Fatal Courage: Shadow Force International, Book 3 (Shadow Force International Romantic Suspense Series) (21 page)

Ruby, her bare feet finally untwisted, took off for the cat room. “We’re down to four minutes,” she said over her shoulder to Jax as she pushed past Hunter. “Get your ass in gear.”

Jax watched her go, his woody now deflated. Hunter gave him another smirk and a thumbs-up before he disappeared from the doorway. “Zeb’s here, too,” he called.

Jax had never gotten a shower and reeked of sex and sweat. His boss had just seen him naked and standing at full attention. “Hunter,” he yelled.

After a second, Trace’s face appeared once more as he leaned around the frame. “Yeah?”

“How’d Beatrice take it when she found out you were sleeping with Savanna?”

Hunter’s face screwed up like it had before when he’d examined the stuffed mallard. His first assignment had been to protect the woman who’d labeled him a traitor on national television. Somehow the two of them had ended up trading bodily fluids while Hunter had been her bodyguard and now they were engaged. “Not well. I suggest you bend over and kiss your ass goodbye.”

“But you’re still working for her and Petit.”

“I have skills, man. Skills they can’t find anywhere else. You know that.”

“I’m so fucked.”

“Maybe not. Poison and his client are together and he still has a job.”

Miles Duncan and Charlotte Carstons. Jax had helped them bring down a Romanian crime lord and a British agent who’d turned traitor a few months ago. They were also engaged. “Yeah, and Miles doesn’t have superhuman skills,” Jax said, feeling slightly better.

“True, but Beatrice has a soft spot for him because of what happened with his SEAL team. He reminds her of Cal.”

Hunter disappeared again. Jax fisted his hands, rubbed his eyes. He might as well hand over his SFI badge right now.

“Why aren’t you dressed?”

Ruby was back, her clothes mostly dry. She finger-combed her hair, pulling it into a ponytail.

“B’s going to fire me.” Jax found his pants on the floor and yanked them on. “I’m not in a hurry for that.”

“Fire you? Don’t be ridiculous. She’s upset, but we’ll explain things, and it will all work out.”

He thought she was joking, but as he drew on his shirt, he saw she wasn’t. She was serious.

“You don’t know Beatrice,” he said, plopping onto the bed and tugging on a boot.

Ruby made a face at him. “So that’s it? One screw-up and you’re done?”

Quitter
.

It was right there. That ugly voice he hadn’t heard in a while.

Anger fired in his chest. Everything was so fucking messed up. He needed a minute to sort it all out.

“You don’t understand,” he heard himself saying.

Ruby crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re not even going to try to explain things to her?”

Quitter
.

That word. What his dad had called him when he’d told the man he was leaving med school.

The awful burn of anger and hurt spread, engulfing his diaphragm, his back, his shoulders. He hoisted the other boot on, stood. “How do you propose we explain this?”

A shrug. A grin. “I’ll tell her it was my idea. I seduced you.”

That grin got him. Her nonchalance. He didn’t want to lose his job with SFI, but hells bells, if he lost that, yet kept Ruby, it was worth it, wasn’t it?

I’m not losing either, goddamn it
. “I’ll take care of the explanation. You stay quiet. Agreed?”

Her grin widened. “I’ll try.”

“Try hard. Please.”

Ruby linked an arm through his. “You’re a good guy, Jaxon Sloan. Beatrice is lucky to have you and I’m guessing she knows it.”

A good guy? Nah.

But one thing he wasn’t was a quitter.

Chapter Fifteen

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______________________________________________________

P
AULA,
T
HE
O
WNER
of the B&B, was nowhere in sight as Ruby took Jax’s hand and they hustled down the stairs.

The man Jax referred to as Hunter stood in front of a set of double doors that led to the sitting room off the foyer. He was tall, leaner than Jax, and had an edge to him Ruby associated with an elite soldier—superb fighter, superior tactical skills. Nothing got by him. Not the slightest detail. Ready to respond to the slightest hint of danger. She remembered his laughter upstairs…it was the only thing that made him seem human.

