Chapter Eighteen
“Here’s our girl,” Jake said to Chase as they reclined against the bench in the shooting area outback, doing more talking than shooting at this point. It was hard to get Chase talking but once he got going, it was hard to shut him up. The mention of Charlotte’s arrival had indeed shut him up, because this was yet another problem they would have to solve. Chase turned, saw Charlotte, and sighed, deeply conflicted.
Charlotte paused at the edge of the shooting range to take a phone call, wiggling her fingers in greeting as she animatedly told whoever was on the other end to fuck off. Probably Steve Crazwalski, another agent, since she was partnered with him at the moment and he pissed her off like no other man. Steve had given her the title Dragon Queen. Jake had to admit, it was a good code name because she was just that—all scales, armor, and fire in a glittering red package.
“Thanks for listening,” Chase muttered, still staring at Charlotte.
“I don’t think this discussion is over, but you’re welcome. I’m here for you. I want you and Kate to work, big-time.” Jake did, desperately.
Chase had been spilling his guts about Kate, desperate to save what he’d ruined, his marriage crashing faster than a plane with its engines on fire and not a parachute in sight. Jake had suggested politely, but very directly, that maybe Chase needed to solve the root of the problem—his uncle. If Chase hadn’t felt the need to protect Kate from what evil his uncle would do by using wacked out, extreme measures then maybe he wouldn’t be in the dog house, Kate’s wedding ring in his hand instead of on her finger.
Underneath the patented boss glare, Jake saw the endless depth of the fear in his buddy’s eyes. Jake sighed and let it rest, but he got it. Chase didn’t do fear, unless it came to Kate and his uncle, and the fact that he couldn’t face the man to protect Kate said volumes of horrible things. Hell, Jake was afraid of Ed Sanders, and he wasn’t afraid of much, either. The man was diamond hard.
Charlotte ended her phone call and strode toward them with purpose and grace, brushing a lock of her deep red hair from her face. She wore tight jeans and a loose purple shirt, which meant she was armed, her gun in a holster at the small of her back, probably a knife at her ankle. God knew what else was hidden elsewhere. Dangerous to the max despite looking more like a lingerie model than a spy—five-ten, thin in a sexy way, all pale skin and hard muscle.
“How are you going to explain our girl to Tia,” Chase asked in a low voice.
“Shit, I don’t know.”
They’d never thought of Charlotte as an issue until Chase fell hard for Kate. They’d saved Charlotte almost five years ago when a mission had gone horribly wrong and they almost lost her to the demons who had taken everything from her. They plagued her still in the form of horrible nightmares.
But they took care of what was theirs, and Charlotte sort of became their…pet wasn’t the right word. She was a sister now but more than that, one they protected with their lives, which was like two lap dogs protecting a junkyard dog, Charlotte being deadlier than the two of them put together.
In their eyes, she was still broken and battered, begging them to let her die. They rarely agreed what to do about her, and she had spawned more arguments than two men needed to have over a woman they weren’t fucking. It didn’t matter. She was theirs.
“It didn’t go so well when you told Kate, huh?” Jake knew it hadn’t gone well, but a part of him hoped if he asked again, the outcome would change. Stupid, but one could hope all they wanted. Kate had blown a gasket, and when she’d come to him for back up on a Charlotte situation, Jake had to raise his hands in surrender and take Chase’s side. Loving them meant Charlotte was part of the bargain.
“Nope. And Tia seems the jealous type. Good luck with that.”
“Tia doesn’t need another reason to hate me. I seem to be doing pretty good on that front all by myself.” Jake sighed. “Charlotte isn’t as enamored with me as she is you. Maybe this will be easy.”
Chase snorted at that. “She’s still going to be trouble.”
“Tia or Charlotte?” Neither were going to be easy.
Chase didn’t answer because Charlotte had reached them, her lips widening into a genuine smile, her violet eyes bright with delight. “Boys,” she murmured, her English accent throaty. “Having a spat, are we? Such naughty boys.”
Obviously she’d been to the house first, which meant she had met Tia, and Kate was now filling his woman’s head with nonsense. Jake wanted to groan but shrugged instead and opened his arms to welcome Charlotte. He hadn’t seen her since Paris, and despite everything going down, he missed his girl. “We’re good. You know we don’t fight for long.”
