by Maya Banks
“But it’s the very best kind of family to be a part of,” Rachel said softly. “I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”
“As long as we’re making confessions, I’ll make one more,” P.J. said with a grimace. “I was dreading this. And to be honest the only reason I agreed to come was because Cole was in agony after he made the call to Sam, thinking I’d be pissed that he arranged it without talking to me first.”
The others smiled but waited for her to continue.
“But I really am enjoying myself and I want to thank you for going to all of this trouble for someone you don’t even really know.”
“You’ve done so much for all of us,” Shea said. “You say you’re just doing your job. But to us, you’ve not only put your life on the line for us individually, but you go out every time our husbands go out and you’re a big part of the reason they come home to us again. There is nothing we can ever do to repay you for that, so if there is ever anything any of us can do, we don’t just want you to ask, we expect you to ask.”
P.J. smiled, warmed through by the genuine regard and acceptance the other women had bestowed on her.
The world might well be coming to an end, because P.J. Rutherford was actually making friends.
CHAPTER 32
“SO how did it go?” Cole asked on the drive back to Camden.
“It actually went well,” she said.
She reached over to slide her fingers around his hand, surprising him with her overture. He picked up her hand and put it on his leg, his grip firm.
“You were sweet to do that for me, Cole. I really appreciate your caring,” she said in a quiet voice. “They didn’t pry. And they didn’t push too hard. They just let me know I wasn’t alone and that they were there anytime I needed a shoulder. It was kind of . . . nice.”
He squeezed her hand. “I’m glad. I hate that you seem so alone, like you’re isolated from the rest of the world. There are so many of us who care about you, P.J. I just wanted to show you that.”
Her heart did a complete somersault in her chest. This man was so damn perfect and he actually wanted her. It defied all logic, but she wasn’t going to argue.
“Thank you. I do feel better. It was nice to get out for an afternoon. The Kelly women are nice.”
“Yeah, they’re pretty special, but not as special as you.”
She blushed hotly but smiled her happiness over his assessment.
“Hey, when we get to your place, do you have wireless Internet? I need to get on my laptop. It’s been forever since I checked email and messages.”
“Sure. I’ll get you hooked up, no problem.”
“What sort of divine delicacies can I look forward to tonight?” she teased.
“Was thinking of cranking up the grill and doing something quick, like hamburgers.”
“Yum. That sounds perfect!”
He smiled. “You’re awfully easy to please.”
Impulsively, she leaned across the truck and kissed him on the cheek. He glanced over in surprise when she pulled away, but pleasure glowed in his eyes.
“What was that for?”
“Just seemed like the thing to do,” she said.
“Well feel free to do it more often,” he encouraged. “I assure you I won’t mind.”
When they arrived at his house, she again got out without any help from him. She limped toward the house, and whether it was her mood or the wound wasn’t bothering her as much, her step was quicker and more confident.
Her assessment was verified when Cole commented that she seemed to be getting around better.
She went to her bedroom and pulled her laptop out of her bag. The battery was likely dead, so she retrieved the cord and went in search of a place to plug it in.
Cole was in the kitchen pulling stuff out of the fridge, so she opted to set up her computer on the bar and settled on one of the stools.
After plugging in to begin the charge, she opened it and searched for his wireless connection.
“Hey, do you have a password to get on?” she asked.
To her surprise, his cheeks darkened with color, and instead of telling her the password, he walked around to her laptop and swiftly typed it in.
She stared at him in curiosity. “Don’t trust me?”
“Nah, just figured it was easier if I typed it,” he hedged.
“So how am I supposed to connect if you aren’t just right here?” she asked innocently.
“Since I don’t plan not to be right here with you, it isn’t an issue.”
“Oh come on, Cole. You’ve got me curious. I could swear you blushed when I asked for the password. What is it, some kind of X-rated guy thing? Like bigboobs or something like that?”
Cole sighed. “The password is Pjshot, okay? Happy?”
Her eyes widened and she stifled her laughter. “P.J.’s hot? That’s the password? How long have you had this network?”
“Three years, okay? Now can we change the subject?”
He was so cute in his embarrassment and it made her want to squeeze him.
“So you were checking me out that long ago, huh?”
He sighed. “I was checking you out from the day you joined our team.”
“That’s so cute,” she said with a grin.
“Cute?” he grumbled. “God, I feel like some kind of horny teenager who just got busted making out on the couch by his mother.”
Still grinning, she logged on to her email and began scanning the subject headers.
When she got to one buried below a dozen others, she froze and her heart sped up, beating painfully against her chest. With shaking fingers she clicked on the message.
She had to read it several times because adrenaline was making her jumpy and she had a hard time processing the message.
B in town. Something big going down. Several of the girls were hired. Can’t say more in email. I’ll talk in person if it’s just you.
The email was from one of the call girls P.J. had befriended in her quest to track down the four men who’d been present when she was raped. Katia—P.J. didn’t know her real name—had been an invaluable source of information, but she was also extremely paranoid and spooky. With good reason. Brumley wouldn’t hesitate to shut anyone down he perceived as a threat.
