Bourne to Love Emma (RED-Stone Operatives Book 1) (21 page)

“This was all in the trunk of the car
he stole – along with a few receipts for some of it, proving it wasn’t in there
when he stole the car.”

Coils of bright yellow nylon rope,
two big rolls of duct tape, a box cutter, a handgun and a balloon attached to
some kind of belt or something filled the box.  I slid my eyes to Jason and
pointed and the last item.

“It’s an inflatable ball gag. 
It…keeps you from being able to talk… or scream.”

Oh.  Okay then.  Tie me up, gag me,
cut me, shoot me….   The room around me got a little darker and I felt my knees
give way beneath me.  He really was going to kill me.

~Jason~

            I felt her start to sag against me.  With an arm
behind her back and one under her knees, I carried her a few steps to a chair
and sat down with her in my lap.

            “It’s okay, Emma.  Take a second.  I know it’s a
lot.”  I kissed the top of her head and cradled her against me.  She’s fought
believing the worst about her ex for a long time now.  She’s not that kind of
woman – which is one of the things I love about her.  Because I will never be
that kind of man.  My life has taught me to set my expectations of people low
so I’m not disappointed.  I always prepare for the worst because, in my mind,
it’s a lot more likely to be the case than not.

            John crossed the room and crouched down so that
he was eye-level with her.

            “Emma.  You’re going to have to talk to the
police.  They need to know about the club, but you also need to tell them about
what he did when you were getting divorced. You’ll have to give official
statements, but you’ll probably need to testify in court, too.  I already
called my contact at the local police department and he’s got a unit on the
way, when they get here-“

            I feel Emma turn her face into my neck and press
her face to my skin.  She’s done.  That’s enough.  I stood up, holding her
tight against me, forcing John to stand, too.

            “John, we’ll talk to the police tomorrow.  It can
wait.  He’s in custody and she needs time to come to grips with all of this.  It’s
after one in the morning.  We’re going back to my place.  I’ll call you in the
morning and we’ll figure out what needs to happen.” 

            John opened his mouth to argue and, for the first
time, I let my anger and frustration show on my face.  I’m fucking serious here
and I don’t care that he’s my boss.  Tough shit.  She’s my woman.  Her safety
and comfort trumps his red tape.  He can take it out on my ass later but, for
now, she’s all that’s important.  Period.

            John’s phone rang and I heard him tell Frank to
show the officers to the basement in five minutes.  I took that as my cue and
carried Emma to the elevator.  She was perfectly still in my arms, but her
breath against my neck was still coming too fast and shallow.  I knew she
wasn’t sleeping.

            When we got back to my apartment, I tried to get
her to stand beside me so I could unlock the door to the apartment.  She held
onto my neck for dear life.  I pulled her up so she could wrap her legs around
my waist and slid a hand under her ass to hold her still.  Once we got inside,
I locked the door and left the lights off. 

            I sat on the side of the bed with her in my lap
and just held her.  She was starting to freak me out a little.  After a few
minutes, I whispered that I needed to take our shoes off so we could lie down. 
She let me slide her off my lap but stayed pressed against me as much as she
could.  I took my boots off in the dark and unloaded my pockets and holsters
onto the nightstand before turning to her. 

            I pulled her shoes and socks off her feet and
leaned her back to unfasten her jeans and wiggle them down her hips.  Once she
was in her panties and t-shirt, I pulled the covers back and patted her hip so
she would slide up to the pillow.  I saw the glint of light reflect off her
eyes when she reached for me and tugged on my t-shirt.  After pulling it off
over my head and tossing it toward the end of the bed, I slid in behind her and
pulled her into me. 

            I curled myself around her as much as I could and
pressed a kiss just behind her ear.  “It’s over, Em.  You’re safe.  I’m staying
right here.  I love you.”

            She didn’t say anything but I felt a tremble run
through her.  Slowly her breathing slowed down and matched mine.  I felt it
when her body finally relaxed into me all the way.

            Every time I closed my eyes I saw the inside of
the trunk of that car.  Listening to that bastard scream at her, I had no doubt
that he would have done a lot more than just kill her.  Of all of it, the gag
was what sent me over the edge.  The idea of Emma being helpless and unable to
scream – the idea of him doing anything to her that would make her scream – it
was something that I know I’ll never be able to wipe from my mind. 

            The world is full of evil people who do terrible
things every fucking day.  I’ve seen more in my 37 years than the average
person would in several lifetimes.  But I chose this life.  I chose to put
myself on the front lines and face the monsters of the world myself so that
people like Emma wouldn’t have to.

