The Last Detail (7 page)

“Step away.” They didn’t follow her directions right away, so she gripped the weapon with both hands and took aim. “I’m not joking around. Do it.”

With a disgusted snarl, Jared threw Sam against the cabinets and then stepped away. Sam moved to tackle him again, but Lou said, “I’m not kidding, Sam. I’ll shoot you where you stand.”

His glare was her answer, but he did as she ordered. She slowly released the breath she had been holding.

“Now what the hell is this about?”

Neither of them answered her.

“I don’t have time to deal with both of you acting like little boys out of control.”

“I need to talk to you alone,” Jared said. She studied Jared, then glanced at Sam. He was still breathing heavily. The silence that filled the small room ratcheted up the tension about fifteen gigabytes.

“Fine. Sam, leave us alone.”

Sam stared at her and then at Jared. She could tell he wasn’t happy about it. For a second or two she thought he might disagree. The internal conflict was easy to see in his eyes. But he nodded and started to walk toward the doorway. He stopped in front of her and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. The action was so tender it surprised her.

“Call if he gives you shit.”

He brushed his mouth over hers, tossed Jared a nasty look and then left them alone finally.

“You want to explain what the fuck that was about, Jared?”

“Sam and I go way back,” he said as he turned toward the sink to rinse off the blood from his split lip. She set the weapon on the table and approached him.

“Here, let me help you with that.”

He ignored her and continued to work on his injury by himself.

“Jared?”

“Why did you let him touch you, Lou?”

Of all the questions she expected, that was one she could have never thought he would ask.

“What do you mean?”

“I know you slept with him. Why did you let him?”

She couldn’t lie to him. In the last ten years, there had only been one man that she had wanted—that is until she met Sam. “I wanted to.”

He tossed her a look that could have made any lesser woman shrivel. “Whoring yourself out to get the job done?”

She didn’t even think. She raised her hand and slapped him. In truth she was ready to hit him harder. Since they first met, he had never called her one, even when she was one. So hearing it from him struck straight to her heart. She had to blink back the hot press of tears that threatened to embarrass her.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. Before she knew what he had planned, he pulled her into his arms and cradled her against his chest. At first, she said nothing. It had been a decade since he had held her like this, cradled her against his chest as he rushed her to the medics. His heart sped up beneath her hand.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and she wouldn’t have believed him if she didn’t hear it in his voice. He had never in all their years together ever brought up her former profession. “I just don’t understand why you would sleep with Sam.”

She pulled back and looked up at him. “He’s not dirty.”

He cocked his head to one side and studied her. “How do you know that?”

“You seem to know him. What do you think?”

He sighed and let her go, albeit reluctantly. “I knew him. We grew up in the same neighborhood, so to speak.”

She frowned at him. “He’s a rich kid like you?”

He nodded. “Both of us went to The Academy.”

Well, that explained a lot. To get into the military school took a lot of money and a lot of connections. Jared’s family had both, but he had left disgusted with the entire idea of what they wanted of him. Then she remembered the story of his first love, the one Jared regretted letting get away.

“He’s the one,” she said. She wasn’t sure he heard her until he looked at her.

“Yeah.”

She sighed. “Shit. I’m sorry, Jared. I didn’t know. I take it you didn’t know when you sent me after him.”

He shook his head. “No. He’s using a different last name. It wasn’t until I dug up a surveillance video and could strip a hologram from it that I realized it was him. It took me a moment or two to realize who he was. He’s changed so much.”

She raised her hand to cup his face. “I bet you both have. Do you think he’s dirty?”

Jared sighed. “It would be easier to be pissed at him and accuse him, but there is one thing about Sam I know. He’s straight as an arrow. Besides the fact you were apparently followed when I sent you out.”

“That was my fault. I should have been more careful.”

Now his eyes warmed as he offered her a smile, and she felt her heart do a little flip flop. It was like that whenever he smiled, or gave her one of his laughing looks. She could never stop the way her body reacted to him. Ten years and she still had a crush on him.

