A Little Harmless Rumor (9 page)

“But, wait, if Letov wanted to draw you in with Emma, it seems his plan failed,” Randy said. “You didn’t even know you had a sister.”

“No. And that didn’t make sense until Lassiter and I worked it out.”

Emma snorted.

Sean smiled. “Okay, Emma really made us work it out. If he had said he held my sister, I wouldn’t have believed him. I knew my mother didn’t have any other children. I also thought my father died.”

“You would have assumed it was a trap,” Randy said. “At that point, he had to come up with another plan.”

Sean nodded. “Yes. He used one of his identities and hired Lassiter and requested me.”

“And that isn’t odd?” Del asked.

Emma frowned and opened her mouth, but Sean stopped her.

“Not really. I’m well known in that area of the world; plus, I have connections. He also offered a shit load of money.”

“Just like the Philippines,” Randy murmured.

Sean nodded.

“I’m still confused. What was the plan if he trapped you? And why didn’t he trap you?”

“The plan was for me to watch whatever he had planned for Emma. Knowing his penchant for torture, it would have been bad. To answer the other question, I arrived a day early so he wasn’t ready. Or, I should say, his men weren’t ready.”

“So it failed miserably,” Jaime said.

“In a way, but the man is clever and just came up with another plan,” Emma said.

“You don’t have to make it sound like you admire the man,” Sean said.

She shrugged. “Listen, to spend years doing this, he has to be pretty smart.”

Del gave her a strange look, but Emma didn’t notice.

“Okay, now we have to figure out where he is and if he is coming here,” Sean said.

Emma shook her head. “There’s no figuring it out, Sean.”

“You said that he was smart. Smart people don’t let their emotions rule,” Del said.

“They do when they have nothing left inside them to continue on. His whole life these last few years were about making Sean pay.” She looked at Sean. “Are we going to force his hand, or what?”

Sean gave his sister a sharp look. “What do you have?”

Emma drew in a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. Randy got the idea that she was trying to gird her loins. “He’s here. On the island. I picked it up right before Delano showed up.”

Cold fear slithered down Randy’s spine. “
Fuck
.”

“No,” Emma said. “This is what we wanted. Letov never leaves Croatia. He hides there for the most part. The fact that he’s here means he’s restless. He made a mistake coming to Sean’s home.”

“And he will do something stupid,” Sean said. “It’s what we have wanted all along.”

“Right, then, what’s the plan?” Jaime asked.

Randy looked at Sean and understood immediately what he had planned on doing. His heart sank, and he understood why Sean wouldn’t discuss the future yet. He had a plan that might make that impossible.

“Now it’s time I get used as bait.”

J
aime’s heart
seemed to stop beating the moment Sean said those words. Pain reverberated from her chest, and spots appeared before her eyes. The room started to spin as she blinked, trying to control the onslaught of fear that pummeled at her. She realized she was holding her breath. It took tremendous effort on her part, but she finally gulped in air. Randy must have sensed her distress because he trailed his fingers down her spine. Usually, that gave her support, let her know that everything was going to be okay. This time, she knew Randy would side with Sean. And Sean, well, he had lost his bloody fucking mind.

“What the bloody hell are you talking about?”

Sean shared a glance with his sister, which ticked her off even more. This woman wasn’t a romantic rival, but they had a connection Jaime could not deny. And she was left out of it. He had kept that bit of information from her—just like he always did. There was part of her that understood why he did it, but her heart didn’t want to be reasonable. It wanted to shout and scream. Instead, she curled her fingers into her palms.

“If the bastard is here, the best way to pull him out of hiding is to give him a target. Me.”

“It should be easy enough for him to find you,” Randy said. “Why wouldn’t he just come after you here?”

Sean shrugged. “He might, but I have a feeling that’s too easy for him.”

“He would never do that. It would be a last resort,” Emma said.

Jaime scowled at the younger woman, who just smiled back at her. “Is that a fact?”

If she caught the sarcasm, Emma never let on. “Yes. Letov is seriously insane, but the one thing that has been driving him the last few years was paying Sean back. He will not show his hand if he doesn’t have a need to. Using Sean as bait is the best way to get him to do that. He will be watching his every move. Coming here would be dangerous. This is Sean’s territory.”

“Why do you think that?” Randy asked as he slipped a hand down her spine again. Emma followed the action then looked at Sean. They shared another private look; she turned back to Jaime.

