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“You won’tallowme? Of all the self-righteous—”

Jackson pressed his hand against her mouth to stop the flow of words. When she started to pull away, his other arm slid around her waist to hold her in place.

“Sssshhhh,” he hissed, and she realized her voice had risen with her outburst. They listened to the conversation continue in the kitchen, and she was glad she hadn’t drawn their attention.

With his hand over her mouth, his touch searing her skin, he pulled her back into the main bedroom. He released her to close the door behind them. His muscular body stood between her and the exit. Reagan poured the full force of her fury into her eyes, wishing she could render him to ash with her stare.

“How dare you!”

“How dare I spare your parents from listening to your dumbass idea? You’re welcome, by the way. They’re worried about you enough without you foolishly putting yourself and the rest of us at risk.”

“I am the only one at risk. My parents will be here under your protection. Your friends are watching English and Becky. I would be the only one vulnerable, and I can take care of myself. I can draw these people out, and you guys can use them to track down the person responsible for all of this. You have no other leads. Using me as bait only makes sense.”

“This isn’t one of your lame ass books where everyone lives happily ever after and no one shoots with real bullets. Dammit, Reagan, I didn’t take you to be this stupid. Anyone at the hospital could be in danger. Any one of us watching your back could be in danger. Don’t you get that?”

“Don’t you get that I know how to be careful? I would never do anything to put someone else at risk. There’s a way we can do this and get what we want without anyone getting hurt, except maybe the ones who put English in the hospital. You’ve asked me to trust you and your brothers. Well, now I’m asking you to trust me.”

The bedroom door creaked open, and Luke stepped inside. Reagan jumped away from Jackson as if they had been caught doing something naughty. Her heart pounded in her chest in part from her righteous anger and in another part from her passionate belief that her idea had merit.

“Luke, give us a few minutes, okay?” Jackson snapped at his brother as he ran a frustrated hand through his hair, sending the short strands straight up in spikes.

“She’s right, Jackson.”

Reagan froze, unable to believe those words came from Luke. The man had not bothered to hide his resentment toward her since the moment they first met. She couldn’t imagine what it must have cost him to admit she, of all people, was right about something, and she couldn’t imagine what possessed him to go against his brother to agree with her.

Jackson clenched his fists. “This is none of your business.”

“Sure, it is. This is for English, which makes it all of our business. Everything she said is true. We have no leads. We’re not close to finding out who did this. We only have a list of people to interview who may or may not be connected. We’re flying blind off assumptions we’ve made without any real evidence to back them up. If Reagan put herself out there, we can finally get ahead of these sons of bitches. We can be ready. Hell, we can even have Alex’s people back us up. We can protect her and take this guy down. You know we can.”

“This is not your decision to make. We never put civilians at risk by choice. We protect them. It’s our code. It’s English’s code. We have it for a reason, and I’m not going to throw it away.”

“Our code went out the window when one of our own was attacked right in our backyard,” Luke countered. “We’re running out of options, and you know it.”

“No, I don’t. Our leads may not be solid, but they’re still leads. Putting Reagan directly in the target’s crosshairs is not an option. It’s a Hail Mary pass we don’t have to take. We need to exhaust every lead, no matter how weak, and even then, we never put a client in danger to push along a case.”

Reagan stiffened. “I’m not a client. I never asked for your help. If you don’t like my plan, you don’t have to be involved. Stay here and watch over my parents. Luke can help me catch the people responsible for attacking English.”

“Luke, leave us.”

Reagan waited for Luke to refuse to be ordered around by Jackson, and with the long awkward pause stretching between them, she expected an explosive argument. But Luke only nodded and stepped from the room, leaving her to stare after him in bewilderment.

“Unbelievable,” she muttered before facing Jackson with murderous rage. “It must be nice to have people bow to your will, but if you think for one minute I’m going to obey you like some mindless minion, you are sorely mistaken.”

“I’m not asking you to act like a robot. I want you to listen and use some sense. I know you’re anxious to get back to your life, but you could end up losing your life if you go through with this plan. I won’t let you do this, and I won’t let you put my brother in the crosshairs.”

“I’m not forcing him to do anything. If he’s willing to help me, who are you to tell him no?”

Jackson was suddenly in front of her, so close she could feel his breath on her cheeks. She gasped when his hands enclosed around her upper arms. He lowered his head until they were eye-to-eye. His irises were almost black, swirling with a surge of emotions she couldn’t quite identify.

“I told him no because I call the shots when it comes to anything involving the legends. I told you no because I care too much to put you in the line of fire.”

He released her and stormed away before she could formulate a response. Jerking open the door, he paused and looked back at her, some of the anger replaced with his typical passive expression. “Forget your plan, Reagan. It’s not happening.”

The door rattled as Jackson slammed it behind him, leaving her alone to wonder what the hell just happened.

Chapter Seventeen

Jackson stormed to the edge of the property as far as he could go without tripping any of the alarms. He hadn’t stopped long enough to tell anyone where he was going, but he was certain they heard the doors slamming in his wake. The exercise failed to lessen his frustration. He wanted to drive his fist into something solid, but he managed to talk himself down.