Ruthless

by HelenKay Dimon

  Pax nodded.

  “Ben figured out the situation and diffused it, but the attacker got away.” Connor exhaled. “Apparently, Ben didn’t want to shoot around all the sick people.”

  “Good call.” Pax could imagine the whole thing and how Ben, the former NCIS agent and straightest arrow of them all, must have hated missing his target.

  For Ben’s sake, Pax hoped there was a good-looking nurse on the floor to ease Ben’s pain.

  Kelsey frowned. “These people after Sean, whoever they are, are now causing trouble in hospitals? What kind of person risks the lives of innocent people like that?”

  She missed a pretty important piece of the puzzle. Pax didn’t. “You’re innocent and they came after you.”

  “Yeah, these are the kind of folks you don’t want to meet in an alley behind your shop,” Joel said.

  Pax knew the real answer was so much worse than Joel’s light tone suggested. People like this—hired killers, mercenaries without any loyalty—crawled out from under many rocks and worked for the highest bidder. It was a lousy way to make a living but pretty lucrative.

  Even though he wanted her to feel secure and ease up on the killer clench of her fingers into fists, he needed her to be careful. “These men? They’ll do anything to get what they want.”

  “Which is? I’m still not completely clear on that,” she said.

  Connor reached over her shoulder and flattened his hand against the mysterious box. “This might give us an idea.”

  It was time. They’d stalled long enough, trying to take fifteen minutes away from the draining case to clean up and recharge, but they couldn’t put off looking. All the coffee and small talk in the world could do only so much to battle the anticipation that had them all twitching.

  If Joel shifted one more time he might accidentally unplug a computer. And Connor, well, his feet fell harder and faster with each pacing pass.

  As much as Pax wanted to rip into the box and get on with it, the right to open it belonged to Kelsey. He held out a hand. “Go ahead.”

  She glanced around the room at all of them before nodding. Without saying anything, she picked it up and put it on her lap. She picked at the tab and carefully ripped it open.

  That had to be one of the differences between men and women. Pax knew he would have torn it apart with his bare hands and dumped everything out in less than five seconds. They’d already be searching through the contents for a lead.

  But not Kelsey. She opened it as if it were the most precious gift.

  Even with the longer route she finally got there and dumped it upside down. Papers spilled across the table and something clicked as it performed an awkward roll. A smack of her hand stopped it.

  She gathered everything in her arms and read off an informal inventory. “Memory stick, a stack of papers written in some weird code and copies of some documents.”

  Connor reached over her shoulder again, this time to page through the papers strewn in front of her. He separated a stack and held them up. “Some of this looks like a job for Joel.”

  “Your temporary tech expert is happy to be at your service.” Joel’s chair creaked as he wheeled it closer to the table.

  Connor shot Joel a one-eyed scowl. “You could get up, you know.”

  “I’m good here.”

  Her hands froze. “Temporary?”

  Joel took what looked like a ream of papers from Connor. “I’m a gun guy filling in as a computer nerd while our regular nerd is with the other part of the team in Catalina.”

  “Whoa.” Kelsey lifted out of her chair and smacked her hand against the papers before Joel could drag them away. Even ignored his “hey” of outrage. “Gentlemen, before you go running in different directions and talking in annoying half sentences, please fill in the newbie. We’re not doing the confuse-the-nonoperative game anymore. From here on in, I’m one of you, only without the shooting skills.”

  Connor’s eyebrow lifted. “Excuse me?”

  She didn’t roll her eyes, but she sure looked as if she wanted to. “Don’t bother with the I’m-in-charge voice.” She threw her arms out wide. “Tell me what all of this is.”

  Pax didn’t bother to hide his smile. Seeing the matching stunned expressions on Joel’s and Connor’s faces pretty much made Pax’s horrible day take a left turn into more tolerable territory.

  They were friends as well as teammates. From watching them interact with Lara and seeing Connor with his wife, Jana, though that had been awhile, Pax didn’t doubt his friends’ appreciation of strong women.

  Erica Dane had been on the team for almost a year and no one treated her as an afterthought. Probably because her sniper skills rivaled Connor’s. But with Erica on consecutive out-of-country jobs, Lara on her honeymoon with Davis and Jana inexplicably away, there had been little female input lately. Having Kelsey step up and make a claim seemed to throw Connor off, and to a lesser extent Joel.

  It wasn’t often a potential victim wandered into the tactical end of the business. They were used to finding a clue, picking it apart and then establishing a plan.

  Having Kelsey, the person they viewed as the subject of their operation, make a demand stopped their momentum. She didn’t blindly accept everything happening around her and beg for help when things blew up. She asked questions.

  Pax took it as a sign they needed more women on the team. He’d be fine if they started with Kelsey, so long as she never left the desk and hypersecure space patrolled by armed guards. He decided that was a totally logical requirement, since he’d reached his end on seeing her in danger.

  Before the room exploded in questions or anything else, Pax reached into the not-quite-empty box and pulled out a slip of paper. The temptation to read it proved great, but he slid it in front of Kelsey. “Here.”

