by Liliana Hart
Cade let out a long whistle and Max leaned forward in his chair. “I thought Martin Vassin was killed in that explosion at the Kremlin last year,” Max said.
“Martin needed a little time to regroup after he found himself short of liquid assets when an arms deal went bad with a Turkish terrorist cell,” Dec said. “The weapons were intercepted by the authorities and the Turks were screaming for Martin to make good on his promise by sending someone to enforce the deal. Martin took the easy way out and chose to die for a little while instead of facing the iron crowbar of the Turkish enforcer.”
“So now Vassin is alive and well and his coffers are full?” Max asked. “What’s the connection with Senator Henry?”
Dec leaned back in his chair and steepled his hands across his stomach. Max knew he’d already committed to memory every piece of information that was in the closed file in front of him. Dec’s mind was like a machine.
“Vassin is one of the more intelligent arms and information brokers. And he’s tapped into Senator Henry. He’s got deep pockets and his position on the defense committee is well placed.”
“I don’t like where I think you’re going with this,” Max said.
“Wherever you think I’m going just took a hundred and eighty degree turn,” Dec said. “It’s a sticky situation. We knew Henry was involved in the high-level security leaks, and this all started about six months ago. Since then we can blame the loss of the Iranian military convoy last month and the bombing at the US Consulate in London that killed Senator Ryan at Vassin’s feet. Gabe Brennan and his team of agents are investigating and hunting the parties responsible since Vassin didn’t do the dirty work himself. Vassin is just the facilitator.”
Max raised his brows at the mention of Gabe Brennan. Gabe made Declan look like an altar boy. He was a scary son of a bitch, but Dec trusted him implicitly, which was saying something because Dec didn’t trust many people.
Max had never had any direct dealings with Gabe, but he’d heard the rumors that his wife had left him and had turned mercenary because of something terrible he’d done. Now there was a price on her head, and nobody knew if Gabe was going to let her go free or if he’d try to bring her in and collect the bounty.
“Then Henry’s a traitor, plain and simple,” Brant said. “And he should pay just like Vassin is going to pay.”
“Not so simple.” Dec shook his head. “That’s what we found on the flash drive from Henry’s personal computer. His nineteen year old daughter is a sophomore at Harvard and was studying late one night at the library when Vassin and his men kidnapped her.”
“Damn,” Max said.
“I started the ball rolling as soon as Elena gave me the information. We don’t know where Vassin is keeping her, but he has homes all over the world. My gut says she’ll be close though.”
“God,” Jade said. “And the senator would do anything to protect his daughter. Even betray his country.”
“Bingo,” Dec said.
Max watched Elena go very still and shudder at the mention of what had happened to the senator’s daughter, and she seemed to draw in on herself even more. But Jade placed her hand on the other woman’s shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly.
“Am I to assume you’re going to need the Devlin name for this mission?” Max asked.
Dec’s lips twitched. “Why do you think we keep you around? That blue blood comes in handy on occasion. And your cover as the disenchanted agent doesn’t hurt either. The word has been put out that you’ve got sensitive information from your days at the DEA, and that you’re willing to part with it for a price.”
“Wow, I’m a real asshole,” Max said, deadpan.
“This time more than normal,” Cade said, making everyone laugh.
“Your mission is to lure Vassin into the open. He never negotiates deals one on one. It’s how he’s stayed alive so long. He’ll want to send someone in his stead to make the transaction. You’ve got to convince him that you’ll only work with him directly. We need to take out Vassin and we need to find the Senator’s daughter. I’ve called all agents in on this and Shane’s SEAL team is willing to act as unofficial backup.”
“What kind of information am I supposed to have that Vassin will want?” Max asked. “I don’t have security clearance anymore.”
“No, but you have the drop and destroy locations for all of the confiscated weapons. We have to make it real or Vassin will know it’s a setup.”
