Chapter 2 Xaden #13
Only when the patrol car disappears from sight do I let myself breathe freely. Kate gently takes Noah’s balloon and smiles.
“Let’s get you two somewhere safe.”
XADEN
I don’t breathe until Keller calls.
I’m pacing the garage, phone in hand. I was already out the door before I stopped to think.
Training kicked in — wait, don’t move, don’t blow the op. But waiting means thinking. And thinking means seeing Cole and Noah in Willard’s car, taillights pulling away.
I picture Noah in the booster seat, kicking his legs, asking a question with that bright little voice. And Cole, trapped, still polite, the way he gets when he’s scared but doesn’t want to show it.
I hate myself for not being there to tear Willard’s hands off the wheel. To tear him into pieces.
I hate myself for putting them in danger like this.
When Keller calls, I snatch the phone so hard it nearly cracks. “Talk.”
“They’re safe.”
The breath I’ve been holding rips out of me. “You’re sure?” My voice comes out sharper than I mean.
“I wouldn’t be calling if I wasn’t,” Keller says evenly. “Agent Jones intercepted them at the fair, got them out clean. No incident. They’re on their way to Cole’s now. Willard didn’t push it.”
Safe. The word lands, but it doesn’t stick. Because safe today doesn’t mean safe tomorrow. Not with Willard circling.
And the truth is, I don’t just want Cole safe. I want him free.
Free from Willard, from fear, from every damn secret I’ve wrapped around us like barbed wire.
My eyes close. Relief hits fast, dizzying. But it’s gone just as quick, swallowed by the slow burn of rage.
“He threatened them, Keller. At the garage. Said Noah’s name.” My voice drops low, dangerous. “He made it personal.”
“I know.”
“I should’ve taken him out at the start.”
“No,” Keller cuts in. “Not your call. Not your timing. And Bailey? You won’t do a damn thing outside protocol,” he snaps. “We have a good plan. We follow it. Got it?” I force the air in slowly, controlled.
“Bailey. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” I grind out.
“Good.” A pause, softer now: “We’ll get them through this. You know that.”
The line clicks dead. I stand in the silence, fists clenched.
They’re safe for now. But Willard knows. Which means the others know too.
This doesn’t end later.
It ends soon.
Now.
COLE
After a quick shower, I check on Noah. He’s fast asleep, curled up next to Dinosaur the Dog, the faithful T-Rex having a well-earned rest on the pillow. His cheeks are pink from all the excitement at the fair.
This time I can honestly say I had even more excitement than him.
Kate’s in the kitchen making tea when I come downstairs. She gives me one of those calm, unshakable smiles I’m starting to suspect is part of SBI training. Because Kate is not, in fact, my second cousin from Mom’s side.
She’s an agent working under Xaden’s supervisor, Agent Keller.
“Did you know your cereal has more sugar than fiber?” she murmurs, holding up Noah’s cornflake box like it’s classified intel.
“Should you really be commenting on things like that?” I mutter, a little sullen. Kate just smiles like I’m the four-year-old in this house and not the allegedly grown man.
I start loading the dishwasher — yes, a bit haphazardly. I’m nervous she’ll judge my cutlery arrangement too, like my entire domestic life is suddenly under review.
There’s a knock at the door. Kate is there in two seconds flat. “Xaden Bailey, requesting entrance,” she calls back. “Do you allow it? I can confirm he’s friendly.”
I start coughing. “Um… yeah,” I stammer. “I… allow it.”
Xaden steps inside, carrying a thick folder. He looks tired. Worn. Worried. And he’s staring at me, or more specifically, at my shirt. It takes me a second to realize why. It’s his. Old, soft, one of those I never gave back. He gives me a lazy smile. “Nice shirt.”
I try to play it cool. “Thank you. Family heirloom.”
“Really?” His grin deepens.
“Really,” I say primly, turning back to the dishwasher like it holds the secrets of the universe.
Kate slips into the living room, leaving us alone.
“She’s an SBI agent,” I whisper. Then I cringe. Obviously Xaden knows that. He clears his throat and hands me the folder, face suddenly all business.
“It’s all there,” he says, clipped, formal. He does that when he’s flustered, goes all senator-on-the-floor while I’m standing here blushing like an idiot.
“What do you want to do?” I nod toward the folder. He hesitates, jaw working.
“What I want, and what I have to do… two very different things. Right now it’s only about one goal. Making sure Willard rots in prison for the rest of his life.”
The air feels heavier. My hands tighten on the folder. I have the creeping feeling that once I open it, there’s no closing it again.
“You’re going to do something dangerous, aren’t you?” I whisper. Xaden pulls me close and kisses the top of my head. I don’t know if he even realized he was doing that.
For a moment, I let myself relax in the cocoon of his arms.
Then Xaden looks at me. “We have a good plan. And I kind of know what I’m doing.”
