Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
They’d been in the air for over a half hour, but Angie’s anger was still at a near boil, and she hadn’t spoken to Ian or his teammates yet.
Sitting in one of the luxury seats in the first of two rows of four seats across, she’d placed her laptop on the one seat between her and the aisle in a blatant act that told the others not to attempt to sit with her.
As much as she wanted answers, she didn’t think she could face them just yet without wanting to throw something at one of them, especially Ian.
The three of them were behind her somewhere.
She’d been so pissed when she’d boarded that the rest of the interior of the small jet was a blur to her.
Now, as she stared out the window at nothing but clouds, she replayed the past few weeks over and over in her head.
One of the things that stood out most in her mind was she’d been so wrapped up in her work and time with Ian that she’d barely thought about Jimmy.
For the first time since they were teenagers, her thoughts of, and worry for, her best friend had taken a backseat to someone else.
That’d never happened with any of the other men she’d dated over the years.
And damn it to hell, the two jackasses had kept her in the dark about something which concerned her—something she should have known about from the start.
She knew over the years that Jimmy had sheltered her as best he could from the world he was determined to clean up, one scumbag drug runner at a time, but it still yanked her chain.
She peeked over when she saw someone out of the corner of her eye take a seat across the aisle from her.
It was Jake, looking comfortable in jeans, a navy blue shirt, and black rubber-soled boots.
Brody and Ian were wisely staying away from her for now.
Out of all Ian’s teammates, Jake was the one she knew the least about.
He was the quietest of the six men, yet he still had that commanding presence of a dominant male.
She studied his profile. His chiseled jaw, high cheekbones, and long eyelashes made her yearn for her sketch pad.
She’d drawn several pencil sketches of Ian over the past few weeks and a few of Jenn and Beau, but she itched to capture the hardness and sadness she saw in Jake’s face.
He glanced over, caught her staring, and gave her a small smile. “Something on your mind?”
She let out an unladylike snort. “You have no idea.”
Shrugging his shoulders, he said, “Try me. I may not be as talkative as Marco is when comforting a submissive, but I’m a good listener.”
“I’m not a submissive,” she spat out. “Not anymore. And I don’t need comfort, thank you.”
His left eyebrow rose as he gave her a “yeah, right—think again” look, which irritated her because she could guess what he was about to say.
“You can’t turn it on and off like a switch, Angie.
You can try, but you’ll end up making yourself miserable.
Just because you’re pissed off doesn’t mean your body stops craving what you’ve experienced over the past few weeks.
It was a part of you that you didn’t know existed, and now that you do, you’ll never go back to the way you were before without regretting it. ”
Knowing he was right but unwilling to admit it, she turned and stared out the window again.
Jake may work for Trident, but he hadn’t done anything to be the recipient of her anger, and she didn’t want to take it out on him.
But Ian, Brody, and even Boomer were a different story, along with her pain-in-the-ass best friend.
She heard Jake stand and expected him to return to where he’d been sitting before, but he picked up her laptop, set it on the seat he’d just vacated, and sat beside her.
“Talk to me. It doesn’t have to be about D/s stuff or anything to do with Boss-man, since he’s a sore subject with you at the moment. You must have a thousand questions about what happened today, and while I don’t have all the facts yet, I’ll answer what I can.”
Angie shifted in her seat, putting her back to the window, and studied the man.
In his eyes, she saw the same compassion and understanding she’d noticed in Marco’s when he stayed with her during her public spanking.
The thought of that night and how she’d screamed her release for all to hear made her cheeks warm.
She forced herself to think of something else, not wanting him to know where her mind went and how those thoughts still made her body tingle.
“Where are we going? Let’s start there.”
“Fair enough. We’ll land in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in a little over an hour. From there, it’s about a ninety-minute drive to the safe house in Maggie Valley, North Carolina.”
“Safe house? Whose?” Did everyone have a safe house nowadays?
Jake nodded and settled in a more comfortable position since she was asking questions.
“It belongs to Ian and Devon, but it would take a long time to trace it to them since the ownership is buried under a bunch of unrelated businesses and false names. Ian and his dad found the place when he first joined the SEALs. One of the older guys told him that if he had the opportunity, he should find a place where no one could track him down. With all the terrorists, drug cartels, and scum of the earth we’ve dealt with over the years, it’s not paranoia to think we all have prices on our heads for one reason or another.
But we’re lucky most of them have better things to do than hunt down our identities and homes.
And it’s why Ian and Dev put so much money into the compound’s security.
“As for the safe house, we’ve used it several times over the years, but not always for emergencies.
It’s up in the mountains and a great place to get away sometimes.
But we always take precautions when we go there, and our flight plan states we’re going to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.
There are closer airports to Maggie Valley, but this way, it’s harder for someone to track our movements. ”
Angie was a little stunned. She knew what the men at Trident did could be dangerous sometimes, but to have a bounty on their heads was something she only thought happened in the old Wild West or to criminals on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. “How long do I have to stay there?”
“Until we hear from your friend and figure out how to end the threat against you. I don’t want to scare you, but you said you wanted to be kept in the loop.
I don’t know if the men at your house were real agents, but we’ll find out when we get to the safe house.
From what we can gather, they were going to kidnap you and use you against Athos to get information out of him.
” He grimaced and added, “And probably as revenge for infiltrating the drug cartel he was undercover in.”
The look he gave her said the rest—there was a strong chance neither Jimmy nor she would survive if the cartel got hold of them.
Despite her fear, a kernel of hope she hadn’t known was missing began to fill her.
“So, does that mean Jimmy is still alive? If they want me, that must mean they don’t have him. ”
The tilt of Jake’s head wasn’t entirely reassuring.
“As of a little while ago, he was alive, and we assume not captured because he contacted Ian to let us know something was wrong and told us to get you out of Tampa. Boss-man got the call right before my brother called him from the pub. If he can, Athos will be on his way to meet us in North Carolina.”
“That was your brother—the guy, Mike?” She had only gotten a glimpse of the man and hadn’t noticed any resemblance, but Jake nodded. “So, what happens next?”
“We wait until your friend contacts us and help him when he does. In the meantime, we’ll keep you safe and try to figure out who’s after you. Then we end it.”
Her stomach dropped at how deadly those last four words sounded. “End it? How?”
Jake’s eyes hardened and bore into hers. “We eliminate the threats and make sure they’ll never come after you again.”
“Y-you’d kill someone for me?” Her voice had a combination of disbelief and wonder, and she was sure the expression on her face matched it. “Why?”
“In a heartbeat, Angie. Because it’s the way men like us are wired.
Innocent lives are protected at all costs.
It’s not as if we have a death wish or anything, but if we’re killed protecting or saving someone else, we’ll make sure we fight to the bitter end to give them the best chance for survival.
Whether you like it or not, if it comes down to saving you or myself, just remember I want a traditional Irish wake, complete with bagpipes. ”
Angie swallowed hard. He’d said the last part with a teasing grin, but she knew he was serious.
She saw the conviction in his eyes and knew he wasn’t blowing smoke by saying he’d give his life for hers.
He would do it without a moment’s hesitation.
She realized what had her longing to draw his face earlier.
Jake Donovan reminded her so much of Jimmy Andrews after he became Jimmy Athos.
She wondered what had happened to Ian’s friend to put the same hardness and sense of loss in the man’s beautiful yet haunted green eyes.