Page 11 of Covert Affections (Shadow Agents/PSI-Ops #5)
Chapter Eleven
Jesse
Jesse scratched his beard, giving serious thought to shaving it off as soon as he maneuvered his truck and the silver Airstream that he was towing down the winding mountain road.
To date, it was still one of his best investments.
The twenty-five-foot Airstream barely resembled its original layout anymore.
Over the years, he’d channeled some of his excess energy and money into renovating the thing, and creating a space that actually worked for someone his size.
The standard RV furniture had been the first to go.
In its place, he'd installed a custom L-shaped leather sofa that could actually support his weight without creaking.
The bedroom area required extensive modifications.
The original queen mattress might have been fine for average-sized people, but Jesse had needed something bigger and longer.
It had required having something custom made and fitted, but it had been worth the price tag.
No more feet hanging off the end of the bed.
Plus, if he ever decided to bring a woman back to the thing with him, there was space to fuck her brains out—not that he was big on bringing women to his personal space.
He'd yet to ever do it.
The galley kitchen retained its classic Airstream layout. He liked its charm, but he'd upgraded to high-end appliances. Not that he used them much. He either ate out or fished and cooked over an open fire. Still, if he ever wanted to make a full, nice meal in the thing, he could.
The bathroom had been another challenge entirely.
He'd added a slide out to the space and increased the shower’s size greatly, installing a custom stall with multiple heads.
The renovation had cost more than some people's cars, but The Corporation paid well, and Jesse believed in spending his money on the things that mattered.
Jesse had also made sure the Airstream had top-notch technology in it.
He’d made a dedicated space for a workstation.
One he could use to keep his finger on the pulse of things.
The area, which was sectioned off as its own little room, was a hacker’s wet dream.
Jesse had always been good at fixing things, and when he’d started taking an interest in technology, the two skills merged perfectly.
The Airstream had a military-grade satellite communications system, but in a compact size—something he’d perfected himself.
It had advanced GPS tracking capabilities and internet access that was mobile and could easily be utilized off-grid.
As for security, he’d installed a biometric scanner so no one but him could gain easy entrance to his tech room.
He’d upgraded the locks on the door and reinforced all points of entrance.
He had various weapons storage areas built in.
None of them were obvious when you entered, but he knew where they all were and what was inside each.
He'd managed it all while keeping the weight towable with his diesel pickup truck.
The best part of it all was that he still had space for his fishing rods and tackle box.
He was looking forward to getting some fishing in while he was in Colorado for the next week or so.
It was nice to unwind. Though his body was still humming with the aftereffects of the hookup he’d had with a hot little blonde number at a rest stop overnight.
He’d stopped there for gas and something to eat but ended up shagging the blonde in the restroom for nearly an hour.
He hadn’t bothered asking her name. He didn’t care to know it.
She had big tits and was hot. That was all the information he required.
She’d been more than eager to accompany him into the restroom, even when he’d told her it would be nothing more than sex.
That it wouldn’t go anywhere beyond physical.
That they wouldn’t exchange numbers or see each other again.
She’d rushed to the restroom to wait for him while he’d bought a box of condoms. Then he’d joined her in a stall and proceeded to rock her world.
The sex had done what he needed it to—help take the edge off his shifter side.
It hadn’t been earth-shattering or anything, but he’d gotten off more than once, so he considered it a win.
And the hot little blonde had orgasmed multiple times too.
When Jesse had finished with the blonde, he’d tried to make his exit only to have her grab his arm and plead with him to get a motel room or use his Airstream and make a night of it.
She hadn’t been that good of a lay. Even if she had been, Jesse didn’t spend an entire night with any woman.
He fucked and got the hell out when the getting was good.
He didn’t cuddle with them after sex. He had no desire to wake up with a woman next to him.
He preferred keeping to himself. That was part of the reason he liked the Airstream so much. He could come and go as he wanted, stay in areas that were off the beaten path, and be alone. Though, sometimes being alone meant being stuck with his thoughts—his memories.
Not always a great thing.
The windows were open, leaving the fresh mountain air filling the vehicle and blowing his hair free from the tie that held it at the nape of his neck.
Blond pieces whipped around, smacking him in the face.
His sunglasses kept the strands from hitting his eyes.
He looked every bit like the mountain man he was planning on being for the next week.
A glance in the rearview mirror made him pause.
The man staring back at him was barely recognizable.
The man in the mirror was harder and more muscular, with a full beard and long hair that was partially undone from its tie, making him appear even more disheveled than normal.
His beast side had been giving him issues for the last several months, demanding more of his focus to keep it under control.
He’d taken to channeling those efforts into working out and being as physical as possible.
That included upping his outdoor activities, which he’d already been pretty religious about.
That was part of the reason he was in Colorado again. He liked the various activities the state presented. They varied from what he had where he was now stationed with The Corporation. Maine was fine, but Colorado appealed to his cat side far more. The state was a natural habitat for his kind.
He was about two hours from Denver in a town he wasn’t even sure was big enough to point to on a map, but one he’d been to many times before.
The first was when he’d been sent to the area by The Corporation about twelve years ago, putting it around two years after the lab incident with Samuel and the others.
An incident he’d paid dearly for being a part of, regardless of the fact that he’d simply happened upon it to start with.
You could have told them that and saved yourself a lot of pain , he thought, only to shake his head. No. For as much as he butted heads with Samuel and Benat, they’d been in the right, getting those children free of the labs and hopefully far from The Corporation’s reach.
Still, had Jesse simply opened his mouth and told the truth, that he’d not been part of the planning and didn’t know where Samuel or the others ran off to, the higher-ups might have shown him an ounce of mercy.
The words never once crossed his lips, nor had he ever considered saying them.
He’d accepted every punishment, every torture they could dream of (and they didn’t lack imagination).
Jesse didn’t suffer through it all for Samuel, Benat, or Nick, for that matter. No. He did it for the kids. They’d been so tiny. So vulnerable and had endured so much. A little pain was nothing if it meant they were free and happy.
He just hoped that was true. That they’d found some kind of real life beyond the walls of the lab and beyond the reach of The Corporation.
Often, he tried to remember their faces fully, each of them—but it was hard.
His memories of the night were broken, along with so many other things in his mind—courtesy of The Corporation.
He could remember two of the children in great detail.
Samuel’s daughter Charley and her friend—the little girl with the black hair. The rest of the faces were blurry.
After being tortured by Efren and Peters, along with a few of their buddies, for months and months for his involvement in the lab breakout and his refusal to tell the others where Samuel and Benat were, Jesse had been put through reconditioning.
It was simply another form of torture—this one mental and meant to reprogram his way of thinking and prevent him from acting against their interests ever again.
The reprogramming had side effects all unto itself. One of those included memory loss.
Jesse was smart enough to keep the truth to himself. The Corporation didn’t need to know their reprogramming wasn’t as successful as they’d hoped. That his allegiance to them wasn’t as steadfast as it had once been—before he’d happened upon the lab full of child-aged test subjects.
If they’d known as much, they’d have only subjected him to another round of it all. Hell, they may have tried to figure out some new, more creative way to turn him into an obedient soldier.
He shuddered at the thought.
Their tried-and-true ways were horrible enough.
Jesse had become an expert at pretending to be a model employee—a true convert.
It was a game of survival, and so far, he was winning.
When they’d tasked him with heading a unit of operatives on a retrieval mission, he knew he was being put in a position requiring he prove himself and his loyalty to the organization.