Undercover Attraction (23 page)

Get used to it, Tom, I'm here to
stay
, Jacob fairly growled at the cat.

Naturally, it showed its sharp teeth at him
in defiance.
You are no match for me. You do not even have claws
and sharp teeth
, the cat would have said.

"No, but I have a gun and bullets, demon,"
Jacob said aloud.

The damn kitty turned his nose up in the air
at him, dismissing him even though Jacob had the feline dangling 4
feet off the ground by the scruff of his neck.

After flicking the light on to retrieve the
food and water bowl, he emptied them and tucked the cat safely in
the pet taxi he had stuffed in his back seat.

Jacob wanted to get a few more of Jenna's
things to take to her, even though she hadn't asked.

He grabbed the basket of clothes she had
washed before being taken from her home, and the slippers she had
tucked under the couch. After tucking it all safely in his car, he
went to her bedroom, remembering he had seen a bottle of expensive
perfume that she had claimed she liked days ago.

As he flipped on the light in her bedroom,
an unusual click followed. Instincts kicked in and he ran like hell
for the front door.

He barely cleared the front steps when the
entire house exploded in a conflagration of flames and flying
materials, knocking him forward onto the concrete sidewalk.

His ears rang and his vision swam from the
impact of his head to the concrete. Fear constricted his chest as
he realized that this was meant for Jenna. They would stop at
nothing to see her dead.

He watched helplessly as the small house
quickly went up in an inferno, and had he thought it possible to
save anything, he would have braved the heat and destruction to
save a few of her things. But it was hopeless. There had been some
sort of undetectable accelerant, and the fire licked angrily at
everything Jenna valued.

He should call the fire department. But then
the assassins would know it was Jacob here instead of Jenna. No.
Better to let them think they possibly killed her instead of
assuring them they definitely hadn't.

A thousand thoughts ran through his head.
Who could have gotten in through their security? Even now, the
officer posted on surveillance was running up to him from across
the street. How could someone have gotten in without them knowing
it? Was there someone on their force who would arrange this? What
would he tell Jenna?

She's safe
, he reminded himself,
taking a deep breath to try to calm the storm warring within. He
got to his feet just as Officer Barrett got to him, bombarding him
with questions.

"I'm fine" he gritted out. "Has anyone been
in here?"

Barrett shook his head. "Not since I've been
on. I walked the perimeter an hour ago and saw nothing unusual.
Bayden reported that he saw nothing unusual today either."

"Did you call it in?"

Barrett nodded, his bald head shining eerily
in the firelight. "A unit should be here within the next few
minutes.

Jacob looked at him, his eyes boring into
his. "I was never here, then. I think one of us may be in on this.
I want the bastards to think they got Jenna, and if I am reported
on scene here at the time of explosion, they'll know they
didn't."

Another nod of Barrett's head. "Understood.
I didn't report you were here when I radioed, so go, get out of
here."

Jacob ran to his SUV, despite the nagging
pain from the hard concrete, and left before any units could put
him at the scene. He knew Barrett would keep his word. He was a
good man, which is one of the reasons he had put him on
surveillance instead of one of the rookies.

He called his dad, quickly relaying the
news, and after assuring him he was fine, told him not to wake
Jenna.

He knew that he would have to tell her the
grim truth when she got up.

#

Jenna woke to a bright ray of sunlight
streaming in through the window. She rolled over to snuggle closer
to Jacob, but bolted upright when she realized he wasn't there.

Panic seized her, as she wondered if
something had happened last night that would have kept him from
returning.

Oh God, oh god, oh god
, she repeated
to herself, her knees weak as she quickly threw on clothes and ran
downstairs.

Relief flooded her when she found him in the
kitchen drinking coffee and talking quietly to his father.

"What happened?" she asked as she noticed
the scratches and bruises along his neck and arms.

He turned to her, and she gasped. His cheek
was a mass of bruises, a sickly purple that spread from his
forehead down to his jaw.

