Chapter 3
Chapter Three
Some memories were burned into your mind. Those were supposed to be the big, impactful, emotional moments. Those high intensity times that shaped you. That truly left a mark on your psyche. Could be something terrible. Like watching your friends die in combat.
Been there, done that shit.
Or maybe, just maybe, a memory that burned into your head could be something good. It could be the first time you met someone who changed your whole freaking life. The day you rushed off a sidewalk because you were being a teenage dumbass, and you nearly got your ass plowed down by a speeding truck. Only instead of dying right then and there…
A small scrap of a girl grabbed you and yanked you back even though you had to outweigh her by at least forty, maybe fifty pounds. A girl who’d been all big, intense eyes and shaking hands as she patted you down when you both fell on the pavement, and she was trying to make sure that you weren’t hurt.
The stupid ice cream you’d been holding fell and melted on you both and she smiled at you and told you that she’d saved your life and that she was pretty sure that meant your life now belonged to her and?—
“ Jake . Hello, Jake? Are you listening to anything at all that I’m saying?” Wren spun toward him. A barefoot Wren. He was pretty sure that her heels had been left on the beach some place. When she’d fainted, he hadn’t given a shit about finding them. He’d just rushed her to safety. He had taken her bag with them. Did that count for something?
Wren let out a dramatic sigh. “I do not need to stay in this house with you. You don’t need to do guard duty.” A sniff as she waved one hand toward him. “I am absolutely fine.”
“Bullshit. You’re terrified. Your knees are practically knocking together.”
She glanced down at her knees.
So did he.
Jeez. That dress was short. Sexy. Tempting. Look back up, Jake. Look up. He wasn’t. He was still staring at her legs. Maybe imagining how it would feel to have those legs wrapped around him.
“They are not knocking together.” She snapped her fingers. “Yo, Jake.”
Finally, he looked up. Got distracted again because…hell, it was Wren.
Her hair should have looked disheveled. Tousled. It didn’t. It looked sexy and full and thick and like some kind of shampoo commercial as the heavy locks tumbled down her back. She’d gotten the hair from her Spanish mom. Or so she’d told him, once upon a time. He’d never met Wren’s parents.
They’d been dead before she blew her way into his world.
Her father had been a college kid backpacking his way through Europe. He’d met Wren’s mother in Madrid and fallen instantly.
Again, so Wren had told him.
Back in the days when he thought she shared all of her secrets with him.
Back in the days before she’d become his brother’s girl.
“You’re glaring at me.” She crossed her arms over her chest. The move just made her lush breasts shove harder against the already straining top of her dress. “Considering how many times I’ve saved your hide over the years, you should be so much more grateful to me. You should smile at me. FYI, that one simple act—an occasional smile—will not kill you.”
He still stood near the front door of his beach house. He’d locked it and set the alarm and now, he began closing in on his prey.
She blinked. Frowned. Took a little step back and bumped into the back of the couch.
He kept advancing.
Her arms dropped. “Are you trying to intimidate me right now?”
He stopped right in front of her. Wren stood at an elegant five-foot-nine, but he still had her by several inches, and her head tipped back as she stared up at him. “You were almost abducted tonight,” he said. A near kidnapping should have her being grateful to stay with him. He’d saved that sweet ass.
She bit her lower lip. A delectable lip. The pink gloss had long since worn away, but she didn’t need gloss to make her lips appear sexy. Full and pouting, they’d haunted his dreams plenty of times. How often had he wondered how she would taste?
I tasted her tonight.
“I can remember the events on the beach quite clearly, thank you very much.” Crisp. Her nose was in the air. Cute nose. Gorgeous woman. “Well, I can remember most of them.” A quick clarification. “When I passed out, things got cloudy. I don’t remember hitting the sand.”
“You didn’t hit the sand. I caught you.”
Her eyes widened. Darkness and light all at the same time because of the gold that lurked in the depths of her gaze. An amazing combination. “You caught me?”
