Chapter Six

Lou watched in horror as the man she had come to respect, who always kept his temper under control, tackled Sam. The brutal attack took Sam by surprise and he stumbled back against the cabinets. In the next instant, Sam gained his balance and started fighting back. Jared hit him square on the nose and Sam answered with a punch to the gut.

By the time she gained her senses, blood was dripping from Sam’s nose.

“Stop it.”

They ignored her as the fists continued to fly. Irritated and embarrassed, Lou did the only thing she could do. She grabbed the weapon Jared had apparently set on the counter when he arrived, and cocked it.

“Stop or I will shoot you both.”

They both looked over at her, breathing heavily, anger pouring off them in waves so strong she was amazed it didn’t knock her over. Sam’s nose was definitely broken and Jared was going to have a black eye.

“Step away.” They didn’t follow her directions right away, so she gripped the weapon with both hands and took aim. “I’m not joking around. Do it.”

With a disgusted snarl, Jared threw Sam against the cabinets and then stepped away. Sam moved to tackle him again, but Lou said, “I’m not kidding, Sam. I’ll shoot you where you stand.”

His glare was her answer, but he did as she ordered. She slowly released the breath she had been holding.

“Now what the hell is this about?”

Neither of them answered her.

“I don’t have time to deal with both of you acting like little boys out of control.”

“I need to talk to you alone,” Jared said. She studied Jared, then glanced at Sam. He was still breathing heavily. The silence that filled the small room ratcheted up the tension about fifteen gigabytes.

“Fine. Sam, leave us alone.”

Sam stared at her and then at Jared. She could tell he wasn’t happy about it. For a second or two she thought he might disagree. The internal conflict was easy to see in his eyes. But he nodded and started to walk toward the doorway. He stopped in front of her and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. The action was so tender it surprised her.

“Call if he gives you shit.”

He brushed his mouth over hers, tossed Jared a nasty look and then left them alone finally.

“You want to explain what the fuck that was about, Jared?”

“Sam and I go way back,” he said as he turned toward the sink to rinse off the blood from his split lip. She set the weapon on the table and approached him.

“Here, let me help you with that.”

He ignored her and continued to work on his injury by himself.

“Jared?”

“Why did you let him touch you, Lou?”

Of all the questions she expected, that was one she could have never thought he would ask.

“What do you mean?”

“I know you slept with him. Why did you let him?”

She couldn’t lie to him. In the last ten years, there had only been one man that she had wanted—that is until she met Sam. “I wanted to.”

He tossed her a look that could have made any lesser woman shrivel. “Whoring yourself out to get the job done?”

She didn’t even think. She raised her hand and slapped him. In truth she was ready to hit him harder. Since they first met, he had never called her one, even when she was one. So hearing it from him struck straight to her heart. She had to blink back the hot press of tears that threatened to embarrass her.

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. Before she knew what he had planned, he pulled her into his arms and cradled her against his chest. At first, she said nothing. It had been a decade since he had held her like this, cradled her against his chest as he rushed her to the medics. His heart sped up beneath her hand.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and she wouldn’t have believed him if she didn’t hear it in his voice. He had never in all their years together ever brought up her former profession. “I just don’t understand why you would sleep with Sam.”

She pulled back and looked up at him. “He’s not dirty.”

He cocked his head to one side and studied her. “How do you know that?”

“You seem to know him. What do you think?”

He sighed and let her go, albeit reluctantly. “I knew him. We grew up in the same neighborhood, so to speak.”

She frowned at him. “He’s a rich kid like you?”

He nodded. “Both of us went to The Academy.”

Well, that explained a lot. To get into the military school took a lot of money and a lot of connections. Jared’s family had both, but he had left disgusted with the entire idea of what they wanted of him. Then she remembered the story of his first love, the one Jared regretted letting get away.

“He’s the one,” she said. She wasn’t sure he heard her until he looked at her.

“Yeah.”

She sighed. “Shit. I’m sorry, Jared. I didn’t know. I take it you didn’t know when you sent me after him.”

He shook his head. “No. He’s using a different last name. It wasn’t until I dug up a surveillance video and could strip a hologram from it that I realized it was him. It took me a moment or two to realize who he was. He’s changed so much.”

She raised her hand to cup his face. “I bet you both have. Do you think he’s dirty?”