She hesitated, her eyes flicking to Chase, always wanting to go to him first. But Chase nodded in his direction, which pissed Jake off.
Charlotte went obediently to Jake and let him hug her. It was like hugging a female version of Chase, hard and lean, smelling of citrus and flowers, one daisy away from Chase’s scent. Jake never understood why she loved Chase more. It hurt, damn it.
“You took the kissing way too far in Paris,” she admonished Jake with a glare.
“I had to. Eyes all around.” This was true. He’d recognized two different spies in the bar, along with Tia, who had tried to hide behind a potted plant. Unlike the other two spies, Tia had been safe. At least she was on their side.
“You didn’t need to grope my ass.”
No, but sometimes it was just fun to piss her off. He loved the flash of anger she’d given him before she pretended to feel him up, her fingers digging into his hip for a brief moment. Then she’d dropped the zip drive into his pocket and that was that. “No one else is enjoying your ass. Might as well grope it. It was lonely.”
“Pervert.” Her glare turned wicked and mischievous. “You think your new woman will appreciate you groping me like that?”
“She was in Paris, too. She saw.” He’d never tell Tia he’d seen her, though. Better for her to think she’d pulled the wool over his eyes. The bondage session, yes, she had tugged the wool right down tight. Never saw that coming. “What did you think of her?”
“I think I can kick her ass.” So typical of Charlotte, but when they had given her a new identity after her doomsday, they created her to be tougher than titanium. She had been meek and gentle before, submissive and brainwashed at the hands of a madman. Now she waited to fight the biggest battle of them all, waited for the day when she faced the motherfuckers, as she called them, the assholes who had wanted her dead in the first place. Jake prayed often that day would never come.
“You think you can kick everyone’s ass.” The problem was, she could.
She gave Jake a superior smile. “I think you boys need to find women who are strong enough to play with me. I let Kate win the last time we sparred, only because you commanded it. Really, the things I do for my boys.”
Jake hugged her closer. “Tia doesn’t like Kate any more than you do, so maybe you’ll be friends. Allies.”
“Leave Kate out of this,” Chase snapped. “There is no reason why the women can’t all get along. You’ll play nice, Char.”
“If you’re ordering me to, then yes.” Charlotte titled her head. “So is that why you summonsed me? To meet Jake’s new…whatever she is?”
“Girlfriend,” Jake clarified. Just because it was Monday, and technically they were over didn’t mean he felt this any less. If he wanted to be really crazy, he’d announce to the world she was his wife, married to him with his class ring, under a tree with a tire swing, with really bad vows. But he felt confident enough to bust out the girlfriend label.
“Really?” Charlotte arched a brow at Jake’s smugness. “I don’t think she feels the same way. In fact, she rather seemed to hate your sweet, cowboy guts.”
“Tia will come around. You did.”
“At least now there’ll be something better to bet on at work. How long before she dumps you or kills you, seeing you’ve had to run like the rest of us mortals.” She turned to Chase, her sharp gaze hopeful. “I suppose you have something to say, too? I noticed Kate wasn’t wearing your expensive, sparkly proclamation of ownership.”
“We’re having issues,” Chase grumbled. “She’ll get over it.”
Charlotte shook her head in mock dismay. “My, my. I guess there will be lots to bet on at work. It will be sad if I have to step in to save my men from their pissy women. You’ll both pay if that happens.”
Yes, they would.
Chase sat on the shooting bench and opened an arm to her. Charlotte struggled out of Jake’s arms and eagerly curled against his buddy’s chest with a look of rapture that stabbed somewhere in the region of Jake’s heart. Chase had to stink, yet she inhaled him like he was the best Parisian cologne.
With a start, Jake realized something he hadn’t hit on as of yet. He felt second with Kate, but he was also second with Charlotte. He had rescued her, she was his collateral damage, and yet she always gravitated toward Chase to the point that when Chase had divorced his ex, Jake had expected the two to hook up. But the two had formed more of a sibling bond, the same he felt for Charlotte. And then Chase had met Kate.
“Kate’s pregnant,” Chase said, not beating around the bush for a change.
