HERO Force Boxset Books 1-8

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HERO Force Boxset Books 1-8 Page 18

by Amy Gamet


  “There is no baby, is there?”

  She swung her legs off the side of the bed. “You should go now.”

  “What happened?”

  She turned on him. “What do you think happened, Jax? You’re not stupid, so put two and two together and figure this one out.”

  She’d miscarried the baby.

  All this time he’d told himself at least she had the child, some piece of Ralph to keep near her, when in fact she’d had nothing.

  He remembered how happy she’d been about the baby, she and Ralph both. They were so clearly in love, their newly created family the perfect icing on the cake.

  He’d been jealous at the time, his own marriage going up in flames just before they announced they were expecting. Not that he missed Linda. More that he missed the woman he wanted Linda to be.

  He wanted her to be more like Jessa.

  Seeing her now, with her pain so clearly etched on her features, he recognized her loneliness like he reluctantly acknowledged his own. Difference being, he deserved to be unhappy. Jessa did not.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, wishing he could wrap her in his arms and comfort her. Had she even had anyone there to do that at the time?

  Her bottom lip trembled, then her mouth formed a hard line. “Please, Jax. Just leave.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “This is my house. It’s my life. You don’t get to stay here just because you want to.”

  “Because I want to? Someone broke into your house, not once but three times, most recently not an hour ago. What if they come back while you’re sleeping, while you’re alone?” He shook his head. “I’m staying.”

  “Where will you sleep? There’s only one bed and you can’t sleep with me.” She lowered her brow.

  Was that why she didn’t want him here? “I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

  “There is no sofa.”

  “Then I’ll sleep on the floor.”

  “This is ridiculous. I can take care of myself.”

  “You passed out when you saw they’d been here, Jessa. I’m not leaving you alone like this.”

  Not this time.

  I won’t let you suffer alone again.

  She closed her eyes. “Fine. Just for tonight, but after that you need to leave.”

  He nodded. “We’ll talk about it in the morning.”

  10

  Jessa wiped the fog off the washroom mirror and looked at her naked body. Her breasts were noticeably bigger, their peaks darker and seemingly larger as well. She ran her hands around them, checking their firmness and weight. Could Jax see the differences that were so obvious to her eyes?

  Her hands moved lower, caressing the skin over her lower abdomen that had begun to stretch over her growing belly. She was nearing the end of her first trimester, and naked like this, she was surely beginning to show.

  It’s nothing my clothes won’t hide.

  As long as Jax didn’t see her naked, she had nothing to worry about, and there was no chance in hell of that happening.

  She pulled her panties up over her legs and settled them in place. She was so aware of herself as a woman while he was here, and she didn’t like the feeling one bit. She’d been happy at the beach, at least until the first break-in. Content to live quietly in the cute little house and let her baby grow, but Jax’s arrival had changed all that.

  She slipped her thin nightgown over her head and walked into the bedroom then climbed into bed and pulled up her covers. He had no right to be here. He shouldn’t have been able to find her at all, yet here he was, refusing to leave and insisting on protecting her.

  Her eyes closed as she settled into the mattress. The slightest noise at the window had her sitting upright, her heart racing. It was nothing, she was sure.

  Okay, if she was being completely honest, she felt far better with him being here than she had without, especially given today’s break-in. Jax had determined the burglar had entered through the bedroom window right at the foot of the bed, and though the window was locked now and the curtains pulled, she knew full well she’d never get to sleep without him in the house tonight.

  What about after tonight?

  God, she couldn’t stomach the idea of moving again. She’d been so tired lately, to boot, and moving one more time seemed like more than she could handle. But what other choice did she have? Stay here, where someone was determined to break into her cottage every chance they got, or let Jax stay on as her live-in bodyguard?

  Over my dead body.

  A knock at her bedroom door had her heart pounding. “Yes?”

  He poked his head in the door. “I’m going outside to look around.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah. Get some sleep.”

  She was certainly tired, but she wondered if she would in fact be able to rest, partly because of whoever tried to break in and partly because of her bodyguard. He disrupted her entire world with his presence, not only because of the threat he posed to her child but because of the threat he posed to her inflamed emotions.

  Everything made her cry these days. She was cranky and needy and desperate for company. She was a nurse, but Maria Elena held no such certification, so even her passion for her work had to be sacrificed in this game. She’d been working at the local library, a job that didn’t lend itself to conversation.

  Now that Jax had found her, she could go back to being herself, back to caring for people as she loved to do. That was some consolation, at least.

  It will be great. You can work on the weekends when Jax has custody of the baby.

  The urge to cry came quickly and wouldn’t be denied. Curling onto her side, she let the tears come. She’d worked so hard to escape him, gone to such lengths and extremes, yet here he was. If she couldn’t convince him to leave her alone, she had only to wait for the day he discovered the truth and laid claim to the baby he’d unknowingly created.

  And when that day came, only one thing was certain. Jax was going to hate her, and would become an inescapable part of her life from that moment forward.

