Jason (Kings of Guardian #4) (24 page)

“They were after you?” Cal asked.

“Yes. Guardian is going after the Russian cartel’s main source of income. Human trafficking. We are the lead agency in a worldwide operation. According to our sources, they don’t know what is coming, but they knew Guardian has been feeling around the edges. This, and the attempt on Faith before, are warnings for us to stop.”

“Are you going to? Stop?”

“Can’t. Too much is at stake. I’ll take measures to make sure Faith and Reece are safe. You and Helena have been compromised. We will talk about what that means for you and your options. If our operatives and intelligence on the Russians are correct, they suspect we are after them, but they have no idea what is on the horizon.”

“War.” Jacob’s voice summed up Guardian’s future in a word.

“War,” Jason agreed, and looked at Cal as he continued, “One I will win.”

A technician came over and introduced himself by way of a credential flash. Jason surrendered his weapon to be processed and glanced over at the patrol that waited next to his man. “We need to give statements.” He turned his gaze to Cal and lifted an eyebrow.

“Pity, I didn’t see anything. I was too busy getting the women out of harm’s way. I’m afraid I’ll be no use, but I’ll make sure LVPD has my statement. Seems I’ve grown a backbone.” He looked directly at Jason. “Just FYI, I’ve always had balls the size of coconuts.”

Jared barked out a laugh and put his arm around Cal’s shoulders. “Well, then, my tropical-fruit-sporting friend, we need to see about bringing you into the fold. Have you given any thought to a career change?”

Faith watched Tori pour another portion of vodka into Helena’s tumbler. Her trembling hand still held the crystal glass with the first offering. After ensuring Reece was safe and sleeping with Tori’s sons in the adjacent suite, she’d sunk onto the sofa and hadn’t moved.

“They’re fine and will be here soon. We’ll watch Reece tonight. I think you need some time alone with your man.” Tori’s words hung in the air.

Helena chugged the shot and held out her glass for another. “I know I don’t need another one, but hit me again.” Tori chuckled and the two women talked, but Faith couldn’t focus on what they said. Two words kept circling on repeat in her brain.

“They’re fine,” she repeated, almost to herself.

Tori sat down directly across from her and reached out, placing a hand on her knee. Strange how she didn’t realize how cold she was until Tori’s warm touch.

“Faith, I need you to drink that. You look kind of pale.” Tori put her hand under the crystal tumbler and lifted it. She blinked, trying to understand what Tori was saying. She couldn’t hold the tumbler steady. Her body shook… no, she was shivering.
Why was she shivering?

She blinked again because Tori was suddenly next to her. “Hey, I know you’re trying to process what happened. Bottom line is your man is alright. Cal is alright. They’ll be here soon.”

When Tori draped a blanket around her shoulders, Faith glanced up. Helena winked at her and grabbed the vodka bottle. “I don’t know about you, girl, but me and the rest of this bottle are getting up close and personal tonight.”

“Look, I get that it’s hard, but you have to trust these guys to do their jobs. They’re the absolute best at what they do.” Tori adjusted the blanket around Faith’s shoulders as she spoke.

Faith used both hands to put the alcohol on the table and grabbed the edges of the blanket to wrap it around her tighter. “How do you do it, Tori?”

The beautiful blonde smiled and pushed a stray lock of hair off her cheek in a motherly gesture. “Before I met Jacob, I worked for an agency that decided I was expendable. Jacob and his team rescued me from a bad situation that I probably wouldn’t have survived. I left that agency and worked with them, Guardian, I mean. The organization is light years ahead of the rest of the national law enforcement entities because it is privately funded and not constrained by the cumbersome oversight that shrouds the FBI, CIA or Homeland. The King brothers are dedicated to making this world a better place. Sometimes, however, the world tries to stop them. Tonight was one of those times. It would appear, from what I can gather, that there is a big operation on the horizon. If I know those men, they are preparing for an offensive, and I pity whomever they have in their scopes.”

Faith shook her head. She got that. She knew what Jason did was important. He’d explained it, but he’d also told her he was an executive, that his job wasn’t actually dangerous. He’d explained about the trailer… and the plane… and getting shot going after Hit. He’d said he’d protect her. He’d promised, but was that the reality she was living in? She didn’t hear the door open or the footsteps behind her. She stared at Tori, lost in a terrified realization.

