Mine to Crave (Mine #4)(52)

“The way you’re glaring at Noah, it’s a dead giveaway.” Trace sighed softly. “You really sure you want your woman flying off with him?”

“I trust Noah.” He did.

“Ah, right. But not her? What if she tries her hand at seducing him? I mean, the woman can’t seem to keep her eyes off the guy.”

He was growling. Drake tried to stop. He wasn’t an animal, no matter what he might be feeling at that moment. “Noah doesn’t see any woman but Claire.”

“Huh. Is that how it works?”

Drake shifted a bit because he’d just noticed that Noah was staring at Jasmine with a guarded, assessing gaze.

As soon as Jasmine caught the other man’s stare, she immediately stiffened and glanced away.

“Maybe he was another target for her,” Trace mused. “I mean, the way she’s acting, the woman knows him. Or she knows something about him.”

Fuck. “The photograph.”

“The what?”

He marched away from Trace and headed for Jasmine. Noah stood near her, and his friend nodded as he approached. “About fifteen minutes until take-off,” Noah said. “Once we’re safe in New York, I’ll call you.”

Drake didn’t glance his way. “You never told me why the photograph mattered.”

“What photograph?” She immediately asked as her chin notched up.

Back to that old game, were they?

He caught her sexy little chin between his thumb and forefinger. “It’s a dead giveaway,” he told her.

Her eyes widened. So dark and deep. A man could get lost in those eyes.

Noah would not get lost there.

“When you lie…your chin rises up a bit.”

“No it doesn’t,” she whispered back. “It does that when I get scared.”

He blinked.

“Uh, we should get on the plane,” Noah announced. “The pilot told me that we’ll be—”

“Why do you watch Noah so much?” Drake demanded, and he heard the bite of jealousy in his own voice. He’d never been jealous over a woman. Not like this.

Noah coughed a bit. “Okay, I think I’ll wait on the plane…” He started to back away.

“Don’t go anywhere,” Drake ordered because he was trying to figure this thing out.

Jasmine had paled. The sun was up, and he could easily see the sudden pallor of her skin and the flash of fear in her eyes. “That was Noah’s wedding picture.”

Now Noah was crowding in closer. “What are you talking about?”

The pilot advanced toward them. “We should board the plane now.” He shifted a bit nervously, from one foot to the other. “The pre-flight checks are all clear. We’ve got the okay to take-off.”

Two mechanics were over in the corner, packing up gear.

Jasmine tried to head toward the plane. Drake moved with her, blocking her path.

“What is with you?” Jasmine demanded. “You want me to go, you want me to stay. Make up your mind!”

“I want to know why you took one look at Noah’s wedding picture, and you decided not to hack my computer. I want to know why one look at that picture changed everything for you.” And it had. She’d betrayed Maxwell and set this deadly chain of events into motion.

But she didn’t betray him for me.

Jasmine’s gaze slanted toward Noah.

She did it for him.

“I saw you on the security footage.” There had been such longing on her face. Longing for Noah? Rage pumped through his blood.

Jasmine wet her lips with a quick, nervous swipe of her tongue. “I don’t know what you think you saw—”

Drake’s stare lasered onto Noah. “Have you met Jasmine before?”

Surprise flashed on Noah’s face. “No.”

Trace had closed in next to Noah.

“Are you sure?” Drake pressed. “Think about it.”

Noah’s stare swept over Jasmine. A very tense Jasmine. “I don’t think I’d forget a woman like her,” Noah said.

Drake unclenched his back teeth.

“But…but I swear,” Noah continued, voice roughening, “there’s something familiar about you, Jasmine. I look at you, and I…”

Jasmine pushed through the men and headed for the plane. “We need to get this show on the road.”

“How do you know him?” Drake demanded.

She kept marching toward the plane.

Drake shot a glare at Trace. “Are they connected? Did you see anything in her past that is tied to Noah?” Why had she changed everything for him? Yeah, that jealousy was back and twisting hard in Drake’s gut.

Trace shook his head. “I didn’t see a connection, but so much of her life is shrouded. The woman is good at covering her tracks. Hell, if I didn’t know better, I’d think…” But then Trace broke off. “I’ve seen government agents who have less security in their lives than she does. She wanted years of her life hidden, and she made them vanish.”

“What can I say…” Jasmine’s words drifted back to them. “I’m amazing.” But her voice was flat. “Now, the plane’s ready. The plane that you insisted I board.”

The pilot hurried by her and rushed up the steps that led to the plane.