AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her face heated. She took a step back. “Justice spoke to you about me?”
Damn. He’d only been guessing, but he’d struck bone. And she looked anything but annoyed or suspicious. She looked hurt.
Sandesh pushed back in his chair. It creaked as he tried to snap his spine into better alignment. “Let’s say I agree to help you.”
He brought his hands up. Maybe a bit too quickly. Gracie flinched, reached under her jacket.
There was a moment of silence. His heart thudded in his chest. She drew her hand back out without the gun. Damn, were all these women just waiting for the entirety of the male population to go berserker on their asses?
He desperately wanted to ask her that, ask her if she thought he’d be putting up with this bullshit if it weren’t for her sister, but he didn’t trust her. He sensed she hid more than she said. And he didn’t need to give her any more information.
The whole reason he’d agreed to come here, to be blindfolded, to talk to this lunatic, was to keep Justice safe. Although Justice was scarce on details, someone in this family had betrayed her. He intended to find out who. And make sure they couldn’t do it again.
“I’m in. For as long as it takes to find and take out Walid. But that’s it. Justice and I have a personal relationship. If she wants you to know more, ask her. Or you can steal into her room at night and read her diary.”
Gracie laughed. She quickly schooled her features. “You’re kind of a bad boy. A bad boy who likes to do humanitarian stuff. Is that your story?”
“And I’m sticking to it.” Though the whole bad-boy thing made him sound like a thug and not a trained professional. He had better things to do than throw down over poor word choice.
Gracie sat on the edge of the table, close enough that he could smell her perfume. It smelled like fruity candy. He kept his eyes locked with hers. She leaned over, showing much more cleavage than he was comfortable not noticing.
He pushed up from his chair and stood. Justice had some messed-up family. She eased off the table and followed him. He stepped back. She stepped forward.
“What are you doing?” If he didn’t think she’d bring out her gun, he’d have put his arms out to impede her. She was practically pressed to his front.
“Come on. I saw you checking out my backside.”
He laughed out loud. Backside? She had to be joking, right? “I want to speak to your mother. The sooner the better. And like you, I look at a lot of people. Evaluate them. It’s reflex.”
She stopped, tilted her head. “Momma was right. You are a good man.”
Seriously? “So what, you were using your looks to try and manipulate me into revealing what a dog I am?”
She shrugged.
No. Not good enough. “First, my actions aren’t that involuntary. I don’t knee-jerk fuck women. Second, and this I really don’t get, how can a group of women dedicated to female equality use their own sexuality to gain position? Isn’t that what you’re fighting against?”
Gracie slapped a hand to his chest. “If you’re stupid enough to fall for those things, if you can’t overcome your own programming, please don’t think that I’m dumb enough not to use that to my advantage.”
Damn, these Parish women were as scary as hell.
* * *
After escorting him through a set of double doors and down a bland, gray-and-white hallway, Gracie led Sandesh inside a brightly decorated office. Mukta Parish’s office.
The moment Gracie showed him inside, Sandesh knew he’d be doing whatever they wanted.
Justice.
She stood up, turned. Those eyes—a deep darkness that captured pinpricks of light and turned them to stars—beamed. Like he carried something she’d been waiting for. Something she desperately needed.
Damn. He wished he could be angry. Forget this woman who’d told him her nightmare as a way to offer comfort. Forget that she’d risked herself for a child. Forget the seamless nighttime eyes that had launched the grenade that had saved them. Forget the lost and broken parts. The way she’d sung to him. The way she’d threaded her hand through his. Threaded her body around his. Threaded herself around his heart.
He should have been angry. He wanted to be. But he understood her too well. And he understood that leaving him had been her way of protecting him.
But he didn’t need her protection.
He walked to her. What had they done to her? She looked so…shaken. Behind her, Leland and Mukta exchanged glances. He didn’t care. If they wanted his cooperation, they’d have to put up with him being here. For Justice.
Her dark eyes. So beautiful and intense he had to swallow the pain in his throat.
