A long time later, she falls asleep, naked and pressed to my side, while I lay awake, replaying every touch we’d shared, my protectiveness of her, even possessiveness, growing with each passing moment. That damn recording she’d played for us all is now in my mind, my plans for Devin Marks expanding just like my feelings for Sierra. When I finally slip into a light sleep, it’s two in the morning. My alarm goes off at three. I ease Sierra off of me, and she snuggles deeper under the covers.
By three-thirty, I’ve showered, dressed and I sit down on the edge of the bed, and caress her cheek. “Sierra.”
She blinks awake and sits up, her hair a wild mess I made right about the time I was kissing her nipples and then her belly. “You’re already leaving?”
“Soon.”
She throws off the covers, exposing her naked body and appearing comfortable enough not to care. “I want to walk you out.” She scoots off the bed and hurries across the room, her naked backside ensuring I’ll leave her this morning hard as a rock, and guaranteed to have sweet dreams on the plane.
I pull on the thin black leather jacket I’ve set on the bed, and then grab the small duffle I’ve packed. “I’ll meet you downstairs, Sierra,” I call out, because if I follow her, we’ll both end up naked, and Luke will be waiting on me.
Heading out of the bedroom, I walk down the hallway to my office, flipping on the light as I enter. Returning to my thinking spot, I open the drawer inside the table and grab the burner phone there, dialing into the voice system to discover four replies. That makes seven of us on board, counting me, Luke, and Adam. And the seven of us can do a lot to fuck up Devin Marks’s world. I stick the phone in the pocket of my jacket, and make my way back to the door. I reach the stairs and start down them to find Sierra already downstairs and standing at the coffee pot.
She turns at my footsteps and abandons her cup, rounding the island to meet me on the other side. I set my bag down on a stool, and we step to each other. “Can we just go back upstairs and back to bed together?” she asks, her hand flattening on my chest. “I don’t want you to go. I have a really bad feeling.”
I stroke a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ll be back soon. I have Luke with me and our SEAL mate, Adam, is joining us in Dallas.” My hands settle on her hips. “Jacob is coming over to stay with you. He’ll take you to the Walker offices to work on the Ju-Ju file around ten.”
“Do I really need him here? Isn’t the building secure?”
“I’m just being cautious,” I say. “And Kara wanted to be here, but she needs to be at your apartment early to make a showing in case anyone is watching.”
“I thought Jacob was watching Ju-Ju, or Terrance, or both?”
“We have Ju-Ju and Terrance well covered. I trust Jacob and he’s going to be in the Ju-Ju meeting today anyway, so this makes sense this morning, but tonight I need you to stay with Julie. She’ll be alone and Jacob lives in the building.”
“I’d rather stay at home or—I mean—here. At your home.” Her gaze drops to my chest.
I cup her face and tilt her gaze to mine. “This is where you live now, Sierra. I want you here. I want you to want to be here. I don’t know how many ways I can say that to you.”
“For now. I’m staying here for now. Right now, you’re riding the high of being a hero. I’m riding the high of you. We don’t know where this will land when it’s over.”
I don’t expect the punch to the chest those words deliver, but the line she is drawing is clear. “Right,” I say. “I guess we don’t. I guess we’ll see. I’m going to give you your freedom. Then you can decide where you want to be.”
The doorbell rings and I release her. “I need to go.” I reach for my bag and head to the door.
“Asher.”
I stop in my tracks and when I turn around, she’s in front of me, hugging me and pushing to her toes. “I had a moment of panic over how fast we’re going and how hard I think I could fall for you. He can kill me. You can hurt me. I just—I’m sorry. I don’t want to leave, but if you decide you want me to leave—”
I cup her head. “You belong with me now. You’ll see.” I kiss her. “Don’t leave. Don’t go anywhere alone. Promise me.”
“I promise. Please call me when you can.”
“I will and call me if you need me, but don’t worry if I don’t answer. It only means that I’ll call you the minute I safely can. You have an army here to protect you.”
