Dead No More (13 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Wednesday, September 24, 9:00 p.m.

T
HE
WORLD
WAS
tilted sideways. Lily blinked, then struggled into a sitting position. How was she alive? Why hadn’t Jackson killed her?

Jackson
.

She scanned the alley. Of course he was gone. And damn it, so was her gun.

Reaching up, she gingerly touched her throbbing head where her hairline met her forehead and winced. The tips of her fingers were slick. Fabulous
.

Lily stood, gave herself a minute to find her balance and made her way back into the crowd, heading toward the one place she knew would be safe.

Ten minutes later, she walked through Ben’s back door.

“I saw him.”

The conversation between Derek, Ben and George ceased. All three men stared at her. Lily stopped short. What was Derek doing here? Better yet, what was George doing here? She shook her head. Not important. What was critical was Jackson. And the fact that he was here.

In her city.

“I saw him,” she said. “I saw Jackson.”

Derek leaped to his feet and rushed to her side. His fingers brushed the hair back from her forehead. Despite her current state of panic, her insides tightened at his soft touch.

“Damn it, Lily, what happened?”

“I’m fine.” Lily waved him off. And she was. The egg-shaped knot throbbed in time with each heartbeat and she needed to get it cleaned, but she’d experienced worse.

Much worse.

Lily couldn’t get her mind off of one fact: Jackson was in her city.

Derek held up his hands in surrender and backed off. The space between them felt cold. Empty. And she hated it. But not as much as she loathed the fact that Jackson had swooped down and screwed with her mind. Again.

“The bastard is here. In Omaha.”

None of the men reacted.

Scanning their faces, Lily recognized the set looks and quickly put the pieces together.
They knew.
Her blood started to boil. “But you already knew that.”

George didn’t move. Ben nodded.

“Ben. When?”

“This morning. We were read in after you left.”

Lily took a deep breath, trying to calm down, and looked at George. “Is that why you didn’t want me running alone tonight?”

George said nothing, just nodded.

Ben pointed to the chair in front of her. “Sit down and let me see to that.”

“No.” She crossed her arms and tilted her chin up.

She didn’t know what she was more furious about: Jackson being in her city, or the two—no, make that three—men in her life not telling her. She understood Derek not reading her in on everything. She’d known from day one that he held his cards close to the vest, as did she. But Ben? George? They should’ve told her the moment Derek read them in. That she hadn’t seen it coming stung.

“Lily, sit down,” Ben said in his don’t-argue-with-me commander’s voice as he grabbed his suture kit.

Lily couldn’t ignore that directive, or the throbbing in her head.

She sat.

“Did anyone think it a crucial piece of information that might or might not help with this case, or better yet, keep me breathing? Did anyone think it wise to inform me that my traitorous ex-partner was in town?” Her voice rose an octave. “You know, the man who tried to kill me a year ago? Anyone?”

She swiveled around in her chair, cast an incredulous look toward George. Why was he being so quiet? He averted his eyes and hung his head.
Serves him right.
He was supposed to be protecting her. Keeping vital information from her was definitely
not
helping that cause.

“Hold still.” Ben dabbed at her forehead with an alcohol-soaked cotton ball. She sucked air between her teeth as he passed the soft ball of torture too close to the open skin.

“Sorry,” Ben whispered before placing the butterfly bandage against her small but nasty cut.

“Why is Jackson here?” Lily asked, looking up. Ben opened his mouth, then shut it. What were they hiding? “Why is he here, and why now?”

Ben pressed his calloused finger against the bandage, securing it against her skin. She winced, then focused on how pissed off she was in an attempt to ignore the pounding in her head. But damn, she needed an aspirin.

“Does it have something to do with the situation at ARME?” Without moving, she threw Derek a searing glare. He was silent. “Is this mission even legit?”

“It’s legit,” Ben said. “I called Director Kennedy myself.”

She pulled back and winced at the sudden movement. Her eyes narrowed. “The director already knows about this?”

“He knows that Jackson is in Omaha, yes.”

Lily pinned Ben with her gaze. “I’ll ask again. Did no one think it prudent to tell me Jackson was here? It’s my ass on the line. No one else’s.”

Derek crossed his arms.

Yeah, you better be on the defensive, buddy.

“It was a need-to-know basis,” he said.

“It was a need-to—” Lily choked on the words. Hadn’t they gotten past that bureaucratic garbage? Clearly not. A deep ache twisted in her gut. “Don’t give me that shit, Derek.”

