Chapter 29
Freya
Brilliant. Miraculously, I had found a way to make this situation even worse for myself…
by letting my legs fall open. The cherry on the sundae.
Let the guy use his magic dick to churn me up into a total froth of wild feelings, and then, when I’m at the absolute peak of emotional vulnerability, whammo.
That’s when I get to watch him zip up his pants and walk away into mortal peril. Leaving me alone in the dark. Again.
Simply genius. Really, I just astonish myself sometimes.
I slid off the table and let the skirt fall.
I tried to shoehorn my boobs back into the bodice for a couple of minutes before I realized how silly that was.
The dress had served its purpose. It was time to take it off and put on something more practical.
Jeans, a warm sweater, boots to run like hell in.
I had no idea what came next, but if Jed had his way, I wouldn’t participate in it.
Which was the story of my life. My two brothers were so fucked up by what had happened to me at our aunt and uncle’s house, they’d been madly overcompensating ever since.
Trying to keep me safe at all times, in all places.
It was sweet of them, and I appreciated their anxious care as much as it annoyed me.
Protecting me was a near-impossible task, considering who I am.
But that didn’t stop my brothers from trying.
Jed was doing the same damn thing. Maybe guys like him were all just wired up that way. Maybe that’s how they all acted when they gave a shit. I had only my brothers to compare him to. None of my other boyfriends had ever behaved that way.
Of course, none of my other boyfriends had ever made the cut, either. Lightweights, to the last man. To be fair, I’d probably cherry-picked them just that way on purpose, for some reason known only to my darkest subconscious mind.
I got into my BBBag and pulled out the little pillbox that had the tiny trackers in it, so I was ready when Jed emerged from the bathroom. He was in black commando gear now, perfect for sneaking around in the dark, doing nefarious things. He had his new smartphone in his hand.
“Grifo texted me the location,” he said. “An address out in Gresham. It’s a forty-minute drive, and I’m meeting him in less than an hour. I should get going.”
“Let me see that address,” I demanded.
Jed turned the screen so I could see it. I committed it to memory, and handed him the tracker. “Load that up,” I said crisply. “You promised. I’ve already entered the data into the app on my own phone. You just have to put in the trace.”
He lifted his eyebrow at me, but got to work, prying his phone apart and inserting it without argument.
“I’ll take the car I rented today and leave you the Jeep,” he said.
“And I’ll call the Drakes on the way and organize protection for the Grifos.
You call Ethan and get him and his team involved. We need all hands on deck from now on.”
“Yup,” I said. “I will. First thing.”
He put his phone away, and pulled out a six-shot snubbie. “I’ll leave you this.”
I recoiled. “You remember what happened the last time you gave me a gun,” I said.
“When we’re all done with this, and we’ve won, I’ll do some intensive training and get really good with guns.
Until then, they’re just another hard thing for a bad guy to bash me upside the head with. So thanks, but no thanks.”
“Okay. But I’ll hold you to that. About the training.
” He slid the gun back into whatever pocket he’d stowed it in.
Then he grabbed my hand and kissed it. “Let’s just claw our way to the other side of this,” he said, his voice rough with suppressed emotion.
“Then you and I can figure out who we are together without Boer breathing down our necks.”
I kept my voice light. “Fingers crossed. Get on with it, then. Just text me every twenty minutes like you agreed. And set a timer to remind yourself. A vibrating timer, of course. I don’t want to get you killed.”
He tapped his phone, and held it up to show me the timer app, already programmed. “It is done, your Majesty.”
I tried not to snort and roll my eyes, but failed. Jed just grabbed me, squeezing me close, and giving me another one of those sweet, breath-stealing kisses.
“Talk to you in exactly twenty minutes,” he said. “And I sent you the phone numbers of the Drake brothers. Ethan has them, too. Anything happens, anything at all, you call them, first thing, got it? And call your brother, right now. Call everyone.”
I was holding myself together by sheer brute force, trying to keep from shaking apart into tears. “You’re starting to repeat yourself,” I said tartly. “Just get gone. The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll be back.”
He backed away a step. “I love you, Frey,” he said. “Before, I was okay with there not being anything on the other side of this whole thing. I thought, if Boer ended me, whatever. No big deal. That’s not true anymore. Now, I want it all. I want you.”
