RULES OF LOVE (A Navy SEALs Romance) (20 page)

His arms tightened protectively around her body, and she pressed herself closer to him as she slept on.

Once she’d told him what happened, his thoughts turned back to that rescue mission. They’d pulled her and the others from the underground bunker, but Hugh managed to get out before they could get him. Beau hadn’t seen when Eddie was pulled out of there, only had that one brief look in passing. He’d heard about the array of wounds she and the others endured for days, but the rape had been left out.

And the suicide attempts she tried afterwards. In that moment, he wished the worst thing that happened to her was a car accident. He kissed her forehead, lingering in the moment with her pressed up against this body, their heat enough to keep them warm as the sheet pooled at their waists. Even with all her scars, she was beautiful in his arms. This was where she belonged. He thought he’d found love before, but this was different. What surrounded them in this room was real. He could almost reach out and touch it.

But the longer he stared at her, the more he understood this could all disappear. Until Hugh was killed, Eddie and he would never have a moment’s peace. Despite his confidence at chasing the bastard from her memories, he would always linger in the background. Beau would kill him. If they didn’t track him down soon enough, Beau would do it himself and kill the man slowly and painfully for Eddie.

A beeping sounded from the floor, and Beau glanced over at the pile of clothes. He was going to let it go, but it beeped again and he didn’t want it to wake Eddie. Careful not to move her too much, he slid away from her body, missing her touch the second it was gone, and stood. His back was sore, the slash throbbing as he shifted his shoulders, but it was worth every moment of pain.

He bent down and scrounged through their clothes, searching for their cells. His didn’t have any messages, but hers had several from Jackie. His thumb hovered over the screen as he debated whether he should wake her first or read them to see if it was anything important.

Eddie sighed as she curled up where he’d been, a smile slipping across her lips, and Beau whispered a curse. He wasn’t about to wake her. He opened the messages and read through them quickly, his brow furrowing with each new one.

So that’s what she didn’t want to tell me about yet,
he thought as he read the last message and knew he’d have to wake her up now.

“Eddie,” he whispered as he gently shook her shoulder. “Eddie.”

She stretched, one eye peeking open at him before her lips stretched into a lazy, satisfied smile. Her eyes passed over his face, and her smile fell as she pushed herself up on one elbow. Beau chewed the inside of his cheek, his gaze fastened on her fully exposed breasts, and then remembered he’d woken her for a very different reason.

“Your cell went off. Messages from Jackie, and they’re not good.”

Eddie took her cell from him, and he watched her slide through the messages, her eyes darkening. “Shit. I knew something was wrong.”

“You think they got to Shane?” Beau sat down on the bed beside her as she sat up all the way. “Eddie?”

“I didn’t want to think it was a problem, but he always checks in with me,” she said and hesitated.

“If you think your brother’s involved, Eddie, we have to deal with it.”

“Involved or hunted by Hugh along with us,” she muttered. “He was the one who met Hugh in the first place… Introduced us, actually. There were always questions left after we learned who Hugh really was. How Shane met him was never really explained.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean my brother was taken to Hugh by another person—a mutual friend—right after Reinhart started putting together our team,” she said. “But Hugh’s alias as Gabriel Willem was solid. He had a full life, credit history, college transcripts, everything. The minute he was found out, the information vanished from the system.”

“That would take a hacker,” Beau said confused. “Hugh has no hacking skills.”

“Correct,” Eddie said, “and I know two agents whose skills are unmatched in that area.”

Beau watched her lip twitch as she glanced back down at her cell. “Your brother.”

She nodded once. “He’d have access to all those databases. Still does.”

“You’re accusing your brother of being with Hugh?” he asked, surprised, but from the gleam of uncertainty in her eyes, he knew she wouldn’t voice the accusations to their boss. Not yet. “What do you want to do?”

She set her cell down and ran her hands through her hair, letting it fall across her shoulders, and Beau’s need to have her reared up again, his hands curling into the sheet. “We can’t do anything while we’re stuck here.” Her gaze fell to his hands and she smirked. “I can, however, take care of your other growing problem.”

Beau covered her body with his in an instant. His fingers found her already wet and waiting for him, and with a grunt, he moved inside her. Eddie gasped, her eyes wide with shock and pleasure, before her hands found his face and pulled him to her. Their sighs mingled in the darkness of the bedroom as the rest of the world fell away.

Jackie set her cell down and rubbed her eyes, ready for another cup of coffee. Gareth sat on the other side of the conference table, three laptops in front of him as he tried to track Shane. So far, there was no trail to lead them to his location.

“How did this happen?” Jackie muttered.

“If I knew, I’d tell you,” Gareth said, his eyes not leaving the screen. “His cell hasn’t come back online, and his Jeep hasn’t moved.”

“He wasn’t with it?”

“No. Agents just checked in while you were texting Eddie. Nothing. Better than finding a body, though.”

The thought was sadly comforting, but it didn’t change the fact they were fresh out of leads. Nothing turned up so far at the warehouse, and tech was having issues with the security footage. A bug had been planted in the software and messed up their servers. They were frantically trying to get them back online after Reinhart threatened to make heads roll if he didn’t get answers soon.

Jackie was right there with him. For the moment, at least, Eddie and Beau were safe. But she knew Eddie, and if they didn’t figure out where Hugh was soon, she’d get antsy and find a way to go after him herself, cane or not.

Gareth muttered under his breath, and Jackie glanced his way. “The Hummer… It’s on the move.”

Jackie was on her feet instantly and leaned over his shoulder. “Who has it?”

