“And what? Become a murderer?” I lifted my head, and I tipped his chin up to meet my gaze.

  My chest was squeezing together at the sight of his suffering. He was ripping me in half, but I kept on. “You couldn’t do anything except live in fear.”

  I found his hands and laced our fingers together. Resting our hands on his legs, I moved so I was straddling him. “I’m going to find my mother. We’re going to get her back. Then I’m going to help you destroy your grandfather, once and for all, and figure out what to do with your twin brother.”

  I bent down, finding his lips, and I lingered, just needing to feel him.

  Once I had my fill, I slid off his lap and went back to the desk.

  FORTY-TWO

  Kash

  All night long. She never wavered.

  She took my breath away.

  Every minute. Every hour. She was nonstop. She wasn’t going to stop until she found Chrissy.

  This. This felt good. This felt refreshing.

  Hell. This felt necessary.

  * * *

  She worked past the next day shift.

  The staff was sent home, paid day off. The minimum amount of guards stayed on.

  I told Peter to take the kids away for the day, and I brought Bailey licorice and energy drinks.

  It was that afternoon, after too many hours of working, when her hands shoved in the air and she pushed back her chair. She took a victory walk around the room, pumping her fists in the air.

  “Scooore! Bailey Hayes wins again!” She turned to me, fists in the air, and the brightest smile I’d ever seen on her face. “I found her. I got visual. And I got in their neighbor’s security system.” A strand of hair fell down her forehead. Her cheeks rounded, and she puffed it back up. She never lost that smile. “I found her, Kash. I found my mom.”

  Her hands still in the air. Red in the face. Her eyes wild and dilated.

  I smiled back. “I knew you would.”

  I stood, slow, so she could see my purpose.

  She did, her hands starting to lower. Her eyes widened, and I heard the air catch in her throat. “What are you doing?” But she was excited. I heard that, too, a whisper at the end of her statement.

  My grin turned wolfish. I went full force, knowing my eyes were smoldering and intense, and knowing how she reacted to that.

  “You know what I’m doing.” A slow step toward her.

  She was getting flustered, and her chest rose, holding. Her hands started fluttering in the air, and I didn’t think she knew she was doing that.

  Another step to her. “I’ve been watching you do your thing all night, and most of the day. Do you realize how sexy you are?”

  She was captivated, her eyes holding to mine, and I slowly reached for her.

  She was coming down from a high.

  I drew her chest to mine, my hand sliding under her shirt and up her back. She murmured to me on a sigh, “I found my mom, Kash.”

  I bent down to her, my lips over hers. “You did.”

  She smiled, a tear slipping from her eye. “I’m so happy right now.” Then a crease showed in her forehead. “It always goes away after. It can’t go away this time.” Her hand went to my arm, sliding up over my bicep. “I won’t come back this time if it goes away.”

  That wouldn’t happen.

  My lips touched hers, and I murmured back, “It’s not going anywhere. I won’t let it.”

  No matter what I had to do.

  FORTY-THREE

  Bailey

  “Are you insane?” I hissed at Kash, my mouth gaping.

  After we closed everything down, I wiped any security feed of us and then cleaned everything up on the hardware. I had broken so many laws, and just thinking about a ballpark of them made my legs wobble.

  He was on the phone, shirtless, and standing facing the windows.

  I wasn’t actively listening to him until I heard the words wait, team, and swarming the house. Then I focused on what he was actually saying.

  I shot up to my knees, and my mouth was still gaping as I listened while he was arguing with someone else on the phone about waiting to go in and get my mother. I’d heard enough to get my blood boiling by the time he finished the call.

  He turned, saw me, and stopped in his tracks.

  “Are you insane?” Here’s my hissing part. “I did not just hear what I heard.”

  He took me in, his mouth closed, and his jaw firmed. His shoulders lifted and rolled back, and his chin went up.

  Oh yeah.

  We were going to fight.

  He tossed his phone onto the couch before turning back to me and folding his arms over his chest, and I wasn’t distracted by how his muscles moved and shifted from that movement. Or how he looked all hot and moody. And my loins weren’t stirring.

  Nope. Not happening.

  I coughed, clearing my throat. “You did not just tell whoever was on that phone that you need time to go and get my mother, did you?!”

  Because that would be absurd.

  That was preposterous.

  That was going to make my blood pressure go from a good sizzle to a boil to exploding the blood pressure cuffs off of me.

  I’m sure steam was coming out of the top of my head.

  And all the while, Kash lowered his head, his eyes on me, and he shifted his feet apart. Oh boy. He was taking a fighting stance. This was going to happen. We were going to fight about this.

  I said it quietly, but clearly. He had to hear how serious I was. “I want my mother.”

  “You’ll get your mother.” Almost as quietly, just as clearly, and he was locked in.

  We were going to battle.

  “I want her now.”

  “You’ll get her.”

  He didn’t say “now.” He needed to say “now.”

  “Kash.” A warning from me.

  “Bailey.” His eyes cooled.

  “Kashton!” A low growl started in the back of my throat.

