Page 21 of Avenging Jessie (Black Swan Division Thrillers #3)

Twenty-One

Jessie

The jet was the kind of ride politicians and CEOs used to cross oceans in comfort—cream leather seats wide enough to curl up in, brass trim on the fold-out tables, and a bar stocked with bottles that probably cost more than her monthly rent.

Soft lighting glowed from overhead, bathing the cabin in a gold warmth that didn’t match the tight undercurrent of tension in her body. Spence, the mission, what they were heading into—they were all pushing her system into overdrive.

Their brief time on the couch replayed in her head over and over again. How it had felt to give in and act on their attraction. How it had gotten her out of her head for the first time in, what? A year?

Even now, she could feel his breath on her ear, his skin on hers. The way his fingers probed, his lips lingered, his mouth tasted her…

The plane bounced on a wind current, and she snapped back to the moment.

When Spence had said he had a pirate friend with a plane, she had assumed that they would be riding in a cargo plane filled with contraband.

Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined such luxury.

Even when she’d flown with Brewer in his private jet during her time with him, she hadn’t experienced this level of glam.

His jet had been impressive, but more calculated than comfortable.

Apparently, the pirate business was lucrative.

And Spence had a very interesting past. Her mind ticked off all the things she now knew about him. About his mother and sister. His adopted father. His hunt for Victoria.

Her eyes tracked to him across the aisle, where he slept sprawled in one of the cushy chairs that tipped back. His six-foot-plus frame was just a bit too big for it, his injured hand cradled on his belly, while the other hung off the side. His feet dipped off the end of the padded leather footrest.

Exhausted. He was flat-out exhausted.

He’d fought sleep, just like he’d fought taking meds to relieve his wrist pain, but had finally given in when Tessa produced Percocet and insisted he take some.

He wouldn’t be any good to them once they landed if he was nursing his dominant hand, and something about the way she’d glared at him like a strict nurse in a hospital had stopped his argument before it passed his lips. Jessie had hidden her smile.

He’d reluctantly accepted the medication and, shortly afterward, fell asleep. Since he hadn’t done so in at least two nights—even after what they’d shared on the apartment’s couch—she was relieved to hear his light snores.

She tried not to think about the sex. The adrenaline letdown after the data center encounter, the close proximity while doctoring his hand, and their argument…

She scrubbed a hand over her face, losing the battle once more. The memories of his body, the rasp of his voice, the moment their walls cracked, and the fight between them burned into something else entirely, were on a repeating loop in her brain..

It was the source of her own insomnia at the moment, and why she was looking for a distraction, instead of watching his chest rise and fall, wanting to curl up next to him.

All she wanted to do was keep a hand there, reassuring herself he was okay—safe for the moment in this plane high above a world under imminent threat.

A brutal shiver worked through her at that thought, also on replay.

She forced her focus back to the laptop on the table in front of her, while outside the oval window, the Atlantic was an inky void, the thin line of the horizon barely visible against the night sky.

They’d left Germany as the first rays of sunrise were lighting the sky and were now deep in darkness again as they winged home to D.C.

She should have been running down leads on Brewer, tracking his known aliases and allies within the Maryland-Virginia area. If he’d partnered up with Hastings, there might be others with vendettas against the Agency whom he’d coaxed into his ranks.

Instead, her searches had drifted—Brewer’s name still in the search bar, but the tabs multiplying with intel on Spence before she could stop herself.

His files were filled with info as well. Past missions, false IDs, operations with his name redacted so thoroughly she’d have better luck hacking the Vatican archives.

It was wrong to read his personal files. Unscrupulous and deceitful.

She did it anyway.

Because that frightened part of her that had been betrayed and manipulated too many times wouldn’t stop.

Which made her feel like an awful partner. A terrible friend.

But oh, what she’d discovered about him. It only made her respect him more. In fact, she felt in awe of him and what he’d accomplished after what he’d survived.

They were both survivors. She’d known it before, but now, after what she’d read, it felt entirely different. She felt a deeper level of connection with him. Had a deeper understanding of what made him tick and why.

Flynn hadn’t handed him the lead because of her and her issues—it had been because of him.

He’d been brainwashed to do whatever Ian Bastion wanted under the guise of protecting Britain at all costs.

He’d been groomed and molded by the Mastermind into an agent before he ever became a soldier in the Queen’s army or eventually an MI6 officer.

He’d had his loyalty to the crown and his ‘family’ tested again and again.

And then found out it was all part of a secret shadow government.

The ultimate betrayal of his loyalty and allegiance. A betrayal of everything he’d valued.

She now understood the man she’d just opened up to in a whole different light. Understood his need to do the right thing. To prove he was the leader Flynn knew he could be.

He was the man she was falling in love with.

Jessie sensed movement in her periphery and glanced up to see Tessa sliding out of the seat next to Tommy’s. The other woman crossed the aisle with the kind of quiet grace only an experienced operative could pull off—no wasted motion, no unnecessary sound.

Tessa eased into the seat across from her and tapped the laptop with a manicured nail.

She was always stylish and put together, even when on a mission, and Jessie felt like a cretin next to her.

“What are you working on? Brewer, I assume? I’ve been thinking of a multitude of ways to cut off his balls and torture him.

Those are, of course, in line with the various ways I can kill him. ”

Jessie tapped a key to shrink one of the tabs and closed another casually. “Yep, just running a few searches to see if I can get a list of his U.S. allies or past coworkers who might also have a grudge against our employer. If we’re still employed.”

Tessa arched a brow, and the corners of her mouth curved in a way that was equal parts amused and sharp. “Are you sure you weren’t checking Spence’s text messages and emails to see if he’s involved with someone?”

