Chapter 9
—Honesty is better than sugar-coated bullshit.—
Axel reread the text he’d just seen from Hadley. Even though he knew it wasn’t going to change. When he saw the timestamp from a couple hours ago, his stomach tightened. She’d received a call from a vet she knew through her school program who’d asked her if she wanted to shadow a surgery. And she’d said yes. Because of course she would. She had no idea there was a threat against her.
He’d texted her back and hadn’t heard from her in ten minutes. It wasn’t like she owed him any response at all. Regret filled him, eating away at his insides like acid as he cursed his own selfishness. He should have told her. From the tracker he saw on her vehicle, she was close to her home so he was headed in that direction. She had to be okay.
His phone buzzed and when he saw her name, the relief that flooded his system was like a tsunami.
Headed home, surgery went well. Dog made it.
He texted back immediately. Good. I can meet you at your place if you’d like? He’d already been monitoring the cameras and hadn’t seen any movement. That was something at least.
Sounds good. I’m going to pick up Chinese food. Do you want some?
He didn’t want her stopping anywhere. I’ll grab it, just head home.
If you’re sure, I’ll take you up on that. I like orange chicken :-)
Got it. He paused, then added a smiley face emoji which was…out of character.
Fuck. He was telling her as soon as he brought the food over. He’d stop by, give her the food, and just get it all out. Then insist that she head to her brother’s ranch—and he’d follow her to make sure she got there okay. He was sure she wouldn’t balk at leaving her place once he told her someone wanted to kidnap her. But he still dreaded having to actually tell her, especially to her face.
It didn’t take long to get the food and get to her house. In fact, on his monitor he’d seen her arrive only two minutes before he pulled into the driveway.
Some of the tension inside him eased, until Brooks Alexander knocked on the passenger side door. Well, hell.
It took a certain kind of person to surprise him and Brooks definitely had the training. Axel unlocked the doors and remained still, keeping his hands visible as the other man slid into the leather passenger seat.
Brooks’s expression was dark. “Axel O’Sullivan. What the hell are you doing with my sister?”
No way to ease into this. “Someone wants to kidnap her. I’ve taken out two of the men hired. One more is still after her but won’t be arriving until tomorrow per my contact. I’ve been trying to figure out who hired them but no luck so far.”
Brooks blinked once, letting his surprise show for only a second. “How did you come by this information?”
“Do you know what I do for a living now?” He certainly wasn’t going to spell it out for the man but he needed to know what he was working with here.
“Yes.”
Okay then. That was…interesting. Not many people knew. But Brooks was not only trained, he had a lot of money and resources. He cleared his throat. “My pseudo-handler sent me her contract because, well, he didn’t like it. He thought I’d take care of it because…” Because it wasn’t the first time he’d stopped something like this. Axel didn’t say that though. “Anyway, when I looked at her familial relationships, I realized you guys had to be related because of your father.” Even if they did have different last names.
Brooks’s jaw tightened and he seemed to struggle for a long moment with what to say. “You still haven’t answered what you’re doing with her—what you were doing at my house. I know what you do but I also know you wouldn’t hurt a woman. So why didn’t you just come to me with all this instead of involving her?”
Axel turned to look out the driver’s side window at Hadley’s little house. It was adorable, like her. And it was probably the last time he’d see it in person. He turned back to Brooks. “I got to town as soon as I could and planned to warn her in person.”
When he didn’t say any more Brooks raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“And then I met her. I like her. A lot.”
Brooks’s jaw tightened again, and that clichéd statement that if looks could kill? Yeah, Axel would be dead. No doubt about it.
“She’s sweet and kind,” Axel added, as if he even needed to. Anyone who’d ever met her would know that. She was sunshine and rainbows, things he’d never had in his life. Things he knew he didn’t deserve. But apparently he was holding on to the insane hope that just maybe he could have her.
“Yeah, no shit. She’s not for you. Who does she think you are?”
“I didn’t lie about my name but she thinks I work in finance, that I’m in town looking for a new job. How did you find out about me?”
