Chapter
ONE
FIVE MONTHS LATER
Well now, it would appear he owed his brother a sizeable payout on the bet they had, Falcon thought in disgust.
How the hell had she managed to fool him so easily?
The last time he’d seen Summer Bartlett, aka Summer Calhoun, she’d been lying sobbing in a bed in her brother’s home in DC, long black strands of hair lying around her, her hair a neat little cap of jagged cuts no more than two or three inches long. All those long soft curls had been gone and he’d felt like a part of his heart had been cut from his chest.
He’d stomped out of the bedroom after warning her to get ready for an upcoming mission, so pissed that she’d cut her hair that he could barely stand to breathe, and it had been a damned ruse, nothing more. A trick. A carefully staged gimmick guaranteed to make him mad enough to stay away from her, for a while at least, when she slipped away again.
A month later there she stood on the balcony of a beach house she’d been staying in, nearly waist-length waves of raven black hair blowing in the ocean breeze, her slender, petite body clad only in a short nightie, allowing that breeze to caress tanned flesh as she tipped her head back in sensual enjoyment.
And she had him so damned hard it was all he could do to breathe.
“I warned you,” his brother, Raeg snorted behind him. “Summer wouldn’t cut her hair. She gets off far too easily on having you brush and braid it for her.”
He slid a look to his brother, his jaw tightening at the scathing tone of voice. There were moments he wondered what had made him believe Raeg would be the best partner for this job. Perhaps he’d made a mistake in giving his brother first choice in accompanying him to inform Summer of the coming danger and protecting her from it. There had been other options. Options that would not have been so critical of the agent Summer had been, or the woman she was.
Was he wrong, he wondered, to believe Raeg’s manner toward her held more than it appeared to on the surface? That the sensual enjoyment it seemed Raeg had found in Summer in DC was only in his own imagination?
Hell if he knew anymore.
“I didn’t ask your opinion on her reasons why, they are obvious,” he assured his half brother. “Searching for a woman with short black hair, made finding her more problematic if I continued searching for her. She would have known this.”
“The point is, she ran, Falcon,” Raeg pointed out, quite confident he knew Summer well enough to understand motivations that Falcon doubted even Summer understood. “If she gave a damn either way about how her abrupt absence affected you or anyone else, then she would have stuck around long enough to explain it.”
Yes, she had run. Just as he had known at the time that she would do.
Evidently, Summer was serious about getting out of the covert and security work she’d been a part of for so long. Just as she was serious about refusing to return to the political social center that was DC.
But Raeg was wrong, she had attempted several times to tell him she wanted out, and Falcon had been so loath to lose her that he’d talked her into staying instead. That was a mistake he should have never allowed himself to make. A mistake he would not make again.
I’m so tired, Falcon, the note she had left at the house in DC stated. Tired of being shot at, tired of shooting at others, and tired of learning that friends were enemies and tried and true enemies could be friends.
Belle was being retired forever.
And could he truly blame her? In the space of only a few years, she had lost so much. The woman who had helped shape her as an agent and as a person had died unexpectedly, and she’d been forced to kill someone she had believed was a friend for most of her life.
To save him.
She had taken that life to save him, because he hadn’t believed the woman would actually attempt to pull the trigger.
“I would be dead were it not for her,” he reminded his brother softly. “She pulled the trigger when I could not, Raeg.”
He’d kept his weapon holstered rather than pulling it and being prepared for what may happen.
Raeg said nothing. Instead, he lifted the water bottle to his lips and sipped as they stared at the vision still standing on the balcony, the sun’s rays caressing her from head to toe, loving the breeze even as it loved her.
“I didn’t say she didn’t have her good points,” Raeg finally stated with no small amount of ire. “I said she fooled you. You let her fool you.”
Falcon pushed his fingers through his hair wearily, glancing at his brother and wondering if he could ever convince him that the reasons he fought so hard to find fault with Summer wasn’t because she had the faults he wanted to see. Summer made Raeg see what he refused to acknowledge in himself. A man who hungered for a woman so much that he could not refuse who he was, what he was, if he was to have her. A man who knew that, even though he would have to walk away from her in the end, having her would be worth the agony of releasing her later.