Hunter’s attention followed them as they made their way across the foyer. He stopped Jax at the door. “Beatrice requested to speak with Agent McKellen first, privately.”

The nerves thrumming through Jax’s body invaded her own. At Hunter’s announcement, he tightened his hold on her hand and bristled even more. “What the hell for?”

“You know she doesn’t share her reasons with me. All I know is that she asked that I send Agent McKellen in first, on her own.”

“Bullshit.”

Jax started to push past Hunter when Hunter put a hand on his bicep. “Don’t, man.”

The two stared at each other, and Ruby felt a spurt of fear. The last thing she needed was for Jax to pick a fight with Beatrice’s bodyguard.

Not that Jax would lose, but…

Hunter was definitely no one to mess with. Someone would get hurt, and Jax would most certainly lose his job if he jacked up Hunter.

Ruby tugged on Jax’s hand, pulling him back. He was still giving Hunter a challenging stare and Ruby touched his face with her hand to bring his attention to her. “Hey. Back off, big guy. It’s okay. I can handle it.”

She’d had her fair share of dressing-down moments with her superiors lately. If Beatrice Reese had an issue with what had just happened upstairs, Ruby wanted to straighten things out. She didn’t want Jax to be in trouble because she’d practically thrown herself at him.

His eyes finally shifted to her face and she smiled, remembering the way she’d felt on top of him. Bending him to her will, making him want her.

“It’s not okay,” he murmured to her. “I take responsibility for…you know.”

His gaze bounced upward, referring to their activities in the bedroom.

One of the doors opened from the inside, and the very pregnant Beatrice Reese herself filled the frame. Her beautiful blue eyes bounced from Jax to Ruby and back to Jax. “The subject is non-negotiable, Jaxon. I will speak to Agent McKellen alone, and then I’ll speak to you.”

Okay, then.

Beatrice moved out of the doorway, apparently certain her orders would be followed. Ruby gave Jax’s hand another squeeze.

He grumbled, then turned her loose. “I’m right here if you need me,” he whispered in her ear before she went in.

She gave him a wink to relieve his worries. At least she hoped it did.

Beatrice was a whole other animal from her bodyguard—intellect-driven, the ultimate strategist, not a hint of humor or of Hunter’s edginess. She was calm, cool, collected.

And annoyed.

“Close the door,” she said as she sat in the room’s window seat and stared outside.

Ruby did as asked, then made her way to stand in front of the woman, taking note that an older man with a bald head and a glint in his eyes stood at attention near the fireplace.

“Hello,” Ruby said, nodding to him.

He nodded back, but didn’t speak.

She turned to Beatrice. “Look, what happened upstairs wasn’t Jax’s…”

Beatrice cut her off. “We won’t speak about what happened between you and my bodyguard upstairs ever again. I don’t want to know any more than I already do.” A tiny shiver of what Ruby figured was revulsion shook Beatrice’s shoulders before her gaze swung to look at Ruby. “Are we clear?”

No arguing. Got it.
Ruby simply nodded. She didn’t want to discuss it either.

Beatrice motioned at a nearby chair. “Have a seat.”

Ruby did as instructed, biting her lip to keep from blurting out something inane about the weather or the collection of antique spindles Paula had lining the fireplace mantel. The man there was no longer watching her, reading something on his phone.

She’d been trained to never volunteer information or make small talk unless it was part of her cover, but for the life of her, she wanted to say something that would break the ice between her and Jax’s boss.

What exactly that would be was beyond her. Words slipped out of her mouth anyway. “Jaxon saved my life during the tornado. I’m lucky to be here, and you should commend him for his service.”

One perfectly groomed brow arched at her as if asking whether Ruby really thought she should tell Beatrice what to do. “Describe Elliot Hayden and your relationship with him.”

