Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Let me get this straight,” Rory said while plopping down on Jesse’s living room couch next to Ella. “You and my brother, the man you’ve dreamed of marrying for years but now hate with a passion, are getting fake married. Sure, why not? What could possibly go wrong?”
“Sounds like the plot to a romance novel,” Savanna chimed in, sitting opposite Ella and Rory in the leather armchair by the fireplace.
Jesse had decided it’d be best for Ella to stay with him, and so, she’d spent the night there. Rory and her husband, Chris, were staying at Jesse’s too, which helped ease Ella’s nerves. But sleep had been off the table after the day she’d had, and she’d tossed and turned all night.
And the next day, she and Jesse were getting married. How could this be her reality?
Ella peered at Savanna, who seemed uncharacteristically anxious. She’d crossed her legs, no doubt in an attempt to look casual, but her foot on the floor tapped nonstop while her other leg swung back and forth. “Is this the first time you’ve been at Jesse’s since . . .”
“Since men stormed the property hunting me down, and Griffin saved me by shooting a man in the face while we fled for our lives?” Savanna noticeably gulped and nodded. “Yeah, first time back. I’m okay, though. I promise. Just as long as we don’t have a repeat of that horror show. I don’t want anyone after you. ”
“The three of us make a . . . well, pair doesn’t work. A triple?” Rory said with a little laugh, trying to break the tension in the room as they remained parked inside while the guys secured the property. Whatever that meant. “We should get some sort of special tattoo. The hunted ones.” She pointed to the inside of her wrist, sliding her long-sleeve up. “Put it right there. What do you think?”
“You still win the award for the craziest life story amongst the three of us, is what I think,” Ella responded. “The craziest thing I’ll probably ever do is fake marry your brother. But there’s still a chance no one will come looking for me if he doesn’t know or ever learn Jesse’s identity. We can only hope, right?”
Rory slid her sleeve back in place, a forlorn expression replacing the smile she’d plastered on her face, one Ella guessed was a vain attempt to make the situation less brutal.
“The rest of Griffin’s team will be here later today. Between them, A.J. and his teammates, and well, the CIA . . . I think we have strength in numbers to keep you safe. They’ll find the threat. It’s what they do,” Savanna said, her leg no longer bouncing up and down as she gazed out the window where her future husband stood outside talking to Jesse.
Ella was surprised Jesse wasn’t sporting a black eye by now. While A.J. had vehemently rejected the fake marriage idea, same as Jesse had originally, in the end, he’d given up. Ella wasn’t dubbed the most stubborn in her family for nothing.
But when A.J. briefed his brothers about the plan, it’d been Ella’s older brother Beckett who’d snapped and lunged at the groom. Fortunately, the other guys jumped in and held him back. And that was all after Jesse asked her father for her hand in marriage. From what Ella heard, her dad straight-up broke down in tears and said yes.
When she learned he’d been praying for her and Jesse to walk down the aisle someday, Ella had nearly thrown up from guilt. But it was best her parents were kept in the dark about certain details. They didn’t need to know that Jesse had been an assassin for the CIA. The less they knew, the safer they’d be.
It was going to be positively painful for Beckett to officiate the wedding, but he had the power to do so, and it’d make things easier to have someone “in the know” performing the ceremony since it was all one big sham.
“Will your parents be suspicious that we have security roaming the property tomorrow?” Rory asked a moment later, shaking Ella’s thoughts free. “Carter’s men will be armed. Everyone who knows the situation will be packing.”
“A.J. coughed up a believable answer for our parents. Said it’s for our celebrity guest, Rochella. Though Henry has his own security, just not as many as I would have assumed,” Ella explained.
“I didn’t see any sign of a bodyguard when he came to the café.” From the corner of her eye, she noticed Savanna’s gaze immediately fall to her lap.
“What?” Ella whispered.
Savanna slowly worked her attention to Ella. “Griffin has concerns that Rochella’s offer might be a bit too perfectly timed. Like he’s helping someone draw you out and away from here.”
Ella shook her head. “There’s no way a fashion mogul is taking orders from a criminal. Griffin’s paranoid.”
