Chapter Forty-Nine Alejandro
Chapter Forty-Nine
Alejandro
By the time I returned to the hotel, feeling like shit, I was met by my opposite. A woman who appeared to have sunshine radiating out of her despite her supposed bad night of sleep.
She slowly turned away from the window, her arms over her chest like a shield, and her eyes softened as they landed on me, but she didn’t smile.
I didn’t deserve it anyway.
I let the door click shut behind me as Hollis announced, “The brunette doesn’t exist.”
“What do you mean?” I blinked my way from Audrey to Hollis.
Ryder came into the room from our shared bedroom, spinning his ball cap backward as he joined us, a toothbrush hanging from his mouth, which he removed to share: “She’s an unknown variable. No one has anything on her. Not us. Interpol. MI6. No one.”
“Which means she’s good. Really, really good,” Hollis said, standing alongside Audrey, who’d yet to budge from her fixed position.
She had to hate me by now for my attitude, and she had every right to. I hadn’t handled what happened all that well.
“Are you saying this woman is our hacker? Is she Cipheria?” I kept my back to the door. “And if she is Cipheria, why’s she working with Helix? I thought she was helping Mitch. Aren’t they enemies? Or is she an insider plant helping Mitch out?”
I was losing track at this point. Whose side was who on? Who was really dead?
“I don’t know. This is all so fucked.” Ryder shoved his toothbrush back in his mouth.
“Maybe she’s not our hacker, then,” Audrey proposed.
“Give me a second,” Ryder said around his toothbrush before returning to the bedroom.
Audrey let her arms fall to her sides, and I slowly worked my eyes up to her face, then regretted doing so immediately.
I couldn’t look at her and stay angry. It was impossible, like asking someone to hate the sun when it gave us light and life. It just, you know, also burned you if you weren’t careful.
And here I was, standing here, deciding fuck it. Fuck the burn. I could take it. Maybe even stand in the way of Chase’s family being reunited to fight that fire now.
I hung my head, thinking of that cute kid. Nope, can’t do it to him. If Audrey made her choice, then I had to respect it and their family.
“I’m glad you came back,” she finally said.
Ryder returned before I could respond, toothbrush gone now.
“I’m going to check in with my brother to see if he can help out. Maybe he’ll have better luck in finding her,” Hollis suggested. “The brunette clearly exists; you saw her this morning. We’ll find her.” She brought her phone to her ear and nodded at Audrey, then took off for her bedroom.
“When you learn anything, let me know. I’m going to change my bandage and get some rack time.” Maybe work on getting my head back on straight, too.
“And my sister will be helping you change it.” That sure as hell came out sounding like an order, not from my best friend, but from Delta One.
I opened my mouth to object, but he lifted his hand, jaw tight, letting me know not to argue.
I shook my head but didn’t protest, then went into my bedroom, where Audrey caught up with me a few seconds later.
“Medkit in your bag or Reed’s this time?” Her voice was so fragile it killed me.
“Mine.” I peeled my shirt over my head and tossed it onto the bed, keeping my back to her as I removed the current bandage taped to my side while walking into the bathroom.
I turned on the water and rinsed my hands and face before cleaning up the wound. I had no idea how I’d survive these next few minutes with this woman doctoring me up without feeling like my heart would explode from my chest.
“What’s this?” she asked.
I caught her eyes in the mirror before dropping my attention to the wedding band I bought after I’d lost my mind.
“It’s for tomorrow. You know, when we have to play pretend.” I set my hands on the counter and hung my head, not able to be this close to her. To look her in the eyes and not ache every-fucking-where.
How was it possible to feel this deeply for someone after such a short period of time? At first, I’d struggled to believe how fast Ryder had fallen for Seraphina, worried he was in rebound territory. He’d proved me wrong, but now there I was, in the same boat of falling almost as fast.
“A diamond eternity band in platinum for a prop?”
“Loco, I know,” I gritted out, and at the feel of her hand on my arm, my palms were about to meld with the marble.
“I didn’t kiss Trevor.”
Those four words sent my heart into my throat.
“I know you think I did, but you’re mistaken.”
The thousand-pound weight on my chest eased up, but only by a fraction. I wasn’t ready to believe my ears. Not when I still trusted my sight. But then again, Reed was right. I hadn’t actually seen them kiss; I’d just assumed they were going to.
“Beth hurt you,” she began in a soft voice, keeping her hand on me, “but I’m not her. I would never do that.”
My stomach muscles clenched, anticipating the impact of a hit instead of the relief she was trying to give my mind and body.
