Dangerous Protector (Aegis Group Book 5) (24 page)

“Without her, your cousin dies, and these guys come after us, then her. That’s how this goes.”

“You don’t know that,” Fiona said.

“Yes, I do. I’ve done it before.” Ghost pivoted away from them.

Fuck.

What was that supposed to mean?

“Look, it’s been a couple of long days.” Marco stood. “How about we get our shit together and find somewhere to lay low? In the morning, when we know what the Marshalls can do and what this guy Randy wants, we can make a plan.”

“Fine.” Ghost whirled toward the rig. “I’ll be ready to go in ten.”

Fiona pushed up to her feet and stalked into the bathroom, shutting the door with force.

It wasn’t a great plan, but it got them out of here and somewhere possibly safer. Marco wasn’t going to sleep. Not with the shit hitting the fan like this. He’d made a royal mess of it all, and he didn’t know how he was going to fix it. What he did know was that Fiona was going to come first from here on out. She deserved that much at least.

Fiona walked into another
hole-in-the-wall motel with dingy walls, the scent of pot in the air and beds that looked slept in.

“It’s a shithole. I’m sorry.” Marco closed the door behind her.

“It’s four walls and a roof. It’s great.” Fiona tugged the comforter up over a pillow and sat down. It wasn’t all that long ago, walls were considered optional so long as she had a roof. There’d been tough years growing up.

“Fiona…”

“What?” She was exhausted, and he kept doing this. Saying her name then staring at her, as if she could understand what he wasn’t saying. But she didn’t know him. Never really had.

“Nothing.”

She rolled her eyes and slid down to lay on her back.

Marco circled the other bed and sat facing her.

“I just…”

I just—what?

I just screwed up?

I just didn’t think?

I just fell crazy in love with you?

I just can’t help being a stupid, idiotic man?

“What?” She sat up and swung her legs off the bed, facing him. “You just—what, Marco? What?”

“I didn’t mean for things to go like this.”

“What did you think was going to happen?” She threw up her hands. “Your plan was to seduce me. Screw me over. And get your land back. Is that it? That’s what you thought was going to happen, wasn’t it? Well, I hate to inconvenience you with the fact that I have a fucked-up life and problems I might not have ever known about or had if it wasn’t for you.”

“You’re right. I never thought through what was going to happen.” His voice was quiet, thoughtful. “Scott would have screwed you over though. You have to know that.”

Her throat tightened involuntarily.

Marco’s gaze dipped to her neck.

Did it look as bad as it felt?

“The look on his face when I told him we made the password the Nova handle…Fiona…it’s him.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Not for certain, but he knows who you are. Or were.”

Shit.

That churning in her stomach worsened.

She’d made a mistake. She was certain of that now. Earlier she’d woken up, her eyes swollen from crying. He’d just…been there. Watching her. As if seeing her misery made him happy.

It was the kind of thing she’d expect from Nova.

Marco’s hand squeezed hers.

She glanced down, expecting to see one thing…and instead she was the one gripping him. As though she’d reached for him.

Fiona released Marco’s hand and sat up.

He wasn’t her hero. He didn’t love her. She couldn’t lean on him.

She stood and paced to the air conditioner unit. Fiddling with the knobs gave her a good excuse to not look at him and get her thoughts in order.

“I can’t blame you for everything.” She had to face her part in all of this. “I threw myself at you. Made it pretty damn easy, didn’t I?”

“Fiona—no.” Marco’s footsteps came closer, but she still couldn’t look at him.

“I was so stupid.” She turned, even though she wasn’t really ready to let him see her. She wanted to see his face, if there was anything there at all. “I told you how to manipulate me, so I can’t be upset that you followed the playbook.”

“That’s not what happened.”

“Then what happened?”

He gave her that same, thousand yard stare.

“All that, huh?” She huffed to keep from crying.

“You were…different.”

“Yeah? Great.”

“No—Fiona.” He blew out a breath. “I regretted what I did the moment I did it and I’ve been trying to undo it ever since. What I did was wrong, and I’ll—”

“You’ll do everything in your power to make it right,” she parroted his words back to him.

Yeah. Save it. She’d heard him say the same thing a dozen times. If he really cared about her, he wouldn’t have gone there in the first place. Granted they’d been strangers when he’d fucked her over, literally and figuratively.

Marco pressed his lips together and took a step toward her. She couldn’t bare his touch, as much as she wanted it. He kept crowding her until she had her back up against the window unit.