But his eyes. They held a sadness that she
knew couldn't be erased easily, and suddenly a fist of fear gripped
her heart.

"Amy?" she asked breathlessly, almost afraid
of the answer.

"She's fine." Jacob's voice was much rougher
than usual, as if he was having a bit of trouble talking.

She noticed his dad left them, giving them
some privacy, patting her shoulder as he passed by her.

"Then…" She waited for an answer, slowly
walking towards him, putting her arms around his shoulders, and
resting her head against his neck.

"Your house." He swallowed loudly. "It
exploded this morning."

She would have fallen to the floor if Jacob
hadn't turned and caught her.

A sob escaped her throat, and she pressed
her hands to her mouth. "Chuckles," she whispered, not wanting to
think of her poor pet dead.

A slight smile reached Jacob's mouth. "I
should have known you would have thought of him first. But he's
fine. I have him in the garage."

Relief again assailed her, until she
realized the depth of what he had told her.

Jacob watched as fat tears rolled down her
cheeks, her shoulders shaking as she tried to cry silently.

"My things. Photos, everything. My life was
in that house," she whispered as he pulled her to him, cradling her
as she cried.

He silently held her as she grieved for the
memories that had been taken from her.

When she had finally exhausted her tears,
she sniffed loudly. "How?" she asked against his chest.

"It wasn't an accident, Jenna. They rigged
it all to blow the second you flipped on the light switch." He told
her everything, knowing she would probably hate him for causing the
explosion, but he refused to lie to her.

She listened quietly, wringing her hands in
her lap, until he was finished.

"Thank you." His eyes widened in surprise.
Had she just thanked him for blowing up her house?

"For what?" he asked. "It's my fault it
happened."

She raised her red rimmed eyes to his. "No,
it's not. I know how much you hate Chuckles. You were there to do
something nice for me and this was just a result. I am glad both of
you are okay, and had it not been you, who recognized what it was
in time for you to make it out, someone might have easily died. But
I'm sorry you were hurt."

He shrugged. "I will rebuild your house when
we catch these bastards." Though honestly he hoped she wouldn't be
going home.

She sighed, "I wouldn't make you do that. No
matter what you think, it isn't your fault. They were after me, and
you've already done enough."

"We're hoping they'll think you're…" He
couldn't say the words. Not while she was staring at him with those
trusting green eyes. He cleared his throat and continued. "Anyway,
maybe they'll become careless enough for us to catch them."

"What about Amy and Mac? Are they going to
be okay?"

"Yeah, my partner is going to go undercover
at the college, and trail them to keep them safe. They'll be fine.
It isn't them they're after in the first place, but I'm not taking
any chances. But you might want to call your family and let them
know you're okay, since the media will be all over the explosion.
We are trying to make it seem like a common house fire, and have
the reporters say there were casualties."

She ran a finger gently down the side of his
face. "I'm sorry for this, Jacob."

He smiled that crooked smile she loved so
much. "That's nothing. You should see the wounds that your cat gave
me. They are far worse than this."

She snorted. "Chuckles is a sweetie. I don't
understand why he doesn't like you."

Jacob understood. If another male tried to
move in on Jenna, he would feel overprotective and violent also,
just as that cat did. He almost harbored respect for the damn
creature.
Almost
.

"Can I get him?" Of course she meant the
cat. He wanted her undivided attention, but knew she wanted
reassurance that her feline was alright.

"I'll go get him. I didn't want him to tear
my house to shreds while you were asleep."

He was back in seconds, carrying Chuckles-
in the taxi, of course. Jenna quickly scooped him out and held him
to her breast.

The damn cat sent a smug look of
satisfaction to Jacob, and began purring and rubbing his cheek
against Jenna's plump cleavage.

Lucky bastard
, Jacob thought, but
decided to let it go at the look of delight on Jenna's face. Damn,
but she loved that animal. He felt a rush of longing somewhere in
the pit of his stomach. If only she looked at him like that.