  “A note?” She turned it over in her hands and then read it. A deep exhale followed a second later. “Leave it to Sean to push up the drama with a cryptic letter. The only letter, email, card or even sticky note he’s ever written to me, by the way.”

  “What does it say?” Connor asked.

  “Not much. ‘Hold these for me—I’ll explain later’ and that’s it.” She handed it to Connor. “No explanation.”

  That’s not what ticked Pax off. “No apology.”

  “I didn’t expect one.” She smiled but the expression didn’t hide the sad note in her voice.

  With that, the brief window of amusement Pax had been enjoying slammed shut. He shot out of his chair and did some pacing of his own on this side of the table. “What the hell is wrong with your brother? He put you in the middle of this mess and doesn’t bother to warn you or make sure you’re okay.”

  “I doubt he cares.” Kelsey divided up the contents of the box. Connor got the documents. Joel got the readouts and memory stick. She held on to the note and likely didn’t realize she traced the words with her finger. “We weren’t—”

  “Close. Yeah, I got that the first few times you said it. It’s burned in my brain at this point, not that I need the reminder. Your brother’s actions speak loud enough.” Pax tried to shake off the frustration bouncing through him. The idea her family would dump her into danger and then run off and leave her to handle it sent a spike of white-hot rage shooting to his brain.

  He paced and swore under his breath. It took him another few minutes to realize he was the only one making any noise. He felt the attention on him and looked up to find three sets of eyes focused on him. “What?”

  “Something else you want to say about my family?” she asked in a soft voice.

  He knew that expression. He could spot a furious female within a hundred feet, and this one looked ready to burst into flames. And not in a good way.

  He did what any smart person would do. Stayed as still and quiet as possible. “No.”

&nbs
p; She stood up, almost in slow motion, but something about the force of the move had her chair spinning behind her. She balanced her palms against the table. “I know we’re not perfect. We might even be the lead example for dysfunctional.”

  “That’s not up for debate, but I’m talking about Sean’s behavior, not—”

  She silenced Pax with a sudden whip of her hand through the air. “Do you and your brother share everything?’

  Pax still wasn’t clear where this was going or how it had spun off track, so he kept to short words. “Most of the time.”

  “Such as.”

  Connor cleared his voice and pointed toward the kitchen. “We can step out.”

  Joel didn’t move. If anything, he leaned back farther in his chair.

  “No, stay.” She said it to them but stared at Pax as she walked around the table and stopped right in front of him.

  Not exactly how he liked to unload his family history, but Connor knew most and Joel knew some. There weren’t any big surprises here. Nothing happy or fun, either.

  Pax crossed his arms over his chest. “Our story isn’t all that original anyway. Dad died in a car accident, mom lost it, then lost custody of us, and we were forgotten.”

  “We? You’re referring to this brother I haven’t seen?”

  Pax sensed some female grumbling but let it slide. This kind of story came out better in one telling. No need to draw it out. “Me and Davis. He’s older and more responsible and made sure we were okay. I owe him for that. For a lot of things, actually, but mostly for that.”

  “Yeah, well, not all of us had that sort of sibling protection.”

  “Meaning?” But Pax knew. From the pieces he gathered from the news and the longer renditions from her father’s criminal file, the readily available statistics about Kelsey’s life followed a poor-little-rich-girl theme.

  Not that the description and personality type fit Kelsey. There was nothing spoiled or entitled about her. Lost at times, yes, but not limited. If anything, she far surpassed what could be expected from her upbringing and all the negatives handed to her. She had become driven, smart, determined and far too tempting for his control to handle.

  But even if he hadn’t read the file, even if he’d never read one line about her life or known about her mother’s death from cancer, he’d know a secret part of her.

  There was an unspoken club for survivors of terrible parents, and her father definitely qualified as that. The offspring who stumbled around, trying to find their equilibrium as they made their way in a world that ignored them and struggled to put the past behind them so it wouldn’t infect their futures.

  In Kelsey, Pax saw a fellow fighter, someone who stepped up because no one was there to lift her. Someone who refused to be a victim. He recognized the symptoms because he shared them.

  “My mom died and my dad’s replacement wife stepped in almost immediately.” The words spilled out of her slowly at first and then picked up to a tumbling pace. Her gaze darted around the room and finally landed back on Pax with eyes bleak and dark with sadness. “I was the part of the deal she had to take, and when Sean came along, she quickly figured out that having me around potentially decreased his share of the family fortune. She took care of that by shipping me off to boarding school and limiting my visits home.”

  “There’s a word for women like that.” And Pax was tempted to yell it.

  “No arguments here.” Kelsey’s shoulders slumped. “In her mind, I needed to be ignored, forgotten and kept out of town.”

  Not a surprise but still hard to hear. The way her family treated her, as an afterthought and nuisance, explained a lot about Kelsey’s fierce personality. She fought hard because she’d been taught to do so while a kid.

  “I’m sorry.” The words were so useless, and he knew they meant almost nothing after hearing them from social workers and well-meaning but ineffective professionals his whole life, but the emotion behind them this time was real.

