Deceived (Free Indeed Book 2), page 10
Jake got a far off look in his eyes for a moment before finally responding, “Gideon’s done a lot of bad shit to a lot of good, albeit misguided people. He’s set himself up as a supreme position of authority without anyone to challenge him. He also keeps everything very close to his chest without letting others in. The only exception to that is possibly Paul, and even with him, I’m not sure how much he’s privy to. He needs to be stopped, Cara. And I can’t leave until I know he won’t be able to hurt anyone anymore. Including you,” he paused to gaze down at her. “I’ll do everything I can to make sure he doesn’t hurt you anymore.”
Eyes brimming with promise bore into hers. In that moment she knew he truly meant every word he said. If she let herself, she could get lost in those bottomless depths. Cara had to keep reminding herself that he was the enemy and not to be trusted despite how good looking he was, and how much he seemed to actually care that she was taken care of. A level head may be the only thing that kept her alive right now. She needed to stay focused and to be ready to run when everything went to shit. Which it would eventually. It was just a matter of running for it at the right time.
God, there were so many things to worry about, and she was just so tired of worrying. What wouldn’t she give to be able to lay those concerns on the shoulders of someone else who would take care of her? The way Jake was looking at her right now, along with all of the little things that he did for her on the road. Like getting her ever important coffee for her just the way she liked it. He had to care about her at least a little bit to do something like that for her, right? Food preferences, clothing choices, those things seemed to go above and beyond in the abductor department. Granted, it wasn’t like she had a lot of experience being abducted, thank God, but still, he didn’t seem to be the stereotypical bad guy.
Gah! Why did he have to be one of Gideon’s men? If she had met him on campus at WVU, she probably would have liked him. Ok, so she definitely would have liked him. And flirted with him left and right until he couldn’t help but take notice. But here, now, she didn’t want to be attracted to this man. It wasn’t safe. For either of them, if she were honest about it.
To make matters even more complicated, Jake chose that moment to reach his hand across the comforter to grab hold of hers. His thumb drew small circles around the back of her hand and then over into her palm as well. It was like he was trying to soothe the worry and fear away that had etched itself across her face.
Afraid to say anything, heck afraid to even breath, and possibly break the spell of the moment, Cara just sat there and watched as his fingers trailed lazily across her skin. It felt good. Too good. She could feel herself being drawn into this man all over again. His eyes were the same deep, rich mocha latte that reminded her of the way she liked her coffee. And right now they were swirling with emotion as they stared back into her own.
For a moment his hand clenched hers tighter, right before he slowly, almost cautiously as if he were afraid of frightening her away, leaned towards her. Cara’s tongue darted out to wet her lips as he approached. The swirling mocha of his eyes turned molten as his gaze dropped to her mouth. He continued to close the distance until his lips were barely a hairsbreadth away from her own. Cara’s lips parted ever so slightly as he paused just in front of her, so close that she could feel his exhale on her lips.
Cara met him the rest of the way and pressed her face forward until their noses caressed each other. Jake turned his head just enough and brushed her cheek with his own. The rough yet wonderful burn of his six o’clock shadow permeated through her skin as her breath caught in her throat. Cara clenched his hand even tighter with her own as he started to trail kisses down her narrow temple to the softness of her cheek. When he finally reached her chin, he pulled back just enough to make her open her eyes and stare into his in wide-eyed wonder.
He was giving her an out. If she wanted him to stop, he would. But did she really want him to? Could she stop? Why should they? They were both adults after all, and he certainly wasn’t forcing her right now. If she were honest with herself, she wanted him just as much as he wanted her. The determination in her eyes must have told him all he needed to know because a small smile spread across his lips just before he lowered his head in what she was sure was going to be the sweetest kiss of all time.
Her eyelids fluttered shut just as his mouth lowered to her own. He pressed a feather-light kiss onto her lips, almost as if he were testing the waters to make sure this was something she truly wanted. Jake pulled back just enough to let her pause and breathe. When she didn’t pull away, both of his hands came up to cup her cheeks as his lips returned and pressed one kiss to the right corner of her mouth, followed by another immediately to the left. At her soft sigh of pleasure, he used his hands to tilt her head slightly to the side just before pressing his lips back to hers, kissing her fully.
Cara got lost in his kisses. One after the other, they all seemed to meld together like one kiss that seemed to last for an eternity. God, he was a good kisser. She reached one hand up, threading her fingers through his hair. The other hand clasped the front of his shirt and pulled him even closer to her body as if afraid he would back away.
She was totally, completely lost in the moment. For a brief sliver of time, Cara forgot about Paul attacking her, about her mom’s grisly murder, and about how Gideon may have been behind it. Right now, all she could focus on was the man in front of her. The man who brought her coffee when she wanted to scream at the world. The one who filled his bag with chocolate so he could slip it to her whenever a hint of sadness crossed her face, or when he thought she was working too hard and needed a break. And not just any chocolate either. Without even telling him, he picked up on the fact that she loved dark chocolate as a distraction and snack, but white chocolate was the choice to comfort her when she was down.
