Keep the Faith (Bulletproof Series 1.5)

by J. L. Baldwin

  “Umm, Sarah, how much coffee have you already had?” I ask nervously. Sarah ignores the question as she takes another sip of the brew. Finally, she speaks up. “Oh I don’t know, three maybe five cups of coffee? I lost count when the room started shaking.”

  I gasp then reach out to try and grab the cup from her shaking hands but she pulls it away and clings on for dear life. “No, I need this coffee. That article destroyed me, so this has kept me going,” she says. You’d think she was drunk but no, she’s worse. Sarah is drunk on caffeine. Besides being alcohol drunk, that’s just as bad.

  “Come on Sarah, put the coffee down and let’s talk about this.” I feel like I’m talking down a bank robber holding somebody at gunpoint or some shit. This is ridiculous. I should slap the coffee out of this chick’s hand. To hell with the mess it would cause. It’s almost worth it.

  “Oh please, you’re just going to toss it in the trash and tell me how stupid I am for drinking so much caffeine,” Sarah says and I just shrug. What the hell else was I supposed to do? She isn’t wrong. Because that’s exactly what I was going to do.

  “No I won’t.” I lie. “Just sit it down and let’s talk.” Sarah seems to contemplate what I say because she slowly places the coffee cup on the desk. To my surprise, Gwen knocks it in the trash before I can even blink. Remind me to tell Jayde to give her a raise once we find her.

  “See, I told you I wouldn’t do it.” I say with a laugh. Sarah glares over at Gwen who just shakes her head. “Gwen!” she yells.

  “Sorry sugar plum, I had to do it. You are out of hand with the coffee,” Gwen says, discarding her empty cup in the trash. Coffee doesn’t go bad around here, that’s for sure.

  “What the hell am I supposed to drink?” Sarah asks, and I toss her a bottle of water from my desk.

  “H2O. It’s all the rage nowadays. All the kids are doing it,” I joke. Sarah scoffs then unscrews the cap and takes a large sip of water.

  I take that opportunity to explain to her what I’ve been thinking. “Look, we’ve all been under a lot of stress from this event. I’m the last person to be talking rational considering that little meltdown I had earlier, but that’s behind me. The best we can do right now, for Jayde, is to get to the bottom of where she is, and fast.” Sarah agrees with me by nodding and Gwen nods while typing away something on her phone.

  “Aha, it’s done,” Gwen says excitedly.

  Both Sarah and I look at her a little confused. “What is done?” I ask nervously, biting my lip.

  “Oh, just called in a favor to my brother. He should be here soon,” Gwen says smiling.

  I raise an eyebrow at her. “The paramedic? You called in your super-hot paramedic brother? Nobody needs medical attention right now,” I say, still very confused as to why she would call her brother in here.

  “Oh no, not that brother. My other brother, Ronan’s twin actually. He works with Homeland Security.” My mouth drops open. Ronan has a twin. That means there are two of them. Two muscular, dark skinned gods. Two gods I’d love to lick…whoa. Hold the phone.

  “That’s why I rushed out of the room after you had your meltdown. I texted my brother to see if he could come by here. And he just replied and agreed so he should be here within the hour.”

  In an hour, Ronan’s super-hot and sexy twin brother will be in the same room as me. God was generous and made two of those male specimens.

  Lord have mercy, what have I gotten myself into?

  Chapter 11

  Sarah

  Damn, caffeine headaches are the worst. Since Anna threw my coffee away, I’ve been drinking this dank water she handed to me. Before I wrote that article, I would have never consumed that much caffeine. Considering drinking alcohol then driving was illegal, I had to resort to the next best thing.

  Sitting back at my desk with my bottle of water in close proximity, I take the chance to look over this emotional article I worked on. This feels very much like Jayde wrote it herself and a huge part of me hopes she feels proud of what her big sister has done. She was always the writer in the family, always so creative and vibrant. Me, being the academic overachiever in our family, never had such skills. Jayde would always tell me how envious of me she was. I had the academic brains where she just had the creative ones. Even though I assured her time and time again how damn lucky she was to be able to create something out of thin air and have people enjoy it as much as they do.

