Asher sent a mock salute to Jessica as if to say Even a civilian knows what to do . . . so, why aren’t we doing it?
“She’s right.” Luke let out a pent-up breath and dropped his hand from the wall. “But without the all clear from Will, we can’t do it.”
Jessica’s face was pinched tight in defeat as she eyed Luke now. “Can Luke and I have the room?”
Luke nodded in agreement. “Knox, take Eva to the neighboring suite. Don’t let her out of your sight.”
“Will do.” Knox motioned Eva to the door.
Luke found his sister’s eyes and snapped a litany of angry sentences in German—knowing they were about to do battle over this hot-button issue, and he was too anxious to wait until the room had been cleared to start the conversation.
Jessica inched closer and waved her hands in the air, yelling back at him in the same tongue.
“They do this all the time. You’ll get used to it,” Luke heard Knox say.
Jessica stopped talking and looked at Knox in the open doorway. “Wait, take her to my room, instead.” She tucked a hand in her pocket and then tossed Knox a key. “She can stay with me.”
Luke shook his head at his sister, but when he looked at Eva, he realized maybe Jessica was right not to have Eva bunk with him.
Owen snatched the laptop with the live camera feeds from the table and followed the rest of the group out a moment later.
“You, of all people, know we can’t go against Will’s orders,” Luke snapped once the door was closed.
The chain of command couldn’t be broken, even if he disagreed.
Rules were rules. Breaking an order could end a career.
“How many terrorists can we catch with the intel Malik is sitting on? How many lives can we save if we have access to that safe?” Her teeth clamped together, and her short red nails bit into the biceps of her crossed arms. “Will’s playing it safe.”
“And POTUS put him in charge. So,” he began and edged closer to his sister, his chin dropping almost to his chest as his voice deepened, “are you suggesting we go against the president?”
“No.” She spun away and shook her hair loose from her ponytail. “Malik is downstairs.” She pointed to the floor as if he’d forgotten the difference between north and south. “I’d love to do what Eva said and just grab him now.”
“And you’d be thinking emotionally and not strategically, which isn’t like you.” He slipped a hand to his sister’s shoulder, urging her to face him.
“You’re not exactly yourself, either.” She paused to take a breath. “We made a deal never to lie to each other five years ago—what happened with Eva, and why does she know so much about us?” She pivoted to catch his eyes, a dark look seizing hold of her blues.
He let go of her shoulder and tapped two closed fists at his forehead, working through his thoughts. “Eva was an unaccounted-for wrench in all of this, but she’s a victim—not a tool to be used. We’re still on the same page about that, right?” He swallowed, his heart rate kicking up as he waited for his sister to respond.
“You care about her?”
“Like any human life, yeah.”
“It’s almost like you had that answer already planned.” She lifted her brows and gave him a pointed look. “How’d a woman get under your skin in less than a week? Hell, in any time period. If someone is breaking the rules”—she pointed a finger at him—“it’s you.”
“I’m not falling for her.” The muscles in his jaw clenched tight at the lie.
“That’s not what I said.”
“It’s what you meant.” He turned, cupping the back of his head. “I’d feel the same about any woman caught in the crossfires of an operation. I wouldn’t want someone innocent getting hurt because of a mission.”
“That might be true, but she’s different. I can see it all over your face. And on hers.”
“And what does any of this have to do with breaking Will’s orders and changing the plans?” He stole a look at his sister.
She dropped down onto the couch near the window. “This whole mission is different.”
He whirled around. “Damn right it’s different. Since when do we let the CIA spoon-feed us intelligence without doing our due diligence first?”
She rested her elbows on her knees and bit into her lip, but kept her eyes on the table.
“How can we do our job when the CIA has only given us half the picture? What if Malik and Ender didn’t have Odem killed? What if Ender showed up in Berlin when I took out Reggie, not because he was there to meet with him, but because he’d witnessed his father murdered and followed him, seeking both revenge and the USB? When I showed up and killed Reggie, I changed Ender’s plans.”
“The CIA must have intel that led them to believe Ender and Malik paid off Reggie and had Odem killed.”
“You keep blindly trusting them. I don’t get it.” He lifted his palms. “Did you see the intel? I sure as hell didn’t. What if they lied to Will to cover their own asses?”
“We don’t have time to find any of this out.”
“Make time,” he bit out. “If you want me to even consider breaking protocol and going behind Will’s back, I want answers. I want to know what the fuck is really going on and why Malik chose Monaco to bring us to.”
Jessica slowly stood. “Just so we’re clear, you and I work together. We’re a team. I don’t take orders from you.”
He hated fighting with her, but damn it, they needed to be on the same page, or this shit would only get worse. But he relaxed his stance and said, “We are a team.” He blinked a couple of times, clearing his head. “I feel like we’re working in the dark, and it makes me edgy. I’m sorry.”
She took a small breath and nodded. “I want to do what’s right, Luke. And what’s right isn’t always what’s been ordered.” A sigh blew from her lips. “I’ll learn everything I can about Reggie, okay?”
He nodded. “From his high school girlfriend to who he was last sleeping with, I want to know it. You’ll need help from the inside, though.”
