“It was okay, I guess. As okay as this mess could be. But then he comes here yesterday, supposedly to check up on his investment, make sure the business is thriving. Then he sits us down and tells us that there’s this thing in the works. A plan that he and his partners have come up with. They’re going to steal weapons from a military base.”

  I sat up at that news, nearly choking on my own spit. I stopped the recording and rewound it.

  “They’re going to steal weapons from a military base.”

  My God! The balls a heist like that would take!

  “They need a chunk of money,” Vaughn went on. “They need me to clean a chunk of money so they can put their plan into the works, so that they can bring in the men they need, the equipment. It’s an elaborate plan…”

  “How elaborate?” Paxton asked.

  “You couldn’t even begin to wrap your mind around it. The logistics it’ll take to pull off a job this big! The security they’ll have to get past, the manpower it will take. The trucks and the security clearance and…I can’t even imagine it and I was in the military!”

  I could almost see Paxton’s face as he spoke. I knew her, knew she was more devoted to the service of this country than most. It must have taken an iron will for her to keep her composure in those moments as she sat there listening to him.

  How had she gotten this recording? How did she keep so calm, talking to this man? She’d done a hell of a job that was for sure.

  A heist on a military base? That was about the biggest act of treason I could think of. I knew now that Abraham Black had to be behind this. If we looked close enough, I knew we’d find his fingerprints all over it. You couldn’t plan something this big without leaving some sort of trail.

  I had him. But I still needed the details.

  I wrote Paxton back with specific instructions. Stick with him. Get more.

  We needed more.

  Chapter 11

  Paxton

  More?

  What more could I do?

  I needed a minute, needed space from the insanity that had suddenly become my world. I slipped into the bathroom at the gas station Ayden had pulled into, and locked myself in a stall before daring to pull my phone out of my pocket. I had emailed Kai in a crazy hurry, not really expecting him to find it till morning, moving what I could about what I’d collected into files with obscure names, hoping they wouldn’t be easily discoverable should Ayden somehow manage to get into my phone despite all the security I locked it with. Then I sat there for a moment, looking at other photographs I probably shouldn’t have pulled out in that moment; photographs that were so bittersweet: My boy, his face a picture of delight, laughing in his father’s arms.

  I closed my eyes, holding back the tears that always formed when I looked at that. I knew he was happier in Colorado, knew he was happy with his father and stepmother. But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt to see it, to really know it.

  He was my boy. And he was the reason I was doing this.

  I was about to step out of the stall when the chime on my phone alerted me to an email. It was instructions from Kai that was mostly summed up in one word: more.

  He wanted more.

  Did he realize what that meant? Did he know what I would have to do to get more? Why wasn’t Ayden’s confession enough?

  Because there was more to it. Kai had gotten that impression and, the truth was, so had I. Ayden was holding something back and I had to find out what it was.

  How was I going to do that?

  “You okay?” Ayden asked when I finally stepped out of the bathroom. He was waiting there, outside the door, concern furrowing his brow.

  “Fine.”

  A dark cloud crossed his blue eyes, darkening his golden good looks. “I know what I told you back there was a lot to take in. I’m sorry.”

  I shook my head. “It’s fine. I asked you to tell me.”

  “But, still…I need you to know that I wouldn’t have gotten involved in this if I’d known how deep it would go. I was military, for Christ’s sake! I would never steal from my own government if I’d had another choice.”

  “I know.”

  But did I? He seemed to have been happy enough to go along with it all this time. Four years? Almost five? That was a long time. Why was he now suddenly overcome by a guilty conscience?

  “Let’s just get out of here,” I said.

  He took my hand and I almost pulled away from him. I remembered at the last second that I couldn’t, that I was supposed to be acting as the dutiful girlfriend, not the outraged military brat turned proud Marine.

  He helped me into his car, always the gentleman. He got behind the wheel and we drove off in silence, both of us lost in our thoughts.

  “Should I just take you home?”

  “No.” I reached over and rested my hand on his thigh. “Take me to your place.”

  He glanced at me. “Yeah?”

  “You can cook for me.”

  A small smile broke through the gloom in his face. “That’d be nice.”

  And I could sneak off to his home office to see if there was anything more for me to know. The quicker I could figure out what he’d left out of his story, the quicker Kai would let me get out of here. I’d never considered quitting a case, and I wouldn’t now. But if there was ever a time…

  He ran his hand over mine and pulled it higher up on his thigh. Even after all this, he was still thinking with the mind that wasn’t between his ears. A part of me felt sick at the idea, but that other part…how could I still feel this attraction to him when all I really wanted was to be the one to lock the door that would keep him imprisoned for the rest of his life?

  He was a beautiful man. There was no doubting that. Tall, blond, those blue eyes like nothing I’d ever seen before. Wide shoulders, thick muscles, a chest that was sexy, tight and big, but one you could also find comfort in and feel safe when held against it. And those thighs! He had incredibly developed thighs, the kind a man only gets from hard exercise. I wanted to watch him work out some time, wanted to see him flex those muscles, wanted to see that body move with the elegance that so few men have.

