Beneath the Secrets Part 3(7)

“It’s a gift,” he assured her.

“Well, you sure don’t waste it,” she assured him. “I assume your brother is how you managed to find out who I am.”

“It pays to know people.”

Pays. Blake was supposed to be all about money, but it didn’t add up. “Is that who you called outside my apartment? Your brother?”

“I called Luke. He’s the middle brother. Royce is the eldest.”

“And you’re the baby of the bunch,” she laughed, unable to stop herself. It was hard to imagine him the baby of anything.

“Glad you’re amused.”

“It’s just…you know. You’re so…impossibly…”

“Impossibly what?”

Hard to resist. “You. You’re you, Blake.” She just wished she knew exactly what that meant. “Is Luke FBI?”

“You know I’m going to make you finish that sentence later, don’t you?”

Please, make me. “You can try.”

He ran a yellow light right as it turned red. “If I’m a smart-ass, you must be a gambler, because you like to push your luck.”

She leaned against the door to face him. “I think that’s what you like about me.”

“It’s why I want to tie you to a bed and keep you there, and yes”—he cut her a look—“there are many ways you could take that, and I mean that in all those ways. And so you don’t start over-analyzing that and asking questions, no, to your prior question. Kyle is ex-FBI. Luke’s an ex-Navy SEAL.”

“And you? What are you, Blake?”

“Ex-ATF,” he said—and with his reply, he confirmed what Kara had known from the start. There was more to him than met the eye.

“ATF,” she repeated. “You’re undercover.”

“Ex, Kara. I’m not ATF anymore.”

This was where she could think he was dirty, but she didn’t. She didn’t believe that for a moment. “You investigated Alvarez when you were with the ATF.” It wasn’t a question. She knew it had to be true.

“Yes.”

She went with her gut and didn’t push for more, at least, not directly. “You and your brothers are an interesting mix of skills. Why did you all leave your prior careers?”

“We opened a private security company. It started with an airport consulting contract that grew into more.”

She didn’t point out that he wasn’t exactly working on an airport job. She pointed out what was important to her, what her instincts had told her from the beginning with Blake. “You’re not a criminal.”

“Not yet.”

“What does that mean?”

He didn’t look at her. “I’m going to kill Alvarez and I don’t care what the consequences are.”

His bitterness poured over her and into her, adding to the same tainted emotions she already felt, enhancing them. Kara didn’t ask him why he wanted to kill Alvarez. She knew now that Alvarez had burned some deep ache into his soul. She saw the pain bleed from his eyes every time she looked at him. Alvarez had taken her sister, too. And other people’s sisters and daughters. Even after her parents had been killed by a man like Alvarez, she’d lived to please her father, to support the law, the system. Not anymore. Men like Alvarez always got by the system.

“Good,” she whispered, letting her head fall back against the window. She didn’t say more. He didn’t say more. Silence carried them to the other side of the Bay Bridge.





Chapter Four


Blake parked his truck several rows back from the black sedan sitting in the exact spot Kyle had told him it would be in. “That’s them?” Kara asked.

Blake checked the plate against the license Kyle had managed to text him and nodded. “That’s them.” He keyed in Kyle’s cell.

Kyle answered on the first ring. “You’re here?”

“With eyes on our target,” Blake confirmed. “Get the girls out of here while we distract the jerk offs.”

“Will do,” Kyle agreed. “Luke set up rooms at the Oakland Marriott, so we’re headed there. He and Royce already have a team headed to the airport. They’ll be here in a few hours.”

The muscles in Blake’s shoulders bunched just thinking about Luke and Royce showing up. “Then what are you talking to me for? Get the hell over there.”

“Right. Reading beneath your *ness, I’m stressed about them showing up too. You better stay alive tonight. Your brothers want to kill you themselves.” He hung up.

Blake ground his teeth and settled his phone back onto his belt.

“We need a plan,” Kara said instantly. “If they saw us helping the girls—”

“We have to assume they did. And we have a plan. You stay here and I go confront them.”

“I’m not staying here.” Stubborn determination laced the words.

Blake turned to her. “You’re supposed to be a secretary, Kara. The idea is that we convince them that’s exactly what you are.”

“You aren’t going out there alone. We don’t know how many of them there are.”

“You’re staying.”

“I’ll just follow you, Blake. This is what I do. I’m an agent. I’m—”