Twist My Heart (Wicked Games Book 1)

by Brooke Taylor

  “Classified.” A scoffing, pissed-off grunt pierced the air. “Tell me the bastard who took him out is rotting in hell right now.”

  Nik leveled him with a hard stare. “Fucking ask me again. Or, better yet, tell me why you weren’t at his funeral.”

  “Whoa. Someone’s cranky,” he grumbled. Then, perhaps sensing it would be good for his health to change the subject, Coop added, “And needs to get laid. So why haven’t you gotten the job done with this girl?”

  Coop was an ass, but at least he wasn’t going to push for more on Will. Nik gladly took the change of subject. “You turning up here didn’t exactly help. Besides, I told you, it’s not like that.”

  “Cracks me up every time you say it. You sure shuffled her into your room awfully quick, for not being like that.”

  “Because I thought she’d be more comfortable having her own bathroom.” The image of her in his bathroom flickered through his mind.

  “Didn’t even ask Leo if he’d sleep on the couch.”

  Leo flipped his brother the bird.

  “I’m taking the couch,” Nik explained curtly.

  “The couch? What’s the hold-up?”

  “Hold-up? I just met her. It’s only been like three days.”

  “Three days longer than you usually take.”

  Leo smirked. “I’ve never seen you all moony over someone. Even the supermodel I gave your number to didn’t last three hours.”

  Two hours longer than she should’ve, but who was counting? And moony? “Please.”

  “It’s not like that,” Coop mocked in his best girly voice. Sounded more like a chain-smoking prostitute.

  “I like her.” All they needed to know.

  “We have eyes. So call the hottie when you get back from the island in a couple of weeks.”

  The island. Coop had been pushing to get the trip back on track all day. Continuously texting about it despite knowing Nik had been lying about the car repairs.

  “I told you, it’s complicated.”

  “Let’s leave him alone, Coop.” Leo tossed his brother another bottle of Coors. “He’s clearly falling in love.”

  “Falling…” Coop grunted, popping the cap off.

  “Feels like flying till you hit the ground,” Nik finished. “I know.”

  It was Coop’s favorite quote whenever they had to insert via HALO entry. High-altitude, low-opening skydives always required a little levity to break the tension.

  “Pull your fucking chute before it’s too late. I don’t want to scrape what’s left of your sorry, dirt-poisoned ass if you don’t.”

  He didn’t have to elaborate. Nik understood all too well. Coop had been the one to scrape him up after his family had died. He didn’t want to go there again over some woman Nik had met a few days ago. Neither did Nik. It should’ve been enough to pry his deepening attachment off Thea, but it wasn’t. Then again, Thea wasn’t just some woman, either.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Clayton Kenyon’s irritation grew as the new tracking signal continued to transmit in Boulder. From the original device, he knew Thea was back in Estes Park, and from his own eyes he’d verified that the Jeep was as well. “I asked you to do one thing. One.”

  Aimee flopped down on the king-sized bed, sending dust motes up around her. “And I did it.”

  “Yeah, on the wrong car,” Clay muttered as he unboxed the drone he’d purchased while Aimee had kept eyes on Thea at the mall.

  The cabin he’d rented outside of the tourist town was so far off the beaten path he suspected it’d been vacant since Labor Day of last year. The smell of mouse poop and musk permeated the tiny area, even with the windows wide open. The campy wood-paneled walls and orange-and-brown-striped bed linens made him feel like he was in a Seventies horror movie. No telling how many tourists had re-enacted the scene from Psycho with the nasty plastic shower curtain hanging in the bathroom.

  He’d have much preferred to stay at the stately Stanley Hotel, even a Best Western, but being the only guests allowed the privacy he’d need with Thea.

  “We have to get to her before the authorities and we have to be very careful with her when we do. She’s fragile.” Explosive. “She needs us.”

  “It had to be the right car!” Aimee spouted with confidence. “Her German shepherd was inside barking his head off at me when Thea called.”

  Clay stared at her. “Thea called to you? She saw you in the parking lot?”

