Beck & Call (32 page)

Jake snorted. “I guess he doesn’t believe peons like us have friends there too.”

“He claims Genbolt is too important to national security for the administration to allow it to go under.”

“Which he’s convinced it would do with him in jail.”

Sawyer rubbed his jaw. “It would cause a damn big scandal.”

“He committed corporate espionage! And kidnapped a citizen! We caught him red-handed.”

“He’s donated a lot of money to politicians over the years. You and I both know red hands wash clean sometimes.”

“Fuck,” Jake said, but not like he disagreed.

“I’m just saying if we don’t finesse the situation, it might get away from us.”

“Fine,” Jake said. “Arrange what you can with the folks you know. We’ll go along with the story they want to spin.”

Sawyer threw a glance over his shoulder. Damien stood alone in a square of sun, holding up what Mia assumed was the plan she’d drawn. He appeared to be studying it. “What about the billionaire? Those two have a couple buckets of bad blood between them. Electric car boy might push for a public trial.”

Jake’s expression was hard to read. “Electric car boy is a free agent. I don’t control him. Your friends might not be able to either. WorldWide is a power in its own right. On the other hand, if they’re willing to include him in the negotiation, he’ll make sure Raeburn doesn’t get off easy. One more thing—”

Sawyer turned quizzical.

Jake’s arm tightened around her waist. The tension in his muscles made the limb feel like steel. “When you find out which of them hit Mia …”

“Oh yes,” his friend concurred with an air of relish. “I’ll take care of that precisely
.
You just take care of her.”

Whatever he meant by
precisely
, Jake seemed satisfied Sawyer would handle it.

~

As he stood in the block of sun surveying the plan Mia had reproduced, Damien was sharply aware of her. He’d watched her boss rush to check on her earlier, and had monitored every jerk of Jake’s hand as he cut her free of the chair. The sight of her battered face had shocked him, the idea that anyone could strike her. Still, he hadn’t gone to her himself. Apart from doing his bit to help, Mia wasn’t his business.

Considering how she’d used him, she wasn’t his anything.

Somewhere behind him, Curtis and Sawyer’s man were patching up Ms. DeWinter. Damien had zero desire to check on her. Thankfully, she wasn’t trying to speak to him. Addled though she was, she seemed to realize she’d gone too far by colluding with Raeburn and trying to shoot Mia.

Damien shook the paper he held at arm’s length straighter. His memory of his former employee turning toward Mia with the gun made his stomach turn over. It would have been his fault if she’d succeeded. He’d seen the signs that the secretary was unbalanced. Jake had even warned him not firing her right away would bite him in the ass. Damien owed Sawyer’s man a debt for taking her out of action and sparing him that burden. If Mia had been seriously hurt …

He frowned. He’d allowed his thoughts to stray again. He forced his attention back to the large sheet he held. The variations in Mia’s copy perplexed him. Half of it was incredibly exact, down to the smallest line. The rest was … off, but not in a random way. She seemed to have substituted bits and pieces of other tech into the design. Though they almost made sense, they wouldn’t have held up under scrutiny.

He didn’t understand why she’d done it. Why not give Raeburn what he wanted? Why risk being injured worse than she already was? Why would someone who’d done what she and Jake had care if Raeburn got his way?

He dropped his arms, his gaze traveling to her in spite of his resolve. Jake and Sawyer were too far away to hear, but they were speaking seriously. Jake held Mia to his side as if she were an irremovable extension of himself. She leaned into him the same way, her arms hugging him. Had Damien really shared his bed with both? Had he truly touched and been touched by them? That reality seemed distant.

Then Mia looked at him.

Damien felt his face stiffen. He couldn’t trust her. No matter how much pleasure they’d exchanged, he’d simply been a mark for the two of them. If he kept reminding himself of that, eventually the necessary barriers between him and the hurt would solidify. He’d get through this. He always made his life what he needed it to be.

Mia turned away. Jake was speaking to her, gentle fingers rising to her bruised and uplifted face. He skimmed the tips around her injuries.

His tenderness caused a complicated ache to settle deep inside Damien’s chest.