“Regardless, you know they’ll take a look into the offer. And Henry Rochella’s family and company,” Savanna said. “At least Falcon will be with you in Paris.”
“I’m sorry I’m the reason Griffin has to leave you,” Ella apologized, deciding to let go of the Rochella-as-a-bad-guy conversation. It didn’t sit well with her.
“You’re not. Jesse is. And well, maybe it’s not his fault either.” Savanna clutched the chair arms. “Maybe his job was a necessary evil, and . . .”
“No, we’re not cutting my brother any slack.” Rory stood and rounded the handmade coffee table that Jesse had crafted from reclaimed something or other. Always recycled. Repurposed. “Ella has to sleep under the same roof as him until they leave. But Chris and I won’t be a barrier for y’all in Paris, which sucks. I hate that you have to live alone with him pretending to be married for an unknown amount of time. Sitting and waiting for someone to come after you.” Rory ran her hands along her arms as if chilled. “Makes me ill.”
Ella couldn’t exactly ask Henry for a two-bedroom flat in Paris. Jesse would just have to sleep on the couch in their living room. Ella was still so shaken by everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours—Rochella’s incredible offer, temporarily moving to Paris, and as of that morning, her request for a sabbatical approved by her principal—that she’d nearly forgotten the fact she and Jesse would be “playing house” in one of the most romantic cities in the world.
Henry had phoned an hour ago, right after they’d finished breakfast and Jesse had left, to let her know they were giving “the newlyweds” a few days for a honeymoon in Paris before she needed to join the other “gems” for work. Ella had considered refusing, but she was worried that’d be a red flag. Plus, that gave them some time to dig a bit deeper into the situation surrounding the man who might come after her for revenge.
“I wish Beckett had given Jesse a shiner,” Rory said while looking outside where her brother stood next to Griffin, a cell phone held out between them and most likely talking to someone on their team over speakerphone.
A.J. and the others were nowhere in sight, so they must have still been prepping the property for war or whatever. Maybe setting booby traps. It’d been too dark to “arm the perimeter” last night, so Chris and Jesse had taken turns staying awake.
“I’m sorry your brother has put you in potential danger too,” Ella said. “I hate that you have to sit around and wait for what might happen as well.”
Rory waved a dismissive hand in the air. “Chris and I are going back home soon, so I’ll be surrounded by a bunch of overprotective SEALs in Virginia. I’ll be fine. I’m not taking a break from work. If someone wants to come for me, they’ll get a bullet in the head. Or a bite in the ass from Bear.”
Yeah, Bear would sound off if there were any intruders as well. Ella nearly forgot they had the protection of a specially trained SEAL K-9. Trained by Rory herself too.
“We have an hour before we have to head to your parents’ place and help out with the preparations for this last-minute wedding. I doubt your mom slept at all last night, ironing out the wedding details,” Rory commented when they’d all remained quiet for a minute or so.
“I don’t think I can help plan.” Thinking about the dress she’d be wearing tomorrow already had her heart breaking into a dozen pieces. “I can’t pick out flowers or whatever I need to do for my fake wedding. It was bad enough Jesse and I had to fill out the marriage license this morning in front of my parents. I think Mom was a little suspicious and maybe trying to call our bluff.”
The license would be filed with the county, as was required, but Jesse’s people would alter the records online instead of making it official. Hack was more the correct term, she supposed.
“Y’all don’t need my help anyway,” Ella went on. “Mom will be fine. She lives for this stuff, and we just had your wedding to Chris this summer. And after organizing my almost-wedding last year, Mom is practically a wedding planning pro.”
The wedding with Brian. Ugh. Her stomach turned at the memory. And thinking of him only reminded her of a lie she’d told her best friends.
“You going to be okay? Like okay-okay, I mean?” Savanna tipped her head, her gaze switching from Ella to the window, Jesse and Griffin no longer in sight. “Physically, I know the guys won’t let anything happen to you. But emotionally, Jesse has already put you through the wringer.”
Now it’ll be a wedding wringer.
Ella stared at the fireplace in the living room, her eyes clinging to the flames as she considered Savanna’s words. “I’m tough. You know that.”