“I think that he would not want to come here. It’s Sean home base. Plus, it isn’t good for us to sit around. We have been doing that too long. It doesn’t bother me, but it is driving Sean into doing stupid things.”

There was no doubting from the tone in her voice the barb had been meant for Jaime and Randy.

“So, you just want to go out and hope he abducts you?” Jaime asked, embarrassed that her voice had risen. Way to show how professional she was.

Sean shook his head. “No, that’s not the plan at all. I take it that Letov knows my habits, knows I’ll end up at Rough ‘n Ready. It would take just a couple of nights before he’d pop up.”

“Absolutely not.”

Sean blinked and confusion filled his gaze. Dammit, he really didn’t understand. After everything they had been through, he was just ready to offer himself up on a platter. Worse, he expected her to just go along with it.

“Jaime, I have it under control.” He had gentled his tone as if he were talking to someone on the edge about to go over, which she was. She had just gotten him back, and now he expected her to give him up. “We’ll go in with mics, and I’ll have a GPS tracker on.”

Emma took over for her brother, but she didn’t even try to soften her voice. “I will take care of all that. We’ve been thinking the man would show up here for months. Now we can back him in the corner, and we can all go back to our normal lives.”

“I will not allow it,” Jaime said before she could stop herself.

She could not seem to get her emotions back under control. Everyone stilled and looked at her. Jaime could feel every bit of her control snapping under the pressure. A man who had tried to kill both of them before was hell bent on killing Sean. The idea of dangling him like a big, juicy piece of meat for Letov to come eat was not acceptable.

“Babe, it’s the only way to do it,” Randy said. He didn’t look any happier with the situation than she was, but he was going along with it just like Jaime had thought.

“There has to be a different way,” she said. Jaime knew she was grasping at straws, but she didn’t give a bloody damn.

Sean went to her and took her hand. “There isn’t.”

“You could just go into hiding.”

Even she could hear the desperation in her voice, but she didn’t care. She
was
desperate. Jaime knew she wasn't being rational. She didn’t give a bloody damn.

“That won’t help the situation.”

She yanked her hand away from him, and took a step back. “No.”

He looked at Randy and motioned with his head.

“Hey, why don’t we go get you something to eat?” Randy asked.

“Because I’m not hungry,” Emma said. Jaime turned to say something terribly nasty, but she realized Sean’s sister wasn’t being an ass. She looked genuinely confused by the suggestion.

“Come on, Taylor,” Del said. “Your brother and Jaime need to talk.”

She looked at Randy and shook her head. “I never understand why people just don’t say what they mean.”

Randy tossed them a smile as he followed Del and Emma as they bickered their way into another area of the house.

“Do you want to tell me what this is about?” Sean asked.

She couldn’t compose words in her head yet. Right now she just wanted to find a gun and shoot him for being so damned oblivious. Which, she knew made her sound mental, but she didn’t give a damn.

“You don’t understand why I am mad?”

He studied her for a second. “I get that you don’t want to take a chance on a dangerous situation.”

“On a dangerous situation?”

Oh, bloody hell, when had her voice gotten so high and squeaky? She sounded like an outraged fishwife.

“Yeah, but I’m the one in the crosshairs, so you don’t have to worry.”

She opened her mouth then snapped it shut. His mouth curved, which turned into a chuckle.

“As I live and breathe, Jaime Alexander is speechless.”

She shook her head. “Don’t joke. Not about this. I can’t lose you, Sean. The idea that I almost lost you and had no idea is enough to freeze my blood. I just got you back.
We
just got you back. Now you want to run out there…”

She couldn’t continue. Tears burned the backs of her eyes as she looked away.

“Hey, Jaime,” he said, his voice gentle and he took her hand again. “Look at me.”

She did as he asked, just as the first tear escaped. “I know you think I am some kind of Amazon, but I am not. I can’t deal with this.”

He wiped her tears away. “You can deal with it. The three of us can accomplish anything.”

She shook her head. “Don’t play it down.”

“You will be there. Del will be on board, and you don’t know this about Emma, but she’s a genius, truly. IQ and everything to go with it. Her specialty is codes and plans. So, with you and Randy, plus Del and Emma on backup, we can do this.”

She tried to yank away from him, but he kept her close and cupped her face with both hands.