JAKE
had new reasons to be glad he’d called his old buddy. Among his many connections, Sawyer knew paramedics at a private ambulance company. He called them to the paper mill to treat their casualties. Ms. DeWinter needed to go to a hospital, but Mia was okay with bandaging and a few stitches. The female paramedic supplied her with an ice pack for her eye and an appointment to check her in a few days.

Mysteriously, Raeburn’s underlings now had injuries exactly where Mia’s were. Sawyer was very good at
precise
. Jake reminded himself to send his friend a bottle of Stolichnaya.

Since Mia was steadier on her feet, Jake simply opened the rear door to Sawyer’s truck and handed her inside. Curtis slid in the other side. Sawyer would drive, of course, while his still nameless man rode shotgun.

Damien had informed Sawyer his helicopter pilot would pick him up.

Mia hadn’t commented, but Jake knew Damien’s refusal to ride with them bothered her.

“Whew,” Curtis said, pulling his door shut. “Let’s not have another day like that for a year or ten.” He smoothed Mia’s hair behind her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re okay, kid. Your brother would haunt me if I let you get hurt.”

Even with all she’d been through, Mia wanted to comfort him. “Never happen,” she said. “Not with you and so many other heroes to protect me.”

Curtis smiled and gave her thigh a pat. “Does this mean you’ll come back to the office? You know, in a couple days?”

“Of course! But, uh, maybe I’ll stick to getting coffee and computer work for a bit.”

“I’m sorry for getting you into this.”

“You didn’t,” Mia said. “I got myself. And I’m not sorry—despite appearances. Parts of it were a great adventure.”

Her voice had roughened. Jake knew she was thinking about the
adventure
they’d shared with Damien and that she’d miss it. He couldn’t stop himself. No matter what the gesture said about his feelings, he took her hand and held it. “You did good today. You used your wits and hung tough until we could get to you.”

Mia tipped her head back on the seat and closed her eyes. “I knew you’d come. You’re too smart not to have found a way.”

When her thumb rubbed his knuckles, the motion was too soothing to relinquish. She wasn’t hiding it. Curtis could see plainly, despite which neither of them let go for the rest of the ride home.

~

“I’m not sleeping on your couch tonight.”

Jake appeared at her bedroom door for this announcement, wearing only jeans and holding the extra pillow from her sofa. Mia had cleaned up, popped a pain pill, and put on her comfiest pajamas—a pale yellow pair with silhouettes of kittens. They were silly, but they made her feel like herself again. She was looking forward to zonking out.

Jake’s continued presence had everything to do with her being calm enough for that. She turned to him as she scooted backwards on the mattress to sit against the headboard. Jake’s stubborn expression—like he expected her to argue—secretly amused her. “I didn’t want you to sleep there last night.”

“You didn’t?”

“No.” Since they were having this out, she screwed up her nerve. “It made me feel like you were pushing me away. Like we were over because the job was done.”

Jake took a step into the room. “I should push you away, but I don’t think I can.”

“Well, if I get a vote, I don’t want you to.” She clutched the covers to her waist. “I don’t want us to be just friends. I want us to be lovers.”

However she expected him to respond, it wasn’t that his worry would increase. He rubbed the furrow between his brows. “I want that too. Except … Mia, I’m not always an easy person. I know I joke, but there’s a lot inside me that’s dark.”

“From the work you used to do with men like Sawyer.”

“Some of it comes from that. I lied to a lot of people in my previous line of work. And committed more acts of violence than I care to think about. Whatever reasons you do that, it changes you. Truthfully, though, I was born with a dark streak. I couldn’t have been a good operative otherwise. From the start, I didn’t want to drag a nice girl like you down with me.”

Mia’s throat constricted. That’s what he thought? That knowing an incredible man like him could ever drag her down?

“Everyone’s born with a weight or two. I’m certainly not all sunshine and rainbows.”

“Aren’t you?”

“Not even close! Not when Mike was my parents’ favorite. Not when this memory thing turned me extra weird. All through school until I went away to college, I was the girl even freaks didn’t want to be friends with.”

“This was
after
your brother helped you control your compulsions?”

“Yes. My cooties just didn’t wash off for some people.”

“I didn’t—” He stared at her. “I wish I’d understood that before.”

