Behind the Lies (A Montgomery Justice Novel) (29 page)

“Whoa, brother,” Gabe said. “Start from the beginning.”

Zach sank into the chair, then brought them up to speed. “I don’t know what to tell you. If John hadn’t been the target, I’d say that my…colleagues aren’t very happy with me and they’ve gone way too far—”

“You think?” Seth muttered, shaking his head. “Your name popped up on the CIA’s list of potential traitors. I assume that’s who you’ve been working for. They’re setting you up, big brother.”

“Then why not just wait until he was in his cabin to blow it up?” Luke offered. “That’s what I’d do if I wanted to get rid of him.”

Zach grinned. “You’ve got an evil mind, Luke. Ditto.”

“Except you don’t just have the CIA after you, do you? There’s also the Chameleon,” Luke offered.

“Jenna’s husband,” Zach clarified at Caleb’s confused look. “I planned to help her start a new life.”

“Why didn’t you call me?” Nick said. “I could have put her in touch with WitSec.”

“I have two words,” Jenna said, opening the door. “Joseph Romero. My husband killed him, and he was in WitSec.”

“Why would your husband try to hurt Mom or John?” Caleb said, his face skeptical.

“I thought he might be using Zach to draw me out so he could take Sam.”

“An assassin doesn’t kill indiscriminately. It’s bad for business,” Seth said. “Unless he’s gone psycho or it’s personal.”

“Zach’s right about one thing,” Nick added. “The speculation doesn’t matter. We have two sets of targets. We need to
split up until we figure out exactly what’s going on. Three of us need to watch Mom. The others need to do a little…sensitive research.”

“Agreed. Nick, Caleb, and I will head to the hospital,” Gabe said. “Seth and Luke are the info guys. Zach…I’m guessing the news is wrong and you’re not AWOL on your big comeback break and having fun with your
boyfriend
in the Bahamas, so you better hang with the spy guys on this.”

Zach threw up a third-finger salute then rubbed his chin. “Let us know if there are any changes in Mom’s condition.”

The mirth in Gabe’s eyes vanished. “Hopefully she’ll wake up soon and can tell us who attacked her and John.”

With an agreement on communication and weapons doled out, Gabe, Nick, and Caleb left. Zach locked the door behind them. The kitchen had closed in on him. He turned and faced Luke and Seth—the brothers who understood more than anyone exactly what he was up against. “First things first. I had a plan in place for Jenna and Sam to start over. I need to recreate all the documentation. Can you help me?”

Jenna laced her fingers through Zach’s. He gazed down into her eyes, knowing once more they’d have to say good-bye. He couldn’t ignore the twinge in his heart at the thought.

“Do you want to disappear with Jenna and her son, Zach?” Seth asked quietly.

“I can’t until I stop whoever wants me dead,” Zach said, struggling between what his heart longed for and what his head knew should happen. He scribbled down the addresses, bank account numbers, and the identification numbers of the new identities he’d created for Jenna and Sam. “I won’t risk their lives.”

“And I won’t take you from your family,” Jenna said. “They love you. We both know what has to be. Brad will never stop, not until he kills me and has the evidence. As my husband, if he ever found me and the location of the safety deposit box, he could gain access to it once I’m dead.”

“Um, Jenna. That might not be quite accurate,” Luke said, opening a file folder and flipping through the papers.

A small hitch of hope simmered within Zach.

“I dug into Brad Walters’s life and found some very interesting information.”

Leaning forward in his chair, Zach tugged the file from Luke’s fingertips.

“Brad Walters isn’t his real name. In fact, Jenna, your husband isn’t who he pretends to be.”

Jenna sank into the chair next to Zach. “What are you saying?”

“Brad Walters has no claim on you. You were never legally married.”

I
F
J
ENNA HADN’T
been sitting, she would have keeled over. She struggled to take a breath. A vise clamped around her chest.

Not married. Not married. Not married.

The words echoed in her head.

Her life with Brad had been nothing but a lie. A horrible thought occurred to her. “Did the feds know all along?”

Luke averted his gaze. “I can’t be sure. When the FBI convinced you to stay to gather evidence, my guess is some cowardly prosecutor wanted a certain conviction. Brad can’t argue against his own words.”

