Marcus
“Hey man, what’s happening with my little sister?” Jett Lawson asked as I opened the door of my condo the next afternoon.
I was surprised, but I probably shouldn’t be. Nothing kept Jett down for very long. “I thought you were having surgery,” I answered, slapping him on the back as he entered with a canvas bag slung over his shoulder.
“They did it yesterday. It was no big deal,” he answered, dropping his bag on the floor. “How do you feel about having a visitor? I wanted to see if I could talk some sense into Dani.”
“You don’t ever need to ask if you can stay with me. You always have an open invitation.” I was glad to see him, but I felt a little bit guilty over the fact that I was lusting after his sister, and it kept getting worse every single day.
He dropped his bag on the floor. “Thanks. So what’s up with Dani?”
I moved into the living room to get us a drink. Jett followed behind me with a slight limp. He was doing okay, but his leg bothered him when he did too much, which was pretty much all the time. My friend had a tenacity that humbled me sometimes. I knew he’d come out of his accident with injuries that not many people could survive, but he kept himself in optimal condition, which had probably saved his life. He was stubborn, but it was a quality that served him well right now.
“There’s a lot happening that you don’t know about,” I warned him as I went to the bar to pour us a drink.
Jett flopped onto the couch. “Good or bad?”
I grimaced. “Both. The good news is that your sister isn’t in love with an asshole. The bad news is that she’s gotten herself into a situation that’s going to be messy.”
I caught him up with the whole situation with Becker, and then answered his questions after I’d handed him a drink and took a seat in the chair next to the sofa.
Jett shook his head. “I love my sister, but sometimes I wish she’d take up something a little less adventurous to do for a living.”
“It’s not just about a story for her anymore, Jett.”
“Shit! I know that,” he replied with frustration. “But I feel so damn helpless to do anything to help her.”
“I’m helping her,” I reassured him. “One sign of danger and I’m pulling her out.”
“And she agreed?” Jett questioned skeptically.
I shrugged. “More or less. Probably less than more, but her ass is gone if Becker so much as looks at her the wrong way.”
“Knowing that he hit her makes me want to kill the bastard,” Jett said irritably.
I knew exactly how he felt. Dani had been through so damn much, and until last night, I’d never seen her really lose it. She was so damn brave, but her courage made me nervous as hell. Maybe she’d become a bit warier after her kidnapping, but her sense of justice and duty was still just as strong as it had always been. “We can’t kill him,” I finally answered unhappily. “We have to find out who else is involved.”
“You have a good system here? I could try to do some checking,” he offered. “I think if we knock out the kingpin, the rest will fall. But it wouldn’t hurt to try to do some digging for information.”
I shot him a knowing look. “You mean some hacking?”
“Hell, no. That would be completely illegal,” he said in feigned protest.
I smirked at him, knowing that Jett had no problem hacking into a system if he needed vital information. He’d done it plenty of times for PRO missions, and he was one of the best at it. “I have everything set up in my office. Feel free to search for information. But before you get started, there’s something I need to tell you.”
Since I’d come clean with Danica, I needed to do the same with Jett. I wanted him to have confidence that I could help his sister, and telling him about my history would probably help. Hell, Jett was like a brother to me, so it would be like telling family. I’d trust him with my life, so I could tell him my secrets, too.
I informed him about my dual careers as briefly as possible.
“Holy shit, man,” Jett said. “So you go all James Bond in foreign countries.”
I shot him a disgusted look and then rolled my eyes. “You of all people have to know that nobody does James Bond. They’re movies. Fictional characters. I’m pretty sure most agents sit behind a desk most of the day and try to dig up computer intel.” I hesitated before adding, “Maybe you should be a special agent instead of me. I think they need your skills more than mine.”
“Don’t downplay what you’re doing, buddy,” Jett said in a serious tone. “It’s dangerous, and it’s pretty damn patriotic to risk your ass to keep our country safe.”
“It’s not a big deal. I have to travel anyway.”
“But you don’t have to spy for intel. That could get you killed. I don’t know a lot of rich guys who’d do the same.”
“You’d do it,” I challenged.
Jett shrugged. “Maybe. We’re both crazy adrenaline junkies. Maybe that’s why we’re such good friends.”
“Just like your sister,” I accused. “She’s just as nuts as we are. Not a good quality for a woman who has already been through hell.”
“She’s always been that way,” Jett commented thoughtfully. “Even when we were kids, she was pretty fearless.”
