Gone (16 page)

“I’ll do it,” Kathy said, digging in her purse.

Then she stopped. “Oh no.”

She was in the front seat because it was an easier entry and exit for her, and she turned, her face positively ashen. “My purse. Yesterday I was in the grocery store and when I turned around in one of the aisles, a man handed me my purse. He said it had fallen out of the cart. But I could swear it hadn’t. I thought it was strange at the time and he had an accent I didn’t recognize. I checked it later and nothing was missing, but—”

“Maybe something was added? This spy crap is not my provenance.” Eric gritted his teeth. “But I’d say take out your license and credit cards and let’s try tossing the rest of it out the window if you don’t mind. I’m not a racecar driver, but hopefully I can try losing them. I work downtown and know it pretty well. With all these one-way streets, I should be able to do it if they no longer have a tracking device.”

“Okay.” She sounded subdued with a hint of fear in her voice but did accomplish the task in record time and tossed the bag out of the window. “I loved that purse, damn them. Peter bought it for me.”

“I feel confident he won’t mind buying you another one if that is how they found us so easily.” Eric took a turn down a one-way street he knew was under construction, deliberately speeding up. When he lost sight of the black car in his rearview mirror, he quickly cut through the parking lot of the dark and shuttered main library, pulling around back and then stopping for a few moments, killing his lights.

No car.

Though this wouldn’t be a good place to get caught…

It was difficult to gauge how long to wait when every minute was an eternity, but he finally said, “All right, I think that might have been the problem. If we wait too long, they are going to come back to the spot where they lost us, so let’s go ahead and travel in the opposite direction. For the record, I have no idea where we’ll be going, but away from here seems to be the best idea.”

From the backseat, Nicole reached over and touched his shoulder. “You know, I think you’re selling yourself short. You
are
pretty good at this spy crap.”

“We’re in—”

“Don’t tell me.” On the other end of the line Jack laughed, but it wasn’t true mirth. “I’m just glad you’re safe. I think I owe Eric big time.”

Nicole took in a deep breath. Yes, he really did, to the extent Eric was hardly trained in the same way, but he’d kept a cool head and undoubtedly saved their lives. “I’m just glad
you’re
safe. Is it over?”

“Not yet. We have one dead and one captured but the two who were following you haven’t been tracked down yet. We’ve got a good lead because Eric got the license plate of the car. We’re winning but not yet completely in control.”

She didn’t like the sound of that. “In control of what exactly?”

“Just stay with Eric. I’ll be in touch.”

Call ended.

Like she had any choice, though staying with Eric was not exactly a chore. Nicole glanced over at where he sat across the table. The colonel’s wife had declined to go out to lunch with them, preferring to stay in the hotel they’d found that morning and sleep. At least they seemed to be off the grid now.

“Jack says he owes you.” She slipped her phone in her purse.

Eric looked tired but his mouth still curved in amusement. “I don’t know. Sitting here, I think I owe
him
. I’m the one with you. What did he say?”

“The license plate, though I can’t believe you stopped to write it down, might be the key.”

“I had to wait for the two of you to get into the car, and since I saw them pull in, I thought it might be best to just make a note.”

“Coolheaded of you.” She folded her arms on the table and lifted her brows. “I’m sure you’ll excuse Kathy Hanes, but are you implying I move slowly, Mr. Janssen?”

“No.” He cocked his head slightly to the side, ostensibly studying her face. “I love the way you move.”

The innuendo made her laugh, which was welcome. “Hmm, somehow I don’t think you mean getting into a car.”

“Are you thinking about my suggestion?” His voice went soft and sexy. He looked sexy too, even with a morning shadow of a beard and slightly rumpled clothes. The man had impossibly perfect cheekbones.

Marry me. Let’s have babies
.

“You have to admit the circumstances haven’t made it easy.”

He reached across and took her hand. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot. It really could work, Nikki. If you married Jack and I lived with you when he’s gone half the time, people might think it was an odd arrangement, but if you married me and Jack stayed with us when he was on leave, that really wouldn’t lift too many eyebrows.”

The sincerity in his hazel eyes shook her. She managed to say, “You’d really have an open marriage?”

“Hell no.” His reaction was vehement. “Fidelity is not negotiable. Open marriage means both parties can have extra-marital affairs. Besides, you wouldn’t cheat anyway, and I know it, and neither would I. But you and Jack love each other, and I’m on board with letting that be part of our lives. Jack knows I’ll take care of you and he’d always have a home when he was back in town. It gives him the best of both worlds in a way, because he doesn’t have to feel guilty for being gone and leaving you all alone.”

God help her, she was starting to think it made sense and that scared the hell out of her. A conventional relationship was what she’d always expected in her life.

“Is this how you persuade clients to invest millions?” Nicole extracted her hand from the grip of his fingers because his touch made it hard to dispassionately consider the scenario.

“Maybe.” His smile was slow and sure. “I show them the up side to taking the risk, and explain the downside. In our case, I really don’t think there is a downside.”

“Putting up with one man is bad enough, much less two.”

“I promise to behave. I can’t speak for Jack, of course. Look at where we are now.”

He was way too good at this. Nicole took in a deep breath and wiped the condensation off her glass of iced tea with fingers that trembled a little. “How in the world would we explain it to our children?”

“In this day and age, children have gay parents. Two mothers, no father. Two fathers, no mother. What’s wrong with a mother and essentially two fathers? A great deal too many kids have divorced parents who share custody and remarry, oftentimes to people who are also divorced with other families…please, that isn’t even an argument. Besides, children do not follow you into the bedroom, Nikki. So what if Jack visits and stays with us? Perfectly natural. The important part is that the three of us are comfortable with it. If we are, then they will be too.”

