Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
“This is a shit plan,” Ryan announced. “Granted, no one is asking my opinion, but, for the record, it is a seriously shit plan.”
Nash turned to glare at his brother. “Thanks for the support.” Delaney had been taken into another room by Jezebel. He knew Jezebel was in there, thoroughly interviewing Delaney and even getting pics of her wounds for documentation. The guards had gone inside with the women. Guards—other agents.
Tension rode him hard. He didn’t like being separated from Delaney. For some reason, he felt like he had to keep his eyes on her.
“Maybe if you hadn’t stopped to make out with her, then you’d be thinking with your head and not with your dick.”
Okay. Enough. He bounded toward Ryan.
Ryan didn’t even appear mildly intimidated.
His brother simply quirked a brow. “Oh, come on. Don’t deny the obvious.
Her mouth was swollen and red when she came out of that bedroom, and her cheeks were flushed bright pink.
She had the look of a woman who had just been thoroughly kissed while you looked like all you wanted to do was lock out the rest of the world and screw her senseless. ”
“Watch it,” he warned.
“Why? I know you have never gotten over your obsession with Delaney. I know that you still sneak off to check up on her. I know that you even followed her to Milan a while back because you were worried about her meeting her grandfather.”
Because he’d known exactly who—and what—her grandfather was.
Nash had met Delaney’s grandfather years ago. When Carmello Ricci had come to the US. When he’d broken into Nash’s apartment…and told me to stay the hell away from Delaney.
Delaney…
“Let me take care of her,” Ryan said.
Uh, the fuck, no. “You’ll keep your hands off Delaney.”
“I did not say let me fuck her. Did you hear those words come out of my mouth? No, no, you did not. I said, ahem, take care of her. As in, I’ll keep her alive.
Count on me. I’ll do whatever stupid cover Jez thinks we need on this mission.
I’ll be the big, bold, dangling bait that lures in our prey.
You get your ass out of here. You get your ass out of the country. You just go.”
His feet were rooted to the spot. “I’m not leaving her.”
“Why the hell not?” Ryan demanded. “You did it before.”
He caught himself just before he took a swing at his brother.
Ryan grinned at him. Smug. Annoying. As only a brother could be. “Ah, still a sore spot, isn’t it? What have you been doing, bro? Living with regret all these years? Has it just been eating away at your soul? Do you wish with that hard, hard heart of yours that you could go back and change things?”
You have no idea.
“You never explained why you broke things off with her.” Ryan rocked onto the balls of his feet.
“Why you were hot and heavy one moment and leaving her the next, but I saw your pain. I know you hurt so I know she must have hurt you. Why the hell are you willing to risk so much for a woman who broke your heart?”
“You don’t understand.” Because he hadn’t told his brother the truth. He hadn’t told anyone.
Well, Jezebel knew. And I think that’s why she’s doing this damn, crazy cover.
Jezebel Jenkins was cold, she was calculating, and she was also the best CIA training officer in the whole world.
She’d helped Nash. Guided him after he’d talked to her years ago about Delaney’s grandfather.
Jez knew what a monster the man truly was.
Before Carmello Ricci died, Jez was working to bring him down.
Nash had been doing the same thing. Trying to rip apart the man’s world. Not something that would ever be easy to admit to Delaney.
Hey, sweetheart, so I worked tirelessly to destroy the only family you had left in the world. I tried to send your grandfather to prison. I tried to annihilate his empire. I tried to leave you with nothing.
Also, by the way, the reason we broke up so long ago was because I traded you…I traded us…and I missed you every single day.
“Make me understand,” Ryan demanded.
Nash opened his mouth.
A loud, blasting beat of music cut through the room.
“Dammit.” Ryan yanked out his phone. “Agnes has programmed in more of her music.” He shoved the phone to his ear. “This is not a good time.”
Nash tried to suck in some calming breaths. No good. The breaths did not calm him. His gaze cut to the closed door on the right.
Jezebel is trying to help me. Trying to give me time with Delaney. Sure, sure, his boss was also trying to bring down Kurt Wellington because the man needed to be locked away in some dank, dark prison for the rest of his life but…
We don’t have to fake some wedding. There are a hundred other scenarios that could work.
But only one that gave Nash back what he wanted most—Delaney.
“Delaney is alive. Delaney is being protected. And, no, I can’t tell you more than that, sis, because this is a classified operation.
When the dust settles, I’m sure Delaney will call you and update you on everything.
Or, know what? Maybe she can come down and see you on that little slice of heaven you call home on the bay.