Max raised his brows and ran his hand over the top of his head in agitation. The DEA confiscated ridiculous amounts of contraband weapons in its day-to-day activities. Weapons that not even the military had access to. Arms dealers were more prevalent in the United States than one might think, and the successful ones had a network set up so they could ship contraband weapons all over the world.
Once the DEA got word of a deal and confiscated the shipment, the weapons were taken to a warehouse on one of the military bases where they were highly guarded until the warehouse was full. Then the weapons were taken by convoy to a secured location where they were melted down to scrap. Once the weapons made it to the meltdown location, there was no danger, but the convoy transporting the weapons to the base was vulnerable, even though they were carefully guarded.
“Are you sure?” Max asked. “It could backfire on us if Vassin did happen to get the routes.” What Max really meant was that if Vassin somehow captured Max, there was a possibility the location could be tortured from him anyway.
“It’ll be fine,” Dec said. “You’ll have your bodyguard there as backup. Max Devlin never goes anywhere without a bodyguard. Even the newspapers have remarked on that more than once.”
Dec had started building him a solid cover while he’d been lying unconscious in the hospital, and he’d kept layering on top of it for the two years after. He was a reckless playboy. A man who skated the line between former hero and current criminal. His friends, associates and morals were considered questionable. Max was the bad boy everyone in polite society was too afraid of offending. They wouldn’t dare turn their backs on him because he wielded to much power over the companies and stock holders that were part of the Devlin fortune.
“And who gets the privilege of standing in the line of fire for me?” Max asked.
“That would be me,” Jade said, her lips quirking in a smile. “I am the best shot after all.”
“You know, if that wasn’t completely true, I’d resent that statement,” Cade said.
“I think your ego can take it, big boy,” she said, grinning.
Cade nodded soberly. “My wife says my ego is very—healthy.”
“I believe she had something to say about your ego and its size the last time she was in labor too,” Declan said. “We all learned more than we wanted to know about your anatomy, or lack thereof.”
Everyone at the table broke into loud guffaws, and Cade’s lips quirked, acknowledging that round to Declan. Except for Max. He was motionless in his chair, his eyes drilling holes into the side of her head. She’d seen the way his gaze shuttered at the mention of her going in as his bodyguard, and she tried not to let it bother her. But dammit—it did. She was tired of the men in her life trying to stand in front of her all the time. Max had relied on her before this thing between them became personal.
“Max, you and Jade will head down to your place tonight,” Dec said. “It won’t be long before Vassin gets in contact with you. The rest of us are going to stay here for the time being and keep going through Senator Henry’s passcoded files to see if we can find anything else that could lead us to where his daughter is being kept.”
Dec scooted back his chair and stood, tossing his beer bottle in the recycler before heading toward the door. The others all followed suit, and Jade went with them to the door while Max leaned back in the chair on two legs and watched them all.
“Take what you need out of the weapons room with you,” Dec said. “And take the black Explorer in the garage. We’ll dispose of the one you lifted earli
er. Both of you stay on your guard. Vassin likes to play dirty.”
Jade closed the door behind them and turned to face Max, her arms crossing over her chest. “I can tell you right now you’re not going to say one word about my assignment,” she said. “I saw the look on your face the minute it left Declan’s mouth. This is my job. And I may sleep with you, but that doesn’t give you the right to act like a Neanderthal and make me stand two steps behind you. I mean it, Max. The minute you try to stand in front of me, I walk. Period.”
Max’s lips thinned in a straight line and he stalked toward her until he stood so close they were almost touching. His arms came up on each side of her shoulders and trapped her against the door. She narrowed her eyes in warning.
“Stop threatening to walk out on me, or your ass is going to be so red you can’t sit for a week. I know better than anyone how capable you are on the job. But that doesn’t mean I can help the natural instincts to try and protect what’s mine. I’m a man. I think the Neanderthal is in our genes.”
“Some more than others,” she said sweetly. “Do you trust me to have your back?”