“Will won’t—”
“Harper.”
“You’re suggesting we bring her in?” She bit her thumbnail in thought.
“Get what you can from her without saying too much. We’ll talk to Will later about bringing her on board as needed.”
“Okay.” She started past him, heading to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To get the team together so we don’t waste any time.” Her hand stilled on the knob. “What really happened with Eva in the mountains?” Her eyes swept to his, her question throwing him off. “You’re not the same.”
“People don’t change in four days,” he said in a throaty voice, emotion catching in his tone.
“Are you so sure about that?”
Chapter Fifteen
“This must be a lot for you.” Knox flipped through the channels on the TV, his booted foot perched on the coffee table and his hand resting casually on his other thigh as he eyed the screen.
“It’s a bit out of the ordinary, but I do work on a TV show about Navy SEALs. I’m guessing you were one before all of this?” She wondered if he’d be as tight-lipped as Luke.
He nodded, which was more than she’d expected, actually.
“How long have you known Luke?” She edged closer to the couch, but her legs were still stiff from the long flight, so she wanted to keep standing.
He scratched at his dark beard, and his light brown eyes lifted to hers. “Since BUD/S. I almost dropped out and rang the damn bell. Can you believe that?” A grin briefly teased his lips. “Luke wouldn’t let me do it, though. He told me he’d kick my motherfucking ass if I went anywhere close to the thing. He also promised to buy me a lifetime supply of beer if I didn’t give in to the temptation of quitting.”
She chuckled lightly. “Why’d you want to quit?” She rolled her eyes at her question. “I mean, besides how hard it must’ve been.”
“I enlisted to
piss off my dad and didn’t realize how insane it’d actually be.”
“Oh.”
“My real name’s Charlie.” He nodded his head as if making a second introduction as himself and not the SEAL.
She knew a thing or two about double names. “Well, hi, Charlie. I’m actually Everly. So, uh, how’d you get the name Knox?”
He looked back at the screen. “The boys have been calling me Knox since I joined the SEALs because of my father. He’s a rich asshole in Washington and has more money than he knows what to do with. He wanted me to be some prissy politician, so I joined the Teams instead.”
“I still don’t get the name.”
“Fort Knox Depository . . . all the gold.” He turned off the TV. “I guess I preferred Knox to Rich Boy or some garbage like that.”
“Makes sense. So, what does your father think about you now? And are you glad you never quit?”
“Being a SEAL is the best decision I’ve ever made. I owe Luke for not letting me quit.” He dropped his foot to the ground, slid the remote onto the table, and looked over at her. “As for my dad, no idea what he thinks. We don’t talk.”
Her smile flattened. “Sorry.”
He shrugged. “Looks like you know a thing or two about wealthy families, though. Heard you’re a celebrity.”
“Not even close.” She waved a hand in the air and finally sat down. “Most of my family is well-known, though.”
“You weren’t up for the life?”
“No. Guess you weren’t, either.” A timid smile fought to capture her lips.
“Luke’s a good guy, by the way. I saw how you two were looking at each other back there.”
Oh, God. “Oh, um.” Her face heated, and she pressed a palm to her cheek.
“I don’t blame you for falling for him, even in such a short time. He’d give you the coat off his back and freeze in the cold for you. Hell, we were on an op in Canada three months ago, and he froze his balls off by giving his jacket to this poor guy we encountered.”
She drew up the scene in her mind, and her smile broadened. “What happened to the guy?”
“Oh . . . I had to kill him.”
“What?”
“Turns out he was undercover.”
She arched a suspicious brow. “You’re kidding, aren’t you?”
“Classified.” He winked.
“I am so sick of hearing that word.” She sat all the way back and stared at the ceiling, quiet for a moment. “What makes you think Luke likes me? How’d you get that from a few looks?” Her head rolled to the side to glimpse Knox.
“The guy looked like he’d break one of our faces if we let anything happen to you. And he was also looking at you like he wanted to pin you to the wall and have his way with you—to hell if we were in the room.” He stood and tucked his hands in his back pockets.
She cupped a hand to her mouth, the intensity of the heat in her face multiplying.
“Luke doesn’t get involved with anyone, though. Hell, he even has a no-marriage rule for the team.”
She sat up taller. “A rule?”
“None of us has any plans to settle down in the near future, so it works. But if we ever want to, we’ll get booted from the team.”
“Wow.” Her eyes widened. “Kind of harsh. Does he hate marriage that much? Or is he worried you’ll get your covers blown—whoever the hell you people are—if you’re married?”
Knox turned and approached the window, keeping his hands in his pockets. “The rule was more of a suggestion up until two years ago. The concern had been that, if anyone found out who we were, they could come after our wives and children.”
Keep you safe, Luke had said.
It was one thing to hear the words from Luke, but to receive confirmation on just how off-limits he really was . . . it kicked things up a notch. “And what happened two years ago?”
“Is this how you got to him?” He swiveled around and arched his shoulders back, studying her. “Did you manage to pump Luke with so many questions you disoriented him?” He grinned.