  So channeling her during this difficult time isn’t easy. She has always been there when I needed that creative boost of confidence. Smiling to myself, I do a once-over of the article then email it over to the editor, Henry, so he can work his magic on my less than impressive article.

  A half hour goes by and as I’m fiddling around looking for new articles to put out, Henry walks up to my desk and is holding some papers in his hand.

  “Hey, what’s up?” I ask, looking at the papers curiously then back up to meet his gaze. Once I do, he doesn’t look away. I can tell in his gaze all the feelings he felt while editing that article.

  “This article. I must have read it a hundred times. It’s like Jayde could have written it herself,” he says in disbelief. “So I’m assuming that’s a good thing? I hoped that was the vibe I was going for.”

  Henry nods then hands me the paper with only a few red markups. I glance over it and notice there aren’t too many mistakes, a few comma misplacements but nothing else much past that.

  “You did a fantastic job writing this piece. Jayde would be very proud of you,” Henry says, squeezing my shoulder gently in comfort. I smile. No wonder Jayde loves her job so much. Everyone here is so friendly.

  “Thank you, Henry. It means a lot to me to hear you say that. I just want to do right by my little sister and help her out as much as I can.” Henry nods in understanding. Quickly changing the subject, I grab the bottle of water and quickly down the remaining liquid then discard the bottle.

  “So, Henry, do you have any siblings?” I ask, trying to shift the conversation elsewhere other than on Jayde.

  “Yes I do,” Henry answers. “Two older brothers and a sister. Guess you can say I’m the baby in the family.” He chuckles as he returns to his desk which isn’t too far from mine, so I can still hear him.

  “I grew up in a very large German family. My mother, bless her heart, came over here when she was just sixteen. She met my father about a year later while he was being shipped all over the nation in the Army. We would take vacations to Germany every year to visit my mother’s family. It’s my second home, outside of Charleston, and it’s something I would never change as long as I live.” The phone to Henry’s desk rings just as he finishes his story. He holds up one finger as if to say “excuse me” then picks up the call.

  With that distraction, I tend to this article Henry returned back to me. I cringe at the words of my sister’s name on the front cover. Diving into these edits will be a difficult feat, but one I must see through to the end.

  Anna is sitting at her desk, clicking a pen as a nervous tick. She’s staring off into space, probably thinking. Lord only knows what she could be thinking about.

  “Will you stop with the damn clicking? It’s annoying as fuck,” I say which makes her stop immediately. I’m not normally one to drop the F bomb but when I do, I mean business.

  “Damn, what’s gotten into you?” Anna asks, sitting her pen down and turning her full attention to me.

  “Nothing, it’s just I can’t concentrate when you’re sitting there click-clacking away on a stupid pen. Whatever you’re thinking about, let’s hear it. That annoying as hell sound is too much,”

  Anna smiles slyly at my remark then stands up and bolts over to my desk.

  “Gwen has super sexy twin brothers. Meaning there’s another Ronan walking around.” She says in a whisper, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end.

  “No way. There’s two of those sexy beasts?” I ask in full disbelief. Anna has never been this affected by a guy before, so maybe
this is a turn for her.

  “Did I also mention there’s this new hot barista at the café where I work?” I spat out suddenly. Since we’re talking about guys, this is the perfect opportunity to let her know about Leo and how deliciously hot he is, even being a bit younger than me, I still want him to flip me over so many ways into next Sunday. There wouldn’t be a surface anywhere I wouldn’t want to be thoroughly fucked on by him. And damn it all, if my nervousness around him didn’t give it away, he knows by now that after only working with him for a short period of time, I want him desperately. Such carnal desire shouldn’t be felt in the workplace. Yet, here I am.

  “Hello! Earth to Sarah.” Anna snaps her fingers in my face to get my attention. Wow, Leo must have taken up more of my thoughts than I realized.

  “Huh, sorry, what?” I ask. “Guess I got lost in my head again, didn’t I?”

  Anna nods. “Duh. At least we now know where Jayde gets it from. Come on, spill. What’s going on in that head of yours? Or are you going to leave me in suspense over the hot coffee boy and make me stalk his bean crushing ass?”