“There’s no one who is more careful than you, Lou.” The certainty in his voice made her feel a little bit better.

“You think I was followed on purpose by Zenich?” she asked.

He nodded, his smile fading into regret. “Yeah, I think so. The base camp was hit.”

“Casualities?”

He nodded, suddenly looking more tired than she had ever seen him. “We lost Michelson and Chambers.”

She sighed, thinking of the two men she had worked with and sometimes fought with over the last few years. She rubbed her chest, trying to ease the pain, but it didn’t work. “They’ve been watching us.”

“And worse, I think he’s being set up. Sam was a lot of things in school, but dirty wasn’t one of them. At least not in this respect.”

“In what respect do you think he was dirty?”

The moment she asked it, she realized that she had stepped into a quagmire.

“His personal life, well, he was a little, shall we say, easy.”

She studied him for a second. “Is this about how he treated you?”

He shook his head. “Actually, we were pretty exclusive for a while, but before and after, well, he had a reputation.

“And you didn’t? Give me a break, Jared. I’ve known you for over ten years, and I’ve seen the women and men come and go. Not like you’ve settled down.”

He laughed. “Yeah, that’s true.” He reached out and took a strand of her hair and wrapped it around his fingers. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you with your hair down.”

There was something in his voice that shimmered with a yearning she recognized. She had felt it so many times in the last few years for him, had ignored the twinge she felt every time she saw him leave with one of his many lovers. She had never spoken of it, tried to pretend that it didn’t exist. Until Sam, she hadn’t been too sure that she would be able to let a man even kiss her. But now, with her senses in overdrive, she was picking up on the subtle differences in his tone. The atmosphere in the kitchen heated. She didn’t know what to say when he stepped close enough for her to feel his body heat.

“Why did you have to sleep with him?”

Lou opened her mouth but nothing came out. His gaze was so intense, the hunger darkening the green. She had been in love with him for years, but never acted on it, never could before now. What the hell was wrong with her? She had those same deep hungry feelings for Sam, but now she felt the rising need in her for Jared. The craving rose up inside of her, entwining her heart, pulling at the need she had for Sam. She had been so afraid to even try to have sex again, but now, in the span of twenty-four hours, she was craving two different men.

Jared slipped his hand up to her neck and pulled her forward. She could have stopped him right there, told him that she wasn’t interested. He would have obeyed her request. But she couldn’t ask him to stop. The words she should say were tangled in her throat, along with her heart. She could only watch as he lowered his mouth to hers, and without breaking eye contact, he pressed it against hers. He winced a little probably due to the split lip, but when she tried to pull away, he tightened his hand at the base of her neck. Instantly, heat zinged through her, her pulse accelerated, and she felt the overwhelming need to curl up close to Jared and forget the world. He slipped his tongue inside her mouth and she moaned against it, closing her eyes and losing herself in the kiss.

He skimmed his hands down her body to her rear end and pulled her hard up against him. She wasn’t surprised to feel his erection against her belly, but it did surprise her that she wanted him at the same level she had wanted Sam.

When he drew away, she couldn’t seem to get her mind from spinning or her body from yearning to be taken.

What the bloody hell was wrong with her?

“What was that about?”

He sighed and rested his forehead against hers. “I’ve waited a long time for you to be ready.”

She couldn’t hide her surprise. “But…”

The smile he gave her was gentle and sweet. “I know. You were completely oblivious.”

“You always had lovers. It isn’t like you lived like a monk.” She couldn’t keep the accusation out of her tone.

“I didn’t know if you would ever be ready.”

She sighed. “And now that you have your old competition back from The Academy, you’re ready to jump on board.”

“Dammit, it isn’t like that.”

Hurt and a bit embarrassed, and more than a little aroused, she asked, “No, then what is it like?”

“Yeah, Jared, why don’t you take your hands off her and tell us both what it was like?” Sam asked from the doorway.

