Standing under the pounding spray of the shower, I dropped my head onto my arm, which was braced against the tile wall, and tried not to think about the woman sleeping on my couch. Hunger, bright and vicious, spiraled through me. Not just the normal lust-filled want I was used to, this was something sharper, deeper. Hell, I didn’t even need my ability to understand that Megan had stolen a piece of me that no one else had managed to find. It didn’t matter that it had only been two fucking days. Even before I’d rescued her, she’d teased me with possibilities. It started back when the colonel had me investigate her disappearance. The more I delved into her life, the more real she became to me, more so than any other woman I’d spent time with. Then she started haunting my dreams.
Once I had gotten her out of the hellhole, it was all I could do to limit my time at the hospital to once a day. Even Wolf had raised an eyebrow at my routine visits. Now that she was in my house, there wasn’t a chance in hell of me walking away. In fact, I was hiding in the shower because as much as I would have enjoyed curling up with Megan, it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, at least not if the itch under my skin was any indication. That itch was a good indicator that we couldn’t stay here. It wasn’t a knowing but a common-sense knowledge based on experience.
I might not be able to hide Megan from whoever was stalking her dreams—something I hoped to change once we had a sit-down with Rico—but I sure as shit could keep her physical location on the q.t. I had no doubt that Falcon was using someone close to the colonel to hunt Megan and, by extension, the teams. They had to be close enough to know how and when to strike, which meant they probably had access to each team member’s basic information, such as home addresses and contacts. That would have required a high-security clearance, which would explain how they knew to wait outside Megan’s doctor’s office and then to hit Keelie’s apartment. Megan might no longer be employed by the colonel, but Delacourt would have kept tabs on her and her schedule.
I had to hope the more sensitive information, such as what each team member could do, was buried deep enough to keep our hunter blind. It was bad enough that Falcon had enough of their own set of psychic skills to draw accurate conclusions about ours, but keeping the specifics hidden would be our only advantage in this game. The longer we stayed in my house, the more we ran the risk of being cornered, so we needed to disappear that night.
Of course, that wouldn’t help once I got Megan somewhere safe and she could actually sleep uninterrupted. It had been a risk to leave her sleeping, considering that Falcon’s hunter could slip in and out of her dreams, but she was dead on her feet and barely able to keep her eyes open. Hopefully, her exhaustion would be enough to keep her dreamless. She wasn’t the only one who was tired—exhaustion was riding my ass like my old gunny sergeant—but there’d be no stopping until I had Megan somewhere relatively safe.
Washing my hair, I evaluated a couple of options, leaning more and more toward an old friend’s condo out on the beach. He still had another month on tour, so the place would be empty, and I had a key since he’d asked me to do an occasional drop-in to make sure it stayed standing. Since it wasn’t easily linked to me or Megan, it should work.
I started a mental checklist of things we’d need as I rinsed then stepped out to towel off. I was about to hang up my towel when I realized I had forgotten to bring clothes into the bathroom. Well, shit. Normally I’d just waltz into my bedroom, but that might not be the smartest thing to do with Megan curled up in my bed. Not that I expected her to be awake or aware, but a man could hope.
My overly-optimistic imagination triggered a hunger that had nothing to do with food and everything to do with indulging, no matter how unwise. Shaking my head at both my imagination and even more enthusiastic dick, I wrapped the damp towel around my waist and hit my bedroom, taking care to keep my movements quiet. Seeing her curled up on my bed softened something in my chest. Damn, I had it bad.
Even understanding the threat that Megan posed, it was hard to remember it when watching her struggle to her feet, hit after hit. The depth of her courage and determination snuck under my caution and found a hidden spot. It didn’t help that she appealed to my tarnished white-knight side in a huge fucking way, even though she didn’t need me to fill that role. How she’d managed to hide all that strength of character while working for Delacourt was beyond me. Then again, when I was in the office, I wasn’t really paying attention to paper pushers. More fool me.