  11

  Jax stepped into the cold night air, his Glock at his side and his night-vision monocular in his hand. The surf crashed in the distance, the scent of the air salty and sharp. He used his monocular to survey his surroundings. The path to the beach was deserted.

  He moved to the side of the house, taking in the balconies of the condo complex and a hundred feet of vegetated sand dunes between Jessa’s house and the complex. The other side of her property was open to a neighbor, with nowhere to hide, so clearly it was the dune side of the structure he had to be concerned with.

  He made his way to the dunes, his mind lost in thought as he walked. He hadn’t anticipated the depth of Jessa’s dislike toward him. Her words rang out in his memory.

  You are a mean-spirited, pompous asshole with no use for other people.

  Hell, he could have said as much about himself, but hearing it out of her mouth was something else entirely. Because he did have a use for her. He had a whole host of uses just waiting to be explored, and it wasn’t just about sex. Damn it, he liked her — and he didn’t like anybody.

  Still, he’d protect her. He’d stay here as long as he needed to, to make sure she was safe. He’d left Hawk in charge of HERO Force, and they didn’t need everyone on the mission they were doing this week. Besides, sleeping on the floor would be good for him. Help to get the message through his thick damn skull that Jessa didn’t want anything to do with him.

  Jessa.

  Why had she taken on a new identity? Maybe she was in trouble. Money trouble, or…something. But he just couldn’t imagine what trouble Jessa could get into.

  A hundred feet from the dunes, movement caught his eye. The grass was moving as if someone was crawling through it, and the hair on Jax’s arms stood up on end as he continued to walk and raised his monocular to his eye once more. There in the brush was a man crawling away on his stomach.

  Jax reached for his Glock
as he began to run toward the figure. The other man stood and ran, too, a large shape at his side. Jax was gaining on him, but the man made it to a parking lot and an SUV, speeding away just as Jax got to him.

  “Son of a bitch!” yelled Jax. He doubled back to the dune and the brush area where the man had been, quickly locating his hideout by the flattened foliage behind a large swath of tall grass. He dropped into a squat to examine the area with a flashlight. A pattern of distinctive and familiar markings was left in the sand.

  The tripod of a sniper’s rifle. He turned and looked back at her house, the kitchen window shining brightly in the night.

  Whoever was watching Jessa’s house was looking for something and was willing to kill in order to find it.

  He couldn’t let that happen.

  Jesus.

  What had she gotten herself into?

  Some kind of trouble, that was for damn sure, and she wasn’t talking. It was time for him to find some answers, with or without her cooperation.

  Back at the bungalow, he closed all the drapes and locked both doors, then turned his attention to Jessa’s belongings. He went through every drawer, cupboard, and box she had in the kitchen and living room, as well as a hallway closet.

  What could they possibly be looking for?

  In one box he found scrapbooks of her wedding and life with Ralph. Her diplomas. A small desk in the corner held mail and bills, and he scrupulously checked for anything amiss financially but found nothing. If anything, Ralph had left her enough money that she shouldn’t have any issues at all.

  One envelope caught his attention, with the return address of a lawyer’s office.

  I write to inform you of certain assets bequeathed to you pursuant to Mr. Hopewell’s Last Will and Testament, to wit: a first edition copy of The Manor by John Boronkay.

  So Jessa had inherited a book that was meant for Maria Elena.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Jessa exclaimed.

  He twisted around and saw her standing in a white fuzzy bathrobe, indignation clearly etched on her features. “Trying to figure out what’s going on, since you aren’t going to tell me.”

  “You have no right to go through my things!”

  He stood up and faced her. “I need all the information so I can figure out who’s after you and what they want. If you don’t like that, you can try being honest with me.”

  She huffed.

  “That’s what I thought,” he said. “Where’s the book you inherited from” — he looked back at the lawyer’s letter — “Harold Hopewell?”

  She looked around the room, selecting the old-looking volume and handing it to him. “Here. I was reading it at the beach today.”

  “When did you get this letter?”

  “Two weeks ago. Why?”

  “And when was the first break-in?”

  “Ten days ago. Do you think they’re related?”

  “Can you think of any reason someone would be interested in something of yours?”

  “No. None.”

  He held the book in his hands, twisting it back and forth in the light. “Then this might have something to do with it. What’s it about?”

  “A wealthy family in New England.”

  “Maybe Harold Hopewell was in love with Maria Elena Cortez.”

  “Maybe, but with a name like Harold I think he might be older.” She sat down. “It still makes me sick to know she was a real person, and I stole a proper burial from her. I should have realized when the book arrived. I just figured they had me mistaken for somebody else.”

  Jax dialed his phone. “Logan, I need you to pull everything you can find on one Harold Hopewell.”

  Jessa pulled at his arm. “No. I don’t want you to do this.”

  “He died a few weeks ago, his lawyer’s in Boston, firm by the name of Layton, Felder, Bach & Moore.”

  “Stop it,” said Jessa. “I don’t want HERO Force involved.”