“Me too,” I said, in a tight voice. “I love you too. But the stakes are really freaking high, and I’m all wound up, so I just can’t let myself get mushy right now. Or I’ll break.”
He made a move as if he were going to touch me again, but I flinched back. “Go on, now. Please. You’re just making it harder.”
He turned away without another word and jogged off into the darkness.
The car he’d rented that day hummed into life. Headlights sliced through the trees, flickering as he accelerated away. He circled the bend, and the light was gone.
I had a brief meltdown, since he wasn’t there to see me, but I got it under control quickly.
I headed for the bathroom, swiftly showered off the crunchy helmet of hairspray, and swabbed off all the make-up.
I put on the regular clothing we’d bought for me today, jeans and a thick, warm sweatshirt.
Then I combed my wet hair back behind my ears, and that was it. No reason to wait any longer.
I dug into the stash of burner phones we’d bought today. It was an obscene hour to call my brother, but who cared. Of course, my oldest brother slept with his phone by his pillow, being twitchy by nature. He picked up instantly. “Who the fuck is this?”
Yep, that was my bro for you. “Hey, Ethan. It’s me.” I braced myself, and not a second too soon, because he lit right into me, with all the savagery I had fully expected from him.
“Where the fuck have you been?” he roared.
“Why haven’t you been answering your phone?
I’ve been looking everywhere for you! I’m up in Seattle right now, grilling all of your friends, and they’re all fucking useless!
Did you think Holly didn’t have enough to cry herself to sleep about without losing you, too? ”
“She hasn’t lost me,” I soothed. “Listen up, Ethan. I don’t have time for the lecture right now. I need to convey a lot of information very quickly, and then I need your help, and fast. Along with all the Unredeemables you can pull together. Right now.”
“Frey? What the fuck are you doing?” His voice was soft with disbelief.
“I’m with Jed Clearwater,” I said.
“You’re…where? With who? The Jed Clearwater who sold your brother for fifteen-fucking-million dollars?”
“Ah, well. About that. He didn’t, actually,” I told him. “I tracked him down, after he disappeared a few months ago—”
“And never told me what you were doing.”
I knew my brother well enough to feel the volcano rumbling, about to blow, but all I could do was press doggedly on.
“Uh, right. Sorry about that. He was using a different name, and he was in prison, undercover, trying to make contact with a guy who could give him dirt on the person who did sell Shane. Wex Boer.”
“Oh, for the love of God,” Ethan snarled. “Boer’s dead, Frey! His death was officially confirmed, using dental records and DNA analysis! Clearwater is playing you. He’s an excellent liar. He had me fooled for years. He fooled Shane, too.”
“But it’s not true. Boer isn’t dead. He faked his death.”
“Yeah? Really? Is that what he you told you?” Ethan’s voice had that dismissive, talking-down tone that always drove me mad.
“He didn’t have to tell me,” I said. “I met Boer myself. He tried kill me twice. I’m only alive because of Jed.”
That startled him into silence, but the satisfaction was all too brief. “Where are you, Frey?”
His voice had gotten detached. He was in get-it-done warrior-mode.
“Later for that,” I said. “Do you want to hear what’s happening, or not?”
Ethan kept his mouth shut for the time it took to tell him the essential, abridged version of the tale, without spilling that I was wildly in love with the guy.
But I might as well not have bothered to omit any details.
Ethan Masters had many terrible character traits, but being unobservant was not one of them.
“Tell me something, Frey,” he said, when I wrapped it up.
“Jed knew that we suspected him. The evidence was stacked up against him before he disappeared into thin air. So how is it he ever agreed to see you at the prison in the first place? It seems like a piss-poor idea on his part. Pretty stupid, actually, and that guy never struck me as stupid.”
I hesitated briefly. “He, ah…didn’t know it was me.”
“Come again?” he said, blankly. “How…”
“I’d created an alter ego,” I explained.
“I’ve been growing her for months. Her name was Sandee.
She was one of those girls who fall in love with convicted felons and court them while they’re behind bars.
I changed up my looks, bleached out my hair, dressed differently, made myself up.
And went to see him. He had no idea it was me. ”
“Why?” Ethan sounded shocked. “To what end? That’s senseless, Frey.”
“I wanted to get under his guard,” I said. “I hoped to get him to spill some sort of information that could help our search for Shane.”