Brianne's Secret

by M. S. Parker

  The proprietary thought surprised me, not because I hadn’t ever considered thinking of her that way, but because it’d taken me this long to acknowledge it. Even when we were younger, I’d always thought of her as mine. I bent my head to the side of her neck and latched on to the soft skin there. She tasted faintly of the soap she’d used, and underneath that was simply her. I’d never had any problems with using my mouth on various parts of a lover’s body, but with Tess, it was like some sort of oral addiction, a need to taste every inch of her, similar to the need I had to see her come.

  “Are you close?” I murmured the question against her skin before using my teeth on the same spot I’d been worrying at.

  She nodded, her grip on my neck tightening.

  “Do you want to come?” I had a burst of pride as I saw the mark I’d left on her. When she didn’t answer my question, I stopped both my hands. “Do you want to come, Tess?”

  She whimpered and nodded again. Under other circumstances, I might have persisted in the questioning until she gave me a verbal response, but the entire point of what I was doing was to help her relax. Teasing was one thing; torment was another.

  “Then come.”

  I resumed my attentions, relentlessly playing her body as she wound tighter and tighter, all that energy coiled inside her until, finally, she came with a sharp cry. I pushed her through her orgasm, wringing out every last drop of pleasure until she collapsed, panting, in my arms.

  I didn’t say a word as I held her, hoping I’d done enough to allow her a couple more hours of sleep before we returned to the insanity of Brianne’s world. Tess might have been one of the toughest women I knew, but that didn’t mean I shouldn’t take care of her, especially when no one else was doing it.

  As her breathing slowed and her body slumped against me, I kissed the top of her head. “Sleep, sweetheart. I’ve got you. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

  Promises I hoped to keep for a long while.

  Twenty-Four

  Tess

  I’d woken up about a half hour before we’d begun our descent into San Jose, my mind muddled, but my body pleasantly limp. One look at Clay and I’d remembered exactly why I’d been able to fall asleep. I’d dragged him to the bathroom to return the favor, after which we’d settled back into our seats in time to watch Costa Rica come into view.

  We held hands while the plane landed, but neither of us said much of anything. I guessed he was getting his head into what we were here to do, just like I was. Not that either of us really had any idea what we were actually getting into. Brianne hadn’t sent me any additional details before we’d taken off, and it was my hope that she’d been able to get us something more by the time we arrived. I didn’t want to sit at the hotel and wait when we’d rushed around to get here quickly. Being subject to whatever whims that had brought Brianne here in the first place was wearing thin. Sure, Clay and Bri had spent time looking for me here, but I hadn’t intentionally disappeared in the first place.

  A nagging little voice reminded me that I had gone off to meet an informant, and that’s when I’d ended up hurt, but I reminded my subconscious that I wouldn’t have needed an informant if Brianne hadn’t been keeping secrets in the first place.

  “Let’s make this our last trip to Costa Rica,” Clay said as the plane came to a halt. “If we want to go somewhere, let’s try Italy or France. Maybe the UK.”

  “That sounds good to me.”

  Neither of us mentioned how likely another trip together would be, or where we’d be leaving from: New York or Denver. But I had to admit, I liked that he was thinking about our future. Some people might’ve thought that he was simply making conversation or just saying it to say it, but I knew him well enough to know that he never said anything he didn’t mean. Not when it came to things like this.

  I pulled my phone out and checked for new messages. There weren’t any, which meant all Clay and I could do was wait for Brianne to make contact. I didn’t even want to think about what we’d do if this turned into us waiting for weeks again.

  “I’m thinking we grab a taxi and head straight to the hotel. We can order in food while we wait for Brianne.”

  I nodded and picked up my bag. We’d had a short respite, and now it was time to focus again. All the tension I’d managed to forget about for the last few hours had returned, twisting my stomach into knots. Wonderful.

  This was the last time I was doing this. As soon as I saw Brianne, and we got everything sorted out, I planned on telling her that we weren’t going to continue on this way. We could either go back to barely talking, or she could tell me what the hell was going on. If she wanted to keep me at arm’s length, then I’d stay that far away all the time. No more back and forth.

  “Are you okay?” Clay asked as the two of us went down the stairs and across the tarmac. When we reached the door, he grabbed my free hand. “Tess, are you okay?”

  “I’m okay,” I said. The skeptical look on his face made me smile. “Really, Clay, I’m fine. This isn’t a vacation or anything, but I’m not freaking out.”

  His expression softened. “I never thought you would. You’re not the freaking out type. But worry about your sister would be completely normal. Expected even, in a situation like this.”

  “I think we both know Brianne can take care of herself.”

  “That doesn’t mean you can’t worry about her,” he said. “I’m pretty sure being family means you can worry about anyone at any time you want.”

  I snorted. “I’m pretty sure being family means I can kick her ass for being an idiot.”

  He laughed, then lifted my hand to kiss my knuckles. “I’m pretty sure I’d like to see that.”

  I rolled my eyes but couldn’t stop a chuckle. “Thanks.”

  “We’ll get through this,” he said as we resumed walking. “And then we’ll get back to normal life.”