She carried Chuckles to the living room,
sitting with him on the couch, scratching his ears and rubbing his
stomach.

Over the top of Chuckles' head she asked the
Chief, "Any luck tracing the bank accounts?"

His dad nodded. "We have the names of four
of the five individuals, and have alerted the CIA and FBI. Nothing
yet on where the funds are going to, though. For some reason, it's
an anonymous account, with no records, so we figure whoever it is
has some kind of security clearance to erase the data necessary to
open the account."

"Will they be able to catch them before
something else happens?"

The old man sighed. "I hope so, but with the
CIA and FBI, they tend to want to catch them in action, instead of
just going on circumstantial evidence."

She figured as much. At least those other
guys weren't after her. She figured they felt secure thinking that
no one would be able to figure out the code and determine their
identities. Not to mention, being in another country would make it
difficult for them to know who to send an assassin out for.

Jacob must have guessed her thoughts. "They
aren't going to get anywhere near you, Jenna." He reached over to
brave the demon's wrath, and scratched him on the head. To his
surprise the confounding creature turned his head to lick his hand.
Was that a thank you for saving his life?

Maybe the cat was starting to warm up to
him. He hoped he wouldn't have to suffer any more of the critter's
antics any longer.

Fifteen minutes later, Chief Nichols left,
after yet another quick breakdown of the events from Jacob. He gave
Jacob the day off, but wanted him at the station tomorrow to write
a report on the explosion.

He wanted to spend the rest of the day in
bed with Jenna. Not only sleeping, even though his body was
exhausted.

He stood at the doorway, propped against the
door jamb, watching her lovingly caress the cat. Jealousy had never
been a big deal with him, but at the moment, he found himself
envious of the devious animal. Jacob knew that Chuckles had her
unconditional love, and could only imagine how great it was.

She looked up at him, noting the expression
on his face. "What?"

One side of his mouth tilted up, "Nothing."
He walked over to her, leaning down to stroke Chuckles again.

No such luck. The cat growled and narrowed
his eye at him. Jacob knew not to push it. He didn't want to be on
the sharp end of that ball of fluff again.

"C'mon. Let's go to bed." He pulled Jenna up
by her hand, sending a smug look at the cat when he was forced to
jump off of Jenna's lap.

Of course, the cat sent him a look that
said,
This means war.

They
made love repeatedly that morning, with an intensity that both
surprised and scared Jenna. She knew she'd already lost a piece of
her heart to Jacob, despite the walls around her heart that she
reinforced before.

They fell asleep after exhausting
themselves, her body languidly sore from Jacob's attentions and
relaxed to the point of being boneless.

Jacob had carefully tucked himself around
her and fell asleep with his face in her hair, softly snoring
within seconds. Jenna quickly drifted to sleep, taking a two hour
catnap before her body refused to lie there any longer.

She made all the calls she needed to her
family, reassuring them she was fine, and that she was staying at a
friend's house for a while until she figured out what to do. She
kept the details from all of them, knowing that the less they knew,
the safer they'd be.

After that was over with, she sat on the
thick carpet of the living room, her face buried in Chuckles' fur
as she grieved for her destroyed house. She knew that it could have
easily happened while she was there. She was thankful it hadn't,
but she still mourned the destruction of everything she had worked
towards and all of her precious memorabilia that Jacob had assured
her were beyond repair.

The explosion had also destroyed her car
when the roof had collapsed, effectively ensuring that nothing
would be left to allow her to pick up the pieces. She'd worked her
butt off to pay off that car, and she was pissed that everything
she had worked so hard for could be taken from her in one violent
incident.

But so was the way of life. Her choices were
limited now, and finding a new place to live would be a pain. Maybe
Amy would consider sharing an apartment together. After all of
this, she knew she wouldn't want to be alone for a while.