Chapter Seven

Jared wanted to kill someone. Top of his list was Sam, but right after Sam, he wanted to kick his own ass. He had waited for years, waited for the one woman he had always loved to be ready for him. Knowing that he might have waited too long left a sour taste in his mouth and in his belly. It was bad enough dealing with the twist in his gut at seeing Sam. Sam had cleaned up his face and it was easy to see the years had been kind to his old lover. Jared could still remember the last time they had made love, the feel of Sam’s mouth against his, the way his skin felt—

Shit, he had to stop that. What contest in Hades had he lost to be forced to deal with the two people he loved most in the world?

“I don’t want to discuss my feelings in front of my rival.”

“Listen, Jared, I care for you.” The way she said it irritated Jared and made Sam laugh.

“I care for you too. And I waited to make sure you were ready.” Now hearing it said out loud sounded stupid, but Lou’s face softened. A lot of people thought she was some kind of hard-assed bitch, but there was a sweet girl beneath, the one that had gone into hiding all those years ago.

“Jared, I don’t really know what to say.”

“How about, ‘it’s too late’?” Sam remarked, a nasty edge to his voice. When Jared glanced at him, he realized that his old lover was worried. Sam always got like this when he was backed into a corner. Jared was sure Sam could see the way Lou was looking at him, and with their history together Jared knew he had an advantage.

“Behave, Dawson,” Lou said.

He should have been happy that Lou had resorted to the last name for Sam, but that could also be a sign of affection.

“When did you change your name?” he asked Sam.

Sam shrugged. “Like I said, I did it when I needed to escape. You know what my family is like. I take it you were trying to avoid your brothers?”

He could feel Lou’s interest growing by the minute, but he figured it would be best to put everything out in the open now. “Yeah. They wanted me in the family business.”

“Didn’t want to go into organized crime, did ya?”

He shook his head and glanced at Lou.

She shook her head. “I had a feeling, so I am not going to be surprised. I thought it was much worse than hiding out from loser family members.”

“That’s all nice, but what I want to know is when he’s going to get his fucking hands off you?” Sam asked, venom dripping from every word.

It wasn’t until then that he realized he’d draped his arm over Lou’s shoulders.

“I really don’t like that tone, and I don’t like the way you think you can order me around,” Lou said.

“Get used to it, sugar,” Sam growled.

“Yeah, Sam can get a mite possessive,” Jared said, finally happy he was no longer on the defensive.

Sam’s eyebrows rose. “So she knows?”

“Hard to hide things from this one. Besides, she knew there was someone in my past.”

A look he couldn’t decipher moved Sam’s face, but he said nothing. Typical of him. Still on lockdown mode with emotions. It was one of their multitude of problems when they were together.

“Not to mention I am bit on the possessive side myself,” Jared commented.

Sam gave a derisive snort. “Ten years waiting around? Get real.”

“There wasn’t anyone before this to worry about.”

“Yeah, I got that. Should have stepped in while you had a chance.”

Irritation and something close to fear slithered down his spine. Dammit to Hades, he didn’t like it. Didn’t like the idea that he knew that in the end, Lou would be hurt. Sam only had one thing he was good at. And that was leaving.

“Don’t act like you’re in this for the long haul. You never were because the only staying power you ever had was in bed. She’s been mine for ten years.”

“Yeah, well, ownership doesn’t come from being a friend.”

“Really?”

For an instant, he shared a knowing look with Sam. They had always had tempers around each other, mainly because Sam knew just what buttons to push with Jared. It was how they ended up in bed the first few times, and he could tell that Sam was aroused by their argument by the flush on his cheeks and the way his eyes darkened.

“Excuse me, but I really don’t like getting tossed around like some kind of depot whore.” Lou frowned at Sam. “Listen, I don’t belong to either of you. I own myself. No one tells me where to go, what to do, or even who to do. And seriously, if I wanted to fuck one or both of you at the same time I have a right.”

Her voice had risen with each word, and when she stopped talking the silence was almost deafening. He glanced at Sam and realized his old friend wasn’t mad. He was studying Lou and him, his gaze thoughtful. One of the few times they had a female with them had been interesting, but she hadn’t been a good fit. This was different.