I hit my dresser, grabbed a pair of boxer briefs and tiptoed into my walk-in closet. Once safely inside, I slid the door almost closed. I tossed the damp towel to the laundry basket and then quickly donned clean jeans and a T-shirt. Dressed, I gathered a couple more T-shirts and pairs of jeans and left the closet. I dumped them on the far side of the bed and went back to my dresser for socks and briefs, adding them to the growing pile. With clothes for the next few days taken care of, I focused on the next item of importance—protection.
Crouching in front of the squat but solid gun safe tucked at the back of the closet, I let it do its thing with my fingerprints, and when it popped open, I collected what I would need. First up, my HK USP, followed by two extra-detachable box magazines, each holding sixteen rounds of .45 ACP, which had a heavier impact than a regular nine-millimeter. Overkill, maybe, but I’d rather be certain than sorry.
Dropping the extra magazines into the small weapons bag, which contained a few key items in case I found a need to hit the road quickly, I stood up and snagged my concealed holster off the top shelf. After clipping it to the waist of my jeans at the small of my back, I left my T-shirt untucked for easier access. Primary firmly in place, I sank back into a crouch and snagged my backup, the small fourth-generation Glock 19, and added it to the bag. No way was I leaving Megan unarmed with so many unknowns floating about. I didn’t plan on leaving her side, but it was better to be safe than sorry. She needed to be able to defend herself if I wasn’t around.
With protection set and bare feet now covered with well-worn combat boots, I took the bag over to the bed and set it next to the pile of jeans and T-shirts. It took me ten minutes to toss my clothes, toiletries, and weapons bag into a faded pea-green duffle showing the wear and tear of multiple trips around the globe. Shouldering it, I snagged a hoodie from the chair and left the bedroom.
Halfway down the hall, a noise at the front door brought me to a standstill. I set the duffle bag and jacket on the floor, taking care to keep as quiet as possible. Straightening, I pulled the HK free and brought it up, barrel aimed at the door.
As the door swung open, a familiar voice called, “Don’t shoot. I’m not the biggest fan of Swiss cheese, mon ami.” Rabbit’s dark head popped around the door, and his hazel eyes marked the gun before lifting to meet mine. Despite the teasing tone, his expression remained serious. “A little jumpy, are we?”
Before I could answer, Jinx’s miffed voice ordered, “Move it, Cajun boy.” She forced Rabbit to take a couple of steps forward as I holstered my gun and picked up my bag and jacket.
Rabbit glared over his shoulder as he moved out of the doorway. “Watch where you’re poking that finger, sugar.”
“You moved, didn’t you?” Breezing by him, Jinx headed into the living room and gave a small finger wave. “Hi, Megan!”
I turned to find a heavy-eyed Megan coming up behind me.
She stopped at the mouth of the hall. “Hey, Jinx.” She changed course and met Jinx at the couch.
Rabbit closed and locked the front door, waiting until I set my stuff down inside the entryway. “Not plannin’ on sticking around?”
I shook my head. “I think it’s better to keep Megan tucked out of sight tonight.”
Rabbit stayed at my side as we headed into the living room, where the two women were talking quietly. “Probably for the best,” he agreed.
I bypassed Jinx, who had claimed the corner of the couch, and aimed for a seat close to Megan, the germ of an idea taking root. “Hey, Jinx.”
“Hey, Bishop,” the tawny haired woman shot back as Rabbit plopped down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She shot him an exasperated look before turning back to me.
When I went to sit, Megan drew her legs up, making room for me. I settled in and let her tuck her bare toes under my thigh. “You think you can do your thing on Megan and me?”
Jinx studied us both, her brown eyes calm but critical. “Do we have eyes on us?”
I shrugged. “Not sure, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.” That seemed to be my theme for the night.
“You wanna be safe, you might want to consider catching some z’s, my man.” Rabbit played with the end of Jinx’s hair.