Savanna rose and stood beside Rory, both watching her with worried expressions.
“I have to tell you . . . something,” Ella blurted out as her face grew hot. “I haven’t had sex since Jesse,” she revealed the only other secret she’d kept hidden from her best friends and stood. “Not even with Brian.”
“Wait, what? You’re telling us you never did the hanky panky,” Rory began, talking with her hands, “with the man you were engaged to? I mean, y’all went to a tropical island together. I—I don’t understand.”
Ella covered her face with her palm and released an uneasy breath. “He wanted to. Trust me, he did. And no matter how much I tried to get over Jesse by dating Brian and even accepting his proposal, I—I just couldn’t give myself to Brian like that. Not after Jesse. I had hoped, after the wedding, I’d finally accept it was truly over with Jesse.” Tears welled in her eyes at the admission. It sounded absolutely insane when she said it out loud. And it’d been a major problem between them. “Probably why Brian pressed for a quick engagement. And when I still wouldn’t sleep with him even after I’d said yes to his proposal, he lost his mind.”
“Wow,” Savanna said, her mouth hanging open. “Why’d you tell us you two did sleep together?”
“So you wouldn’t think I was crazy, which clearly, I am.” Ella let her hand fall away from her face, which had to be beet red. “Brian was a dick, so I don’t feel all that bad, even if maybe I should. Because I knew in my heart, I was using him to try and move on from Jesse, and my plan failed.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t have said yes to Brian, you’re right. But he was a jerk, so I just can’t feel sorry for him.” Rory circled the coffee table and reached for Ella’s hand. “But it’s also kind of a big deal that you couldn’t bring yourself to be with another man after Jesse,” she added in a soft tone as if worried someone would come inside the house and overhear them.
“Maybe you should tell Jesse? I know we’re not supposed to feel sorry for him because, well, hitman . But think about it . . . if Jesse wasn’t in love with you, there wouldn’t be a crazy criminal possibly coming after you.” Savanna grimaced when Rory looked back at her, and although Ella couldn’t see, she had a good idea what kind of look was on Rory’s face. “That didn’t come out the way I meant.”
“That doesn’t mean Jesse loves me,” Ella quickly said. “He just knows what the town thinks about us and what they’d say if someone came digging around for information. They’ve been rooting for us forever.” My dad cried. Oh, God.
“Well, I’m just saying, Jesse must assume you and Brian slept together, and that can’t be easy on him,” Savanna said.
Ella’s romance-book-loving friend was most likely trying to unpack this situation and find meaning in it. She thought about Jesse’s kissing remark, still unsure when the man planned to follow through on that. Kiss Jesse? There went her stomach again. Butterflies this time, and he didn’t deserve that from her.
Savanna was right though. Jesse did hate the fact Brian had kissed her, but maybe it was some weird alpha thing. Brian had something he didn’t, and it was less the fact that he?—
“Why should we make anything easy on my brother?” Rory remarked, cutting off Ella’s thoughts. “He told Ella to move on. In fact, he insisted on it. She tried so desperately that she almost married a man she didn’t love just to stop the hurt of being in love with a man who refused her.” Now Rory was analyzing the situation, but she nailed it on the head. “Brian’s Jesse’s fault.” She tsk ed. “Fuck my brother. He deserves to assume Brian . . .” She let go of her words at the sound of the door from the kitchen opening.
Ella cleared her throat and backed up at the sight of Jesse and Griffin entering the room, Bear trotting between them. She nearly fell onto the couch when her thighs butted against it, forgetting it was behind her.
“Speak of the devil.” Rory shifted her focus to her brother and whipped her arms across her chest. She’d gone head-to-head with pirates and smugglers in the past, so why not a hitman?
Hitman. Ella’s gaze quickly cruised over the length of said “hitman,” taking in the sight of him in his black military boots, jeans, plaid shirt, and black ball cap on his head. He certainly looked like a badass operator instead of a cowboy, not that Jesse had ever looked or acted like the cowboys on her family’s ranch. But right now, he looked lethal, and it wasn’t his clothes. It was the look in his eyes. That hard, bladed jawline covered in a few weeks’ worth of growth.
