Code of Control (13 page)

“I fooled
everyone, Nolan, not just you. Don’t take it personally. I’m very good at what
I do, hacking computers is my life. I’m even better at hiding the truth from
those who don’t need to know.”

“Why have you
told me?” he pondered aloud.

She shrugged, her
eyes reaching his. “You asked me to trust you. I guess I felt telling you now as
the right thing to do.”

Nolan closed his
eyes, reopening them to an impending stare.

“You won’t tell
Devon, will you?” She’d broken away from her thoughts with a grimace.

Even as his gut
tightened, he shook his head. Tell his brother the woman he hired to work closely
with them was intent on ending a man’s life? Hell, no! Fool he would be to say
anything to anyone at this point.

“I suppose I
should tell you I was born Charlotte Ramone.” She flashed him a demure grin
this time, swiping at her tears. “I’m practically royalty, in a way.”

He reined in his
reaction to this news. Romane sounded Russian, never mind adding into the
equation her sultry looks and commanding presence. “American?”

Her head shook. “My
foster family made certain I became a US citizen as soon as I could. This is my
home, Nolan. I would defend it as much as you, perhaps more, knowing what can get
lost in the blink of an eye. The wrong man in Office can change the world’s
view by way of pen. I’ve seen it before, lived through it.”

Instinct to
shield his body from any more forced confession had Nolan lowering his head,
remaining still.

“Now that you know
my dirty little secret, I’m sure you’ll send me packing. I’m hoping you won’t
arrest me, however.”

Her heavy sigh
strong and sure, Nolan was confused on what he should do about her. On the one
hand, he was top dog and should not fall for a pair of sexy legs and gorgeous
eyes, keeping her on his team. He should be defending his country with every
ounce of his soul. On the other hand, through tortuous hell in her life, she
was an American citizen, he would not have been able to hire her if she hadn’t
been, and if he could do something to change her life to the better, he would—there
was just something about her he needed to protect.

“My secret is
not as bad as yours, believe me,” he claimed. A sudden emptiness he hadn’t felt
in a long time stabbed him through the heart.

“I’m sure it’s
not, but still…tit for tat.”

Nolan drew in a
deep breath, held it, and then kissed her. Their one night together certainly was
not a barometer to what lie ahead by way of forced confession and mistaken
identities.

“My wife was
shot by mistake,” he began, knowing she’d react badly to this—expected it.

Charlotte tensed
in his arms, eyes wide.

“Mistake? How?”

“Charity was
supposed to be on one side of the ravine, I was on the other; Devon was in the
middle, doing counterintelligence. All hell broke loose; no one knew where
anyone was…” He closed his eyes briefly, reopening them to a penetrating stare.
“I shot my wife by mistake, Charlotte. I was the one who killed her.”

Maybe if protecting
the one person he swore on his life to protect, the tragedy of Charity’s death
would not shadow his every step. Maybe telling Charlotte was the right thing to
do. Nevertheless, the crushing blow of remorse hit him swift.

“Oh, God, Nolan,”
she said softly, her fingers reaching for his face. She studied him for a long
moment. “We are a pair, aren’t we?” She then drew his mouth toward hers.

“Yes, quite a
pair,” he muttered, accepting her kiss, for what it was worth.

They’d bonded in
the worst possible way—secrets and lies the glue—and there was no turning back now.

Chapter Fourteen

“Phone call,
bro,” Devon yelled from the doorway of the farmhouse.

Nolan eased away
from Charlotte, growling under his breath.

“Perfect
timing,” she said, smiling sweetly.

“No. Not perfect
timing,” he snapped. “Very bad timing—as usual, per Devon’s style.”

They stared at
each other, but eventually Nolan stepped away from the corral. “I probably need
to answer this call. I doubt Devon would have interrupted us unless it truly important.”

“It’s fine, really.
You have phone calls; I have to get my foot out of my mouth.”

“Why?”

“I should not
have told you. You’re now going to look at me differently, act strange around
me, pretend everything is perfect between us when it’s not…”

He reached for
her, drawing her close. “I’m not going to pretend a damn thing. I’m going to
man up, accept the fact you were abused, emotionally and physically, and accept
who you are now, not who you were.”

Her eyes
widened. “Really?”

Nolan nodded.

“Yo, bro, did
you fucking hear me?” Devon yelled again.

“I’m coming,” Nolan
yelled back, muttering “asshole” under his breath.

“I’m sure you
are, bro, but I don’t need the info,” Devon replied, chuckling loudly.

“He is so
crass,” Charlotte ruled.

“Crass but
effective.”

“Even so…”

“Come with me to
the house,” he suggested.

Charlotte shook
her head. “Give me a moment out here. I need to clear my head. You go inside
and answer your phone. I’ll be fine. No worries.”

He stared at
her, but accepted she would be fine without him. “Come inside as soon as you’re
ready. We’ll talk more.”

