Dangerous Protector (Aegis Group Book 5) (20 page)

Scott gestured toward the SUV. She made it to the passenger seat before he climbed into the driver’s side. She belted in, doing her best to not look up, to not see Marco.

“You sure you don’t want to press charges?” Scott asked.

She glanced up against her better judgment and her gaze snagged on Marco’s. Even at this distance, he seemed to stare into her soul. Deep down, a part of her knew him, but she couldn’t love this version of him. She knew all about having different parts of herself, and they weren’t all loveable. Too bad who she was, couldn’t love who he was.

“I’m sure. Just go.”

“All right.”

She eased back into the seat, feeling every grain of sand, the tacky feel of sweat and sore muscles. Every one of them branding her Marco’s, even though he’d used her.

“You’re doing the right thing,” Scott said.

“Shut up and drive.”

She squeezed her eyes close and breathed.

Men had touched her before, but had one ever gotten under her skin like Marco had? She didn’t think so.

19.

Marco pointed his stolen
car out of Moab and rode the gas hard.

Nothing mattered anymore.

Fiona was gone. He’d fucked it all up. All that was left to do was wrap up his crap and go back to work. If he was lucky, this whole thing would blow over.

Yeah, right. The blowback was going to suck him down in a bad way.

Maybe Ghost needed a partner.

Whatever the man had on Uncle Sam, it kept the authorities off his case.

Speaking of, it was past time to make contact.

Marco pulled out his—no—Fiona’s burner phone.

Fuck.

He swiped his thumb over the screen. He’d grabbed it off the desk. He’d meant to give it to her when they got in the ATV, but she’d left without it. Without him.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

She wasn’t supposed to matter.

But she did.

For the first time in his life, he got those cheesy country songs his sister liked to listen to. The ones about heartbreak, dogs getting ran over in the rain, and your ex leaving you high and dry. Only…it served him right.

Ghost had said Marco would probably regret this, and he hadn’t listened. The consequences hadn’t mattered until they’d had a name.

Fiona.

And she was gone.

“What?”

Marco blinked.

“Marco? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” He cleared his throat.

“How’d it go this morning?”

“To shit. Fiona’s gone.”

“What?”

Marco gave Ghost the bare-bones update.

“She left with him? Just like that?” Ghost asked.

“What did you expect her to do? Say it was no big deal? I fucking betrayed her.”

“I told you it was going to end up this way,” Ghost said.

In that moment, Marco had never wanted to reach through the phone and punch a motherfucker so bad in his life.

“Well, at least when this Scott guy plugs her laptop into their network, we’ll get our hooks into it. One way or another, we’ll get the dirt on NueEnergy, it’s just going to take a bit longer than we planned for.”

“What?”

“I’ve been working on the code, fuckface.”

“Screw you.”

“I did a dude once. Not my thing. No, thanks.”

Marco sputtered. What the…?

Nope. No, he did not want to know or go there. Knowing what he knew about Ghost was already bad enough. He didn’t need more.

“I’m texting you an address. Come try to punch me if you want.”

“I will.”

“You can try. Hey.”

“What?”

“That friend of a friend thing you were asking about?”

“Yeah?”

“That girl disappeared in Delhi, right?”

“I think so.” Honestly that was the last thing on Marco’s mind right now.

“All right. See you in a few hours. Don’t get pulled over.”

Marco hung up and chunked the phone across the car. The back popped off and the battery fell out.

“Shit,” he muttered under his breath.

He shoved a hand through his hair and shifted in the seat. There was nothing comfortable about the little bucket seats or the way the car sat low to the ground.

Fiona was gone.

The blame was squarely on his shoulders, and yet…why had she gone with Scott? Of all people to trust, he was at the bottom of the list. They still didn’t know why he’d had the cameras installed, or what his game was. Marco could understand the spyware, hacking her laptop, but the cameras didn’t make sense, no matter what he’d said to Fiona. There was no solid reason for them to be there. Sure, yes, he could see Good Global wanting to see the living room and her office, but her bedroom? The bathroom? What good were those cameras to them? What else was Scott up to?