She lowered her eyelashes. “You looked so peaceful sleeping. I didn’t want to disturb you.”
The corners of his mouth twitched. He held on to the smile. Barely. “I appreciate you leaving my passport at the airport. Kind of you.”
She whispered, “You don’t have to join my family. This mission.”
Oh hell. He wrapped his arms around her. “It’s done, Justice. I’m in it with you.”
She put her hands around his waist, tugged him closer. He could feel the entirety of her—the spread of her hips, the bend in her shoulder, the length of her neck, the muscles in her arms, the tip of her nose, the lay of her forehead against his cheek. Everywhere she touched left an impression of her as sweet and powerful as her kisses, her sighs, her tears, curses, laughter.
He loved this woman. Not going to tell her that. Not here. At least not with words.
He tipped her head up and kissed her.
He’d expected her to hold back. Family in the room and all. But she didn’t. She dipped her tongue into his mouth, tasted him as unconsciously and fully as if they were alone.
Sharp heat knifed through his body. He should walk away. Protect his heart. Not just his heart, but his charity. Too bad his programming, as Gracie put it, didn’t work that way. They broke apart. A moment longer and it would’ve gotten really awkward.
“Tagged and tailed,” he said, rubbing his nose along her proud forehead.
Justice stepped back. Her eyes widened. “You’re okay with inserting the GPS?”
He didn’t know how to answer that. Okay with it? Not at all. But he’d learned to be okay with sacrifice, the kind of sacrifice that could only tilt the scales toward justice.
His eyes scanned the others in the colorful office: Mukta and Leland. They’d manipulated him into a spot where he was forced to cooperate. Well, they’d be forced to do things too.
“Of course, I’m going to need some things in return. Like Mukta agreeing to fund the IPT startups for the next ten years.”
Mukta and Leland exchanged another glance. Their eyes conveyed messages only two people who were genuinely close could read. He wondered if they suspected the truth.
He really didn’t want any ties to Parish Industries or their covert operations. Not for ten years. Not for two.
But he knew people like Mukta and Leland. He knew that they’d figure his attraction to Justice wouldn’t be enough to keep him in line indefinitely. His offering them part of the IPT assured them that he was in this for the long haul. Another cog in their giant wheel of using peace operations to secretly kill and maim in the name of a higher cause. But until he was able to extricate himself and the IPT from that, he needed them to believe he was part of it.
Mukta nodded thoughtfully. “We could discuss such details.”
“Mukta?” Leland said. “Is it wise to tie the school to the IPT right now?”
Sandesh couldn’t help the bitter laugh. “So let me get this straight. You compromise the IPT’s name, organized crime is now after me, and when I ask for a little reimbursement for the charity you’ve all but destroyed, you take issue with my reputation.”
Leland put a hand on his waistband. Yep. Carryi
ng.
Justice stepped slightly to her left, more fully between him and Leland. “Enough,” she said. “We’re connected. This is just money.”
Leland arched a brow at that.
“Done,” Mukta said, ending all objection. “I owe you, Sandesh. You saved Justice and kept our secrets. I might not know much, but I know that decency deserves my respect.”
“Funny, the last thing I feel is decent. In fact, I’d like to go home and get a shower. If you don’t mind.” He stepped past Justice, held out his arm for the tracer.
Leland reached into an ivory box on the desk. He opened it and pulled out an instrument that looked like a weapon to Sandesh, but he guessed would insert a microchip.
“This tracking device will give us an update on your location every fifteen minutes.” The message being that he would be constantly watched. “As head of Internal Security, I can see your exact location at any time.”
He loaded the device with a silver cylinder. “With this, you’ll have access to this home and to areas within. Justice will show you around. But when she’s not here, you’ll know when you don’t have access, because those doors won’t open to you.”
Leland placed the cold barrel of the instrument against Sandesh’s wrist and pressed. There was a pop and a sharp stab of pain. Heat spread along his skin. He looked at his arm. For one moment, he saw the outline of something. Then he flexed and released, and the chip sank away.