She stared at him. “You really have thought this through.”

Eric sat back and lifted his brows. “I rarely make life-changing decisions without doing that.”

“Is Jack going to be okay with everyone thinking I chose you over him?”

“Ask him. I know him almost as well as I know myself, and will bet I know the answer.”

She had the feeling he was right.

Casting back over her conversation with Kathy, she couldn’t help but recall the words:
He was gone all the time
…

Knowing Jack pretty well herself, he might be equally enthusiastic about the arrangement.

It was still difficult to have doubts life could work out so cleanly.

“When I said I thought it was sexy watching you with Jack,” Eric told her, once again apparently reading her mind, “I was telling the truth.”

If she admitted it to herself, it had been sexy
having
him watch. “Is there some sort of time limit on my answer?” she asked, only half jokingly. “The past twenty-four hours have been pretty crazy. Uncomfortable cookouts to dangerous strangers looking for us…I need time to sort this out.”

“All the time you need,” he agreed, and let it go, but that was Eric. “Did Jack give a timeframe on when we might be able to go back home? I have this thing called a job.”

“So do I.” She frowned at the uneaten half of her sandwich. The chain restaurant was noisy but comfortably full of people. The few hours of sleep she’d gotten weren’t enough. “He just said he’d be in touch.”

“Then he will be.”

They trusted each other so much, Nicole was almost jealous of
their
relationship in a way. She had a lot of friends, but unless she counted Cadence, none of those friendships went so deep.

Except maybe the one she had with Eric
and
with Jack.

How nice was that?

Chapter Sixteen

Jack had wondered about his reception.

After all, Nicole had been in danger because of him. Then he hadn’t really been the one to protect her but had left it to Eric. Both of them had a reason to be ticked off at him.

Double strikeout.

He was pretty tired, and he knew what
tired
meant. Hanes had killed one of the operatives, and they’d trapped the other one, but obviously local law enforcement was not used to apprehending assassins. The paperwork had been a headache, not to mention the colonel had to pull in favors from various sources to expedite the capture of the two men who’d threatened Eric, Kathy Hanes, and Nicole. Luckily, with a description of the car and the almost-empty streets given the hour, coupled with the license plate, they’d been picked up fairly fast.

Eric’s text hadn’t been all that reassuring either.
We need to talk about something important.

Damn.

Like what? How I almost got both of you killed?
Yeah, he couldn’t wait to have that conversation. He was friends with Eric, he’d fallen in love with Nicole, he did a dangerous job, and when they’d thought he was gone forever, they’d fallen in love with each other.

Then another text:
I asked her but you know it has to be okay with you
.

If that wasn’t a convoluted circle, he’d like to see one more complicated, but he had hardly planned any of it. Nonetheless, it came back to
him
.

Nicole, looking so gorgeous in a form-fitting pink sundress he almost dropped the beer she’d handed him because he wasn’t paying enough attention, said, “So it’s over?”

He could honestly respond, “Yes.”

She smelled fabulous when she sat down next to him. Lightly sweet, like an early-blooming spring flower. And she looked even better, feminine and captivating. When she crossed her tanned legs, he was riveted. She was barefoot. Her toenail polish matched her dress. It turned him on, as did the gold shimmer of her hair.

Par for the course.

He had been fascinated since that first moment they’d met.

Eric didn’t miss that sensuous movement of her legs either, he noted. They were all out on her back deck again because that was her choice of venue, and he couldn’t blame her for wanting home-court advantage. At this point it was still two against one.

“Life as normal resumes?”

He didn’t want her afraid but couldn’t quite promise that. “We’ll be informed if there is another threat.”

The breeze stirred her hair, blowing it across her mouth. Those soft, perfect lips he longed to taste again. It had been one hell of a few days. Because of diplomatic sanctions he’d spent hours explaining the situation over and over in a small room with nothing but coffee and the occasional stale doughnut. The colonel had done the same, and luckily their stories had matched, so the State Department had stepped in.

End of story for him. He’d probably never know the result of the investigation, but he thought maybe Hanes might tell him even if it was classified. The need-to-know policy was usually effective, but the rule could be bent on occasion.

Besides, Hanes owed him, thanks to Eric.

“That’s good, I guess. Should I keep a bag packed?”

He couldn’t really honestly answer that question. Jack looked into her blue eyes and said, “I’m sorry, but maybe.”

The soft pink cloth rippled around her thighs as she leaned forward and put her fingertips on his mouth. “No.” Nicole’s voice was firm and her eyes misty. “No. Not ever. Don’t be sorry. What you do for our country, for us…no, no regrets are allowed.”

He took her hand and kissed her palm. “Yes, ma’am.”

“That doesn’t mean my life wouldn’t be so much simpler if I had never met you.”

He nibbled on her wrist. It tasted delicious, like peaches somehow. Body spray at a guess, but he didn’t care. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Now you are just being obnoxious.” She glanced over at where Eric lounged with a beer in his hand and said, “Make him stop calling me that.”

“Uhm, well, yeah, making Jack do anything he doesn’t want to do is a bit iffy in my experience. I’m fairly confident he knows how to fire about a hundred different weapons I’ve never even heard of.” He grinned, watching as Jack trailed his mouth up the length of her arm.

More than that
, Jack corrected in his mind, but that was not part of this conversation. “Nikki,” he murmured against her skin, “Eric told me he proposed. I think it’s a good idea.”

“What?” Her body shifted in her chair and her demeanor softened.