One thing was for certain. Scott wasn’t a Fed. He didn’t look like one, act like one or follow due process like one. So who—and what—was he?

Bad news.

Maybe this went deeper than the companies. Deeper than some corporate bullshit. So what then? Why Fiona?

And why couldn’t Fiona trust him? Why wouldn’t she listen to him?

Just because he’d lied to her…used her…didn’t mean…

Marco threw his head back against the head rest and punched the steering wheel.

Of course she wouldn’t trust him, much less listen to him. He was guilty as sin, and he’d known this day was coming. He’d just hoped to have had a little more time with her. And that she’d be safe by then.

Whatever else was going on, he was pretty damn sure Fiona wasn’t safe with Scott, and that was what really killed Marco. She was out there with a guy that didn’t have any qualms about lying to her face, and he’d…let her go.

It was the single biggest mistake of his life.

He should have…what? Tied her up and bundled her into the ATV? What would that do? Fiona would fight, she’d get away, and then what?

Marco needed to figure out who the hell Scott really was, and then find Fiona. As soon as she connected to the internet, Ghost would have a handle on her location, but until then…what did he do? How could he live like this?

His heart felt as though it’d been ripped out of his chest. He felt at his ribs from time to time just to make sure they weren’t cracked.

If he’d thought love was bad, this was worse. It wasn’t heartburn. It was the world’s worst case of acid reflux, burning him up from the inside out.

Marco thumped the steering wheel again, calling Scott every name he could think of, but none of it made him feel any better. Fiona was out there and in danger because of him. Because he’d brought all hell to her doorstep and left her vulnerable.

Scott peered at the
monitor and Brat’s hunched shoulders. She’d gone into the bedroom to supposedly go to sleep an hour ago, but all she’d done was sit at the foot of the bed and plow through a box of tissues. What the fuck was she crying about? That musclebound idiot she’d shacked up with?

He rolled his eyes and reached for his phone.

The sooner he touched base with Lila, the sooner Brat could solve all their questions about NueEnergy and the sooner he could kill Brat.

He’d often thought about what kind of revenge he wanted. That was until he’d found her living a shell of a life, so scared of the outside world she’d retreated into something that barely resembled a human being. That’d been the best thing yet, learning that he didn’t have to extract his pound of flesh. He’d done it all along by just continuing to breathe air.

Brat was afraid of him. Of Nova. And she had no idea she’d let the wolf in through her front door.

Killing her would be the icing on top of the cake. Then he could stretch his wings, so to speak, and stop looking over his shoulder. The only thing the feds had on him was Brat. Once she was out of the picture, he could be a new man. Whoever he wanted. He wouldn’t need to answer to bitches like Lila. Granted, watching Lila squirm was awfully funny. She had no idea the shit-storm she’d stepped in, and it wasn’t like Scott had warned her. He’d taken the job, sat back, and watched the nightmare unfold.

Scott’s fingers curled around his phone. A few more days, and he’d get to finally squeeze the life out of Brat.

Fiona sat on the
bed and stared at the wall. She hadn’t slept much despite how comfortable the bed was, and how good the sheets felt after a gloriously hot shower. Nothing could touch her heart.

It’d been a whole day now since she’d last seen Marco and yet…it felt as though he was there with her. Just outside her line of sight. She wanted him to be there…and she hated him and she…she didn’t know what she felt for him. It was too jumbled.

She’d been numb with fear before. This was…a different kind of numbness. She ached deep inside of her. As many times as she’d experienced heartbreak before, this was possibly worse. Worse than even Heath. With him…she’d been pissed. Angry. She’d wanted revenge. This thing with Marco ran deeper though.

Marco knew her truth. All of it. And she’d let him use her.