“You mean, yes, they knew,” Jenna said, struggling to stop the bevy of emotions from spilling all over the place. “So Sam and I were expendable—just part of a twisted game to catch Brad? They already had the evidence I’d given them. Why use us like that?”

“I’m sorry, Jenna.” Zach lifted her from the chair next to him to his lap and pulled her close, cradling her, rocking her, hugging her against his warm body.

She sagged in Zach’s arms, her entire body limp. “Get me out of here,” she whispered. “Please.”

“I will.” Zach tightened his hold. “Seth, Luke, I want those documents ready. Get her and Sam a new life. Then we go hunting. For Walters and the truth.”

Jenna had no idea how Zach’s brothers responded. Her emotions swirled around her—battered, angry…and strangely relieved. She wanted the world to disappear. She buried her face into Zach’s shirt and breathed in the pine scent of his clothes.

With her nestled in his arms, he walked her down the hall, cracked open an empty bedroom door, then shut them inside. He carried her to the bed and laid her down. She wrapped her arms around a pillow and hugged it to her chest.

“I can’t stop thinking that I trusted the FBI to help us…and Sam and I could have been dead because I’m so gullible.” She rubbed at her eyes.

Zach settled down next to her and pinned her close to his side. He wiped the tears from her cheek. “You got away, Jenna. You protected Sam. You’re going to be just fine.”

She scrubbed her face with her palms, scouring away the horrifying reality. “My life with Brad wasn’t a fairy tale
or
a nightmare,” she whispered. “It was just a lie.”

Jenna sank deeper into the pillow and turned to her side, her back to Zach. She’d let herself be taken in by a man who never loved her. She’d been so eager to believe in love and happily-ever-after, she’d let him hide more than the truth in a veil of security. She’d bought into everything he’d sold her for so long, how could she ever trust herself?

She stared at the simple white curtains shielding the window from view. The fabric fluttered slightly when the air conditioner kicked on. The cool air blew across her face. She touched her wet cheeks. Nothing felt substantial or real anymore, only insubstantial and invisible as the circulating air.

Zach lay down beside her and she stiffened.

“Don’t shut me out.” He plastered his body against her, wrapping his good arm around her waist, throwing his leg over her, and pinning her close.

She lay quiet in his arms, her mind whirling, confused.

“I don’t even know his real name,” Jenna finally said with a sigh. “I don’t know the name of my son’s father.”

“Does it matter?” Zach’s mouth skirted her ear. “He’s an amazing boy.”

She shivered at the touch of his lips. She wanted to turn into his arms, but she couldn’t stop the fear gripping her belly. “How do I protect him when I can’t trust myself to see the truth? Brad used me as a shield. He even used his son—in more ways than I ever realized before this moment.”

Zach scooted slightly away from her and tugged her arm toward him. She let him roll her onto her back.

“Look at me,” he said.

His gentle expression tightened the knot in her throat. Pity, sympathy, and she couldn’t understand what else.

“Brad Walters is an assassin—a professional con man and a killer. That hasn’t changed. You followed your instincts and gathered evidence against a man no intelligence agency was able to touch, here or abroad.” Zach cupped her cheek with his hand. “Jenna, don’t doubt you
can
trust your instincts. Since the moment I met you, you’ve been right about so many things.”

With a tentative hand, she reached to touch the brown and ginger hair. His blue eyes captured hers, their depth holding so many secrets—so much he didn’t reveal to the world. “I was wrong about you. I thought you were a superficial actor with a harem at your beck and call.”

He gave her a small smile. “You weren’t wrong. I’ve been that man for a lot of years.”

“Now who’s not taking credit,” she said. “I saw you take out those men in Hidden Springs when they could have killed us. I saw your super-secret room. I see how you’ve hidden your covert life from your brothers.”

“And you thought you couldn’t trust your instincts.”

He tried to look away from her, but she refused to let him. She gripped his arm. “Why? Why did you push them away? Your family loves you.”

“They love the boy they remember, but I can barely face them, Jenna. They don’t know me or what I’ve done.” Zach took a shuddering breath and closed his eyes. “I’m responsible for my father’s death.”

He shifted from her, moving to sit up, but she clutched at his shirt, refusing to let him go. “I don’t believe you.”