“I always will.” Gruff. And, dammit, he probably should back off. He’d crowded into her space, and all he wanted was to put his hands on her.
Everywhere.
A swipe of her tongue over the lip she’d just bitten. “So we saved each other tonight.” A nod. “Okay, let’s just call the night even. You saved me. I stopped you from getting shot. Done.”
He stared at her. They were not even close to done.
“Thank you.” Her voice came out softer. “I don’t want to think about what could have happened if you hadn’t been on the beach tonight. Good thing you rolled into town, huh?”
Not good. Not random. Jake didn’t want to think about what could have happened if he hadn’t arrived that night. He’d almost gone to her house in Charleston, but some last-minute intel had sent him to find her in Hilton Head. “I meant what I said, Wren. You’re not getting out of my sight. You’re staying here tonight. With me.”
“Unnecessary. Like I told you on the car ride, I could stay at my uncle’s place?—”
“ This place has top-of-the-line security.” As if he’d have anything else installed in one of his houses. “I need to know you’re safe.”
Fear came and went in her eyes. “One night.” Such a grudging concession. “I’ll stay here for one night with you.”
She’d stay with him until the danger had passed. He’d be a domineering bastard about that. Oh, wait, he was often a domineering bastard. “Like I said, you aren’t getting out of my sight.”
A nervous laugh sputtered from her. “I just agreed to stay, but no need to go overboard!” More nervous laughter. Weak. “You don’t have to keep your eyes on me at every moment. I’m about to crash, Jake. You hardly need to share the same bed with me. No need for that big sacrifice.”
There’s need, and then there’s want. I want to share the same bed with you. “Hardly a sacrifice.” Quite the opposite.
“We’re in the same house, that’s certainly close enough, proximity-wise. I promise, I won’t go running out in the middle of the wee hours. All I’m going to do is sleep.”
All he would do was think about her. “We have a problem.”
“The men on the beach?” Wren nodded. “Yes, but I think as terrifying as they were—and trust me, I was plenty terrified—it was just some random attack. That’s what it had to be.”
He didn’t think there had been anything random about it. “Eb sent me to you.” His hands had fisted at his sides. The better to not touch her.
A little furrow appeared between her brows. “Why did he do that?”
“Not exactly sure. The guy has gone dark on me.” Not an unusual circumstance, considering the work that Eb did on a routine basis. Going dark was pretty normal for a CIA operative. “Got a two-word text from him, nothing more.” Though he’d sure be trying to learn more, ASAP. If not from Eb, then from other sources.
“What exactly did this text say?”
Simple. “Protect Wren.”
She blinked.
He stared at her. Drank in her scent. Thought about her mouth. Tried to tell his eager dick to calm down and?—
“That’s it?” Wren pushed. “Just protect me?”
A nod.
“And you—what? Expect me to believe you got some mystery text from Eb—no explanation, no context—a note to protect me , and you dropped everything you were doing and rushed to my side?”
“Yes.”
She waited.
What was she waiting for?
His head lowered toward her.
Her hands flew up and pressed to his chest. “I don’t believe it.”
Her touch burned through him. It had always been that way. Even that long ago, first day, when she’d saved his ass, he’d been aware of the electric current that charged between them. He hadn’t known how to handle it—or her—so he’d just fallen back on his usual routine of being a dick. Everyone said he did that routine particularly well.
One of his special talents.
“You spend your time bouncing around the world and doing crazy, dangerous shit!” Wren accused.
His eyes narrowed. “You mean… hostage rescues ?” Because high-risk, hostage rescues in hole-in-the-wall locations were his specialty. When normal channels didn’t work, when the danger was too intense and odds of success were exceedingly low, then he stepped in. His fees were astronomical, and his success rate? Damn astronomical, too.
“I mean you jump straight into danger at every opportunity. You’re paid wild amounts of money to pull people out of hell, over and over again. When you got that message from Eb, you were—where, exactly?”
