Barely Undercover (17 page)

Emotionally exhausted and desperate to confide in someone, Lana capitulated with a sigh. “The tattoo on my back. It isn’t just a tattoo. It’s a…mark.” Memories blanked her mind. Her hands fisted and a tear slid down her cheek.

“Lana, look at me.” Jackie gently turned Lana’s face toward hers. “It’s okay. Let me see it. It’s been a long time since I saw it last. Maybe it’s not as identifiable as you think. I’ve always just thought of it as a tattoo.”

Lana rolled over and lifted her shirt and Jackie traced the mark lightly with her fingertips.

“What does it mean?”

“I can’t tell you. Not because I don’t trust you, but because it would be dangerous for you to know.”

Jackie brushed Lana’s hair back over her shoulder. “Why does it mean you have to run away? Does it link you to Levi?”

Lana nodded. “Rex saw it when he burst into the room. At least, I’m pretty sure he saw it. I did turn around pretty fast. But he gave me a look, like he knew what it meant. He just has to make one phone call, and I would disappear forever.”

Jackie tilted her head and gave Lana a curious look. “Sounds very ominous. But how can you be sure he saw it or even knew what it was? Maybe he saw it and thought ‘hey cool tat’ or ‘nice tramp stamp’ or ‘I want one of those’. Maybe he wanted to know who designed it so he can get one too. Maybe he has a tattoo fetish. Maybe he didn’t see it, but he thought you were all kinds of hot standing in James’s room, half-naked and all sexed up. You can’t throw your entire life away on a guess.”

Lana hesitated, hope blossoming in her chest. Jackie could be right. She had turned quickly. It had been an emotional moment. Could she have misread the look in Rex’s eyes? Nothing had happened to her so far.

She sighed and collapsed on the bed. “God, I hope you’re right. This is the happiest I’ve ever been. I love my work, Vancouver, my friends…you.”

“I would have followed you,” Jackie said, kissing away the rogue tear on Lana’s cheek. “Since I have no family, you’re all I’ve got, and I don’t give up best friends so easily.”

A hissed intake of breath from the doorway sent Lana rolling off the bed and into a crouch on the floor. Heart thumping, she reached for her hidden baseball bat and lifted her eyes.

“James.” She sagged against the dresser, even as she drank in his hard, muscular body encased in black leather and the black, kick-ass sunglasses hiding his eyes. Dark and dangerous. As usual. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to watch.” James pushed up his sunglasses. “Continue as you were. Just pretend I’m not here.”

“Did it ever occur to you to knock?” she growled.

“Not when I have a key.” He held up a shiny gold key and Lana’s blood boiled. She pushed herself up and popped the catch on the suitcase, then tossed a few clothes back into her drawers. Anything to keep her hands busy and not doing something violent and destructive like assaulting a police officer.

“You asked the locksmith to give you a key?”

He shrugged. “How else would I get in?”

Jackie flipped to her back and eased herself up on the pillow. “You two just crack me up. Don’t mind me. I’m just going to lie here and watch the fur fly.”

Lana glared at James. “I didn’t offer you a key. I didn’t invite you in. This is a private party so I think you’d better leave.”

“Not if the party involves more of what was going down on the bed.”

Jackie barked a laugh. “Sorry to disappoint, J—I’m gonna call you J because you just don’t look like a James to me—but I don’t share my sugar.”

“Neither do I,” he growled.

“I do believe he’s threatening me.” Jackie looked over at Lana who was tossing panties back into her drawer. “Your boyfriend is threatening me.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

James caught a pair of green lace panties midtoss. “I remember these,” he said, musing. “I thought I tore them off you.”

Heart pounding, pulse racing, body tense, Lana snatched the panties from his hand. What the hell was he doing here? Hadn’t she made it clear last night was the one and only night? Did he not get the message?

“I believe I uninvited you from my apartment,” she said, her voice cold. “I don’t see your feet moving.”

Silence. She followed his concerned gaze to her suitcase.