  “Hang on.” Jax pulled the phone from his ear. “We need information. Logan can get it.”

  “I don’t care. I don’t want anything to do with you or your men.”

  He glared at her and put the phone back to his ear. “It’s a rush job. Let me know what you find out.”

  Jessa hit his shoulder as he hung up. “I hate you. Do you know that?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Sort of begs the question, why did you sleep with me?”

  “You need to leave. I’ve had enough of this cloak-and-dagger garbage.”

  “You’re right. We should go.”

  She held up her hands. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I can’t protect you here, Jessa.”

  “I don’t need protection. This is just a couple of kids—”

  “There was a man hiding in the brush of the sand dunes. One man, alone.”

  Her eyes went wide.

  Jax put his hands on his hips. “He ran when I got close to him. He had a sniper rifle, and he was pointing it at your house, looking through the scope and watching you.”

  Jessa grabbed her throat, a look of pure fear settling over her features.

  “That weapon has one purpose and one purpose only,” said Jax. “To end your life. I figure either he’s after the book or he has something to do with the reason you wanted a new identity in the first place. You need to come clean with me, Jessa. This isn’t a game.”

  “You think I don’t know that? You think I want this to be happening to me?”

  “Then why aren’t you telling me everything? You’re keeping secrets and they just might get you killed.”

  Her bottom lip trembled.

  “You can trust me with anything. Don’t you know that?” he asked. “Why did you need a new identity?”

  She turned away. “None of your business.”

  He closed his eyes and bit out his words. “We’re leaving. Get your things, and make sure you bring that book.”

  12

  Jessa clutched her bag close to her chest as she sat beside Jax in his truck. She didn’t want to be here. She turned her head and watched the mile markers flash in the headlights. Anything but talk to this man.

  It was bad enough she was stuck here, sharing the same air. With the pregnancy, she was overly sensitive to smells, and the smell of Jax was ubiquitous in the truck cab. She cracked the window, ignoring him as he sent her a questioning look.

  “How’s your head?” he asked.

  “Fine.”

  “Any headache?”

  She sighed. “I said it’s fine.”

  He rubbed his hand up and down his denim-clad thigh. “Mind if I put on some music?”

  “Your truck.”

  “Did I do something to make you angry?”

  She turned her head and stared at him. “Seriously?”

  “If I did, I don’t know what it is, so why don’t you tell me?”

  She clutched her purse more tightly. “Hunting me down like a stalker. Going through my things without asking. And to top it all off, I don’t want to be here with you.”

  “I’m trying to keep you safe.”

  “No one asked you to do that.”

  Jax glared at her. “Oh, so I was just supposed to leave you in that beach house with a sniper outside your goddamn window?”

  “I’m a grown woman. If you left me there, I would have gotten somewhere safe on my own. I am not alive at this very moment because of you.”

  “Do you have your own team of guys working to find out who’s after you? Because if HERO Force’s efforts are redundant, I can certainly find something else for them to work on, like the protection detail I just turned down for an election in Central America.”

  “Then go ahead, Jax.”

  He shook his head. “What the hell’s the matter with you, huh? I’m busting my ass to do what I can to help you here—”

  “When all I want is for you to go away.”

  “You certainly didn’t want me to go away the last time I saw you.”

  Jessa sank down
a little in her seat. She didn’t want to be reminded of what happened between them, beyond her extracting some kind of justice from him for Ralph and the baby.

  She didn’t want to remember how she’d responded to him.

  She blushed, her cheeks burning. A sliver of memory slipped through her armor, Jax on top of her as she keened, clutching his body deep into hers. The only time she usually thought of that night was when her conscious mind went to sleep and the dreams took over. They were vivid and sharp, a blend of actual moments from inside that hotel room and the wildest imaginings of her hormone-laden mind.

  “Why did you make love with me, Jessa?”

  “It was sex, and I told you, I was lonely. You were there.”

  He was quiet after that, and she felt like she was waiting for a geyser to explode. The calmness at the surface masked a firestorm beneath that was bound to shoot forth with hot, burning scorn.

  When he did speak, his voice was quiet. “You can pretend, if that’s what you want. You can pretend it could have been any man with you in that bed, but I know better. You came to me looking for something mechanical, impersonal. But that’s not what you got, and pretending you didn’t enjoy making love to me is a lie neither one of us believes.”

  His deep voice reverberated through her body, the truck now uncomfortably warm. She put her window down more. God, she needed to get out of here.

  He was right, she knew he was, and the truth of it fueled her anger. He’d taken something from her that night — her identity as a grieving widow — and like a coat in a cold winter storm, she had no idea what to do without it.

  Except freeze.

  Jax said, “Why did you change your identity?”

  “None of your business.”

  “Damn it, Jessa, I want to help you, but I can’t do that if you don’t tell me what’s going on. You must have been terrified to do something so drastic. Something happened that scared you enough to do something desperate. Did someone hurt you?”

  “No.”

  “Threaten you?”

  “No.”

 

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