  I appreciated his optimism, but I didn’t think my life would be normal anytime soon. Not when the woman who’d left New York wasn’t the one landing in Costa Rica for the second time. Things had changed too much for me to expect to get ‘back’ to anything.

  Clay flagged down a cab and gave the hotel’s address. Neither one of us spoke on the drive, but that was only because our cab driver kept up a steady stream of questions and answers. Like he asked questions and then answered them before either of us could do more than open our mouths. And he seemed completely happy about it as he switched from English to Spanish indiscriminately.

  The sun had already set when we arrived at the hotel, and the air held a bit of chill, but it was still tons warmer than it had been a few hours ago in DC. People were laughing and chatting in front of the hotel and along the streets where vendors were selling all sorts of food. Everything smelled amazing, and my stomach growled. At least it’d be easy for us to get something to eat once we’d checked in.

  Except we never got that far.

  Clay was half a dozen steps in front of me when someone grabbed my arm. I let out a yelp and struggled even as I turned…then froze.

  “Bri?”

  “We need to get out of here. Quietly.” The dark smudges under her eyes made her look worn down, but her grip was tight and her voice strong. “We need to go now.”

  Twenty-Five

  Clay

  I hadn’t gone very far when I paused to see why Tess hadn’t caught up. I turned around just in time to see Brianne dart out from the shadows and grab her sister’s arm. I started back toward them, quickening my pace when Brianne dragged Tess after her. The sounds behind us faded as we moved away from the celebration and into a more wooded area.

  I could see the dim outlines of people moving along the twilight fringes, but we were essentially alone when Tess pulled free of Brianne and stopped, giving me the opportunity to reach them.

  “Don’t play, Tess. We don’t have the time.” Brianne sounded more exasperated than worried, and I knew that wouldn’t go over well with Tess.

  “Then you better t
alk fast, Bri, because I’m not going anywhere until you tell us what’s going on.”

  Brianne moved closer, pitching her voice low. “How about you explain first what the fuck you two are doing back here?”

  Tess frowned. “You asked us to come. Well, you asked me, anyway. I would’ve thought you’d like the fact that I hadn’t come alone.”

  Brianne cursed and looked around. “It’s a trap, which means we’re not safe here either.”

  Tess glanced at me, and I nodded. I’d take my cues from her on this one. I’d come to help, but Brianne was Tess’s sister, and Tess was my…well, she was mine. I’d support her however she wanted to do this.

  “Then you take us someplace safe and close. Once we get there, we’re going to talk,” Tess said. “And by us talking, I mean you talking and us listening as you give us the entire truth about what’s been going on down here.”

  Brianne’s shoulders slumped, and she suddenly looked years older than me even though, in reality, only a few months separated us. “Okay, but we need to get going. Once they realize you’re not coming, they’re going to be looking for us.”

  As I followed the Gardener sisters, I tried to speculate about who ‘they’ could be. I’d never been one for conspiracy theories, but with everything that’d happened since the first of the year, I’d come to believe that there had to be some grain of truth to this particular fiction.

  “Are you staying with Sylvia?” Tess asked her sister.

  “No,” Brianne answered even as she continued scanning around us for any sign of trouble. “I sent her to Canada the same morning I sent you two back to the States.”

  “Did you drug her too?” Tess tempered the fury in her voice, but I wasn’t sure if Brianne understood how much restraint her sister was using.

  “I didn’t need to,” Brianne said matter-of-factly. “I explained the situation, and she agreed to go visit family for a while.”

  Tess was silent, but I saw her hands curl into fists and knew she was about to snap at her sister. “Did you even consider trying to explain the situation to Clay and me, or were we just too much of a bother?”

  Brianne didn’t answer, but I had a feeling this question would be where things started once we got where we were going. I had to admit, I was interested to hear the answer.

  The house we approached had a ‘for sale’ sign in the front yard, but that didn’t stop her from opening the front door and leading us all inside. She flicked on a single dim overhead bulb, but the curtains were drawn so we didn’t need to worry about anyone seeing the light.

  It was completely furnished with the sort of décor that made me wince. Large, loud floral patterns on every piece of fluffy furniture and on the rugs covering a shiny lacquered floor. Pinks and purples and greens screaming from every inch of the room. The tiny kitchen to the right held dozens of ceramic jars in shapes ranging from ladybugs to clowns to teddy bears. Almost directly across from me, I could see a short hallway with a door on either side. A bedroom and a bathroom, I assumed.

  “Do I even want to know who really lives here?” Tess asked.

  “No one,” Brianne said. “The person who lived here died a couple weeks back, and her kids are trying to sell the place, but they live an hour away.”

  Tess examined the space around us. “We’ve only been gone a couple days. How in the world did you manage to find this place that quickly?”

  “I asked Sylvia if she knew any realtors,” Brianne said. “She gave me a number. I did the rest.”

  “Okay.” Tess pointed at the couch. “Sit. Talk.”

  To my surprise, Brianne sat down, then gestured for us to do the same. I took the armchair off to the side and let Tess have the one directly across from her sister. I wanted answers, but Tess needed them.