“Am I doing that now?” She bit back a nervous laugh.
“I don’t mind talking so much.”
“As long as it’s not classified?”
He nodded.
“And whatever happened two years ago is classified, right?”
“That’d be a fuck yes, to be exact.”
A widow-maker . . . She stood, not sure what to make of the conversation. “So, Luke will never settle down?”
“My advice is to wrap up whatever happened between you two in the mountains into a neat little box and store it into your memory bank.”
I’m trying. She was going to make a valiant effort, at least. “You’re fairly blunt, and a bit presumptuous.”
“But I’m always right.” A corner of his mouth lifted.
A hard knock at the door interrupted her thoughts. She wondered whether it was Jessica or Luke. She wasn’t sure who she wanted to face right now.
“It’s me.” Luke’s deep voice carried clean through the door and right under her skin.
“Be right back.” Knox left the room, and she didn’t even have a chance to catch sight of Luke in the hall.
She went to the window and looked out at the Mediterranean Sea. It was dark, but the soft glow of hotel lights flickered off the water, and the clear sky allowed the moon to reflect off the surface of the sea.
It should’ve been a calming sight, and yet, a whirl of air rushed from her lips at the sound of the door opening and then closing behind her. Her eyes fell shut. She didn’t have to hear his voice to know she was alone in the room with him.
“Eva.”
She pressed both hands to her abdomen, remembering the feel of his body tight against hers as they’d made love. She may not have worked her way sexually through Hollywood, but she knew a thing or two about the difference between sex and making love . . . well, she liked to think she did, since she had to showcase it in screenplays.
“Look at me.” The deep timbre of his voice had her unraveling.
Pricks of need poked at her—the need to see him. To face him and look into the pair of eyes that could see beneath her mask and deep inside of her. But she whispered, “No.”
“Please.”
He was closer. She could feel him behind her, even though she kept her eyes shut. “I’m not mad at you, even if it seems like it.” Her voice trembled as sadness skated through her tone. “I understand who you are and what you do.”
At the touch of his hands on her shoulders, her arms dropped from her abdomen. His fingertips bit harder into her flesh, then he smoothed his hands down the sides of her body and to her hips. He held her tight against him, and she stifled the moan that wanted to escape from her lips at being so close to him. “What are you doing?”
“Probably fucking up,” he said into her ear, and her skin flushed.
She tipped her head back so it touched his chest, and his chin found the top of her head, resting there as if they belonged molded into this position. “You should go. You should go do your job and save the world.”
“I will,” he said. “But for now, I think . . . I think I want—”
She shook her head and pivoted in his arms to face him before she lost the strength to voice her thoughts and gave in to her desires. “I can’t.” Her eyes blurred beneath unshed tears. “I can’t live in the moment and not worry about the aftermath of it. I thought I could, but that’s not who I am.”
His forehead dropped to hers, and his hands moved up to her shoulders again. “I know,” he whispered.
He held her like that for a few minutes, and she didn’t object because she knew it was the last moment she’d get with him.
When he let go, he slowly backed away from her without turning. It was as if he didn’t want to lose sight of her.
Her hand pressed to her trembling lips.
How could she feel so much for a man she barely knew? It was the stuff of films and fiction, and not meant for real
life.
“You should get some rest. I have to work, so I’ll have someone stay in the living room while you sleep in the bedroom.”
“Aren’t you tired, too?”
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
“Not funny.”
He finally turned. “Sweet dreams, Hollywood.”
Chapter Sixteen
The hotel room patio offered a beautiful view of the sea. She’d actually stayed at this same hotel five years ago, but it definitely felt different now.
“How’s the room service?” One of the SEALs took a seat and slipped on a pair of aviator shades. “No mimosa with breakfast?”
“I’m sorry. There are so many of you. What’s your name again?” She’d met six guys in total since her arrival late last night, and aside from Knox—since they’d had their little heart-to-heart—she couldn’t keep the ridiculous number of hot men’s names straight in her head.
She’d nicknamed this SEAL as the Bad Boy, and it had nothing to do with his longish dark hair and tattoos. No, it was the look in his eyes. He gave off the vibe that he was both a rule-breaker and a heartbreaker.
“I’m Asher.” He stole a scone off her plate, leaned back in his seat, and lifted his head in the direction of the sunrays. Monaco was having one of their record high temperatures for January, and she was prepared to soak in every bit of sunlight as a means of avoiding her feelings for Luke or confronting the mess she was embroiled in.
“Is that your real name or your nickname?” She set her fork down, not really all that hungry anymore.
“All mine, sugar.”
“And what was your nickname in the SEALs?” she asked, her curiosity piqued. She was already writing his story in her head, almost subconsciously. And in her head, Asher and Jessica had a thing. Or, maybe they would at some point. The tension between them last night had milked the room of oxygen. And usually, there was only one reason why tension ever ran that red-hot. She should know since it’d been like that with her and Luke.
“Fighter Boy.”
She chuckled. “Are you pulling my leg? Why not, at least, Fighter Man?”
He swallowed the bites of his scone and washed it down with some OJ. “It sounds weird like that.”
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