Hadley felt her cheeks heat up and shot a quick glance at Colt, who was definitely ignoring her as he opened the refrigerator, probably to avoid her gaze.
“What I do with my personal life is my business. Not Brooks’s, not yours, not anyone’s. And you better not have Gage run his information or hack his life or…whatever it is you guys do.” She knew her brother and the rest of the people who worked for Redemption Harbor Consulting engaged in some gray-area behaviors, and she wasn’t quite sure what their consulting consisted of other than “security issues” but she was pretty sure they broke the law. Probably more than she wanted to think about.
Skye snorted and took a big bite of her sandwich.
To quote Mary Grace, oh, sweet baby pandas. Because Mary Grace had been right. Skye was going to drive her insane at times. Hadley figured that was something she’d have to learn to deal with. She took another steadying breath. “I’m dead serious. You’re not going to do anything about him. I’ll sleep with whoever I want to.”
Skye set her sandwich down as she swallowed. “So you’re sleeping with him?”
Damn it. “No. But even if I was, it wouldn’t matter. I haven’t dated in forever and haven’t had fun in a long time so don’t mess with me. Whatever I do with him is my business.” She knew she definitely didn’t scare Skye whatsoever so she was surprised when the woman nodded.
“I will respect your privacy as much as I can.”
Definitely not the answer Hadley had wanted, but it would have to do. Later she was going to have a serious talk with Brooks and ask him to never, ever task Skye with watching out for her in the future. “So what are you guys really doing out here?”
“We told you,” Colt said. “By the way, have you eaten yet? Since Skye made only herself a sandwich I can whip something up for the two of us.”
Skye’s eyes widened. “You said you weren’t hungry!”
Colt just gave his wife a look that Hadley couldn’t decipher before turning back to her.
Laughing lightly, Hadley shook her head. “I’m fine, but thank you.”
“Are you going to stick around here for a while?” Skye asked.
Since she wasn’t going to tell them about the strange conversation she’d had with Axel, she simply nodded. “Yeah, with school out, I plan on doing absolutely nothing for a week.” She also planned to hang out with Axel as much as possible but she wasn’t going to bring him up again.
“Great. Are you okay with us being out here tonight?” Skye asked, her expression suspiciously neutral.
Which made Hadley think she was up to something. “Of course.” But if Axel called and wanted to do something, she was so gone. She really wanted to finish what they’d started at his place. Today at the ranch he’d been surprisingly hands-off. He’d been affectionate but he hadn’t pushed for anything more. While she appreciated that, she wanted more.
And she couldn’t help but wonder if he did. She just hoped that whatever it was he wanted to talk to her about, the reason he’d wanted her to sit tight, was a good thing.
Chapter 8
—Live, laugh, love. If that doesn’t work, load, aim, fire.—
Axel hated leaving Hadley, but he knew one thing for sure: she would be safe on the ranch. He didn’t recognize the woman, Skye, but he knew who the man was even if Colt Stuart hadn’t recognized him. They’d worked parallel on an operation years ago when Axel had been with the FBI, and Colt with the CIA. And they’d only ever crossed paths once during that op—in a conference room where they hadn’t spoken to each other at all. Axel had been sporting a beard then too. Still, there was a chance Colt would remember him eventually. He’d heard through the grapevine that Colt had left the Agency a while ago.
Right about now he wondered what the hell Colt and his wife had been doing at the ranch and how they had ties to Brooks. Clearly they were friends with Hadley so he felt better knowing Colt would be there.
Damn it, he should have dug deeper into what Brooks was into now. He’d been too focused on Hadley and any potential threats. As soon as he could, he’d do his own damn research on the man instead of having his tech guy do a run.
Getting off the ranch was easy enough, though it took everything inside him to leave Hadley. At least she’d promised to stay put. Which gave him time to take care of what he needed to—hunting down one of the men who’d been sent after her. Then he would tell her the truth. He had to. Otherwise he was keeping her in danger and he simply couldn’t do that. Especially since the third man hired to kidnap her should be getting into the country tomorrow—according to his contact.
She would definitely kick him out of her life after, but that was something he was willing to deal with. Because keeping her safe and alive was more important than anything else.
He was still stunned at what she’d done last night, how she’d taken over and stroked him to orgasm. And he was fairly certain she’d stunned herself. It had been hot as fuck and he wanted more of it. More of her. He wanted to taste all of her.
When his phone buzzed again, he quickly scanned through the last round of texts to see if he’d missed anything and slid his earpiece in.
Isaac answered on the first ring. “About time.”
Axel wasn’t going to apologize because he paid the man. “What’ve you got?” Because Isaac’s last text said he had something good.
“Martin Johnson. Your second hitter. Found him through a facial recognition scan. Got a hit from the DMV. Eighty-three percent accuracy.”
Yeah, that worked for Axel. He knew Johnson’s reputation. He wasn’t the best, but he also didn’t suck at his job either.
“I tracked him using the license plate of the car he rented. It’s not under his real name. But I did a search on the name he used to rent the car and found the same person rented a house on the outskirts of Redemption Harbor. He was headed in that direction last time I caught him on a camera, but he might not have ended up there. Or even if he did, he could have left since then. I’m not sure where he is but now you have his address and I’ll send you the alias he’s using and everything else I found.”
“Good work.”
“Why are you going to all this trouble to hunt these guys down?”
Brooks was surprised by the man’s curiosity and he certainly wasn’t going to tell Isaac the truth. They worked together, but they weren’t friends. “It has to do with another job. Someone wants to keep their target safe. And they pay better.”
“Figured as much. I’ll let you know whatever else I find.”
“Thanks.” It didn’t take him long to reach the rental house. It was on the outskirts of town, just like Isaac said. A quiet area with houses located along a riverbank. Each house he passed looked older, probably built in the seventies, but they were all kept up with neat lawns and a menagerie of garden gnomes. And each place had an actual yard with a lot of space.
Scanning the neighbors’ houses on either side of his target’s house, he gauged that at least one person was home, given the Ford F150 out front as he pulled into the driveway of Johnson’s rental. Shouldn’t be a problem, but he’d need to ditch this vehicle once he was done here, just to be safe.
Ball cap and sunglasses on, he stepped outside and leaned against the driver’s side door as he dialed a number he had on file for Johnson. The guy had rented the place for a month, giving himself plenty of padding if the job took longer than normal. According to the info Isaac had sent him, the house was owned by a couple who’d retired in Florida. Now they rented it out using a home rental site. And Johnson had declined the house cleaning service according to the contract, so at least Axel wouldn’t have to worry about some cleaning crew showing up unexpectedly.
Johnson answered on the second ring. “Yeah?”
“It’s O’Sullivan.” Johnson knew Axel’s real name, just as he knew Johnson’s. That wasn’t always the case in this industry, but there were a handful of men and women whose real identities he was aware of.
A pause. “What the fuck do you want?”