  His shoulders rose and held. He was tightening up. “I do not want the authorities to get my brother. I want my brother. And I have a team that can do it, but it’s going to take time.”

  “A team?” I remembered what he said last night. “How many more teams do you have?”

  He blinked a little, like I’d thrown him with that question. He raked a hand over his head. “Like I said, I have one team helping with research, whatever that entails.”

  Research. Whatever that entails.

  Why did that not sound legal? Though I was not judging. At all. If I did, I might as well start sharing a cell with him.

  “And I have a specialized team on my grandfather.”

  My eyebrows skyrocketed up. “Are you kidding me?” More hissing from me. I shot to my feet, my voice rising. “You know where he is?”

  He didn’t respond, not at first. Then a grudging nod. “I’ve known for a while.”

  “Kash!”

  His jaw tightened. “You have been in serious mourning. I’ve been doing everything I can to make sure I can move against my grandfather, but I can’t be stupid. I can’t go in without covering all my bases, and some of those bases are finding out if he has a death policy or not.”

  Wha …

  I sat back on my heels. “Death policy?”

  “My grandfather has been in the game a long time. He has allies built over allies. Allegiances. Fucking plans on what happens if he dies. And while you’ve been grieving, I’ve been unearthing all of it. It’s a lot of shit to unearth.” Again that jaw was tightening, then flexing. “I’m close. I’m so close. But finding out about my brother was new, and every stone I turn over, there seems to be more under them. But I’m close. I can feel it.”

  I swallowed over a lump.

  I was getting it now.

  “And this team you have on him, that’s the team you’re pulling for my mom?”

  He nodded, his eyes cast off. “Yeah.”

  Wow. I was really getting it now.

  “You’re doing that for me?”

  His jaw clenched again. He lowered his head, turning away. “I’m doing it for my brother.”

  But he wasn’t, and I knew it, and he knew it.

  I crawled over the bed, reaching for and catching his hand. I tugged him over to me, sliding to the edge of the bed. I moved in to stand in between his legs and looked up at him. “Thank you.”

  He was giving up his grandfather for me.

  “I’m not just doing it for you.”

  But he was, and he was lying so I wouldn’t feel bad.

  Kash was moving heaven and hell to help me find Chrissy.

  I rose up on my knees, and holding his eyes, I pulled my shirt up and over my head. After our second round, I’d pulled on underwear and a top to sleep in. I was naked in front of him now, except for my underwear, and he took me in. His eyes darkened, lust filling them, and he moved forward, just beyond touching.

  He pinned me down with his gaze. “Underwear. Off.”

  The underwear went off, and then there was touching.

  There was kissing.

  There were moans, groans, and thrusting.

  But mostly, there was nothing but good happening.

  Finally.

  FORTY-FOUR

  Kash

  The phone woke me, and I rolled over to grab it.

  Bright calling.

  I turned the light on, sat up against the headboard, and knew this wasn’t going to be a good call.

  “Yeah?”

  Bailey rolled over, lifting her head. She was blinking at me, still drowsy.

  Glancing at the clock, I added, “It’s four in the morning.”

  “Your girlfriend messed up.”

  Fuck.

  Throwing back the covers, I stood and went to grab my pants. Pulling them on, I grabbed a shirt and threw it over my shoulder.

  “What’s going on?”

  I headed for the hallway, but mouthed to Bailey, “Go to sleep. I’ll be back.”

  Her eyes were troubled. I doubted she’d go to bed.

  Going out into the hallway, I headed for Peter’s study. “Hold a second.”

  “No.” Bright’s tone was snarling. “You hold on. We know what you and your girlfriend did. We also know you didn’t call when you could’ve called.”

  Coming to the office, I left the lights off and went to stand at the windows. The golf course lay just beyond and the lighting was on, but dim, so anyone walking could still see.

  This place had been my home for half my life.

  With this conversation, I was now wondering if I’d be getting a different home for the rest of my life.

  “You found the house.”

  “We found your twin and Chrissy Hayes!” she snapped. “Why the fuck didn’t you give us a heads-up?” She pressed on, not letting me answer. “And don’t even give me some bullshit story where you wanted to handle it yourself, because you know that’ll give you so many felonies that we could lock you up for the rest of your life.”

  My hand clenched tight around my phone. “I take it that this call is not as someone who has been paid heavily for favors from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

  She laughed. “You bet your ass it ain’t. What were you thinking? Your girlfriend left a trail a blind semi driver could find. She did not cover her tracks, and we are working our asses off and finding our own tails behind our rears, but the second you found Chrissy Hayes, you should’ve called us. The second!”

  I remained silent. There was no response that she’d want to hear.

  She heard that silence and sighed. “Oh, dear God. What were you going to do?”

  Again, silence from me.

  “We picked up a transition call from someone at your location to a location in Greece. Tell me that wasn’t you, and tell me that wasn’t you either calling in a team or you making plans to go and get your grandfather. Tell me that wasn’t also Calhoun Bastian’s coordinates.”

  I just let my chest rise, air went out, and it lowered.

