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I smiled and once again, it came easily to me. Her eyes widened by a fraction of an inch and I knew she was still surprised by an action she’d joked was impossible. But Lake made smiling easier, and I wasn’t going to investigate why just yet. “No, you just distracted me. Besides, I don’t think you’ve actually asked for anything, yet.” I leaned down, sliding my nose up the shell of her ear before whispering, “I’d love to hear you beg for what you want.”
The sexy whimper that escaped her lips as I pulled away had my dick jumping. Who was this woman and how did she continually reduce me to an impulsive teen around her? Hadn’t I been the one to put a professional barrier between us? Yes, though at this moment I couldn’t give a single fuck about why that had been important.
I forced myself to turn away from her and retreat out the door where Cabot was waiting in the hall near the elevator. When I joined him, he swiped the card, called the machine and stood grinning like an idiot as we waited. I tried to ignore the smile but when the elevator doors opened and we got in, shrinking my view to just four walls and his smile, I couldn’t ignore it.
“What?” I snapped, finally looking at him.
His smile morphed from mocking and knowing to genuine. “I like Lake.” He tilted his head slightly and continued. “I like her for you, Decker. Don’t let your work rules get in the way. Sometimes the prize is worth breaking a few rules.”
“Prize?” I grumbled at him. “Sex isn’t a prize, Aiden.”
“No, asshole,” Cabot continued rolling his eyes. “But the love of a damn good woman, is.”
The door opened into the floor that looked nothing like all the others, and Cabot walked off the elevator first, casually strolling toward Kasey’s office. I stood motionless for a moment, finally triggered into action when the elevator doors started to close on me and I was forced out into the tech floor of our building.
The entire time I’d been fighting this attraction to Lake, I’d been reminding myself that a hook-up wasn’t worth risking my business and reputation. None of that had been a lie. Sex was a temporary activity that would do nothing but complicate my world. But Cabot’s words danced circles in my brain. If it was more, something whole and bigger than just attraction, it would be worth breaking some rules.
But how could it be more when we were complete opposites fundamentally? I was uptight, business obsessed, and worked better alone. She was… Well, originally I’d thought she was uptight, flighty and party obsessed, but these past few weeks had shown me that she was harder working than most others I knew. She was devoted to her charity work with zeal and heart. And she had gone out of her way time and time again to build rapport with each man on her protection detail.
Both passionate about helping others, loyal to the Remington family, determined to stay strong in the face of any obstacle.Fuck, I inwardly cursed as I made it to Kasey’s door. I was having a rough time arguing against this woman. When had she infiltrated my walls? Why didn’t it bother me as much as it should? I shook off the distracting thoughts and stepped into the office that looked like Kasey had styled it based on some futuristic spaceship. He really liked to lean into his nerd side.
“Glad you could make it, boss.” Jack’s words were pleasant as he typed away, sending files to the set of screens he’d dubbed his “murder board” even if he wasn’t a detective and we didn’t investigate murders. I’d stopped trying to follow his logic long ago. “How’s Lake holding up?”
“More like how’s she being held up,” Cabot mumbled snarkily as he inspected his nails with far too much interest.
“She’s fine,” I said through clenched teeth, shooting a murderous glare at him before turning back to Kasey. “What do we have?”
“Last night, there was a break in at a pharmacy two towns over from where the…” Kasey gave me a haunted look before clearing his throat and continuing. “From the scene of the car bomb. I’ve run the DNA sample from the sniper’s nest through all the databases we have access to and while I wasn’t expecting to find anything, I found a link to that pharmacy break in.”
“Mind telling me, how DNA was entered into any database in a matter of hours? Especially for a B and E.” That was the part that made no sense to me. As far as priorities go, robberies with no casualties didn’t make the cut when a state lab had far more pressing cases coming across its desk.
“I was curious about that too. I spoke with the detective who’d been assigned the case, and he used the opioid epidemic as the reason he needed the DNA prioritized. He’s also a cousin to the guy running the state lab so,” Kasey shrugged, “never diss nepotism when it works in your favor. He said he had a gut feeling that something was off about the break-in since the only thing taken were antibiotics and there was blood streaked in a few places.”
“Hope that motherfucker bleeds out,” Cabot grumbled from his spot in the corner. He’d been the one to locate and return fire on The Wraith, hitting him God knew where, but if he was getting this sloppy, I had a feeling Cabot caused more damage than we’d originally thought.
“If he was still bleeding eight hours after his showdown with us, that’s good. He may have to reach out for help in some way.” I gave a praising nod to Cabot and he tipped his head in acknowledgment.
“Now onto the incendiary device,” Fitz spoke in his professionally detached tone as the weight of his words sank in. We had missed a bomb strapped to one of our SUVs and it had cost the lives of two good men. “Since we swept the cars before use, we know for sure that this type of device wasn’t on the car before we left.”
“That’s not possible, we didn’t leave any vehicle once we left the estate,” I argued, unsure as to why. Either we’d fucked up at the estate or we’d missed something crucial along the way.
“Preliminary reports show the device had been hidden in the tailpipe of the SUV, which had already been gone over. We have the snake cam footage to prove it. That IED was not there when we left.” Kasey had tossed reports and video up onto his wall of screens and there was no disputing the facts in front of us.
“The crossing guard,” came a voice from the door, causing us all to turn toward Lake, who looked panicked yet determined as she tried to face down her own attempted murder.
Her words brought back the memory of the school we’d been passing heading for the freeway. While the light had been further up, the crossing guard had been several cars back. We’d been stopped at a red light and a skinny man in a yellow vest directed a group of school children between our SUV and the one that Daniels and Lambert had been in. A child had tripped, just passing the crossing guard and he’d bent down for just an instant to right the kid and then that man holding the STOP sign had followed the children to the opposite side of the street and the light changed.
I could recall it all in my head, but not one piece of that memory was attached to the face of that crossing guard. And how could he have slipped a fucking bomb into the tailpipe of the SUV without a single person noticing? It was the only time a person had been close to that tailpipe, Lake was right about that, and I knew this had been the moment and I’d fucking missed it.
“I missed it.” My words sounded hollow, even to my own ears and I could feel self recrimination and regret flooding me in equal measure.
“Don’t even fucking start,” Kasey snarled in a voice that had everyone looking at him, startled.
“Jack,” Lake whispered, crossing the room to his desk to put her hand over his. There was no flare of jealousy as she held onto his hand, and I was grateful that my lizard brain could, in fact, be logical at times.
“I’m not going to spend the next five years playing the blame game likes it’s fucking musical chairs, Lake.” He looked exhausted as his gaze locked on her. “Deck and Turner were 5 feet from The Wraith, Cabot and Fitz weren’t lucky enough to kill him instead of just winging him. I fucking brought Daniels and Lambert into the company in the first place.” He turned a glare on each of us and I felt every single person, myself included, shrink back. “How about we stick to blaming the sick fuck who actually perpetrated the crime we all want to pay for?”
“Good idea,” Fitz said, calmly.