If they could release her, Falcon thought, something he rarely allowed himself to consider because he knew too they’d have no choice but to let her go far too soon.
When Summer finally turned and reentered the house, Falcon hid his disappointment and continued to watch the area. Tonight, they’d sneak into the house and he’d have to tell her why he had chased her so relentlessly over the past month. She was running out of time and had no idea of the danger building with each day that she stayed out of sight. If he didn’t tell her quickly, the consequences could prove disastrous.
“We will go in tonight,” he told Raeg, hating the fact that what he would tell her would shatter any security she may have found in the past six months since leaving DC.
She was serious about getting out, he could see that now. He even accepted it, and after the past month of considering all the reasons why she would want out, he couldn’t blame her.
She was a hell of an agent, but she was also a woman, and women did not see the world in the same terms, with the same logical choices that men saw it in. For a woman, friendships meant far more than they meant for a man in some ways. The rules were different in their hearts and taking the life of one she considered a friend would have altered everything she felt about the life she was living.
“You’re not being logical about her, Falcon,” Raeg advised. But Falcon heard the regret his brother tried to hide in his voice. “You know what you’re risking. What both of us are risking.”
The bleak lessons of the past couldn’t be forgotten.
“Should I just allow Dragovich to kill her then?” Falcon turned to his brother, watching him curiously. “He nearly did in Russia. That was my fault because I all but begged her to take the job. Because of that, she was betrayed by Gia, her identity sold to the bastard and now he intends to finish the job.” He couldn’t even consider not protecting her, watching over her, after the many times she’d saved his life. But he understood Raeg’s concern as well. “Why do you not go back to DC? I’ll inform her of the problem and call Lucien Connor to come out and help me with this. She knows him, she works well with him.”
Oh, he just bet she did, Raeg thought furiously, forcing back his anger at his brother’s offer. She might get along fine with Lucien Conner, and that was all well and good, except for the fact that Lucien wanted nothing more than to get Summer into his bed.
“Why don’t you just stop with the demands that I return to DC,” Raeg snorted, “and stop making excuses for her.”
“When you stop making excuses for yourself,” Falcon stated with such disgust that Raeg could feel his frustration level rising. “For pity’s sake, Raeg, protecting her from this will not endanger her from our enemy. Keeping her, loving her would. This will not.”
Raeg couldn’t convince himself of that, no matter how often he tried. He knew far better than Falcon the cost of forgetting the legacy that haunted them. He’d known a taste of that hell once already. He didn’t want to revisit it. Especially not for a woman who affected him more than any other woman ever had.
And maybe that was part of it. She made him ache like nothing or no one ever had. She tugged at a part of him he hadn’t known existed and made him admit to things he had never known he wanted, and all the while she’d bat those perfect, heavy black lashes of hers, smile with such feminine charm as those oddly colored violet eyes gleamed with seductive promise, right before informing him of what a prick she considered him. She could tear a strip off his hide in a voice so perfectly beautiful it made his dick harder than hell despite the insults she’d heap on him.
The fact that she was usually right, didn’t count as far as he was concerned. He’d say he was a prick because she couldn’t decide if she was a black-hearted agent or a sweet Cinderella wannabe, and he couldn’t decide if he should make up her mind for her. The truth was, being a prick was the only way to keep her at arm’s length.
“You still refuse to even discuss this,” Falcon accused him, his voice low, his gaze still on the beach house. “Do you believe you’ll be able to live in the same house with her and not eventually give into your needs? To what we both need? That, or you will make her hate you?”
Raeg didn’t even deign to answer that question. He wouldn’t touch it until he simply had no other choice and he damned sure wasn’t going to listen to his brother lecture him on it.
“I think we should go in now.” Placing his empty water bottle on the console of the vehicle they were sitting in, he narrowed his eyes on the house again. “She’ll run again before nightfall.”
“And you know this how?” Falcon bit out, frustration edging at his voice.
“She was on the balcony, full view for all the world, playing the lazy socialite,” he pointed out. “We’ve been watching this damned place for two days, and you couldn’t even tell anyone was there. It was a distraction. Any reasonable attempt to get to her would come after dark and she knows it. She intends to be long gone before that could happen, laughing her ass off because she fooled us again.”
He knew her better than Falcon gave him credit.
