by Hart, Taylor
Sutton had threatened to fire him two days ago, and Blaine was sure he’d be fired today, because he hadn’t done what Sutton wanted done on this private investigation his team was in charge of at the moment. So whatever. Too bad. He didn’t care anymore. His life felt pointless.
“Dude, you need to get off the lawn chair and get your butt into the house,” said Jace.
Blaine squeezed his eyes tighter, refusing to open them, and waved him away. “Leave me alone.” There was no point in going to the weekly meetings. They all knew it. Sutton knew it.
“Did you hear the helo that landed here half an hour ago?”
Of course Blaine had heard it, but it wasn’t like it was abnormal for Sutton Smith to have company arrive in a helicopter. “I don’t care,” he said, realizing Jace was blocking the sun nicely. “Actually, stand there and give me your shadow.”
Jace’s shadow moved, and Blaine had to cover his closed eyelids from the scorching sun. When he cracked one eye just a sliver, he saw Jace staring down at him. Blaine could tell he had something critical to say. He still had a hard time caring.
“She’s here,” Jace said.
Blaine felt himself freeze. There was only one she that Jace would know Blaine cared about. He forced himself to open one eye. “What are you talking about?” That gut feeling assaulted him, and he sat up.
Jace crossed his arms. “I don’t want to alarm you.”
Like a shot, Blaine was up and rushing toward Sutton’s house. “Elena’s here?” Hope sprang inside of him.
“Wait!” Jace ran after him. “Just wait.”
Blaine was in full-speed SEAL mode, a million thoughts whirling through his mind. Of course, she would dump that dude. Then she would look for him. He yanked open the door and rushed through the kitchen, then through the hallway and up the stairs two at a time. She was here! She was here! Yes, she had found him.
Pushing open Sutton’s office door, he saw a whole entourage of people he didn’t care about. It didn’t matter, though; he was used to suits getting in his way when he reported top-secret stuff. He pushed through them. “Elena!” he called out.
“Blaine, wait!” Jace thundered behind him.
The whole room fell silent, and Blaine finally saw her sitting on a chair in front of Sutton’s desk. She turned, and when their eyes met, she paled. “Blaine?”
Her face had bruises. She had a black eye and a bandage over part of her head. She looked as bad as Blaine had after the escape from Syria.
“What the … what happened?” he said, all the breath whooshing out of him.
Elena stood, looking confused and bewildered. “Blaine?”
Happiness surged through him. She was here. “Elena.”
Her face darkened with anger, and she looked away to someone else. “What is this?”
Blaine turned, noticing Antonio, her husband, and all the happiness evaporated.
Antonio stood there, wearing a black suit and a confused look. He glared at Blaine and gave him a once-over, obvious distaste in his gaze. He spoke to Sutton. “I thought he wouldn’t be around?”
Blaine looked at Sutton. “What’s going on?”
Sutton still looked at Antonio. “He’s usually not here.”
Blaine wanted to pull Elena in. He’d seen this scene of reunion in his mind—how many times? Countless times. Unable to stop himself, he crossed the gap to face her. “Elena?”
She slapped him, hard and fast, across the face. “That’s for the email!”
Adrenaline surged through him, and all he could do was let out a light laugh. Yes, Elena was here. She was here. She was pissed as all get out, but she was here.
Tears shimmered in her eyes. “How could you do that to me?”
Blaine had a million answers, but none of them found the way to his lips.
Whipping her head to Antonio, her nostril’s flared. “Why did you bring me here?”
Blaine ignored her question for one of his own. “What happened to you?” He couldn’t stop himself from reaching out to her, trying to touch her.
She batted him away. “Get away from me.”
“Don’t touch her!” Antonio tried to step between them.
Blaine held out his hand to block his movement. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“Back up, Hammertone.” Sutton ordered Blaine.
Antonio pushed closer to her. “Elena, come here.”
She backed up. “Stay back. Did you know he would be here?” She asked Antonio.
Antonio shook his head and put his hands up too, looking caught. “I knew he was working with this organization, but I thought …” He flung an upset look at Sutton. “I was told he didn’t have to be involved in this.”