“We
have
to do this. I want a life with you and with Randy. We can’t do that with this bastard controlling our every thought. If we don’t take a stand right now, there will be a shadow over us. We will never be free.”

She couldn’t fault his reasoning, but she wasn’t truly rational at the moment.

“New identities, with new backstory. We could start over.”

He shook his head. “I will not hide behind a false name. We deserve to live a free life. You deserve it.”

She couldn’t help the fresh rush of tears. “Damn.”

His mouth curved. “No. I like seeing you like this.”

“You like me miserable?”

He shook his head. “No. Human. Touchable.”

He leaned down and brushed his mouth over hers.

She sighed and leaned closer to deepen the kiss. He did, slipping his tongue between her lips. When he pulled back, she slowly opened her eyes.

“I love you, Jaime.”

She heard a noise behind Sean. He turned and Randy was standing there. Sean gave her one last squeeze before he walked to Randy. Without hesitation, he cupped Randy’s face the same way, then kissed him.

When he pulled back, he said, “I love you, too, Randy. But now, we have to get rid of this bastard so we can get on with our lives. I need your help.” He looked back at Jaime. “Both of you. It could be all done in just a few days, and then we can talk about where we go from here.”

Randy glanced back at her. “Jaime?”

She wanted to say no, but she knew no matter what she said, Sean would go ahead with his plan. There was no way to make him change his mind. If Randy and she were there, they could at least keep him safe.

She nodded and walked to them. She kissed first Sean then Randy.

“But, after this, I get a
real
vacation.”

“
I
didn’t expect
Jaime to freak out like that,” Emma said once they were alone. She had asked to talk to him privately, and Sean had learned to pay attention when she requested something. She didn’t do it that often.

“Why do you say that?”

“You talk about her like she’s some kind of tough woman.”

“She is.”

“It’s only logical that you are the bait. Letov feels that you are the reason his son is dead.”

“He
is
dead because of me.”

“One could argue that it is
his
fault. That you ended up killing his son because he was hell bent on revenge. “

“I guess you could.”

“Maybe he feels guilty, and he’s acting out going after you because he knows at the heart of it, that he had his son killed.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in analysis.”

“I don’t. I think it is as plausible as voodoo, but other people do.” She shrugged. “I thought it would make you feel better.”

He smiled, then it faded. He studied her for a long moment. She’d been spending too much time indoors and her insomnia was back. “What’s up? You’re not sleeping.”

She sighed and walked to the window. “I’m having the dreams again.”

He couldn’t imagine surviving what she did at the age of fifteen. Saying she lost her parents in a Tsunami just didn’t cover what she had been through. “You should talk to someone about them.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m talking about it to you.”

“I know you don’t believe in therapy.”

“Doesn’t work.”

It was his turn to sigh. “You could get some sleeping pills.”

She shook her head. “I’ve tried them before. The nightmare just continues.”

He didn’t know what to say about that. So much about her was foreign to him. She wasn’t that big. She looked like her mother from the pictures she had shown him. Petite, with short black hair, and those green eyes. Many people made a mistake when they discounted her. But living on the streets for months after the Tsunami had toughened her up. And he regretted that. Fifteen-year-old girls should be plotting fun with their friends, and not wandering the desolate landscape left after the disaster. He wished he could have been there to protect her. Therefore, he did the one thing he knew his mother would have done. He walked to her and slid his arm over her shoulder and stood beside her.

“Del was saying that he has a friend I can stay with.”

“He does?”

She nodded. “Cat. Says she works for him.”

“Oh, yeah, Cat.” He thought of the best sharp shooter of the Task Force. She was a no nonsense law woman, who would be able to protect anyone. “She would definitely be able to protect you.”

“You seem to think I need protecting. I don’t understand why.”

She seemed so tough, and she was, but he couldn’t help the need he felt to protect her. It was stamped into his DNA.

“It’s what big brothers do.”

She nodded. “We need to end this now.”

“Tomorrow night Randy, Jaime, and I will go to Rough ‘n Ready, do everything to call attention to me. Letov won’t be able to resist.”

She nodded. “Make sure they watch your six.”

He smiled as he kissed the top of her head. Emma was completely infatuated with NCIS. “I will.”

She leaned closer and relished the moment. They had so few of them, and this would be one he remembered forever. They stood there in silence and watched the lights shimmer in the pool. They definitely needed to end it so that all of them could have more moments like this to remember.