The Omega Team: Keeping Karen (Kindle Worlds Novella) (4 page)

“Wow.” She exhaled as she followed him into the room. Unlike most of the places he’d seen in the area, he’d avoided any pastels in the master bedroom. The carpet was a toffee color, and the furniture fashioned from blond, birchwood. Dark chocolate-colored sheets and comforter completed it and he’d gone for the more expensive jersey sheets. They were softer and he liked the feel of it against his skin. “This is nicer than my place…and no plants.” The last part of the sentence came out like an accusation, and he had to swallow another laugh.

Dropping the case on the bed, he flipped it open. “This is my go bag, so it’s got all the basics in it. There’s a laundry room downstairs so we can wash what you’re wearing if you want.”

“Thank you.” She stepped into the bathroom then let out a little hedonistic sigh. The sexy sound skated over his body like a stroke. Luthor leapt onto the bed, inspected his bag then walked to the center of it and sprawled. The bruiser of a cat was not the delicate feline he’d pictured. One of his ears had been chewed and showed old scars. He had a motley colored coat and a thick body. He was an alley cat, an older one by the looks of it.

“Where did you get the cat?” He should have let her get in the shower then gone downstairs to check in with Grey’s people.

“I didn’t really. He showed up one day, torn up from a fight and with an infection. I took him to the vet and they gave him his shots and stitched him up. Then I took him back and released him. He showed up the day after that and the next…”

“Were you leaving food out for him?” Most stray cats were better con artists than people. They knew a good mark when they found it.

“Well, yes…they wanted me to give him antibiotics, so I’d put it in some wet food for him. For the longest time, he refused to come into the apartment, but then there was a snow storm…”

“And you couldn’t leave him outside.”

Karen appeared in the doorway again, wrapped only in a towel. Ethan’s tongue glued to the roof of his mouth. The towel was hardly the sexiest piece of clothing on the planet, but it hugged her curvy form and emphasized her long legs. “I couldn’t and…would it be too much to ask for you to go ahead and throw these in the wash for me?”

He needed to answer the question, but his synapses kept shorting out from the overload of seeing her standing their, hair pulled away to reveal the slender column of her throat and the end of the towel tucked into her cleavage. The towel covered her, but didn’t disguise the sweet swell of her breasts.

“Ethan?”

“What?” He jerked his gaze up to her eyes. Was it his imagination or did he see an answering flare of heat warming their silky brown depths? The coverlet on his bed matched her eyes. Until that moment, he hadn’t really considered why he purchased the sheet and comforter set. Why he’d gone through several till he’d found the right shade…
Son of a bitch.

“Um, do you mind putting them in the wash?”

Put what in the wash? He couldn’t seem to gather the stragglers together long enough to form a coherent thought. When his gaze landed on her clothes, he fought to get his blood pumping north once more. “Sure. I can do that. I’ll make coffee, too.”

“Thank you. Oh, and Luthor, you shouldn’t be on the furniture.” She stepped out to shoo the cat, but Ethan caught the clothes, then put a hand on her waist. The last thing he needed was nearly naked Karen anywhere near the bed while he was still in the room.

“He’s fine. Go shower.” The roughness of the towel kept his flesh from connecting with hers. Probably for the best. Once she was back in the bathroom, he pulled the door shut and bowed his head.

Turning away from the bathroom, he stared at the cat as the sound of the water turning on reached him. In about thirty seconds, Karen would be standing naked beneath the hot spray. He had to get the hell downstairs. After doing a swift survey of the windows and verifying they were shuttered and locked, he made a strategic retreat.

Everything about Karen called to him. Her laugh. Her smile. The uncertainty and hints of hope when their gazes collided—he’d missed her. Simply being in her orbit was enough to remind him of how well she fit him. Washer running, he set up the coffee maker then did another walk through of the house and made sure the security system had re-engaged as expected.

At the foot of the stairs, he listened for the sound of the shower still running before returning to the kitchen. He made some sandwiches. Karen had always been a huge fan of turkey and swiss. It suited him, so he piled up the sandwiches and ate one, washing it down with a cup of coffee while he waited. Checking his account, he found a short note from Grey verifying they were putting together leads about the targets, what they had in common and why someone would pay to assassinate them. It was a step in the right direction.