“Always,” he said, with no hesitation. “But that doesn’t mean I have to like it. Especially since you are going to be sleeping with me. There are certain allowances that have to be made for people you’re intimate with.”
“Clearly you’ve been reading Emily Post again.”
“Don’t be a smartass.” He leaned down and gave her a hard kiss, and Jade couldn’t help but twine her arms around his neck and kiss him back with everything she had. When he broke away they were both panting and she wondered if they had time to disobey orders and take the edge off before they headed out.
“We’d better not chance it,” he whispered against her lips. “Declan will be down here pounding on the door if we’re not out of here in the next five minutes. And once I get you naked, nothing is going to stop me until I’m coming so hard inside of you that you feel me for a week.”
Jade’s mouth went dry and her fingers tightened at the nape of his neck. “Promises, promises,” she said. “Or maybe it’ll be the other way, Agent Devlin. Maybe I’ll ride you so hard you’ll be feeling me for a week.”
Jade pushed him back and gave him a saucy wink, and Max let out a startled laugh. She felt good. Free. And she realized it had been a long time since it hadn’t felt like something was strangling her from the inside. She wasn’t weak. And she didn’t need to be coddled. Donovan would always have a special place in her heart. He was her first love and the man she hadn’t gotten to spend nearly enough time with. The memories would always be there, and time had softened the grief—whether she’d wanted it to or not.
She realized Donovan would’ve been happy she’d chosen Max. They’d been close as brothers. The last of the guilt that had been wrapped around her heart broke free and a peace settled over her she couldn’t explain—as if Donovan were laying a hand on her shoulder and telling her it was okay.
Jade turned away from Max and headed out the door so he wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes. She could no longer feel Donovan imprinted on every part of her life. He was no longer her first thought when she woke in the mornings or her last when she went to bed at night. Moving on had happened whether she’d wanted it to or not.
CHAPTER FIVE
It was past dawn by the time they got close to Max’s home, just north of San Antonio in the hill country. The sun was already a bright orange ball rising over the hills in the distance, burning off the thin layer of fog that had settled low across the ground.
The grass along the narrow two-lane road was brown and dead, and the cedar trees were sparse and so dry, Jade hoped no one lit a match anywhere in the vicinity. The whole state was liable to go up in flames.
There was a rugged beauty about the whole area—the rolling hills and miles of pastureland—and she could see why Max had been drawn to the area. It was a far cry from his DuPont Circle brownstone. That posh area of wealth and prestige had belonged to the old Max—the Max that had been more carefree and easy to laugh before his injury.
She looked at the man sleeping in the passenger seat, taking in the longer length of his hair and the growth of beard on his cheeks. He overwhelmed the space beside her, and even in sleep, he looked a little bit dangerous—a little bit rough around the edges. This wasn’t the same Max who had grown up surrounded by wealth and every want at his fingertips. This was a man who’d worked his way up the ranks the hard way and paid the consequences. There was an edge of danger to him now that hadn’t been there before, and she wasn’t afraid to admit that she found it attractive.
She slowed the Explorer as they came to a steep turn and then navigated across a slatted wooden bridge that ran over a creek that was more mud than water.
“We’re almost there,” he said, eyes still closed.
“I thought you were asleep.”
“I woke up when you started muttering to yourself about the skunk smell. You’ll get used to it, city girl.”
Jade snorted out a laugh. “So speaks the boy with the silver spoons in both fists.”
Max grinned and stretched, putting his seat back in the upright position. “Yeah, well, it took me a little while to get adjusted. It’s really quiet. There are no honking horns or sirens. Just crickets and the occasional coyote howling.”
“How’s the headache?”
“It’s gone. They never last more than a few hours and sleep seems to be the cure more so than the pills. It’s mostly an annoyance. Watch the turn here,” he said. “The road drops straight off into the ditch.”
“I guess you don’t get much company out here.”
