And what was so vital that she left Seth in the lurch?
Seth.
Thinking about him always brought a rush of emotions to the surface. And picturing him with Alexa made her stomach plummet, like free falling in a roller coaster. Since Alexa told her about him coming to town, Jess had had trouble sleeping. Even with New York City being so large, she
felt
him in her new world, a place she hadn’t quite adopted. She missed Chicago and the roots she had there, but she had needed a break from the old and familiar.
Making the move to New York had been an escape. When she learned Seth was coming, his visit bridged the gap and reminded her how much she missed Sam Cooper and her old way of life—
and Seth.
On a tree-lined sidewalk with a small picturesque park across the street, she spotted Alexa’s apartment building up ahead. The architecture was classic, a timeless historical. The discreet four-story brownstone had a quaint exterior of lace-curtained bay windows with carved stone and wrought-iron accents. Molded newel posts with railings flanked stone steps that led
to the main entrance, an elaborate wooden door with beveled-glass windows and a secured foyer. Very impressive.
Jess used the code Alexa had given her for the main security door and followed the signs inside to the manager to pick up the key left in her name. An old-fashioned elevator with a brass door was near the front entrance, but she opted for the marble stairs toward the back and headed for the third floor. Apartment 303 was toward the front of the building and probably overlooked the park across the street.
When she put the key in the lock, she heard water running. Noise traveled through ventilation and plumbing systems in older buildings, so she dismissed it. Yet when she got inside, she heard the water more distinctly. Someone was using Alexa’s bathroom.
“What the hell…?”
Jess dropped her bag near the door and pulled her .45-caliber Colt Python. She took a quick glimpse around the one bedroom. She smelled Alexa’s perfume and noticed she had personal photos on the wall, confirmation she had the right place. Jess gripped her weapon, aimed it toward the bedroom, and followed the sound of the shower.
For an instant, she wondered if the noise was part of the maintenance Alexa had scheduled, but as she crept into the bedroom and looked through the half-closed bathroom door, she knew better. A naked man stood behind the opaque shower curtain, his back to her.
Nice ass,
she thought. She nudged the door open,
slipped inside the bathroom, and raised both her weapon and her voice, “You better have a good reason for being here, Mr. Clean.”
“Holy shit!” The guy jerked around and yanked back the curtain.
Seth Harper stood naked in front of her, his eyes wide and jaw dropping.
Wet. Sudsy.
And in all his glory.
“Harper?” Jess lowered her weapon and her gaze. Self-control had never been her strong suit. “Nice to…see you.”
“Damn it, Jessie. Turn around.”
He grabbed the shower curtain and draped it over his hips. His shocked expression was priceless. But she wasn’t about to tell him the see-through curtain gave her the equivalent of X-ray vision.
“Oh, right.” She holstered her weapon and did as she was told—for once. Jess turned her back and knew he still wouldn’t be happy. “Uh, Harper?”
“Yeah?”
She stared at his reflection.
“What is it they say about mirrors…objects may appear larger than they are?”
“Ah, Jessie. Cut me some slack, will you?” he pleaded. “Can a guy have some privacy?”
Seth was tall and muscular with a lean swimmer’s body. An enticing sight. She’d always known he was beautiful. A guy with an angelic face and great eyes.
And now she got a peek at his other attributes and liked what she saw. Before he kissed her a few months back, she’d always thought of him as a kid. But that kiss had changed everything. And today, that boyish image had vaporized. Harper was a man with plenty to offer.
Steam fogged the mirror. She felt the heat—and hot water had nothing to do with it.
“Yeah, s-sure,” she stammered. “I’ll be out here. We probably…sh-should talk.”
Jess rushed from the bath and closed the bedroom door behind her. She should have been mortified, yet when the reality of what happened hit home, she reacted. She burst out laughing. At first the whole incident struck her as funny, but before she saw Harper again, she had to get control. She was right. They had to talk.
What the hell would she say? That question had a sobering effect, and a bad case of nerves hit her.
In record time, Harper rushed to get dressed. She heard his loud rumblings behind the closed bedroom door while butterflies waged war in her belly. Amped on adrenaline, she paced the living room and wrung her hands as she thought about things to say. None of them worked. She felt unprepared to face him, and her time had run out.
When she turned, Seth was with her. His dark hair was damp, and he smelled like herbal soap and shampoo. He wore jeans and a pale blue Oxford shirt. His feet were bare.
And he looked…
amazing
.
“Hey, Jessie. How are you?” He nudged his head, real casual.
He acted as if nothing had happened. She took a deep breath. A better woman would have let him salvage his dignity, but
that
woman wasn’t in the room.
“For cryin’ out loud, Harper. I just saw you naked,” she stopped herself. And after a long awkward moment, she nodded. “I’m good. Thanks for asking.”
Seth blushed, and a lazy smile spread across his handsome face. Jess memorized every nuance of that expression. She wanted to remember it always.
