Page 20 of Justified Lies (TFH Team Bravo #3)

Eleven

Waiting to return to TFH until the next morning just about killed Eden. She was ready to get out there and kick some ass, although she didn’t know which way to go. Kap had done his best to distract her with another multiple orgasm event, and she only got a few hours of sleep.

Her eyes were still gritty by the time they got to TFH headquarters.

She might have her head held high and look like she was ready for a fight, but truthfully, she was tired.

Tired of this asshole who wanted to hurt her, hurt her brother…

and tired of pretending that she was a strong person. She wasn’t. She was an imposter.

That was the worst part of it all. She and El had the same training, and she excelled at her job at Dillon, but she was never more than an asset to the CIA.

El had been the one who went out on missions.

He had put his life on the line, while she had hosted parties and socialized at embassies and consulates.

When they stepped into the common room, it was a hub of activity. Team Alpha and Bravo had assembled, along with a couple of people she didn’t recognize.

“Your bosses are here,” Kap murmured, nodding to Del’s office.

She glanced over, and her shoulders drooped. Warner and Dillon were there, and her heart sank. Maybe they would choose to let her and El go because they were too much of a problem. Having two of your agents targeted by a nut job would probably not be good for business.

“What’s wrong?”

She looked at Kap. “Nothing’s wrong.”

One eyebrow raised in question, and, dammit, that was sexy. Whatever he saw when he looked at her had him grabbing her hand.

“Give us a sec, guys. We’ll be right back.”

“Wait, where’s my brother?”

“He just pulled into the parking lot,” Drew said.

She nodded, then let Kap drag her away. Once in his office, he shut the door, released her hand, and leaned back against the door.

“Are you blocking me from leaving?”

He shook his head.

“Then what do you want?”

“I want you to tell me what the hell is going on?”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Eden.”

She said nothing because she felt her nerves fraying, as if they would come all unbound and she would start blubbering. She couldn’t do that. It was a weakness she had, one that she had beaten out of herself. Showing emotion on the job.

“Babe.”

If any other man had used that term with her, she would have kicked him in the nuts. Kap had told her once that he had never used it with another woman, and she had believed him. He was good. He wasn’t a dirty spy who lied.

“You’ve got me worried. Tell me.”

She shoved a hand through her hair. “I’m worried they will fire El and me since we’ve created this big mess.”

“First, if they fired you over this, they are dumbasses. And one thing I know about those two men, they aren’t dumbasses.”

“No, they aren’t.”

He leaned forward to take her hand. With gentle ease, he tugged her into his arms. “And this isn’t your fault. This bastard is the root of the problem, not you and not El.”

She knew it was indulgent, but she snuggled in closer and drew a deep breath. Kap always smelled of crisp, clean air and something deeper, masculine. When they had been dating, she thought it was cologne, but she soon realized it was just Kap.

“That’s not all you were thinking about there.”

Dammit. He had always been able to read her, since the first.

“I’m not an agent.”

“I know that. I mean, I know you don’t work for The Company anymore.”

With a sigh, she leaned back to look at him. “No. I was never an agent. I had the training, but I was never in the field like El. I was hosting parties and meetings and basically playing spy.”

She waited for a response, but he said nothing.

Kap revealed nothing as he studied her, and she couldn’t take it anymore.

Breaking away from him, she walked away to look at the pictures he had on the wall.

But she didn’t see them. Not really. Instead, she realized her entire world was breaking apart because she knew at this point, he would walk away.

“Can you explain something for me?”

“I’ll try,” she said, without turning around.

“Did you have training like a typical spy?”

She nodded. “Mom insisted. She said that we were going to be put in danger, so she wanted us to at least have the background to deal with it.”

“Who went after El?”

Turning to face him, she blinked against the burning in her eyes. She was trying very hard not to be a blubbering idiot, like she had been the night before. “I did.”

He took one step, closing the distance between the two of them.

“That seems like something an agent would do. You saved his life.”

“Of course I did. He is my brother and was my partner at the time. I would never leave my partner behind.”

“And I’m sure the higher-ups wanted you to leave it alone. Once caught, CIA agents are usually SOL.” Shit out of luck.

She nodded.

