Innocent Target

by Katie Reus

  She just wondered what she was to him. It was pretty clear that he was attracted to her, even if he was holding off on sex. Frustrating man.

  For now, she just wanted to take a shower, check her school email, and think about what she and Axel had shared not too long ago. He’d brought her to orgasm again in the middle of the night and she’d stroked him off again. Next time she wanted to taste him…and she really needed to stop thinking about that or she was going to get herself all worked up again.

  Chapter 15

  —I won’t be impressed with technology until I can download snacks.—

  Hadley stood next to Axel, making him secure in a way he hadn’t realized he’d needed as they all stood in Brooks’s office. He hadn’t been sure how she’d act this morning in front of the others and he’d been preparing for her rejection.

  After what they’d shared last night, he was pretty damn certain he wanted to eventually put a ring on her finger. Not now—it was too soon and she could decide he wasn’t worth the trouble. But if she decided he wasn’t someone she’d regret, then…one day. Probably sooner than later. Which, hell. He had to stop getting ahead of himself. It was damn hard when he had this newfound hope.

  So when he’d stepped into the office with Brooks, Colt and Skye, and Gage, an apparent hacker, Axel had been inordinately pleased when she’d walked right up to him and brushed her mouth over his. He’d actually frozen for a moment, unsure how to react. Now she stood next to him, her fingers loosely linked between his, clearly making a statement to everyone in the room.

  He might not deserve her, but he certainly wasn’t going to walk away from her. Not ever. Unless she told him to.

  “This would be a whole lot easier if we were at the office because I could show you on bigger screens.” Gage sat behind the huge desk, working on his laptop as they all waited for him to pull up whatever he was pulling up. “But we’re going to make do with what we’ve got here. Okay, I dumped the contents of the phone you gave me,” he said, flicking a quick glance at Axel. “There wasn’t much on there. It was definitely a burner phone but I’m still running information on all the phone calls Johnson made. He thought he deleted everything but luckily I’m smarter than a phone. Next, the cameras you set up are good. If I’d set them up myself, I would have picked the same angles.”

  Hadley gently squeezed Axel’s fingers and Brooks simply gave him an annoyed look. Oh yeah, it was going to take a hell of a lot to get Brooks to forgive him.

  “I’ve been monitoring them and so far nothing seems out of the ordinary,” Gage continued. “Except for this. And it might not even be anything.” He paused for a moment as he fast-forwarded to an image, then pressed play. A four-door sedan with tinted windows drove by at a normal speed once. Then he fast-forwarded to another clip. It was the same vehicle driving by at a slow speed, at a different time of day, given the angle of the shadows.

  “I ran the plate on his vehicle and it didn’t come back in the system. Which could mean any number of things but my guess is the plate doesn’t exist.”

  “How can it not exist?” Hadley asked.

  Gage didn’t look up from the computer as he answered. “More than likely someone welded two license plates together, creating a number that isn’t registered.”

  “That’s pretty smart,” Hadley murmured.

  Gage shrugged. “Eh. It’s Criminal Behavior 101. Anyway, since I can’t figure out where the plate is from and the car is generic enough that I can’t do much with it, my guess is this might be the guy we’re looking for. Or it could be something completely unrelated, but I don’t believe in coincidence.”

  “So what do we do with this information?” Hadley asked.

  “That’s where I come in,” Skye said. “I’m going to be the bait and head back to your place, pretend to be you. See if we can pull this guy out of hiding and get him to make a move.”

  Next to Axel, Hadley stiffened. “I don’t like the sound of that. I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of me.”

  Skye snorted. “The only person getting hurt is the guy who thinks he can kidnap you. Trust me. I’m not going alone anyway. Colt is coming with me. I’m going to wear a disguise, making it look as if I’m you to a casual observer. And I’ll drive your car back to your place. Then inside the garage Colt will get out of the back seat and we’ll set up camp at your place. And Brooks is going to be nearby as backup if we need him.”