Charlotte stiffened as Chase’s words sank in. Jake held his breath, as he knew Chase was doing, waiting for the explosion, the wrath, the anger. Ever since losing everything, Charlotte had been quick on the trigger when it came to being pissed. Kate being pregnant was enough to ignite the anger on many levels.
But she hid the flash of pain as she untangled herself from Chase’s arms and shifted toward Jake. She bowed her head, staring at her sneakers as she said softly, “Congratulations. You’ll make a wonderful father, Chase.”
“Come here, sweetheart,” Jake soothed. His heart went out to her, because of all the things in the world she wanted, it was a child of her own. She’d lost her unborn child in the accident, along with the ability to have more. And though Charlotte wasn’t romantically attached to Chase, the fact that Kate could give the man who walked on water what Charlotte wanted so badly had to be devastating. Warped, but that was Charlotte.
Charlotte slid closer to Jake, and he wrapped an arm around her slender shoulders, relishing her need for his contact despite the circumstances. Deep underneath all of the training and kick-ass toughness, Charlotte was still human, needing love and acceptance. But being two guys, they hadn’t equipped her with the mechanisms to deal with heartache. Kill it and you’ll feel better, that’s what they’d taught her. Only she couldn’t kill Chase or Kate.
“You okay?” Chase asked softly. “I didn’t want you to learn this from someone else.”
She had buried any unshed tears behind her kick-ass armor. Her head snapped up, the glint of defiance in her eyes heartbreaking. “Why should I care? You married her. Married people have children.”
Chase sighed. He did that a lot around their girl. “Charlotte—”
“So I get the double whammy today? Jake’s found himself a woman, yours is pregnant. Thank God you can’t fire me or you’d drop the trifecta of fucked royally in my lap.” Now came the anger that Jake feared, but she seemed more hurt than truly pissed. She shrugged out of Jake’s embrace and rose from the shooting bench, arms crossed over her chest, frosty cool as she faced them. “I suppose you’ll still want me to go to England?”
Chase nodded, all boss in the blink of an eye. “I think Jake would appreciate you being on the movie set to watch over Aaron and Celia.”
Yes, it would make Jake very appreciative. Aaron was soon to be on location for some fantasy film with horses and castles, medieval but set in the future. Jake didn’t get it, but Aaron had been excited about the role.
Celia Shaw, Aaron’s co-star, had been in the crosshairs of the agency since the beginning of last year. Her husband was the son of a senator and dealt in sinister things. Celia wasn’t squeaky clean, either, and for some reason, her doings set off Chase’s sixth sense. Chase was rarely wrong, so Jake went along with it all.
“Do you think Aaron is involved?” she asked.
“No, but Celia has been interested in him, and we’re not sure why besides her being a two-timing whore and Aaron being…Aaron. She’s made a few connections and has arranged a few meetings that have tossed red flags all over the place. Jake doesn’t need his brother messed up in that nonsense.”
She lifted her chin, all regal defiance. “Then going to England will be a breath of fresh air. I won’t have to fake an accent.” Her tone implied that she wouldn’t have to deal with them, either.
“There’s no need to be pissy, Char,” Chase said with disapproval. But then his face softened. “You know I love you, sweetheart, but I can’t change what happened to you. And yeah, I fucked up with Kate, but I can’t…” He blew out a deep breath. “I can’t not move forward with my life because of your past.” He glanced at Jake and corrected, “We can’t not move forward.”
She closed her eyes, and for a brief moment, the depth of sadness she carried with her every day oozed out around the armor. The dragon defiance crumbled. “I’m sorry.”
“We know you are. Come here,” Chase ordered softly. She slunk to Chase, and this time, Jake rose to hug her, too, his arm wrapped between Chase’s body and hers, the three of them intertwined. This was what Tia would have a hard time understanding, something Kate still didn’t get, how they could love Charlotte this fiercely and not be romantically involved.
But this time, Charlotte buried her face against Jake’s shirt as she whispered, “I’ve been rude. You are my boys, and I should be thrilled you’ve found women who are either brave enough or stupid enough to put up with you both. It…it hurts, though. It hurts so much.”
“We know,” they said at the same time, and it often freaked Jake out that they thought on the same wavelength when it came to Charlotte. Most of the time.
