Page 7

“He’s late,” Xavier growled under his breath.
Jazz snorted. “With all the press he’s been getting lately, the guy probably has an elephant-sized ego. He likely sets his own time schedule and expects the rest of the world to adhere to it. Still can’t believe he walks around as if he’s an ordinary person.”
“He likely thinks he’s untouchable, but that’s about to end.”
Jazz agreed with his assessment. Wouldn’t be today, or even next week, but Bass and all the evil people associated with the Wren organization would be exposed and destroyed. Option Zero would see to that.
Hawke’s gravelly voice sounded in her earbud. “Just got word. Bass is eight minutes out.”
“Roger that,” Xavier replied. “We’ll be ready.”
She took a bite of her risotto, took a sip of wine, and glanced around at the other patrons. Would they be surprised when Bass arrived? His itinerary wasn’t exactly public knowledge, but somehow various members of the press and paparazzi always seemed able to find him.
“Jazz,” Xavier said quietly.
She jerked her attention back to her partner, surprised that not only had he used her name, but an odd, surprisingly serious expression had also come over his face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked softly.
Instead of answering, he shocked her further by clicking off his earbud. He then nodded toward her, indicating she should do the same. Cutting off communication in the middle of an op went against protocol. But she trusted her partner, so Jazz followed his lead and switched off her earbud. She leaned forward and whispered, “What’s going on?”
This was either the worst idea of his life, or the best. The next few minutes would tell. Going off-comms during an op was a major breach of operational protocol, and he was sure to get an earful from Ash when this was over. He’d take the reprimand and deserve it. But in this limited space and time, he had a captive audience. He intended to make the most of it.
Keeping his voice low, he said, “Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course,” Jazz said. “You can ask me anything.”
Yeah, he knew he could, but getting a straight answer from her on this particular topic wasn’t always a surety.
“Why don’t you want OZ involved in finding your brother?”
He watched her reaction carefully, waiting for the explosion. As was Jazz’s way, it didn’t take long.
“What are you talking about?” she snapped. “OZ has been looking for Brody since the moment I came on board. You know that.”
“Yeah, I know that Serena’s run a few searches, and we’ve run down some leads. That’s about the same thing a half-assed PI would do. You know we have the resources to drill deeper than an oil rig. Yet you’ve never asked Ash for more. Why is that?”
Beautiful brown eyes widened with shock, and then the fire flared. He knew she wouldn’t go full-on explosion inside the restaurant, which was one of the reasons he’d chosen this moment. Calling attention to them would cause all sorts of issues they wanted to avoid. However, Jazz was crafty. Her eyes and face were so expressive, she could communicate fury and displeasure without saying a word. Still, she would give him an earful.
“How dare you say that?” Her whisper-soft voice trembled with anger. “You know that I would do anything to find my brother.”
“Do I? Convince me. Let’s get the whole team involved instead of piecemealing it out.” He leaned forward. “It’s way past time to either find him or let him go.”
A sheen of moisture appeared in her eyes, and Xavier felt like he’d been kicked in the gut with a steel boot. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt this beautiful woman. From the day he’d met her, she had fascinated him, enthralled him, and challenged him. She was the most maddening, intriguing, and complicated creature he’d ever known. He’d rather cut off his hand than cause her pain. That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t tell her the truth.
“You picked a hell of a time to confront me about this.”
“I call it perfect timing. If we weren’t stuck here, you would’ve snapped at me and walked out by now.”
“No, I would’ve punched you in the face.”
He struggled to keep from smiling because he knew she was right. She would’ve tried to slug him, and he might’ve let her. He knew she wanted to find her brother, but there was something keeping her from going full tilt to find him, and he wanted to know why.
“Yeah. So answer my question.”
“I’ve said as much as I’m going to say.”
“Want to know what I think?”