  Hadley nodded but it was clear she didn’t like the idea of any of this. “What about me? What am I going to do?” she finally asked.

  “You’re going to stay here where we know you’re safe. And Axel is going to be your shadow,” Skye said.

  Brooks simply gave him another hard stare. But Axel nodded and gave her an encouraging smile. He hadn’t planned to leave her side anyway.

  Her cheeks flushed that sexy shade of pink and she squeezed his fingers but didn’t say anything else.

  Axel didn’t like staying out of the action because he wanted to be the one to bring this guy down, but he wanted to protect Hadley a whole lot more. And he wanted to be the one by her side. He might not be able to control everything, but he could sure as hell keep her safe. More than anything, she was the priority. “Have you found anything on the person who actually hired these guys?” he asked.

  “I’m working on it,” Gage said. “Douglas has already pulled up all of his old and recent business deals to see if there’s someone he might have pissed off. Because this feels personal. Kidnapping his daughter, the daughter he just found out about, with the intention of—” Gage glanced at Hadley then cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’m working hard on that angle and following the money trail of anyone who’s a suspect. But nothing solid as of yet.”

  Axel nodded. That would have to be good enough for now. And he agreed with the other man because this did feel personal. “I can do grunt work if you need extra eyes on your files or whatever.” He’d worked for the Feds once so he understood how tedious that kind of work could be.

  “All right, thanks. I’ll let you know.”

  That would have to do for now.

  * * *

  “So what do you think of Axel?” Skye asked as she and Colt stepped inside Hadley’s cute little home. The way she’d decorated was homey, with earth tones. It reminded her a little of Darcy’s place. Soft, sweet women that Skye was a little baffled to be friends with.

  He moved to the security panel and punched in her code. “She needs a better system. Actually, she needs to move somewhere more secure in general.”

  “Yeah, I know. After this I bet she will.” Even if Hadley didn’t like the idea of her dad paying for a place for her, it was only logical that she move somewhere different after this. A condo with a doorman and security. And she needed freaking cameras too. Not this basic security system that a toddler could hack.

  Colt set his bag of weapons on the center island. “To answer your other question, he seems okay. His file from the FBI is solid. And even the jobs he did—or the ones we suspect him of doing—I won’t be losing any sleep about the assholes he took out.”

  “I was thinking more along the lines of what do you think of recruiting him?” She’d thought that had been clear.

  But Skye realized she’d surprised her husband as he paused. “You’re serious?”

  “We’ve been taking on more jobs and everyone has family and might not be able to take last-minute jobs. It wouldn’t hurt to have more employees. Since we can’t do actual interviews for the stuff we do, and he clearly works in a gray area already…he’s kind of perfect for the type of person we’re looking for. I’m not saying definitely, because we don’t know enough about him yet, but I see the way he looks at Hadley. He’s not going anywhere.”

  Colt nodded at that. “Yeah, he looks at her like Gage looks at his computers.”

  She snickered. More like how Gage looked at Nova, their office manager/woman-who-kept-them-all-in-line. Something neither of them would say aloud, not when Gage was cu
rrently on their comm line. “It’ll drive Brooks nuts.”

  Colt shrugged. “If things work out with those two, he’ll get over it.”

  True enough. Now it was time to get to work. “So how do you want to do this?”

  He glanced around the small, clean kitchen. “I’ll head upstairs and set up while you stay down here. We can open a few blinds as if they got left open by accident and you can turn the TV on. If you sit at the right angle, it’ll look like Hadley. Whoever is after her only has pictures of her. They won’t know her well enough to know it’s not her.”

  Skye patted her wig once. She’d learned the art of disguises when she’d been with the CIA, so slipping into this role had been easy. “Sounds like a plan to me. Should we leave the alarm system on or off?”

  He paused for a moment. “Off.”