“That wasn’t my best moment in there.” He shrugged and had trouble meeting her gaze.
“Not from where I was standing.” She grinned.
“You’re not gonna let this go, are you?”
“Would you?”
Harper finally gave in and chuckled. The sound of his laughter and the blush on his cheeks warmed her heart. It reminded her how much she missed him. And being alone with him, after going months without seeing him, had an overwhelming intimacy that was new and different. She should have felt self-conscious after what had happened, but she didn’t.
“Seth, I…” Jess had no idea where to begin. She took a tentative step forward. And he did the same. Neither of them could look away.
“I thought you and Alexa…” She struggled with what to say next. “…I thought you guys had canceled your plans for this weekend. Why are you staying here?”
“She got called out on assignment. And she talked
me into staying at her place. So I canceled the hotel I booked. Why are you here?”
Alexa had set her up. And on purpose.
Maintenance, my ass.
“A hotel?” She covered up her elation with a grimace. “You had a hotel room? That’s…great.”
“Not at four hundred bucks a night,” he protested. “New York is expensive, Jessie.”
“Oh, Seth, I know. I just thought you two were…” She couldn’t admit that she’d assumed they were sleeping together. Saying it aloud made her feel foolish. And worse, it revealed too much about feelings she didn’t understand.
“That we were what?” he asked.
She heard the hope in his voice as he closed the gap between them. And she found that she was holding her breath.
Images of him kissing Alexa still plagued her.
Strike one.
And normally, the cancellation of a hotel room would get no reaction from her, but
this
cancellation was significant. It meant her assumption about their physical relationship was off base, which made her strangely happy.
Strike two.
And the real kick in the teeth stood out more than the rest. Seeing Harper naked only made her want more.
A big strike three.
She had struck out on denials about her feelings for Harper, and the truth was staring her in the face with big soulful brown eyes.
Yet having feelings and acting on them were two different things. And years of abuse as a child left her feeling like she didn’t deserve love or happiness—a heavy
load of baggage to carry, much less overcome. She had ended her budding relationship with Payton Archer almost a year ago, using the distance between them as the reason. Alaska and Chicago were worlds away.
Now she had thoughts of doing the same with Seth after only one kiss. He’d been the reason she had left Chicago practically overnight to put distance between them. The patterns in her life were self-destructive. And even though she saw them coming like a train wreck, she felt powerless to stop history from repeating.
“Seth, I wish…” She stared into his eyes and took a deep breath until the ring of her cell phone made her jump.
Not cool.
She would have ignored it, but the sound had broken the mood.
“I’m sorry.” Jess grabbed her phone and glanced down at the display. She recognized a strange series of numbers, even though there was no caller name. “I have to take this.”
She hit
TALK
, and said, “Beckett.”
“Jessie? This is Garrett Wheeler. I need to ask you a favor. I’m trying to locate your friend Seth Harper. Do you know where I can reach him?”
Jess looked up into Seth’s eyes before she turned her back and grimaced, holding the cell phone to her ear in silence. She felt more than a little protective of Seth, especially with someone as powerful and crafty as Garrett Wheeler trying to locate him. It was one thing to work for the man—having a clever resourceful boss had its upside for her.
With Garrett having an interest in Harper, she pictured Hannibal Lecter asking if Seth was available for
dinner. Whatever her new boss had in mind, he’d have to go through her first.
“That depends. What’s this about, Garrett?”
As LaClaire maneuvered the boat closer to shore, Alexa scanned the beach and the wooded cliffs with her long-range binoculars. She had her gear on deck at her feet. And in the background, over the rumble of the boat engine, she heard her men preparing to disembark.
The beach was pristine. No footprints marred the surface of the sand. And there was no sign of civilization. On the one hand, she’d found a drop zone no one had traveled in a while, but on the flip side, this wasn’t the spot the terrorists had landed with their hostages. They’d have to find their trail and track them another way.
The winds had picked up, and the sun had lost its battle with a bank of ominous dark clouds. Every swaying tree caught her attention as she looked for signs of danger. The impending storm had triggered her uneasiness and made it worse.
“Joe’s ready to drop us off.” Kinkaid’s low voice interrupted her surveillance. She kept the binoculars working the shoreline and listened to the rest of what he had to say, “He’ll take the raft to shore and stick close until we need him for our ride out.”
“Sounds good. Let’s hit it.” She picked up her gear and turned to see Joe LaClaire at her back. He nodded, clearly wanting to have a private word with his boss, Kinkaid. She’d noticed the unspoken bond between the two men. But there was something else at play. LaClaire looked worried, and not only about the mission.
She met up with her team at the raft and took one last look over her shoulder, watching the two men at the bow of the boat. If Jackson Kinkaid hadn’t been on the level with this hostage rescue, the lives of her team would be at risk. Crazed terrorists, one hurricane, and now Kinkaid had added a wrinkle that upped the ante.