“Back before Trevor used to deploy, he’d rest his head against mine and promise me that no matter what, he’d always return. A tradition we kept even in friendship. Since he was going to operate again . . .”
She let the words marinate, let them find a way through the logical part of my brain. And the weight on my chest began to levitate higher above it.
“There’s nothing between him and me. But there is something between you and me.”
I met her eyes in the mirror, waiting for her to continue. I needed to hear more so I could understand.
“I didn’t think I’d ever be able to trust anyone again. To even want a future with anyone after what Mitch did to me before he deployed,” she said in a shaky voice. “And not only did I want you on Monday, I needed you. You didn’t just touch me, Alejandro. You undid everything he broke.”
I remained staring at her. Trying to absorb the fact after was happening now when I’d already thought I’d said goodbye to that possibility. I swallowed, knowing there was only one thing left to do: apologize.
I guided her around to face me and gently cupped her chin.
“Lo lamento.” A deeper form of regret than lo siento, but she wouldn’t know that, so what was I doing? “I’m so damn sorry for how I acted. I went to the worst-case scenario instead of asking you. Jumped to conclusions,” I said in a strained voice. “I was an idiot.”
She shook her head, freeing tears from her eyes. “I’d have done the same thing. We’re used to people breaking our trust and our hearts. I’m not mad at you, only sorry I couldn’t clear the air last night.”
It was taking all my restraint not to kiss her trembling lower lip, to take it between my own. To apologize a hundred times over.
“When this is over . . .” It was the best I could get out right now, because she was too damn close, her hands gliding up over my heated, bare skin.
I was coming up on three days without solid sleep, and if I wasn’t careful, I might snap and ask her to marry me for real.
Mitch being alive—technically making her still married—didn’t mean shit to me.
“Okay,” she agreed in a soft voice of understanding.
I leaned in and kissed her temple where she’d been hit last Friday.
The bruise was nearly gone, but it still served as a reminder as to why we were in New Zealand.
Why I shouldn’t carry her into the bedroom and make love to her.
Why I had to wait until after this mission like I’d promised her brother I’d do.
“We shouldn’t be alone in here much longer.”
She proved me right by rolling her hips forward, pressing against my ever-growing erection while skimming her fingers along my sides, careful to avoid my wound.
Unable to stop myself, I hooked an arm around her waist and slid my hand to the back of her neck, gently taking hold of her.
“Peligroso,” I reminded her, letting her know I was hanging on to a very dangerous edge here.
“We shouldn’t, I know.” And yet she kept arching into me, keeping her breasts flush to my chest, her hands still exploring, tracing my scars like they were constellations in the night sky.
The one at my side was healing quickly. Something told me a few more days with her and every wound, both inside and out, would vanish.
Her eyes remained bold, locked on mine. Lashes fluttering. Lips damp and parted.
I didn’t stand a chance with her here like this.
I brushed my mouth over hers and demanded, “What color lace today?”
Her tongue peeked out like a tease. “Black.”
I caught the word with my mouth.
Had her up against the wall by the open door a moment later. I pinned her leg to my side so she could draw closer and grind against me. Feel the full weight of my erection pressing into her.
Moans. Cries. Pleas.
And then—
A voice.
Not hers.
Not mine.
I waved blindly toward the sound. “Not now.”
“I’m really sorry, but it’s important.”
Hollis, dammit. Trying to steal my moment with this incredible woman, and we were both going to be left tense and unsatisfied.
“Go. Away,” I growled between open-mouthed kisses, all heat and tongue and desperation. I didn’t give a shit that we had an audience. Not even the pope himself could pull me away from Audrey.
Screw after.
This was happening now.
“I found something Gwen’s AI program missed on that flash drive from the bear. Guess we still need humans after all,” Hollis kept going like she didn’t understand English.
Did I need to switch to Spanish?
I wasn’t leaving until I made Audrey come.
“Do you want Ryder to be the one to interrupt? He will if you two don’t . . .”
She was still talking.
Maybe?
I stopped listening.
She was now the bane of my existence, because my girl was still kissing me like she needed me to survive. Maybe we were both jet-lagged and delirious. But so be it.
“Beth lied,” Hollis declared, revealing an ugly truth I should have seen coming five miles and one gunshot wound away.
My mouth went still and Audrey froze against me, her foot finding the floor as I let go of her thigh.
Then, slowly, as one, we turned to the woman who’d intruded.
Hollis’s eyes narrowed as she looked directly at Audrey. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “It wasn’t Mitch who forced Beth to set up the meeting between Trevor and Will Hobbs at the ball. And it wasn’t Mitch who sent Trevor off to die.”