Sean shook his head. He’d made enough of a fool of himself. He was a professional. He’d trained and fought and bled to get where he was today, and he’d almost tossed it all away for some chick he’d been banging. That was all it was. It was sex. Ian had been right about that, too. He should have been going to the club and regularly taking a sub. If he’d taken care of his business, he wouldn’t be in this situation. He would have been able to see Grace Hawthorne for what she was. “It’s your shift. Don’t pawn your work off on me, Liam.”
Jake reached out to him. “Sean, don’t do this. Whatever Ian said, she’s not involved.”
“You aren’t the one who watched her tail a guy today.” His hand was on the door. He didn’t need to sit around and listen to another man who had fallen into Grace’s web.
Jake’s eyebrows climbed his forehead. “Really? Who?”
Sean spit out the information. Just an hour earlier, he’d wanted to keep it all to himself. It had seemed like more crap that made Grace look bad. He couldn’t ignore it any more. “She followed the guy who runs the janitorial services to that address we found in her briefcase. It’s some sort of storage and mail place. She tried to be careful that he didn’t see her. It was very obvious what she was doing. And she’s got some weird shit on her computer. I talked to Eve earlier. She says there’s a surveillance video of the Bryson Building. It’s very detailed. It covers entrances and exits and everything in between. If she’s not involved, then why would she have something like that on her system?”
“That proves nothing except that she backs up her boss’s computer,” Jake argued.
“Why the hell would you think that? What does Wright need with a surveillance video?”
Jake leaned back against the side of the van. “Adam told me the name of the file is ‘thumb drive my boss is going to lose.’ As far as Adam can tell, she hadn’t accessed that file. It was just sitting there on her drive. She definitely didn’t watch the video on her media player.”
None of which mattered if she’d made that tape. “Maybe you and Adam are the ones we should pull. The two of you seem awfully ready to believe anything that woman says.”
Jake took a long breath. “That woman? Wow, you are going to regret this, Sean. There are some things in life that are way more important than a job. You have given me some good advice over the years. Let me give you some now. Tell Ian to go to hell. Whatever he threatened you with, you can handle it. Walk out of this van and go get your girl. If you knock on her door tonight and come clean, she’ll forgive you. If you wait too long, there won’t be any going back. Sean, if she’s the one, you have to go get her.”
Everything in Sean wanted to do just that. He could walk up to her door, force his way in, and take her. The caveman inside demanded that he do just that. He could fuck her so long and so hard she wouldn’t remember anything but him. Whatever she’d done before, he would handle. He would make damn sure she towed the line from here on out. She would be his sweet, obedient wife or there would be hell to pay. She wouldn’t flirt with every man alive. She wouldn’t get involved with people like her boss or this Parnell person. Sean was shocked to realize that if he had his way, he would keep her barefoot and pregnant and locked away from the world. What had that woman done to him? He’d never felt so savagely possessive in his life.
Liam looked up from his surveillance. “This goes against everything I stand for, but I gotta agree with Jake. Maybe you should go talk to the girl.”
“You are under the assumption that I give a shit about the girl.” He did. God, he loved her. It was stupid, and he wouldn’t give in to it. He was ping-ponging between loving her and hating her. It had to stop, and the only way he could stop was to power through. He turned his attention back to Jake. “It was a job, that’s all. I lost my head because she is hotter than hell in the bedroom. Give her a try, man.” If she got in between the ménage boys, then hate would rule. He could handle that. “Tell Adam he has my blessing.”
Something infinitely cold crossed Jake’s face, and Sean wondered if he hadn’t just lost a friend. “She’s our responsibility. Got it.” He turned to Liam. “If you see anything weird, give us a call. Adam and I can be here in a couple of minutes. Liam, I want her protected. She’s our op now, and I call the shots.”
It rankled. He wasn’t in charge of Grace. The idea bit into Sean like a rattler leaving noxious venom in his veins. “Good luck with that.”
Sean left the van, slamming the door behind him. He didn’t give a shit if someone heard. He jogged down the street. It was a nice, suburban street, just the kind he’d always dreamed of living on when he and Ian were growing up in their trailer park. He loved Grace’s house. It was a far cry from the starkness of his apartment. His place had a big screen TV and a sofa, a bed, a whole lot of cooking equipment, and nothing else. That wasn’t true. It also had things like hooks in the ceiling and spreaders that would lay Grace out for his delectation. He could tie her up at his place in a way he couldn’t at hers. Of course, if he got her to Ian’s, he might never leave the dungeon. Ian’s dungeon was something he aspired to.
Stop. He wasn’t going there. He wasn’t going to get a white picket fence and two point five kids with Grace, and he wouldn’t have her counting it out on a St. Andrew’s Cross, either. He was done. He wasn’t playing Grace’s lap dog anymore.
He made it to his Scout. He’d happily given Eve back her Benz. He’d been too confined in the little luxury car. He greatly preferred his big-ass SUV. He slid into the car and took off immediately. He didn’t turn toward his apartment. He wasn’t going home to sleep. He was heading out to the small building Grace had tracked Parnell to.
It was late. The streets were quiet, but Sean parked down the block anyway. This part of the city was all about business. Though the lights were all on, no one was home. His feet made absolutely no sound on the sidewalk beneath him. Sean was still for a moment, letting his senses open to the world around him. The night was silent save for the normal sounds of the city. An air conditioner coughed to life. Somewhere he could hear a sprinkler system working. Nothing else. He’d been trained by the best. Though he’d been out of combat for a long time, the rhythm always came back quickly. He moved efficiently, and before he knew it, he stood at the back door of the Addison Mail and Storage Center. He had circled the place a couple of times to be certain no one was working late.