Marco lifted his hands and braced them on the wall on either side of her, their bodies brushing every time she sucked in a breath.

“You are so damn frustrating,” he muttered.

“Frustrating? Have you looked in a mirror?”

“You didn’t have a face or a name when we made this plan. And then I met you. And everything changed.” He lifted a hand and ran his fingers through her hair. She shook, her pieces breaking apart. “I should have walked out of that bar after meeting you and never looked back. I shouldn’t have answered when you called. And I sure as hell shouldn’t have told you where I was. That moment you walked into that bar on Friday and looked at me…Fiona, I knew in that second nothing was going to happen like it was supposed to. Because I never planned on
you
happening.”

“So very sorry to inconvenience you.”

“Damn it. That’s not what I mean.” He thumped his fist on the wall, and yet she didn’t flinch at the action. He wasn’t like Scott. He wouldn’t hurt her body, just her heart.

“I know what you mean, Marco.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Sure, I’m too fucked up to—”

“Fiona,” he said her name sharply, then descended into that same, infuriating silence.

“What? You’re thinking something. Just say it already.”

“I don’t know how.”

“You open your mouth and words come out.”

He stroked his fingers down the side of her face, and God, she wanted to lean into the touch. She was hungry for it. But he didn’t—

“I fell in love with you.”

What?

Fiona stared at Marco.

Had she heard him right?

Was that him talking?

Or was she making things up?

The way this was going, she wouldn’t be surprised if she was hallucinating.

A few days ago she’d have been overjoyed at those words. To think—she’d fallen for a man who was falling for her, too. But how could she trust him? Was it another line? A hook to keep in her to make sure they stayed together? So he got his way?

“Prove it,” she said.

“What?”

“Prove it.” Fiona jabbed her finger at his chest.

“How?”

“Tomorrow I’m walking out of here, and I’m going back to my life, whatever the hell that looks like now, and when I do…if you love me, you will leave me the fuck alone. If any part of you cares about me, you’ll stay the hell away from me.” Fiona stared at him, watching the tiny flexes of muscle, the way the skin at the corner of his eyes and mouth wrinkled, the deep lines across his brow.

He didn’t like her demand, but she wasn’t going to budge.

It was one thing to fall in love with a man. It was another to love him. She’d fallen in and out of love enough to know the ways of it, how she felt more alive in her lover’s arms and how it killed her to let them go. If Marco loved her, well, he was about to get a lesson in agony. Watching someone you cared about walk away was one of the hardest things to do. But she’d done it. More times than she could count.

“Fine.” Marco pushed off the wall and backed up a few steps. “Have it your way.”

23.

Randy propped his feet
up on the table and thumbed through the pages on his tablet.

By all accounts, NueEnergy was gone. The news was abuzz with the sudden collapse of one of the companies at the forefront of the green energy game. It made for just the right amount of noise for him and his team to slip out unnoticed. Let the banks divide up what was left. Anything of value was already gone. The rest of it was just stuff.

They were way off his time table, but by this time tomorrow Randy and the rest of his team would be headed home. The new security protocols would prevent a nightmare like this from happening again. The board was pushing back on his insistence to be involved with IT Security, but they’d come around. Once he laid out how lucky they were this whole thing hadn’t wrecked them, they’d be begging him to take over. And maybe, just maybe, they’d offer him a bigger share in the company.

After all, he was saving their bacon.

The man across from him shifted. Metal scraped on metal.

“Danny, we talked about how important silence is to my work, didn’t we?” Randy glanced up at the kid.

Danny’s skin was covered in a sheen of perspiration. He was apparently a stress sweater, and he stank to high heaven. One eye was nearly swollen shut, but it was the kid’s own fault for fighting back. His nostrils flared, and he glared at Randy with his one good eye.

The kid liked to talk smack, so Randy had him gagged. Now Danny drooled on himself, which was plain gross, but again, these were the fruits of Danny’s choices.

“Think of this as a learning experience.”

Randy turned his attention back to the tablet.

So many things were piling up, but none of them took precedence over the NueEnergy breech. One more day, and then it would be back to business as usual.

Fiona hit dial on
the new burner phone and paced the motel room. Her teeth were on edge and her nerves rubbed raw to the point she’d nearly chewed a hole through her cheek and picked her nails to nubs.

Marco had held her last night.

She’d been crying into her pillow, like the sad, pathetic sap she was, and he’d slid in behind her and spooned her. She hated how his touch, his nearness, soothed her. But it did. So she’d soaked it up and eventually fallen asleep. She’d woken up with her face buried against his chest and their limbs a tangled mess. Another night like that would send her over the edge.