His brother was silent, thoughtful. The explanation had at least gotten his brother off his back though, Raeg thought in relief. He didn’t want to think about what he was going to do once they told her what was coming, who was coming. And he didn’t want to consider the consequences of the only plan they’d been able to come up with to ensure she didn’t end up dead.
Summer was a hell of an agent and he fully admitted that, but she wasn’t Wonder Woman and she wasn’t bullet resistant. And the enemy wanted to make a point, hence the reason a sniper hadn’t been dispatched to just pick her off.
“We should go in now then,” Falcon said softly, anticipation rumbling just below the soft tone of his voice as he started the Suburban and put it in gear. “She runs again, and we may not find her until she is but a corpse. If then.”
That was a probability, Raeg thought, pushing back the arousal and the anticipation he couldn’t help but feel.
It had been five months since he’d seen her. In the past eight years, five months had never passed that he hadn’t seen her, argued with her, touched her, even if it was in the most impersonal way. She always seemed to bring the sunshine with her, he thought wearily. What was it Falcon called her sometimes? Summer-shine. That was what it was like, feeling the warmth of that season when she was around, whether she was charming them to distraction or driving Raeg insane with the sugary little jabs.
And Summer was like a drug. Didn’t matter if it was the argument or merely seeing her now, her physical presence lit up a room with her smile and her bright violet eyes. It was still a fix, and he hadn’t had his in far too long.
“Fuck this up, Raeg, and you and I will have words.” Falcon surprised him, not just with the warning, but also with the fact that he was dead serious. “Do not antagonize her to the point that she refuses to allow us to watch her back.”
Raeg stared at his brother thoughtfully. In all the years they’d argued over Summer, Falcon had never given him an ultimatum before.
“We’re always having words where Summer’s concerned,” he finally pointed out, knowing even as he said it, it was a mistake. “What would make this time any different?”
“This time, I doubt I would forgive you. Especially if she’s hurt because of it.” Falcon flicked him a determined look as they turned into the drive leading to the beach house. “And I will definitely not forgive you should anything happen to her because of your animosity toward her.”
And that, Raeg knew, Falcon wouldn’t threaten lightly.
The fact that Raeg was going to eventually lose the woman was a definite, but he never considered losing his brother as well.
Dammit.
Now things were just going to get complicated.
“And if something happens to her because we are trying to protect her?” he asked his brother. “What will we do then?”
Falcon shook his head. “As far as we know, the past is dead.”
“The past never really dies, Falcon,” he sighed heavily. “Only its victims. Let’s try to keep that in mind until we at least have Dragovich taken care of.”
Then, maybe, he could ensure Falcon at least stayed with her, if that was what he decided to do. Raeg couldn’t discount the possibility. If he simply played the third, hid his own ever deepening hunger, his own need for more, maybe, he could protect his brother and the woman both of them ached so desperately for.
* * *
Dammit.
Now how had Falcon managed to find her?
Summer stepped into the private beach house before throwing a glare back at the white curtains billowing in the breeze and blowing through the open French doors.
He should have never found her so quickly. Hell, he shouldn’t have even been looking for her after the last run-in she’d had with him.
Evidently Esteban de la Cortez Falcone, or “Falcon” as most who knew him, called him, was far more stubborn than she’d believed him to be.
But five months?
Really?
After four months he should have given up. Especially after believing she’d committed the unpardonable sin of chopping off all her hair to only a few inches in length. He’d always sworn he’d never forgive her for that.
Not that she would ever dare cut more than just the ends of her hair. Her family would just disown her, she was sure, if she did such a thing. Besides, she loved her hair. There wasn’t a chance she’d willingly mutilate it in such a way.
Making Falcon believe she had, then running, would be enough to convince him to just go home and give up. She was certain of it.
She’d obviously forgotten how stubborn he could be. That was her bad. Now, she’d simply have to deal with it. And if she knew Falcon, she might just have enough time to get dressed.
Maybe.
She’d make certain to throw his little system into overdrive and just wear the nightie if she hadn’t glimpsed someone in the vehicle with him. God only knew who he was working with now, and flashing an unknown male wasn’t her favored sport.
At least, not this week.
Thankfully she knew how to be quick as well.