“That’s the point. There’s no one around for miles and I’ve got sensors in the road to alert me if someone’s coming. I originally put them around the perimeter of the property, but there are so many wild animals they kept setting the sensors off.”
Jade took the corner slowly, holding her breath as she kept the Explorer on the narrow road. Max hadn’t exaggerated—there was a ten-foot drop off on each side and the tires came almost to the edge of the pavement. The curve straightened out and she had to squint her eyes against the sudden darkness. Tree branches gnarled over the road and hung low so they almost scraped the top of the car, and limbs scratched against the side windows.
“Jesus, Max. This is a little overboard, don’t you think?”
“I like my privacy,” he said, shrugging. “And this place is off the books. No one but Declan and now you knows where it is. You’re sworn to secrecy.”
“So you’re saying I shouldn’t have posted the picture of the exit I took on my Facebook page?” She widened her eyes playfully. “Oops.”
“You’re getting a little cheeky, Jax.” His eyes darkened and he reached across the console to trail his finger along her jawline, and her flesh pebbled at his touch. Things had gone from playful to seduction in a matter of seconds and she was still trying to keep up. “We’re going to be pulling into my driveway in about forty-five seconds. I’m going to be inside you in about fifty.”
“Why are you waiting so long?”
Max sucked in a breath and she licked her lips, pressing her foot to the accelerator. She shot out of the tree-lined tunnel and back into the glaring sunlight. Dust kicked up around the tires and at the top of a small rise, Max’s house came into view. It was a long, one-story ranch house built with rough timbers and a slate roof, with a wide porch wrapped around all sides. It wasn’t anything like she’d been expecting.
She was about to comment on the fact when she caught what Max was doing out of the corner of her eye. He’d unbuckled his seatbelt and pulled his shirt up, and he was unbuckling his belt with deliberate movements. The Explorer veered into the grass and she swerved it back onto the long stretch of Max’s driveway.
His erection was prominent behind the zipper of his jeans, and he popped the top button open. Her breath came faster and her foot pressed to the floor, shooting them forward. He worked at the zipper next,
pulling it down slowly and she licked her lips at the sight of him bare beneath the denim.
“You lick your lips like that every time you see my cock,” he rasped. “It’s the sexiest damned thing I’ve ever seen, and every time you do it I can’t help but imagine you taking me between those sweet lips.”
Jade slammed on the brakes and the SUV skidded to a halt just in front of the house. She released her seatbelt and Max hit the lever at the side of his seat so it leaned all the way back, and he was pulling her across the console almost before she had it in park.
Their mouths fused together, lips and tongues clashing, and he lifted her so she straddled his hips and the hard length of him pressed against the very heat of her. It was out of control—wicked sensations and fiery licks of pleasure that skated across her skin and gathered in her womb.
His hands wound into her hair and he held her head still as he took control of the kiss, as he licked into her and tasted every whimper that escaped her lips while her hips mimicked his tongue. A startled cry broke free as a little electrical current pulsed in her clit and a tiny orgasm ripped through her. She tore her mouth away from him and pressed her head against his chest as the small shudders rocked her body.
“Let go, baby,” he whispered against her ear, licking at the sensitive shell and making her shudder again. “That’s just the first one. I can’t wait to taste that sweet pussy and have you come against my lips. And then the feel of your muscles clamping around my cock as you come again.”
Jade could barely catch her breath. The sensations were overwhelming and the eroticism of his words electric. She felt the dampness of her desire between her legs, and she was suddenly unsure of herself. She wanted this more than she realized, but there were nerves fluttering in her belly and a sense of the unknown.
Max jerked her shirt over her head, tossing it in the backseat, and baring her aching breast. He flicked the clasp of her bra and it followed in the direction of the shirt.
“Christ, look at you,” he said, a flush mantling across his cheeks. His gaze was hooded and he exhaled slowly as his hands came up and cupped her breasts, his thumbs rasping against the sensitive tips of her nipples. “So pretty and full, just waiting for my mouth.”
