Chapter Twenty-Three

“Oh, my hell,” Lacy exclaimed at the final picture Jake had sent. Zack got the same attachments. They were awful. Instantly he was on his cell and forwarding it to some guy named Boss. He wanted everything on Lacy’s phone that Jake had sent earlier, so Lacy handed her phone over without hesitation.

Now that she knew who he was, Zack wasn’t scary at all, more of a teddy bear than the rapist she’d mistaken him for. He was still wicked big, though. Damn. His thighs rippled beneath his pants. Her thighs weren’t nearly as large or as firm as even one of his upper arms.

His head and face was bristled and scruffy, his brows dark but not bushy. Now that she had a chance to look at him while he and Boss growled back and forth at each other, he was growing on her. Not white but not black, his dark tanned skin belied a mixed heritage that made him light bronze and sexy as hell. Or it could’ve been the uniform. The black T-shirt stretched like it wanted off his massive chest, and those brown and green cammies housed some outstanding man-ware, as in bulging calves, thickly muscled thighs, and a nice taut ass. Yeah, she’d looked.

He answered Boss with respect, but not servitude. Whoever this Boss guy was, she got the impression Zack trusted him as much as Jake trusted Zack. Interesting. Could that Boss man be the infamous Alex Stewart that Jake mentioned?

Zack and Boss tossed a lot of military-speak back and forth, too. Words like deck, bulkhead, aft, and the ever-present ‘Aye-aye’ punctuated their conversation regularly, but never ‘sir’. Again, interesting.

By the sound of it, Zack and Boss were discussing an immediate attack on Poindexter’s lair. Better yet, they were both Marines, her favorite kind of guys.

But Lacy couldn’t hold still to save her life. Her heart pounded with the need to get to Jake. She’d texted him while Zack chatted with Boss, but to no avail. Why wasn’t he answering?

When Zack ended the call, he turned his body to face hers in the front seat. “You reach him yet?”

“No. Nothing.”

Without another word, Zack placed another call. “Mother? Need you to track a burner phone for me. Understood, but I can send you the number, all of the calls that were made today, and the serial number. Will that help?” With a big sigh, he hung up. “No way to locate Jake or to know if his phone is still in that building. All she can do is triangulate, but that’s no help. We already know where he is.”

“We just don’t know if he’s alive,” Lacy finished the thought, her eyes fixed to Poindexter’s building. “Your mother works for you?”

Zack rolled his eyes. “Oh hell, no. My mom’s a sweetheart with a bit of an Irish brogue. That Mother” —he nodded toward the cell phone in his hand— “is something else entirely. She’s our lead techie. I’ll introduce you when this is done.”

Lacy looked past him to the building. “It’s my fault. I should’ve been the one to go inside. Poindexter wants me, not Jake.”

Zack’s big hand covered hers on the console where she’d rested it. “And the Jake I know would’ve never allowed you to go in there alone,” he said. “So tell me all you know.”

She spilled every last thing she knew about the videos on Marlee’s thumb drive, the fire at Lamont’s Pool Hall, and the fact that Jake and Jamaal had been beaten up. Zack explained that yes, he had been staking out her place, but only because she’d taken Jamaal home with her, and where Jamaal went, Jake was sure to follow.

“So why did you follow Jake?”

Zack sighed. “He’s my friend. I keep track of him. Sometimes he needs a hot meal and a hand up. It’s the least I can do.”

“So you followed him because you’re his friend?”

He lifted one big shoulder. “Why not. It’s almost Christmas and that’s what friends do. You wouldn’t happen to have that thumb drive on you, would you?” The man had the most gorgeous sexy eyes. The dark fringe of thick lashes around them pulled her into trusting him with her life. After all, Jake trusted him, though probably not because Zack had sexy eyes.

She pulled Marlee’s USB drive out of her jeans pocket and placed it in the palm of his hand. “I didn’t want to leave it in my apartment. You know, in case Rafe decided to torch it while I was gone.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. My boss put a couple men in Anacostia to watch your place,” he said as his hand closed around hers and the USB. “How was Jake the last time you saw him?”

“Good,” she said, but she thought damned good. His last kiss still burned on her lips. That was all it took to push her over the edge. She sucked in her bottom lip, but tears spilled out of her eyes anyway. “You have to help him, Zack. You’re his friend, and he needs you, and—” Her heart dropped to the floor mat. There were no words big enough that could adequately describe the rugged man she’d fallen in love with.

“Hey, there.” Zack’s warm hand on her shoulder snapped her out of it. Kind of. “I’m sorry if I’m out of line, but you wouldn’t happen to be pregnant, would you?”

“Oh, no. Not me. No way.” That she knew for sure. “No way. We’ve known each other three years, but we’ve only just… I mean there’s no way… I mean…” Lacy snapped her rambling mouth shut. She hadn’t even thought of using protection when she and Jake had sex because, well, it had been a long time since she’d had sex, and yeah, she should have taken precautions, but everything happened so fast and—

She gulped one of her extra noisy gulps. They’d only been together once. How could Zack tell if a woman was preggo this soon? Any fool knew it took once to make a baby, one steamy, incredible time with the man who’d touched her soul with the blink of his gray eyes. She’d been swept off her feet. Carried away. Yeah. All those things. But seriously? Zack could tell?

He had the tenderest glint in his eye. “I’m no expert, but you have the same glow my wife had when she was expecting our last little girl. Just saying. I knew right away with Mei. My mother says it’s the Irish in me.”

Could it be possible? “Maybe,” Lacy admitted, quietly confessing to this handsome man she’d barely met that she and Jake were more than friends, that she might be easy and loose and—

A big old tear dropped out of her eye and splattered onto the back of Zack’s hand. Damn it. She was emotional, and now he knew it, too.

His phone vibrated. “Lennox. Yes, Boss. Understood.” He turned to Lacy and moved his hand to her shoulder. “My boss is inside Poindexter’s with the FBI and SWAT.”

“He’s inside? Already?” she asked, her gaze drawn back to the quiet looking building across the street. “But how? I don’t see anyone. There’s no smoke and I haven’t heard any shooting.” Who was this Boss guy anyway?

“Because they went in the back way. We’ve been working this undercover sting for months, Lacy. You and Jake showed up in the middle of it. That’s why I’m here with you. I had to take you out of the picture, so Alex could go in after Poindexter. Once we have him, we’ll move onto Prentiss.”

“And Jake?” she asked, fearing the worst.

Zack’s dark eyes stabbed her. “Alex said he wasn’t there. Somehow Poindexter, Shunck, Clayton, and Plunkett got away.”

“Jamaal?” she asked.

Zack blew out a big sigh. “Not sure about him, but my boss found your Dr. Anderson and a couple other ladies.”

She didn’t have to ask, Lacy could tell by the stark shadow on Zack’s face. They were all dead, and now Poindexter had Jake and Jamaal. The SUV was suddenly too small. Too crowded. She couldn’t breathe. The last thing she felt was Zack’s rumbling voice swelling around her in the dark. “It’s okay, Lacy. I’ve got you now.”

But it wasn’t okay. Nothing would ever be okay again.

The whole world tipped and Lacy fell out of it.