Red-Hot Santa (6 page)

Only she hadn’t merely gotten laid. She’d slept with Jackson Savage.

She tossed the car keys up into the air and caught them on the way to the nondescript sedan her mother drove, wondering when she might be able to sleep with him again…

JACKSON STEPPED OUTSIDE the front doors of Pegasus Security and blinked against the bright winter sun even as he took out his cell phone. Wasn’t it ironic that on the heels of signing an employment contract with the rival of his brother Jason’s company, his brother would call?

“Hey,” he answered after deciding to accept it. He was due back inside in ten minutes for a meeting on an assignment he’d been given. “What’s up? You still in town?”

“Yeah. I head out tomorrow. You want to have lunch?”

Jackson shot a glance over his shoulder at the squat building that looked like it had once been a warehouse and whose interior told him it hadn’t been all that long ago.

“Sorry, can’t.”

“Why? What’s up?”

Well, so much for sitting on the information for a while. “I just signed up with Pegasus.”

“What? You can’t be fucking serious?”

Jackson grimaced and paced away from the door when someone else came out. “Serious as a wart after a one-night stand.”

The reference made him think of last night.

His brother filled his ear with profanity. “Yeah, well, quit. I don’t like the thought of you working for that half-assed son-of-a-bitch.”

“Yeah, well, you don’t like the thought of me working for another half-assed son-of-a-bitch, either. That’s exactly the reason I’m here.”

“To prove a point?”

“No, to work in the profession of my choice.”

“What’s up with the bar?”

“Last night was the end. Slinging drinks at The Barracks wasn’t exactly where I saw my career going. It was only a stopgap measure until you came to your senses.”

“You could have owned that joint. Turned it into a restaurant—”

“Look, I’m not in the mood to hash all this out with you again…”

The sun glinted off the windshield of an old sedan pulling into a spot some twenty-five feet away. He watched as Max got out.

Holy shit.

He grimaced. “Look, I’ve got to go. Have a nice trip back to Baltimore tomorrow. Tell Jordan I said hey.”

His brother started to argue but Jackson pressed the disconnect button and pocketed the cell, watching as Max walked toward Pegasus. He squinted at her, feeling even more confused. The way she looked now, well, this was the Max he remembered—hair back, face devoid of makeup, loose-fitting khaki and flack jacket the name of the game.

Outside of a couple of obvious differences, she looked like one of the guys.

He swallowed hard, remembering that last night she’d been anything but.

Oh, hell, was he ever in trouble…

He knew the instant she realized it was him standing there. Her face lit up in that way it always did, but his reaction to it was vastly different.

“Hey,” she said, stopping in front of him.

“What are you doing here?”

His words were out before he had a chance to check them.

She laughed. “You told me last night that this place was hiring. Remember?”

Oh, hell, he had, hadn’t he?

He not only remembered passing on the word at the bar when she asked if there were any job openings, but had held no qualms about doing so.

Until now.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Her smile disappeared. He discovered he was fixated on her mouth, remembering something else entirely. Like how mind-blowingly fantastic it had been to kiss it.

“Nothing.”

She gestured toward the door. “You going in?”

“Yeah.”

He motioned for her to precede him in, wondering why in the hell he had never noticed her ass looked so damn good in khaki…

Then he realized he had noticed. He just hadn’t thought he’d ever have a chance to taste it.

Good Lord, what had he gotten himself into?

He caught the door she opened. The bigger question was how in the hell he was going to get himself into it again, and again…

6

MAX HAD NO SOONER walked onto the premises than a confidentiality agreement and employment contract were being thrust at her, and she was being ushered into a room with fifteen others to be briefed on an assignment.

The quickness didn’t allow her the time she craved to digest Jax’s reaction when she approached the building. He’d appeared pleased, giving wings to what seemed like birds in her stomach…then one flew up into her throat when she thought she’d seen disappointment in his eyes. While she hadn’t expected a hug and hot kiss…well, some sign that last night had happened would have been nice.

Something, anything other than disappointment…

Now, she tried to focus her attention on the man at the front of the room. She’d been introduced to Lenny Storehouse and welcomed aboard. Jax stood somewhere behind her, but she forced herself not to look. Truth was, she was afraid of what she might see reflected on his face.

She didn’t have a notepad on her so she paid close attention to what the team leader was saying. Problem was, the forty-something guy with a crew cut didn’t seem to be making much sense.

Was he really suggesting a transport would be taking them all to coastal Africa within a few hours?

Oh, she was confident in her own abilities, and knew she was up for the job—which was briefly outlined as a covert military operation to aid in the recovery of three Navy Seals who had been taken captive, along with the targets they’d been sent in to retrieve (a vacationing retired couple with ties to the first family who had been taken hostage by pirates)—but there was no way Pegasus could know that about her with little more than a scan of her resume. Not a single call had been made, not one fact check performed.

She looked around her. What did that say about the others in the room? Most appeared to be around her age, save for two or three who might be in their thirties. All of them faced forward, looking a little too confident for comfort.

Jax stepped to her other side. “This guy is a whack job.”

She forced herself not to look at him. “I’m afraid evidence is weighing in that direction, yes.”