She looked up at Chase. “Promise me you’ll move on my endgame? You’ll let me put the past to rest?”
Jake met Chase’s gaze over her head, his buddy’s brown eyes echoing his own fear. She wanted to face the motherfuckers who took everything from her. She wanted revenge, knowing it was suicidal.
The fact that she’d remind them of this, now, bespoke deeper pain than either of them realized. They’d thought her happy enough, marking time, working, being busy. But the fact that her two men were settling down rattled her. Maybe their jealous dragon queen yearned for a mate of her own, only she was too scared to admit it.
“Sweetheart, we’re doing everything we can,” Jake reminded, though it was a lie. They were doing everything they could to keep her busy, out of harm’s way. Granted, their brand of busy was deadly work, but it was safer than facing the motherfuckers.
“We’ll move when it’s time,” Chase agreed. The look he shot Jake said that time would come over his dead body.
Charlotte returned her cheek to Jake’s chest, and he felt her hard swallow through his sternum. “Jacob? Try not to knock this woman of yours up too soon, okay? I don’t think I can handle two babies at the same time. Promise me?”
Jake met Chase’s gaze again with a half of a sad smile and Chase glared. If only Charlotte knew how planned Kate’s pregnancy had been. “I promise.”
She looked up at Chase. “And you. Warn Kate that I’ll do my best, but this will be hard. I haven’t dealt with a pregnant woman since…you know. It’s nothing personal. As badly as I hate to admit it…she’s not so bad.”
Chase chuckled and hugged her closer. “High praise from the dragon queen.”
Jake met Chase’s gaze again and saw relief that echoed his. It meant so much to them for Charlotte to accept their changes, their women. So hard to ask of someone so sad and lonely, despite having two men who loved her.
But theirs wasn’t the love Charlotte needed to move on. She needed toe-curling, heart pounding, life-affirming love, the kind you’d ride a bull for or leap from a plane for or… He had no clue what Charlotte would do to catch a man’s eye, but that was the kind of love she needed to make her forget her plans for suicidal missions and her need to die.
Jake made a vow to find someone for Charlotte to love. Chase wouldn’t like that, being the possessive one, but Jake liked the idea enough to decide that Charlotte needed a hot fuck and some living that had nothing to do with work and motherfuckers.
Charlotte glanced up at Chase. “Tell me you’ll feed me. I’m starving.”
“I don’t have enough food to feed a starving dragon queen.” Chase sighed, and they untangled themselves from their embrace. He methodically began cleaning up bullet casings, making everything neat again. “What did you do with Steve?”
“He went to that club of yours,” she said with deep distaste, taking a box of ammo from Chase. “Tried to get me to join him. Thank fuck he was on the phone and not in person or I would have shot him.”
“Maybe that’s why he tried to lure you downtown on the phone,” Jake observed. He would have to look farther than Steve to satisfy Charlotte’s need for love and affection. “Can’t fault the man for trying.”
“I’ll kill any man who tries,” she vowed. “I have an endgame. Women on an endgame path do not need to be fucked and then cuddled.”
“We just cuddled you,” Chase reminded her softly with a smile.
She glared. “Because I let you. You boys are softer than women, needing cuddling and hugs from me all the time. I put up with it so you’ll shut up and leave me alone.” She huffed. “Maybe it’s good you both have women of your own now. Less hugging I’ll have to put up with.”
Jake sighed, and they headed back to the house. A man befitting of the dragon queen’s love would have to be really strong or borderline insane. But somehow, he’d find her a love of her own. And he prayed she wouldn’t kill the poor guy.
****
Jake, Chase, and Charlotte entered the house through the mud room. Jake was feeling pretty optimistic and couldn’t wait to see how Tia had faired with Kate. The bonding time had been enough to ensure they would eventually have a friendship again, and Charlotte had taken the news of the baby quite well. All would be good if he could convince Tia that Monday didn’t need to change anything.
“Kate?” Chase called as he unloaded his new rifle. “You think they killed each other?”
“I hope they’re in bed,” Jake said as he kicked the dirt from his boots. The thought of both Kate and Tia in bed together was almost too much for him to handle. So beautiful, Kate all blonde, Tia smaller, darker, so exotic. He loved a good fantasy. Girl on girl was even better.