For a long moment Brooks didn’t answer and Axel figured he wasn’t going to. Finally the other man spoke. “You met a couple of my friends at the ranch. They ran your fingerprints—and one of them remembered you from an op after that. It took some digging, but one of my people put the pieces together and figured out what you do.”
The water bottle by the pool. He’d forgotten about it. And he’d wiped down everything else he’d touched. Damn it. That was the kind of stuff that got you killed. He was too distracted right now. Hadley did that to him. Running his fingerprints wasn’t something civilians did so that left a bunch of unanswered questions. Too bad for him he was pretty certain that Brooks wouldn’t answer shit right now. “Was that you at the marina?”
“Why’d you leave the FBI?” A blunt question from Brooks. Apparently he was going to ignore Axel’s other question.
All right, then. He turned away, not willing to tell the other man anything. “It doesn’t matter and the only person I’ll tell is Hadley.”
“You’re not going to tell her anything. You’re going to leave right now and get the hell out of town. And you can send me any information you have on who wants my baby sister kidnapped.” There was a wealth of protectiveness in his words.
Axel approved of Brooks’s attitude. Hadley should be protected. He didn’t want to leave but the other man was right. He wouldn’t actually be leaving town until he knew she was safe, but he would stay away from her. “I set up multiple cameras around the perimeter of her place. I can send you the login so you can monitor her. And I can send you the information on the two dead men. But I…I’m not leaving until I know she’s safe. Unless you’re planning on going to the cops, you can use me to track down who wants her kidnapped. Or to keep her safe. Whatever.”
Brooks snorted at the very idea of getting law enforcement involved. “No cops. So…that was you at the school?”
“Yeah… Why doesn’t your father have her in a better place? Somewhere with more security?” Because their family was loaded. And it pissed Axel off that she wasn’t in some ivory tower with armed guards and a hell of a lot better security than she had.
“Are you kidding? She insists on paying for herself if we go out to lunch. She’s so stubborn.” His expression softened for just a second. Then Brooks’s gaze traveled past him for a fraction of a moment and Axel turned to see Skye walking toward the front door.
There was no way the woman could see past the tinted windows of the truck, not when it was this late, but she still saluted him with her middle finger before rushing up the stairs. “What’s she doing here?”
“When she sent me the information on the man who was hanging around Hadley, I got here as soon as I could. I was your distraction while Skye did recon to see if you’d brought anyone with you. And we’ll take care of things from here. Now send me what you’ve got and get the hell out of town.”
Axel didn’t say anything as Brooks got out of his truck and slammed the door.
Leaning back against the seat, Axel watched the other man step inside Hadley’s house. He should leave, he really should. But first, he grabbed the Chinese food and headed to her front door. Putting it on the front stoop, he turned to leave and the door swung open. Hadley stood there, her expression confused and hurt.
Seeing the hurt on her face…she might as well have slapped him.
“Was our first meeting planned? Or was it accidental?” she blurted. Behind her, Skye and Brooks stood there, clearly pissed.
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “The whole coffee-spilling thing was accidental, but meeting you, yeah, that was definitely planned.” Of course he hadn’t planned to fall for her.
Her eyes were full of accusation as she stared up at him. “Was anything we shared real?”
He blinked at her question. “Yes. Everything we shared was real. I didn’t lie about my name or any of the other stuff I told you. Except…what I do for a living.”
Behind her, Skye cleared her throat. “Just bring the food in and get inside.” She gently took Hadley’s upper arm and tugged her back as Axel stepped inside with the food. He handed it to Brooks, which just seemed to annoy the man even more.
Without taking his eyes off Axel, Brooks set the food down on the small foyer table. Axel had eyes only for Hadley.
“So why are you here, really?” she asked, her arms wrapped around herself. Wearing jeans and a button-down flannel shirt and her hair pulled up in a ponytail with no makeup, this was the college girl he’d seen from the original file on her. This was the innocent-looking woman he’d had to come meet in person because there was no way in hell she should have been targeted for anything.
“My name is Axel O’Sullivan. Like I said, I didn’t lie about that. I used to work for the FBI. Now…” He drew in a breath, steeled himself for her reaction. Because it wasn’t going to be pretty. “I kill people for a living.”