  She nodded once. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.” They didn’t want an alert going out to Hadley’s security company. If someone did break into Hadley’s house, Skye was certain they could neutralize any threat quickly and efficiently, but it was better not to take any chances. Because they didn’t plan on involving law enforcement in anything.

  “Did you get all that?” Skye asked into her earpiece.

  “Yep,” Gage said. “And not that you guys asked for my opinion, but I agree about Axel. I kinda like the guy.”

  Skye grinned at her husband. She had a good sense about these things and Colt was a great judge of character. Since her husband hadn’t said no outright, she figured that he must feel the same way about the man as well.

  Before they did anything else, Skye leaned over and pressed her mouth to Colt’s. Hard and fast. “A kiss for good luck.”

  Her husband grinned at her as he opened up one of their duffel bags and pulled out a SIG. Her favorite.

  Taking the weapon, she tucked it into her holster and kept it hidden. It was showtime.

  Chapter 16

  —Love is a lot of things, but it should never be hard.—

  He drove down his target’s street at a normal speed, not wanting to draw any undue attention. For the first time in the last twenty-four hours, he spotted lights on downstairs. Time to get to work.

  Instead of parking on her street, he headed down a couple blocks and parked near a children’s park. It should be easy enough to subdue her, then grab his vehicle and dump her in it. Or he would just toss her in the trunk of her own car, which was no doubt in the garage. It was early enough so she should be eating dinner or doing homework or whatever college-aged girls did. He didn’t know and didn’t care. All he knew was that he was going to get paid. The guy who’d hired him seemed like a jackass, but his money was good and that was all that mattered. Because jackasses made the world go round.

  As he headed toward her house, there was a woman walking her dog about thirty yards in front of him on the sidewalk so he crossed to the other side. He’d worn jogging gear, a beanie and a headset—that wasn’t pumping out any music. But he needed to blend in, play the part. It wasn’t so late that jogging was out of the ordinary so the woman might remember seeing some guy out, but she wouldn’t remember him. Out of the corner of his eye he watched her as her dog took a crap.

  She didn’t even look over in his direction. Perfect. Keeping his pace steady, he headed down the street then looped back around. The woman and her dog were gone.

  The time was right that most families would be having dinner with their kids or spouses. It was a Sunday so people were winding down from the weekend and getting ready to head back to work tomorrow. He might not have a typical job but he understood people and their routines.

  Her neighbors didn’t seem to have outdoor dogs either so that was a plus. From his file on the female, he had her address, marital status—single—and other benign information. The only thing not benign was who her family was. Her father, specifically. Some rich douche. He figured the man could have sprung for better digs for his kid but that wasn’t his problem. Besides, this place was in a “safe” neighborhood. She probably felt safe right now.

  Instead of heading for the front porch, he ducked around the side of the house. Damn. She didn’t even have security lights. As he crept up to the nearest window, he kept his back against the wall. There was a sign for a security system out front, but in his experience that didn’t always mean there was one. And the system she had was generic enough. Besides, if he held a gun to her head, he was pretty much guaranteed she’d turn the system off anyway. People were often predictable.

  After a quick scan around the side of her small yard and her neighbor’s house, he saw that he was alone so he turned and peered through the windows. Blinds covered them, but one was slightly pushed up. Looking inside, he saw the profile of a woman sitting on a cream-colored couch. Her legs were kicked up on a tufted storage bench. The television was on some kind of nature show.

  He couldn’t get a clear shot of the woman’s face. But the hair was the right color and this was the target’s house so it was a pretty good chance it was her. Next to her was a glass of water on the side table.

  Her marital status was single but the guy who’d hired him hadn’t known if she was dating anyone. If she was, the guy wasn’t here. Didn’t mean he couldn’t show up, if he existed at all.

  Frowning, he watched her for a few moments. She flipped the channel a few times during a commercial, but ended up back on the same nature show. Then she took a sip of her water. Then more TV watching.