“It was taken from the first safe house, but this shows it in the middle of nowhere.” He grabbed his cell and placed a call to another agent, requesting information on who had authorization to take the vehicle. Jackie stared at the map and the pinging coming from the Hummer’s GPS. Gareth hung up and stood.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“As far as they’re concerned, the last person to be seen with the Hummer was Agent Sage.”

“Shane? He was in it?” Gareth shrugged, and Jackie turned back to the laptop. “Where is this?”

“Already ahead of you,” he said. “If he’s there, we’ll find him.”

Jackie hurried after Gareth, out of the old, stone building currently being used as their base of operations, and jumped into another Hummer. As Gareth took off down the deserted street, Jackie hoped they wouldn’t find Shane’s body on the side of the road.

But then again, it would be better than finding out he was involved with this.

Shane took a long drag of his cigarette, the end lighting up in the darkness along the pull-off in the mountains. He hadn’t wanted to meet like this. He was taking enough of a risk as it was, but when the bossman called, there was no choice but to answer.

“You want to tell me what this is about? They’ll track the Hummer soon enough,” he grated out, stomping the cigarette out on the ground. “Don’t tell me you’re starting to regret your decision.”

Hugh stepped out of the shadows, two of his men hovering nearby, their hands on their guns at their hips. “No, I want her dead. I wanted her dead when we first took her, but… Well, we all know how that story turned out.”

“You took too long,” Shane said with a shrug.

“And you have become a lousy shot. Both of them should’ve been easy targets, so my question to you is are you second guessing your part in all of this?”

Shane took a step towards him but stopped when the two men behind Hugh pulled their guns. “Easy, boys. Not going to kill my payday.”

“No… At least not yet.”

“You’re really questioning me after all this time?”

“I have my reasons. Who’s to say you haven’t turned back?”

“Says me,” Shane snapped. “I helped you capture her before, and I’ll make sure you get her again. This time, she won’t survive.”

Hugh smiled, the moonlight glinting off his eyes brimming with hatred. “Such bad blood between you and Eddie. You still hold a grudge against her after all these years?”

“Why not? It’s her fault I’m doing this. She threatened to ruin me.”

“But she never had any real proof.”

“And still doesn’t, but it won’t take her long to find it if she looks. I’m finished with her. She was always the admiral’s favorite, always the better child. Now,” he said with a wink, “she’ll be the dead child.” He waved over his shoulder as he turned back to the Hummer and climbed in. “Make sure your men are ready to move in, Hugh. We’re running out of time.”

“They will be,” Hugh assured him. “Don’t miss, Shane. Otherwise, I’ll put a bullet in your back.”

“Not if you want to keep operating the way you have been,” he shot back. “Details, Hugh. You always let your anger get in the way and forget the details.” He slammed the door shut and started the engine. There were a few more errands to run before he could show his face again and limited time before they realized the Hummer was missing. He’d ignored the calls from Eddie so far, but too much longer and she’d get suspicious.

Not that she wasn’t already. He’d been surprised when she picked him to help protect Savage, but then again, he never knew what his sister would do. She was always a few steps ahead, just like their dad had been. He’d always favored her over his son, who couldn’t make officer his first year, needed a push to be placed on the same team as his big sister so she could keep an eye on him. Shane had done many things in his life, but the one he least regretted was setting up their dad to be killed.

That was simply the first of many actions in a chain that led them to where they were now. Eddie was supposed to die so many times over, and every damn time, she managed to survive. But not this time. She would be taken out by Hugh’s men, and he would be left blameless, just the sad, poor agent who had lost his sister.

Then he’d turn over all the information they had on Hugh to the man himself and begin doing the work the men set out to do so many years ago. Shane would ensure no one would be able to track Hugh or his operations. For a fee, of course. Shane wasn’t going to murder the rest of his living family for free. He laughed as he drove through the night, knowing that in a few hours, Eddie and Savage would be dead, and he would be home-free.

Night was beginning to fade. Jackie and Gareth reached the last known location of the Hummer before the signal abruptly cut out. Someone had either found it and switched it off, or the Hummer was gone. They were at a pull-off up in the mountains, and from the look of the tire tracks, the Hummer hadn’t been the only vehicle parked here.

“There’s no way to know if he met someone here or not,” Gareth said, glancing around. “No cameras—nothing to tell us anything.”

“And no body, either. Shane is still out there.”

“Yeah, but willingly or not?” Gareth asked. “You need to tell Eddie.”

“Tell her what? That we lost her brother?” Jackie wanted to call Eddie, but she knew exactly what Eddie would do if she realized what was going on with her brother. That they couldn’t find him was bad enough, but for him to have checked out a Hummer and driven off with it? He even turned off the GPS after he left this place… which meant… “He wanted us to be here,” she whispered.

“What are you talking about?”

“You said the second the Hummer left this spot, the GPS deactivated,” she whispered, her hand going to her gun at her lower back. “And you still can’t trace his cell.”

“Not following you.”

Jackie’s eyes searched the deserted road and the shrubs lining it on the far side, leading up and away from them. “He would know who would track the missing Hummer. Gareth,” she whispered and edged back towards the door of the Hummer. “Get back.”

He frowned and turned towards her. Shots rang out in the night. He fell to the ground as Jackie pressed herself flat against the Hummer and edged towards the front of it. More shots echoed around them, but when they stopped, Jackie popped around the front and fired several shots blindly into the shrubs.

Gareth crawled through the dirt and back to the Hummer. She covered him as he dove inside, firing off a few more shots before more shattered around her, hitting the Hummer and nearly striking her.

“Jackie! Get your ass inside!”

She ducked down low and climbed in the passenger side. Gareth floored it before she even closed her door, bullets dinging the vehicle until they left the pull-off behind. “Damn it! No one else knew we were here!”

“Call Eddie,” Gareth said as he sped down the road. “She has to know.”