“Eric Godfrey speaking.”

“Eric.” She closed her eyes and sat on the edge of the bed. “It’s—”

“I’m sorry, you must have the wrong number.” His tone was smooth as silk, even and pleasant.

“Eric, it’s Fiona. Eric? Hello?” She pulled the phone away from her face and stared at the End Call screen.

What the hell?

She hadn’t said more than his name. And she didn’t have the wrong damn number. Eric knew her. Why would he hang up on her like that?

The phone rang with an Unknown Number.

Did she answer it?

Eric was the only person she’d called. And he’d hung up on her. Was it Marco or Ghost? They were outside. They could just knock on the damn door.

She clicked the answer button and pressed the phone to her ear.

“Fiona, are you there?” Eric’s voice was hushed, strained.

“Eric—what is going on? Why did you hang up on me?”

“This is my personal cell. Fiona, what the hell are you doing?”

“I’m calling you back…”

“No, I mean, what have you gotten yourself involved in? They’re talking about arresting you.”

“No…” Fiona leaned forward, her elbows on her knees.

“Yes,” he whispered, voice hushed.

She related the bare-bones to him, leaving out swaths of the story. She gave him the facts as she’d seen them, and left out Marco’s plans for how to fix things. All she wanted to do was come in and make this someone else’s problem. She’d spent years paying for her mistakes. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life doing penance for someone else’s.

“I could get fired and thrown in jail for this,” he said when her story was out there.

“You shouldn’t risk yourself for me, Eric.”

“Yeah, well, we get so many bad people through WP I didn’t want to see one of the good ones go down.” He blew out a breath. “Look, don’t come in. Don’t come near the office. Don’t call me. Don’t check in. Not unless you have concrete evidence you’re innocent.”

“Great.”

“I’ve got to go. Be safe. Keep your head down.”

The line went dead. Once more, Eric had hung up on her. And could she blame him? The Marshalls saw her as a criminal on the run. She’d never liked her latest case agent, truth be told. Now she knew why. He’d been waiting for her to screw up all along.

Fiona sat down and cradled her head in her hands.

This was a never ending disaster. Why her? Why this? Why? Why? Why?

It wasn’t fair. All she’d ever done since the FBI spanked her for hacking was try to follow the letter of the law. Do exactly what she was told to do. And look where it’d gotten her…on the run from criminals and wanted for…she didn’t even know yet.

If she was going to get in trouble, it should at least be for something she’d done. Intentioanlly at least.

Well, she was going to show the Marshalls.

How, she didn’t know yet. Marco had a plan. What that plan was, or how it might help her were still a mystery. She wanted to trust him when he said he’d make everything right. But she couldn’t. Not when she was in this predicament because of him and Scott. It was time to stop following her heart and think. Really consider what was going on and put herself first.

Voices on the other side of the door dragged her out of her thoughts.

Was that yelling?

She swallowed and glanced at the bathroom. There was a tiny window above the shower she couldn’t possibly fit through, but if it meant she’d live to see another day, well, maybe she could make herself fit.

Marco’s bark of laughter brought up all the gnawing jealousy.

What the hell was going on?

Fiona tip-toed to the large windows and peered out.

Marco stood with his back toward her, the hood on his pullover up, and two strange men standing around. They were big, imposing guys, a lot like Marco. One was blonde bearded, and looked like some sort of Viking god. The other was ginger, tattooed, and staring straight at her.

Fiona dropped the curtain and backed up.

Did Marco know them? Were they random guys he was shooting the bull with? What was going on?

The door opened and Marco stepped in. He pushed his hood back, his gaze never leaving hers. Every time he stared at her, she felt stripped bare. Her heart beat in her toes and her fingers went numb.

“Fiona, Ian, Felix,” he said.

“Uh, who?” She blinked at the other two men filing into the room.

They were a lot bigger up close.

“I work with these guys.” Marco closed the door after them and glanced at his phone.

“No one’s heard from you in weeks,” the blond said.

“Yeah, was begin’ to wonder if you crawled in a hole and died.” The redhead spoke with a rolling lilt. She almost wanted him to say the words
magically delicious
.

“Fuck you, leprechaun.” Marco presented his middle finger.

“I’m Felix.” The blond held out his hand toward Fiona.

“Hi.”

“So, what kind of trouble are you in?” Felix turned toward Marco.

“I’m sorry—who are you?” Fiona glanced between the two new men.