  “My relationship with Sean never had a chance. My already strained bond with my demanding father never recovered after he remarried.”

  “Not a big loss,” Joel mumbled.

  “I’m not in the will, which is truly a blessing because in the Moore family money equals power in a very destructive way. I’m not mentioned in any interview or during any conversation. And since I refused to testify for him, I’m not even a thought at the holidays. I can’t hide behind the lie of seeing family only at Christmas, because I’m not invited.”

  Connor frowned. “But your stepmother died.”

  “I prefer to think of her as my father’s wife and eliminate any reference to a real relationship between us, and yes. A car accident some said was fueled by alcohol. I don’t know, but I don’t doubt it. My father asked me not to come to the funeral, so I stayed away.”

  One more thing they had in common. Lives touched by car accident tragedies. For Pax, the loss changed everything when he lost a parent. For her, the accident highlighted how little she meant to her dad. Both instances sucked.

  The driving need to touch Kelsey shocked Pax. He ached for her loss and the young girl who deserved so much better. The audience and timing stopped him.

  Plus he had a bigger point to make. Something he wanted her to see and understand even though he doubted her ability to take it in after everything else she’d been through today. “You’re here, helping Sean. There’s a tie. Maybe a thin one, and something your father and his mother tried to destroy, but it’s there.”

  This time she did roll her eyes. Didn’t put much energy behind it, but she did it. “I’m trying not to get killed and hoping he doesn’t, either. I’m not convinced that makes me Sister of the Year.”

  But maybe she wasn’t as alone in the world as she wanted to believe, and Pax hoped she would somehow fight her way through all the confusion and pain and see that. “I think you’re doing okay.”

  “I’m amazed with every minute that passes without me throwing up.”

  That certainly broke the serious mood enveloping the room. “Makes two of us.”

  “Look, I think we need to call it a night. It’s late and even without the injuries this has been a rough one.” Connor kept his death grip on the paperwork as he started issuing orders disguised as suggestions. “Kelsey, there’s a room on the third floor you can use. It’s a crash pad of sorts. Towels and sheets are clean, and no one will bother you up there.”

  Joel laughed. “You sure about that?”

  Connor set down his mug on the table with a sharp whack and shot Pax a back-off look. “She needs sleep.”

  “Why are you looking at me?” But Pax knew.

  Hands in the air, Joel shook his head. “I’m not touching that comment.”

  The clapping started a second later. Two quick smacks followed by a men-are-so-annoying sigh had everyone looking at Kelsey. “Before this totally disintegrates into juvenile boys locker room talk, I need to ask one question.”

  “Only one?” The fact she managed to follow everything going on around her and handle being in the middle of so much danger impressed Pax. He couldn’t imagine her taking on one more thing.

  “Why would my brother steal this information? I know all the possible answers are bad, so I’m not seeking some made-up response that makes him sound patriotic or noble. What I really want is to get a sense of how much trouble he’s in here.” She made a deflating sound as she blew out a long breath. “Are we talking about selling to foreign countries or other companies? Is this a treason issue? What are the possibilities here?”

  Since holding up his weight on the one side became harder by the second, Pax slipped his thigh on the edge of the table. He hoped to ease the pounding of blood down his leg. “These things generally break down into a few possible motives. Political statement, revenge, sex or money.”

  �
��There’s no evidence of a woman, or man for that matter, who has Sean’s interest.” Joel flipped through the pages of the document as he talked. “From his history, Sean doesn’t appear to be a political radical. As for revenge, Kingston gave him a lot of responsibility from the start, so I don’t see bad workplace blood, but who knows?”

  “So, most likely it’s money.” She glanced around the room. “He’s been brought up to believe he’s the sole heir to my father’s fortune, but with the court case, claims against his company and a freeze on family funds from Sean’s mother’s side of the family, I don’t think there’s much left over for Sean.”

  “Combine that with the fact he hasn’t exactly been taught survival skills to make it on his own, and the opportunity for stupidity and criminal behavior rises,” Pax said.

  But she had the skills. Pax had seen them, admired them and been a bit in awe of them. But none of that meant Sean could find his way out of a room with an open door. The stunt he pulled with the work documents showed that.

  “There are people—governments—who would pay a lot of money for certain information.” Connor’s voice got softer and his rough demeanor lightened. It was as if he, too, feared causing her more pain. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  She nodded. “Someone gave Sean access to stuff like that?”

  “I was about to ask the same question. But I can see he definitely did by looking at the stuff he smuggled out to you.” Joel shook his head as he talked, but most of his focus centered on the page he spread out across his end of the table.

  “Kingston recently moved deeper into intelligence work.” And from what Pax could tell it had been on the edge of trouble ever since.

  He doubted the owner and board of directors at Kingston understood the level of concern by the higher-ups at the Department of Defense. Sean played a dangerous game with some big and deadly players.

  “The owner, Bryce Kingston, is supposed to be a brilliant innovator, and he’s been working on something called the Signal Reconnaissance Program. It’s a way to break into the military communications of other militaries,” Connor explained.