You better not be keeping secrets, Jackson.
She glared at Kinkaid one final time before she joined her men.
Joe pulled him aside. “I don’t like this. Your skin is flushed. I bet that fever is back,” Joe protested in a low voice thick with concern. “If you can’t make it, contact me, and I’ll pick you up. Let Alexa’s people handle it. This ain’t worth dyin’ over—”
“Then what
is
worth dying for, Joe?” he interrupted. “Look, I don’t have a death wish—”
“You could’ve fooled me,” his friend interrupted.
“—but I can’t let Kate down.” Kinkaid kept his voice low, out of earshot of Alexa and her team, but hiding his anger was a different story. He glared at a friend he thought he knew as if seeing him for the first time.
“Who’s this Kate person to you anyway?” Joe didn’t wait for him to respond. “You and me, we got a good thing going. If you get killed doing this—”
“Then I’ll be dead. And money won’t buy jack shit in hell.”
His friend stopped.
A wise move.
Their way of making money had been Kinkaid’s idea. Stealing money from drug cartels and other criminals had become his private war. He hit them where it hurt most, and he knew they wouldn’t complain to the law—the perfect crime
if he could get away with the heist—and he didn’t take orders from the Sentinels or anyone else. But when the scores got bigger, he’d needed a smart partner, one who could keep his mouth shut and hold his greed in check.
He had cut Joe in after the man had proven himself. And the money got even better. In no time, LaClaire saw how things would work. Their hits had run real smooth and regular as clockwork. They were a team.
But money made people crazier, even someone as solid as Joe.
Most days, LaClaire tolerated his penchant to play a modern-day Robin Hood because there was always more money coming in. He kept the greenbacks rolling, and Joe held up his end of their bargain. They were partners, even though LaClaire called him boss. Hell, he trusted the guy as much as he could trust anyone.
And until this moment, he thought his faith had been justified.
“Don’t push me into making a choice between you and this rescue mission, Joe.” Although Kinkaid meant what he said, the words came out harsher than he’d intended. He gripped the man’s shoulder. “Look, I’ll be okay. I have to do this.”
Joe nodded. Stress still edged his face as he forced a smile. “After this, you and me are gonna take time off. We’ll kick back on a real beach, maybe one of them topless ones. Somewhere with no one shooting at us.”
Kinkaid crooked his lip into a smile. Joe was blowing smoke. They’d never taken time off together. When
they needed a break, they went their separate ways. And his friend usually went on the prowl for love.
“You and me on vacation?” Kinkaid shook his head and grinned. “Face it, Joe. Male bonding is highly overrated.”
His friend chuckled and shrugged. “You got me there. When I get time off, I’m usually looking for love in all the wrong places.”
“Yeah, and your idea of romance usually means money changes hands and liquor is involved. But hey, nice try.”
“Just don’t get killed this trip…or I’m gonna be pissed.”
“For your sake, I’ll give it a shot.” Kinkaid shifted his gaze toward Alexa. “I gotta go. Never keep an armed woman waiting.”
Southeast Cuba
Sierra Maestra Mountain Range
Late afternoon
Alexa gave a hand signal for her team to take a break. Her GPS readings were off. Given the dense jungle cover, that was to be expected. She’d been using her compass and the map she’d studied last night. They were crossing the Sierra Maestra, a mountain range that ran westward across Guantanamo Province in southeast Cuba. The range rose abruptly from the coast where they’d put to shore, and the elevations were a secluded haven for terrorist training camps.
They’d already encountered one camp after they’d
heard the gunfire of training exercises. They had divided into teams and moved in closer to investigate until they’d seen enough and made the call to move on. It had taken time to rule them out as sympathizers aligned with the hostage takers—time they didn’t have.
After they resumed the climb, they’d seen shanties with stone walls and rusted metal roofs dappling the hillsides. They weren’t alone and would have to skirt the locals. In hostile territory, they’d have to remain alert.
She shrugged out of her pack and set it down before she sucked water off a tube from her hydration pack. Alexa held it in her mouth to quench her thirst and conserve her supply. Sweat was rolling off her body, and her hair and clothes were drenched. She had to keep hydrated to avoid muscle cramps or worse.
She crouched and peered through a break in the dense vegetation to catch a sporadic breeze. Below her position she saw clouds casting long shadowy fingers onto lush valleys as the sun flickered a sliver of light through the darkening clouds. The horizon was thick with haze, and the air smelled of humidity. The weight of the muggy air was oppressive. Gray tufts clung to the ridges ahead and obscured the view. They had more climbing to do before they’d reach a good staging area.
Alexa hoped they’d find something before the rain hit. Any rain would wash footprints away and force them to use other signs to find a trail to follow.
She had two men scouting ahead, looking for tracks and signs of movement. They’d report back soon. And
she had two others standing guard while the rest of her team took a breather. Alexa stood and stretched before she rested against a boulder near the trail to drink more water.