Beatrice obviously wasn’t one for small talk, either. Ruby cleared her throat, shifted slightly in her seat. “He was my partner for five years. Since the CIA hired Jax to recover him, I assume they filled you in on the rest.”

“I would prefer to hear your version.”

“My
version
?”

“Was Mr. Hayden your handler, Agent McKellen?”

“My handler?” She felt like a myna bird, repeating everything Beatrice said. “He was my partner. I report directly to the director of operations.”

“How often did you check in with him?”

“Why?”

“Please answer the question.”

“Not until you tell me why.”

Hard head meet hard head. Ruby expected Beatrice to lose her calm facade. She didn’t.

Crossing one leg over the other, she folded her hands over her belly and looked amused. “You are my client, but so is your employer. As you can imagine, this puts me in an onerous position.”

“How is that exactly? Jax is bodyguard for the Rock Stars, not a bounty hunter. Rock Star Security is a whole lot more than a bodyguard service, isn’t it?”

“You’ve been out of the country for much of the past year, haven’t you?”

“Oh, for cryin’ out loud,” the man at the fireplace said, running a hand down his face. “You two stop dancing around each other or we’ll be here all bloody day. Beatrice and Emit run a paramilitary group behind the scenes of RSS, Agent McKellen. Trust me, they understand your situation with the Agency.”

Beatrice looked slightly perturbed, but didn’t miss a beat. “Jaxon is both your bodyguard at the moment—although he seems to have taken that term a bit far—and he has been hired by the CIA to hunt down your former partner. I believe it’s fair for me to understand exactly what kind of danger he may be in from both of these missions. Do you not agree?”

Beatrice Reese was used to people agreeing with her. It probably happened a lot since she was obviously skilled in logical manipulation.

Ruby had experience with that as well. “You and I both know Jaxon’s line of work is a dangerous one, whether it’s as a bodyguard or something more, and he thrives on taking risks. It’s not my intent to put him in unnecessary jeopardy, but he did come to me for help. I’ve done what I can to assist him and your team in finding Elliot.”

“And yet, here we are, some of the brightest minds in the United States, along with the best hackers, and a highly-trained undercover operative who knew Agent Hayden quite well from my understanding, and yet, we have no idea where the man is.”

“Is there a question in there somewhere?”

The slightest movement of her lips suggested she was once more amused. “When did you meet Elliot Hayden?”

What did this have to do with finding him? “We went through the Farm together. We were paired up for a couple of trial run missions, discovered we worked well together, and our teachers agreed. The Agency decided to use us as a couple for our first mission after we graduated. The mission was a success and we were kept together to continue as partners.”

The man at the fireplace straightened from his spot. “The Agency doesn’t normally use partners in the field. You didn’t think it odd that they kept the two of you together as a team?”

True, most agents worked alone, but it wasn’t written in stone. “I’m sorry, who are you?”

“You can call me Zeb.”

Which explained nothing. Ruby spoke to Beatrice. “What exactly is Zeb’s role here?”

Beatrice didn’t miss a beat. “He contracts for me.”

Doing what?

What else? He wasn’t military, and Ruby doubted he was a hacker. So that left operative.

Former operative anyway. The wrinkles on his face told her he was well past his prime and the way he smiled at her suggested he knew how to kill her quietly in at least a dozen ways.

She smiled back, letting him know she could take him any day. “Elliot and I had good chemistry together and our skills complemented each other. The DO was once an operative himself and knows how to exploit his agents’ skill sets. That’s all.”

“Well,” Beatrice said, pushing herself to her feet. “I suspect your director—whose renegade reputation in the field is well-known in certain circles—selected you in particular to work with Agent Hayden.”

“Who, by the way,” Zeb interjected, “was on the Agency’s payroll three years before he went through the Farm with you. He worked for them for two years, was recruited by National Intelligence for something we don’t yet have intel on, and then magically appeared back at the Farm for new agent training at the same time you showed up.”