  But looks weren’t everything, were they?

  My ex was sexy: tall, dark and slim with the sort of skin that reflects both a hardworking man, and that of a man who cares about his appearance. He was a man who seemed capable of just about anything. A good man. But that didn’t keep things from fizzling out almost as quickly as they’d begun.

  What is it in us that dictates which men can speak to our—whatever it is—our inner souls, our hearts, that part of us that tells who we want, who we need, and who we can pass over without much thought. What is it? And why can’t logic control it?

  The truth was, whenever Ayden kissed me the way he did, I wanted him just as much as he professed to want me. And I hated myself for it.

  I squeezed his thigh and then pulled my hand away.

  His house was of the antebellum period, a tall, neo-classic building with massive white columns in front and wide balconies running along the second story. It was probably originally made of white oak, but now it was covered in vinyl siding. But that didn’t take away from the beauty of the original design, or the opulence of it.

  “What a beautiful place,” I said softly, remembering all the antebellum style homes that had graced the grounds of the military bases I’d lived on, houses that were reserved for the commanding officers. I’d always wanted to live in one.

  “You like it?”

  “It’s really something.”

  “My parents bought it for me.” He laughed wryly. “Sounds really spoiled, I know. But it’s the truth. My father was in finance and made good money. When I came home from the military, they had this waiting for me. Wanted to surprise me. How could I tell them that I couldn’t afford the property taxes, let alone the maintenance costs?”

  “They were just trying to be good parents, I suppose.”

  “They would have been perfectly happy to give me the money I needed to keep it up, but my pride wouldn’t allow me to ask.”

  “But you can now. You could buy three of these houses.”

  “Yeah.”

  I glanced at him; the life had gone from his voice. He was staring up at the house, but I don’t think he was really seeing it. His thoughts were clearly far away.

  “Ayden?”

  “If my parents should ever learn what I’ve done, they’ll be completely shamed.” He sighed, running a hand over the top of his head. “It seems ridiculous, a nearly forty-year-old man worried about what his parents think. But I do. And it kills me to think what this will do to them if…when the truth comes out.”

  “I thought the same thing about my father once. I was sure that when he learned something I’d allowed to happen, he would hate me forever. But you know what he said?”

  “What?”

  “That everyone makes mistakes. That’s how we learn. That he’d love me no matter what I did, no matter how many mistakes I made, because I was still his daughter and he was still my daddy.”

  Ayden nodded. “That’s a lovely sentiment. But my parents…this is bigger than some little mistake.”

  “Yeah”

  He might be right. But my father pushed me and my brother hard when it came to service to our country. It was expected of us, just like going to school every day was expected of most kids. We were going to join the military, it was only a question of when and what branch. When I got pregnant and they told me that I had to resign my commission…that was devastating. I knew my father would be disappointed. And he was. But I suppose having a perfect grandson to love when it was all said and done may have softened the blow. Maybe naming him after my brother helped a little, too.

  Ayden got out of the car and came around to help me out. We walked hand in hand to the front door, his arm sliding around my shoulders as he pushed the door open. The house was big and echoey. It seemed empty, and unused. It felt like the kind of house that should have been filled with children’s running feet and the squeal of their laughter, not just the solitary sounds of a single man.

  He led me through the impressive vestibule to a huge kitchen leading off to the right. This was a much more homely room and signs that there was a genuine cook who used it.

  “You want a tour, or a drink?”

  “I’ll have one later. Why don’t you go start dinner and I’ll show myself around.”

  “Are you sure? I’m going to take a shower too.”

  “If you don’t mind. I love these old houses; I just want to appreciate its atmosphere.”

  If Ayden was surprised, he didn’t show it and seemed quite unconcerned, not as if there was anything lying around that I shouldn’t find. He drew me close and kissed the center of my forehead. “Text me if you get lost.”

  I smiled. “I will.”

  He pressed his lips to my forehead again. I shut my eyes, enjoying his touch as much as I wanted to push him away. How could two such warring emotions live in one mind?

  I walked back into the vestibule, glancing back at him in the kitchen, but he was already taking stuff from the fridge. I made my way into the great room. It was clearly a home that had been completely refurbished fairly recently. The high ceilings and walls were perfectly painted in both light and big bright accent colors; the floorboards were all bamboo. The furnishings were modern, and masculine, with overstuffed couches and heavy wood end tables. I moved around slowly, taking my time to stop and study the pictures that were carefully arranged, probably by his mother, on the closed top of a grand piano. There were pictures of him as a child and in his teens; pictures of his parents standing proudly at his side at graduations and the ceremony ending boot camp. He looked pretty amazing in his dark green Army uniform, well suited to a golden boy.

  If only…I’d had that thought a lot lately.

  I wandered down a short corridor that led to a lovely sunroom that looked out on a massive pool that was well-maintained, the water clear and inviting under the moonlight. A little further down the corridor, I found a games room packed with all the best video games of the eighties. Somehow, he hadn’t struck me as a game player, but I guess I’d underestimated him.