The short, casual white chiffon skirt and matching white cami tank were already laid out, along with strappy, flat thong sandals. She’d intended to pack and leave after she’d had her coffee and a piece of the crumb cake she’d made the night before for the drive home. It was a good thing she’d made a full pan rather than just a few muffin-sized ones.
Brushing her hair, she pulled it over her shoulder and quickly braided it. Maybe while he was arguing with her, Falcon would braid it for her. Her hair hadn’t been properly braided since she left Arlington, come to think of it. She hadn’t had a chance to get to her favorite hairdresser either. But Falcon had always found such pleasure in playing with her hair that she actually found it quite relaxing.
Damn, this was messing with her intended schedule. Her family was expecting her home soon. She was supposed to leave in a matter of hours if she wanted to get there tonight in time to get some sleep before Sunday breakfast.
She’d promised her sister Aunjenue she’d been there tonight as well. Evidently Auna was having problems with some guy and wanted to talk to Summer about it. Auna, love her heart, had far too many admirers.
Finishing the braid and tying it off, Summer checked the mirror quickly. No makeup was required, she didn’t believe. She was going for casual yet relaxed. She looked fine.
Good enough for a former partner and his current partner at least.
The thought of that current partner had her inhaling without regret, but still, a bit of bitter sweetness. She and Falcon had worked very well together. The few times he’d convinced his brother Raeg to join them, Raeg had actually put aside his animosity for her, and they’d functioned so well that when he’d left, she’d found herself missing him.
When Raeg wasn’t being a prick, when he wasn’t trying to make her feel like she wasn’t only helpless, but just shy of an actual IQ quotient, then she’d been fascinated by him. He was quick, as intelligent as Falcon and just as instinctive on a mission. He could look at the operational plan, pick its flaws apart, and by time he and Falcon finished yelling out the strengths and weaknesses of each move, it was flawless.
Senator’s chief of staff indeed. She suspected he did far more for Davis Allen than any chief of staff had ever been wrangled into. She remembered her godfather nearly having a melt-down when Raeg had mentioned resigning the year before and perhaps doing something else. He hadn’t just gotten a handsome pay raise as incentive to stay, but several exceptional perks as well.
And when he and his half brother, Falcon, were together, it was like finally getting a glimpse of the heart and soul of both men. Apart, they simply lacked something that came together whenever they worked side by side.
They were an interesting combination. Unfortunately, she’d only had a chance to work with them together a few times. Once Raeg returned to his duties with the senator, the prick came back in full strength and it was like trying to get along with a rabid wolf.
A roughly handsome, sexy-as-hell, but still entirely rabid wolf.
Smiling at the analogy she left the bedroom and swept through the beach house. The wide hallway, open living room, dining and kitchen areas had seaside views, full-length windows, and a multitude of French doors left open, long white sheers fluttering in the sweet breeze drifting through the house.
She could have actually stayed a few more days before heading to her hometown, just to be certain she wasn’t being followed. There was an odd certainty she might be, but once she’d glimpsed the Suburban Falcon used for long-distance trips, she had a pretty good idea who was shadowing her.
He just wasn’t giving up …
Sweet Jesus.
And here she thought she was one of his favorite little Southern girls.
If that were the case, Falcon wouldn’t be standing in the kitchen as she stepped from the bedroom with the one partner guaranteed to give her a headache. Because if she wasn’t on the mission with them, then she was still public enemy number one.
This wasn’t a mission, which meant Raeg was going to make her completely insane. And no doubt, the second his lips opened …
“And here Falcon blubbered into his beer for hours over the mutilated hair,” Raeg snorted, leaning lazily against the white wood and marble counter, a smirk tilting his lips as his gaze went over her. “I even felt sorry for him.”
From the corner of her eye she watched Falcon shoot his brother a hard glare. A warning. Which wasn’t exactly unheard of between the two of them.
“I see he survived it.” She lifted a brow as she shot Falcon a grin. “None the worse for wear, right?”
Falcon merely snorted. She’d one-upped him, he wouldn’t be angry over it, but she’d never get away with it again.
Damn, there were days she was certain she just might love Falcon far more than she suspected. He hid his powerful, stubborn will with an easy charm that even managed to keep her at ease, and had a habit of charming her out of any anger she might feel far too quickly. Wicked and sensual and filled with teasing warmth, she’d missed him more than she wanted to admit.