Jared sighed. “It would be easier to be pissed at him and accuse him, but there is one thing about Sam I know. He’s straight as an arrow. Besides the fact you were apparently followed when I sent you out.”

“That was my fault. I should have been more careful.”

Now his eyes warmed as he offered her a smile, and she felt her heart do a little flip flop. It was like that whenever he smiled, or gave her one of his laughing looks. She could never stop the way her body reacted to him. Ten years and she still had a crush on him.

“There’s no one who is more careful than you, Lou.” The certainty in his voice made her feel a little bit better.

“You think I was followed on purpose by Zenich?” she asked.

He nodded, his smile fading into regret. “Yeah, I think so. The base camp was hit.”

“Casualities?”

He nodded, suddenly looking more tired than she had ever seen him. “We lost Michelson and Chambers.”

She sighed, thinking of the two men she had worked with and sometimes fought with over the last few years. She rubbed her chest, trying to ease the pain, but it didn’t work. “They’ve been watching us.”

“And worse, I think he’s being set up. Sam was a lot of things in school, but dirty wasn’t one of them. At least not in this respect.”

“In what respect do you think he was dirty?”

The moment she asked it, she realized that she had stepped into a quagmire.

“His personal life, well, he was a little, shall we say, easy.”

She studied him for a second. “Is this about how he treated you?”

He shook his head. “Actually, we were pretty exclusive for a while, but before and after, well, he had a reputation.

“And you didn’t? Give me a break, Jared. I’ve known you for over ten years, and I’ve seen the women and men come and go. Not like you’ve settled down.”

He laughed. “Yeah, that’s true.” He reached out and took a strand of her hair and wrapped it around his fingers. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you with your hair down.”

There was something in his voice that shimmered with a yearning she recognized. She had felt it so many times in the last few years for him, had ignored the twinge she felt every time she saw him leave with one of his many lovers. She had never spoken of it, tried to pretend that it didn’t exist. Until Sam, she hadn’t been too sure that she would be able to let a man even kiss her. But now, with her senses in overdrive, she was picking up on the subtle differences in his tone. The atmosphere in the kitchen heated. She didn’t know what to say when he stepped close enough for her to feel his body heat.

“Why did you have to sleep with him?”

Lou opened her mouth but nothing came out. His gaze was so intense, the hunger darkening the green. She had been in love with him for years, but never acted on it, never could before now. What the hell was wrong with her? She had those same deep hungry feelings for Sam, but now she felt the rising need in her for Jared. The craving rose up inside of her, entwining her heart, pulling at the need she had for Sam. She had been so afraid to even try to have sex again, but now, in the span of twenty-four hours, she was craving two different men.

Jared slipped his hand up to her neck and pulled her forward. She could have stopped him right there, told him that she wasn’t interested. He would have obeyed her request. But she couldn’t ask him to stop. The words she should say were tangled in her throat, along with her heart. She could only watch as he lowered his mouth to hers, and without breaking eye contact, he pressed it against hers. He winced a little probably due to the split lip, but when she tried to pull away, he tightened his hand at the base of her neck. Instantly, heat zinged through her, her pulse accelerated, and she felt the overwhelming need to curl up close to Jared and forget the world. He slipped his tongue inside her mouth and she moaned against it, closing her eyes and losing herself in the kiss.

He skimmed his hands down her body to her rear end and pulled her hard up against him. She wasn’t surprised to feel his erection against her belly, but it did surprise her that she wanted him at the same level she had wanted Sam.

When he drew away, she couldn’t seem to get her mind from spinning or her body from yearning to be taken.

What the bloody hell was wrong with her?

“What was that about?”

He sighed and rested his forehead against hers. “I’ve waited a long time for you to be ready.”

She couldn’t hide her surprise. “But…”

The smile he gave her was gentle and sweet. “I know. You were completely oblivious.”

“You always had lovers. It isn’t like you lived like a monk.” She couldn’t keep the accusation out of her tone.

“I didn’t know if you would ever be ready.”

She sighed. “And now that you have your old competition back from The Academy, you’re ready to jump on board.”

“Dammit, it isn’t like that.”

Hurt and a bit embarrassed, and more than a little aroused, she asked, “No, then what is it like?”

“Yeah, Jared, why don’t you take your hands off her and tell us both what it was like?” Sam asked from the doorway.