  Sighing heavily, I examine every possible outlook of where this could go. She is not going to just let this go without me giving some sort of reasonable explanation.

  “Okay, fine. Leo is my boss’s cousin. He’s twenty-five, so much younger than I’m used to. The only reason he is working at the café is to make a few extra bucks while on break from college. For now, that’s all the information I have on him. I wish I knew more, but I don’t.” Anna looks as if she has a dreamy far-away look in her eyes, making me smile. “You like him. I can tell. You like him a lot.”

  She couldn’t be further from the truth. “No, I don’t. We work together. There’s a whole conflict of interest thing and mixing business with pleasure always ends up in disaster.”

  Anna smiles mischievously. “But what if there is lots more pleasure than business? Lots and lots of pleasure, if you catch my drift.” She winks as I roll my eyes. The thought crossed my mind more times than I’d care to admit but before I could dive into how it would never work out, there’s the sound of a door being opened and Gwen jumping from her seat excitedly as she bolts to the door. Anna and I turn to look at the same time and catch the tall, dark, brooding figure standing at the front of the office.

  Ronan’s twin brother. Holy fucking shit.

  Chapter 12

  Anna

  The second I looked up and saw the identical twin brother of Ronan, I was lost. No, I was further than lost. I was so far gone even god himself couldn’t find me to bring me back. He had the same stance as Ronan, the same short military style buzz cut, but so much more muscle. Holy hell, he is a lot of man. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was perfect. Too damn perfect. This guy is obviously no stranger to the gym. Sarah is staring at me, gauging my reaction, as I can see out of the corner of my eye, but I ignore her.

  “Anna? You okay?” she asks but her question comes out so faint, it’s almost a whisper. Or maybe it’s because I’m so wrapped up in a stare down with Ronan’s twin, I didn’t hear her. Gwen is chatting it up with her brother and they seem to be exchanging rather intense pleasantries. Gwen walks towards us and her brother is close on her heels. When he turns around and locks eyes with me, my breath catches in my throat. What the actual fuck? I didn’t have that sudden feeling when I saw Ronan, so why am I having it with this guy? Obviously, they’re not related.

  “Guys, I’d like you to meet my other brother and Ronan’s twin brother, Ryder. Ryder, this is Sarah and Anna.” Gwen gestures to me and Ryder sticks his hand out to shake Sarah’s then mine. When our hands connect, an electric shock sears my veins as it shoots straight up my arm. Whoa, that was seriously weird. I attempt to pull back but he grasps a bit harder on my hand for an extra beat before finally letting it go. Meeting his gaze, his knowing smirk says so much that his handshake didn’t. It screams, “I’m trouble, Miss. Run while you still can.”

  Finally, he lets my hand free which I quickly return to my side. Already, my skin misses the warmth of his. I can’t get over how much trouble his eyes shout to me. Looking away feeling like I will blush profusely, the butterflies in my stomach pick up speed and are practically having a party in my stomach.

  “It’s nice to meet you, ladies.” Ryder’s gaze lingers on me for an extra second before looking away. It could be my imagination or he actually smiled at me. Must have been my imagination. “From what Gwen has filled me in on, this case has now crossed into federal territory. It’s in our hands now, and as a favor to Gwen, it’s moved to the top of my files.”

  Sarah nods at Ryder while I’m still standing over here, mentally undressing him. Jayde would be so happy I’m so concerned with her loss.

  “Okay, so what do we do now? I mean where do we go from here?” Sarah asks him as politely as possible probably fearing I would choke on my words. Well, she isn’t wrong.

  Ryder sighs heavily, running his hands over the back of his neck. “I wish I could say. The best advice I can give you is just keep doing what you’re doing. Living your life just as you would if Jayde were here. It will help with the loss of her not being here.” Feeling that was a good enough answer for her, Sarah walks back to her desk without another word. Ryder looks at me confused then smiles. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what I’m thinking.

  “Ryder,” I say, finally gaining some sort of control over my emotions.

