Red Zone (25 page)

Rebecca glanced at the caller ID but didn’t recognize the number. 

“Agent Carson.” 

“Good morning, sis.”

Rebecca sat up quickly, rousing Gage from his slumber. 

“Megan.”

She laughed. 

“Of course it’s me. Were you expecting a call from someone else?”

“No,” Rebecca said, brushing the hair away from her face and trying to forget about the very naked man beside her who was intently watching her every move. “I was just expecting you to call last night, not this morning,” she said, noticing the sun was already peeking through the curtains. “What time is it anyway?”

“Eight.” Gage’s voice drifted from behind her.

“Is that who I think it is?” Megan asked, excited.

Rebecca looked over her shoulder at Gage. “Um—”

“I knew it! I’m so happy for you, Becca. So was it good?”

She was suddenly awake. “I’m not going to tell you that.”

Megan chuckled.

Rebecca felt warm, so she knew she must have been blushing. 

“Fine, don’t tell me,” Megan said, clearly amused by her sister’s discomfort. “I just wanted to let you know that we made it to Indianapolis safe and sound. You’ll be happy to know that I have my own room next to Chloe’s, and that Paul has been nothing but a gentleman since we arrived.”

Rebecca sighed. “I just worry about you, you know. You’re always going to be my little sister.”

“Becca, I know. And I like being your little sister, really I do, but I think this is going to be good for me.”

“I hope so.”

“Instead of worrying about me, maybe you should concentrate on that gorgeous hunk of man you have in bed with you. I’m sure he could use some attention.” Rebecca could almost see the smirk on her sister’s face.

“I’m not—”

“Bye, bye, sis.”

“Megan?”

Dead air greeted her and she realized Megan had hung up. 

Laying her cell back on the nightstand, Rebecca turned to face Gage. He was smiling. 

“You heard what she said, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Yep.”

“And you agree with her, of course.”

“Of course,” he said, moving to hover over her. 

“Didn’t you get enough last night?”

His mouth grazed over hers with the slightest touch, and her lips began to tingle. “Not even close.” 

It was the last thing she thought about for a while. 

Hansen was supposed to come by with surveillance recordings at ten. It was only his impending arrival that got them out of bed. Gage wanted to share a shower with her, but she refused, insisting they would never make it out in time, and she didn’t want her partner showing up and finding her naked. She had no idea how Hansen would feel about what she was doing. It had to be unethical—she was supposed to be protecting Gage. Did that count since she wasn’t there in an official capacity? She wasn’t sure. 

She hurried through her shower and rushed downstairs, wanting to be there when Hansen walked through the door. Much to her disappointment, however, her partner was already there, sitting with Gage at the kitchen island, drinking a cup of coffee. He nodded, acknowledging her, then went back to his conversation with Gage. They were talking sports, of course. 

Walking over to the coffeepot, she found a mug sitting there on the counter waiting for her. She smiled. Gage must have taken it out of the cabinet and left it for her. 

As she poured her coffee and took a sip, she thought about the man with whom she’d just spent the night. He was such a contradiction. When she’d first met him, she’d wondered if he could take anything seriously. Then she’d seen him play, and her opinion began to change. The more she learned about him, the more she liked him. Not just that he was nice to look at, but that there was more to him than the ladies’ man she’d originally pegged him to be. He was sweet and considerate, fun and sexy, both in and out of the bedroom. 

Figuring she needed to change the direction of her thoughts before she made it glaringly obvious to Hansen just how they’d spent their night, she twisted around to face the men. Unfortunately, she ended up staring straight into Gage’s burning gaze. She flushed and felt that tingle in the pit of her stomach.
How is that possible?
She’d lost count of how many orgasms she’d had in the last twenty-four hours. After the first time, Gage had seemed to make it his mission for her to climax over and over again, until she was begging him to join her. 

“I think we may have gotten lucky,” Hansen said, pulling her from her thoughts. It was a good thing, too. Thinking about the night before wasn’t doing anything to help her current state. 

Gage broke eye contact with her and turned his attention to Hansen. “It’s about time.” His frustration with the situation came through loud and clear. 

Rebecca wasn’t sure how to take that. Of course he wanted to catch whoever was behind this, but that would also mean the end of their association. She wasn’t ready for that quite yet. 

“What did you find?” she asked, pushing that thought from her head. First and foremost, she needed to do her job. That was what was important. Whatever was or wasn’t going on with Gage had to take a backseat.

Hansen opened his laptop, and she moved to stand behind him so she could see. His e-mail was already up on the screen. Clicking on the second one from the top, he opened the file attachment. 

“This one seems to have the best angle. I called and had a friend at the DMV run the license plate on the way over here. It’s a rental. The good news is the company should have a record of who rented the vehicle, and maybe even video.”

“I want to go with you,” Gage said, standing. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Hansen spoke up before she’d been able to form the words. Gage was so eager, so determined. Sadness washed over her. 

“Why not? I don’t have practice today. No one is expecting me to be anywhere. Not to mention this is my life this sicko has been messing with.”

Hansen looked at him calmly, but Rebecca saw a note of sympathy in his expression as well. “If whoever this is sees you tracking their footsteps, they may get scared and run.” Gage opened his mouth to say something, but Hansen cut him off. “I know that might sound like a good thing, but it’s not. Running now doesn’t mean they won’t come back at a later date. Right now, you have Carson and me watching your back. You need to use your advantage.”

Gage looked to her, and she nodded. 

He sat back down, defeated. 

