by Melody Anne
There was a pause on the other end of the line that made Ace ground his back teeth together as he waited. The only thing that kept him from yelling at the man was the fact that Dakota was sitting next to him. He couldn’t even look at her, didn’t want to see the accusation in her eyes.
“It’s Nestor Pavlov,” Bill finally said.
“Pavlov?” Ace was now confused. “Explain.”
Bill sighed. “We’ve found out that Anton has a brother. Obviously, he’s seeking revenge.”
“Why in the hell didn’t we have this information before? We were on this case for years!” Ace thundered, forgetting about Dakota next to him. The fury in his voice echoed through the car and made her jump in her seat. Her eyes were huge as she stared at him, her fingers wrapping around the door handle. It was a good thing it was locked or he feared she might try to jump out.
“Sorry,” he muttered at her, but he couldn’t cover up the rage boiling within him.
She didn’t say a word as her hand lifted to her chest. She rested it over her heart, which had to be thundering. This night wasn’t going well for her—hell, the past couple of weeks hadn’t gone too well. She’d not been safe since he’d stepped into her life. He was sure she was regretting the moment the two of them had met.
“He apparently is a half brother and was disowned by their father. Now that he’s the last living relative, he’s coming after you for revenge. I don’t know why, though, as it doesn’t appear there’s any love in this damn family,” Bill told him.
“I guess it doesn’t matter at the end of the day,” Ace said with a sigh. “Even when I gave my brothers every reason in the world to hate me, they never let me go.”
Ace realized he was showing far too much vulnerability, in both his voice and his words. He instantly pushed his emotions back down to where they belonged and focused on the conversation at hand.
“We need a team on this, Ace,” Bill told him.
“I have a team. I’ll take care of it,” he replied.
“You can’t go rogue after this man,” Bill warned.
“You told me my vacation is over. I’m officially back on duty,” Ace informed his boss.
“You know what I mean,” Bill said.
“I don’t trust anyone, Bill. Don’t ask me to fight you on this,” Ace said.
Ace could practically see the steam spiraling off Bill’s head the longer the conversation lasted. He also knew he’d won this round, which wasn’t an easy feat on a normal day, not that this was a normal situation.
“Okay, then. Come to the office tomorrow and we’ll strategize,” Bill finally said.
“I will,” Ace told him.
He hung up the phone and then slightly decreased his pressure on the gas pedal. He didn’t need to get pulled over for speeding. The Pavlov family had ties in places that were unimaginable. He wondered if Nestor was as influential as his brother had been.
That’s why his last mission had taken them so damn long. Ace had thought it was all over, had thought his life could return to some semblance of normalcy. He’d been wrong—so very wrong.
Now Ace didn’t know how far Nestor’s circle reached. He couldn’t even trust the local police. His family was all he could turn to at this moment.
“Are we getting closer to the house?” Dakota asked.
“Yes,” he said.
Dakota let out a sigh of relief. Maybe she wanted nothing more than to get away from him; he wasn’t sure. She was in for a surprise, though, because he wasn’t letting her out of his sight for a while, not without knowing exactly where Nestor was.
“Don’t get too excited. It’s gonna be you and me for a while,” Ace said.
“I’m under witness protection,” Dakota muttered.
“I’m not too bad a guy to have around,” Ace told her.
She gave him a mocking look and then faced forward as he drove. That tingling on the back of his neck was there again, and he reached back and itched at the place. This night was only just beginning, and it had already been one hell of a day. At least he could never complain that life was boring—danger was a surety in his line of work.
They pulled up to the house, and Ace was tense. His brothers were waiting. Ace didn’t waste any time telling them about the danger he’d brought to his family’s doorstep.
“It’s time for you guys to get out of here,” Ace said. “They know where I am, and they know where you are.”
“We’re not leaving you, Ace,” Cooper said. Nick and Mav nodded.
“This isn’t up for negotiation,” Ace thundered.
Cooper was silent for a few moments before he sighed and looked at his wife, who was white-faced as she stood next to Lindsey.
“We aren’t hiding,” Cooper finally agreed. Ace got ready to argue, but Cooper held up his hand. “However, we do need to get our wives and children out of here until we figure this out.”
“Agreed,” Nick said.
Stormy stood up. “We’ll take the kids and get them settled,” she said, “then we’ll come back. We won’t be able to stand by while this is happening. We’ll go back and forth.”
There was more arguing, but eventually Ace and his brothers agreed. Ace determined this would end, and it would end soon.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Ace was flanked by Cooper and Maverick, while Nick stood in front as they entered the secure building where they were meeting with Bill. Nick had been beyond ticked all morning. It was all fun and games until your truck got blown to smithereens. Now he knew the reason why.
Nestor had officially gone too far in his revenge scheme. No one else was going to get hurt. And there wouldn’t be any further property damage, either, if Ace had his way. Ace was in his zone—he was one hundred percent the agent he’d been for nearly the past decade as he moved with ease, knowing exactly who he was.