  “She called me on the phone.” Aimee shot him a sheepish, yet proud smile. “I befriended her at the mall and we exchanged numbers.”

  Clay set the drone he’d purchased on a brown coffee table. It sat in front of a nasty foldout couch, the presence of which made the dinky cabin a “suite” and twenty dollars more a night. “You were to keep an eye on her. You weren’t to talk to her! I made it crystal clear.”

  “She approached me. She asked me to help her. What was I supposed to do?”

  “Not speak to her!”

  “Why are you so mad? I gave her the oils. She was going to try them.”

  Clay laughed, nearly choking with disbelief. “Oh, you gave her the oils. Great. Malls are full of cameras and witnesses. What was your plan exactly? Have her keel over asleep right there? Was the salesperson going to help you drag her body to the car, too?”

  “I was only trying to help, and you haven’t told me anything. Why is she running from us, anyway?”

  Because she isn’t stupid. Clay tried to keep his irritation in check. But between Aimee’s screw-up and seeing Thea acting like a fucking whore in the mall parking lot, his patience had worn thin. Acting. Yes, that was what Thea had been doing. Falsely leading the guy on to get him to help her. Because his fiancée would’ve never come on to a guy unless she was working him, and even then she did it safely tucked behind a computer screen.

  Or would she?

  What if her avoidance of intimacy and limited affections had all been an act? Not the byproduct of her unique upbringing and history, as he’d originally assumed? Had their entire relationship been a lie? A way for her to bait him into dropping his guard? Had she accepted his proposal just to appease him while she retrieved as much information on him as she could?

  Now was not the time to second-guess everything. No, she’d merely gotten lucky discovering his involvement in human trafficking. But she clearly knew more than she’d stumbled onto. The seraphim mark she’d left at Animal Control wasn’t just some random graffiti like it appeared—it was a crumb to follow. A clue that could tie him to the Ring. But only if her death was suspicious enough for anyone at the Bureau to follow up on it. He’d made sure to cover all those bases well, thanks in part to having her therapist Dr. Mitchell in his back pocket. In the dead therapist’s files was an extensive fictional account of her spiral into madness. Thea was smart, but he was smarter. He just had to stay calm and keep his wits about him.

  “Clay? I don’t understand what we’re doing…or why. People come into the sisterhood freely. Why are you trying to force her?”

  He pushed out a breath. Aimee was new to this and he didn’t need her spooked and doing anything stupid. “Thea’s a lot like the old you. Before you found Sera and all of us in the Ring. On the outside she’s strong. She has a good job and her life looks like she has everything together, but inside is a different story. She’s unstable. Therapy hasn’t helped. In fact, I’m very concerned. I haven’t been able to reach her psychiatrist after her latest episode.”

  “Episode?”

  “Thea’s been using FBI resources, going rogue. I’ve been able to cover for her, but after what she did at Animal Control and now not being able to contact Dr. Mitchell… I just pray she hasn’t done something I can’t help her undo.”

  “So we’re just trying to help her?”

  “Of course we are.”

  It was several minutes of silence before Aimee tentatively asked, “What happened to Thea…to make her like me? Was she…?”

  “No. Her father never touc
hed her.”

  Not to dress her, not to clean her or feed her or doctor her wounds, not even to hug her. Never once. His indifference had broken both his daughters’ young hearts. Asperger’s or autism, Clay never really knew for sure. But Thea’s father had had severe social anxiety. Her only connection to him had been when he’d taught her how to shoot. The man had collected firearms, was obsessed with them. Between the mental stuff and the guns, he’d been an easy target for police when little girls started going missing.

  “She’s like the former you because she couldn’t save her sister, either.”

  “Drugs?” At Clay’s head shake, she asked, “Then how?”

  “You already know, I imagine. Her sister was Amanda Gale.”

  “The Amanda Gale kidnapping? She was the girl who was raped and taken right before her little sister’s eyes. Same neighborhood as Maggie Miller. Wait, so Thea is her little…? Oh, wow. I can’t even imagine.”