I accepted, long ago, that there
would be things I’ve done or seen that would haunt me forever.  I’ve held men –
my own fucking men – in my arms as they’ve taken their last breaths.  I’ve
killed innocents when orders were given to take out entire buildings in search
of a guilty few.  I’ve walked away from people who needed my help because my
mission didn’t include stopping to aid them.  I’ve held crying widows after
delivering the last words spoken by their husbands.  I saw into the mind of an
evil bastard whose sole intent had been to harm the most important person in my
life.

It’s the last of these that freezes
my lungs and squeezes my heart.  That feeling of helplessness that swamped me
when I saw what was inside the trunk washes over me again.  The possibility
that I could have failed, could have lost her and Mia… is the hardest thing for
me to even contemplate.

Before Emma, my life was all about
the mission.  Working for RED-Stone gave me a way to try to balance out the
debt I owed the universe, a way for me to make up for all the things I did in
the name of duty to my country.  Every person I helped RED-Stone save, every
arms dealer we took down, every government mole we sniffed out – they all put a
little tick mark on my side of the sheet.  I went from mission to mission. 

Sure, I played poker with some of the
guys and made a day of going out to the practice range with Tex or one of the
other special forces guys from the office.  But I didn’t invest my time in
people.  I didn’t have relationships outside of my job because they served no
purpose.  I didn’t have anything to give someone else because I put everything
I had into the company.  I didn’t see a need for it, either.  If I wanted sex,
I could get sex without the other complications.  But even that wasn’t a
priority.  You learn to live without a lot of things when you’re in the field
for months on end.  I just hadn’t realized that I’d learned to live without
someone caring about me.  Just me.  Because it’s not the same for someone to
ask if I’m okay to do my job or if my injury will heal before the next
mission. 

That’s something Emma has in spades. 
She cares – about everyone – and expects nothing.  She puts other people before
herself but is shocked when someone tries to help her without wanting something
in return.  She is good and kind and she is the light I never realized was
missing in my darkness.  I never knew how dark the darkness was until her light
shined into it. 

I can’t go back.  I need her too much
now.

~Emma~

            I was alone.

            I knew he wasn’t in bed with me before I even
opened my eyes.  Behind my eyelids, last night played like a movie.  Each
moment seemed like an out-of-body experience. 

All that time that John and Jason
kept pushing me to press charges.  They told me it was serious, that Dan was
dangerous.  I never really believed it.  I was so stupid about everything. 

           
I could hear Jason’s voice drifting from somewhere else in
the apartment.  I know I have to deal with this today.  I have to give
statements and press charges and talk to police.  I have to face the fact that
Dan has become a monster and is trying to ruin my life one way or another. 
He’s hurt people I love and he’s taken us away from living our lives the way we
want to live them.  I have to end it – for all of us.  This is on me now.

            But I want to lie here and ignore it all.  I
don’t generally condone living in denial, but I think maybe I’d like to try it
for just a little longer.  Because reality isn’t my friend today. 

            When I finally opened my eyes, Jason was crouched
beside the bed.  He needed to shave and he looked exhausted.  But he was easily
the most wonderful thing I’ve seen in…forever.  I stretched out my hand and ran
it over his rough jaw, cupping his cheek. 

            He smiled softly and cradled my hand in his own. 

            “I love you so much,” I whispered.

            His eyes closed and he turned his face and kissed
the palm of my hand.  “I love you, too, Em.  I don’t deserve it, but I’ll spend
the rest of my life trying to be a man who does.”

            After a moment, I tugged my hand back so I could
sit up in bed.

            “Time to face the music,” I said, dread and worry
in my voice.

            “The hard part is behind you, babe.  Today will
be long and frustrating but, after it’s over, we can put it behind us and move
on.”  He stood beside the bed, waiting.

            “Okay.  I need to call Carla and take a shower.”

            “I already talked to her.  Jax stayed with them
last night until the police took Dan into custody.  She’ll keep Mia until we’re
finished today.  She told me to tell you not to worry about anything.  Mia loves
being at her place and she can stay as long as we need her to stay.”

            I nodded my head at his words.  When I slid off
the edge of the bed and stood, he pulled me into him and wrapped me in his
arms.  Safe.  Warm.  My favorite place.  After a moment, he kissed my forehead
and pulled away.