Moving across the room, they came to the reception desk, where an alert woman sat. She remained emotionless as the four hulking men approached her, showing various scowls on their faces. “I’m here for a meeting with Bill Hammond,” Ace said. The woman looked down at her screen before meeting his eyes again.
“Name?” she asked. Though Ace was sure she knew exactly who he was.
“Ace Armstrong.”
“Yes, Bill is expecting you.” She stood up, her sleek blue suit screaming all business and zero pleasure. That’s how it was in the CIA, though. They weren’t there for some frilly office party or just to earn a paycheck.
Being a part of the CIA was a calling. And though Ace was in full agent mode at the moment, he was beginning to wonder if his time was up. He didn’t love it like he once had, and he didn’t want to have to stay away from his family anymore, or from Dakota. When he had more than a few moments to breathe properly, maybe he would analyze that a bit more. Not today, though.
“Follow me,” the woman told him. She looked at his brothers when they stepped forward with him. “The meeting was supposed to be one-on-one.” She frowned disapprovingly at the other three men.
“It’s been changed to four now. These are my brothers, and they’re a part of it,” Ace told her. His voice wouldn’t tolerate any kind of argument from her.
The woman sat back down and lifted her phone to her ear. Ace internally rolled his eyes. He knew how this game worked, but they were wasting time, and he was annoyed. She hung up and stood again.
“Okay, this way.”
They were led down a long hallway. When she reached an open door, she stepped aside and held her hand out for them to enter.
Ace was the first one in the door. He hadn’t been to this particular building, but it seemed Bill had a decent setup here. A large desk sat at the back of the room, with papers scattered all over it. Two chairs faced the desk. There was a worn leather couch in the back of the room and an empty coffeepot on the table next to it.
Bill stood as Ace entered the room. He scanned Ace’s brothers before his eyes returned to Ace. He must have deemed them trustworthy, because he
didn’t seem on high alert.
“Glad to see you here, Ace. I’m sorry it took us so long to figure this out,” Bill said as he stepped out and shook Ace’s hand.
“Do you have any useful information for me?” Ace asked, wanting to get directly to the point.
Though Bill was only in his early fifties, a life of chasing criminals had aged him. Dark circles were a permanent fixture on his face, and his lips rarely ever turned up into a smile. He’d been divorced twice and never got to see his children. That, almost more than anything else, had Ace thinking it was time to get out of the CIA. He didn’t want to end up bitter and alone in some crappy apartment in a city filled with crime. Before coming back to where he’d grown up, he’d had no idea how important his home life was to him.
“I think we have valid information, but I’m having a difficult time knowing who I can trust at the moment. I only have six agents here in this building with me, and they are men I would risk my life for . . . so at least here, we’re secure,” Bill replied.
“I’m not sure I trust anyone but my family and you at this point,” Ace told the man.
“Yeah, I can see why you feel that way, but not everyone is a bad guy in disguise, Ace,” Bill said.
“That’s not what I’m experiencing right now,” Ace argued.
“You can’t do this on your own, so you’re not going to get much of a choice in getting assistance. I have a plan I want to go over with you, but you have to be willing to cooperate for it to work,” Bill told him. “You were on a case that went very public. We knew there could be some consequences from it. Now, we’re facing some of those. When we catch up to Nestor, we will get him behind bars, and this will be over.”
“Until another long-lost sibling emerges,” Ace muttered.
“Trust me, I’ve been through this case with a fine-tooth comb, and I don’t see how anyone could have known this was coming. Nestor wasn’t a part of this family. There were no documents until he stepped up and took ownership.”
“I don’t want to look back at what could have been done differently, I want to know what we’re going to do from here on out,” Ace said.
“We got the shooter from last night. He’s been interrogated, and we got some information from him,” Bill said.
That stopped Ace from speaking for a moment. He would really like to get his hands on even just one of the men who had put Dakota in danger. That had been an unforgivable offense.
“How do you know he isn’t just feeding you a line of crap?” Ace asked.
“We don’t know for sure, but he seems more than willing to cooperate to save his own ass,” Bill said.
“Maybe we should talk to him,” Mav piped in.
“That’s not going to happen,” Bill told Ace’s overeager brother. Ace had been thinking the same, though. Great minds and all.
“The agent told us Nestor is pissed. You were an outsider invited into his family home while he wasn’t. Then you killed off his brother. He feels he will never get to make the connection he so desperately wanted with Anton. Sounds like he has some issues of his own to resolve, and you have become the focus of his wrath. He wants you dead.”
“I know he wants me dead. The bullets flying at my head tell me that much,” Ace said with a huff.
“He’s willing to kill anyone in his way—not only willing, but glad to do it,” Bill said. “Apparently, torture and murder come easily to him. He likes to terrorize his victims before he does them in.”
“Sounds like just another day at the office,” Ace said with a humorless laugh.
“You might not like the plan I’ve come up with,” Bill said.
Ace was ready for this to end, so he didn’t care how it had to happen.
“Why don’t you just spill it so we can prepare?” Cooper said, losing patience with this entire meeting. Ace could understand how his brother was feeling. He wanted it over with too.
There was a window in the back of the room. Ace moved over to it while Bill shuffled through the papers on his desk. There was a perfect view of Mount Rainier from where he was standing, and for some reason, it calmed him.