She quickly checked the date the email had been sent and breathed her relief when she saw it was sent the previous evening. So it hadn’t languished for days while P.J. had been out of touch.
With shaking hands, she shut the laptop, her mind in vicious turmoil.
It had been so easy to forget her objective when she was a world away with people who cared about her. The last days with Cole had enabled her to shove Brumley into the back of her mind. She’d relaxed her guard, had been able to pretend she was flirting and forging a relationship.
Last night should have told her that there was no way she could move forward with her life until she’d taken care of her past. But even after her panic attack, she’d still refused to focus on the task at hand.
She had to get to Vienna and talk to Katia. What if Nelson had been wrong about Jakarta? What if he’d outright lied, purposely sending P.J. on a wild-goose chase? He could have been protecting his boss with his last breath.
What if they could take Brumley down before the deal in Jakarta?
Her mind was filled with a thousand what-ifs.
“Hey, what’s wrong? You’re pale,” Cole said, concern an edge in his voice.
“We need to talk,” she said more sharply than she intended.
Cole dropped what he was doing and walked around to take the bar stool beside her, turning so he faced her.
“What’s up?”
He was all business now, his expression serious, and he was focused solely on her.
She let out her breath, hoping like hell she wasn’t making a mistake confiding in Cole. But she trusted him. It was time to see just how their relationship was going to work.
“Okay, you know I was gone for six months an
d I managed to take out three of Brumley’s men. You were there when I took out Nelson.”
Cole nodded.
“What I never told you was how I was able to get so close. How I got my intel and knew where to find them each time.”
Cole nodded. “Yeah, I wondered since you weren’t using the team for support.”
“The night of the party, when Donovan and I went in, I saw several very high-class girls hooking up outside the gate with single men going into the party. Donovan explained that they were very expensive working girls. A date for the night plus whatever went on behind closed doors when it was all said and done.”
Cole nodded again.
“Well it occurred to me that these girls were probably in the know. They know when the parties go down. They know who the players are. And that if I got close to one of them, I could tap a valuable source of information.”
Cole frowned. “Okay.”
“I could only find one willing to talk to me. She calls herself Katia. The rest were obviously afraid and unwilling to risk talking to me. I can’t say I blame them. They’re pretty much nameless, faceless women no one cares about. No family to be concerned if they disappear. They’d probably not even cause a ripple if they suddenly went missing.
“Anyway, Katia was willing to talk to me, but she was extremely cautious. Always met in secret. She was adamant that I was the only person she would talk to, and if I didn’t show alone, she wouldn’t open her mouth. So I paid her for info. She’d tell me when a party was planned or even when she’d heard about a deal going down. Apparently a lot of the guys these girls pick up have loose lips after sex and they like to brag about how powerful they are.”
“So she told you how to get to the first three men,” Cole said grimly.
“Yeah. She never gave me a bad lead, so I figure she’s entertaining some people pretty high up in Brumley’s organization, if not Brumley himself.”
“Okay, so what does that have to do with now?” Cole asked impatiently.
“I got an email from her,” P.J. said, her fingers still shaking despite her best effort not to let the email rattle her. “She says something big’s going down in Vienna with Brumley. She wouldn’t say more. She wants to talk to me in person.”
Cole reared back, automatically shaking his head. “Oh hell no. Fuck no, P.J. Not going to happen.”
P.J. put her hand up, pissed because it was still shaking. The last thing she needed was for Cole to think she was afraid, because she’d never get him on board then.
“Think about it, Cole. I’m not going after Brumley alone. I just need to see Katia and find out what she knows. It’s possible Nelson completely misled me when he told me about the deal going down in Jakarta. Think about it. His dying breath and he sends me in the opposite direction to where Brumley will really be. The ultimate fuck-you. I need to get to Vienna and talk to Katia so we know where this deal is going down. If we’re off in bumfuck Jakarta while he’s doing a deal in Vienna, he’s home free. We may never find the fucker again.”
“If you think I’m letting you go off to Vienna by yourself, you’re out of your goddamn mind.”
He looked angry now. His entire body was tense and his eyes blazed with purpose.
She put a hand on his arm and gently squeezed. “I wasn’t planning to go alone, Cole. I was hoping you’d go with me.”
CHAPTER 33
COLE’S agitation level was off the charts. He stared back at P.J. realizing she was utterly serious. His gut was screaming because all he wanted to do was keep her safe under wraps, in his sights, at his home, where he knew damn well she was safe.
The last few days had been . . . idyllic. They hadn’t even touched on the subject of Brumley or Jakarta or any of it. He’d secretly hoped that with enough time, he’d be able to convince her to let KGI go after Brumley and leave her out of it entirely.
It was an unrealistic hope at best, but he’d fooled himself into thinking it was a possibility.
“P.J., this is stupid. You honestly want to go off without the team on a fact-finding mission? You’re hurt. Or do you not remember taking a bullet to your leg? You can barely walk. The last thing you need is to be running all over Vienna.”
P.J.’s lips thinned and she had that stubborn pit bull look that she got when she was pissed—and determined.
