by Elle Kennedy
“It might have started with a picture, but it ended with my son’s blood on the street,” he snapped. “Adrián would still be alive if it weren’t for you. You stole him from me and you need to be punished for that, you stupid girl.”
Fear skittered through her like a nervous animal. She’d seen pictures of what this man was capable of. The murders perpetrated by Rivera and his men were notoriously macabre. If he ever got his hands on her . . .
No. He never would. Morgan’s people would find him long before that. If anyone was getting their head cut off, it was him.
“Anyway, as nice as it is to speak to you,” Rivera said cheerfully, “I’m afraid I must go now. But don’t worry. I’ll see you soon, my dear.”
The moment the line went dead, Holden let out an irritated curse.
“Did you get his location?” she demanded, ignoring the panic swirling in her belly.
He shook his head in frustration. “Yes and no.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means I narrowed it down to Guatana, which we already assumed is where he’s holed up.”
Cate slammed her phone down on the desk, angry at herself for not being able to keep Rivera talking for longer. But they’d had more than five minutes to work with, damn it. That should have been plenty of time.
“So what now?” she grumbled.
Holden offered a grim look. “We hope he decides to call you again.”
Fuck. Yeah. She wasn’t holding her breath.
Chapter 15
Two years ago
“Ash! What are you doing here?”
“I said I’d visit.” The dark-haired, green-eyed devil dropped his hand from the door and sauntered inside. The small dorm room became positively tiny with his six-foot-four-inch frame filling up the space.
Cate drank in his appearance, hoping her giddiness didn’t show on her face. She hadn’t seen him in over three months and she’d really missed him. She’d hoped to spend some time with him when she’d gone home for Christmas, but to her dismay he’d been in Tennessee visiting his grandmother.
“Who’s this?” her roommate asked in a tone that said she wanted the introduction made while she was on her back with her legs spread.
Cate didn’t blame her. She wanted to throw herself into his arms, drag him down onto the bed, and rip his clothes off. Her first year of college had been one of celibacy, and it was time for her virginity to go.
She waved a hand in the general direction of her roommate. “Ash, this is Jessie. Jessie, Ash.”
“Nice to meet you, ma’am.” He gave Jessie a careless nod as he swung around, taking in the two twin beds and two desks that dominated the space. “This place isn’t big enough to hold a cracker, let alone two girls. Morgan cheaping out on you?”
“It’s what all freshmen get.” Cate shrugged. It was a far cry from what she was used to but the lack of privacy was the least of her complaints. She reached over and grabbed a jacket. “Let’s get out of here,” she suggested. She always felt like she was suffocating in this room and it wasn’t merely because of the lack of space.
“Don’t leave on my account,” Jessie called.
“Not a fan of your roommate?” Ash asked as they stepped out into the afternoon sunshine. Despite the clear skies, it was cold.
“She’s all right.” Cate shivered. She’d spent two years in the tropics and only a few months in Northeast winters. She wasn’t acclimated yet.
“I think that’s what my gran would say is damning with faint praise.” Ash reached over to pull up the collar of her down coat.
When his knuckles brushed against her neck, she shivered again, and this time it had nothing to do with the chilly temperature.
“Let’s get you out of the cold.” He took her elbow and led her toward the coffeehouse that sat opposite her dormitory.
“How’s your grandma?” Cate forced herself to tread lightly. She didn’t know what Ash was thinking and was a tad afraid to throw herself at him. Again.
“She’s good. I keep waiting for age to set in and slow her down but she’s too strong for that.” He chuckled to himself. “I’m probably responsible for that. We fought a lot when I was growing up. She wanted me to do certain things and I wasn’t interested in her way. I was a little punk, always thinking I knew best.”
Cate glanced over at him, wondering if he was directing a message toward her, but he was busy opening the door. She slid under his outstretched arm and into the coffee shop. A bell jingled merrily as Ash closed the door behind them.
On their way to the counter, Cate could feel the eyes of all the girls in the room swing toward Ash. They wanted to know who he was and how they could get his clothes off, and Cate wanted to throw a sign over his head that declared him off-limits. Except he wasn’t. She knew that he slept with local girls down around the compound. There’d been times when he’d leave to hit a club and wouldn’t return until the next morning, wearing the same clothes he’d left in and a satisfied look on his face.
Cate tried not to let it bother her too much. If she wanted Ash to see her as a woman, she couldn’t be whining about the fact that he had sex. She simply needed to make herself be seen as the best option in his book. She’d hoped to do that at Christmas, but he’d been gone.
“What do you want to drink?” she asked.
“Coffee. Black.”
She ordered for the both of them and shoved his money aside when he tried to pay. “It’s four dollars. I think I can manage that.”
He hesitated. “My gran wouldn’t like it.”
“And if you pay then I won’t like it, and I’m the one standing in front of you.”
“When you put it that way . . .” He grinned and stuck his money back into his wallet.
“You don’t like making anyone mad, do you?” Cate teased as they waited for their drinks.
“I think it’s more like I don’t want to disappoint people. I don’t mind pissing some folks off. That’s actually fun, depending on who they are. But people I care about? I’d prefer it if they were happy.”