            “You get ready and I’ll make you breakfast.”  As
I walked past him toward the bathroom, he patted me on the bottom.  I just
shook my head and laughed quietly.  Such a man.

            An hour and a half later, John met us at the police
station with RED-Stone’s attorney in tow. 

            “Emma, this is Aiden Jones.  He’s going to stay
with you throughout this whole process.  Jason and I have to give our own
statements today and we can’t be in the room while they’re taking yours, but
Aiden can.  If they ask you a question you don’t want to answer, you tell
Aiden.  If you need a break, you tell Aiden.  He’s the best there is, so you
trust him and do what he says, okay?”

            I shook Aiden’s hand and tried to smile when he
said hello.  I was starting to think I was going to lose what little breakfast
I managed to eat earlier.

            Jason turned me toward him.  “Emma.  Everything
is going to be fine.  We just have to make it through today, okay?”

            “Okay.  One more day.”

            He placed his lips against mine for a moment. 
“One more day, baby.”

~Jason~

            I watched her follow the attorney into one of the
interrogation rooms at the station.  My gut was screaming against letting her
out of my sight, but I knew I didn’t have a choice.  One more day. 

            John and I were taken back separately to provide
statements.  Fortunately, today anyway, my actions fell under self-defense
since the fucker was armed when I ran into him behind the building.  I gave a
cleaned-up version of everything that’s happened since I first noticed the car
outside our building through last night.  Obviously, I don’t tell them about
hacking cameras or satellite footage or anything else that could get my ass in
trouble.  Thanks to Uncle Sam, I could even pass a lie detector test swearing
all I did was run a plate number and notice a stolen car parked outside the
building. 

            Without discussing any of it, I know John will do
the same.  This is the life we’ve chosen – to live just outside the law while
walking the line as often as possible.  We keep what we do to ourselves for the
most part and try to let the rest fall under the umbrella of ‘security.’ 
Thanks to the media and Hollywood, the general public actually believes that
it’s normal for security to be armed at all times or monitor cameras constantly. 
That helps us to a degree.  But the police don’t fall in the same category, so
we have to be more careful with them.  We don’t like lying about anything – but
we all know the benefit of telling them only what they need to know.

            Three signed statements, two interviews, a
recorded deposition and four hours later, I was waiting in a hard-ass chair in
the lobby of the station.  Emma was still inside.  I told John to go home. 
It’s Sunday and he hasn’t seen Heather in days.  He agreed as long as I promised
to pick up Mia and bring both of them to his house for dinner.  It was about
the last thing I want to do, but I knew Emma would want to see Heather, too. 
And, having been threatened by Heather in the past, I wouldn’t put it past her
to junk punch me when I’m not looking if I don’t do what she wants.  That woman
should work for John instead of just marrying him.  She could come in handy in
some of our interrogations….

            I had just stood up to ask the cop sitting at the
front desk how much longer when I saw her.  Pale, hollow-eyed, exhausted – the
most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life.  She walked out beside the
attorney and crossed the lobby to me.  She curled her arm around my waist and
snuggled into my side as I spoke to the attorney.

            “Five damn hours?  Is she done?”

            “She’s done until the trial dates are set. 
She’ll have to go through preparation to testify at the trial, but that’s a
long way off.”

            I sighed.  “Okay.  Thanks for being with her
today.”

            “Sure.  You folks have a nice night.  I’ll be in
touch about court dates.”

            Emma thanked him and we headed toward the doors
and out into the afternoon sun.  Emma stopped walking, closed her eyes and
tipped her head back.  The sun bathed her in golden light, turning strands of
her hair to copper and burnished gold.  I turned and threaded my fingers
through her hair, pulling her closer to me.  Her eyes fluttered open and she
smiled up at me. 

            “Everything really is going to be okay,” she said. 
Then she leaned up against me and kissed me hard. 

            I kissed her back, pulling her tightly to me as I
swept my tongue along her bottom lip and slipped into the heat of her mouth. 
Her soft moan as I stroke my tongue over hers sent blood rushing to my cock.

            We were standing outside a police station for
God’s sake.  I forced myself to pull back.

            I kissed her softly before taking her hand and
drawing her down the sidewalk to my SUV.

           
“Let’s go home,” she sighed as she climbed into the passenger
seat.

            Home.  After my mom died, I stopped calling any place
‘home.’  But this woman….  She is my happy place, my true North, the love of my
life, the keeper of my heart…she IS my home.

