Chapter 15
—I won’t be impressed with technology until I can download snacks.—
Hadley stood next to Axel, making him secure in a way he hadn’t realized he’d needed as they all stood in Brooks’s office. He hadn’t been sure how she’d act this morning in front of the others and he’d been preparing for her rejection.
After what they’d shared last night, he was pretty damn certain he wanted to eventually put a ring on her finger. Not now—it was too soon and she could decide he wasn’t worth the trouble. But if she decided he wasn’t someone she’d regret, then…one day. Probably sooner than later. Which, hell. He had to stop getting ahead of himself. It was damn hard when he had this newfound hope.
So when he’d stepped into the office with Brooks, Colt and Skye, and Gage, an apparent hacker, Axel had been inordinately pleased when she’d walked right up to him and brushed her mouth over his. He’d actually frozen for a moment, unsure how to react. Now she stood next to him, her fingers loosely linked between his, clearly making a statement to everyone in the room.
He might not deserve her, but he certainly wasn’t going to walk away from her. Not ever. Unless she told him to.
“This would be a whole lot easier if we were at the office because I could show you on bigger screens.” Gage sat behind the huge desk, working on his laptop as they all waited for him to pull up whatever he was pulling up. “But we’re going to make do with what we’ve got here. Okay, I dumped the contents of the phone you gave me,” he said, flicking a quick glance at Axel. “There wasn’t much on there. It was definitely a burner phone but I’m still running information on all the phone calls Johnson made. He thought he deleted everything but luckily I’m smarter than a phone. Next, the cameras you set up are good. If I’d set them up myself, I would have picked the same angles.”
Hadley gently squeezed Axel’s fingers and Brooks simply gave him an annoyed look. Oh yeah, it was going to take a hell of a lot to get Brooks to forgive him.
“I’ve been monitoring them and so far nothing seems out of the ordinary,” Gage continued. “Except for this. And it might not even be anything.” He paused for a moment as he fast-forwarded to an image, then pressed play. A four-door sedan with tinted windows drove by at a normal speed once. Then he fast-forwarded to another clip. It was the same vehicle driving by at a slow speed, at a different time of day, given the angle of the shadows.
“I ran the plate on his vehicle and it didn’t come back in the system. Which could mean any number of things but my guess is the plate doesn’t exist.”
“How can it not exist?” Hadley asked.
Gage didn’t look up from the computer as he answered. “More than likely someone welded two license plates together, creating a number that isn’t registered.”
“That’s pretty smart,” Hadley murmured.
Gage shrugged. “Eh. It’s Criminal Behavior 101. Anyway, since I can’t figure out where the plate is from and the car is generic enough that I can’t do much with it, my guess is this might be the guy we’re looking for. Or it could be something completely unrelated, but I don’t believe in coincidence.”
“So what do we do with this information?” Hadley asked.
“That’s where I come in,” Skye said. “I’m going to be the bait and head back to your place, pretend to be you. See if we can pull this guy out of hiding and get him to make a move.”
Next to Axel, Hadley stiffened. “I don’t like the sound of that. I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of me.”
Skye snorted. “The only person getting hurt is the guy who thinks he can kidnap you. Trust me. I’m not going alone anyway. Colt is coming with me. I’m going to wear a disguise, making it look as if I’m you to a casual observer. And I’ll drive your car back to your place. Then inside the garage Colt will get out of the back seat and we’ll set up camp at your place. And Brooks is going to be nearby as backup if we need him.”
Hadley nodded but it was clear she didn’t like the idea of any of this. “What about me? What am I going to do?” she finally asked.
“You’re going to stay here where we know you’re safe. And Axel is going to be your shadow,” Skye said.
Brooks simply gave him another hard stare. But Axel nodded and gave her an encouraging smile. He hadn’t planned to leave her side anyway.
Her cheeks flushed that sexy shade of pink and she squeezed his fingers but didn’t say anything else.