I release her and walk to the door, opening it and greeting Jacob, who is stoic and cold, which makes him the perfect man to place with another man’s woman. “Take care of her,” I say, before walking down the hallway and stepping into the elevator. The doors shut, and I’ve left Sierra in my apartment with another man while I go after the man who is technically her fucking husband.
I head downstairs and Luke’s Escalade is pulled up to the door of the apartment. I climb inside and shut the door, and my mind replays that recording of Devin Marks plotting Sierra’s killing all over again. I think of Kyle and Myla, and the way Alvarez will always haunt them, dead or alive. There was no body, no proof that he’s dead and thus they can have no real peace. No closure. I won’t let that happen to me and Sierra. I will not only end this, and Devin Marks decisively, but with absolute closure.
Suddenly I’m standing in Asher’s apartment with a strange man. Jacob enters the apartment and locks up. I walk to the kitchen and grab my coffee cup, which is apparently still empty. I set it back down and turn to find him joining me. He’s in a blue T-shirt and dark blue jeans. He’s big—a Mr. GI Joe, with short hair and a big muscular body. The kind of guy that once would have been my thing, but he’s not now. Asher, and his long blond hair, tattoos, and piercing green eyes is my kind of man.
“Hello, ma’am.”
“Hello, Jacob. Sorry you had to come here this early.”
“There are those who should pay for my need to be here, but you should never apologize for being in danger.”
“You mean Ju-Ju should pay.”
“And Devin Marks. Yes. I know. I heard the tape. Luke felt I needed to know the magnitude of the threat. I’m not in his pocket. I’m not in anyone’s pocket.”
I study him for several beats, and while I have misjudged a few people in the past, I believe Blake was right. I was allowing my expectations to affect what I saw in people. Now, I expect evil and yet I still believe Jacob.
“You should get some rest,” he says. “We need to leave here at about nine-thirty for the meeting at the office.”
“It’s going to be hard to rest. I’m worried about him.”
“Asher is smart and dangerous.”
“So I’m told.”
“He’ll be fine. Devin Marks will not be.”
He says those words without inflection in his voice, but somehow, they are fierce. “You need to sleep too. I saw a spare bedroom upstairs.”
“I’ll catch some sleep on the couch.”
“I was going to leave,” I say. “I would have, to protect Asher, and all of you, but it’s too late now. You’re too involved.”
“We don’t need protection. We need information and a plan, which hopefully your documentation will deliver. And for the record, I’m not worried about you going out of the apartment. I’m down here to give a gift to anyone who tries to come in it.”
“A sharp-shooter gift?”
He gives a nod of his head. “Yes, ma’am. The best gift you can give an asshole who intends to do you harm. I understand I’m taking you to the range to help you learn how to deliver a little justice yourself.”
“Yes. Please.” I turn away with the flashback of Asher saying please, and my cheeks heat. I lower my lashes and force away my obvious reaction while the warmth spreading through my body is here to stay.
“You okay?” he asks.
Am I okay? Well, I’m falling in love with a man I just met, like a school girl, while the man I’m married to and hate wants to kill me, and soon, Asher too. There’s only one way to ans
wer that. I turn and face him. “I will be when I can deliver some of that justice myself.”
“We’ll make sure that you can,” he says, but his expression remains unchanged.
“You’re cold. You’re calculated. You protect yourself by never letting anyone get close to you.”
“Is that your professional opinion?”
“Yes. It is.”
“And what is Ju-Ju?”
“Insane, but just as smart and calculating.”
“Then we need to catch him. Go. Get some rest.”
I nod and start to turn but stop. “Part of me envies you. You can’t get hurt if you never let anyone close. It was my strategy on the run.”
“Was?”
“And then Asher happened. So, while part of me envies your steely wall, the other part of me hopes your version of Asher comes into your life, and changes that. Goodnight, Jacob.”