“South America.” No need for specifics. His clients usually asked for complete confidentiality. In his world, lethal repercussions were a way of life. The less said, the better. There was a reason why non-disclosure agreements existed.
“You flew from South America all the way here…to protect me?”
He shrugged. She made it sound like a big deal. It wasn’t. “I’d fly around the world in an instant to protect you.”
“You don’t even like me,” she charged. A quick, negative shake of her head sent Wren’s hair tumbling over her shoulders. “You don’t ever come around me. Haven’t in ages. You barely speak to me when we do find ourselves forced together. You won’t spend any time alone with me and you always act like?—”
“I don’t want you fucking my brother.”
Her mouth dropped open. Then snapped closed. Then…
The hands on his chest shoved him back. “You have issues!” Wren lunged to the side. Darted around him. Whirled. Angrily pointed her index finger at him. “I am having a bad night!”
Noted. Duly noted. His night wasn’t exactly stellar, either. Except for the kiss. Two kisses, actually. Those would be on his highlight reel. As for Wren almost being taken and being cut with a knife right in front of him… Bad. Night.
“I need sleep. I need to wake up and have this all be a terrible dream. I don’t need you telling me who—who I can or can’t—ugh! Who I can or can’t fuck! ”
His back teeth ground together. She had no idea how tormented he was. His problem. Not hers. “You want me to apologize for the kiss?”
“What?” The hand she’d been pointing at him fell back to her side. “No, no, I don’t. Because then I’d have to apologize for my kiss, and I did it first and— heat of the moment! The kisses came from the heat of the moment!”
Had it been a particularly heated moment in the bar when she kissed him? She’d seemed pretty calm and focused when she pressed those sweet lips to his. He’d been stunned. Halfway convinced he had to be dreaming.
“We are not ourselves,” Wren added determinedly. “That’s what is happening here. We’re out of control.”
He always held on to his control near her. Always.
“This is an adrenaline-rush deal, isn’t it?” A vigorous nod of her head. “I get it now.”
Adrenaline was rushing. Desire pumped in his blood.
“In the morning, things will be back to normal. You’ll barely speak to me. I’ll tiptoe around you. There will be no kissing. There will be no talk of f-fucking,” she stumbled over that particular word. “And, hopefully, the sheriff will have caught those jerks. I can go back to my life. You can go back to yours. End of story.” Wren spun around. Marched forward. “Where is the guest room? We are not pulling some one-bed drama. No way, no day.”
He would love to pull some one-bed drama for her. With her. All night. All day. Anytime. “Eb asked me to protect you. Sorry the brother you wanted couldn’t be here for you. You’ll have to make do with me.”
She stopped in the middle of what looked like a very angry stomp down his hallway.
“I’ll assume Eb’s role in your life,” he added because with him suddenly erupting into her world, they should probably have some sort of cover in place. “You already laid the foundation when you kissed me in front of your friends. You’ll stay with me tonight. That will make it look like we’re involved. Our supposed involvement will make protecting you easier.” Because he didn’t believe that the threat would be gone by tomorrow. As much as he liked and respected Honey Jackson, the evil surrounding Wren wasn’t going to be something that could be handled easily. The two men had been lying in wait for her. And they’d had a getaway boat prepped.
I need to find out what—who—we are up against.
“Involved,” she repeated. She didn’t look back. “Us.”
“Yeah. We’ll be lovers. Friends with fuck benefits. Whatever you want to call it.”
“You are so clueless.” She whirled toward him. “That’s what you think Eb’s role is in my life? You think he’s my lover? Or—or my friend with fuck benefits? ” Her voice rose at least two notches.
“I already told you,” the words grated as they rumbled from him, “you are not fucking him?—”
“No, I’m not. Not now, and newsflash, I never have. Did you hear that? Let me repeat it. Nice and slowly for you. I. Have. Never. Fucked. Your. Brother. There. Happy?”