After thirty minutes, he switched her laundry to the dryer then headed upstairs to make sure she was all right. His bedroom door stood ajar, and Karen lay on the bed. Curled on her side with her back to the door, she wore one of his t-shirts. It hit her mid-thigh. Luthor regarded him balefully from where he’d settled in next to her. Karen’s hair sprawled across his pillows, and Ethan slid his hands into his pockets and leaned against the doorframe.

Having her asleep on his bed was better than any image or dream. She
belonged
there.

I love her.
He’d never stopped.

Refusing to leave her, he crossed the room and pulled out a blanket. Drawing it over her, he tucked her in and shut off the lights. Settling onto the opposite side of the bed, he unholstered his gun and left it where he could reach it before leaning against the headboard.

He’d slept in worse places.

W
aking
to every muscle in her body aching did not go down on her list of favorite ways to start the day. Worse, she didn’t even remember falling asleep. She’d taken a shower, blow dried her hair, then tip-toed into the room to find something to wear. The only thing in his bag to fit her was a t-shirt. More, it smelled like Ethan. Not a cologne, at least not one she could identify easily. Instead the scent evoked memories of high school, of dancing with him and the first time they’d kissed. Sunshine. Hay bales in the late summer. Honeysuckle on a hot summer night.

The pure, visceral nature of the feelings had her reaching out for him and disappointed when she realized she was alone. Even the cat had abandoned her. Someone had covered her with a blanket, however, because she’d slept atop the comforter. After folding the blanket, she headed into the bathroom to stare at herself in the mirror.

Her hair wasn’t as bad as it could be, but still needed a brush to tame the wild mass. Fortunately, humidity didn’t turn her hair into a pile of curls. The natural wave she’d always enjoyed more likely to collapse to straight than curl tighter. Not that her appearance mattered. She didn’t need to look good for anyone.

Liar.
Checking the drawers, she found a brand new toothbrush, still in the package. Ten minutes later, she tiptoed down the stairs and followed the sound of Ethan talking into the kitchen.

“How long?” He set a cup of coffee on the counter as she entered, and mouthed
good morning
.

He looked even better in the mid-morning light than he had the day before. The man cleaned up well, but he did scruffy better than most. Dressed in jeans and an open shirt which revealed his bare chest, he looked good enough to eat. Stubble decorated his jaw, giving him an edgier appearance. Cradling the coffee cup, she turned her attention to the window over the sink.

“Grey, there has to be something linking those vics.” The topic of his conversation sobered her lustful thoughts. “Five are in protective custody? I thought two were already dead.”

She could almost feel the weight of his stare on her. Having identified five of the names, she suspected there were more. Maybe the investigators had found them after they served search warrants on the servers hosting the files. Leaving well enough alone wasn’t in her DNA, but the cops had taken all of her computers into evidence—well, all except for her personal laptop. The near-fire in the apartment took the wind out of her sails, though, and she really didn’t want to dig any deeper.

“Still, what about the attempts on Karen?” Irritation discolored every word Ethan spoke. Even with her back to him, she could hear the clenching of his jaw and the way he ground his teeth together. “Yes, I will let your team do its work.” Weren’t the cops already running an investigation? And the FBI? Which team did Grey work for?

The biggest thing tying the victims together, she’d noticed, was the way their assassins had been paid.
Assassins
. It sounded like something from a movie or a television program.
Hacker uncovers assassination plot, then goes on the run
. She’d have to escape the villains, have all of her avenues of escape cut off, and maybe even lose the one guy who wanted to…
No. Avert.
Why had her brain gone there? An image of Ethan, lying motionless and pale, bleeding from some imagined wounds festered like a poison in her gut. She twisted to face his—
very much alive—
body, and drank in the sight of him.

“Then follow the money. It’s all we have. If they aren’t being hired by the same people…” The moment the words left Ethan’s mouth, something clicked inside of Karen.

“…maybe it’s they are going to the same people to do the deeds.” The accounts had all been set up the same way. Maybe whomever worked as an assassin for hire, used different accounts to keep the money diluted. Maybe the common denominator wasn’t who hired him, but the man who’d been hired—
or woman, it could be a woman.

Ethan’s gaze locked on hers. “Exactly.” Was he talking to her or the man on the phone? “Let me know. Until then, Karen is with me, and I’ll keep her out of sight. Yeah, you too. Thanks.”