He’d hiked that mountain many times in his youth, had spent a lot of time there skiing with his brothers as well. He’d been away from home for a long time, and even with the bad guys still on his heels, he was where he belonged, and he had no doubt this would get fixed.
Ace didn’t believe he was invincible, but he had been in sticky situation after sticky situation throughout most of his adult life. For that matter, he’d been just as reckless as a child and felt he had cheated death on more occasions than the average person.
What mattered most, he’d discovered, was not the adventure of cheating death, but the serenity of being back home. He’d lived out of the country for years and then back in the United States only when he hadn’t thought he could take it any longer. Any time he’d come nearer to home, or had sneaked in to take peeks at his family, the heaviness in his chest had decreased.
This was no different. Yes, he was being hunted, but he was with his family. That made this whole ordeal easier. Finally, he turned away from the window and looked at his brothers, who were leaning over Bill’s desk, looking at a paper he’d laid out.
“We can do this,” he said. His tone was hushed, but it caught the attention of the four other men in the room. They looked up and waited.
“I’m not going to stand around and wait for this man to destroy what I want to build. Let’s hear your plan, Bill,” he said. He moved to stand beside his brothers.
“All righty, then,” Bill said with his smirk smile. “We’re going to use you for bait.”
No one said a thing. A pin dropping on a vat full of cotton could have been heard. Maybe Ace should have been afraid, but he wasn’t. His lips turned up as he looked at Bill and nodded.
“Let’s do it.”
Ace tuned out his brothers’ protesting voices. They didn’t believe this was the wisest plan. It was the only way they were going to draw Nestor out, though. The man was very good at hiding behind his goons, but the chance to personally get at Ace would be too much for him to resist. He’d have to show his face—and then this would end.
He was ready—he was more than ready, in fact. He actually felt damn good about what was going to happen.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Dakota stood in the cottage, not a muscle moving in her entire body as she listened to Ace try to explain how putting himself in danger wasn’t the most idiotic plan she’d ever heard in her entire life. She schooled her expression, not wanting him to see how upset she was, afraid if she showed it he wouldn’t finish telling her what his plans were.
There wouldn’t be a way for her to stop him from acting the utter fool if she didn’t know what was going on. She’d learned that much from growing up with brothers who were bred to be idiots. She’d identified their idiocy by the time she was three.
When she was sure Ace had finished his entire explanation, Dakota hugged herself, her body tense. It was either that or she feared she was going to come unglued and smack the guy in the head for being such an idiot.
“No.” Just the one word slipped from her lips. Ace looked at her, clearly not understanding.
“What do you mean?” he asked. He was finally tuning in to her body language. For such an observant guy, he could sure be clueless sometimes.
“This is a foolish plan that only leads to you getting yourself killed,” she told him. Now she wasn’t even trying to hide her worry or fear. He’d told her his plans, and she’d told him they sucked.
Ace slowly moved toward her, afraid she might bolt. It was very dangerous for him to come toward her right now. She might just have to tie him down and not let him go anywhere.
Ace cupped her cheek as he looked into her eyes, utter confidence shining from his crystal-clear green depths. His confidence and independence were some of his best qualities, but at this moment, she would rather he not have quite so much arrogance.
; “He won’t kill me, Dakota. I’m not going to let it happen,” Ace told her. “I know his family, know how they operate. This was a four-year mission for me, the most dangerous one by far. I might not have known Nestor was a part of the family, but I know what he was taught, because I learned everything about each and every one of the other family members. His overconfidence will be his undoing.”
“Or your own might be yours,” she told him.
“You have too little faith in me,” he said.
Dakota didn’t cry often, but she felt the sting of tears in her eyes as he spoke to her. She wrapped her arms around him and held on tight as she pushed back the urge to cry. That wasn’t going to help the situation at all.
“It’s not about having faith in you. It’s about you trying to be a hero. I want you to be the man who is safe and sound, not the one stepping into gunfire,” she told him.
“I can’t be that man, Dakota, not for anyone. I couldn’t live with myself,” he said. His hand was weaving through her hair, and the gentle caress contrasted sharply with his words. His denial confused her.
“You are that man with me. You have done nothing but be a good man,” she said.
“That’s because you bring it out in me. You make me think of things I’ve never imagined before. But please don’t ask me to be anything other than who I am,” he said, his words almost sounding like a plea.
“I just want you to have a healthy fear of the man and the situation,” she said.
“The man is a coward beneath it all,” Ace assured her. “He hides behind his family name, behind the stolen weapons and drug money, and behind the goons he hires to do his dirty work. The only way to draw him out is to wound his pride. I don’t fear cowards,” Ace said, his voice tight. “I can’t turn my back on this.”
Dakota had been holding herself so tightly, she began to tremble in his arms. She would never respect a man who asked her to be anything other than who she was, so how could she ask him to change who he was? She couldn’t. She just wished she’d maybe started to fall in love with an accountant. Life with an accountant would never stress her out this way. Boredom was looking pretty dang appealing at the moment.
