Chapter Four
If you’re going through hell, keep going.
~ Winston Churchill
Lance hated the entire fucking thing. Sure, they were both armed, but there wasn’t any way they would be able to overpower all Dusan’s men if it came to a shootout.
He cut his gaze to the woman beside him.
After this—he was being fucking optimistic that they would get out—he had to meet with his handler and tell them she was also imperative to it all.
While he didn’t expect that to go over well, he knew his handler and the agency wouldn’t want to ruin his two years under.
“Why don’t you tell me who you have on your payroll so I don’t accuse them.”
“You think I am going to tell you that?”
“And you think I’m just going to blurt out what I know without any sense of security? What do I get for this?”
“How about you get to stay alive?”
Jasmine’s eyes narrowed as she leaned forward.
“Go ahead and kill me then. You’ll know you still have cops that are undercover without your knowledge and it will eat you alive.
Especially when you’re brought down. You’ll just be like, if only I had listened to Jasmine and not tried to strongarm her. ”
Beside her, Lance gripped the arm of his chair but didn’t move. Still, Dusan noticed and he pinned his sharp gaze on him—the man who’d infiltrated his crew.
“Nervous, Lance?”
“Of course I am,” he retorted, barely stopping the eye roll. “My girl is challenging you to kill her.”
“Make her stop.” Dusan’s eyebrow rose with that statement.
Jasmine and Lance both snorted at the same time and Lance shook his head. “You’ve met her. She took an ASP to me because she was pissed. I can’t tell her to do anything.”
The smile was fleeting but there. “True.” A deep breath. “How about this. You tell me and I let you two have your weekend without any bother from the family?”
Lance captured her hand and skimmed his thumb along the back of hers. “Come on, baby.”
“Fine.” She shrugged. “Give me a piece of paper and I’ll write it down.”
Dusan pushed a pen and pad toward her. “Not worried about me running your prints?”
“Nope.” She popped the p. “I already told you. I’m not in the system.
” She picked up the pen and clicked it before putting the tip to paper.
For a brief second, she lifted her head and looked Dusan directly in the eyes.
“They will swear they aren’t cops, of course you know this.
So before you ask me to prove the names, I’m putting down a time and date that you need to go to the bar they are in and watch who they talk to.
The men listed here on different occasions, but same location, are both cops.
Neither will be in uniform. You’ll see a napkin slide between them each time.
Don’t go after the handlers, but do what you will with the traitors.
” Jasmine focused back on the sheet and for a few charged moments the scratch of the pen on paper was the only sound.
She pushed the paper back to him. “I don’t want more cops to come swarming if you take out those two. But they are undercovers, they can’t come after them.”
Dusan lifted the sheet and swore. His gaze snapped back to Lance.
“Your woman is impressive. And evil. I’m almost liking her more than you.
Even before she’s been vetted all the way by my people.
I’m taking her photo to my man in the police and you’d better hope it all comes back as you said.
” The warning in Dusan’s words was crystal.
Lance stood and brought her with him. “I know. We’ll let you handle your business. Thank you for keeping your word.”
“I’m many things but a liar isn’t one of them. Have Sathal drive you back.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lance led her to the door, his large hand settling upon the small of her back. He wanted it there when she had no clothing on.
“Jasmine.”
She slowed at the sound of her name and glanced over her shoulder. “Yes?”
“I’ll be seeing you again. You and I could have a beautiful partnership.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “I’m more of a one-woman man.” A smile. “Now. Have a good day, Mr. Dusan.” Sliding her hand into Lance’s back pocket, she kissed his cheek. “Let’s go. You owe me some dick.”
“I’m nothing if not a man of my word.” Dipping his head, he nipped her earlobe before flicking his tongue along it.
Her sharp gasp soothed him for the moment. The ride back to his place was done with their hands roaming all over each other, kicking their arousal higher. They stumbled out of the SUV and into his place, where they stopped and held each other’s gaze.
He gestured around the room and she nodded.
“Come on, baby. I need you,” she panted as she walked away from him, checking that side of the room for any listening devices. Lance wasn’t sure where she’d had the bug detector on her person but she had one in her hand.
“Then fucking get naked.” He kicked off his shoes, making sure to direct them into the wall for added sound. “Or did you just want me to take you up right where you are?”