But how was her Jesse an assassin?
When he was a Ranger, she never considered him a killer. When he took down that man inside Savanna’s home in October, it was in self-defense and to protect Savanna. The word “killer” never entered her mind then, much less “assassin.” But she googled the definition last night—a person who commits a targeted murder.
Murderer. Damn it. That word stung.
“You three okay?” Griffin interrupted her chaotic thoughts as well as the awkward staredown Ella had barely been aware was going on between her and Jesse.
Griffin strode across the room and pulled Savanna against his side. Whenever they were in a room together, it was rare for them not to be touching. They were magnetic. And Ella was so happy for her best friend.
Murderer, she thought again. Terrorists murdered Savanna’s husband in 2015. Those men were real murderers. Jesse’s not a murderer . She tried to convince herself she wasn’t about to marry a killer in that sense of the word. Fake marry, Ella. It’s fake.
“We’re as good as can be expected,” Savanna answered when no one else piped up.
Ella turned to focus on the happy couple and away from the man she wanted to punch for a number of reasons. If she looked at him any longer, she’d stare at his mouth and wonder when he planned to follow through with that promise he made last night and kiss her before their fake wedding.
“Carter, Jack, and Oliver are en route to D.C. They’re stopping there to pick up Sydney and Gray,” Griffin announced. “They should all be here by seventeen hundred hours.”
“I hate that Gray and Sydney have to leave on my account. Gray has a newborn niece, and Sydney has a son. That’s gotta be hard, especially since tomorrow is New Year’s Eve.” And wait, what? This isn’t my fault. Ella’s shoulders dropped. That didn’t make her not feel bad though.
“They understand it’s part of the job, always being on call,” Griffin said when Jesse remained silent.
Ella looked over at Jesse as he took a knee to pet Bear, who had been glued to his side for some reason. Did he sense the alpha in the room?
Of course, according to Savanna, Griffin was very much an alpha in the bedroom.
And when Ella thought back to New York City, well, Jesse was . . .
Let go of that thought.
But how could she? She’d never slept with another man because of that weekend. He’d ruined every other man in her eyes.
“I want to know more about the person who wants me dead,” Ella found herself blurting. Bear suddenly howled, as though he understood what she’d said, and the idea of her “dead” made him sad.
Jesse’s jaw clenched at her words, and his eyes fell to Bear. After a moment, he lifted his hand from the dog’s head and stood, and Bear went directly to Rory.
“We can go into that more when my team is here,” Jesse finally answered, turning at the sound of the door from the kitchen opening again. Ella’s throat tightened at the sight of the gun tucked at the back of his jeans, not even holstered. Just casually there as if it were part of his body.
Realizing his shirt had caught behind the grip of the gun, Jesse adjusted the material to conceal his weapon again.
She’d seen Jesse shoot before. Well, at the range. But the gun had a whole new meaning now.
“We can find another way,” was the first thing from Beckett’s mouth when he walked into the room with A.J. at his side.
Chris and her other brothers must’ve still been out on the property. Did Shep and Caleb know how to “secure the perimeter,” as A.J. had called it? At this point, she had no freaking idea how much her brothers knew about any of this stuff.
“It’s not too late to back down,” Beckett went on, sidestepping Jesse, his eyes lingering on him as he moved past. Oh, the anger was still there. At the highest of levels.
“He’s right,” Jesse said in a low voice while peering at A.J. “We can protect you instead of putting you right in the line of fire.”
“Call off this bullshit wedding. Please.” Beckett strode past Rory and Bear to get to his sister.
Savanna nudged Griffin in the side before taking his hand and leading him from the room, followed by Rory and Bear.
Her two brothers and Jesse didn’t budge. Well, they didn’t leave the room, at least.
“Jesse thinks this fucker will wait until he’s married for his revenge, so why rush this? Why get married at all?” Beckett hissed. “I get that he won’t wait forever, and his patience will eventually run out. And I understand you don’t want to live in fear and protective custody until then since the man can easily figure out you’re still who . . .” He let go of a breath. “But?—”
“But why wait? If we can draw him out sooner, then there’s one less bad guy in the world we have to worry about, right?” Ella pointed out, working through the same thoughts that had led her to the marriage decision last night.