“Do you, now?” I can’t help but smile.
“I do. Besides,” Xaden gives me a smile so flirty, I almost faint, and then murmurs close to my ear. “I have very strong arms. Major plus.”
“That’s… so conceited,” I mutter, heat curling in my stomach. The doorbell rings again and interrupts our charged hug.
“Cole, are you expecting visitors?” Kate calls, then I hear her add: “Smells divine.”
A scowling voice answers in Italian: “Certo che profuma bene, l’ha fatta mia madre.”
Antonio? Sure enough, he’s on the porch with Caspian, who’s clutching a giant pot that smells like tomato heaven. Antonio’s got two bottles of wine. He looks even scowlier than I remembered.
Caspian attempts to translate. “He said that yes, I have a…mother?”
“You’d be doing all of us a favor if you stopped pretending you understand a word of Italian,” Antonio mutters. To my surprise, Kate answers in flawless Italian: “Sta cercando di adottare per caso?”
Antonio blinks. Caspian jumps in quickly. “She said your mom might be single?”
“I know what she said,” Antonio sighs, “and it definitely wasn’t that.”
I usher them in.
Caspian sets the pot on the counter, giving me a wary look. “What’s going on?”
“A long story,” I say. “But when I asked for snacks, I didn’t think you’d bring half of Trattoria di Scotti with you.”
“I happened to be in the neighborhood,” Caspian says, a bit flustered. Antonio puts the wine bottles on the counter with a very displeased clink.
“You happened to be in the neighborhood?” He arches a perfect brow. “So we weren’t on a date?”
“Oh no,” I gasp. “Did I interrupt your date? Please, go back — just, you know, leave the pot.”
“We just established Caspian ‘happened to be in the neighborhood’ so you didn’t interrupt anything,” Antonio says, throwing air quotes like daggers.
Xaden snorts, and Antonio spins on him. “You think I’m funny?” Xaden actually steps back, like a rottweiler retreating from a furious chihuahua.
Kate, meanwhile, introduces herself cheerfully: “Special Agent Kate Jones. And this is Special Agent Xaden Bailey.”
I squeak. Try to disguise it as a cough. Why does Special Agent Xaden Bailey sound like the hottest possible combination of words?
“Real agents?” Antonio asks, curious.
“Real,” Xaden nods, giving me an amused look. Heat pools in my stomach. “And we actually need to get back to work.”
“Come on, baby,” Caspian mutters before immediately correcting himself. “I mean Antonio, not—”
Antonio sighs. “Giuro, se non fossi così bello… Let’s go to your place, che ho proprio voglia di baciarti.”
Kate raises her brows. “I’d suggest you hurry.” She mimes a kiss. Caspian’s eyes widen and he bolts after Antonio.
I see them out, then glance at Xaden. Trying to look nonchalant, I say: “We need to talk. Um… upstairs.”
He raises a brow, lips twitching.
“Sure,” he says with that lazy grin that suggests he knows exactly what I mean by ‘talk’.
Kate rolls her eyes, though she’s smiling. “Five minutes. Then I’m calling Keller.”
XADEN
Cole doesn’t say much as we climb the stairs, but the way his eyes keep flicking toward me — still a little wide from Kate’s “Special Agent” announcement — tells me exactly what this private talk might involve. Fear and thrill are warring in him, and I want both.
The second his bedroom door shuts, he presses against me. I back us toward the bed, dragging him with me.
His lips hover, his cheeks pink. “I know it’s a cliché,” he murmurs, “but it’s ridiculously hot that you’re an agent.”
I smirk. “Suddenly my career choice feels very rewarding.” Then he’s kissing me, not shy this time, hungry.
I groan into his mouth. “Fuck, Cole, you have no idea what you’re doing to me.”
Kate’s voice rings through the door, sing-song sweet: “Two minutes, lovebirds. Then I’m calling Keller.”
I swear. Cole pulls back, flushed and mussed. “When this whole thing’s over, can we go out? We used to have the best dates.”
“When this is over, I want to be on a date with you for the rest of my life,” I murmur. He blushes, but kisses me once more before straightening, running a shaky hand through his hair.
COLE
Xaden’s mouth is still warm on mine when Kate’s voice slices through the door: “Two minutes, lovebirds!”
Xaden curses; I laugh against his lips, dizzy and not remotely finished. But reality crashes back.
Now, ten minutes later, we’re at my kitchen table like none of that just happened. Kate’s angled toward her laptop while I try to remember how to breathe normally.
Keller’s face fills the screen, steady and professional-looking. His first words nearly make me snort. “My daughter’s a big fan of yours, Mr. Hudson. One Last Kiss is her favorite. Could I trouble you for an autograph? I’m sure Agent Bailey can deliver it.”
I keep my expression neutral. “Of course.”