This time, he was the one with the mouth hanging wide open. He should probably scrape it off the floor. Instead, all he could do was stand there and gape. As for being happy…
She smiled at him. A cold smile. And she took a few, slow, deliberate steps toward him.
He didn’t hear her steps. Not just because she was barefoot. But because his pounding heartbeat filled his ears like the maddening beat of a drum.
“Just in case there is still any lingering confusion, let me repeat—one more time for fun—I have never fucked your brother. Never. As in, not even once.”
He shook his head.
“Not. Even. Once. When we were teens, we did date. Briefly. Nothing came of it. We are friends. I love him. He loves me. But there is no benefit clause in my relationship with Eb. And there is certainly no benefits between you and me.” Her nostrils flared. “Thanks for saving my life tonight, Jake. Tomorrow, the danger will hopefully be over. You can get away from me. You go back to your life, and I’ll get back to mine. Done.”
With that, she turned away once more. Began an angry stalk to the hallway.
His jaw was still open.
“Not even once, Jake!” Wren yelled back at him. “And, I don’t care which room you wanted, I’m taking this first one. The one on the left. No one-bed situation, you hear me?”
He thought his neighbors might hear her.
A moment later, a door slammed.
Not. Even. Once.
His breath expelled on a long rush. She’d asked if he was happy by that news. He hadn’t gotten to answer her. The answer, of course, was…
Hell, yes. Deliriously happy.
Her back pressed against the door. Her breath shuddered out. In. Out.
Rage battled with her fear.
Seriously? Jake had tossed that BS to her about Eb? Like she hadn’t been dealing with those rumors for years. Just because Eb had a tendency to charm most women into his bed with minimal effort didn’t mean that she’d been one in a very long line. Not like he’d crooked his finger at her and she’d eagerly jumped the guy.
She and Eb were friends. They worked better as friends. If they’d been in a romantic relationship, it would never have worked because?—
Because he wasn’t the right twin.
Her eyes squeezed closed. She still had her purse. She’d grabbed it from a table during her last angry stalk toward the hallway. Now she dug around inside the bag and hauled out her phone. Her fingers trembled as she grasped it tightly.
Then, keeping the phone, she tossed the purse onto a chair. Marched into the bathroom. She locked the door behind her before yanking the shower on full blast. The roar of the water would work to drown out her call. Just on the off chance that Jake might be listening…
I have always needed to be extra careful around Jake and Eb. Because they weren’t typical civilians.
Neither was she. In fact, there was very little about her life that had ever been typical.
She dialed her Uncle Milo. Steam began to drift around her in the air. Wren stared at her reflection in the mirror as the steam slowly fogged the surface.
“Wren?” Not sleepy. Completely alert. Even though it had to be super late where her Uncle Milo was currently located. He was supposed to be on the other side of the world, after all. “What’s happening?” Uncle Milo demanded.
Oh, just some madness. A little near-death experience. “Have you heard from Honey?” A not-so-little secret was that Honey and Milo had been lovers for years.
“Not since yesterday.” A pause. “Today? Hell, the time shift has me all messed up.” He hummed. “Heard from her earlier. A lot earlier.” A pause. “Why?”
He was too calm. That meant he hadn’t been updated on the recent activities. “Two men were waiting for me when I left your bar tonight. One came at me on the beach with a knife.”
“Wren! ”
He wasn’t calm any longer. She spoke quickly, needing to get this recap out of the way fast as she told him, “The other was waiting with a gun. Luckily, Jake was there. I got away.” She didn’t mention the bandage on her neck. What would be the point in that? Uncle Milo didn’t need to worry about a scratch.
“You aren’t hurt.” Not a question.
“I’m fine.” Mildly hurt. She didn’t mention the fainting episode. That would just be embarrassing. She hadn’t fainted like that—from the sight of blood—in ages. Wren had hoped that she’d kicked the habit. Unfortunately, it would seem she had not. “They escaped. Honey and her team are looking for them now.”
“Sonofabitch.”