“Perverts.” Charlotte snorted with disgust.
“Kate?” Chase frowned and took a step, and then put his hand to Jake’s chest. He put a finger to his lips and pointed down. A few droplets of blood dotted the white marble tile in the kitchen. Jake’s heart leapt to his throat, hammering at a mile a minute. Blood was never good. Chase reloaded the rifle while Jake and Charlotte pulled and readied their handguns.
On Chase’s nod, they moved. The three systematically entered each room, Jake feeling surreal having to clear his best friend’s home. Maybe they were upstairs, maybe they couldn’t hear… The house was eerily silent, the only noise being Chase’s soft, “clear,” as they finished a room. The number of rooms dwindled, and the panic Jake held at bay grew to a thundering head.
Finally, the last area was the basement, and Chase led the way. They cleared that room, and there was nothing left other than the truth—the women were gone. The blood on the floor didn’t bode well for a shopping trip.
“Fuck,” Chase whispered.
Jake echoed that. “So where do we go from here?”
“Guns. We need guns.” Chase strode to the room in the finished basement he used to store his gun collection and unlocked it with a code on a keypad. Charlotte and Jake followed through the door Chase had opened, and Jake scanned the small room. Guns of all types lined the walls, some on racks, others in cases on shelves. Rifles, pistols, some antique, some new. All deadly.
“We don’t know what we’re up against,” Jake reminded.
“Guns always help.” Chase grabbed the hard case of the shelf that held his modified .308, the rifle he used for accuracy. Sniping off rooftops, at a distance. He opened the case, and sucked in a breath. Jake leaned in—a white envelope sat on top of the gun, lettered LOTS. Chase looked at Jake. “Lord of the Spies.”
“Kate.”
Chase tore it open and read it, then closed his eyes for a moment. Jake had never seen him look more terrified, his face paler than the paper he held.
“Jesus, what did she do?”
Chase handed Jake the letter, and Charlotte read over his shoulder.
I’m so sorry, because if you’re reading this, then I really fucked up. I lied about being tailed. That’s why I rigged the house with surveillance equipment. I also put a GPS chip in the locket you gave me. The program to activate it is loaded into the work laptop—directions in a file labeled GPS. If you can’t understand it, call Steve. He knows about the program. You should be able to find me if he decides to take me hostage. I don’t know who he is, or why he wants me, but it’s the nature of the business, I guess. Game over—he won.
I thought I could handle this. I thought I didn’t need to be under your thumb 24/7. If you’re reading this because I’m gone, then I was definitely wrong.
If you’re reading this because you feel like sniping someone else, then you’re a jerk.
But I love you anyway.
TNT.
“Your woman is fucking crazy,” Charlotte observed, but her tone was more impressed than pissed or afraid.
Jake stared at the letter, then at Chase, who stood statue still. “I’ll get the laptop and call Steve for backup. Charlotte, you run her security footage.”
Charlotte nodded and went to do as ordered.
Chase stared at the gun, his face so emotionless. Jake had never seen him freeze like this before. It was as if he didn’t know what to do, and the man knew more than anyone. Jake slapped him on the back, needing him to start moving the mountains to bring home their women. He didn’t dare let fear in, because his mind would be filled with all of the horrible things men did to pretty girl spies. And his women weren’t suffering that, not on his watch.
“We’ll get them back, Chase. She fucked up, but at least she was smart enough to cover her ass. She left you enough to find her.”
“They could be dead already.”
“You have to believe that Kate knows her stuff. Tia is smart, she’s cunning, and she has a lot of experience under her belt. She’ll keep Kate out of trouble if she can, for the sake of the baby if nothing else.”
Jake realized with a start that he liked that about Tia—he didn’t have that driving need to protect her, like he did Kate. Sexually, yes. But not here, in a work capacity. And though a part of him thought it was wrong not to want to protect the woman he loved, a part of him said it was just right. He was scared as hell for both of them, terrified he would lose Tia, that he’d never see her again, hold her again. But his girl was a scrapper. She didn’t get this far in life with a set of wimpy balls. And he wouldn’t have her any other way.
If she did die, his only regret would be that she never believed that he loved her.