Operation Love, page 3
Chicago was his past, except he had hyperthymesia which made it impossible to forget his childhood and teenage years. Hell, he remembered everything, including the face of his mother when she’d dropped him and his brother off at a fire station.
Only sixty people in the world were diagnosed with his condition. To him, it was more a curse than a gift.
He’d scored extraordinarily high on the ASVAB test. They’d wanted him to go to Officer Candidates’ school. He’d turned them down and said he would only join if his path led him to join a SEAL team. Not once did he regret his decision.
His team thought he had a photographic memory. His military record didn’t mention his hyperthymesia disorder because if the enemy got hands on him, they would know he would have any information ever told to him in his brain, which would put him and others at risk.
Grim fidgeted in the seat next to him, and her lilac bodywash filled his nose. His damn cock still hadn’t learned the woman was off-limits. He’d chased her for two years like a lost puppy. But the second he woke up in the hospital room and Ester’s eyes hit him, he knew his past would never go away.
He kept his eyes tightly shut as she tapped her long nail against his forearm.
“Are we going to sit in silence or discuss the whizzing bullets?” Grim asked.
“Nothing to discuss. The bullets had nothing to do with the mission we are on,” he said with a sigh.
Grim punched him in the arm, and he opened one eye. Her gun-metal-gray eyes glared at him. Even with her lips turned down, she was breathtaking. She was completely out of his league. He knew he was good-looking, but his ugly scars on the inside cut deep in his soul.
“Nothing? You were shot at. I saw the red dot bouncing on your chest. God, Jared, do you have a death wish?”
She didn’t use his given name often, and he preferred not to hear it.
“After we made it inside, I caught a glimpse of the shooter. He was on the fourth floor of the building across the street. Drake checked out the office space, but the shooter had wiped down any sign he was there. Lucas accessed the camera footage, and the guy dodged the security system.”
He figured the shooter was linked to the email he’d received. The email had caught him off guard. Hell, he’d almost hit the delete key, thinking it was spam, before he read the two-sentence email. It was a clear threat to drop his investigation into Ester. The person who had sent the email hadn’t signed it. Casanova figured the shots were a warning, or the shooter was a horrible shot.
“You can be the most infuriating man ever,” Grim said. “We have time on the flight to figure out who would shoot at you.”
Adrenaline had coursed through his veins when Grim threw her body over his. The damn woman had put her life in danger to save him. He should take her over his knee and smack her ass. His jeans tightened at the thought.
“The shooter sent me an email.” He’d forwarded it to Lucas. “As I said, it’s not about this case. What we need to discuss is how you placed yourself in the line of fire.”
“My job is to protect, and I yelled for you to move.”
He’d never had an issue with a woman in the military or taking dangerous jobs, but for Grim, he worried every time Xavier handed her a new assignment. Lately, she signed up for every case Xavier brought in. He understood he was one of the people to blame for her need to keep busy. Her sister was the second reason she’d spiraled. For years, Grim had thought her sister had died because of Carter. Instead, Carter had kept her locked away in a cell.
Xavier and his former teammate, Ginger, had taken Carter down and freed Sarah. When the doctor cleared her medically to leave the hospital, she’d disappeared into the night and didn’t leave Grim a way to contact her. Seven months and nobody had heard a word from her.
“The email and the shooter have to do with my past way before I even joined the Navy. You’ve read my record, so I can imagine you might understand what it’s linked to. A person I should have taken out years ago reappeared at the hospital, and I asked Xavier to see if he could find information on her. It seems she didn’t like my digging.”
He hated the fact Grim had read his file. The military worked to seal his arrest records from his teens, but he knew Lucas easily bypassed any security and grabbed his information. He only hoped none of the acts Ester made him do were in the file. His stealing, drug and money running he could deal with, but her finding out about how Ester would tie him down to the bed with no escape and allow her clients to violate him…He shook his head, trying to erase the images his brain refused to forget.
Grim grabbed the sealed bottle of water from the cup holder and twisted off the cap. Her tongue swiped across her lips before she took a swig. “Why aren’t you more…pissed, angry, or hell, anything?”
“I already said I don’t want to talk about my past. We could talk about the fact you said we couldn’t have a relationship because your husband died, and you didn’t want to feel that type of pain again. Except according to the picture of him on the projector he looked very much alive to me.”
When Casanova had first asked her on a date, she’d turned him down, but he didn’t stop. The eighth time he’d asked, she explained she lost her husband and never wanted to experience heartbreak again. He’d stopped asking her out but weaseled his way into her life as a friend and hoped one day she would change her mind. God, he’d believed her.
“I didn’t lie about losing the love of my life. I never considered my marriage to Sage real. Christopher Shaw was my first husband and he died years ago. He worked at the Smithsonian as an archaeologist, and I was sent on a mission with him. The government wanted a rare document his team had found.” Her lips turned down. “I went on the mission, and we found what looked like a flat rock with scribbling on it to me, but it’s what my bosses wanted so I grabbed it in the middle of the night and left. One of the only missions I did for the CIA where I wasn’t sent to kill. Part of me felt guilty because he was so excited when his team found the artifact. Three weeks after the mission, there was a knock on my apartment door. He’d tracked my ass down. Said if I didn’t hand over the piece of history, he would turn me over to the police.”