He watched her. And in the short amount of time they were together, he actually came to know her. Better than anyone else ever had. Now he was kissing her, and it surpassed the darkest, richest, creamiest chocolate in existence. And she wanted more.
Suddenly his head jerked back as he pushed himself away from her. Cara’s hands fell from his body to the comforter.
“Damn,” Jake muttered under his breath as he pulled himself to his feet. He raked his fingers through his hair as if trying to pull himself back together before turning to look back at Cara. The slightly mussed hair and need for a shave did nothing to detract from his good looks. In fact, if anything they only made him sexier. A frustrated sigh burst from his lips as if stopping was the last thing he wanted to do at this moment. “I really shouldn’t have done that.”
Forcing herself to shrug casually, Cara tried to pass it off as not that big of a deal. Even though she felt as if it were anything but. “It’s not like I was an unwilling participant. You don’t have to be sorry. It was something we both enjoyed, so it doesn’t have to be any more awkward than we make it.”
“Cara,” he started before he stopped to look at her for a moment. He seemed to be thinking through what he wanted to say like he wanted to walk through it in his head first.
Not wanting to interrupt him, she just stayed silent and waited. If he was trying to think of a way to let her down easy, he really didn’t need to put that much effort into it. In fact, she was trying to give him an easy out. The man certainly didn’t make her any promises, and honestly, he didn’t need to. He was just a cop from a podunk town, and when this was all over, providing they both survived it, they’d both go back home and back to their individual lives.
“I’m trying to put together enough evidence to get Gideon put away.” He finally finished his thought.
Well, that wasn’t what she had suspected him to say. It was so far from what she had been expecting that her jaw dropped open as she stared up at him in surprise. So he was on her side. Kinda, sorta. But he definitely didn’t approve of what Gideon was doing at Free Indeed, and he wanted him put in jail for it. This was good. No, this was great. It meant she wasn’t alone in this mess. She had an ally, and he came in the form of a sexy badass who gave amazingly wonderful kisses.
At the look of hopeful excitement that crossed her face, Jake continued, “It’s just—you’re—” he paused before taking a deep breath. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I need you to believe that. I don’t want you to spend another day terrified of the outcome and wondering what’s going to happen. You’re not alone, Cara.” One of his hands reached up to softly entangle itself with her hair. He stared at her hair laced through his fingers like it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen before looking back into her eyes. “You’re going to get through this, and we’re going to find Allie and that card. Then I’m going to put Gideon away where he’ll never hurt anyone ever again. That information you stole from his computer, that’s all I need to take him out and end this for good.”
“I can help.” Cara’s eyes lit up with excitement at his words. If it meant putting Gideon away, then all of this would have been worth it. That was what she wanted all along when she broke into her stepdad’s office. When he busted her, she lost hope that would ever happen. Then Allie ran off with the locket and just made everything a thousand times worse. But now, Jake was here, and he was actually on her side. He wanted to bring down Gideon every bit as much as she did.
“No.” The word flew abruptly out of his mouth stopping her wayward thoughts. Jake shook his head as he continued, “You’re going to find Allie, but that’s it. As soon as we find her location, I’m going to get you away from them. I don’t want you around them a second longer than necessary.”
“But maybe I could help you get the drop on them, and we could take them down—”
“Hell no!” he cut her off. “These men have zero respect for women. They give their dogs more consideration than they do the women in their lives. Right now you’re a means to an end for them and quite frankly, that’s the only thing keeping you alive right now. Once you find Allie, your usefulness to them is at an end. They’ll eliminate you at the first opportunity. I don’t want you anywhere around them when that happens.”
“But if you had me helping you, it would make your job easier.”
“Hate to break it to you, darlin’, but all you are right now is a distraction.” Her face fell at his words, and his voice softened. “Cara, I’m so worried that one of them is going to take you out when I’m not watching. I need you to be safe, so I can get back to focusing on my job.” A slow, sexy smile spread across his face. “As fun as it is to focus on you, I really need to get back to my task at hand and get this crap over with.”
His words made her feel good inside, but it was the look in his eyes that turned her insides to mush. Ok, so she’d do it his way and get to a safe place when he gave the word. But once there, she would still do whatever she could to help. He’d see, she would be beneficial to have around.
The grin on his face grew even wider as a sigh escaped his lips, “You’re not going to listen to me are you?”
“I’m going to kind of listen to you,” Cara hedged as she smiled back at him.
A chuckle sounded from him as he shook his head at her in mock consternation. “I guess I’ll just have to take what I can get,” he muttered. Jake leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to the center of her forehead, lingering there for just a moment. Cara closed her eyes and remained perfectly still, just breathing in the scent of him. Much too soon he finally broke the kiss and pulled back.
“Try and get some sleep, ok?” He gave her arm a comforting squeeze. “We’re going to have another early day tomorrow.”
“I’ll try,” she whispered back as he once again stood to his feet.
Cara sank into the sheets and curled her body tightly into a ball. Despite the way the night had started, she couldn’t help but feel hopeful. Her chances of surviving this had just increased exponentially now that Jake was in her corner.