  “Hmm? What is it?” he asks, fiddling with the file I didn’t even see him pick up. Must be those super sexy spy reflexes the officials teach you in training.

  Normally, I’m not one to express my emotions, especially in a dire situation such as this one, but I decide to lay it all out there.

  “What else can we do to try and help? I need to know my best friend is safe in some way, or else I just might go crazy. Scratch that, I’ve already gone crazy.” Ryder seems to find my little joke funny since he’s trying his hardest to hide his laughter behind the file he’s holding by placing it in front of his face.

  “This isn’t funny. I need to know where my best friend is,” I say, my emotion catching in my throat. Tears threaten to fall but before they do, I’m surprised when two strong arms wrap around me and pull me against rock hard flesh. And dear god, a bolt of lightning just shot down my whole body. A. Fucking. Bolt. That has never happened before in my life. As soon as my brain caught up to the rest of my body, he let go. I can still feel the warmth of his skin against mine and like an idiot, I didn’t hug back. Stupid Anna, just plain stupid.

  Ryder pulls back to look at me, like really look at me. That beautiful brown gaze stares back at me, and I’ve suddenly lost my will to speak. I’m seriously concerned about this. This has never happened before. Maybe I’m sick. I deduce that has to be the problem.

  “Everything will be all right. We will find Jayde, you will be reunited and everything will work out like it’s supposed to. Trust me on that.” Strangely, I do trust him. I want to trust him with everything inside me. But trust is a very fragile thing. I learned that from Jayde. Trust doesn’t come easily, it’s earned. If Ryder wants to try and earn it, who am I to stand in his way?

  “I hope you’re right, Ryder. I pray to god you are because my worst fear is you’re wrong,” I say with an exasperated sigh. Gwen walks back up to us holding a scalding cup of coffee and hands it to Ryder. “Here you go, Ry. Hopefully that will perk you up and you can stop flirting with my co-worker.” Flirting? He was flirting? Maybe I missed the fucking memo because that surely didn’t come across as flirting to me. Damn, I must have really hit my head earlier.

  “Don’t mind Ryder, he doesn’t get out much. He’s a stick in the mud,” Gwen says giving Ryder a gentle nudge which earns her an angry glare from him. In a strange and twisted sort of way, I wish he was staring at me like that.

  “Mind your big brother, little sis. Or else I’ll tell Anna about the time in third grade when you…” Gwen smacks him on the shoulder before he go
t to the juicy details. “I told you never to speak of that, you asshole!”

  Ryder laughs a deep raspy laugh that sends chills down my spine, and in the best possible way. These guys are going to be my undoing, sweet heaven above.

  “Hey, lil sis, you asked for it. I’m actually going to take this coffee to go, then go work on this,” Ryder says before turning back to me and throwing a wink my way. “I’ll find out what I can, but in the meantime, here is my card. Call me if you have any questions.” He handed me his card then without another word, turned and walked out. That was really odd. Ryder’s stare turned from soft to hard in just a matter of seconds and it was enough to melt me into a puddle. That stare alone screamed pure alpha. I don’t know what to think about this. I shouldn’t be thinking at all about any of it. My sole focus has to be on finding Jayde, but damn it all. Ronan and Ryder Falcon have me all kinds of fucked up. Beautiful twins. One’s a sexy softhearted paramedic, the other a hard as stone secret agent alpha. Both delicious in their own way. Dear god, what have I gotten myself into?!

  Chapter 13

  Sarah

  Ryder was hot, and he had Anna in a fritz. In all my years of knowing her, I’ve never seen her go completely unraveled over a guy. Those twins must have had something really special to make her become completely unbound and unfocused. Nevertheless, she’s in trouble because Ryder couldn’t take his eyes off of her the entire time they were talking. Correction, he was eye fucking her the entire time they were talking. The tension he was putting off was sexy and sultry. Even I was getting turned on just watching the event take place. After Ryder takes his leave, Anna is still standing there staring at the door he just walked out of. Chuckling to myself, I turn my attention back to the computer allowing my thoughts to drift back to Jayde. Ryder and his team will take care of it but she is my sister and I feel like I should have a hand in finding her.