  Pretty boring shit. As he contemplated making a grab for her now, waiting until it was about three or so in the morning, or setting up cameras to watch her for a few days, he realized that her shoes were still on.

  He wasn’t sure why it struck him as wrong but it did for some reason. She wore a simple sweater and jeans. And her shoes were kicked up on the bench. When people came home they took off their shoes, sweaters, scarves. It was one of those human nature things.

  It probably meant nothing and he was almost certainly being paranoid, but he still didn’t like it. He also noticed that she didn’t have a cell phone with her. Or if she did, she wasn’t checking it. He’d read that people checked their phones something like eighty times a day. Hell, that was probably an understatement.

  Since he hadn’t had enough time to do much recon on this place, he decided to ease off for now. He hadn’t remained alive and in business for so long by getting sloppy. Yes, he wanted to get paid, but he wasn’t going to get stupid.

  Easing away from the window, he started back the way he’d come. But before he left, he stopped by a tree facing her place from a perfect angle. He’d have a great shot of her front door and garage.

  Pulling one of his cameras out, he started to quickly install it when he saw another camera in the bark. Holy. Shit. It might be one of the other people who’d been hired, it could be her own security camera or it could be something else altogether. Either way he definitely didn’t like it.

  His internal radar pinged, telling him to get the hell out of there. Now.

  Without missing a beat, he pocketed his camera and stepped onto the sidewalk. As he headed down the street, he glanced around to see if he was being watched. There were vehicles in driveways, and some driveways were empty so it was impossible to tell if anyone was inside. His radar was definitely going off, but that could be because he’d found the camera and not because someone was actually watching him.

  As he reached the end of the street, he took a right and picked up his pace, breaking into a light jog. He’d have to double back to where he parked his vehicle, then ditch it. The precaution was worth it because if someone tried to tail him, he’d notice. He wasn’t going to bail on the job completely, but he was definitely going to do more recon on this target before he went in.

  * * *

  “He’s leaving,” Gage said.

  “You’re sure?” she asked, pushing up from the couch as she adjusted her earpiece.

  “Yes. He saw one of the cameras. He was trying to set up one of his own. I got a great shot
of his face.” Gage sounded gleeful and Skye could practically see him rubbing his hands together like a cartoon villain.

  Skye cursed under her breath even as Colt met her at the bottom of the stairs. “We’ll tail him.”

  “I’ll start the tail,” Brooks said along the comm line.

  “When did you show up?” He’d told them he was going to stop by the condo where Darcy was staying to spend a little time with his fiancée.

  “About an hour ago. Didn’t want to bother you on the comm. But I managed to put a tracker on his vehicle,” Brooks added. “He parked at the children’s park not too far away.”

  “He’ll probably ditch the thing as soon as he can.” At least that was what Skye would do. He wouldn’t have time to scan the car for electronics, and if the guy had half a brain, he would have a backup plan in place. And said backup plan should include a different getaway vehicle. Of course the guy could be a complete dumbass and lead them straight to wherever he was holed up.

  “Keep an eye on her place.” The temperature dropped by about ten degrees as Skye and Colt stepped into the garage. Mother Nature seriously needed to get her shit together this year.

  Gage simply snorted in her ear, his only response. Because of course he would. She was so used to giving orders, however, that sometimes she said the obvious.

  Skye slid on her gloves and held her hand out for the keys but Colt shook his head, grinning.

  “It’s my turn to drive.” His breath curled in front of him like a wisp of faint, white smoke.

  “I’m a better driver,” she said even as she rounded to the other side.

  “Please.” Colt slid into the driver’s seat as she did the same on the passenger side.

  “You really want to debate who’s a better driver?”

  “There is no debate.”

  “Exactly. Because I am clearly superior.” She sniffed slightly.

  “You two both suck at driving,” Brooks muttered. “If there’s a contest for who’s the crazier driver, Skye, you would definitely win. But Colt comes in second… I’m taking a turn onto Ward Street. Looks like he’s headed south.”