  “Fuck!” She swore into the phone, the vehemence almost rattling. “Shit, shit, shit. You are going to ruin my career. You are a right bastard, aren’t you? What were you going to do, Kashton? At least tell me that.”

  Now she was coaxing?

  My hand went into my pocket and I tipped my head up, thinking. “What are you doing, Agent Bright?”

  She wanted me to say the words.

  Fuck.

  She was trying to trap me. On the phone.

  Fuck.

  Someone was listening.

  Fuck!

  She was no longer an asset to me.

  They were moving against me.

  “I take it that you are calling me to notify me that you have found my twin brother, and also Chrissy Hayes? Was that the purpose of this phone call?”

  “Shit.” A low curse under her breath. “Yeah.” She was resigned. She knew I knew. “We have a team moving in as we’re speaking, and I’m assuming we’ll be taking your brother into custody momentarily.” Another pause of hesitation. “You can wait for another call from myself. We’ll let you know if we find Chrissy Hayes alive or not.”

  She ended the call, and with that, I hung my head.

  The hold I had over Bright and Wilson was done.

  She’d been trying to entrap me, which said they were putting together a case against me. Whether they moved on it or not was a different situation, but now I knew, and I’d be covering my bases. Not letting myself contemplate the loss of that professional relationship, I went to Peter’s safe in the office and took out a phone I didn’t use unless it was absolutely necessary.

  I called my team. “Delete everything. Feds are now looking.”

  Then a second call. “Have you left yet?”

  “No.”

  “Stay. They’ve moved on them already.”

  “Will do.”

  I had one thing at least. I still had my grandfather within my clasp.

  “What’s going on?”

  Peter Francis was standing inside the office, his eyes alert and alarmed. It was a stark contrast from the bags under his eyes, or the exhaustion emanating from him.

  “The FBI found Chrissy Hayes.”

  FORTY-FIVE

  Kash

  I had limited time.

  Peter was told everything, and as he fell to his couch in shock, I strolled right past him. I was an ungrateful asshole to him, too. I should’ve taken the time, softened the blow, been there for him while he was coming to grips with everything that’d been uncovered in the last thirty-six hours.

  I didn’t.

  I walked right past, texting Matt.

  Kash: Fly back. Chrissy Hayes is alive. Your father and sister need you.

  My phone buzzed a second later.

  Matt: WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?

  Kash: Bailey will fill you in. Come back. I have to circle the wagons, don’t have time for more.

  That was it. He was texting me back, but I ignored his calls. What I said was true. I’d lost Bright and Wilson from my pocket. They were looking at me as an adversary, trying to find charges against me, and, well, they’d have a fight on their hands. I hadn’t intended on adopting the mantra that if I went down, they’d go down, but since they were flying around me, I was taking that mantra on now.

  Game on.

  “Hello?”

  “I need you to pull up anything and everything on my two FBI assets.”

  “Not to incriminate you, I’m assuming.”

  “Correct.”

  If they took payments from me, guarantee there was a whole closet of other payments, other bribes, other times they had looked the other way. They looked the other way when Bailey was first brought in, and they did it without blinking. There was a pattern, one they’d been doing for a long time, and there was a trail. There was always a trail.

  “You don’t want your girl to look into it?”

  I paused, just briefly, as I considered it. “No.” Bailey needed to be as clear from this as possible. “They said she left a trail when she found them. I need to know if she did.”

  “She didn’t.”

  My hand tightened on the phone. “Are you sure?”

  “She left one system open, the neighbor’s, but that was it. And I only know it was your girl because you told me what was going on. I’ll look, but I didn’t see anything they could trail back to her.”

  “They found the house.”

  He was silent on his end.

  I could read between the lines. I doubted they would’ve found the house on their own, not as fast as they did. That meant something happened. They had followed—

  He interrupted my thoughts. “They might’ve put an alert on your location, figuring you’d hunker down and have her look.”

  “They can do that?”

  “They can do almost anything, but if she erased her trail…”

  “Could they still have it?”

  He was silent again. A long second. “I don’t know.”

  Fuck.

  “Can you break in? See whether they have anything on her?”

  “They’re saying they do?”

  “Yeah.” I hated that word. I hated that admission.

  “I’ll look, but once I do, they’ll trail it back to me. Our own location will be exposed.”

  I couldn’t risk Bailey.

  “Start packing up. Do it remote, if you can,” I responded, still walking down the hallway to our room.

  “On it.”

  I ended the call as I got to the room, and going inside, I saw Bailey hadn’t moved. Her eyes were big. She was clutching her knees to her chest. I cursed, seeing how pale she was.

  “What’s happened?”

  I checked the clock. I was figuring I had one hour, if even that.

  “Feds found the house. They called; they’re trying to pull me in. My guess is you’ll be getting a call from them to notify you that your mother is alive this afternoon.”

  “Wait. What?” She scrambled off the bed, following me as I went into the bathroom.

  I stripped, turning the shower on and stepping underneath.

  Bailey waited, just outside the shower door. “What’s going on, Kash?”