She angled her head to look at him and cocked an eyebrow. He winked even as he shrugged without repentance.
“Wall. Definitely the wall.” She released a cock-hardening moan.
He watched her as she looked in the lamp on the small table. This time when she met his gaze, he knew she’d located one. Lance doubted that was the only one they’d left. Typically they left three.
Her hand slapping the wall snapped his focus right back to her. This was not going to be easy.
If they were giving out Oscars for this, she would earn hers.
Right now the groans sliding from her weren’t cutting him any slack.
His dick ached so fucking intensely he didn’t know how much more he could take without undoing his pants just to get some relief.
The air filled with her moans, each one more passionate than the last. And the kicker?
They fucking sounded so real they were about to get him off.
His eyes drifted closed only to snap open a bit later when she cupped his hardness through his jeans. He glanced down at her.
“I found two,” she mouthed.
He couldn’t think, just blinked.
Her hand slipped inside his jeans and the low growl of want, this time from him as she curved her hand around him.
“Why pretend?” Jasmine whispered.
The growl that fell would have been her only warning, had he not already been on her.
Mouths fused together, he backed her right into another wall, the sound loud.
Clothing flew off and she knocked over that same fucking lamp she’d found a device in as she scrambled to brace herself when he shoved deep inside her pussy with a single stroke.
He didn’t care, she could break every single thing in there so long as this didn’t stop. And from the way her fingers dug into his back, he could say with fair certainty it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon.
* * * *
Hours later he paused outside the old warehouse where he met his handler, Jasmine beside him in jean shorts and an oversized surfing shirt to hide her weapons. He wasn’t sure how this was going to go but his gut wasn’t completely on board.
Not that he feared betrayal from her. He couldn’t explain why he trusted her, however he did. But he knew how things went in the agency.
“I think, once more for the record, this is a mistake.” Jasmine’s words were matter of fact.
He clenched his jaw, wishing for there to be a bit more light, which would have allowed him to see her face better. “I refuse for this to go down and them think you’re on his side. It’s not going to be a quiet, tidy wrap-up. When this happens, it’s going to be fast, loud and bloody.”
“So I won’t be there when it does. But you will.” She shook her head. “I don’t like this.”
He cupped her face. “Trust me?”
Her bark of laugh, while hushed, didn’t give him any relief. Didn’t she trust him?
“Jasmine?”
She shook her head. “If I were to trust anyone with a badge other than my brother-in-law, it would be you.”
Which meant she didn’t trust him. That hurt. A lot.
The pain the knowledge brought him was an emotion he didn’t have the time to try to figure out why or where it came from.
They walked in from the back and he led the way to a small room in the center where lights could be on but not seen from the outside of the building. He knocked twice, waited five seconds, then pushed the door in. After it clicked behind him a low lamp came on, allowing him to see his handler.
“You.”
His handler spit that in his direction. No, correction. In Jasmine’s.
They knew each other?
Fuck. They knew each other, and it didn’t look as if there was going to be a lovely reunion.
Jasmine swung to the right instinctively as Lance moved left. No way it could be anything but instinct, for her eyes and one hundred percent of her focus had landed on a man she hadn’t believed she would ever see again.
Robert Gibson.
Insides a righteous mess, she maintained her cool and aloof facade. His appearance hadn’t changed all that much. A bit grayer, a bit heavier, but he still had enough of a presence for her to know he wasn’t a man to ignore.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” His words were snarled. “Lance? Why are you with her?”
The urge to strike out rode her. Hard. But Jasmine had learned years ago about not tipping one’s hand. One fist in her pocket, she allowed herself to brace against the wall with an arm and her fingers to skim the matte butt of her sidearm.
“She saved my ass with Dusan. Where do you two know each other from?”
She still wasn’t opening her mouth. Waiting. Watching. Gathering intel, that’s what she did now. And she was damn good at it.
Robert shook his head. “We can’t risk this operation on her, she’s a loose cannon. I’ll take her in—we can release her when you’re finished.”
You have another think coming if you believe I will willingly let you take me into custody.
“Not happening. We had a meeting with Dusan this morning. The two of us. She vanishes and there will be more questions. He likes her more than he does me.”