Лиза Джонс: Beneath the Secrets

Kara looked away and scanned the side street they took, lined with residential buildings, looking for trouble. She felt guilty over Kyle, but he’d be fine, she reminded herself. Her sister might not be, though. If it were Kyle’s sister, she was willing to bet he’d have done the same thing she had. And Blake too, damn it.

Blake ended the call. “Luke has eyes on us. He’s got a car coming to pick us up.”

“Did they get a trace on our boat?” she asked anxiously.

He gave a disgusted shake of his head. “We went too far out of range. The tracking device I have on me wasn’t powerful enough.”

The implications stabbed at her heart. “That’s not the answer I wanted.” They were no closer to finding her sister.

“You and me both, sweetheart,” Blake assured her. “They’re working on better technology and some off-the-record Coast Guard support.”

Kara stopped walking. “But—”

“A friend of one of our men. He’ll keep things off the feds’ radar, and we need water support.”

“You’re sure you can trust him?”

“I’m positive.”

He sounded confident. He looked confident. And while she felt uncertain about much about Blake and his brothers, after tonight, she was crystal clear on his mindset. “Since you want Alvarez’s blood too much to risk the feds or the ATF slowing things down, I’ll trust you on this one.” She started to turn away but Blake had other ideas. Before Kara knew his intent, he’d maneuvered her into a small alcove between buildings, out of the wind. Suddenly, she had a concrete wall at her back and his hard body pressed to her front. Heat rushed over her at his nearness, desire burning in her belly.

Frustrated that she wanted a man who’d betrayed her, Kara shoved his chest. “Stop manhandling me, Blake, because I swear to you, I have nothing to hide anymore. I’m going to start fighting back.”

“Do you fucking look like your sister, Kara?” he demanded, a beam of moonlight stroking the angry lines of his face.

“No,” she hissed, and—no longer forced by an audience to fight the hurt and anger he’d created in her—she let it fly. “My sister’s taller, prettier, and missing . Obviously you didn’t remember that fact when you tried to kill the man who can give her back to me.” Her lips tightened. “Or maybe you just didn’t care.”

He ignored her accusations and focused on his own. “Alvarez sure as hell thought you looked familiar.”

“Alvarez was just playing a power game. Getting inside his close circle is my way to my sister, and you knew that. You knew and still you were going to kill him.”

“To keep him from finding out who you are and killing you.”

She jabbed her finger in his chest. “Don’t use me as an excuse to carry out your grand plan. I know the risks and it’s my decision to take them.”

“My ‘grand plan’, as you call it, is to keep you alive. I didn’t forget your sister. You have to be alive to welcome her home, Kara.” He leaned in, his hands on the wall beside her head, a familiar pose she’d come to expect from him. His way of caging her, controlling her. “You ask me to stay alive for you, and then you tempt fate with your own life. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”

He hit a raw nerve. She wanted to be more to him than a temporary escape until he killed Alvarez. She wanted him to feel what she did, but now she knew he didn’t. Not after tonight. “I asked you to stay alive for me and what did you reply? I have to let you spank me.”

“That was my way of saying I was with you in that moment.”

The moment they were having sex. It was all sex and escape to him. “That was you avoiding commitment.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them and she instantly felt like a deer in the headlights. Kara tried to duck under his arm. He tightened his legs around hers, holding her in place.

Her fingers curled on his chest. “Let me out of here, Blake. I need out.”

“Not until we’re done talking.”

“We’re done. I’m done.”

“I’m not,” he said, but the sound of a car pulling up behind him sent him whirling around, and Kara didn’t miss the way he sheltered her with his body, ready to take a bullet for her, before he relaxed and turned back. “It’s our ride, and yes, we’re leaving—but be clear, Kara. We’re far from done with this.”

“You’re such an arrogant, bossy asshole.”

“If protecting you makes me an asshole, then I’ll happily be the biggest asshole of your life, sweetheart.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the alcove and toward the black sedan waiting on them, like she was his property. She wasn’t his damn property and he had her fuming.

Blake opened the back door for her and she wanted inside, she wanted a private room where she could blast him, once and for all, but just as he was about to slide in, he grabbed the lapels of his coat she was wearing and pulled her hard against him. “Just remember, Kara. I’m the asshole who’d die to protect you.”

He leaned in to kiss her and she nipped his bottom lip just hard enough to let him know he wasn’t in charge. His lips quirked, wicked heat and amusement dancing in his eyes. “You can take you anger out on me in bed tonight.”

“Who says I’m going to be in your bed?”

“Me, sweetheart. You can count on it. And me, Kara.”

“Yes,” she whispered, and she didn’t have it in her to hold back. “I can always count on you to fuck me, Blake, but that’s all you ever promise. I need more.” More than she believed he could give her after tonight.

“Blake, man,” the driver called out, a voice Kara didn’t recognize. “Come the hell on.”

Kara shoved out of Blake’s arms and he let her, and a silent part of her cried out in protest. He’d said nothing about her desire for “more”. Feeling like a wounded puppy, she slid inside the car and as far away from Blake as possible, shrugging out of his jacket and setting it between them.

Blake settled into the seat and shut the door. “Kara, meet our driver, Jesse. He works for Walker Security.”

Jesse lifted a hand. “For the record, I’m smarter than Kyle and Blake. I won’t get drugged. No toilet hugging for me.”

“Funny man,” Blake grumbled. “Just drive the car.”

Kara cringed. Obviously everyone knew about Kyle now. Of course they did. She’d have a bucket load of cranky men to face soon.

Jesse pulled the car away from the curb and Blake moved the jacket, scooting closer to Kara and pulling her tight against his side, his leg molding hers, his hand possessively on her knee. Tingling sensations raced up her thigh to her sex, and guilt twisted in Kara’s gut. How could she want a man who didn’t care if her sister lived or died?

Kara reached for Blake’s hand, intending to move it from her leg, only to have his fingers flex on her knee and her hand rest over his. The contact triggered a flashback of him telling her about Whitney’s death. She remembered the torment she’d seen in his eyes at least a hundred times, and she knew why. Guilt. He blamed himself for not saving Whitney. Kara squeezed her eyes shut, recognizing that her emotional pain over her sister had made her blind to his pain over Whitney tonight. Killing Alvarez was all Blake had lived for these past two years, and thinking back to the boat, he’d had plenty of chances to make that fantasy reality. But he hadn’t, and if he’d really intended to, he would have. God, she was such a fool. He’d contained that desperate need, for her.

Kara turned to face him. He seemed to have turned at the same moment, and his hands slid into her hair, framing her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, her hands covering his. “I’m just…my sister and—”