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They weren’t coming back. They had used her, and in what seemed to be the cruelest way possible. If they had just told her what they wanted, she might have gone along anyway, but she wouldn’t have fallen in love. She would have guarded her heart.
But they had told her they loved her.
A ruthless little lie.
She was alone. Except she wasn’t any more. Her hand went to her belly. She would never be alone again. She would have someone who needed her, whom she couldn’t let down. She’d spent weeks drowning in her own misery with tears, but she couldn’t do that now. She had a baby to think of.
She had a life to build. She turned. She wouldn’t talk to her aunt yet. The gallery owner had made her a very interesting offer. One she’d turned down because it would take her to Scotland, and she had been waiting for them.
No more waiting. They had left. They had lied. They were out there somewhere, and it was a good bet they had moved on with their lives, found another woman or two.
It was time to build her own life—and one for her baby.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Present Day – Dallas, Texas
Jessa finished drying her hair and stared in the mirror. She wasn’t sure she recognized the woman staring back at her. She looked tired and older than she really was. She sniffled. She’d cried in the shower, the pressure just too much to handle. Her whole world had upended in the course of a few short hours, and it was damn hard to handle.
She missed Caleb. His absence was a gaping wound in her chest. It was mid-morning, the time she usually brought her canvas into the living room to catch the soft, pure light that came through her windows. She would hum and talk to Caleb while he played and napped in his blue and white playpen. The hours would fly by as she mixed her colors and brought the pictures in her head to life. But she wouldn’t work today. And her latest series was gone, destroyed by a man she’d met for less than a minute over a year ago. Five large canvases all burned. Two smaller ones, too, meant for a gallery.
She tried to shake it off. She didn’t need the money now. Her bank account was healthy. And she would never have sold the large works. She wouldn’t have put them out there on the off chance that someone would recognize the men she’d painted with bold lines, broad strokes, and vibrant, vivid colors. Her agent had seen them and called them modern and erotic. She’d said she could sell them in a heartbeat for a pretty penny, but Jessa had refused.
Now the point was moot. They were gone, like her pictures and her videos, like all of Caleb’s toys, and the crib she’d had to put together herself.
She wasn’t just tired. She was angry, too. Furious.
Jessa pulled the robe she’d discovered in her small bag around her body. The bathroom, despite the hot water she’d used, was chilly. She’d forgotten to get her clothes, but the robe was large and warm. Not as warm as she’d been when she’d awakened in the middle of the night with Cole’s big arms around her. She’d heard Burke working quietly nearby, his hands tapping at the keys of the computer. She’d felt his eyes settle on them.
And she’d cuddled closer. Despite all the trauma of the night, with Cole enveloping her, she’d felt safe enough to go back to sleep almost instantly. When she’d awakened this morning, Burke’s arms had been wrapped around her.
There was a knock on the door outside, and Jessa nearly jumped out of her skin. She took a deep breath as she heard Cole greet a man he called Kade.
Their friends from Bezakistan. The ones with whom they had wanted her to go into hiding. Jessa opened the door and walked into the cramped room. If she let Burke and Cole, they would completely steamroll her, and she wouldn’t have any say in her own protection. She wasn’t about to let that happen.
Two insanely gorgeous men with dark hair, dark eyes, and golden skin sauntered in, one carrying a duffel bag stuffed full. She stared. They could have walked off the pages of a magazine. Tall and lean, both men were dressed impeccably. One was slightly broader than the other, with a hawk-like air about him. The other man seemed a bit younger than his brother, his solid face handsome. He wore a faint, mischievous smile.
“Hello. You must be Jessa,” the younger man said smoothly, somehow instantly setting her at ease as he crossed the room in two long strides. “I am Kadir al Mussad. It is my greatest pleasure to meet you. ”
Oh, she believed him. He was one of those men who could just make a girl feel like the only woman in the world. He took her hand in both of his, surrounding her. “Hello. ”
He smiled, his lips curling, making his whole face come alive. “You are most beautiful. ”
“Cut that shit out now, Kade. ” Cole yanked her away from Kade.
Damn it. Even as beautiful as this man was, she found herself attracted to two goddamn men who looked exactly alike, one a smooth talker, the other this Neanderthal glaring daggers at his friend.
“She’s not going to Bezakistan with you,” Burke said.
The taller man frowned. “Pity. She would do well there. I could give her between three and five husbands very quickly. In fact, Talib would love her. He has a thing for redheads. She could save our kingdom. We only have another year left, you know. ”
“She’s ours,” Burke said with a little growl.
“Between three and five men?” Jessa gaped. “I can’t handle two. ”
The older brother’s lips curled up, but she wouldn’t exactly call it a smile. Instead, the expression promised all manner of decadent delights. “I think you would be surprised what you could handle if you were properly prepared. Trust me. I know how to prepare a woman. ”
“And I know how to prepare a body for burial,” Cole scowled.
“He really does,” Burke added, his voice deep and dark. “I do, too. ”
The other man ignored them. “I am Prince Rafiq, second in line to the throne of Bezakistan. And because my brother owes Cole his life, I regret that we must forego carrying you off to my country to seduce you. ”
Kade raised a brow. “Seducing her is a tempting thought, but she is the mother of their child. We will honor our debt. ”
“Indeed. ” He turned to Cole and Burke. “Reconsider sending her with us. We will keep her safe and make certain no one touches her. She can disappear into the palace. Our jet is fueled. ”
“I appreciate the offer, but I can’t leave the country,” Jessa explained.