Finally, she asked, “No… how do you do it? You have three babies and one on the way. How do you get up every day and know someone could come after you or your children because of what Jacob does? What would happen to Reece and me if Jason had been killed… or if we’d both been killed? What would happen to my baby? What if I can’t do this? I’m so scared.”

“Faith.” Jason’s voice spun her. His arms pulled her into him and belted her to his chest. Faith lost what little composure she had. Words and voices spun around her. Conceptually she knew the people around her left with murmured words of support, but the only thing she could focus on was the man holding her. He lifted her and carried her to the couch where he sat holding her in his lap.

She didn’t know how long they sat together, just holding each other, but it seemed he needed to touch her as much as she needed to be held by him.

“I love you. Please, talk to me.” Jason’s words were laced with an emotion he’d only let her hear once before, when he was talking about his dad.

Faith ran her hand up the lapel on his hand-stitched suit. “I’m afraid.”

“I know. I could have lost you. Those bastards got too close.” Jason kissed her forehead.

She pulled back, cradled in his strong arms. “I’m afraid for you, too. What if I lost you? What are we going to do to keep all of us safe? Including you?”

Jason’s hand traveled up and down her back. The silence stretched but wasn’t uncomfortable. She’d learned to wait for him to work through his responses. He said it was the lawyer in him, but in moments like this, she knew it was his insecurities that forced him to examine his words from every angle.

“I’m going to take a page out of Gabriel’s book. You and Reece will have protection, just not the personal security officers you would normally have. I’m pulling a team from Jacob to watch over you, not just because of the current threat, but because of me, specifically, my position at Guardian. I didn’t think I needed it, that we would need it. Even after the explosion and the tampering on the aircraft, I resisted that level of security, although Gabriel suggested it. I won’t make that mistake again. You and Reece are the most important things in my life. If it means keeping you, I’ll walk away from Guardian. I have a few months left in my commitment to Gabriel, but if it would make you feel better… I’ll leave.”

She searched the emotion in his green eyes. “I don’t know what needs to happen, Jason. Your job is important to you, and it is a part of who you are. I love you. Reece loves you. We wouldn’t be whole without you. But the job you do isn’t what I understood it to be, or maybe I just wasn’t listening, or if I was, I didn’t understand the risks. Tori said there was something big coming?”

Jason blinked several times and started to speak, but stopped. Finally, he shook his head and blew out a long breath before he spoke. “Guardian has committed to an event that may take years to rectify. We are going to wage a war against a criminal organization that has tentacles with global reach. But we have access to the law enforcement organizations of our country and other countries around the world. I won’t tell you more than that. I can’t.”

She tried to wrap her mind around the enormity of what he said. But everything boiled down to the same question. “Are you in danger?”

“No more than I was today or yesterday. But from now on, no one will be able to get near us.” Jason ran his fingertip over her forearm in a lazy circle, sending comforting sensations through her body. She watched his finger trace the pattern up and down her arm. The small, reassuring touch grounded her and affirmed how well he knew her.

She bit her lip to stop it from trembling. She whispered, “I’m not sure I can do this, Jason.”

She felt his body tense and his eyes snapped toward her. “‘This’ meaning us or ‘this’ meaning my job?” She saw the pain in his eyes; the fear of losing her and Reece was right there for her to see.

Faith leaned into him and tucked under his chin. Being this close to him made her feel safer. “‘This’ meaning people attacking us, having people try to blow us up. You were shot, Jason. You made light of it, but if he’d aimed differently? You’d be gone. I’m not sure I can do any of this. I’m not like Tori, I don’t have her strength. I’m afraid, and I don’t like it.”

“I guess all the questions and the fears boil down to a single point. Do you love me enough to trust that I’ll take care of you and Reece?” She could hear his heart pounding under her ear. The rapid timpani of his heartbeat told her more than the calm words had conveyed. He was afraid, too.

She pushed into the hard bulk of her man and wrapped her arms around him. “I love you. With everything I am, I love you.”

“Do you trust that I will take care of you and Reece?” His voice rumbled, vibrating his chest under her ear.

The image of Jason standing in front of Helena’s trailer with a team of gun-wielding mercenaries flashed in her mind. She placed her hand over his bicep where the bandage still wrapped around a bullet he’d taken while trying to protect their future. The all-too-vivid memory of him putting his body in front of hers, backing her out of the lobby of the theater, rolled in slow motion. He’d done nothing but keep her safe. She nodded and gripped his lapel harder. “I do.”