~Emma~

            I snuggled Mia close and sniffled back a few
tears.  I had never been quite so happy to see my baby girl.  She was completely
oblivious to the danger we had been in and the awful things that have been
going on – and that’s exactly how it should be.  I will never tell her that the
man who helped create her became an unrecognizable bastard who planned to kill
me.  Someday I will have to explain the circumstances of her birth and my
divorce, but all she needed to know now and years from now is that she is loved
and wanted and that I will keep her safe always.

            After a moment, I stood, holding Mia.  Carla and
Jason were near the door smiling at me.  Jason held his arms out for Mia and I
readily handed her to him.  She laughed and rubbed his scruffy face with her
little hands.  Carla hugged me close and whispered in my ear. 

            “This man loves you, Emma.  You and Mia, both. 
You love him back and keep him.  He needs you just like you need him.”

            I pulled back from her and smiled with tears in
my eyes.  “I will Carla.  Thank you.”  She patted me on the back as I pulled
Mia’s diaper bag over my shoulder.

            Jason told me that we were supposed to pick up
Mia and go to Heather’s house once we were done downtown.  I guess she’d been
all over John since things happened last night and she was furious when he told
her not to come to the building when she heard what happened with Dan.  Heather
does not like being told what to do – and she really doesn’t like being told
‘no.’ 

            And that’s how we ended up retelling everything
over fettucine alfredo with chicken and garlic bread at Heather’s dining room
table.  I knew that Jason and John made their stories tamer.  Heather and I
shared an eye-roll over that at one point when Jason explained that he walked
out the door and Dan was ‘just there’ so he punched him and knocked him out. 
We let them carry on, but it’s not because we’re dumb.

            Heather kept Mia next to her and let her eat
everything she wanted off Heather’s plate.  I gave up trying to tell her what
to do – ‘Auntie’s house, Auntie’s rules,’ she reminded me.  It all felt like
such a normal night. 

            And then I remembered.

            “Hey.  How did the bust go for Tex and his team? 
Did they catch that guy?”

            John and Jason exchanged a look before John shook
his head.

            “No.  It seems Brody wasn’t working alone. 
Someone else at the office is playing both sides of the field.  Until we figure
out who it is, we’re going to have to bench our team and let the CIA take over
until we know for sure that our office is clean.”

            “Oh, John.  I’m sorry.  That’s awful.  You guys
work so hard to help people.”

            Jason rubbed my arm.  “Unfortunately, money makes
people do crazy things.  I’m sure Patzkowsky’s pockets are deeper than ours and
someone thought it was worth the risk.”

            Heather leaned forward and stared at Jason for a
minute.  “Can’t you just follow the money then?”

            He looks surprised and then confused.  “What do
you mean?”

            “Well, Mr. computer-hacker-genius, if you can
pull up everything you did on Emma and Dan, can’t you do that to John’s
employees and figure out who it is?”

            I could feel Jason looking at me and heat spread
into my cheeks.  I finally turned to see him staring at me, equal parts hurt
and upset.  “Heather and I talk about everything….”

            His eyebrows shot up toward his hairline before his
eyes darted to Heather and back to me.  “Everything?”

            Heather laughed and I felt myself turn
fluorescent pink before I covered my face with my hands for a minute.

            “Don’t worry, sailor boy.  No matter how much I
ask for specifics, all she does is smile and blush.  Your secrets are safe with
her.”  She smirked and winked at me.

            Jason ran his hand over my hair and gripped the
back of my neck.  “That’s good.  I’d hate for your friend to discover what a
wanton hussy you’re becoming.”

            My mouth fell open in shock as he started
laughing and Heather and John joined in. 

            “I….  What?”  I stared at him and narrowed my
eyes.  “Shut up.  You love every second of it.”

It was Jason’s turn to look shocked
before his eyes heated and his gaze dropped to my lips before coming back up to
mine. 

“Damn right I do.  I have no idea how
I got so damn lucky, but I sure as hell have no intention of giving it up now.”

            After a moment of silence, Jason turned back to
Heather and John.  “What she said isn’t impossible.  It will take a long time
to dig that deeply and I will need permission for some things from an outside
party or I’ll end up triggering an investigation because, even if I’m careful,
repeatedly breaching the same firewall will catch someone’s attention.”

            John nodded.  “It’s worth a shot.  Tex suggested
feeding some misinformation into the system and using it to catch the
double-agent, but there are a lot of variables to work out and we’ll have to
pick just the right bait to set that trap.”