Silently, George leaned across the table and tapped the thick manila files spread across its flat surface. Lily followed the staccato movements of his finger. The big red letters screamed at her.
Classified
.

She reached over, ignoring the fire that the subtle movement sent through her head, and grabbed a file, holding it up. “Someone talk. Now.”

Derek cleared his throat. “Jackson contacted ARME about sixteen months ago.”

Her mind rushed to keep up with the information. Sixteen months? She’d been on Derek’s radar for sixteen freakin’ months? She sank back into her chair.

“And that’s our cue.” Ben gathered his first-aid kit. George rose. “We’ve already been briefed. Time for these old men to turn in.”

George walked over and, careful to not touch her newly dressed cut, pressed his lips to Lily’s forehead. She stiffened. How long had he kept this secret from her? He knelt in front of her, forcing her to look at him.

“Don’t be mad. I would never keep something from you if it meant putting your life at stake. I’d die before I let anyone hurt you. You know that.”

Lily stared into the safe, warm face she’d seen day in, day out for the last year, and her entire body relaxed. She knew he’d never purposely keep anything from her or hurt her. She glanced over at Ben and forced a tight smile onto her lips.
Yeah, she knew it.

She cradled her hand to George’s cheek. “I know, G. Sorry for freaking out.”

He stood and pressed his lips to her forehead again. “You’re our priority, Lil. Always have been. Always will be. Don’t forget that.”

Lily nodded. George shook hands with both men and left. She waited until Ben disappeared down the hallway and pulled his door shut tight behind him, before turning to Derek. He threw her a cautious smile. She knew George and Ben had her best interests at heart; they’d had her back since she was a toddler.

But Derek? He’d kept Jackson’s whereabouts from her from the beginning. And she was furious about it—rightfully so. And no doubt the man quietly examining her knew it.

Lily chewed her lip and quietly moved through her limited options. Trust him, or don’t. Her bullshit meter hadn’t pinged once with him. And
that
she could trust.

But now, it was time for the cards to be put on the table.

All of them.

“Start talking.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Wednesday, September 24, 9:20 p.m.

D
EREK
PULLED
OUT
a chair and straddled it.
I need to get this shit off my chest.
He stared at the woman who’d captured him completely, and a sick feeling stirred in the pit of his stomach. She was a trained operative, so keeping vital intel under wraps wasn’t a new concept. But withholding vital intel about her ex-partner—the man who’d betrayed his country and tried to kill her—yeah, that
might
have pushed the boundaries of what was
understandable
.

He scrubbed his hands over his face and took a deep breath. Here’s hoping that Lady Luck was on his side. “Like I was saying, Jackson contacted ARME about sixteen months ago.”

Lily nodded, and then her mouth dropped open as she put the pieces together. “The formula...”

“Exactly. From what we can piece together—and it’s shaky, at best—Jackson spoke with Rowland and pitched a hypothetical to him. Rowland promptly locked him down. But only on face value.”

Lily slowly nodded. “Smart. No way he’d show any interest over the phone. Too many potential ears.”

Derek’s lips curved in silent approval. She was handling this information barrage like a pro, but that didn’t surprise him at all—watching the wheels turn in that pretty little head of hers was always fascinating.

“Rowland keeps his hands clean, as in squeaky clean. That call triggered Langley and alerted us to ARME and Rowland for the first time.”

“Unbelievable.” She sank into a chair and stared at something just above Derek’s head. “What are the chances that all roads could lead back to Jackson?”

Derek heard the raw pain in her voice and felt like an ass, but he continued, eager to lay it all on the table. “I was put on him immediately after that call was logged.”

“You were put on—” Lily frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“He didn’t have the formula and, at that point, had only pitched a hypothetical, so our hands were tied. But he’d made his intentions known. I was ordered to watch until Jackson made his move.”

“Then that means I—”

Realization flashed over Lily’s face, and Derek inwardly cringed.
Shit
. If they could make it past this moment, if Lily didn’t kick him out for not reading her in on the whole case when he’d promised he would, then maybe, just maybe, Lady Luck loved him and he hadn’t completely screwed the pooch with Lily.

He swallowed hard and locked eyes with her, didn’t blink. “You’ve been on my radar for sixteen months, Lily.”

She chewed on her bottom lip, nodding. “So, the running path.”

“I knew you’d be there.”

