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SATURDAY NIGHT, KAYLEE giggled as they sat around the dining room table at Jett’s house, listening to Anna banter with her husband. Nick looked up at the sound, seemingly surprised to see her relaxed after the hellish week they’d had. The mercenaries Cornwell had hired were still in the wind, but Cornwell himself had been tracked to Florida with Fiona Brown. Cornwell had screwed up, using a credit card to check into a hotel in Miami. They’d both been brought back to Nebraska to face charges earlier that morning, and the team was celebrating the big break in the case over dinner.
“Really, Jett, just send me in next time,” Anna joked. “I could’ve recorded Cornwell and his tiny dick and then blackmailed him. He’d never know what hit him.”
“Like I’d let you anywhere near that asshole,” Jett growled. “And I definitely don’t want you looking at another man’s package—no matter how little it might be,” he joked as the table roared with laughter.
He leaned over and kissed his wife affectionately, Anna beaming, and Kaylee felt a strange twist of longing. It was obvious how much Nick’s boss doted on his wife. Kaylee had been happy living alone all these years, but watching them, she felt like she’d been missing out on something.
Their nanny poked her head in the door, smiling. “The baby is down.”
“Thank you so much!” Anna gushed. “You know it’s rare we get a night alone together.” She took the baby monitor from the other woman, setting it on the console behind the table. The entire scene felt so...domestic. And yet here Jett owned a multi-million-dollar security firm and ran a black ops team.
“So what exactly were Cornwell and his mistress doing in Miami?” Luke’s girlfriend Wren asked from across the table. As an investigative reporter, she followed the news closely. This part of the story hadn’t hit the mainstream media yet but no doubt would soon. While Kaylee knew that many of the team’s operations involved classified things their wives and girlfriends would never know about, this case was national news. The entire country knew about the treachery of a military officer at Offutt Air Force Base.
“They were hoping to live a low-key life,” Luke said with a shrug. “Although they planned to eventually flee to Mexico, Fiona had connections in Florida. Apparently, Cornwell went along with it.”
“Jesus. Some men will do anything to get laid,” Sam muttered.
His fiancée Ava elbowed him but clearly was trying to stifle her laughter.
“He sold out his country because of his dick. He’ll end up in jail because of it, too.”
Nick smirked beside her, and Kaylee knew Sam wasn’t entirely wrong. Cornwell had been cheating on his wife for years. He’d been baited this time, though, with Fiona Brown knowing she could trade sex for state secrets.
“Enough about work stuff,” Anna declared. Her gaze landed on Kaylee, and a smile played about her lips. “We all know Nick’s been pining away for you forever.” Kaylee flushed as Nick muttered something under his breath. “Did you two really meet in high school?”
“We did,” Kaylee said. “We were typical teenagers sneaking around behind our parents’ backs. My mom always loved Nick though.”
“What’s not to love?” he quipped.
“I could name a few things,” Sam started before Ava shushed him. “Just kidding, buddy,” Sam said with a smirk.
“But you really kept in touch all this time?” Anna asked, her eyes beaming. “That’s so romantic! First love,” she said with a dreamy sigh. “Then there’s Jett who picked me up at a bar in Manhattan one night,” she said with a wink.
“She never left my side after that,” Jett joked.
“Nick and I were both really young when we were together,” Kaylee told the group. “When we reconnected, we realized we still have a surprising amount in common.”
“And a lot hasn’t changed. For instance, Kaylee still can’t cook,” Nick joked.
“Hey,” she said, playfully swatting at him. He caught her hand and brought it to his mouth for a sweet kiss, causing the women at the table to sigh and his friends to stifle their laughter. She knew she was flushing but couldn’t find it in her to care. Barely two weeks had passed since Nick had flown to Nebraska. It felt like both a minute and lifetime ago. She could’ve continued on with her regular life, but to give up all this? She’d be missing out on a heck of a lot.
Kaylee cleared her throat. “It feels the same as when we were teenagers. That probably sounds cliché, but....” She shrugged. “We’ve always just clicked, you know? Our personalities are similar, and it’s easy when we’re together. We still share the same beliefs and have the same outlook on life. And Nick still loves watching reality TV shows with me,” she teased.
“Huh. You sure about that?” Luke asked with a grin.
Wren smiled beside him. “I’m guessing he enjoys snuggling next to you on the sofa. He can hardly keep his hands to himself now,” she teased.
Nick’s arm was casually draped across the back of her chair, his hand on her shoulder, and his body was angled toward hers. “I’m not sorry about it,” Nick said, his eyes glinting with amusement.
“Me either,” Kaylee admitted, feeling somewhat shy.
He leaned over and pressed his lips to her temple, and she knew her face was flaming. His friends simply looked happy for them though.
“You work in Omaha,” Sam said. “Are you going to steal Nick away from us when this is over? Drag him back to Nebraska?”
“I’m trying to convince her to move to New York,” Nick said.
“’atta boy,” Sam joked.
Kaylee bit her lip, suddenly nervous. Nick squeezed her shoulder, immediately attuned to her. “I don’t know what’ll happen,” she admitted. “We’ll have to figure things out. I’m afraid to go back with Cronin and Levins still on the loose. I don’t have an apartment to go back to anyway.”
The table grew silent, the ramifications of her words sinking in. She’d gotten settled at Nick’s home, going shopping to get more of what she needed. Her days were spent at headquarters with him. She couldn’t do any of the classified graphic design work she’d been involved with at Offutt, but she had been in touch with her boss. Her job was secure and would be there when she returned. If she returned.