Blaine’s adrenaline high was finally coming down, and he tried to orient himself. All he knew was that if Elena was involved, even if her jerkface husband was here too, it didn’t matter—he was involved. “Who did this to you?” He couldn’t stand to look at the bruises on her face. Those bruises couldn’t be more than three days old. He glared at Antonio. “Is this spousal abuse? Did you do this?”
“What?” Antonio gasped.
“Back off, Blaine,” Sutton said sternly.
He wasn’t backing anywhere. “Tell me,” he ordered Antonio.
Speedily, the security guys next to Antonio were closing in, stepping between them.
Blaine pulled a fist back.
“Stand down, Blaine!” Sutton ordered him again.
He didn’t move. “If you did this, you are dead!” he shouted at Antonio, who just glowered in return.
“C’mon, Blaine, let’s go,” Jace called out from behind him.
Blaine didn’t move, but put down his fist. He calculated he could easily take out the five security guys. Sutton would be harder, and under normal circumstances, Jace might be an even match, but in Blaine’s current mood, getting him out of this room would be no picnic for them.
“Stop it, Blaine.” Elena’s voice sounded strangled.
He turned to her, forcing himself to calm down. “Who did this to you?”
Her eyes glittered with tears. “Antonio’s not my spouse.”
“What?” At first Blaine didn’t register the words, then he stumbled back. “You didn’t marry him?” Blaine asked, turning and glancing at Antonio, who looked pretty pissed off himself. He flung his gaze back to Elena. “I saw your announcement in the paper?” He questioned.
Elena shook her head in quick, jerking movements. “And I had to find out your whole team was Missing In Action after I got sent that stupid email!”
Confusion surged through him and his pulse raced.
No one spoke for a few moments.
Antonio exhaled. “This is perfect, just perfect.”
Blaine wondered if anything he thought was true was actually true. How could this be? “Elena? I … it was just …”
Antonio turned back to Sutton. “Can we get on with this and find the senator, please?”
Sutton cleared his throat, keeping his gaze on Blaine. “Yes. Hammerton, Ms. Gates’s father has been taken.”
All of the rage, sorrow, and confusion in Blaine was pushed under in the face of a mission, and he pulled himself back into SEAL mode. “Your father?” He looked at Elena, and his heart pounded. “Okay. Okay. But how did you get hurt?”
Elena scowled at him. “I saw the press. I saw you get home.” Her words were quiet, controlled. “Why didn’t you …” She threw her hands up. “Why didn’t you come to me?” A tear fell down her cheek. “Why didn’t you even call me?”
The intensity of this moment wasn’t lost on him. But, it didn’t upset him, on the contrary, it made all the hope that had been gone the past month surge through him like a comet finding its’ way across the starlet sky. “I thought you were married.”
She squeezed her eyes shut, then pressed a hand to her head. “This can’t be happening.”
Antonio turned to Sutton. “Can we focus on a plan to find the senator, please?”
&n
bsp; Sutton jabbed his finger in the air at Blaine, then pointed to a chair. “Sorry. It seems we have a situation, clearly. Hammerton, sit down and be quiet.”
“What?” Antonio looked ticked, staring at Sutton. “You assured me this guy wouldn’t be part of this.”
Sutton cocked an eyebrow. “Mr. Juarez, it seems you only know of our organization because you’ve been keeping tabs on the whereabouts of Mr. Hammerton, so maybe we can use his assistance in the matter.”
“You’ve kept tabs on Blaine?” Elena asked Antonio.
Antonio glanced at Elena and looked guiltily back to Sutton. “Please, can we focus on finding the senator?”
“I assure you, Mr. Juarez, I hire the best. The best at locating, extracting, and—” He cleared his throat. “—taking care of situations. Any situation. Clearly, the playing field has already changed in this game. I think Mr. Hammerton’s skills could be useful.”
“None of his skills could ever be useful to me,” Antonio protested bitterly.
