Cold Pursuit (Cold Justice) (Volume 2) (21 page)

“Like the idea of you bringing a woman home won’t have everyone abuzz?” The older man snorted. “You going to tell Liam or shall I?”

“I’ll tell him.”

“Angela?”

Who was
Angela
, she wondered. She took a sip of the tea and was hit by a wall of sweetness. She took another drink. It tasted good.

“I’ll drop by and see her at some point too.”

“What are the chances of these people figuring out this young lady and her child are here with you?”

Jed pursed his lips, thinking. “Slim, but nothing is impossible.”

“You disable the GPS in the SUV?”

Jed nodded. “In Spooner. Frazer knows where I am, but I trust him. I turned the GPS off on my phone and laptop too. If it is someone in law enforcement and they suspect Vivi and Michael are with me then they will find us, but it will take them time. I don’t intend to make it easy for them.”

Jeremiah wagged his finger at her. “No checking your email or using any online stores for anything through your own name or credit card. If you need anything tell Jed. Or Mary can order it for you. That’s Jed’s mother.”

“He watches a lot of TV.” Jed read her bemused expression and gave her a wink.

The man eyed his son. “There’ll be no keeping your mother out of this, you know that?”

Jed nodded. Sober now. “I figured the easiest way to do this was go with Plan A, my planned visit to see family before Christmas. The fewer people who know about Vivi and Michael the better, but there’ll be some who’ll ask questions. Then we give them the shy girlfriend story.”

“It’s a workable plan as long as you stick to the rules. Your mom and I and Liam aren’t going to give you away.” His gaze rested heavy on Vivi as if she were the weak link.

“These people are trying to murder my little boy.” She leaned forward, unable to subdue the fierceness in her voice. “There’s nothing I won’t do to keep him safe. That includes lying to people, hiding out from the world and avoiding online
shopping
. Nothing matters except Michael.”

“You matter,” Jed interrupted quietly.

She shook her head and placed her empty mug on a coaster on the oak side table. “You protect Michael, don’t worry about me. If anything happened to him…”

Jed’s dad’s face filled with empathy and he patted her hand. “Nothing’s going to happen to either of you. You’ve come to the right place. We may be quaint and a little rustic up here in the Northwoods, but we know how to protect what’s ours.”

She’d gone from murder suspect to acceptance in five short minutes. “I don’t know how to thank you, Mr. Brennan. Most people would run screaming in the other direction.”

He pushed himself to his feet. “My family aren’t most people, Miss Vincent, I raised ’em better than that. And thank me by looking after that boy of yours. I bet he’s a live wire when he’s awake.”

“He sure is.” Aside from the fact he didn’t speak. That conversation was for another day. Maybe tomorrow she could get Michael drawing and he’d give the feds the information they needed to catch the bad guys and then it’d be safe for them to go home.

“I better get back to your mother. Oh, the breaker keeps tripping, I need to pick up a different fuse.” Jeremiah said to Jed who nodded. Then Jed’s father got up and pulled his boots and jacket back on. “Keep the shotgun. It’s loaded. I’ll bring by more stuff tomorrow.”

“Won’t he need that?” Vivi asked, but the man had already disappeared into the darkness. Jed closed the door on the still falling snow.

“Trust me, he has others.” Jed went over and placed the gun in the tall cupboard beside the door. Then he locked it and slid the key onto the top of the door jamb.

She went to the window and edged the blind aside. Snow was falling in large, heavy flakes, surrounding them, cutting them off from the world. She just wanted to disappear. To stay here forever and never have to worry about anyone trying to hurt her baby. “You learned to shoot before you learned to walk, didn’t you?”

“Pretty much.” He faced her. “I’d like to teach you and Michael, starting tomorrow.”

A shiver ran over her flesh. The idea of her sweet little boy firing a weapon… “I hate guns.”

“I understand that, but there’s a good chance Michael’s going to be exposed to guns, one way or another over the next little while. How about we start with some safety lessons and maybe a little bit of empowerment. If ever a kid deserved it, it’s Michael.”