Dammit. Tessa never missed anything. Jessie’s cheeks heated. “Why would I do that?”

“He’s not, you know. Involved with anyone. He hasn’t had a relationship, even a casual one, in quite a while. In fact, I’d say, since he became a swan and fell head over heels for you.”

It was no revelation. Jessie had known for a long time how Spence felt, but right now, the confirmation made her chest feel tight.

Tessa didn’t back off. “It’s not easy when certain emotions get tangled up with your mission, especially when you’ve been fighting them for so long. You two getting along okay?”

“Yes. No.” Jessie huffed a faint laugh, pretending to focus on the trackpad. “Sort of. It’s…complicated.”

That earned her a knowing smirk—the kind that said Tessa had already guessed more than Jessie wanted to confirm.

“Sex really complicates things on a mission. Add to the fact that he’s the lead, and…

” She flipped one hand back and forth. “Things could go either way for you in the emotional department, as well as with your career.”

Tessa should know, considering that she and Tommy had given in to their attraction while chasing down Brewer six months ago. Their relationship had been tricky then, and still was, but their devotion to each other was rock solid.

Jessie snuck another glance at Spence. As messed up as they both were, was it even possible for them to be rock solid?

Jessie’s gaze slid toward her brother. He was leaning back with his eyes closed, one arm draped over the armrest and into the seat Tessa had vacated, as if he were reaching for her even now.

“I’m glad he has you,” she said quietly, fingers still idly scrolling through one of Spence’s redacted files. “But it feels like there’s a wall between us since…”

Tessa didn’t miss a beat. “Since he found out you weren’t dead—and that you were working with Brewer.”

Jessie’s throat tightened. She gave a slight nod, closing one more tab before it could betray how deep she was digging. “Yeah.”

Tessa’s voice softened, but it didn’t lose its conviction. “He knows you did it to protect him. All of us. He’s not holding a grudge.”

Jessie wanted to believe that. But wanting to believe it and actually believing it were two different things.

Her eyes drifted to Spence again across the aisle, head tipped slightly back, dark lashes resting against his tan skin.

The laptop in front of her hummed softly, some of his world, his secrets, still open under her fingertips.

“That’s what I’m trying to do for him.” She only wished she could make him see that.

“He and the rest of the swans know Brewer to an extent. They know what we’ve faced and what’s in the files, but they don’t know him like you and I do. ”

Tessa’s expression hardened. “And yet, he’s still outmaneuvered us. Outstrategized us. It makes me sick. It makes me feel stupid.”

“Me, too. But here’s the thing—it’s not that he’s brilliant, or more cunning than us.

He’s a psychopath with an ego. You once told him you could see his blind spots where he couldn’t.

I believe that’s true. We’ve failed because we’ve been trying to outguess him.

While you can see his blind spots, he can see ours.

He knows our loyalty to the Agency is without question. ”

Tessa drummed her fingers on the top of the table, nodding as she caught on to what Jessie was thinking. “We have to stop being loyal soldiers. We have to be willing to break the rules to stop him.”

Jessie sat back, relieved that they were on the same track. “You don’t think I’m crazy?”

Tessa leaned forward and smiled. It was the smile of a predator who knew her next meal was only around the corner. “I think you’re brilliant.”

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Flynn going off-grid and telling me before he did so to do whatever it takes to stop Brewer. It’s like, he was giving me permission to turn everything on its head in order to bring down this madman.”

“And you’re worried the rest of the team won’t back you up. Because they’re still playing by the rules.”

Jessie shrugged, her gaze flicking to Spence once more. “It’s what we do. Sure, we skirt a few of the rules from time to time, but we are all loyal to the Agency and our country to a fault. And Brewer is counting on that.”

Tessa’s gaze sharpened, the predator-smile gone now, replaced with something colder. More calculating. “Then maybe we stop playing by the rules altogether. He’s playing chess while we’ve been playing checkers. If we’re going to win, we take the board away entirely.”

Jessie’s pulse picked up. She’d been turning over the same idea since Berlin had first hit the radar. “We set our own trap.”

“Exactly,” Tessa said. “One he can’t resist walking into.”

They both glanced—instinctively—at Spence and Tommy, both still sleeping, oblivious to the fact that the two women across the aisle were quietly plotting a side op. Jessie’s chest tightened at the thought of what either would say, but she forced her attention back to Tessa.

“It would have to be something Brewer can’t delegate,” Jessie murmured. “Something personal. Something that hits him where he’s weakest, so he has to show up in person.”

Tessa tapped the table again in thought. “And involve his ego.”

Jessie’s mouth curved in a humorless smile. “Yes. He has to prove he’s the smartest one in the room.”

They leaned in, voices dropping even lower as they sketched the rough outline—fake intel about a CIA breach only he could pull off, planted where they knew his people would find it. Layer it with just enough authenticity to make it irresistible. Dangle it like bait in front of a starving wolf.

“Codename?” Tessa asked.

Jessie didn’t hesitate. “‘Rat Trap.’ Because when he steps into it…” She closed Spence’s laptop with a soft click. “…we slam it shut and make damn sure he never gets out.”

Tessa’s smirk returned, but this time it was sharper. “Now that’s the Jessie I remember.”

Jessie smiled back, but it was measured. “Let’s just hope she’s still good enough to pull it off.”

In the back of her mind—where the doubts she didn’t voice lived—she wondered what Spence would say when he found out.

Would he see this as resourcefulness? Or proof she couldn’t follow his lead?

That thin thread of worry stayed there, coiled tight, even as she kept her gaze locked on Tessa and nodded like she was all in.