  “Thea was the sole witness. She doesn’t know what happened next, but she believes Amanda was sex trafficked. She’s been trying to find her for fifteen years. It’s why she went into the FBI.”

  And why I need to stop her.

  “Could Amanda be one of the girls we rescued and brought to the Sanctuary?”

  Rescued. Retired was more like it. But rescued had a nice philanthropic ring to it when it came time to elicit donations and tax exemptions. It didn’t hurt enrollment into the leadership courses or the conference series for those seeking an enlightened power climb up the corporate ladder, either. Morality was a strong motivator for opening wallets in some, immorality for others. His partner Sera had always enjoyed playing both sides.

  “No, Amanda was never at the Sanctuary. Thea’s not ready to give up looking for her, but she needs to. It’s not healthy for her to keep chasing after false hopes.” Deadly, in fact.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Nik took a long draw off his fresh bottle as he watched Coop lean down to pick up a branch, tossing it deep into the darkness. They both watched as an eager Titan tore off after it.

  “What’s the deal? Is Thea a cop or something?”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “She hits like a cop.” At Nik’s confusion, he furnished, “Every cop who has ever whacked me with a billy club hit like she did with that fucking Squatch Knocker.”

  “How many times have you been clubbed by a cop?”

  “Enough. Mardi Gras can be a confusing time for a young man who loves alcohol and boobs. So, is she?”

  Nik had naïvely hoped to avoid this line of questioning. He’d waffled on how much to tell his friends about Thea. It wasn’t like he didn’t trust them with the information, he just didn’t want their opinion on it. Well, Coop’s opinion at any rate. “I don’t know. We just met. She might be.”

  “Her dog’s LE.”

  “Titan? Law Enforcement?” Nik huffed. “Nah. He’s not very professional.”

  Titan returned with the stick in time for Coop to drape an arm over him, comforting him from the affront. “Did you hear him, big guy?” Coop recoiled. “Not very professional.”

  “Oh, please. I didn’t say he had fleas or anything. He just doesn’t obey every order and some of his reactions seem personal. Not professional.”

  “Even the most well-trained dog will lapse depending on their handling and he may be retired or something. Either way, he’s allowed to have a personality, even if he’s a professional. But let’s go back… You don’t know if your girlfriend is a cop or not? You haven’t asked her what she does for a living? Isn’t that like one of those first-date kind of things?”

  “Really? When you were active, how many women did you tell you were a SEAL on the first date?” It was common practice for Team Guys to keep their role in the military on a need-to-know basis.

  Coop leaned back and let another stick fly into the darkness. “You know very well I told them I was a Marine.”

  “And then you gave them crappy sex,” Leo said, shaking his head.

  “I had to make it believable.” Coop reached around the fire to clink bottles with Nik as he tried to stifle a laugh.

  Nik loved the good-natured, inter-military rivalry Coop had with the Marines, even though they both truly respected the hell out of them.

  “But this isn’t about me. Thea clearly knows you’re a SEAL, so why don’t you know anything about her?”

  Coop wasn’t going to let it go. Figures. Nik sighed. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t tell her until she had a gun on me.”

  “Total cop move. Fucking hot, though. Please tell me she patted you down, paying special attention to your concealed weapon? Gave you the right to remain naked?”

  “Nothing like that.” Nik looked down at his boots, grinning at his friend’s imagination as he admitted, “But it was a…moment. I disarmed her, she threatened to sic her dog on me, and I told her I hunted people for a living as I blew her a kiss off my knife.”

  Leo ducked his head, ashamed, but Coop reached out to clink Nik’s bottle. “Shit, man, you still carrying the Stitch? That knife is all kinds of badassery. I’d probably do you if you blew me a kiss off it, dude.”

  “Appreciate the warning.”

  “Well? Y’all played a round of I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. Yours was hopefully bigger. Then what?”

  “I took her out for pancakes.”

  “Hooyah! Like a boss.” Coop whooped as if Nik had said he’d fucked her brains out. But hey, who doesn’t like pancakes?

  “SEALs have the best meet-cutes,” Leo muttered. “It really should be on the recruitment posters.”