Axel didn’t like staying out of the action because he wanted to be the one to bring this guy down, but he wanted to protect Hadley a whole lot more. And he wanted to be the one by her side. He might not be able to control everything, but he could sure as hell keep her safe. More than anything, she was the priority. “Have you found anything on the person who actually hired these guys?” he asked.
“I’m working on it,” Gage said. “Douglas has already pulled up all of his old and recent business deals to see if there’s someone he might have pissed off. Because this feels personal. Kidnapping his daughter, the daughter he just found out about, with the intention of—” Gage glanced at Hadley then cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’m working hard on that angle and following the money trail of anyone who’s a suspect. But nothing solid as of yet.”
Axel nodded. That would have to be good enough for now. And he agreed with the other man because this did feel personal. “I can do grunt work if you need extra eyes on your files or whatever.” He’d worked for the Feds once so he understood how tedious that kind of work could be.
“All right, thanks. I’ll let you know.”
That would have to do for now.
* * *
“So what do you think of Axel?” Skye asked as she and Colt stepped inside Hadley’s cute little home. The way she’d decorated was homey, with earth tones. It reminded her a little of Darcy’s place. Soft, sweet women that Skye was a little baffled to be friends with.
He moved to the security panel and punched in her code. “She needs a better system. Actually, she needs to move somewhere more secure in general.”
“Yeah, I know. After this I bet she will.” Even if Hadley didn’t like the idea of her dad paying for a place for her, it was only logical that she move somewhere different after this. A condo with a doorman and security. And she needed freaking cameras too. Not this basic security system that a toddler could hack.
Colt set his bag of weapons on the center island. “To answer your other question, he seems okay. His file from the FBI is solid. And even the jobs he did—or the ones we suspect him of doing—I won’t be losing any sleep about the assholes he took out.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of what do you think of recruiting him?” She’d thought that had been clear.
But Skye realized she’d surprised her husband as he paused. “You’re serious?”
“We’ve been taking on more jobs and everyone has family and might not be able to take last-minute jobs. It wouldn’t hurt to have more employees. Since we can’t do actual interviews for the stuff we do, and he clearly works in a gray area already…he’s kind of perfect for the type of person we’re looking for. I’m not saying definitely, because we don’t know enough about him yet, but I see the way he looks at Hadley. He’s not going anywhere.”
Colt nodded at that. “Yeah, he looks at her like Gage looks at his computers.”
She snickered. More like how Gage looked at Nova, their office manager/woman-who-kept-them-all-in-line. Something neither of them would say aloud, not when Gage was currently on their comm line. “It’ll drive Brooks nuts.”
Colt shrugged. “If things work out with those two, he’ll get over it.”
True enough. Now it was time to get to work. “So how do you want to do this?”
He glanced around the small, clean kitchen. “I’ll head upstairs and set up while you stay down here. We can open a few blinds as if they got left open by accident and you can turn the TV on. If you sit at the right angle, it’ll look like Hadley. Whoever is after her only has pictures of her. They won’t know her well enough to know it’s not her.”
Skye patted her wig once. She’d learned the art of disguises when she’d been with the CIA, so slipping into this role had been easy. “Sounds like a plan to me. Should we leave the alarm system on or off?”
He paused for a moment. “Off.”
She nodded once. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.” They didn’t want an alert going out to Hadley’s security company. If someone did break into Hadley’s house, Skye was certain they could neutralize any threat quickly and efficiently, but it was better not to take any chances. Because they didn’t plan on involving law enforcement in anything.
“Did you get all that?” Skye asked into her earpiece.
“Yep,” Gage said. “And not that you guys asked for my opinion, but I agree about Axel. I kinda like the guy.”
Skye grinned at her husband. She had a good sense about these things and Colt was a great judge of character. Since her husband hadn’t said no outright, she figured that he must feel the same way about the man as well.
Before they did anything else, Skye leaned over and pressed her mouth to Colt’s. Hard and fast. “A kiss for good luck.”
Her husband grinned at her as he opened up one of their duffel bags and pulled out a SIG. Her favorite.
Taking the weapon, she tucked it into her holster and kept it hidden. It was showtime.