He disconnected the call and pointed to the center of the island. “I made some sandwiches last night. You fell asleep. Go ahead and eat if you’re hungry.”

After the mental picture she’d given herself, the last thing she wanted was food. “Who was on the phone?”

“A friend.” Not really an answer. Instead, he began clearing the counter of non-existent crumbs. “Your clothes are in the dryer. I haven’t checked on them. Get what you need to eat, and then I’ll give you the nickel tour.”

“Ethan?”

He stilled at his name. “Yeah?” Something rough and untamed lived in his tone. It sent a curl of excitement threading through her.

Setting aside her coffee cup before she could think too hard about what she wanted, she crossed the kitchen then slid her arms around him. He didn’t move for the space of three, too-long heartbeats then he turned into her embrace and wrapped her in his strength. “Thank you.” She whispered the words against his neck, all too aware of his bare skin beneath her hands. “Thank you for being there for me.”

“Nowhere else I’d rather be.” He rubbed his hand up and down her spine, the motion soothing her fractured nerves. “Nowhere else I ever wanted to be.”

Tears sparked in her eyes, and she blinked rapidly. “I’ve missed you. I don’t think I understood how much until I saw you again.”

“Yeah, I know how that goes.” He gave her a light squeeze then pulled away until he could grip her arms. Forced to release him, she backed up a pace reluctantly. Instead of abandoning her though, Ethan stared at her steadily. “But right now, you’re riding a lot of adrenaline and fear. You’ve had your whole world turned upside down.”

He was right, except… “It brought us together again. Maybe it’s turning my life upside right.”

“Uh huh.” The firm line of his lips declared his disagreement. “I think the fact someone blew up your car neuters whatever joy I get out of seeing you again.”

“But you do get some joy.” She latched onto the part of the sentence she liked.

“Don’t do that, Karen.” He gave her arms a squeeze then released her.

“Don’t do what?”

“Put a pretty bow on a bad situation. Let’s keep you safe, get the guys after you, then we’ll see where we are.” It wasn’t a rejection. Even if it had been, the sadness in his voice still tugged at her.

He made it all the way to the door before she could find her courage. “Ethan…when I told you no to marrying you, I knew I would regret it.” Admitting the fact aloud opened the floodgates to emotions she’d kept dammed up for years.

Without looking at her, he put a hand on the door frame and stared into the other room. “Then why did you say no?”

“Because I knew if I said yes, I’d regret it more.” The problem with honesty was it hurt—to say and to hear. “We were kids. I loved you more than I thought I could love anything. That first year you were gone—first to boot camp, then on deployment—all I could think about was you. Think about you, worry about you, and I hated you were so far away. I hated every time something came on the news about military personnel being hurt. I couldn’t breathe until I knew you weren’t listed among the dead or injured.”

She swallowed the hard lump trying to form in her throat.

“Sometimes I think I was a coward and, other times, I knew it was because I kept trying to build my life around yours. In my head, you were this unstoppable force and I would never in a million years stand in your way or the way of your goals. You’d always wanted to go military. It was your dream.” The harshest part of it all. “It wasn’t mine, and if I built my whole life around yours, if I put my dreams on hold… I’d resent you.”

He turned, his dark eyes flashing with heat. No other expression touched his face, however. “I never asked you to give up your dreams for me.”

“I know you didn’t. You asked me to marry you.”

“Yes, to build a life together. Your life. My life. Our life.”

“But that’s my point.” The internal quaking in her soul left her shivering. “I was the problem. The only way I could see to do all of that was to frame my life around yours. I didn’t know how to be
me
yet. I was a kid. I had big dreams and big plans and even…maybe especially alone…I made mistakes. Those mistakes only hurt me.”

Tilting his head back, Ethan sighed. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because you’re not married. Because you swooped in and you’re taking on all of my problems. Because you’re still my hero, and I never gave you a reason to be, and yet here we are.”

“Yeah, here we are. And I can’t do this with you right now.” The rejection in his tone didn’t hurt, but the loneliness in his eyes crushed her.

“I know the timing could be better…”

He raised his hand then shook his head. “If I hadn’t been the marshal who came through that door, would you have tried to reach out to me? Would you have tried to find me with everything that happened to you?”