“Are you going away?” He tapped the suitcase with his finger, and his voice rose from low to midrange. “Are you leaving because of me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” She sighed. “I have things to do and places to be. A life that doesn’t involve you. If you recall, you made it very clear you didn’t want to see me around the clubhouse again, which I took to mean around you.”

“You’re the one who said it was a mistake.” James paced across the room. Although her bedroom wasn’t small, he managed to take up almost all the space.

“And you’re the one who didn’t disagree,” Lana snapped. “So now that we have that sorted, you can be on your way.”

“Not until I find out if you’re packing or unpacking. And if you’re packing, where are you going?” He frowned and looked over at the bed. “Jackie?”

Jackie shrugged. “I have half a story and I’m sworn to secrecy. I can say she thought someone might be after her and I recommended she contact a certain police officer we know. However, I have since convinced her she might be delusional.”

“Jackie.” Lana gave her friend a warning glare.

All traces of humor disappeared from James’s face. “Who’s after you?”

Lana ignored him and continued to slam panties back into her drawer. Why was he here? They were done. He had made that abundantly clear by his silence after sending Rex out of his room. He had watched her dress, led her outside, warned her away and pecked her on the cheek. No discussion. No talking. No trying to convince her she was wrong. If that wasn’t a brush-off, she didn’t know what was.

“Lana, I want an answer. Now.” The tone of his voice—forceful, commanding—touched the last of her raw nerves. She rounded on him, drawing in a deep breath as she prepared to berate him for daring to speak to her like that.

And then he kissed her. His firm mouth closed over hers, taking her so deeply, so swiftly, she melted into his arms.

Sweet. Gentle. Tender… Concerned.

Angry tears welled in her eyes. “I hate it when you do that.”

Damn
.

James tightened his arms around Lana’s waist and plunged his tongue into her hot, wet mouth. Her body softened and her hands snaked around his neck, pulling him close. If Jackie hadn’t been there he wouldn’t have stopped with just a kiss.

Christ. This was exactly what he hadn’t wanted. He had come to tell her she was right. They had made a mistake and the best solution was to stay apart. But because she was still on Rex’s radar—Rex had made that clear in their meeting last night—James had come up with a plan to protect her. A way to keep her away from Rex and Hades.

Away from him.

A quick morning call and it had all been sorted. She would stay with Tony in his West Vancouver mansion until Rex was arrested in the raid James had been promised would happen soon.

But then he’d seen the suitcase.

The thought of her gone had fuzzed his brain. It didn’t matter if it was for a weekend or a holiday, or even for business. His brain had registered
Lana
and
gone
, and his great plan had flown out the window. The potential threat Jackie had alluded to brought it all home. He couldn’t walk away. He couldn’t leave her. Not even in Tony’s care. Not now.

Maybe not ever.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he gently pulled away from her soft, sweet body and checked the caller ID. Ryder. He excused himself and headed for the kitchen to take the call.

They exchanged greetings and Ryder’s voice tightened. “Rex wants the weapons for the brothers who’ll be guarding an unexpected shipment coming in at the end of the week. Thought I’d give you a heads-up and we would arrange to meet to collect them.”

Damn
. He had appealed the confiscation multiple times, but in the end the DEU had decreed the danger to innocents was a bigger risk than the danger to James’s life. Bitterness from that conversation still coated his tongue. He’d always been prepared to give his life in the line of duty, but he’d never expected to be a deliberate sacrificial lamb.

“I left them with a trucker buddy and he’s out of town until next week. He didn’t leave me with a key to his place. What does Rex need?” The prepared lie rolled off his tongue, unconvincing even to him.

“A couple of semis and a few pistols. He’ll be fucking pissed if you don’t bring them.”

James scrubbed his hand through his hair. “I need a day to figure out how to get in touch with my friend.”

Silence.

“Ryder?”

“Leave it with me. I’ll get Rex what he needs.”