One less bad guy in the world. That’d been Jesse’s job, hadn’t it been? To take out those bad guys. But that didn’t alleviate the achy pain in both her stomach and her chest when she thought of the man she’d always loved as a contract killer.
“We can’t even confirm this guy knows Jesse was on the long gun that day taking the shot,” A.J. drawled.
Ella quickly circled the table so she could put all three guys in her view. Jesse’s back was to the room, eyes on the fire, though, so she could only see the hard lines of his back moving as he took in what appeared to be deep breaths.
A.J. swiveled his American flag ball cap backward and folded his arms. “The CIA didn’t provide the Bulgarians with Jesse’s identity. So if anyone at Bulgarian Intelligence knows and passed that intel along to our bad guy, that means someone from Bulgarian Intelligence had eyes on Jesse the day of the hit last year to identify him. The traitor just left out the major detail to Zoran that Jesse didn’t kill his wife. But in my opinion, that’s the only way Zoran did or will find out. There’s almost always an insider helping out.”
A.J. was a conspiracy theorist, and Ella wasn’t so sure what he was talking about. Sofia. The Bulgarians. Zoran. She didn’t know the details yet, but A.J. was pretty damn smart, and she’d be inclined to believe him without question.
“And what do you think?” Ella asked, assuming Jesse would know she was speaking to him, and he slowly turned and faced her.
“My old boss at the Agency is following leads, but he thinks we ought to assume Zoran will or already has learned my name. He still wants me to go back to work for him, though. I was never undercover on jobs, so my identity being known is more of an inconvenience in his eyes.” Jesse was quiet for a moment. “Pretty sure that’s my old boss’s main objective. To get me back.”
“Back?” Ella hadn’t meant to gasp, but yeah, it happened.
“I’m not going back. I’m with Falcon now,” Jesse quickly said. “But that didn’t stop my old boss from throwing out your name to try and put the fear of God in me to ensure I handle this hit personally.”
“If anyone’s going to put the fear of God in you, it’s?—”
A.J. slapped a hand against Beckett’s chest, cutting him off, as well as stopping him from taking another step toward Jesse.
“So, you see, the wedding’s not necessary,” Beckett said instead of trying to take a swing at Jesse. “Because Falcon can stop this guy before he learns Jesse’s name. Hell, Falcon can stop him even if he already knows Jesse was the shooter that day. And we’ll keep you safe in the meantime just in case.”
Ella peered at Jesse again to get a read on him. His face was blank. So she looked to A.J. for answers. “Do you think you can find him before he finds you?” she asked. “ If he hasn’t already, that is.”
“We have a lot of resources at our disposal. But we should assume the worst, and that’s that Zoran already knows Jesse’s and your name,” A.J. said solemnly.
“How can you be okay with allowing our sister to go to Paris and lure out a cold-blooded killer?” Beckett’s anger was now directed toward A.J.
“Marriage or not. Paris or not. If the bastard knows Jesse shot him, then Ella’s his target no matter what,” A.J. reminded Beckett, sounding almost like he was on Ella’s side, which was both surprising and a change from how he’d first reacted to the idea last night.
“I can’t watch another fight,” Ella whispered, moving between Beckett and A.J. with outstretched hands. “I can’t deal with this right now. We all need to be on the same side.” She released a shaky breath. “I didn’t sleep last night. I’m gonna go lie down.”
“I’m so sorry, Ella,” Jesse said in a low tone, taking her by surprise. His gaze swiveled to A.J. and then to Beckett before moving back to her. “I’m sorry you have to marry a man like me,” he added, his voice cracking as he started to leave.
“Fake,” she called out, feeling just as broken as he’d sounded. “It’s only fake,” she whispered. He looked at her from over his shoulder, his mouth a tight line, and that small nod from him had her legs buckling.
There had never been, and she doubted there would ever be, anything truly fake about how she felt about that man. So much for going to Paris to get over him.
She was now going as Ella Mae McAdams.