The kneejerk response was a simple
no
. “I wouldn’t have wanted to put you in danger.” The imagined image of him bleeding from wounds he received protecting her flared in her mind again. “I also wouldn’t have trusted anyone else the way I trust you.”

“Well, that’s something…but it’s not enough.” He tapped the wall with his fingers. “Eat. Drink your coffee and then we’ll debrief.”

Gone was the lonely, beautiful man and in his place was an all-business marshal. “About the case?”

“Yes, ma’am. I need to know exactly what we’re up against and, right now, you’re our best witness.” Then he was gone, and she braced her hands on the counter. She had no right to say all the things she had, to open those old wounds, but he was Ethan. In the middle of her nightmare, he was this wonderful gift. A chance to go forward…

I didn’t know who I was then, Ethan. I do now…and I’m not giving up.

Never one given to impulsive actions, she turned the thought over in her mind. She hadn’t lied. Telling him no had been a source of regret for years, but she knew who she was now. And she knew who she could be. More, she knew who she wanted to be.

I want to his again. I want to be his best friend, and I want to be the one who puts the smile back into his eyes.

The only thing she had to decrypt was the code to get back into his heart.

T
hree days
in Destin and Ethan was no closer to who was after Karen than he had been when they left DC. Grey and his people continued to track down leads. He’d checked his voicemail and found three heated messages from his direct supervisor. No one in the marshal’s office was happy with his disappearing act. Since he’d already considered a change in careers, he might find the wheels greased on his way out the door.

Meanwhile, Karen populated his every thought. She slept in his bed, drank coffee in his kitchen and while he reviewed the case notes he’d been building, and sat opposite him in the living room. Luthor sprawled in a patch of sunlight near the windows, but Karen had her laptop open and typed away.

“This would be easier if I could access the internet.” Every day she tried a new approach to the argument. The first time it had been she wanted to help him investigate the people after her. Not only no, but hell no. Her digging into accounts had already gotten her into trouble.

“No,” he said, flipping to the next page of notes. The primary investigators had taken her statement after her car detonated. Though they listed her as in shock, she said hadn’t seen anyone near her vehicle nor noticed anything suspicious. The apartment complex she lived in had passive security—a gate which required a code or a gate opener to enter and exit. However, as the officers noted, ghosting in behind a resident was fairly common and easily accomplished.

The security on her apartment itself was similarly unremarkable. A couple of deadbolts and a standard security package, though she insisted she changed her passcodes regularly. That, Ethan believed. Her work was pretty complex and involved computer security. She wouldn’t rely on the same standard passcodes installed with the software nor keep it something simple like her social security number or birthday.

“Ethan, I do have a job, and I know how to mask my IP.”

“I said no.” In addition to her work for the banks, her other clients included everything from universities to Silicon Valley corporations. They hired her to test their electronic security; some even sent her new firewall protocols so she could investigate how to bypass them. Overall, she had a stellar reputation in the business.

One of the FBI agents noted the cyber crimes division vetted her for a possible job. Intrigued, he flipped to the background report. It listed a great deal of personal information about her, from where she grew up, to the university she’d attended, to the long list of her employers.

“I’m not a child, and you ignoring me when I’m talking to you is rude.” Yep, he’d irritated her.

“So is you asking the same set of questions over and over. I’m not going to let you put yourself into danger, Karen. I know you. You’ll mask your IP and try to ghost back into the system where you found the information in the first place. Then you’ll try to backtrack the money—a job I’ll remind you someone else is already doing.” He didn’t look up from the background check. While it was pretty clinical and listed only the facts, it still built a picture of the way she’d spent the last several years. Years he hadn’t gotten to spend with her. What had she thought of working in California? Why leave a big company to go solo? Why choose to live in Virginia? He got why she didn’t go home to Texas—their small town had been a barely a blip on the radar for someone with her technical skills.

She let out a little frustrated scream, and he glanced up to find her slumping with her head back against the sofa as she stared at the ceiling. “I’m bored.”

“I’m sorry.” He was. Genuinely. “It’s hard to do nothing.”

“I feel like a prisoner in a really nice, very lovely, cage.” Stretching her legs, she rested her bare feet on the coffee table. Though she’d only had the one set of clothes, he’d found a few other items for her to wear. He’d cut off a pair of his jeans to make her shorts—they only stayed up thanks to a belt, but the less she was seen in public, the less chance of someone hunting her to find her location.