James froze. No way could he let Ryder get dragged into this. “Appreciate it. But it’s my mess. I’ll handle it.”

Ryder snorted his disagreement. “The way I see it, you saved my ass at least four times over the last two years: the police shootout in East Van, the botched drop on Vancouver Island, the night we went trunking and picked up the wrong guy, and the time Bones faked that evidence to try and prove I was a rat. I’m not even counting the times you covered for me when I had to go away or when I knocked heads with Rex. Consider it handled.”

The phone went dead.

Damn
. James pounded his fist on the wall. Except for Mark, who was almost like a brother to him, he’d never had a friend like Ryder: straight-up, loyal and damn good in a fight. Somehow he had to warn Ryder or get him out of the clubhouse before the raid. After being screwed around by the DEU one time too many, he no longer trusted them to heed the request in his report and let Ryder walk free.

He returned to the bedroom. Jackie and Lana were tossing clothes into her drawers with reckless abandon. He drew Lana to the side and stroked a finger along her soft cheek.

“Who’s after you, babe?”

She shrugged and her lips twitched. “No one. Jackie convinced me I was just seeing ghosts.”

Frowning, he studied her face, taking note of the shift of her eyes up and to the left. Finally, she dropped her gaze. Her long auburn lashes fanned out over smooth, creamy cheeks and her lips, pink, plump and glistening, tightened into a thin line.

“I can tolerate almost anything except lying.” Especially from someone he cared about. Christine had lied and the wound was still with him. Maybe if she had been honest that day, she would still be alive.

“Given what you do for a living, that makes you a bit of a hypocrite.” Lana’s soft, sultry tone took the bite out of her words.

“That’s different.” He brushed his finger lightly over the smattering of freckles across her nose.

“Don’t touch my freckles.” Big green eyes frowned at him through her tangled thicket of curls.

James brushed her hair away and pressed a gentle kiss to the tip of her nose. “I like your freckles.”

“Well, I don’t. So paws and lips off.”

He dusted featherlight kisses over the remaining freckles on her cheeks, smiling when her eyes slitted closed and her cheeks flushed pink. His Lana was a sucker for a gentle caress.

“Hellllloooo,” Jackie yelled. “Best friend across the room. Don’t forget about me.”

Lana’s eyes flew open and she spun around. “You want him to kiss your freckles too?”

“He can kiss any part of me he wants.” Jackie slid off the bed and walked toward them, swaying her hips and licking her lips.

James stiffened. He couldn’t tell if they were playing him, but there was only one woman he wanted to kiss.

Jackie’s eyes flicked to him and they shared a glance. He’d never looked at her closely before, but as he studied her face he saw a maturity that belied her age and her seemingly irreverent nature. For the briefest second, her mask slipped and he saw secrets hiding in the depths of her eyes, a lifetime of experiences a girl her age shouldn’t have, and a world of pain. No wonder she and Lana were so close. Lana was a giver, a healer. And Jackie desperately needed to be healed.

“Well damn,” she muttered, tearing her eyes away. “Guess I’ll have to get my kisses somewhere else. And suddenly I’m not feeling very wanted. You want me to skip out, J? Leave you to your sugar?”

“Actually, I have to be at a race in an hour and I’m thinking it would be best if you both came along.” He looked down at Lana and cupped her cheek with his hand. He had no doubt the suitcase meant a hell of a lot more than she was letting on, and her lack of trust hit him hard. But he wasn’t about to walk away. Not when she was in danger. He would tease it out of her, and then he would find whoever had scared her and pound the crap out of him.

“Rex made it clear last night that he’s not backing off,” he said to Lana. “And now you’ve got me worried that something else is going on. I don’t want to leave you alone but I have to race. Jackie can come and keep you company. If someone is after you, you’ll be safer with Hades.”

“Now there’s an irony,” Jackie said. “Safer with a gang of outlaw bikers.”

“You could tell me what’s going on…”

Lana stiffened. “It’s nothing. Really. And don’t even think about trying to pry it out of me.”