“Recruit? You have something you want to share with the room?” the drill sergeant wannabe stopped his monologue and asked her.

“Sir, no sir,” she said.

Jax cleared his throat. “Actually, I have a question if we’ve reached that portion of the briefing.”

“We have.”

“Who’ll be leading the team?”

“I will.”

“Shit,” he said under his breath so only Max could hear. “How long have the other recruits been employees of the company?”

Max found everyone in the room looking at them.

“As long as they need to be. Are you questioning my qualifications as team leader, Savage?”

Max looked at her boots. Hell,
she
was. This was a private company, not a branch in the military. In the Marines, she’d not only trained with her fellow soldiers, she knew they were at least as capable, if not more so, than her. She trusted she could count on them as much as they count on her.

She looked around the room. She didn’t even know the names of these people…

“No, sir,” Jackson said. “I’m not. Merely looking to educate myself.”

The two men stared at each other and Max resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the dick-measuring contest.

“Anyone else?” Lenny asked, turning toward the rest of the group.

There were a couple of questions about gear and end game.

“Good, if there isn’t anything else…”

“Life insurance?” Jackson called out.

Brushhead glared at him. “It’s explained in the employment agreement.”

“It’s thirty days before it goes into effect. Which means that if something happens now…well, families see nothing.”

There was some conversational noise in the room, as Max suspected there would be.

Holy hell. Were all of them new recruits?

She met Jackson’s gaze. It was a smart way to uncover the information as well as point out an important caveat.

“Reasonable compensation should match risk factor,” Jackson said to Lenny.

“Second,” a recruit called out.

“Third,” said another.

The room went silent.

Finally, Lenny said, “Fine. Papers on full benefits will be prepared for you to sign before the transport leaves. Dismissed.”

They began filing from the room, Max and Jackson bringing up the rear. Once they were in the hall, he grasped her arm.

“I want you out of here.”

She blinked at him. “What?”

“I have to be here, but you don’t. Go to Jason’s place—Lazarus. You’ll get a job there, no problem.”

“Why aren’t you working there?”

“Question of the day.”

“I’m not following you.”

“It’s a long story. And it doesn’t matter right now. What does, is you need to get out of this place as fast as your boots will carry you.”

She squared her shoulders. “I signed a commitment.”

“That they won’t enforce.”

“What? You don’t think I’m up for the job?”

Lenny came out of the room, paused slightly to glare at Jackson, then continued down the hall.

“No, Max…I don’t think they’re up for the job.”

“Then come with me.”

He didn’t say anything for a long moment.

He was so handsome, she thought, taking in his intense expression. His dark blond hair needed a trim but was combed back neatly, tempting her fingers. His deep blue eyes were clear and heart-stoppingly beautiful, even given the steely determination they now held. His mouth…

She swallowed thickly.

“I can’t,” he said.

Max cleared her throat and looked away, searching for the thread of their conversation she’d apparently dropped.

“Well, I can’t, either.”

She began to turn and he grasped her arm again.

Her heart skidded to a stop at the touch that was everything but intimate.

“What’s with the brotherly concern all of a sudden, Savage?” she asked, purposely using his surname. “I don’t recall you ever trying to push me out of the way before.”

He blinked.

She was glad, because it meant he was considering her words.

“Look,” she continued. “I’ve never backed out of an obligation in my life. And I’m not going to start now. So you might as well get it through your thick head I’m not going anywhere. And if you feel you can’t trust me…”

Her voice caught slightly on the last two words, startling her. Thankfully, he didn’t seem to notice.

“If you feel you can’t trust me, well, then I suggest you stay away from me.”

He searched her face. “Hell, Max, you’re probably the only one here I
do
trust. That is the reason I’d prefer you weren’t here.”

“Yes, well, I am. Get used to it.”

He dropped his hand.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, there are some arrangements I need to make. I’m sure the same applies to you. I’d just as soon be as prepared as possible for this trip.”

He nodded.

“Catch up with you later,” she said.

“Yeah. Later.”

She began to turn when she caught a glint in his eyes.

“What?” she demanded.

His sexy grin provided air under the bird wings in her belly. “Did I say anything?”

She couldn’t help smiling back at him. “Nope. That’s just as well. Because if you tried to stop me again, I would have been forced to coldcock your stubborn ass.”

She turned and stalked down the corridor, his chuckle sending tiny bumps running up and down her arms.

Why did she get the feeling this assignment wasn’t going to resemble anything she’d ever encountered before? Oh, boy…

7

JACKSON ATTEMPTED TO relax against the straight-backed seat positioned against the inside of the transport. While it was reassuring they were being taken to their assignment destination in a military plane, he still didn’t feel all that comfortable with his team members…or the team leader.

After Max left Pegasus’s premises following the meeting earlier in the day, presumably to drive out to her aunt’s and make arrangements to be gone for what was expected to be at least a five-day trip, he’d stayed behind, his intention to insert himself into more of a position of authority. Whether it was due to his solid resume, or the urgency of the operation, or the two combined, he’d easily accomplished his goal.

So going in, he and Lenny Storehouse would be co–team leaders, with Storehouse taking the ultimate lead. Then Jackson had gone about getting to know as much about his team as he could.