  His home office was tucked into a far corner of the house, a small room that seemed to be the most lived in of all the others I’d seen. There was a heavy walnut desk that wasn’t much different from the one in Kai’s office, covered in paperwork that mostly displayed the Vaughn Motors’ logo. His laptop was there, too. I walked over and glanced through the paperwork, convinced almost immediately that it was all legitimate stuff that went along with owning a business. I did find a few accounting forms, with my signature at the bottom, but they were just ordinary business forms.

  I sat at his desk, opened the laptop and powered it up. There had to be a simple way to figure out the password. I tried a few things, but nothing seemed to work. I opened a few drawers, hoping he might have a notebook or something that had all his passwords in it. I wasn’t that lucky. Maybe his mother’s name? What was his mother’s name? I tried to remember if he’d ever mentioned it to me, but couldn’t.

  Alice? Janice? Clarice?

  It seemed like one of those, but I couldn’t remember which.

  I stared at the screen, at that dark Paris skyline. And then inspiration struck.

  I typed the French for password, mot de passe, and hesitated before pressing the enter button, aware that the computer would lock me out if this was wrong and then he’d know I’d been messing around with it. I hit enter and closed my eyes.

  When I peeked…it had worked.

  I was going to have to work quickly before Ayden came looking for me. Grabbing a small USB thumb from my bag, I plugged it in and copied a small application into his laptop, which would give Kai remote access to everything on the computer – a virus scanner would not pick it up and I could delete the app and the logs remotely when I got home. It was done in a couple of minutes. I removed the USB and closed the machine.

  Kai would have everything he needed first thing in the morning. Maybe that would be enough to get me out of here.

  I moved away from the desk to check out some of the books on the shelves that lined the room. The collection was so similar to the one my father had that I was caught off guard. There was Sun Tzu’s Art of War, and several editions of the U.S. Marines Close Combat Fighting Handbook, and the U.S. Marines Close Combat Conditioning Handbook. There was also the Bible in multiple languages and a copy of the Quran. I took it out to look at it more closely. “It’s a strange collection, I know.”

  I jumped. He’d come up behind me without a sound.

  “You have an interesting collection”, I said calmly, but my heart pounded from the fright he had given me.

  “I collect all kinds of things. These are just…my father taught me that the best weapon a person could have is knowledge. I guess I saw these as a way of learning everything I could about my chosen career.” He took the Quran out of my hands and gestured to the books on the shelves across from us. “Those are repair manuals on almost every car manufactured between 1950 and now. For my other chosen profession.”

  “You are something.”

  “Thank you.”

  I shook my head. “You and my daddy would love each other.”

  “That’s good, right? Don’t they say that every girl wants to marry her dad?”

  “Are you proposing?”

  “Not yet.”

  I laughed, but I was surprised by what appeared to be genuine sincerity. And there was a look in his eye that suggested none of this was a joke to him.

  He carefully set the Quran back from where I’d taken it, “I’ve always been a cautious guy,” he said as he did so. “The kind who thinks out every move so carefully that sometimes I don’t leave room for options. He didn’t turn away from the shelves, preferring to look at them than at me. “I never saw myself as the kind of guy who would live in a house like this, the kind of guy who would fill a home with children and laughter. I always kind of saw myself living in a small apartment over a garage, you know? That would have made me perfectly happy.”

  He was quiet for a long moment. “But the moment I set eyes on you, all that went flying out the window.”

  “Stop,” I said, pressing a couple of fingers to his lips as I slid between him and the shelves. “Don’t do this. Not right now.”

  He wrapped his hand around my wrist, brought my fingers close to his lips and kissed them. “I know it’s too soon. But I want you to know that I’m not only interested in what we could do between the sheets.”

  “I know that.”

  “I think you are the most challenging, most intelligent woman I’ve ever met.”

  I bit my bottom lip. That was the best compliment any man had paid me.

  “I never meant to drag you into this mess.”

  “I think I let myself be dragged ....”

  “How can I not worry though? These people…I thought it was just my army buddy helping me out, but now I know what these people are capable of, and it scares the crap out of me!”

  “I know.”

  “If they were to come after you—”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  He cupped my face in hands to look me in the eyes. “I know you can. That’s one of the many things I admire about you. But, Paxton, this isn’t just fighting off some drunk in a bar, you know? These men…they have a lot at stake here. If they were caught, they’d face more than just a slap on the wrist. They could be put to death for treason. And they…they’re well trained. Most of them are former military. They will kill to protect themselves.”

  I dropped my eyes, trying to feign fear. But, in truth, I already knew. Kai had explained it to me, explained exactly who Black Jacket was. I knew that if I told Ayden about the kidnapping and shootout back in Walnut Estates, it would frighten him in the same way he was trying to frighten me. He believed I was walking into something that was way over my head. But the truth was he was the one who was in too deep.

 

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