She thought of all the times David had tried to get her on the gun range. This was different. This was pure survival, which in many ways made it worse. The idea of taking a human life was abhorrent, but the idea of someone executing her baby because she was too dumb or idealistic to pick up a firearm was worse. She drew in a breath and agreed to something that just a few days ago would have been unimaginable. “I’d appreciate that. Thank you.”

Dark brown eyes swept over her, glancing over her lips. A shiver of awareness uncurled low in her belly because despite everything that was going on she was still very much aware of him as a man. A very attractive man. And the heat she spotted in his gaze whenever he didn’t carefully shut it down told her he thought she was attractive too. Talk about bad timing.

“You look dead on your feet.” He winced at his choice of words, but carried on. “You take the master bedroom upstairs. I’ll take the other room downstairs.”

That stopped her short. “But I-I assumed I’d sleep with Michael.” The stutter pissed her off. She thought she’d lost it back in high school.

Those dark eyes watched her solemnly. “Do you sleep with him at home?”

She shook her head. “No, but—”

“How about we try getting him back into a place of routine. You said that’s what he needed. Why not start right now?”

“But this is a strange place, and after what happened…”

“Michael’s been through hell, but he’s smart, tough and resilient. Give him the chance to prove that.” He caught her by the upper arms, and she remembered how he’d kissed her when he’d found her alive in the trunk of that car. A ping of awareness shot along every nerve.

She thought of all the ways David would have tried to convince her to do the same thing. That she was smothering Michael, ruining him, turning him into a mommy’s boy that all the other kids would tease. All this guy did was use a little of her own logic and some natural compassion.

She needed to stop thinking about her ex and start living in the here-and-now.

Jed’s eyes softened, as if he knew he’d won. “I’ll hear him if he wakes and I want to be on the main floor in case of trouble. There are only two bedrooms down here so you get the luxury suite upstairs—you look like you need it.”

She wasn’t insulted. She was so tired she literally swayed on her feet as if she had a bad case of vertigo.

“I’ll make sure he’s OK and come get you if he needs anything.”

After everything that had happened it was odd that Jed’s kindness and understanding pushed her over the edge and almost brought tears to her eyes.

“OK.” She was too exhausted to argue. “I’ll check on him first and leave both doors ajar in case he wakes.”

He nodded.

Without planning to, she smoothed a hand over his jaw. He stilled and she froze. His dark eyes were hooded and impossible to read as she stretched up on tiptoes and kissed him quickly on the cheek. She liked the feel of the subtle scrape of stubble beneath her lips. “Thank you for everything.”

He held her still, his gaze intent on her lips. Sexual awareness swirled between them, made her breath catch as arousal stirred low and hot in her belly. The air around them crackled, and she shivered as she stared up into his face, mesmerized.

Jed slanted his mouth over hers like he had to taste her—just the way he had when he’d found them at the safe house. It was an open-mouthed, full-on assault and she willingly met him halfway. Her tongue tangled with his in a silky slick slide, the taste of him hot and very, very male. Something inside her ignited with long forgotten need. She tried to move closer but he tore his mouth away, eyes glittering.

They were both breathing heavily, chests pumping. Wood popped in the fire, breaking the spell.

He let go of her and stepped away. “That was a mistake. I shouldn’t have done it.” He ran a hand through his short hair. “I’m sorry. Get some rest. I promise I’ll call you if Michael needs you.”

She nodded, more than a little shell-shocked by what had just happened. That she’d kissed a man when her son’s life was in danger made self-disgust rise up inside her. She backed away, wishing things were different. Wishing she’d never met Jed, or that he’d never reminded her that there had once been another part to her life, something that involved naked skin and the hard thrust of pleasure.

That pleasure had once given her a precious child, but it had also ripped her heart to shreds.

“I’m sorry too.” She was such a fool. She needed to remind herself Jed was here because of his job, not because they were involved, or he was attracted.

Jed needed the information Michael might know, and the best way of finding it out was by keeping them safe and becoming an integral part of Michael’s life. She needed to regroup when it came to Jed Brennan. Keep him at arm’s length, not just physically but mentally too. No matter how tempting the man was, this wasn’t some romantic getaway or excuse for a quickie to sate a few basic, human needs. It was a race for survival and Michael was the prize.