But then, she’d missed his exasperating, infuriating brother just the same.
“He was fine after I convinced him there wasn’t a chance in hell you’d cut your crowning glory.” Raeg slid his brother a mocking look. “I’m disappointed he didn’t know better at the time though.”
Mr. Know-It-All, she thought. No wonder Falcon was glaring at him.
“I’m just curious how you knew I wouldn’t cut it,” she muttered, moving for the coffeemaker on the kitchen island. “You must have taken your smart pill that morning.”
Wasn’t she the lucky one that he didn’t take one every morning?
Raeg merely grinned rather than rising to the bait.
What the hell was up with him?
“You disappoint me, Summer,” Falcon told her, shaking his head as he shot her a teasing frown. “Trying to trick me rather than talking to me was not nice.”
She glanced toward the Heavens. God love his heart, talking to him had never gotten her anywhere before. He’d just end up sweet-talking her into wherever he needed her to go at any given time.
“Since when did talking to you work when you didn’t want to hear what I had to say?” she asked him, dumping some coffee beans into the grinder. “I was tired of talking, Falcon.”
She flipped the grinder on.
No one spoke as the scent of freshly ground coffee filled the air. Once it finished, she leveled the finely ground beans into the coffeemaker’s metal basket and turned the machine on.
“You didn’t have to make me think you had cut all your beautiful hair,” Falcon informed her, moving to the cabinets to collect their cups. “I was grieving, Summer. I believe I may have wanted to cry.”
She believed he was full of it.
“He was pathetic,” Raeg agreed in disgust. “Cursing and whining. Then he was waxing poetic. In Spanish even.”
In Spanish?
She slid Falcon an amused look. He rarely used his native language, but when he did, it was worth listening to. Though waxing poetic wasn’t normally his style when he erupted into a full-scale Spanish temper tantrum as she’d seen him do. It was usually some of the most inventive curses she believed she’d probably heard in her life.
Then there were the times he’d use all five languages he knew in one eruption of enraged sentences. She admitted those displays were completely mesmerizing. An education even when he really got into it.
“I’m sending him back to Arlington.” Falcon nodded toward his brother. “In a body bag. Next time I bring him out to play it will be in a muzzle.”
She almost laughed. Yeah, she could really see that one happening. There were many, many times she wished she could put a muzzle on Raeg herself. Sometimes, he actually deserved to be in one.
“I didn’t ask to be included this time,” Raeg seemed to remind him, his expression darkening.
“And I didn’t invite you,” Falcon retorted without any true anger. Yet. “But now that you are here, stop being an asshole and figure out where she’d be hiding that cake. I can smell it.”
She shot him an infuriated look. She simply couldn’t believe him.
Damn him. She had really hoped to get by without him detecting that cake.
“Oh for pity’s sake,” Summer muttered, pulling open the oven door to reveal the aluminum tin filled with the cinnamony fresh crumb cake. “You’re like an old hound dog sniffing out bones.”
Raeg chuckled, though Falcon dived for the pan.
“One day, I will kiss your momma’s cheek,” Falcon promised as he pulled the sweet treat from the oven as though it were gold.
He was just too easy to please sometimes.
“Too bad Summer can’t bake,” Raeg pointed out mockingly. “Or cook. I thought all good Southern mothers taught their daughters to cook before they were ten?”
Summer merely shrugged. Let him say what he wanted, she and her momma knew the truth, and that was all that mattered.
“If she baked this delight, we would marry her,” Falcon swore with almost gleeful pleasure. “Perhaps I can convince her momma to marry us. I think I could do so if I thought she’d bake for us often.”
Summer just dropped her head and stared at the floor, shaking her head. Just when she had managed to convince herself to forget the fact that it was one for all and all for one with those two, one of them just had to remind her.
At the sound of the coffeemaker completing its cycle she poured the coffee into the cups Falcon had placed next to her, aware of Raeg searching the cupboards until he found dessert plates and forks.
Carrying the three cups to the table, she placed one in front of Falcon as he guarded the cake pan—no doubt terrorists worldwide were after her cake—while Raeg set a plate and fork by each cup.