“We’re going to find them,” Nick said, his voice harder than before. “Kaylee’s not going to be living in fear forever.”
“Damn straight she’s not,” Jett agreed. “Shadow Security doesn’t take on jobs we don’t finish. We’ll track them down ourselves if the Feds can’t do it.”
“I don’t want any of you to get in trouble,” Kaylee said.
“We follow our own rules,” Jett assured her. “You want strait-laced military rules and regulations? Fly out to California and see my brother.”
The other men burst into laughter, used to Jett’s bluntness. “His brother commands several SEAL teams in Coronado,” Nick explained. “That reminds me,” he continued, changing the subject. “I ran into Ace at Offutt when I flew to Nebraska.”
“No shit?” Sam asked.
“Last person I expected to see there,” Nick said with a chuckle.
“Who’s Ace?” Kaylee asked.
“A SEAL team leader in Coronado. Good guy. We worked with him a couple of times when we were Deltas. Jett’s brother Slate commands their SEAL team.”
“Wow. An entire household of macho, military men. Can’t imagine anything going wrong there. Thanksgiving dinners must be fun.”
Jett smirked. “We’re completely different, but Slate is a man you can depend on when the shit hits the fan. We balance each other out.”
“Plus he loves me,” Anna joked.
Nick’s phone buzzed with a text, and he pulled it from his pocket with a frown. “What’s wrong?” Kaylee asked, catching the expression on his face.
“Everyone’s here. I can’t imagine who’d be contacting me on a Saturday night.”
Kaylee leaned over, watching as he pulled up his messages, an ominous feeling suddenly washing over her. The rest of the table had grown quiet.
West: Another photo of Kaylee has been released. It was posted online.
Kaylee’s heart began to pound, and she watched as Nick thumbed a message back.
Nick: What’s it a picture of?
She clutched onto Nick’s arm, waiting for the reply. It had to be bad if West was reaching out to them now. The fake sex scandal photos had been bad enough. Fortunately, the AI pictures had been distorted enough that most people realized they weren’t real. It was embarrassing as hell but hadn’t brought as much negative attention as she’d feared. Although the photos were online, most outlets weren’t interested in sharing computer-generated, heavily-doctored images. She’d love to have them disappear forever, but that wasn’t exactly how things worked on the Internet.
Kaylee still didn’t know if Cornwell or the men he’d hired were behind it. Given that he was now behind bars, it seemed likely that Cronin and Levins were releasing the photos. What they hoped to gain from it, she wasn’t sure. They couldn’t exactly blackmail her when the photos were already shared publicly.
Nick’s phone buzzed again.
West: Keep in mind it’s likely not real. I haven’t analyzed it yet.
Nick: What’s in the damn photo?
West: It’s a nude of Kaylee. Full frontal. They posted it online and threatened to send it to every single one of her email contacts.
Kaylee sucked in a breath, her stomach churning, and she felt bile rising in the back of her throat. “It can’t be real,” she whispered. “It’s another AI trick, right? They have apps for that type of thing. It’s sick, but they do exist.”
“What’d he find?” Jett barked from across the table, grabbing his own phone.
“They have more photos of me,” Kaylee said, her voice thin. Nick eyed her, seemingly knowing what she was thinking. “Tell him to send it. I want to see it.”
Nick muttered a curse but shot off another text to West. A few seconds later, the image came through. Kaylee stared at the picture in horror. It was her in the bathroom at the safehouse, fresh out of the shower. Naked. Her breasts were clearly on display, a towel only partly obscuring her down below. The picture showed almost all of her completely nude.
She pushed back from the table, nearly knocking over her chair, and rushed down the hall to the bathroom, dry heaving. She could hear the commotion behind her, people asking if she was okay, and Nick’s deep voice as he hurried after her.
She bent over again, emptying the contents of her stomach into a trashcan.
Nick was at her side in an instant, helping to hold her hair back as she heaved again. “It’ll be okay,” he assured her. “No one will really think it’s you. They’ll delete the photo if it’s actually sent to them.”
She gasped as tears streamed down her cheeks, and she shook her head, wiping her mouth with a few tissues. “It’s from the safehouse. They must have been watching me the entire time. They had cameras somewhere in the bathroom. God. They probably have tons of photos. Videos.” She burst into sobs as more tears streamed down her cheeks, and then Nick was collecting her in his arms.
His phone buzzed again, and he swore as he looked at the screen.
“What is it?” she asked, still clinging to him.
He was silent a beat, and Kaylee’s stomach dropped. “Whoever posted the photo online just made a threat. They want you to return to Omaha, or they’ll release everything.”
“They won’t let this go,” she said. “Those men won’t get paid for holding me at the safehouse with Cornwell now under arrest. Plus, I snuck out. There’s no way he’d pay them anyway for not keeping better watch of me. They’ll want money from me not to release more pictures.”
Nick had stiffened, and his voice was hard as he met her gaze. “That’s blackmail. Sextortion. You’re not going to Omaha to meet with them. They will never hurt you, Kaylee. Never. I swear on my life I will hunt them down and make them wish they’d never been born.”
She looked at him helplessly, her entire world suddenly off-kilter. “What can you do?” she asked tearfully. His large frame still hovered over her own, but she feared this was something even he couldn’t fix.
Nick’s voice was low but deadly when he responded. “I’m going to end them.”