***

Until Vivi kissed him, Jed had managed to put out of his mind the fact he’d laid one on her when he’d found her in the trunk of that car. When her lips had connected with his cheek, the memory had exploded into his mind and he’d had to kiss her again—the need no doubt heightened by the life and death adrenaline rushes of the last few days. There was no other reason it had felt that incredible.

Now he couldn’t get the taste of her out of his mind. He wanted to follow her up the stairs and press her into the mattress and kiss her all night long. Everywhere.

He paced the floor in front of the fire.

Not how he usually responded to witnesses.

Especially not single moms with issues and responsibilities—not to mention on the run from terrorists. What the hell was he thinking, taking advantage like that?

Since losing Mia in Afghanistan he’d avoided getting in too deep on the relationship front. He kept things light, reserved his focus and commitment to solving the murders that crossed his desk in an unending stream of violence. Every time he put a killer away it was as if he was scoring a victory for the young soldier he’d loved and lost to another monster. But Vivi called to that part of him that he’d been denying for almost a decade. The timing sucked. The situation sucked. And he couldn’t afford to fuck it all up just for a few hours of physical relief that would turn into mental anguish and self-recrimination as soon as their skin cooled.

He blew out a long breath. The visual of Vivi naked, in the throes of passion, got his blood pumping a little too enthusiastically through his veins. She deserved more than a quick fuck, but that was all he had in him, and he couldn’t afford to get involved again.

So stop thinking about her, asshole.

He poured himself a stiff drink and put another log in the wood stove. Opened his laptop and checked his email. Fifty-seven new messages.
Hell
. You’d think he’d been gone for two days rather than a few hours. He replied to his boss who told him there was no news on Vivi or Michael, so to turn the computer off and take a break.

Sure.

A thread of guilt wove along his nerves. Should he tell Frazer?

Despite the fact that his boss had benched him, he still considered the man a friend. The guy was dedicated and smart and took his job very seriously.

He could trust him.

So why didn’t he confide in the man?

He knew why.

The best way for Vivi and Michael to stay alive was to tell no one, not even his boss. Not a soul outside his parents and twin brother who were helping him here on the ground.

One basic tenet of human behavior was that reactions and actions changed according to what someone knew. Jed used this knowledge on a daily basis and so did Frazer. That’s how they caught a lot of criminals. Hopefully it was how they’d catch these terrorist assholes. He emailed his boss asking if any progress had been made as to how the bad guys had tracked down the safe house. Frazer emailed back immediately that they were still looking into it, although they’d checked surveillance images from the parking lot where Hinkle kept his car and various traffic cams. No sign of a tail.

Jed thought about how he’d do it if he didn’t want to be seen. The bad guys could have put a tracking device on Hinkle’s car…

A second email appeared:
No tracking device found on Hinkle’s car although they could have removed it before they started shooting.

Jed grinned. They were usually on the same wavelength. Then he emailed back and asked if there was any evidence of a leak.

I have Alex Parker consulting with us on it
, Frazer replied.

Alex Parker co-owned a private cyber-security firm with a first-rate reputation in DC. He was also the boyfriend of the newest member of BAU-4, Special Agent Mallory Rooney. Jed figured he was about to find out if Parker was as good as his reputation suggested. He’d take all the help he could get.

Another email popped up in his inbox. Killion.
No sign of Vivi or Michael yet.

He emailed the guy back.
What did you get out of the interrogations today?

Jed’s cell rang. He sighed. Killion. He didn’t really want to answer, but he didn’t want this guy’s spidey senses tingling either. Given who and what Killion did, he could probably find him easily. Plus, Jed wanted information.

“Brennan.”

“You missing me yet?” asked Killion.

“I hate to break it to you, but you’re not my type.”

“I think your type has long red hair and a sharp tongue.”

Jed waited a shocked beat and choked out, “That’s a little insensitive even for you.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think she or the boy are dead. I think they got away and are hiding somewhere.”