” Rhodes said. “Little brother there got a jump on my head.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure who might have heard the shots. The cops might be here soon.”
“We can’t leave yet,” Steve said. “We need information.”
“It ain’t coming from my guy, he’s out cold.” Rhodes looked at the man they were dragging through the mud. “Guess this one’s out for a while, too.”
Knifeless Guy was still rolling on the ground holding his gut. Jane’s hands shook as she took deep breaths and blew out through her mouth. She would have herself under control in a minute.
“You okay?” he asked.
A little nod.
God, she was brave. Strong. Capable. And he wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and love her for the rest of his life. This was a Jane he’d never seen, one he hadn’t counted on, but could from this moment forward.
“Let’s find out what this guy knows,” Steve said, gently prying the gun from her fingers.
“My God, Steve. You’re bleeding.” Jane took his arm and used the bottom of her shirt to wipe some of the blood away. “You’re going to need stitches.”