“Goodnight, ma’am.”
I stop and face him. “Don’t call me ma’am. I don’t plan to leave anytime soon, and friends don’t call friends ma’am and sir.”
“What would you like me to call you?”
“I should say Kelli. That’s the new me, but that also means I accept leaving the real me behind because of Devin Marks. I don’t accept it. Call me Sierra.”
I walk away then and hurry up the stairs, stepping into the bedroom that I now share with Asher. It smells like him. It feels like him. It’s missing him. I shut the door and walk to the massive four poster wood bed, staring down at it. Thinking of the way he’d touched me. The way he seemed to savor me. I sit down and lower myself to the mattress. There was a time when I wanted to go back home to Denver, because it was the only home I knew. Now, Asher is the only thing that feels like home, but he’s not here and that bad feeling about this trip continues to claw at me.
I doze off until six in the morning and that’s it. I need to get up. I need to do something and since that something can’t involve Devin Marks right now, I decide that something needs to be catching Ju-Ju. The sooner I start calling people who once knew Ju-Ju or perhaps still do, the better. I quickly shower, and throw on a pair of dark blue jeans, and a red T-shirt with a glittery butterfly on it. I decide red stands out too much, and trade it for a black BeBe logo T-shirt. I do need to shop. I only have a few things that fit. I pull on lace-up flat boots and a waist-length black Burberry quilted jacket. I like the extra pockets and it’s getting cooler outside now.
I quickly apply light make-up and with my hair flat ironed, those blonde roots are showing more than ever. My mascara is too dark to cover it, which means I need to get color today. I have so much to do that I need to get this day moving. I grab my purse and tote, the revolver in the purse and the case and gun in the tote. I head down the stairs to find Jacob at the island, a steamy cup of coffee by his side and a computer in front of him.
“You’re awake,” he says, surprised.
“Yes. Why are you awake?”
“Ju-Ju on the brain,” he says. “I’m going through the old bar footage for the third time, trying to find anything that might convict him.”
“Any luck?”
“No. No luck at all.”
“I’m all for going into the office and digging into investigating him, if you are.”
He stands up. “You had me at ‘why are you awake?’ Let’s go.”
Just that easily, we head out and waste no time making our way to the Walker offices which are still dark. A few minutes later, we’re in the conference room, both of us with coffee cups beside us and we begin looking for a strategy. “Do you have the lists Asher made of the connections to Ju-Ju?”
“I do,” he says. He reaches for a MacBook sitting in front of an empty seat. “That’s the computer from your apartment. Kara texted me. She left it here in case you wanted it.”
A few minutes later, I have the computer fired up with a spreadsheet to match Jacob’s to log my calls. We split the list and start making them. Unfortunately, not with much luck. No one is answering our calls. “In hindsight,” I say. “Evening might be the better call time. People are at work now.”
My cellphone rings and I pull it from my purse to find Asher calling. “Are you there?”
“Yes. We got a hotel near the storage facility. Is Jacob with you?”
“He is,” I say. “We’re at the office.”
“Put me on speaker so he knows what’s going on.”
I look at Jacob. “Asher wants to talk to both of us.” He nods, and I hit the speaker button before setting the phone down on the table. “Okay,” I say to Asher. “You’re live with me and Jacob. No one else is here yet.”
“Hey man,” Jacob says. “What’s the word?”
“We’re in a room a few blocks from the storage facility,” Asher says again.
“Any sign of trouble?” Jacob asks.
“All is quiet here,” he replies. “Sierra.”
“Yes?”
“Just to be clear,” Asher says. “You got this locker before you were on anyone’s radar, correct?”
“Oh, yes,” I confirm. “I was in Dallas for a few weeks, but I rented the locker the day I got there.”
“I checked. They have rental lockers with a monthly fee. It’s one of those, correct?”
“Correct,” I say. “I’ve been sending a money order and verbally confirming receipt. And I used one of those google redirect numbers.”