I could hardly tell Jett that I hated her courage right now. Dani made me half crazy, and I needed to get a grip on my irritation. Jett’s sister was off-limits. I wanted to fuck her worse than I’ve ever wanted any woman. But I also admired her, and the last thing I wanted was friction with my best friend because I was having a fling with his little sister. Dani and I could never have anything more than a brief affair. I wasn’t capable of having a relationship. I never had been. I traveled too much, and I had very little to offer a woman except money.
“I don’t like this,” I admitted. “I don’t like any of it. Becker is a prick. Your sister could find herself tangled up in something she can’t handle.”
“I don’t like it, either,” Jett confessed. “I’d get her away from here now if I could, but you know how stubborn she can be when she has her mind made up to do something. All of us tried to talk her out of her chosen career, especially being a Middle East correspondent. Not a single one of us could make her budge. She loved her job, Marcus. Dani is the type of woman who wanted to expose everything that’s wrong with the world and drag it out into the open.”
“I fucking know that. It’s part of what makes me crazy. She has good intentions, but she puts herself in too much danger.”
“Hey. You sound really concerned. You okay?” Jett asked.
I knew what he meant. I was generally a prick, and pretty free from emotional entanglement. But there was something about Danica that made me want to protect her. I could tell myself it was because of her past experience of being at the mercy of madmen, but to be honest, the compulsion had always been there. It was just getting harder and harder to ignore.
Somehow, in some insane way, we got each other. I understood her, and strangely enough, she seemed to have gotten under my skin. There was some force pushing us together, and I felt almost helpless to stop the stream of unfamiliar feelings that rose up every time I saw her.
But my emotional involvement had to stop. I needed to think like a professional, help her in any way I could, and stop worrying about her so damn much.
“Yeah,” I finally replied. “I’m good.”
“Is something going on between you and Dani?” Jett asked suspiciously.
“Not at all,” I answered smoothly.
Nothing except a certain encounter where I got your sister off in a public bathroom just so I could watch her come.
But I wasn’t about to go there with Jett.
“She’s an amazing woman,” he pushed. “It wouldn’t be that surprising if you were attracted to her. Actually, you two are a lot alike.”
“I’m not attracted to her,” I denied. “I like her and she’s your sister. I want to help her.”
Jett looked like he wanted to say more, but he dropped the subject. “If Becker is as paranoid as Dani says he is, I doubt she’s going to be able to get the documents you need out of his house.”
“I’ve thought about that,” I informed him. “I’m going to get some special equipment from the department.”
“Spy gadgets?” Jett asked jokingly.
“Actually, yeah. Sometimes being an agent comes in handy. They have technology that most people don’t.”
Jett polished off his drink and then stood up. “You know I’m going to want to see them.”
“I know,” I answered elusively.
“I’m going to go try out your system. See what I can find out on Becker.”
“Just don’t do anything illegal on my computers,” I warned, knowing damn well that Jett was so good at what he did that he’d never get caught.
“No promises,” Jett mumbled. “If my sister’s life is at stake, I’ll do what I have to do. I may not have much as far as physical capabilities, but I do have skills.”
“I’m well aware of that,” I told him. I knew that he was one of the best when it came to computer spying, information gathering, and anything else on the web or the dark web.
“Takeout for dinner? Pizza would be good. I’m starving.”
“I don’t generally do pizza. Hell, I’ve never figured out how you eat so much junk food and still manage to stay in shape.” Jett had always been physically strong, and even though he was injured, he was still pretty bulked up.
“I work out,” he said defensively. “And I don’t always do junk food.”
“Only ninety-nine percent of the time,” I said in a sarcastic tone.
He grinned. “Then you admit that I occasionally eat healthy?”
“Hardly ever.”
“Like you should talk,” Jett joked. “Half the time you eat on the run and do protein drinks. We could both use some protein and carbs right now.”
“Fine. I’ll order pizza,” I conceded.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like pizza, burgers, fries, and all of the other things guaranteed to give me early heart failure, but I tried to avoid them, and I worked out as often as possible. I was in my mid-thirties, and I wasn’t getting any younger. With all the traveling and CIA business I had to do, I needed to be able to keep my body in the best shape possible.
“I want it loaded,” he insisted as he walked toward my office.
“As much grease as possible?” I asked.
“You got it,” he answered with a laugh as he disappeared through the door leading to my sophisticated computer system.
My stomach growled, and I realized that I was hungry, too. Usually I’d send George out to find me a healthy meal. Instead, I found myself looking up pizza joints and calling in a very large order.