“I will as soon as we get under cover.”
“Did something happen?” Megan asked.
I patted her leg. “No, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
She studied my face, her brow creased as she bit her lower lip.
“What are you thinking?” Jinx asked, pulling my attention away from Megan.
I shared my suspicions with her, concluding, “So, I want to hole up somewhere with no link to any of us. If they’re watching the house, I don’t want them to know we’re leaving.”
All sense of Rabbit’s earlier playfulness was gone. “This is not good.”
“No,” I agreed. “It’s not, but there’s not much we can do about it tonight. For now, Megan and I both need some sleep. Once we meet with Rico, we should have a better idea of what we’re dealing with.”
Jinx studied Megan as she tapped her fingers on the couch’s arm. “If she uses my hoodie, I can cover her from the front door to the car.” She turned to me, and her lips curved. “But making them think you’re Rabbit is a little more involved.”
“But it can be done?” Jinx’s ability to weave illusions wasn’t just cool as shit—it was also a critical weapon in our team’s arsenal. While it worked, for the most part, the success of her illusions tended to depend on the assumptions of the audience. If they expected to see Rabbit and Jinx leaving, then that was what they would see. Of course, if they were tailing us, all bets were off because Jinx had to be in visual range for the illusion to hold.
She raised a brow. “With a few adjustments, yeah.” She shifted her attention between me and Rabbit. “You got something like that?” She waved a hand at Rabbit’s navy zip-up hoodie.
Thinking of the hoodie sitting on top of my go bag in the foyer, I nodded. “Yeah, it’s black, not navy, though.”
“That’ll work, because no way is Rabbit’s jacket going to fit you,” Jinx said. Since Rabbit was built along the lines of lean and mean and I had heft to my shoulders, her concerns were valid. She leaned over, snatched Rabbit’s battered baseball cap off his head, and threw it at me. “Here.”
“Hey!” Rabbit tried to rescue his hat but missed. “Don’t be such a mean woman, Jinx,” he whined, his southern accent rolling in heavy. “That’s my lucky hat.”
Unmoved, Jinx just raised a brow. “If I’m going to pass Bishop off as you, I need a little help.”
I turned the cap around, my lips twitching at the manically grinning crawfish that decorated it. “Only Rabbit would wear this.”
Rabbit flipped me off. “Doncha lose my hat.”
Jinx gave a delicate snort as she stood up and shrugged off her hoodie, ignoring Rabbit’s theatrics. “Come on, Megan. Let’s hit the bathroom.”
Megan gave me a wide-eyed look of confusion but shoved the blanket aside and followed Jinx down the hall. I waited until the women disappeared into the bathroom before turning back to Rabbit, who was still watching them. When his attention came back to me, he asked, “How good are the odds they’ll hit here tonight?”
“High.” I braced my arms on my knees as I lowered my voice. “You and Jinx need to ghost as soon as you can.”
Rabbit grunted as he dug a hand into his pocket and pulled out a set of car keys. “You’re going to need these.” The keys flew threw the air, and I caught them. “You take care of my pretty girl, yeah?”
“Yeah.” I closed my hand around the keys to Rabbit’s beloved Dodge Charger. There was no use arguing. We needed wheels to get out of here, and taking my car was out of the question—to pull this whole illusion off, my Jeep had to stay in the driveway. It left me worried for Rabbit and Jinx, who would be stuck in the house like sacrificial lambs. “You got access to other wheels?”
He nodded. “Don’t worry about us. We’ll be fine. Just get your woman undercover, man. I don’t like how hard they’ve been hounding her.”
“Yeah, me either.”
Rabbit was quiet for a long moment. “I’m not keen on having my privacy violated.” He met my gaze, and there was no missing his determined ruthlessness. “Think it might be time to turn the tables.”