“I work with them,” Marco replied. “Ghost is here.”

“Ghost? Who the fuck is Ghost?” Ian shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and scowled. Unlike the other two, he wasn’t wearing a jacket. His arms flexed and the thick, dark tattoos seemed to dance down his arms.

“Guy I used to work with.” Marco had all the answers. “Look, how much I tell you depends on whether or not you’re sticking around. Thanks for coming down here to check on me and all, but I’m in the middle of some bad shit.”

“No, shit. Your face is just plastered all over the fuckin’ news.” Ian gestured at the TV.

“Cool it,” Felix snapped at Ian. “Don’t mind him, he didn’t get his beauty sleep.”

“Fuck you.” Ian scowled at his…friend?

“No, thanks, never swung that way.” Felix grinned. “You need help, or you need us out of the way?”

Marco glanced at her, and once more their gazes tangled. She could feel him weighing her in the balance, making decisions that would impact her life.

“Give us a minute, will you?” Marco took a step and held out his hand to her. “Fiona?”

She didn’t take his hand, but she did follow him across the room to the vanity. He was actually going to consult her on matters that impacted her life? This was new.

“What’s going on?” she whispered.

“They’re friends. They’re good guys.” He glanced at Felix and Ian, who were at least pretending to not listen.

“Okay…”

“Problem is…we need back-up. They’re back-up.”

“That’s a problem?”

“No, that’s the solution. The problem is involving more people.”

“Don’t make choices for them.”
Not like you did for me.
She searched his face, trying to discern his fears.

The door swung open again and Fiona started.

It was Ghost.

Did anyone around here not know how to lock a damn door?

She glared at Marco’s back.

“Who are they?” Ghost stood in the open door, his posture tense.

Marco made another round of introductions, but it didn’t appear to ease Ghost’s stance.

“You still haven’t told us what’s going on.” Felix’s gaze followed Marco, who glanced at her and then Ghost.

“About that. Sit?” Marco leaned against the dresser while Ghost remained standing by the door, and the other two sat on the edge of the beds.

Marco related the highlights of the last few weeks to his two coworkers. At various points they muttered expletives and shook their heads. It was strange hearing the events spoken of in such cold, clinical detail. Was that how Marco saw her? He said he loved her, but this was how he talked about them.

“Shit.” Ian said when it was all out there. He rubbed his face and said something else she couldn’t hear. Marco looked like he wanted to punch the guy.

“Let me guess, you want to do some sort of trade for your cousin
and
get her off the hook somehow?” Felix leaned forward, hand propped on his chin. He’d pulled a rubber band out and bound his hair, as if it was some sort of down-to-business, serious gesture.

“We have the somehow figured out,” Ghost said. He still had hostility etched into every fiber of his being.

“We do?” Fiona blinked at Ghost, then Marco. That was news to her.

“Yeah, Ghost worked it out.” Marco nodded at the other man. “This Randy guy wants Fiona and the data he thinks we stole. We give him the data, embed a program in it so that when they crack it open, it exposes them instead.”

“We give them this.” Ghost laid a plastic carrying case he’d had in hand on the table near the windows. “External hard drives. They’re loaded with everything Good Global was narrowing in on in their searches before we pulled their plug. Buried inside the files is code that will infect anything that connects to them as part of the device’s software.”

“And Fiona…?” Felix glanced at her, then Marco.

Yeah, what about her?

“That’s nonnegotiable. I’m not handing her over.” Marco crossed his arms over his chest.

“You realize your cousin could end up dead?” Ghost asked.

“He won’t.”

“How do you figure that?”

“We live stream the whole thing.”

Well, fuck.

She…kind of liked that plan.

If Randy knew they were being recorded, he couldn’t kill Danny or her without incriminating himself. Still, there was a lot of room for error, and her life was on the line.

Lila checked her phone.

Again.

Only this time she had a message.

Her heart throbbed in her throat.

The six lines of text were going to cost her around a hundred grand a line, but when the stakes were this high that wasn’t a price tag to scoff at. She was paying dearly for inside information, and it was just lucky someone behind the scenes was answering. She didn’t know who was manning that sinking ship, all she knew was that shit was headed south with Josh, Scott, and her team in Denver, and she needed to know more about this Fiona woman. Who better to inform on her than the other people searching for her?

“Gotcha,” Lila whispered.

Marco needed to touch
her. Hold her. And Fiona wasn’t having any of it.

She wouldn’t even look at him, and it was tearing him up inside.