He could only imagine Grim had showed up at the door with a gun in her hand. She’d done it to him when he’d stopped by without calling.
She took a sip of water and continued. “He wouldn’t leave my house. Finally, I broke and told him I worked for the state department, and the government had what he was looking for. Part of me hated that I never shared with him what I really did, but when he looked at me, he didn’t see Grim. He saw me. There was no judgment, nothing. We fell for each other fast and married a month after dating. On our honeymoon, I got pulled away for work, and Christopher used the time to explore the Chiquihuite Caves in Mexico. He was killed while he was exploring by a local drug runner.”
His chest tightened for her loss. “I’m sorry you lost Christopher. But Grim, you’re the only one who sees the dark side of you. When I gaze into your eyes, I see a woman full of life. Nobody judges you for your time with the CIA.”
Before he’d met Grim, stories about her ability to eliminate enemies were discussed over a cold beer.
“So, you’re telling me not to hold on to my baggage, but it seems like you keep dodging questions about your own past.”
“True.” He wouldn’t lie. “So, this man you didn’t consider your husband. Why keep him a secret? It’s a part of your past.”
Grim paled. “Sage Mason is the scum of the CIA. We were in the same class at the Farm.”
He’d heard about the Farm before. The top CIA candidates spent six months at the nine-thousand-acre military base, where they learn all the crafts to become a spy. They hadn’t discussed her time at the CIA much because whenever the agency was mentioned, her eyes dimmed.
“Were you recruited?” He wanted to hear her side.
Grim nodded. “Yes, but it was by accident. At the time, I didn’t know Xavier was already an agent. His family owned…well, owns a large shipping company. I thought he would work for them. Instead, my older brother runs a large portion of the operations. It’s a long story why Xavier is hands off when it comes to the family business. His handler was in town to talk with him and spotted me at the shooting range when I was practicing.”
“So, you’ve always had the ability to hit the target?” he asked. Twice a month, he’d joined her at the shooting range. She was the best he’d seen, and she’d given him pointers to improve his shot.
“Shooting came natural to me. From a young age, my dad would take me to the range, and I loved it. My sister Sarah was good at school and sports. My grades were barely high enough for me to graduate. Both my sister and brother had scholarship offers. My family didn’t have money, so I knew school wasn’t an option. Hence why I signed on the dotted line with the CIA before the recruiter even explained what I’d be doing.”
She’d used the CIA like he’d used the Navy, for a fresh start. Except he never regretted his decision to become a SEAL. If anything, he fuckin’ hated the fact it was taken away from him, but the six screws in his leg and the slight limp had caused the medical review board to send him his discharge papers.
“So, you knew Sage long before you met Christopher?” He still hadn’t pieced together where Sage fell into the story.
She finished the remaining water in her bottle. “Sage competed with me during our time at the Farm. He hated that I could outshoot him. His goal was to be the best at everything. After graduation, we didn’t see each other for years. We had separate handlers and never worked the same operation until my last year in the CIA. I’d spiraled because Sarah had died, well, I thought she did. Now I know that’s not true.”
He rested his hand on her forearm and squeezed. “Carter’s gone, and your sister needs time. I’m sure she has emotions to untangle.”
The plane dipped, and the pilot flicked the fasten seatbelt sign. A large screen hung on the wall near the plane’s exit. It showed the flight path, and they weren’t far from Chicago. He didn’t want to think about the fact he was heading to his hometown, one he vowed to never visit again. Grim’s story would keep his mind from his current situation.
“So, the marriage?”
Grim blew out her breath. “Sage was a top agent along with me. The CIA came up with a plan to pair us up. A power couple who could take on the world. I was numb and didn’t care. We married on paper. I did have to learn about his life and ended up loving his sister. Probably because he hated her. For six months, we worked mission after mission. One night, we were supposed to eliminate Hector Diaz, a well known terrorist meeting with Muqrin Abdelziz, a Saudi Arabian prince. Muqrin was working with the United States to help eliminate Hector. I’d set my post up. Sage brought me a sandwich, him bringing me food should have set alarm bells off. Except I ate the food and fell asleep.”
Casanova remembered the news articles of Muqrin Abdelaziz’s death. He was shot during a business meeting. Claims linked the death to a Russian assassin because he was working with the United States to stop some of the corruption in the oil industry. “How did he die?”
“Sage,” she said. “He’d cut my arm and left blood all over the room. By the time I woke up I didn’t have time to clean up before I ran. Sage faked documentation that had him in another country during the incident. The government and Muqrin were working out a large peace deal. The death caused an uproar in the CIA. The director wanted me to pay. God, if it wasn’t for Xavier, I would be in the black hole or dead right now.”
The black hole was an undisclosed location the government used to house the worst men and women in the world. He wanted Sage to suffer for causing Grim so much anguish and her career.
