Bonus Epilogue
Beast
I’ve wanted Jessica Korbel from the very first minute I saw her. Yes. Instant attraction.
Interest.
Infatuation.
Did I love her then? No. Who can love someone based on one visual? That came later, though admittedly, not much later.
She’d walked into training, one of three women in a group of fifty people, and she’d had the attention of everyone there. Her counterparts had also been under inspection, but she’d had this fire I couldn’t look away from.
Or, maybe it’d been those dark brown eyes and her dark hair twisted into a tight bun at the back of her head. Full lips and delicate-looking ears and a voice that sounded like she hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in a while—a little husky and rough.
And back then? She hadn’t exactly smiled at me, but she’d extended a hand. “Jess Korbel.”
My hand had swallowed hers, though that wasn’t unusual for me, being larger than the average bear. “Jude Rawlins.”
And then it’d happened.
“Jude,” she’d said, like my name—my name—had charmed her.
So that was the moment. Call me a fool or whatever you want, but that was the moment I fell for her. After that, it was all downhill. No stopping, no turning back… even when she fell for my best friend.
I couldn’t have guessed how it’d all turn out—how things with my best friend would blow up and how he’d ruin everything. How the choices we all made would get people hurt and how they’d steal the one thing I’d ever wanted.
How they’d turn Jess Korbel into my enemy.
I lived off glimpses of her, swallowing down even her ire when it came at me, since that was better than nothing. I’d given up hoping she’d change, that she’d see me as anything more than a villain. I wouldn’t beg her to be my friend again.
So I gave her nothing—less than nothing—and felt my heart harden into granite against her.
She avoided me—literally traveled around the globe to escape me. But now, she’d returned.
And the circumstances had come together in a way that would mean she couldn’t avoid me any longer.
Our team at Saint Security knew we didn’t get along, even if they didn’t understand exactly why we couldn’t bury the hatchet. They’d done everything to keep us separate, likely as much for their own sakes as for ours.
But this weekend, Saint Security had signed on for an advanced team to scout a high-end resort for a celebrity client, which meant we’d go in undercover and report on their security. The assignment was for a husband-and-wife cover story.
Jess was slotted as our female agent, but I wasn’t going to get anywhere near that, until Cookie got sick. Wilder was gone, Tristan couldn’t do the job, Bruce had another tasking, and down the list it went.
So I said yes.
Because I needed a change.
And because something in me said it was time to push back.
There’d be nowhere for her to hide now.
And me?
I had nothing left to lose.
Don’t miss Jude (Beast) and Jess’s story, Fighting For You.