Rafe’s handsome face turned down with what Jessa thought was disapproval. He waved a hand toward her, but spoke to Cole and Burke. “You will allow your precious gem to make such a decision unaided? Why is she not tied up? I have rope if you have need of it. ”
“And a gag,” Kade offered. “It would be terrible to close that pretty mouth, but she looks quite capable of screaming. ”
“I bite, too,” Jessa promised. Yeah, she could see why all these guys got along with the Lennox brothers.
“I am sure Cole has his own rope, and I would be shocked if he hadn’t gagged many a woman over the years,” Rafe offered.
Jessa shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, guys. I can’t leave the country or this man will come after my son. I’ll never have my life back until we deal with this bastard. I won’t leave. Now, I would like to know exactly what’s going on. Are we moving? Have we found out anything about where this Marco person is?”
Burke crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s my girl. And Rafe is right about Cole. He’s damn good with a knot. Now, what have you two found out?”
Kade straightened up, suddenly looking more professional. “First off, Cole called earlier about your phone, Jessa. We have confirmed that no one has turned on the tracking device. You should be safe. Now, about Delgado, we have uncovered a few things. We know that he has a private jet. The FAA shows the Delgado jet filed a flight request late last night for a small town outside Albuquerque. They landed. I don’t know where they went from there, but on a short flight, they wouldn’t have to file another request. But you should know that I also d
iscovered Delgado owns several businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. ”
Jessa’s heart rate tripled. “He’s here? In the same city as my son?”
Cole held a hand out. “Caleb is safe. Gavin is moving the whole family to his penthouse. They own a floor with a private elevator. They can shut the floor off from the rest of the building and lock down the stairwell, if need be. And if we get really worried about Caleb, Gavin promised to take him to Alaska. No one gets in and out of River Run without the whole town knowing it. It’s going to be okay. ”
But Burke was frowning. “We have friends in Albuquerque. A couple of our old SEAL team members live out there. From Delgado’s perspective, it would be a good bet that we’d run there and potentially stash Jessa with them. ”
Rafe’s fingers tapped along one of the briefcases he’d brought in. “Or it’s a ruse. When I hunt, it is good for the prey to believe you are in one place when you’re really in another. All I’m saying is you should be careful. It would be easy for him to drive here from Albuquerque or to change planes. ”
“I covered our tracks,” Burke argued. “I haven’t used a credit card. The car can’t be traced back to us. He could have followed us from D. C. and figured out we flew to Dallas with Gavin James, but after that, he’d have no way of knowing where we are. Dallas is a big city. ”
“Unless he has someone on the payroll at Black Oak,” Cole mused.
“I’ll talk to Gavin about that. ” Burke frowned, but opened one of the briefcases and pulled out a new phone. He held it up to her. “We have about ten of these now. We’ll toss out the ones that came from our office, just in case one of the bastards gets to Hilary. We use one for a day or so, then we toss it. Stay here with Rafe and Kade for the moment. Cole is going to change the plates on the car. I’m going to scout the area. In a couple of hours, we’re going to leave here and head to Louisiana. We have a Cajun friend there, a real security pro, and a damn fine Dom. He has a place in the swamp. We’re going off the grid, sweetheart. ”
“He has a lot of rope, too,” Cole drawled, selecting a new license plate from those Kade had carried in. In fact, the Middle-Eastern hotties had brought a veritable grab bag of items to help hide a person’s identity. After selecting one, Cole stared, his gaze heavy, somber—completely closed. “I know you’re afraid and angry, Jessa. Just let me get you through this. Then you don’t have to see me again. ”
Well, he’d given up pretty easily. So maybe she’d never meant much to him. Hadn’t she wanted them to go away? Yes. So why did those words make her heart hurt?
Jessa swallowed down the anger and forced herself to shrug, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing that he’d bruised her feelings. “Perfect. ”
Burke’s whole face shut down, and his shoulders squared. “Let’s go, brother. We need to leave tonight. Jessa, stay here. And for god’s sake, eat something. I know you don’t want to. Neither did I, but don’t hold us back because you can’t see past your own misery. We’ve already got one member of the team who seems intent on doing that. I don’t need another. ”
Burke slammed out after his brother.
He was right. As terrible as food sounded to her turning stomach, she needed to stay strong so she could get back to her son. Caleb mattered to her. Cole and Burke didn’t. She had to keep telling herself that.
“So you’re Jessa. ” Kade sat down in the chair at the room’s single table. It was a wobbly thing, but Kade made it seem almost elegant.
“I am. ” She wished one of the twins would have stayed. Suddenly, she was brutally aware that she was alone in a motel room with two very virile strangers who shared their women and all she wore was a robe.
“We’ve been listening to those two moan about you for a solid year,” he explained. “Well, Burke moaned. Cole simply brooded more than usual. ”
She picked up the last sandwich. Her stomach turned. “I thought they were in South America for the last year. Not the Middle East. ”
Rafe stared at her. His easy charm seemed to be gone. “We’re not really the Middle East, at least according to our neighbors. They don’t like our…customs. ” He shrugged. “We hardly care. The Lennox brothers have been in South America. Because of the rescue operation they undertook, we talked to them on a regular basis. You seem to be under the impression that those men have been throwing a party. ”
Talk about accusations. At least the idea of a good argument made it seem easier to eat. She swallowed the first bite and reached for a bottled water. “I realize they were working. ”
Kade leaned forward. “They risked their lives every single day. We hired them, so we feel a bit responsible for the situation they find themselves in. After all, they were looking for our cousin. ”