“Smart,” Asher says. “Good.”
“Is there something wrong?” I ask.
“We’re just establishing the likelihood anyone might be watching the locker,” he says.
“Because,” I say, realization hitting me. “If someone was watching it, “then it’s already been emptied and you’d be walking into a trap.”
“That would be our assessment as well,” Asher says. “It would be easy to take the contents, lock it back up, and wait for someone to come for the contents.”
He means: wait for me, and kill me. “If it’s gone, that was everything I have on him, other than what’s in my head.”
“We’re going to watch the facility today,” Asher says, skipping any comfort that might now be justified. “We’ll hack the computers and security system, and dive into your FBI agent pal’s activities. What month and day did you leave here?”
“July 11th,” I say.
“Got it,” he says. “Anything happening there with Ju-Ju?”
“Not a damn thing,” Jacob says. “We’re making calls, but we’re not getting people on the line.”
“It’s still early,” he says. “I’ll check in later. Pick up, Sierra.”
I take the call off speaker, and set the phone against my ear again. “I’m here.”
“Do not go out alone.”
I frown. “Why are you saying that to me again?”
“Just making sure.”
“I’m not a fool. I know the risks.”
“Good. Keep knowing. I’ll call you later.”
He ends the call just as Kara and Blake walk into the conference room. “Good morning, you two,” Kara says, claiming a seat to my left. “Any luck with anything?”
“Nothing,” I say. “What about you guys? Any sign of Ju-Ju?”
“He’s still tucked in his house,” Blake answers, sitting down next to Kara. “And we see no signs of Terrance or anyone else for that matter. If you’re the target, your address is unknown.”
“Because Jacob stopped him from following us,” I say, “and blew his cover. I should just go to the bar, and fill out the paperwork that I never filled out. If Ju-Ju, or anyone shows up at my apartment after that, then we’ll know Ju-Ju and Terrance are working together.”
“And that would be a no to you going to the bar,” Blake says. “You wait until Asher gets back.”
“We need to catch Ju-Ju,” I argue. “I can go during the day in broad daylight and—”
“Howdy ho.”
That interruption comes from the sandy haired, thirty-something man that enters the room. �
��I have arrived.” He stops short just inside the doorway and eyes me. “Hey. I’m Smith Wesson and don’t make a gun joke. I haven’t had enough coffee this morning to pretend it doesn’t piss me off.”
My brow furrows. “Wesson?”
“Smith and Wesson,” he says, claiming a seat across from Blake. “My name and the gun. Is playing dumb your joke?”
“Ah no,” I say. “I don’t know guns or what this is about.”
He grimaces. “Right. I forgot. You’re not one of us. You’re an outsider.”
Outsider.
That word might as well be a punch in the face.
I don’t belong here.
“Shut up, Smith,” Blake snaps while Kara gives him a sharp look.
“Sierra is one of us,” she says. “She’s the entire reason we have another angle on Ju-Ju.” She looks at me. “You work for us now. You’re one of us and we need you.”
“In other words,” Blake says dryly. “Smith and Wesson is badass and Smith Wesson, the dude running his big ass mouth, is just a little bitch.”
Smith grimaces. “I worked with Rick Savage all night. He’s the little bitch. The only dude on this team I hate and you paired me with him.” He looks at me. “Sorry for being an asshole. I hope you never have to deal with Savage, but if you do, you’ll get it. Aside from that, I really do want to get this prick Ju-Ju. Where are we on that?”
I inhale and let out a breath, setting aside my uber-sensitivity. He wants to help. We have a killer to catch. “We need to do the same thing we’re doing with Ju-Ju, with the victims. We need to look for ways their past connects to his past.”
“We have a basic outline done,” Jacob answers. “And for the record, that was a little bitch comment but I’ll send you the spreadsheet so you can work off it. I’ll work on victim backstories if everyone else can make calls.”
Pulled Under: a standalone Walker Security novel Page 21