“And me? Where do I fall?” Cate blurted out before she could stop herself.
“You’re on the top of the list of people I want to see happy.” He paused and Cate swore he was about to say something else when their names were called. Ash abruptly turned from her and grabbed the foam cups. “Let’s find a place to sit.”
“Did you come from a job?” she asked as he wrangled two chairs together. There weren’t any empty tables, so he created a makeshift seating area in the corner near the window.
“Yeah, had one over in Hong Kong.”
“An exfil?” she said hopefully before taking a sip of her hot chocolate.
She hated it when Ash went undercover, because, well, she knew what happened during those undercover missions. Sometimes operatives had to sleep with marks. Hell, Cate herself was the product of one of those honey traps. Her dad had slept with her mom in order to infiltrate an arms dealer’s organization. As a result, Cate’s mother had gotten pregnant, and then, in a shoot-out between Cate’s criminal grandfather and American military operatives, her mom had suffered the head wound that had left her brain-dead.
The rest of that story wasn’t at all pretty. Nope, because her sick grandfather had decided to keep her mom hooked up to machines for seventeen years—until Cate had finally had enough and pulled the plug.
She wondered if anyone else at Brown had a backstory as interesting as hers.
Cate almost laughed at the thought. Yeah, right.
“You’re thinking about something bad. Your mom?” Ash guessed quietly.
She sighed. “How’d you know?”
“You always get that look on your face. And no, it wasn’t an exfil. More of an information-gathering trip. Counterfeiting is a big-time operation in China, you know?”
> Cate nodded. “Yeah. So?”
“So a US tech firm asked us to go in, find out which groups are running these counterfeiting ops, and leave a couple well-placed messages. I didn’t spend much time doing anything other than follow a bunch of businessmen around.”
Meaning, he’d kept his jewels tucked away. At least, that’s what Cate hoped it meant.
“How about you? How’re you enjoying college?”
“It’s not as great as you promised me it would be. I don’t relate to any of these people. And classes are . . . they’re classes, you know? Old profs standing up and talking for hours about the dullest subjects. I didn’t know people could talk that much about one thing.”
“I always wanted to go to college,” Ash admitted. He kicked out his long legs and draped an arm around the back of her chair.
“You did?”
“Yeah. But I was dirt poor and had crappy grades. It was either the military or working a bunch of shit jobs. Factory work down where I come from was about the highest a kid could strive for, but getting one of those jobs required knowing folks, and Gran and I didn’t know a soul. Not in the way you needed to.”
Cate hung on his every word. “This is the most you’ve ever shared about yourself,” she informed him.
“Really?” He cocked his head, but he didn’t deny it.
“Really. You and I have talked a lot, but it’s mostly about me. You know everything there is to know about me. All of my ugly past.”
“Your past wasn’t ugly,” he said softly.
“Are you kidding me? Of course it was. That’s why I can’t be here. I don’t belong with the rest of these kids. I’m not cut out for sitting in classrooms and working a desk job.” She bit her lip. “I can’t believe Jim even wants that for me.”
A burst of laughter sounded from the neighboring table, only highlighting how out of place Cate felt at this college. She wasn’t a laughing, bubbly girl, and never had been.
Ash sighed and set down his untouched coffee cup. “Come on. Let’s find a quiet place.”
“My roommate is still in the room.”
“I’ve got a rental.”
Damn. For a second there, she’d thought that by “rental” Ash had meant a room. But as he led her to a visitors’ parking lot, she realized with disappointment that he’d meant a rental car.
“Climb in.” He held the passenger door open while she settled into the seat, but he didn’t start the car after he got in.
“Do you have a hotel room?” she asked, almost timidly.
“No. This is just a stopover.”
Her disappointment grew. “Oh. I thought you might stay for a while.”
He shook his head. “I gotta get back. Morgan will be wondering where I am. Mission ended two days ago.”
Cate looked down at her lap to hide her unhappiness. Then she snapped out of it, injecting herself with some much-needed confidence. So what if he’d only planned for a stopover? She could convince him to stay.
It would require a level of sophistication she wasn’t sure she had, but she’d just have to brazen through it. According to Noelle and her troupe of female assassins, guys were largely controlled by their dicks. Which was what made Noelle’s team so successful. Men regularly underestimated women and were easily susceptible to a suggestive come-on.
Then again, Juliet and Isabel and Noelle dressed like they were models out of Femme-Fatales-R-Us, while Cate—she ruefully glanced down at herself—was bundled up in a coat that made her look like she was hiding a herd of penguins next to her chest.
When Ash reached into the backseat, she covertly unzipped her jacket, hoping to make herself look a little more . . . doable.
“Here,” he said awkwardly. “I picked something up for you. Sorry I missed the holidays.”
Her expression brightened as she accepted the small package and shook it lightly. It made a satisfying thud inside the box. “Oh, thank you! You didn’t have to get me anything.” She paused. “I left your present at home.”
“Uh, yeah . . .” A pale pink tinge appeared on his cheeks. “Morgan gave it to me.”
Cate groaned. “Oh my God! Did you open it in front of him?”