“I won’t be running all over Vienna,” she said tightly. “And there’s no point getting the entire team involved when this may amount to nothing. There is also the fact that if we go in as a team, we aren’t going to go unnoticed. And thirdly, there is no way Katia is going to talk if I show up with a bunch of testosterone hanging over my shoulder.”
Cole frowned, but she continued on.
“You’re making more of this than needs to be made. It’s a simple trip to Vienna. In and out. We could be back in three days. I go see Katia. Find out what information she can give us. If something’s going down soon, we call up Steele and get the team in place. If nothing’s going down, we simply return and wait for Jakarta. I can’t afford not to jump on this lead, Cole. You knew from the start that I wasn’t going to rest until I nailed that bastard, not only for what he did to me, but for what he’s done to all those babies,” she said fiercely. “If you won’t go, then I’ll damn well go myself.”
Fuck a duck.
He knew he was overreacting and he knew he just wanted to keep her wrapped in bubble wrap so nothing could ever touch her again. He also knew that it was a stupid idea because she’d never allow it. Just like he knew in the back of his mind, no matter how much he’d like her not to go to Jakarta, that she’d be there with or without her team’s approval, and she wasn’t going to sit back and let her team take on a mission she’d sworn to carry out.
It drove him insane, but at the same time he admired her for her resolve and her commitment to her purpose. He wouldn’t respect her half as much if she rolled over and allowed others to take up the fight for her.
“Damn it, P.J.”
Her expression eased because she knew she’d won.
“I’ll get online and book us the next flight out of Nashville,” she said. “We’ll have to connect in New York, and it sucks, but we’ll be going without any sort of equipment. But I know a supplier where we can get what we need in Vienna.”
“Made quite a few friends over there,” Cole bit out.
Her expression sobered. “I did what I had to do to bring those bastards down.”
He reached forward, framing her face with both hands. “I want you to be careful, P.J. You mean a whole hell of a lot to me. I’m not going to just stand by while you put yourself on the line. I’m going to be with you every step of the way. This is no longer just your fight. It’s our fight. Those bastards hurt someone I care about. That makes it my fight too.”
She leaned in, resting her forehead against his. In that moment she seemed utterly fragile and vulnerable, and it only intensified his resolve that she wasn’t going to do this alone.
He moved his lips, just enough that they met hers. He kissed her once, retreated, then kissed her again just as softly.
“You make those reservations. I’m on board until I see that we’re getting into a dangerous situation. If that happens, I’m pulling you back, and if I have to sit on you until our team arrives, then that’s damn well what I’m going to do. Got it?”
She smiled. “Got it.”
* * *
TO reserve a flight, P.J. ended up having to call the airline, and then they had to literally pack a bag and get out the door within an hour. Making any decision that quickly didn’t sit well with Cole. He was more of a measured, sit back and think out all the potential issues kind of guy. P.J. was more of a take the bull by the horns and let all hell break loose girl.
If this was any indication of how their relationship was going to go, he was royally fucked.
All the way to Nashville, he second-guessed his decision to go along with P.J.’s plan. There were a hundred different reasons why it was a bad id
ea, but there were also reasons why it made sense.
If it went down just as she’d explained and they were merely going to Vienna to meet her contact and then make plans accordingly, he didn’t see the harm.
But there were so many things that could go wrong that it made his head spin.
Even if it pissed her off and she never spoke to him again, he was going to make damn sure she didn’t put herself in any danger. A quick visit to the call girl and then they’d put their heads together and call in the team.
It sounded simple on paper, but his gut was full of dread, because nothing was ever that simple. And he—and P.J.—had already paid the price for him ignoring his gut once.
They made it to Nashville with only minutes to spare before they would have missed the check-in for their flight. The seats were economy, which sucked. Cole was a bit spoiled, making most of his trips on the Kelly jet where he wasn’t subjected to crying babies, kids throwing tantrums and assholes trying to take his seat before he’d even boarded.
Worse, the transatlantic flight had a connection in London and then a flight to Vienna. All in coach.
P.J. was tense and wired for sound the entire way to New York. They didn’t speak during the flight, but he could see the wheels turning in her head.
She’d switched from the easygoing, relaxed P.J. who he’d been able to draw out the few days they’d spent together, to the P.J. who was ready to shed some serious blood.
Not that he didn’t get seriously turned on when P.J. got all kick-ass. Something about that woman when she got all badass just flipped all his switches, and some he didn’t even know he had.
But this time he was worried. This was too personal. She’d lost all objectivity. It wasn’t a mission where they could disengage their emotions and do the job expected.
This was revenge, and while he couldn’t blame her for wanting to nail the bastard who’d not only hurt her but had deeply shaken her confidence, a big part of him wished that she could just walk away and heal.
When they arrived in New York, they only had forty-seven minutes to make the next leg of the flight, and it took extra time boarding because they had to present their passports. They were one of the last to be seated, and sure enough, some dickhead had plopped down in Cole’s seat, and when Cole stood in the aisle, the jerk actually had the balls to ask him to trade.