His eyelids snapped open. Anguish screamed from the depths of his eyes. She swallowed a gasp at the hurt he’d clearly buried. “Five years ago, he called me, wanting to meet. I was
exactly
the man you described. The tabloids weren’t wrong. I was young, foolish, and going down a dark path. You name the vice, and I tried it more than once. I believed my own press, believed I was indestructible.” He cleared his throat. “I learned the hard way that my biggest hero—my father—wasn’t.”

“If Sam were headed down that path, I’d do whatever it took to stop him,” Jenna said, rubbing her hand back and forth on his arm. “That’s what your dad did.”

“My father was stubborn, that’s for sure. Patrick Montgomery was more bullheaded than any of us.” Zach smiled. “Except maybe my mom.”

Jenna bit her lip. “Patrick Montgomery? The name sounds familiar.”

Zach winced. “My father’s death made national news. A decorated cop shot down in a convenience store robbery. No one knows the full story. Not even my mother.”

Her heart aching for the agony in his voice, Jenna pressed close against Zach. “Tell me.”

He closed his eyes. “He was waiting for me across from a bar where I was drinking myself into oblivion in a private VIP room. All because I wouldn’t return his call.” Zach lifted his haunted gaze. “He probably tried to stop the crime. He’d do that. Dad died in my arms. I promised him I’d make things right. He called me a liar. I was always the family’s biggest disappointment. My screwup cost my father his life.”

She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his chest. His heartbeat thudded beneath her ear, speeding up when she nestled into his arms. “You misunderstood your father, Zach. I’ve seen you and your brothers. Your father loved you. Just like mine did. You don’t have to get yourself killed to prove yourself worthy of the Montgomery name.”

He shook his head. “You don’t understand. I robbed our family of a man who should be getting ready to retire and travel across the country with my mom in an RV. They’ll never have that chance because of my selfishness.”

She studied his self-loathing expression, and with a blast of insight recognized it mirrored her own. She’d wanted to disappear, too. She touched his face, her fingertips drawing down the stubble on his cheek. “Is that why you’re letting your beard grow?” she asked. “A new disguise for your next dangerous mission—or to hide from yourself again?”

His jaw throbbed with unspoken emotion. “I have some unfinished business in Afghanistan. Since life as I know it is over, I better figure out who I’ll be next.”

A stark vulnerability had settled over him.

“I understand that, I do, Zach, but you know what? I think you’ve punished yourself enough. And so have I.”

She framed his face with her hands. “The only good thing to come out of this entire mess is that I met you.” She sucked in a deep breath. “I’m going to have to be strong for me and Sam in the future, but for now, can I just be free of the cage I’ve lived in? Will you help me do that?”

She wanted to be held, wanted to be loved.

She didn’t want just anyone, though. She wanted Zach. “I…I want to be selfish. I want you to want me.”

He caressed her hair, his touch tentative as he twisted the locks that fell over her shoulders. “I can’t take advantage of you,” he said, his voice full of regret.

“You wouldn’t be. Unless…unless you don’t want me?”

Part of her wanted to shrink away and roll over…until desire flooded his eyes.

He
did
want her.

And she wanted him.
Only him
.

He bit back a groan and shifted her hips toward the hardness that he couldn’t hide.

“I want you, Jenna. I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw your cute behind and wide eyes when you stole my truck.” He stroked her jawline with one knuckle. “But it can only be for one night, maybe two. My life is too dangerous. I won’t put you and Sam at risk. Can you live with that?”

She placed her hand over his. “Yes, but can I ask you one thing? Will you tell me the truth? Will you be
you
and not live
behind the lies for the rest of the time we’re together? I’ve had enough deception. Just be real with me.”

“I’ll try,” he whispered, his lips dancing on the smooth skin of her cheek. “You’re worth facing a few fears.”

Jenna clutched at him. “I regret everything about my time with Brad…except Sam. I don’t want to regret any more. I’ll take the memory of two nights over never knowing what it’s like to lie in your arms.”

He shivered at her words. A jolt of feminine power surged through her. She shoved aside the doubts creeping into her mind. She’d have tonight. With Zach. She’d make the memories last for the rest of her life.

“Help me forget, Zach. Help me forget everything.”

She slipped from his embrace and pushed him to his back. She straddled his body, settling her hips on top of his. Her touch gentle, she fingered the bandage immobilizing his arm. “What about your shoulder?”