Blaine didn’t know if he should pipe up, but he didn’t want to tick Sutton off, so he remained quiet and sat where he’d been told to sit.
“He was the lead sniper on his Navy SEAL team. I think that’s useful when you’re going after men with lots of guns, don’t you, Mr. Juarez?”
Antonio shrugged.
Sutton continued. “And he’s an expert at hostage negotiation. I think that’s useful when you’re going into a situation with a hostage like the senator, don’t you?”
If Antonio were a cartoon character, there would be smoke coming out of his ears. “No, no way. I don’t want to work with him. I can’t.”
Blaine seethed, but said nothing, still completely shocked Elena was here.
She was here!
Sutton put up a hand and gave Antonio an inquisitive look. “Do you want to find the senator or not?”
“Yes,” Antonio said on a loud exhale.
“We can do the job,” Sutton said, bringing his commanding presence to bear on Antonio, “but not if you hobble us or try to tell us how to do it.”
Antonio stopped arguing and winced. “Fine.”
Sutton pointed to the chairs, glancing at Elena, then back to Antonio. “Please, sit.” Both of them sat, and he opened a file. “Let’s go over what happened and catch up Mr. Hammerton, shall we? It appears Ms. Gates and the senator were exiting the restaurant. Then you decided to go for a walk?” he asked Elena.
Elena nodded. “I needed some air, and my father said he wanted to talk with me. So we went for a walk. He …” She paused, then continued. “Things have been strained in our relationship, but he’d actually stayed with me for a couple of days, and we were working it out.”
“You never should have gone,” Antonio said again sternly. “There wasn’t the right security in place for you to take a walk.”
Elena ignored him. “Two masked men leapt out. One took down our security. The other grabbed me by the arm and told my father he’d better follow or else he’d shoot me.”
Blaine stiffened, perching on the edge of his chair.
She cleared her throat. “The man didn’t take us far, down to an alley. I pulled out a taser and got the one next to me.”
“You tased him?” Blaine blurted, swelling with pride.
Elena didn’t meet his eyes, but nodded.
Blaine put a celebratory fist into the air. Yes! She’d used a taser!
She continued. “The other masked man started hitting my father. I tried to tase him, but he hit me two times in the face.”
As Blaine listened to her describe the two blows to her face, he got even more ticked off. He should have been there. With her. At her side. This never would have happened if he had been there.
“A black van showed up, and the guy who beat us up grabbed the guy I’d tased and put him in. Then he took my father. I thought they would take me too, but the first man said, ‘Let her go. We have other plans for her.’”
The details kept coming, and Blaine found himself wanting to erase them from his brain, wanting to travel back in time and never leave her. Never Dear Jane her. He wanted to invent a freaking time machine.
Sutton scowled, and Blaine recognized the hidden violence in the man’s eyes that matched his own. “Okay. Let’s think about how to protect you, Ms. Gates.”
“I’ll do it,” Blaine croaked out. He was waterlogged with salt water, and all of a sudden had a dry mouth.
Sutton cocked an eyebrow at him, then looked at Elena and Antonio. “I have a safe house that I’ll put Ms. Gates in for now.
“Where?” Antonio demanded.
“We are professionals, Mr. Juarez. It’s on a need-to-know basis only.” Sutton let out a deprecating chuckle. “Especially since everyone close to the senator is a suspect in this matter.”
“Suspect?” Antonio jumped to his feet. “What does that mean?”
Blaine’s heart raced. No, Antonio didn’t get to know.
Sutton held his gaze. “Sir, in my experience, there is usually a mole in situations like this. Now, I’m not accusing anyone. You came to me, and now you have to trust me completely to keep Ms. Gates safe.”
Antonio shook his head. “The only reason I’m here is because I heard you’re the best at handing sensitive situations, not because I suspect a mole.”
Sutton locked his intense blue eyes on Antonio. “No, Mr. Juarez. We’ve established the only reason you are here is because you have kept tabs on my friend Mr. Hammerton, correct?”
Was it just a coincidence Antonio had come to them for help? Something felt off.
