Chapter Six
Chance stared down at Maci in the sparring ring. Both of them were near snarling.
It was the end of the final day of training. Tomorrow she’d be heading undercover as Stella at some bigwig art gala. Whether she was ready or not.
Chance knew she was ready, or as ready as someone could get in just three days. There was so much they’d been trying to cram into the limited time. The hours of defense training may have been the most physically demanding, but all the other elements took their toll also.
Maci had spent hours studying footage of Stella’s mannerisms and nonverbal communication in order to effectively impersonate her. Weston’s fiancée, Kayleigh Delacruz, had come by the office to help Maci style her hair and makeup as close as possible to Stella’s.
Maci, Chance and his brothers had spent an ungodly amount of time studying the people who would be at the gala, as well as friends and acquaintances of Stella’s. There were a few friends—surprisingly few—who would recognize Maci wasn’t Stella. Nicholas had helped make sure those friends wouldn’t be in attendance—mostly by offering them a weekend trip to the French Alps.
Must be nice to have those sorts of resources.
Rich Carlisle, Stella’s companion, had come in to coach Maci on how she would act with different groups of people. That entire process was distasteful. Not only was Stella basically a self-centered snob to most people, Rich was slick and handsy with Maci.
Chance had to stop himself from breaking the man’s fingers every time he tucked a strand of Maci’s hair behind her ear or touched her shoulder. Every time he gave her one of his charming smiles, Chance wanted to punch him in his perfect teeth.
Logically, he knew Rich was behaving the same way he did with Stella. He was trying to help the best he could. He would actually be the biggest part of selling this whole ruse—Stella rarely went anywhere without Rich.
But Chance still found his hands balling into fists way too often around the other man. Especially when Maci laughed at something charming he said.
To avoid bloodshed, his brothers had put him on layout duty—which honestly played to Chance’s strengths anyway. He’d studied the layout of the gala building, determining potential places the stalker might make some sort of attempt to get near Maci. Dorian Cane had offered backup guards to place at any locations they were needed.
Chance had studied the exits and made sure Maci knew about them. And backup exits. Ignoring everyone’s rolling eyes, he’d even pointed out a couple of large air shafts she could use to hide in if needed.
Long after everyone had gone home each night, he’d run possible scenarios in his head. How he would react to different threat types. How he would get Maci to safety.
Over and over. As many situations as his mind could come up with. He wanted to be as prepared as possible. It was how his mind worked. Always had been.
But now, looking down into Maci’s blue eyes, he was afraid they might kill each other before the stalker had the opportunity to do any damage.
It was a stressful situation and they both were exhausted, but that wasn’t really the issue here.
She was hiding something from him.
Hell, not something ...everything. The more he thought about that flinch on the first day and what it had revealed, the more he realized how little he actually knew about this woman.
He knew they were combustible in bed. Knew that everything about her stimulated him mentally and physically.
But she had very carefully kept the details of her past from him. And the more he thought about it, the more he was convinced that it had something to do with why she’d run from his bed two months ago.
She still wanted him. And he damned well wanted her. Training so closely together over the past few days had proven that on both sides. There’d been way too many times when they’d had to take a step back from each other—both of them breathing hard and not just from exertion—to settle down.
Multiple times he’d tried to get her to talk about anything—them, her past, why she was keeping so much from him. But she’d avoided his attempts every time.
“That’s it,” he said, dropping his hands from her and stepping back. He’d been teaching her how to break a wrist lock, and he’d spent the entire time feeling the racing of her heartbeat under his fingers.
“What’s it?” Maci asked, stepping back herself. He hated the distance. “Did I mess up?”
“No, you’re doing great, but I want to talk.”
Immediately, the open expression she’d been wearing morphed and he felt her shutting him out. Again.
“Let’s just get this lesson done with, okay?”
“We’re going to finish it, but we’re going to talk too. I can protect you more effectively if you stop trying to keep silent about every personal thing about yourself.”
Her shoulders tightened, creeping up toward her ears. “Chance, we’ve been doing so well. Just don’t.”
“Think about that flinch when I came at you the first time in a choke hold. It totally caught me off guard.”
She shrugged. “It caught me off guard too. But we worked through it and I don’t flinch anymore.”
“But what if something happens while you’re undercover? Something else triggers you.”
“We can’t possibly work through every possible scenario that might trigger me. It’s impossible for anyone.”
She was right. There were always internal factors at play in undercover work that could momentarily cripple even the most seasoned agent. There was no way to prepare for them all.
But this was different. His very gut told him so. “I want you to answer me one question.”
Her eyes narrowed as she planted her hands on her hips. “What?”
“You’re deliberately hiding something from me, aren’t you. Something important.”
The blood drained from her face, and he knew he’d hit his mark. Maci Ford was hiding something.
“Let’s just finish the lesson, Patterson. I’m tired and tomorrow is a big day.”
She was exhausted—he could see it in the bags under her eyes and the tight set of her mouth. He knew she’d been sick at least once a day despite her medication.
He should let this go, but couldn’t. He had to know.
“I’ll make you a deal. You break out of my hold in under two minutes and I’ll leave it all alone.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then you tell me why you keep saying you don’t want to be with me when we both know we can hardly stay away from each other.”
He saw her throat working as she gulped. “I don’t think—”
Chance stepped into her space and ran a fingertip down her cheek. “I should’ve pushed way before now. But I didn’t want you to feel like you were pressured into being with me,” he whispered. “That you had to sleep with me for job security.”
She blinked in shock. “I never felt that way.”