Penelope, the flight attendant Xavier employed, stepped out of the galley. Her ashy brown hair was twisted into a tight bun. She’d joined Rogue Mercenaries after his former teammate, Ginger, saved her from the ocean. For the last few months, she dated another one of his former teammates, Scar. His chest tightened, thinking about the team he was no longer part of.
“We’re about to land,” Penelope said. “Do you need anything?”
“No, thank you.”
She grabbed the empty water bottle and tossed it in the trash before she took an open seat in front of them.
Grim’s fingers gripped the leather armrest as the plane’s wheels bounced on the runway. They taxied to a large warehouse.
Casanova spotted a black Range Rover on the tarmac. Xavier’s team functioned like a well-oiled machine. He would have to thank Yara, the receptionist, for having the SUV in place. She’d sent him the hotel information as well.
He flipped the lock of his seatbelt, then tugged Grim’s and his bags from the upper compartment. The wind whipped through the cabin as Penelope opened the main door.
Grim followed behind him as he jogged down the steps and strode to the SUV. The driver’s side door was open. He grabbed the keys from the center console and tapped the back door button. Grim had slid into the passenger side and was on her cellphone.
The fuel truck was next to the plane.
He threw the SUV in drive and headed for the exit. “Can you pull up the directions to the hotel?”
He tapped on the steering wheel as he pulled out on the main road. Grim typed the address into her phone.
They weren’t far from the hotel.
Grim’s hand came over and squeezed his thigh.
“I’m driving, Grim. Now is not the time to get handsy.” He winked in her direction.
“You sure the shooter didn’t follow us? Because we have a tail.”
He glanced at rear view mirror and spotted the black town car two car lengths back. The light thirty feet away was yellow. He slammed on the gas, and the car lurched forward. Grim grabbed the oh-shit bar as he blazed through the intersection and took the first turn.
They’d made it halfway down the block before the black car turned the same direction, cruising down the road toward them.
4
Grim
Grim held one hand on the handle above her head and typed with her free hand while Casanova drove like a mad man through the streets of Chicago. She was ninety percent sure they ran seven red lights but unfortunately, they hadn’t lost the tail.
“I’m texting Lucas to see if he can send us a good path to take or if he can fuck with the lights.” She hit send, then winced at all the misspelled words.
Three bubbles appeared under her message.
“Tell him I’m heading toward Riverdale.”
She knew the location well. It was where Sage’s sister lived the first time she’d visited her. She’d moved a couple times since then, but they lost touch over the years. “Let me pull up directions.”
“Don’t need them.”
The wheels of the SUV squealed as he took the corner, and he thumped on the brakes as they hit a traffic jam.
“There.” She pointed to an alley across the road.
Casanova slammed on the gas and cut a car off as he flew through two lanes of oncoming traffic. Her head banged against the window as the side of the SUV hit a dumpster. Casanova didn’t slow down as they bounced through the side street, and a homeless man flipped them off.
A horn blared as they shot out the exit of the alley and through traffic. He hadn’t let up on the gas as he weaved through the crowded streets. Damn, the man could drive, but she freaked as he veered into oncoming traffic to swerve at the last second around a mom in her minivan.
Grim glanced out the side mirror, and the black car was gone. “You lost them.”
“Of course, I did.”
Her phone chimed, and she gazed at the text. Cops.
“We need to hide. Lucas said cops are coming.”
Casanova turned into a parking garage, floored it up the ramp until they made it to the top level, and pulled into an empty spot. He pressed the button for the ignition, and the SUV cut off.
Her heart still raced a mile a minute. During her time with the CIA, adrenaline would spike after she killed the target and until she made it far away from the scene. This was different. They were being chased by an unknown subject.
He reached over and grabbed her hand. “Well, that was fun. Doc always steals the driver’s seat, so I haven’t got to lose a car in years.”
“Right, we need to figure out who chased us,” she said with determination.
He squeezed her fingers. “We need to stay put for a while.”
She nodded. “Okay, let’s brainstorm.”
“Or we could burn off some of this adrenaline.”
His words caught her off guard, and she swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Twelve hours ago, you ignored me like the plague. Now you want to, what? Have sex when we’ve never even kissed?”
Casanova scrubbed a hand over his face. “Right. The chase made me forget all the shit in my life for a second. You told me for a long time you wanted nothing to do with me, and honestly, I don’t blame you. The car could be linked to my past, but I don’t think it is. I’m guessing the person in charge of the auction is keeping tabs on everyone.”
She could address the fact the hard exterior he’d built up since the incident months ago had cracked for a second, or she could give in to what they both needed. She unlatched her seatbelt and wondered if her idea was possible. On television, she’d watched women straddle men in cars. She was only five-two, so it might work.
Her head hit the ceiling as she attempted to stand and twist.
“What are you doing?” Casanova’s lip ticked up in the corner.
She ignored his sexy smile as she hefted her leg over his lap. When she moved her second leg, she leaned back, and her ass hit the horn.
Casanova gripped her hips and held her steady as she straddled his lap.
“Grim, you’re playing with fire,” he said, but his fingers dug into her hips.