After having shared my suspicions, I didn’t find his comment unexpected. We needed to switch from defense to offense because defense sucked ass. Poking around might rattle some bones, but if anyone could dig through the electronic shadows without ruffling feathers, it was Rabbit. Still… “Watch your step. Got a feeling we’re about to step into some serious shit.”
Rabbit’s grin was all teeth. “I’m thinking we’re already knee-deep and sinking fast, mon ami.”
Before I could respond, Jinx’s voice came from down the hall. “All right, ready to get this show on the road?”
I put Rabbit’s hat on and stood up. “Ready when you are.”
Turning, I watched the two women come down the hall. Megan wore Jinx’s pullover, the hood up and shadowing her face, the ends of her unbraided hair peeking around the edges. When Jinx stopped, Megan kept coming until she stood across from me with the couch between us, her hands buried in the hoodie’s front pockets.
She shot Jinx a worried look. “You sure they’ll think I’m you?”
Jinx gave her a genuine smile. “Yeah. We might have a couple of inches and few pounds of difference, but as long as you remember to keep your face away from the light, we can totally pull this off.”
Megan didn’t look convinced. Then again, short of her witnessing Jinx’s ability firsthand, skepticism was to be expected. I stepped over Rabbit’s legs and headed toward the foyer to get my jacket. I was shrugging into it, listening to Jinx give Megan pointers—“Keep your back to the street, head tilted downward, don’t talk, just wave, let Bishop take the outside position”—when Rabbit called my name.
“You got a contact number?” he asked.
Dropping to a crouch, I dug through my go bag and pulled out two burner phones. “Here.” I tossed one to Rabbit, who wasted no time powering it up. “Hit 1. That’s me.”
“Got it.” He tucked it into his back pocket. “Check in tomorrow once you touch base with Rico.”
I straightened and, following one of Jinx’s suggestions, pulled my duffle on like a backpack. “Copy.”
Jinx flicked off the main foyer light, leaving us backlit by the living room, before stopping at Rabbit’s side. She did a quick top to toe before dipping her chin in a little nod. “Right, time to move.”
I went over to Megan, who stood awkwardly off to the side of the front door, her smaller backpack cradled against her stomach, holding herself stiffly. Wrapping my free arm around her waist, I gave her a quick hug. “Hey, relax. Jinx has us covered.”
She bit her lip, opened her mouth, then closed it again and just nodded. Her shoulders relaxed fractionally.
“Watch your six, Bishop,” Rabbit said softly.
Meeting his dark eyes, I said, “Intend to.” I turned to Jinx. “Tell me when.”
She took a couple of deep breaths, her gaze focused on Megan and me. The only tell that Jinx was doing anything was the emergence of gold flecks in her brown eyes. They looked like miniature fireflies.
Next to me, Megan sucked in a startled breath, but that was all I caught before my ears filled with the cotton of an abrupt altitude change. By the time they cleared, Jinx’s eyes were back to their normal color. She brushed her hands together as if dusting them off. “Done.”
Megan looked at me, a frown marring her forehead, then told Jinx, “I don’t think it worked.”
Jinx laughed. “Do me a favor and close your eyes.” Once Megan’s lashes drifted down, Jinx continued. “Okay, now, before you open them, I want you to imagine Rabbit is standing next to you and Bishop is next to me.” She paused. “Got it?” When Megan nodded, Jinx said, “Good. Open your eyes and look.”
Megan looked at me, and her eyes widened. “Holy crap!” She blinked rapidly, frowned, and turned to Rabbit. When her attention went back to Jinx, she said, “It’s like some weird optical illusion. If I look straight on, I’d swear Bishop is there,” she pointed to Rabbit, then turned to me, “And this is Rabbit. But”—she turned back to Jinx—“standing like this, if I try to look without really looking, I can see bits and pieces of them.”
“That’s because you know on some level who’s who, but if you were just passing by or didn’t know for sure, you’d think—”
“That they’d switched places.” There was a bit of awe in Megan’s voice, and based upon the color rising in Jinx’s cheeks, she caught it. Megan gave Jinx an embarrassed smile. “That’s really freaking cool.”