  “Start at the beginning,” Tess said. “And no more trying to protect me or treating me like I can’t handle whatever it is you’re mixed up in.”

  Brianne let out a brittle laugh. “I’m not mixed up in anything, Tess.” She held up her hand when Tess opened her mouth. “The two of you need to understand that I could get in serious trouble for telling you any of this. I’m talking court-martial or treason.”

  I blinked and looked over at Tess. Her face was blank, but I could see the tension in every line of her body.

  “Three years after I enlisted, I was on my second tour in Afghanistan when my convoy was hit by insurgents. During the firefight, I ended up in this shed where I found boxes of weapons. Ones that the insurgents shouldn’t have had. I can’t give you details about where the weapons had come from because it’ll put you in even more danger than you already are.”

  Even though Brianne kept her attention on Tess, I knew those comments were directed at me too. I hadn’t been invited, but I was here, which meant I was involved.

  “After what was left of my team was rescued, I reported what I’d found. Three days later, a woman showed up. This tough soldier a decade older than me who told me that I’d stumbled into something big and secret. A black-ops group made up of an assortment of military personnel from all the different branches had been running a mission to find who was funding the insurgents in the area.”

  Sofie. Brianne hadn’t said the name of the woman, but the warmth in her eyes told me enough.

  “She asked if I wanted to help. I did, and when the mission was over, she asked if I wanted to become a member of her team. I agreed.”

  Shit.

  “Three years after you enlisted,” Tess said quietly. “That’s when you stopped writing to me.”

  Brianne nodded, a shadow passing over her face. “The things we do…the team I belong to…it’s dangerous. Most of the people I work with have no family, and none of them have close relationships outside the team. I had to distance myself from you and Mom to protect you.”

  “Isn’t it dangerous for you to be involved with someone on your team?” I asked.

  Both women’s gaze snapped over to me, but it was Tess who spoke. “What’s that?”

  “The woman who recruited you, Bri, was Sofie Harmon, right? And I’m thinking she’s not just a teammate, but your boss.”

  To my surprise, Brianne flushed. “Yes, and yes.”

  Tess stared at her for a moment. “You’re in a government black ops group with your girlfriend, who just happens to be the sister of the Secretary of State’s late wife.”

  “That pretty much sums it up.”

  “I’m pretty sure that just brought up a lot of new questions,” Tess said, “the first of which is, were you investigating the drug cartel for your black ops team?”

  “I was,” Bri admitted. “About five months ago, we received intel that someone in the US government was funding a Colombian drug cartel that had moved into Costa Rica. We tried sending an undercover into the cartel. He made it two months before he was killed, and he never got high enough in the organization to know anyone beyond the local players.”

  “So you volunteered to go in next?” Tess’s voice rose. “Were you trying to get yourself killed?”

  Brianne stared at her sister as if she’d never seen her before. While I understood why Tess was upset, I couldn’t deny that I now understood why Brianne had done everything that she had. Not in a detailed, lay-out-each-point kind of way, but something deeper.

  “I joined the army right after my high school graduation.”

  Tess clearly still didn’t get it. “I know that. I was there when you came home and told Mom.”

  “What did you think I was doing all these years if not putting my life in danger?”

  “I don’t know!” Tess stood, yanking her fingers through snarls of curls. “But I didn’t think it was crazy stuff like going undercover in a drug cartel!”

  Brianne’s voice softened. “The day my convoy was attacked by those insurgents, I watched this guy I’d known since basic get a hole blown clear through his stomach. He was still trying to hold in his guts when he died. Six people in my squad died during that tour, and I can’t ev
en count the number of times I almost did too.” She stood up and went over to Tess, a calmness about her that I recognized. “Insurgents overseas. Domestic terrorists. Drug cartels. They’re all just different faces of the same evil. An evil I fight to make this world a better place. To protect you, to protect others. It’s my job, and I won’t apologize for that.”

  Tess crossed her arms, pulling her shoulders forward as she absorbed what Bri was telling her.

  Brianne put her hand on Tess’s shoulder. “But I am sorry I hid so much of myself from you.”

  And with that, the anger and tension went out of the room. We didn’t do tears and hugs, and there was still a lot the three of us needed to talk about, but this was the right start.

  Twenty-Six

  Tess

  I was glad Brianne had managed to find a house with the water still working because the shower was the only place I could be alone while I tried to wrap my head around everything Brianne had told me. When I wanted a distraction, I’d go to Clay, but first I needed to process.

  None of it seemed possible. The journalist in me was torn between demanding evidence before believing something as far-fetched as my big sister being recruited to some secret government military group, and writing the whole thing off as being too ludicrous to even consider. Except the puzzle pieces fit. All the things that had seemed out of place now came together perfectly. Brianne’s story explained everything. How she’d lost touch, how evasive she’d been the few times I’d seen her. And then there was all the recent stuff. Like why she’d taken off to Costa Rica to help Red Care seemingly out of the blue. Or how she’d managed to go up against a cartel and not only survive but accomplish her objective.

  There’d be more questions to ask tomorrow, and I suspected they would continue to lead to still more of them. For tonight, it was enough to know she’d finally shared the big secret I’d been sensing from her.