But for now, I love you, sis, but bye.” Ryan hung up the phone and shoved it back into his pocket.
Music immediately began blasting again. Only this time, the music was coming from Nash’s phone. The same grating tone. He pulled out his phone, and, as Ryan smirked at him, Nash put the phone on speaker. “Hello, Agnes.”
“Ohmygosh. It is such a relief to speak to my favorite brother,” she began.
“You are on speaker,” Ryan informed her.
“I stand by my words!” Agnes immediately retorted. “Because a favorite brother doesn’t hang up on you when you call him!”
“I am her favorite,” Nash informed Ryan with a shrug of one shoulder. “She’s not lying. Sorry if the truth hurts.”
Ryan just sighed.
“I need to speak with Delaney,” Agnes said. “The woman is not used to danger and drama, and she’s probably freaking out. Someone needs to reassure her. I’m that someone.”
Actually, other than the scream when Ryan had gone into her bedroom, she’d been pretty good and oddly controlled about things. Even handled the scene at the motel room with surprising calmness. “She’s not freaking out.”
Silence on the phone. Then, “Nash, may I please speak with my friend Delaney?”
Hell. He’d basically never refused Agnes anything since the day he’d met her. When he’d first come into the Quinn household, he’d been so scared his knees had knocked together. He’d stood there, bruises hidden beneath his clothes, and he’d waited for them to reject him.
Then a little fireball—seriously, Agnes’s red hair had been bright back then—had hurtled toward him. She’d been all skinny legs and arms, and she’d thrown herself against him as she happily cried out, “A new big brother! I will love you forever!” And she had.
That was his sister, Agnes, though. Even as a kid, she’d loved with her whole heart, given herself completely, faced life at one hundred miles an hour. Generally, she was a tornado, and she got exactly what she wanted in this world.
“Be firm,” Ryan mouthed at him.
Because Ryan had the same weakness that Nash did. Nash nodded to his brother even as he had to force out, “Sorry, Agnes, no can do.”
“What?”
“No can do.” It was easier to say the second time.
Ryan gave him a thumbs up.
“Why can’t I talk to Delaney?” Her voice had gone ominously low. “Do not tell me this is a classified situation.”
That was exactly what he was going to tell her. “It’s classified.”
“Nash!”
Both he and Ryan winced.
“Don’t worry,” Nash assured her. “I will stay with Delaney until the danger has passed. I will do whatever it takes—”
“Even marry her,” Ryan inserted in a very unnecessary and loud manner.
“—to protect her,” Nash finished.
More ominous silence. Then, “Did Ryan say…marry her?”
The door to the right began to open.
“Got to go,” Nash told Agnes. “I’ll call you again when the case is closed. Until then…classified.”
“But—”
He hung up. He expected to see Delaney walking out of that room. Instead, Jezebel slipped out. She shut the door behind her. Her gaze darted between him and Ryan. “Gentlemen.” A nod. “We need to talk.”
His own stare shifted to the door. “Why is Delaney still inside?”
“Because I don’t want her to hear this conversation.” She marched past them. Her heels click-clicked on the floor. “Come with me.”
With one last, lingering look at that closed door, he followed her into the kitchen. She spun as soon as he and Ryan entered. Her lips pressed together and the fingers of her right hand tapped against her thigh. “This could be quite the clusterfuck,” Jezebel declared.
“I hope it’s not,” Ryan muttered. “Hate clusterfucks. They are my least favorite type of fucks.”
Jezebel had her gaze on Nash. “You know what a big deal Typhon is to the agency. We’ve had suspicions about his true identity for a while, but never enough concrete evidence to act. Never possessed a good enough bait to trap him.”
“I am aware.” That would be why he’d called Jezebel as soon as he’d gotten Delaney tucked in bed upstairs.
And, yes, side note, Ryan had been right about what had occurred in the bedroom.
Nash had pulled the covers up over Delaney’s body as quickly as he could and then he’d run for the door because lingering with her was so not a good plan. Not when his control was razor thin.
“We need him in custody.” Jezebel spoke those words as if Nash and Ryan were not already completely aware of that obvious truth.
“We need to catch him in the act of a major crime. Yes, I have Delaney’s testimony.
But a simple assault charge is going to be BS, if we could even get him in custody, and right now, the man is smoke.
We need him to be brought into the open.
I need evidence to nail his ass to the wall and conclusively link him as Typhon.
” She shook her head. “This will get messy. It will get dangerous. It will be—”
“A clusterfuck?” Ryan finished.