“It’s not your fault you didn’t. I don’t like people thinking I’m pitiful. My point is …” She hesitated. “I suspect Damien gets what I went through better than you do. Maybe I’m wrong about that. Maybe I’ve underestimated how much you understand. I guess you felt different when you were younger too.”

Jake didn’t seem offended. He sat on the edge of her bed. “I was different in different ways. That doesn’t change the fact that you’re still a kid compared to me.”

“I’m not a kid, just not as experienced as you.” Mia took his hand and held it. She wanted to be sure she got through to him. “Please tell me you’ll give us a chance to work.”

He pulled her wrist to him where his chest was hard and his skin was warm. His second hand stroked her forearm to her elbow. Though his gaze held hers as if he were taking her seriously, he didn’t answer her directly.

“Damien really came through today,” he said. “None of us wanted him along. We were afraid to risk two high profile CEO’s getting killed. But he’s a stubborn SOB. He contacted Zoe Raeburn to find out where her father had taken you.”

“And she told him?” Mia was genuinely surprised. She shook her head. “I bet she asked for some tit for tat in return.”

“Damien didn’t say, but I expect he’d have given her anything she wanted.”

Something in Jake’s tone made Mia tilt her head. “What are you getting at?”

Jake chafed her arm. “What I’m getting at is I know you wish he’d done more than just come through in a pinch today. I know you’d like to stay lovers with him too.”

She looked at him. They were having everything out, she guessed. “Is that wrong?”

His gaze dropped to where his hand curved around her skin. “It’s not wrong.”

He didn’t sound completely sure. “Do you …” She thought how to phrase it then decided he’d done fine. “Do you wish you could stay lovers with him too?”

He shook his head, but it wasn’t quite a
no
. “I never expected to feel what I do for you. I figured if I’d ever had the capacity in me, it was long gone.”

“What do you feel for me?” she asked softly.

“I love you,” he said straight into her eyes. “I’d been thinking I might, but when I almost lost you today, I knew. I’d never felt that panicked and miserable in my life.”

Mia started laughing then pressed a hand to her mouth. “Sorry. I’ve never been happy to make someone miserable before. I love you too, Jake. I have for a while, I think.”

“Good.” He smiled warmly back at her. “I’d hate to be miserable alone. Which still leaves the question of Damien.”

She supposed it did. Looking back, maybe he’d seen what was between her and Jake from the beginning.

“I feel something for him,” she said, seeing he wanted an honest answer. “It hurt when he threw us out, but how can I be sure it’s love? Everything developed so fast between the three of us.”

“But it didn’t feel pretend.”

“No. It didn’t feel pretend.”

Jake had one jean-clad leg bent up on the mattress. She dropped her hand to his calf and rubbed. He seemed temporarily lost in thought.

“Falling in love with even one person seems lucky to me,” she said.

“I hope it is,” he answered absently.

This time she laughed openly.

“I
do
hope it is,” he repeated.

“Because you’re such
awful
boyfriend material, being so capable and sexy and taking me on adventures and rescuing me when I need it.”

“I didn’t rescue you by myself.”

She clasped his face between her hands. “I love you, Jake, even if you’re defective.”

“Sheesh,” he said, rolling his eyes at her.

“I’m sleeping now,” she announced. “Do you want to be the superior spoon or shall I?”

“Fuck,” he said through his laughter.

“That was a real question.”

“Fine,” he said. “I want to be the superior spoon.”

She wriggled down and let him, loving how he tucked her safely into his warm body. His arm held her loosely to him, his heartbeat steady against her back. A happiness she’d never known rolled in waves over her. Jake loved her, and she loved him. It was amazing and miraculous. He sighed behind her, gradually letting his tension go. His chin rubbed her hair as his breathing slowed.

The moment felt utterly sumptuous.

“What
are
these pajamas?” he asked after a minute.

Oh he could make her grin.

“They’re my favorites,” she said, hugging his arm tighter. “So don’t insult them. They’re perfect for catnaps.” He snorted and she waited a heartbeat. “Jake?”

“Yes, beautiful?”

“You’re a good snuggler. If I weren’t so exhausted, I’d totally be taking advantage.”

He kissed her hair. “Good to know,” he said.

~