She watched him as he got ready for bed. He removed his clothes quickly, stripping down to his boxers. The last couple evenings with them rooming together, this was always the highlight of the night. The man had a chest like a god. Firm and hard all over, with abs of steel. He didn’t look like he had an ounce of fat on his entire body. She knew that he was aware she always watched. It was hard to miss considering she practically drooled on the bedspread the first night.
Tonight he just looked over at her and gave her a roguish half grin followed by a quick wink. Cara smiled back. What else could she do? The man was growing on her the more she was around him.
Jake climbed into the bed next to hers and turned onto his side, so he was facing her. “Do you want to leave the light on?” he asked.
Her heart melted into goo at the question. Just the fact that he thought to ask meant so much to her. “Yes, if you don’t mind.”
“Don’t mind at all,” he replied. “Goodnight, Cara.”
“Goodnight, Jake.”
Cara closed her eyes feeling safe for the first time in days. Despite the fear and the worry and all the concerns running through her brain, sleep claimed her quickly.
Chapter 10
“I found her!” Cara’s excited shout burst out interrupting the stoic silence that permeated the car. The attention of all three men in the SUV swung in her direction at her outburst. Jake leaned in to peer over her shoulder to get a better view of the computer screen in front of her.
“I just got a hit on an employment application as well as a new checking account being opened along with a debit card, all issued in her name with her information,” Cara continued.
“Where is she?” Gideon demanded. Of course that was all he cared about. Needing to know where she wound up after all this time.
Cara bit her lip for a moment. As much as she didn’t want to tell her stepdad squat, they needed to find Allie and get that card back. Then this nightmare would be over, and she could live the rest of her life not worrying about the man ever again. Plus, it’s not like she couldn’t just not tell him after blurting out that she found Allie like that. God knows Gideon and his T-1000 would most likely get great pleasure out of finding ways to torture the information out of her. Yeah, that didn’t sound appealing at all.
“She’s in a town called Serenity, Oregon.” Her fingers tapped away on the keyboard entering the information into Google Maps. “It’s a small town off of the I5, close to the university there. From our approximate location, we’re about a twenty-hour drive away.
“We’ll drive without stopping then.” Without delay, Gideon started entering the new destination into the car’s GPS before turning his attention to Paul who was driving the vehicle. “We’ll alternate driving to keep going, keeping gas stops and breaks to an as-needed basis.”
“Will do,” Paul acknowledged.
Then Gideon cranked his head around to make eye contact with Jake sitting in his normal spot next to Cara. “Take it away,” he gestured his hand toward the laptop.
Cara’s hands instinctively clenched tighter around the computer at his words. No, he couldn’t take it away. Ok, so she couldn’t use it to try and facilitate any type of escape because Jake monitored everything she did on it. But still, this computer was the only thing saving her from the insanity of sheer boredom on this road trek of theirs. “But what if she moves or pops up somewhere else? I should keep monitoring just in case.” She tried to reason with him.
Gideon’s cold eyes bore back into hers, “Allie’s settled into a community and doesn’t have any indication that we’re following. She’s not going to up and leave.” He turned back in his seat, so he was once again facing forward. “Take it away, Jake.”
Swinging her head to look at the man sitting next to her, she tried giving him the biggest doe eyes she could come up with. Please, please, please, she mouthed to him silently, her eyes begging him to find a way to let her keep it.
One corner of his mouth lifted ever so slightly in amusement, but he shook his head. He reached out and closed the screen then pulled it off of her lap. You’ll survive, he mouthed back with a grin.
Her lower lip stuck out in an upset pout followed by the darkest death glare she could muster. In response, he just winked at her. Jerk. Cara slouched down into her seat and turned her attention outside the window. May as well get used to it. The scenery was going to be her only source of entertainment for the next twenty hours. Oh joy.
God, she really detested these sanctimonious, narcissistic, misogynist bastards. And yes, right now she was lumping Jake in with the lot of them because he had pissed her off. For Pete’s sake, he should have been able to come up with some type of lie to let her keep the laptop. She crossed her arms over her chest and grunted in displeasure.
A gentle pressure against her right leg distracted her from her fuming, and her head snapped around. Jake’s hand was there, and he was lightly tapping a Cookies ‘n’ Creme Hershey’s bar against her leg. Oh man, he really knew how to try and appease her. Her gaze snapped up to his face to see that roguish grin plastered across his face and the sexiest twinkle in his eyes. The dirty laptop stealer actually had the gall to laugh at her. The fact made her stiffen her spine in rebellious stubbornness and level a glare in his direction.
No. No, she refused to let him soothe her with chocolate. Not this time. She was pissed and was determined to remain that way. From the corner of her eye, she could see Jake’s hand retracting, pulling the candy bar away in an agonizingly slow manner. Her hand darted out slapping his hand and the candy bar in it, pinning it to the seat below. Casting a disgruntled look in Jake’s direction, she let out an unhappy huff just so he knew for sure how dissatisfied she was before snatching the bar from his hand and ripping it open.
Whatever. Stressful times called for chocolate, wherever the source may be. She wasn’t accepting it as an olive branch of forgiveness, but darnit, she was still going to eat it.