“Fine. Do what you need to do. Let’s just finish this.”

Hansen didn’t stay long after that. He downed the rest of his coffee, backed up his laptop, and said a hasty good-bye. 

For some reason, Gage was irritated. Okay, he knew
why
he was irritated. If not for his stalker, he would have spent the entire morning and probably afternoon in bed with Rebecca. But no, he’d had to get out of his nice, warm, very occupied bed to get dressed, go downstairs to his kitchen, and hear Hansen tell him he had to sit on his hands. The whole situation was grating on his nerves. 

Rebecca touched his arm, startling him. He spun around, and pinned her to the refrigerator. She gasped in shock. 

“Gage?”

His answer was to pick her up, wrapping her legs around his waist. She threw her arms around his neck, meeting his seeking mouth with equal force. 

Her response to his kiss fueled his need to take her again. He didn’t think he’d make it up to his bedroom, though, so he carried her to the nearest usable flat surface. The dining room table. 

He laid her down and immediately began removing clothing. Gage couldn’t remember ever having felt so frantic for a woman before, but as he’d already figured out, everything was different with Rebecca. He needed her naked and him buried deep inside her. 

To his great joy, she appeared to feel the same way. She grabbed blindly at his shirt, pulling it over his head and tossing it to the floor as he divested her of her own shirt. Their pants soon followed, and at that moment, he was extremely grateful to his brothers for drilling into his head the importance of always carrying a condom with him. He sheathed himself in protection and pressed forward, feeling as if he’d found peace and chaos at the same time. 

Their joining was fast and frantic, even more so than their first time. He put all the desperation he felt into every action as he made love to her. He needed her to feel the depth of emotion he did coursing through him, needed that connection with her. 

They both fell over the edge not far apart, her nails leaving painful streaks down his back. He gratefully took everything she gave him, and wanted more. He never wanted to let this woman go. 

Their breathing was ragged. He looked down at her, sweat beading on her forehead, her face relaxed in its post-orgasmic glow, and it hit him like a freight train. He loved her. 

“What?” she asked, touching his face with her hand. 

He kissed her palm. 

“Nothing.” 

He may have realized he loved her, but he wasn’t quite ready for her to know that. There was no telling how she’d react to that kind of declaration. 

“I think we may need another shower.” He ran a single finger across her forehead, down her face and neck. Her body clenched in reaction, which only made his smile wider. 

“I think you may be right,” she said. 

He placed a quick kiss on her lips before stepping back, separating them. Helping her up, he excused himself, disappearing into the half-bathroom off the kitchen. When he returned, Rebecca had put her shirt back on and was holding her jeans. “I thought we were taking a shower.”

She stared at him, eyes wide. 

“What?” he asked. 

Not giving her time to respond, he circled his arms around her waist, twirling her around. He grabbed her ass, pulling her up against his lower half, reminding her of what they’d shared just a few minutes before. 

“I thought maybe we could share the shower this time, since there shouldn’t be any more distractions for a while.” He grazed her neck with his teeth to emphasize his point. She responded by tilting her head back, giving him better access. He was quick to take advantage. 

“Shower?” he asked again.

“Uh-huh.” She nodded, slipping her fingers into his hair. 

Gage didn’t bother picking up their clothes. He left them scattered on his dining room floor, and carried Rebecca back upstairs to his bathroom. No matter what else happened between them, he planned to make their shower a memorable one. 

Chapter 23

Hansen walked into the rental car agency where the vehicle that had been following Carson and Daniels was registered. It was located near the Nashville airport. The moment he’d realized where the address would take him, he’d wondered if it would only be a stop on his journey. In his experience, most rental companies used their airport location as the main hub. They registered all or most of their vehicles out of that location and then shuffled them around as needed. Until he spoke with them, there was no telling from which location the car had actually been rented. 

Being that it was early on a Monday afternoon, there was no one else in the place except him and two employees. One was behind the small desk. The other was over at the coffee machine. They both glanced up when they heard him enter. 

The woman behind the counter smiled. “Hello. Do you have a reservation?” 

“No, I don’t,” he said, showing the woman his badge. “I’m hoping you can help me, though.”

His announcement gained the attention of the man, who joined the woman behind the counter. 

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

Hansen wasted no time getting to the point. He also wasn’t going to get involved in whatever type of power trip the man had in mind. “One of your vehicles might be involved in a case we’re working. I need to know who the vehicle was rented to yesterday.” He handed over to the woman the piece of paper with the license plate number they’d taken from the vehicle. 

The man stood looking over her shoulder as she typed the information into the system. He could tell she was annoyed, but she didn’t say anything.

“Here it is,” she said. “Let me print it out for you.”

She left the desk and walked to the back of the room where a printer was set up on a table against the wall. The man continued to scrutinize the computer screen in her absence. 

“What kind of case?” he asked as the woman returned with the printout and handed the information to Hansen.

“I’m sorry. I can’t reveal information regarding an ongoing investigation.” 

The man’s brow wrinkled. He didn’t like that answer very much. 

Hansen ignored him and scanned the paper. 

Mark Fuller. 

The name didn’t ring any bells. He’d run close to one hundred background checks in the past three weeks, but this guy hadn’t been one of them. It could be an alias. That would mean a fake ID, since rental companies required a driver’s license. Or they could have been going down the wrong direction this entire time and stumbled across their first solid lead. He wouldn’t know until he did some more digging.

“Was the vehicle rented from this site?”

The woman typed something else into the computer.