He palmed the side of her head and held her to his chest. “Thank God.” His barely whispered prayer of thanksgiving and the way he held her conveyed how much he needed her simple affirmation.

“I have an inherently dangerous job. Because of what my organization is doing, the danger has increased. I have taken steps to ensure both you and Reece are taken care of should something happen.”

“I don’t want to think about that. Jason, please… make all this go away.”

“I can’t. We are going to have to take this one day at a time.”

“Then make me forget about it. Just for a little while.”

“That I can do.” Jason lifted them both off the couch and carried her into the bedroom. Jason removed her clothes, his innate gentleness with her as always in complete opposition to his massive size and strength. He laid her on the bed and covered her with his body. His warmth infused her, finally warming the cold that had somehow gripped her core until this moment. His bulk flexed and rolled under her hands as he kissed or caressed her body. His tender possession kindled a small flame that slowly grew into a fire deep in her core. His mouth sought out her breasts. The deep pull of suction nearly brought her off the bed in pleasure.

She clutched his hair, holding him against her, silently begging for more. “Please, Jason. I need you inside me.”

He lifted to her mouth and kissed her, his tongue searching, tasting and probing. Faith pulled away only when breathing became a necessity. Jason stared down at her, and the depth of his love shone in his eyes. He lifted her legs to his shoulders, his cock hard and hot against her opening.

“I love you.” Her words seemed to release him, and he pushed forward, his girth splitting her, creating a delicious friction of pleasure. The intensity of their emotions and the delicious heat of the moment drew her closer to her climax.

“Please, Jason… I….”

He dropped his lips to hers, “I’ve got you, babe.” He lifted to his knees and pulled her to him, spreading her legs over his thighs. His hands ran up the inside of her legs and his hand ended up resting on her lower abs. He slowly pulled out while his thumbs started circling her clit with a mind-numbing pressure.

Thousands of electric tendrils hummed across her nerves, and with each slow thrust into her body, her mind slipped further and further away from reality until nothing mattered but the need that welled up from deep inside her. Faith chased the sensations, her fingernails raking down his forearms. “Please, I need more.”

Jason dipped down, slid his arms behind her back and pulled her up so she was straddling his legs, his cock impaling her in his kneeling position. His mouth found her breast as he lifted her and thrust his cock deep inside her. Faith gasped and clung to his rock-hard shoulders. “Yes! Oh God, do that again!”

She felt him smile against her skin before he lifted off his heels. Faith wrapped her legs around him and arched backward. Her body stiffened and the world became a pinpoint of pleasure before it erupted. Faith clung to Jason as he held her steady while his hips slammed his cock into her core. His arms tightened, holding her against his body. His neck muscles bulged when he reared back and roared with his release. Faith’s breath caught in her chest at the sight of Jason lost in his own rapture. He folded her against him and carefully untangled their legs before he lay them down.

“I don’t deserve you.” Faith brushed his sweat-dampened hair from his brow. The intensity of his words stilled her hand.

“You deserve better.” She believed that with all her heart.

“You are more precious than I can explain. You and Reece are the reason my heart beats. I existed like a ghost drifting through my life, looking for a way to hide from everyone. You took one look at me and saw what no one else did.”

“I saw the other half of my soul.” Faith drifted her fingers across his lips.

Jason lifted up on his elbow and pushed her hair out of her face. “Tomorrow the official will come here and marry us. We are leaving immediately afterward, heading to the safest place in the world. Reece will love it.”

“Where are we going?” The way his eyes lit up, it had to be a special place.

“I’m keeping it as a surprise,” he taunted.

“Oh, we are going to be like that, are we?”

“We are.”

“Seriously, tell me.”

“I’m taking you home to meet my mom. They weren’t due to fly here until tomorrow morning. I called and told her to stay, that we would be coming to her.”

“To the ranch? Do you… Will she like us?”

“You need to stop asking that question. She’ll love you.”

“Promise?” God, what would she do if Jason’s family didn’t like her?

“Cross my heart, princess. It wouldn’t matter if they didn’t. I love you, and you are my world.”

Faith launched up and pushed him over onto his back. His laughter lightened her heart. She was his world. The thought freed the worries she held. She tickled his ribs and doubled her effort when he actually jumped at her playful attack. “Oh, you are so mine! Surrender, Superman!” One huge hand gathered both of hers and she was on her back in the blink of an eye.