Antonio rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
Sutton didn’t back down. “If we take this on, let me be clear: everything goes through me. You get what information I give you, when I want to give it. And I don’t compromise. Do you understand?”
Blaine needed to run. He needed to act, to do something. Sitting wasn’t his style. It wasn’t any SEAL’s style, really.
Sutton cleared his throat. “Do you want to work with my team or not?”
Elena stood. “Yes, we do, but Mr. Smith, I don’t think I need a safe house. I think my security in New York is just fine.”
Blaine noted that Elena had recovered from the shock of seeing him. He let out a laugh. “No, it’s not.”
All eyes turned to him. He surged to his feet, his mind completely clear. “Been there. It’s not.” He thought of what they were facing, and his SEAL training drowned out everything else. “They’re probably coming back for you, and if your father was staying with you, there might have been something in your loft.” He crossed his arms. “You need to be off-grid for a bit.”
Antonio stood too. “Elena, you know I don’t want to agree with Mr. Hammerton, but I don’t think New York is safe right now.”
Elena glared at Antonio, then turned back to Sutton. “How long will I be in your protective care?”
Sutton steepled his fingers and measured her question. “A couple of days, Ms. Gates. I’ll have my team check out your loft in New York, and we’ll begin looking for your father.”
Elena let out a sigh. “Three days. I’ll stay for three days. Then I go back to New York.”
The woman was stubborn as anything, and Blaine felt a surge of love for her. Dang, he’d missed her.
Sutton stood. “I need to meet with my team for a few minutes. Please stay here.”
Blaine didn’t want to leave Elena. Part of him felt like she would magically disappear on him. He took one last look at her before following Sutton and Jace out.
Maddox, Logan, and Creed had also materialized, and they all followed Sutton into a decoy control room down the hall. It had enough television screens and computers to look like a CIA sweatshop.
“Blaine, you have to get yourself under control.” Sutton glared at him.
“Sir, I am totally collected, ready to go. I’m in for this.”
Jace started laughing. “Are you sure? This is a big deal, bro.”
Maddox laughed too. “Y
eah.”
Blaine wanted to rearrange their faces, but he also wanted to prove how in control he was, so he didn’t react.
Creed put a hand on Blaine’s shoulder. “He’s got this. He’s totally got this.”
“Really?” Sutton cocked an eyebrow.
Logan nodded. “He’s totally got this.”
Blaine was grateful for their confidence.
Sutton blew out a breath. “I know you have an impeccable record, Hammerton. I know what you faced on that mission, and you were able to hold it together, so I believe you can get this done. I also know a good woman can push a man to do things he would never do.”
A memory surfaced in Blaine’s mind: sitting on that lawn chair that day on her patio while she painted. “Romeo.”
“What?” Sutton looked confused.
“Nothing,” Blaine said quickly. He channeled all of his energy into being calm and focused. His mind was already darting from scenario to scenario. “Do we have footage from that alley yet?” He wanted to see the footage and see it now. “Do we have a beat on the henchman and who gave the orders? Ransom demands? Who’s in charge of the op?”
“Not yet.” Sutton studied him. “Are you sure you got this, Hammerton?”
Blaine clenched his hand into a fist and focused on being careful with Sutton. “Sutton, I know you don’t know me very well, but I know me. I know the woman I love is in danger. Right now, this is about hiding her. Keeping her safe. I can do that. Where’s the safe house?”
“No.” Sutton held his gaze for a moment, then moved to pass him.
Blaine couldn’t let this go. “You know how you described Liz to us the first time we met you?”
Sutton didn’t turn back, but he stopped walking.
Blaine knew this was the ticket. “How she was the one you would give everything for. The one who you would burn the house down and rebuild it for.”
Sutton grunted. “Touché.”
“I have to be with her. I’ll do whatever you want, but I have to be there.”
Swinging back to him, Sutton gazed at Blaine with a dark, dangerous expression. “Fine, but when I give my word, Mr. Hammerton, I don’t give it lightly. I will keep Ms. Gates safe. So you’d better not screw this up.”
“I won’t,” Blaine agreed quickly.