  You should see how we do shopping trips, Nik thought, but the steamy mall mission’s After Action Report was highly classified. Hell, the thought of his tiger’s succulent tail up against the mirror had him hard again.

  “And she didn’t say anything about what she did for a living over pancakes?” Coop prodded.

  “It’s complicated.”

  “So you keep saying. Why don’t you spit it out?” Coop reached back and winged Titan’s branch off into the woods, sending the dog barreling after it again. “You know I’m like this dog with a stick, might as well give up now, ’cus I’m going to keep chasing the answer.”

  “Fuck. Fine. She doesn’t know what she does for a living. She doesn’t know anything about herself.” Nik went on to explain about the tornado and her memory loss. Naturally, Coop was skeptical. “She’s legit, dude. When she first came to, I gave her a couple standard math questions. I could sense she was getting annoyed, so as a joke, I threw a couple hard ones at her and she answered them without a blink. Then I gave her random equations so big I had to check on my calculator app and she always got it right. Why would she do that if she were pretending to have no memory? Besides, I’ve watched her figure stuff out. Like her mind is her weapon and her brain is rewiring itself before my very eyes. Even with a concussion she’s quick and intelligent. She catches nuances and details. It’s like one of the hottest things about her. You should’ve seen her at Bed, Bath and Beyond. I swear she spent thirty minutes sniffing candles to register scents to their names.”

  “Bed what and what?”

  Shit. “Don’t start.”

  “Oh, it’s started. Dude, I saw the bathmat. She picked it out, didn’t she?”

  Unable to deny it, Nik grumbled, “It’s not like it’s pink or anything. It’s white. It’s bleachable. It’s practical.”

  “It’s fluffy is what it is.”

  It had been the softest one—who wouldn’t want their feet on it? Fucking Bathmat-Gate.

  Nik pushed the conversation back on track the only way he knew how. He told Coop about the Glock he’d taken off her. Which naturally Coop had a thousand questions about.

  “Where does she carry?”

  “Front.”

  “Ooh, me likey. And was there…one in her chamber?” He waggled his eyebrows and Nik reluctantly gave a single nod to indicate she had been carrying hot. “Shit, n
o wonder you’re acting insane. You’re in love.”

  Nik groaned. “I’m not acting insane.”

  “Okay, maybe not acting.”

  “Can I finish?” Nik went on to explain what he’d learned during his online search about her sister, her parents, and even the fiancé. Everything about Animal Control, the woman asking questions at the hotel, and the possible Feds at the tornado site, right up to Aimee and the tracking device at the restaurant.

  “I haven’t seen anyone tailing us, but my gut says someone still is.”

  “Well shit. I can tell you exactly how they’re tracking her.” He whistled for Titan. When the dog returned, Coop lifted the tag on his collar and pointed to a nearly invisible tracking device. “Figured it was a cop thing.”

  Nik narrowed his eyes as it all made sense. Rescuing Titan had been a setup. Like Thea had known, there was more, much more, to her having to bail him out. Someone had wanted her scared and on the run. And now was waiting for the moment she was alone. Shit, he’d nearly handed her right to them at the mall. He was still kicking himself for leaving Thea with that Aimee woman. What if she’d taken Thea right then? His stomach churned at the thought of her being scared. And if she’d been hurt? Hell may not have the fury of a woman scorned, but neither had anything on a pissed-off Navy SEAL. The sky would rain blood before he was done.

  “Want me to take the tracker off?” Coop asked.

  “Leave it. They’ve already tracked her here. No sense tipping them off we know.”

  “Right. Well, all this has been enlightening, but it doesn’t change a damn thing. I don’t have time to dick around waiting to see which comes first—you to remember you don’t do relationships or her to remember how to drop her panties. We’re leaving in the morning.”

  Nik ignored Coop’s crudeness. Someone was following Thea. No, not following—tracking her, hunting her. There was no way he was going anywhere without her.

  “She’s coming with us, then.”

  “Hell no, she’s not.” Coop winged his empty bottle into the trash can with enough force to shatter it.