“You think he’s going to share that cake?” Raeg asked as they took their chairs and stared at Falcon expectantly.
Falcon cut the cake though, placed generous portions on each plate, then immediately dug into his with the most sensual sound of pleasure. That little hum of love went straight between her thighs and sent a pulse of aching need through her entire system.
Damn him. Far too charming by far.
“We’re going to have to make this a quick visit,” she told them. Evidently they had no intentions of telling her why they were there.
“And this would be why?” Falcon spared her no more than a quick glance as he forked another bite of cake into his mouth, obviously in no hurry to finish the sweet.
“Because I have to leave. I’d already be packing if I hadn’t spotted the Suburban parked in the carpool area where you thought you were hiding.” She gave them both a chiding look. “Really? Did you think I wouldn’t see you there?”
Evidently, that was exactly what they thought.
“How did you know who it was?” Raeg leaned back in his chair regarding her curiously rather than hatefully as he normally did.
Maybe he was ill this week.
Or maybe he was working an operation with Falcon, which meant her former partner had no intention whatsoever of paying attention when she said she was finished. Not that working with both Raeg and Falcon couldn’t be fun, because it could be.
She simply knew it was time for her to get out. To continue heading out knowing that would be the same as signing her own death warrant.
“Falcon keeps forgetting to have the Suburban painted, and the scuffs on the front are very distinctive. And they show up real good in sunlight,” she answered Raeg.
Falcon was too busy stuffing his face to do more than roll his eyes at the reminder. But since his hair had drifted over his brow, falling to partially obscure one eye, and he looked too damned sexy for words, she wouldn’t hold it against him.
“This cake…” Falcon sighed, tipping his fork toward the few bites left. “I am in love with your momma, Summer. She has stolen my heart. I’m telling you, Raeg and I will marry her. I’m certain we could slip her right past your father and steal her completely away.”
Once again, Raeg simply slid his brother a doubtful look.
Sipping her coffee to hide her smile, she ignored the look Raeg turned on her then. God only knew what he was thinking. It was equal parts suspicion and chiding amusement, and not a look she’d ever received from him. As though he knew far more than she wanted him to know, and had every intention of using it to his advantage. The look actually excited her more than it should have and left her just a tad breathless.
Remaining silent while they finished their cake, Summer sipped her coffee, merely picking at her own portion. She knew Falcon and Raeg had something on their minds, and she was terribly afraid that saying no to both of them would be impossible.
A hunter always knew when it was time to find their hole and learn how to hide, Summer thought painfully. They realized when they couldn’t handle the blood and the death, the lies and the danger any longer. She’d reached that point before the Russian operation, but she’d kept going because she hated walking away from Falcon and Raeg forever. And it would be forever, she’d known. Whatever haunted the two men, she’d never learned, just as she had no idea how to get past it.
“Falcon, you seem to be ignoring the fact that I told you I have to leave,” she finally told him gently when he’d nearly finished his cake.
She didn’t want to argue with him. In the time she’d worked with him, she’d glimpsed a gentleness, a warmth in him that both intrigued her and endeared him to her.
“Summer…” he began.
“Falcon.” She leaned forward, staring back at him imploringly. “I don’t want to have to run from you again, but I just can’t do it anymore. You didn’t want to listen before. You keep hunting me down, and all I want is to find some peace. If I go out again, feeling this way, I’ll die, and we both know it.”
She had to make him understand before he began making his play for her to join them in whatever job they had taken.
“I realized that when I saw the lengths you would go to in escaping me.” Pushing his fingers through his hair, he sat back and regarded her silently for a moment. “I wish I could continue to leave you to find your peace, sweetheart. Raeg and I both do. But that isn’t possible now.”
“You don’t want me going out on a job with you ever again,” she advised him painfully. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise. I’ll end up getting both of us killed.”
“I know this, Summer.”
“They why are you here? With him?” She gestured angrily to Raeg as he sat silently, simply watching her, his eagle-like gaze far too intent. “For God’s sake, Falcon—”
Raeg smacked a picture down on the table.
Staring down at it, Summer felt everything inside her freeze in shock as she recognized the girl.
And she knew. In that moment, Summer knew peace was once again elusive, and hell was waiting instead.
Copyright © 2017 by Lora Leigh