“Sure did. And let’s just say he . . . had some questions.” Ash shrugged, as if receiving a fire-engine red Speedo was completely normal. “I told him it was a joke.”
“It was no joke, buddy. I’m tired of you keeping your pants on every time we swim out to the grotto. Figured with the proper attire, you might change your ways.” She grinned at him. “What’d Jim say?”
“That we needed to work on our senses of humor.”
“You’re still alive, so that must mean good things,” Cate said lightly, but inwardly she cringed. No wonder Ash was a little stiff—he was embarrassed over the gift and the fact that his boss obviously knew about Cate’s feelings for him.
But, she took heart that he was here and had a gift for her in return, which meant she’d been on his mind while he was on a mission. And then he’d stopped to see her before he went back home. That’s what she should be focusing on.
“He sent me on a two-month job on the other side of the world, so yeah, it’s all good.”
Cate couldn’t tell if Ash was being sarcastic but she was encouraged that she hadn’t received a ranting phone call from Jim ordering her to stay the hell away from his men.
“Yeah.” She swallowed, then slid as close as the bucket seats of the cheap rental allowed and laid a hand on his arm. “It’s all very good, Ash.”
He froze and then moved his arm away. “Open the present,” he said gruffly.
Ignoring the pang of hurt evoked by her touch being dismissed, Cate tore into the wrapping, lifted the lid on the small box, and then frowned. “What is this?”
“It’s a pen.”
“A . . . pen?”
What in the hell was she going to do with a pen?
“It’s a fountain pen,” he explained. “For you to, ah, do your homework with.”
“Oh. It’s really nice,” she said faintly, too surprised to hide her confusion.
She wasn’t a writer. She didn’t keep a journal. She’d complained to Ash regularly about homework and college and he bought her a pen? It was thoughtful, sure, but she wasn’t ever going to use something like this.
Didn’t he know her at all?
She closed the box and leaned over the console. “Thank you. I’ll treasure it.” And she would, because Ash had given it to her. Swallowing again, she leaned in to embrace him, but he drew away.
And then, instead of accepting even a hug from her, he started the car. “I need to get to the airport. You okay walking back to the dorm alone?”
It took some effort to keep her jaw closed. Seriously? This whole trip was bizarre. Him showing up out of nowhere, spending less than an hour in her company, and then giving her a pen?
“What’s going on, Ash?”
That pink flush still rode on the tops of his cheekbones. “Nothing’s going on. If you don’t like the pen, I’ll return it.”
“Return it? I thought you bought it in Hong Kong?”
“At the airport, actually.”
Cate slumped back against her seat. Oh God. He’d bought the pen at an airport gift shop. He hadn’t been thinking of her on the op. He’d just stopped in Rhode Island, bought the gift in some duty-free shop, and then popped over to Brown.
Something else suddenly dawned on her. He’d stopped because Jim had told him to.
Embarrassment heated her cheeks. Yep, that was exactly what this impromptu visit was about. Because Ash would do anything and everything that Jim Morgan asked of him, even dropping by on a layover after a long mission to check up on Jim’s little girl.
“Got it,” Cate mumbled, averting her gaze. “Feel free to report to Jim that I’m alive and well.”
“I’m not here because Morgan told me to,” Ash said through visibly clenched teeth. “I’m here to visit a girl I care about.”
“I’m not a girl,” she snapped. She was so damn tired of hearing that word come out of Ash’s mouth. “I’m a woman. I’m nineteen, and I know what I want.”
He released a ragged breath. “I should go.”
Her lips tightened. “Why? Because this conversation is getting a little too uncomfortable for you? Fine, cover your ears if you want, but I’m still going to say this—I want you, Ash. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
She could swear she saw a glint of heat in his eyes, a flicker of longing, but it faded before she could be sure.
When he didn’t utter a word, Cate repeated herself. “I know what I want.” She flashed him a look of challenge. “Do you?”
She knew those were the wrong words to say even before they left her mouth, but she couldn’t stop them.
His eyes darkened and his chin hardened. “Yeah. I do. And I’m sorry, Cate, but you’re always going to be a girl to me. Nothing is going to change that you’re nearly nine years younger than me. Even if you weren’t Jim Morgan’s daughter, I’d still walk away.” He took a deep breath and then gave a smile that made Cate sick to her stomach. He reached across the console, and instead of touching her, he opened the car door. “Go to your dorm room. Forget about me. Fall in love with one of these college boys. Trust me, sweetheart, you’ll be a lot happier.”
“I never took you for a coward,” she said stiffly, climbing out of the car. “But obviously you are.”
Ash frowned but didn’t say a word.
“And I don’t want to be with a coward, so I guess we’re even.”
She slammed the door and stomped off, the tears in her eyes making it hard to see. But she heard the engine roar as Ash sped out of the parking lot. And she thought she heard a shout of frustration too, but . . . that was probably the one in her own head.
Chapter 16
Present day
“You’ll be happy to know that your daughter is pissed off at me.” Ash yanked the chair away from Morgan’s bed before dropping his large frame onto its rickety base. “Then again—what else is new?”