Her stomach twisted. “Uncle Milo…” Wren had to ask the next question. And maybe it was what had really driven her fear so high and caused her to faint. Because she’d been utterly terrified on that beach. “Do you think he found me?”
“No, no, dammit… no. Impossible.”
He sounded so adamant. She released a breath as her shoulders sagged.
“No one knows outside of our little circle, Wren.”
Their circle. Ha. It was more like a triangle. Her, Uncle Milo, and Honey. They kept her past secret from everyone else in the area.
“Whatever happened tonight, it wasn’t related to him. ”
Uncle Milo wouldn’t lie to her. He’d always been her one constant. She was okay. The past was still gone.
Buried. If only.
“And…hell, I was gonna wait to tell you in person, but…he’s dead, Wren.”
Maybe the roar of the shower was too loud. She must have misunderstood him.
“Did you hear me?” Uncle Milo groused.
No, not accurately. There was no way she could have heard?—
“Your father is dead, Wren. That’s what this trip is about. I-I got intel that he’d been discovered. Didn’t want to say anything to you until I was certain. That’s why I had to come and see for myself. I’m not on the other side of the world, kid. I’m in Colorado. And your father is gone. He’s dead, Wren.”
Most people thought her father was long dead. That he’d died before her fourteenth birthday. Those people were wrong.
“He can’t ever find you. He can’t ever hurt you. You will never have to fear him again,” Uncle Milo promised her.
The mirror’s surface had fogged completely. All she could see of herself was a hazy outline. A ghost.
Wasn’t that what she was?
“I don’t know what happened tonight, but it’s not him. He did not come after you. He did not send anyone after you. He’s dining with the devil, burning hot, and rotting in hell is exactly where he deserves to be.”
She had to swallow the lump in her throat.
“Wren, where are you? Are you safe?”
“I’m safe.” So why didn’t she feel that way? He’s gone. The monster is gone. He can’t ever hurt me again.
“Where are you?”
“I’m with Jake.”
“What?”
“I’m staying with Jake tonight. He saved me on the beach, then insisted that I come to his place. He didn’t want me to be alone.”
An approving hum. Her uncle had always liked the twins. “Good. Good. He’ll keep you safe.”
He’ll break my heart into a thousand pieces. Oh, wait. He’d already done that. Been there, done that, would do it again.
“I’ll talk to Honey,” he promised. “We’ll figure out what’s happening.”
Her cheeks were wet. Probably from the steam. No way was she crying. She would not ever cry over him. The monster. The monster who made the world red with blood. “I’m sure it was something random tonight. Random attacks happen. They’re terrifying and horrible, but they happen.” Because it hadn’t been him. She could finally stop looking over her shoulder. She could stop being afraid to live.
He was gone.
“Everything is all right,” she said. Those were the words Milo had given to her so many times over the years.
A mantra. A promise.
But right then, those words were a lie.
Things were not all right.
“Fuck,” he breathed.
Had he heard the lie in her voice? Wren cleared her throat and tried to sound more composed. “Jake is here. No one will get past him tonight. I’m okay.” Then, “Good night.”
“Wren!”
She stopped before ending the call.
“Blood doesn’t matter. You understand me? It doesn’t mean a damn thing.”
“Good night,” she said again. This time, she hung up. She lowered the phone. Put it on the counter near the sink. Then her hand swiped over the mirror, clearing a path in the fog. The path was right in the spot that reflected the white bandage on her neck. The same hand reached up and carefully pulled away the bandage. She could see the splotch of red on the underside of the bandage.
Milo was wrong.
Blood mattered a great deal.
For some people, blood was the only thing that did matter.
The monster is dead. Maybe she should celebrate.
Instead, she stripped off her dress. Let it fall to the floor. Same with her panties and bra. She stepped under the spray of the shower. The water hit her cheeks and washed away the tears. Tears, not steam.
She was crying for the monster.
How screwed up did that make her?
I was screwed up from the beginning. Because I am the monster’s daughter.