She should have known when things started going bad, when he had a friend nearby that could solve all her problems
while she took a vacation,
that it wasn’t right.

Who did that?

It was something out of a movie. A TV show. Not real life.

No, in real life people used you and threw you under the bus.

Just like Heath. Just like Marco.

And she’d let both men manipulate her.

Ultimately, it came back to her. She was broken in a very elemental way. On a cellular level. She was programmed to fall in love. It was her nature to give her heart away and love without reservation. She’d hidden behind that tendency, using it to fill her life with meaningless relationships. Well, no more. Marco had shown her the error of her ways, big time.

Whenever the Marshalls came to pick her up, because there was no doubt in her mind they’d relocate her after they chewed her out, she’d swear off men. From here on out, no more.

Fiona drew in a shuddering breath. Tears leaked out the corners of her eyes. She hadn’t stopped crying since the car ride. Every few hours another jag would surprise her and she’d go through a whole box of tissues.

At least Scott and his team gave her space.

They’d set up in a vacation condo rental, not that far from downtown, doing…something. Every so often Scott would pop in, ask her a few questions, and leave. He gave her bad vibes still, but that was probably due to the way they’d met and the nature of his undercover assignment.

He’d been told to…to romance her. Sleep with her. Get close to her. It made her skin crawl. While she hadn’t been around many undercover agents, this also felt…wrong. And who in their right minds slept with someone on command? Scott wasn’t right. He didn’t…fit. Something about this whole set-up was…wrong.

There was that damn, nagging sensation again.

She glanced over her shoulder. Through that door was the living room. They’d set the space up as their command center, and it was her only point of exit. But she didn’t like going out there. The other agents left guns around, and those made her uncomfortable.

What was it Eric had told her once?

She’d mentioned that the firearms made her nervous.

The memory escaped her, but she couldn’t shake the idea that it was important. And maybe…maybe she’d made another mistake not insisting Scott take her to the Marshalls instead of staying on to assist in his investigation.

Wasn’t there some sort of cross-department protocol?

The bedroom door whisked open and Scott leaned in.

Fiona jumped, startled by the invasion.

Fucking Scott.

He smiled at her. The expression was…smarmy, and it made her skin crawl. How had she ever fallen for this guy?

“Sorry, Fi.”

“It’s okay, what’s up?” She turned so she sat facing the door instead of the wall.

“Hungry? Breakfast is ready, then we’re going to dig into the NueEnergy servers.”

“But…you can’t. They wiped the whole thing.”

“Maybe their physical servers, but we copied quite a lot of their data. I was hoping you’d help us narrow our search. Quicker we find the evidence we need, the quicker you can be done.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Helping Scott was the right thing to do.

She had to keep telling herself that.

Then why did she have a bad feeling about this?

Randy flipped through his list.

They’d had to eliminate four team members, including George, but that was how these things went sometimes. In the interest of protecting the greater good, sometimes they had to thin the herd a little.

The evidence was gone. The servers had been destroyed, in a rather elegant way that would put blame solely on George’s shoulders. Eli would take the fall for George’s death, and Eli’s passing could be ruled as a suicide with the right incentive.

There were still too many lose ends though.

Namely Fiona. And whoever the fuck she was working with.

There’d been another security breech, two days ago, on-site at the Moab location. The code was different from the original hack, which made Randy think that there was more than one entity out there trying to glean information from the servers.

Well, whatever they were looking for, it was gone.

Now all they had to do was figure out the who, and Randy was already working on that.

“Sir?”

“What?” Randy glanced up from his list.

“We found him.”

“Him—who? We’re looking for a few different
him
s. Be more specific.”

“That kid. Danny Benally.”

“Oh. That one.”

Randy grimaced.

This was not how he’d prefer to handle the situation. There’d be too many bodies and not enough answers. At least the kid was wrapped up in drugs. They could always overdose him and leave him if this didn’t work out. Addiction made such a convenient cover-up.