“Makes sense.” She lapped the kitchen again, then stopped. “Sixteen months, huh. How closely?”

Derek reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. Okay, scratch that.
This
was the proverbial hurdle they had to get over. He sighed. “Close enough.”

“How close, Derek?”

“I was at Arlington,” he said in a soft voice.

Her eyebrows shot up and she slumped into the nearest chair. “The fake funeral? You were there?”

“I was there.”

* * *

S
HE
’
D
KNOWN
THE
DAY
he got the drop on her at the running path that Derek was good. And maybe, if she were honest with herself, she’d known all along that their chance meeting hadn’t happened by chance at all. But damn, she hadn’t imagined he was
this
good. She couldn’t figure out if she was angry again, or in awe of the man calmly staring back at her.

“How’d I do?”

He pursed his lips and nodded. “I was impressed.”

She snorted. “You didn’t even see the half of it.”

“Oh, no, I saw it all.”

He smiled and rubbed the back of his neck again before looking up at her. Was that a tinge of pink on his cheeks? There was never a dull moment with this guy. The spinning in her head kicked up a gear, as did the systematic throbbing against her butterfly stitch.

“I stayed the whole time, Lil. I’d been read in on the incident. All the intel pointed to Jackson showing up—we didn’t think he’d be able to stay away.” Derek shrugged and grimaced. “We were wrong.”

“Clearly.” Suddenly feeling like a trapped rabbit, she got up and paced the kitchen. She lapped it three times before finally stopping again. She pressed her fingers into the corners of her eyes and took a deep breath. “You can’t use your profiling voodoo on him, Derek. He’s smart and vicious.”

“So am I.”

Her eyes flipped to his face. Saw the strength, the dominance flash in his eyes, and her whole body hummed—and it wasn’t coming from the small cut on her head.

Derek was every bit as alpha as Jackson, and then some. It was no wonder she’d been drawn to Derek from the second she’d laid eyes on him. He was dynamic, and sexy as hell.

“And it’s not voodoo. It’s science,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Lily couldn’t help but smile. “Let’s just agree to disagree on that one.”

“Fair enough.”

The whole conversation was beyond bizarre. In the past two hours, she’d come face-to-face with her ex-fiancé...and learned that Derek had known not only that Jackson was alive this whole time, but also exactly where he was.

She was irritated that Derek had withheld so much vital information from her, but she was also begrudgingly impressed. Aside from Jackson, she’d never met another operative who matched her in wit, intelligence and spunk. When most backed down, Derek went toe-to-toe with her.

She loved it.

He reached for his beer and took a long swig. “As I was saying, when we knew he wouldn’t show, my team left. I couldn’t.”

Her gaze snapped to his face. “Couldn’t?”

“I couldn’t tear my eyes away from you, Lil.”

Vivid memories of their kitchen escapade flashed in her mind. Yeah, she definitely shouldn’t have stopped that kiss. She resisted the urge to lick her lips.

“You intrigued me.
I
knew he wasn’t dead. And I knew that
you
knew he wasn’t dead. You were remarkable.” He flashed Lily a smile, the dimple in his cheek deepening. “If I hadn’t known the play myself, I would have thought it was real when you threw yourself on that coffin.”

“It was real,” she said in a soft voice. “It wasn’t theatrics.”

The pain of that moment crashed into her. Jackson had shattered her that day. For better or for worse, she’d walked away from his bogus grave a different woman. No longer the young, naive agent who believed justice always won out.

In the real world, bastards like Jackson got away with murder, the good guys didn’t win and innocence was stolen. Lily swallowed the memories and shrugged. “I was cussing him out and crying over my broken heart.”

“Makes sense,” Derek said, nodding. “He was your partner.”

“He wasn’t just my partner, Derek.” Lily paused for a moment, confused, and stared at the man she was beginning to fall for.
He didn’t know. Holy shit. How could he not know?

She took a deep breath. “Jackson was my fiancé.”

* * *

D
EREK
WENT
RIGID
.
Jackson was her
fiancé
? Derek hadn’t thought this case could get any more complicated. He’d been wrong.

“Oh, God.” Her hazel eyes widened, and she clamped her hand over her mouth. “You really didn’t know?”

No, he hadn’t known. What a nightmare. Derek’s mind went into overdrive. If Jackson had been her fiancé, maybe he’d set up this whole elaborate scheme to get her away from the case, from Rowland—that’s what Derek would have done, maybe. He grit his teeth.
No.
The director suspected Jackson had gone dark, sent Derek to keep an eye on him, to monitor his movement within ARME.