“Good.” They were so close, it wouldn’t take much to bend down and kiss her. He was so tempted. “I thought maybe you’d just lost interest in me, which was a blow to the ego, but acceptable. You’ve done a good job of hiding that you’re still attracted to me, but the last couple days I could fairly taste it in the air between us. You still want me, Maci Ford.”
She swallowed, drawing his eyes to her throat where he desperately wanted to press his lips, but didn’t answer.
“So, if you can’t break my hold in under two minutes, then you tell me why you’re so damned determined to keep away from me.”
“And if I don’t take the bet?”
“Then I’ll be knocking on your door every day until I find out the truth. Your call.”
Either way he was going to get the truth.
“Fine.” She took a step back, stretching her neck from side to side. “Let’s do this.”
Chance set a timer on his phone and gave her a three-second warning before he lunged. He kept them both on their feet, coming at her from the side to trap her arms with his own. It made it harder for her to reach him with a kick. As she struggled, Chance kept an eye on the timer.
One minute left. Maci was breathing hard and grunting with her every move. He could see the panic setting in, and he wasn’t sure if it was his arms restraining her or that she knew she was going to lose. Either way, it pushed her to fight harder. Her nails dug into his stomach where they could reach and her teeth gnashed at his arms.
Good for her. It hurt, but she was using the tools they’d worked on.
Thirty seconds left. Her energy flagged, which he’d been counting on. In a real fight against someone bigger, she’d have to use bursts of speed and power.
They were down to the last twenty seconds when the gym door opened and Brax walked in with his phone in his hand.
“Hey, Maci. There’s an issue at the office. We need to get you back.”
They both looked over at him, and Chance’s arms loosened just enough that she collapsed hard to the ground then wrenched herself away.
The alarm went off, but she’d already won.
They stared at each other for a long moment before she turned and rushed toward the locker room.
“Everything okay?” Brax asked, glancing between Chance and the door she’d disappeared behind. “You look like you need to actually spar rather than work on training basics.”
There was no doubt about that. Chance’s arms were nearly quivering with the need to hit something. “Let’s go.”
Within a few minutes they were geared up and circling each other in the sparring ring.
“What was the emergency at the office?” Chance asked, keeping a close eye on his brother. Bastard was fast.
“There wasn’t one. You two were so involved in your conversation, you didn’t hear me come in the first time.”
Chance stopped. “How much did you hear?”
“Just the end. The bet if she couldn’t break out in two minutes or less, she would tell you why she’s been keeping away from you.”
That wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, but it was bad enough. “Brax...”
“What’s going on with Maci?” Brax jumped forward and threw out a cross and jab with his gloved fists.
Chance dodged the first, but took the second on his geared chin. “Nothing’s going on.”
Brax snorted. “Never pegged you for a liar. Are you sleeping with her?”
Chance’s glove sailed toward Brax’s nose, only to miss when his brother skipped out of the way. “Things between Maci and I are complicated, but no, we are not currently involved with each other.”
“Currently.” Brax threw another swing. “That implies that you were involved. Is that why you threw such a fit about her going undercover?”
“She doesn’t know what she’s doing.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t a real answer either.
“Her risk is minimal, given the circumstances and us being glued to her every second.”
“Still a risk. How would you feel if it was Tessa?”
At hearing his wife’s name, Brax stopped messing around. His blows became quicker. So did Chance’s. They both dodged what punches they could and took the ones they couldn’t.
Eventually Chance began to withdraw. This could go on for a long time. He and Brax were too evenly matched and knew each other too well. Brax slowed down too.
“This isn’t a good use of our time,” Chance said. He dropped his hands. He knew his brother could get a dirty swing in if he wanted, but also knew Brax wouldn’t do that.
“Agreed. We need to be firing on all cylinders tomorrow. I’m glad Maci went home. She looks like she needs some rest.”
Chance just grunted as he used his teeth to loosen his sparring gloves. He was well aware at how pale and tired she’d looked.
“You going to tell me what’s going on between you two?”
“There’s nothing—”
“Don’t lie. We’ve all seen the way you look at her. I just wasn’t aware that it had progressed.”
Chance ripped off his sparring helmet and ran a hand through his hair. “Progressed then completely stalled.”
Brax shot him a boyish grin. “Maybe you should look for a girl somewhere else, man. Maci doesn’t seem interested.”
“I can’t,” he eventually answered. It was the best he could do for his brother. There were too many things unsaid for him to walk away from Maci, even if she’d already done it to him. There was too much potential between them, and Chance had never been one to squander a good thing. “I’ll try not to let it mess with work though.”
Brax threw him a bottle of water and they both took a sip. “I think you and Maci would be good together.”
Chance sputtered his water, coughing when it went down the wrong pipe. “But you just said to look for someone else.”
“That was just a test to see if you were truly interested in her. Seems like you are.”
“Are you telling me you wanted to check my intentions with her? I thought I was your brother.”
Brax grinned. “You are, but Maci’s family too, and she doesn’t have anyone else to step in for her.”
How the hell did Brax know more about Maci than Chance did?
Because Chance had been so caught up in the physical aspect of their relationship that he hadn’t started talking to her about important stuff. He’d thought he’d have more time. That they would take it slow and get to know everything about each other.
It definitely hadn’t been because he didn’t want to know.
They both grabbed their gym bags and headed toward the door. Brax slapped him on the back. “I had to make sure you were ready for the long haul, because a woman like Maci Ford is a lifelong commitment.”
“Don’t I know it,” Chance muttered. Brax laughed and changed the subject to details about tomorrow’s operation. Chance barely heard him, consumed in his thoughts.
What was he going to do about Maci Ford and the secrets she clutched so tightly?