“But you went. With no support. Would you do that for Ian?”

“Of course. I just said I would never leave my partner.”

“One thing I’ve noticed about you is the way you hold your body.”

She blinked at the switch in topics.

“Okay?”

“And you’re leaner. Not skinnier, leaner with more muscle. Let me guess, training for Dillon?”

She nodded.

He slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. “And me? Would you come and save me?”

There was a seriousness in his question, something beneath it that had her heart beating so hard she was amazed he didn’t hear it.

“Eden?”

“I would come for you and beat the hell out of whoever had the nerve to touch you.”

His mouth twitched. “Being known as an agent, or feeling like you are one, isn’t as important as that.

Loyalty…true loyalty is a rare thing. Whether you felt like an agent then or now isn’t as important as that.

Lots of people with training would balk at saving their partners.

Most people would go with the CIA rules and say they couldn’t do it.

When it counted, you rose to the moment. Don’t ever forget that.”

A lump rose in her throat, and she found it hard to swallow.

Their affair had been intense, but Eden had never heard this kind of passion from Kap before.

In fact, she wasn’t sure she had ever heard this kind of passion from another person.

He meant every word, and her heart was singing as happiness trickled through her.

The dread she was feeling was still there, but this helped alleviate it.

“Thank you.”

His mouth curved. “I will be happy to remind you whenever you need me to.”

She lay her head on his chest, soaking in his warmth and his acceptance. Three years ago, he had broken her, but now, she understood that she should have fought him. Bonked him in the head or something to prove to him that she was not the person he thought she was.

And he had been honest last night. He had made sure that she understood that his reasoning wasn’t sound, but he owned up to it. She had to give him the same explanation, but there was a knock at the door. Their discussion would have to wait.

“Come in,” Kap said, not letting go of her.

The door opened. “Hey, the dudes from Dillon want to talk to you,” Autumn said.

Eden peeked around Kap and found the Alpha Team member eating, of course. It was really sickening that the woman seemed to eat enough for a village but never appeared to gain any weight.

She nodded. “Thanks. I’ll be right out.”

When she left, she didn’t close the door, and Kap rolled his eyes.

“Don’t worry, Kap. But I promise, we will have a serious discussion about us after all of this is done.”

“I look forward to it.”

They walked out, and all the talking in the common room stopped. Again, Kap rolled his eyes, but Eden just laughed. She noticed her brother was in with Conner and Warner.

“I better go see what they want.”

“You need me, just let me know.”

“Always.” Then she rose to her toes and brushed her mouth over his. There were whispers behind her, but she didn’t acknowledge them. Instead, she just walked to the office.

She knocked, then opened the door when Del waved her in.

“Eden, we’ve been updating both Dillon and Warner.”

El stood. “Where were you?”

“Talking to Kap about something.”

“Is that a euphemism for sex?” he asked, disgust dripping from his voice, but there was a thread of humor in it. She knew he was trying to settle her nerves.

“Get bent.” She looked at the other men. “What have you told them so far?”

“We know that you two have been stalked across the world,” Conner said.

“We didn’t know.”

They both opened their mouths, but she held up her hand. She might have second-guessed doing that before her discussion with Kap, but the truth is that the little talk had boosted her confidence.

“You knew about El being abducted and that I went after him. You knew about his injuries and about mine. It wasn’t like I was hiding anything from either of you.

And we thought that whoever took him was finished with him.

We have no insider information on ongoing operations. The threat was deemed over by the CIA.”

Warner gave her a nod. So that was good to know. He was in their court. He had been a SEAL and understood a lot of what the two of them had been through. Rumor was that the managing partner of this Dillon branch had been captured and tortured while he’d been active duty.

On the other hand, Conner had been a top FBI agent. While his job had been dangerous, he hadn’t been through what the three of them had.

“And now?”

She shrugged as she looked at her brother, then back at Conner. “I have no idea. I can’t understand why we’re still on a list, unless someone is after us for a different reason. Emma is one of the smartest people on the planet, so I would assume that her connections are correct.”

As if on cue, her phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket.

Sam: Emma’s right. I’m sorry for missing that.

After Emma had dropped her bombshell, Eden had texted Sam, who had started to dig in.