“No, I didn’t,” Derek said slowly. “Jackson being your fiancé was something Kennedy failed to mention...that is, if he even knew.” Derek glanced up. “Did he?”

“Ex-fiancé,” she corrected, eyes still wide. “And yes, Kennedy knew.”

“Of course he did. Fantastic.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about.” Derek’s mind reeled from the bomb she’d just dropped on him. He didn’t want to focus on Jackson any more than he had to, but Derek was beginning to really hate the bastard.

Lily sighed and picked at the staple holding the classified file together. “That assignment broke me. Jackson broke me. Not only did he betray me, he betrayed our country. I think
that
shattered me more than the personal betrayal. I’ve seen enough shit in the world to know that humans can be evil. But my idealistic logic that the good guys always win was blown to kingdom come.”

“Lil—”

“No, Derek, the good guys don’t always win. We both know it. If Ben hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have been able to walk away that day.” Lily paused. “I’m sure you saw him cart me off.”

Yeah, he’d seen, all right. When she’d collapsed over the closed coffin, it took every ounce of willpower he’d had not to blow his cover, to make sure she was okay. Even then, she’d left him mesmerized, wanting more. But it wasn’t his place then, so he’d stayed rooted.

Derek pressed his lips together and nodded.

“That wasn’t to add to the dramatic effect.” Lily flicked the staple across the table. “Jackson’s betrayal devastated me. I couldn’t even put one foot in front of the other.”

She attacked the next staple with a vengeance. “To add insult to injury, I let the sting of his betrayal, and the bureaucratic bullshit that followed, force my hand into giving up the very thing that I loved most—my job.”

Pushing back from the table, she went to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water.

His mind raced. Jackson was her fiancé? Ex-fiancé, he reminded himself, and still a traitor.

“You know, I’ve prayed for a second chance to get back into the game every day since. For someone to toss me a lifeline and rescue me from the pit I’d pitched myself into. I hated that I’d walked, but I didn’t know how to rectify it.” She leaned against the counter and locked eyes with Derek. “Then you came along.”

Derek lost himself in the endless depths of her exotic eyes. The warm sensation returned, stronger this time. And judging by the way Lily quickly looked away, her face coloring, she felt it, too. He couldn’t help but smile.

Yes, definitely
ex
-fiancé.

Derek cleared his throat. “I didn’t rescue you. From where I’m sitting, you rescued yourself. An opportunity came along and, instead of tucking tail and running, you seized it. No matter how bizarre or unclear the case, you’re the one who stepped in. No one else. I don’t see a broken woman. I see a woman I’d gladly have on my six any time, anywhere, any day.”

She studied him quietly—oh, to get inside that pretty little head of hers—and then walked across the kitchen, parking on the table just inches in front of Derek. It was a bold gesture, and it invaded his personal space, but apparently she didn’t care.

“Full disclosure, Derek.”

“Come on, Lil.” He shook his head and he sagged back in his chair. “You know I can’t promise that.”

“Yes, you can.” Lily put her hands on either side of his chair and leaned forward, the edge of her tank falling open. An urge to close the gap between them and press his lips to hers hit him. Hard. They were warm and inviting, and oh so close. But judging by the glint in Lily’s eyes, she wanted answers right now, not sex.

She straightened. “Full disclosure, Derek. Nothing less. You owe me that much. I’m not backing down.”

“Yes, I can see that.” Damn, this woman was like a dog with a bone right now. There was no way he’d be able to redirect her focus, not this time. “Fine. Full disclosure. I’ll read you in on everything I have. But are you sure you want to do this?”

She nodded.

He reached around her, grabbed a thick file and held it up. “Can you honestly handle what’s in this file? Because you’re going to need to compartmentalize whatever emotions it conjures up—and I guarantee you, it will evoke some.”

She took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. “Yes. Jackson is in my city. He’s connected to ARME, which, by default, means he’s connected to Rowland. We flush Jackson out, unlock and verify the files I found on Rowland today and nail them both.” She smiled, the thrill of the game flashing across her face. “Why not kill two birds with one stone?”

“And the stone being?” Derek looked up at Lily, and his chest tightened. He didn’t like that ferocious, calculated glint in her eyes.

She scooted off the table and threw Derek a wicked smile. “Me.”

“Yeah, I was afraid you were going to say that.”