“Umm, thanks.”
“No time to lollygag. Let’s get a move on,” Rabbit cut in and moved to the door. With his hand on the knob, he shot Megan a wink. “Showtime!”
In a matter of minutes, Megan and I were out the door, down the walk, and at Rabbit’s gray Dodge Charger. I popped the trunk and dumped the bag in it as Megan closed the passenger door behind her. My neck itched, a confirmation of my suspicions, but I didn’t look around as I went to the driver’s side and got behind the wheel.
Once we were behind the safety of tinted windows and backing out the drive, I scanned our surroundings in an effort to pinpoint our watchers. No luck. Looking back through the side window, I caught a disconcerting glimpse of my body turning and ushering what looked like Megan back into the house. Damn, Jinx is good.
I concentrated on getting out of the neighborhood while Megan sat, tense and silent, in the passenger seat. As we merged onto the freeway, I reached over and squeezed her knee. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” It came out shaky, but her next words were stronger. “Just trying to wrap my head around all of this.”
From the corner of my eye, I caught her movement as she lifted her hands to the hoodie, but when she stilled, I said, “Go ahead. I think we’re in the clear.”
She dropped the hood back and ran her hands through her hair, her tension easing as she resettled in her skin. “What Jinx did was…”
When she stopped, I offered, “Weird?”
“Cool.”
I smiled as I switched over to the middle lane. “Yeah, she’s damn impressive.”
It didn’t take long for Megan’s curiosity to get the better of her. “I’ve never heard of an ability like that.”
Figuring it was better to keep her distracted by the wonders of Jinx, I decided to elaborate. “You have, but most people pass it off as being good at disguises. The thing is, most of her abilities depend on the willingness of those watching to believe what they’re seeing, so she’s careful to work with expectations. She’s a hell of a mimic too.”
“Mimic?”
“Next time you get a chance, ask her to do her impression of Rabbit.” I shook my head. “She’s hell on wheels when she’s doing accents.”
Jinx could master more than accents. Given a chance to study a target, she could mimic vocal inflections and mannerisms with an uncanny precision. It might have been part of her ability, but it was also just her.
“It must come in real handy when she’s working undercover.”
It sounded like Megan’s imagination was running a mile a minute, which was better than worrying. She didn’t say anything more, and it wasn’t long before her curious quiet turned to a pensive quiet.
Since she wasn’t talking, I figured I’d better find out what rabbit hole she was wandering down. “What’s wrong?”
“Will Jinx and Rabbit be okay?”
Hearing the concern in her voice, I gave what reassurance I could. “They’ll be fine. They can handle themselves.”
I could feel her watching me, but I kept my eyes on the road. Finally she said, “That’s not really an answer.”
I risked looking away from the road to meet her gaze. “It’s the best I can give you.” Turning my attention back to driving, I tried to find something more to give her.
She finally sighed and changed the subject. “Can I ask where we’re going?”
Unfortunately, that was the one subject I wanted her to avoid. “You can ask.”
Her next question carried an edge. “Are you going to give me an answer?”
“Probably better if I don’t.” I wasn’t going to lie to her. “Megan, look, it’s better if you don’t know.”
“Because if I don’t know, then he can’t find out, right?”
I winced. Hearing my logic explained aloud didn’t make it any better. Nor could I miss the pain in her voice. “Until we can ensure that you can block him, it’s better this way.”
That explanation didn’t seem to help much either, because she turned away and faced her window. A few minutes later, I snuck a glance her way and wished I hadn’t. Silver streaks trailed down her cheeks.
The visual landed like a horse’s kick to my gut. My hands tightened on the wheel as I tried to concentrate on driving instead of my urge to strike out. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her, but whoever this sick fuck was, his game left me no choice. I had to keep her safe. One way or the other, I’d make him pay for this, too.