She nodded, and then
looked away as he turned and went to answer the phone. Five minutes later, he
was yelling out the back door for her. “Charlotte?” He could just make out the
shadowed silhouette of her body near the corral. It turned toward him.

“Yeah?”

“Come inside, now!”

He opened the
door for her when her feet touched the porch.

“What’s up?”

“We need to
leave,” he said, escorting her straight to the bedroom.

“Leave, where?”

He pushed her
into his room, closing the door. On the bed was her open suitcase.

Nolan went to his
closet, bent down, pulled out a large duffel, tossing it carelessly on the bed.
He opened it. Inside were the rest of her clothes. He retrieved them out, gave
her a sly smile, and then dumped her clothes into her case. “
OSHIT
lost
connection with an operative in Belize. We need to leave tonight.”

“But my
training…my two weeks,” she began.

“Fuck training.
It was mostly a ruse to get you to stay with me until knowing what to do with
you.”

“Mostly?” she
gasped.

He stopped
packing clothes, standing tall to look at her. “Yes, Charlotte, mostly.”

“You mean you
never wanted me to shoot you?”

“Hell, no! I was
only seeing if you would crack.”

“What about
Devon?”

“He’ll stay
behind and take care of things until we get settled in down there. Then he’ll
join us.”

“So this is it.
I go from newbie to full combat?”

His eyes locked
with hers. “Looks that way.”

“And you’re okay
with this?”

“I don’t have a
choice. I need a partner. You’re it.”

“But a partner
you don’t trust.”

He stalled his
packing, stood tall, and stared at her. “I trust you enough to take you with me
to Belize. That should be enough.”

****

Charlotte wasn’t
certain she trusted Nolan to go with him, however. No one in right mind would
partner up with an unknown, not give proper training to that partner, at least not
to his liking, and then expect supreme performance when the heat gets too hot
to handle.

Hell, she would not
have gone on a job with him, if not knowing a bit more about him than she had
days ago. Yes, he is the boss, and she should adhere to his demands. But she
had a brain, the ability, and so far he hasn’t seen any of this from her. He’s
seen her as an emotional wreck, a phobic, and a slightly unstable revenge
addict, now knowing more of her background. Those were not the best assets to
her psyche—and there was more she hadn’t told him, more secrets she hadn’t
shared.

Still, she had
to show him more, prove herself.

She jammed into
her suitcase all she possessed—all they stole from her apartment to bring to
here—then raised her eyes to Nolan packing, his mind was set on the job, little
more.

“Nolan?”

He turned.
“Hmm?”

“Are you sure
about this? About me?”

He stopped
packing and moved over to her, reaching for her elbow. His gentle touch made
her feel better about where they were going and the reasons why. “Very sure.”

“How can you be
so…”

“How can I not
be?” he interrupted. “As you’ve said before, you’re overqualified. I’d be a
fool to take someone underqualified on a job like this.”

“What if…”

He set a finger
against her lips, silencing her. “Don’t you dare finish that, Ms. Raven.”

“But…” she
pressed on.

“I said…don’t.
Nothing will go wrong. You’re ready. I was born ready, even if born second and
Devon reminds me of this daily. Nothing will go wrong, Charlotte. Trust me.”

“I do trust you.
It’s just…”

He cut her off
again, this time with a kiss; lingering until certain she would give up trying
to disagree with him. He drew back and she licked her lips.

“If every time I
want to say something and you kiss it away, we should have no troubles at all as
partners,” she said snippily.

“Giving me lip
now?” he teased, his brows raised.

“Yes.”

“Good. It’ll keep
the both of us on our toes in Belize.”

“But what if…”

“Charlotte…”

She stopped,
giving him a false smile. “Nolan.”

“Would you
please stop worrying? This is going to be a walk in the park for you. You know
your stuff, you know how to crack codes, you’re perfect for this…perhaps too
perfect.” He then returned to packing, making it obvious she should do so as
well.

With unsteady
hands, Charlotte finished. She carried her suitcase to the front door. Devon
was inside the kitchen, waiting for them. He handed her a sealed packet.

“Read this on
the flight. It’s the layout and any background on the target.” He pulled from
his pocket two plane tickets. “You’re in charge of these. Nolan always loses
them.”

Charlotte
accepted the plane tickets with a wry smile, just as Nolan was coming out of
the bedroom carrying his stuff.

“I do not,” he
disagreed loudly. “Done once, and you just can’t forget it, can you?”

“The fuck you say!”
Devon returned. “Once…on the most important case we ever had. Ever try to get
out a of country with no passport or proof you’d gotten into it legally?”

The men then up walked
to each other, gave a quick manly hug, and parted as if each had the plague.

“Don’t get your
ass killed until I can get down there to claim the body,” Devon said, his lips
tight, eyes firmly locked on his twin.

“Wouldn’t dream
of it,” Nolan replied, a catch in his throat.

“I mean it,
bro…”

“No worries.
I’ll have Charlotte with me. If I do get shot, she’ll be there to tell you
where they buried the corpse.”

“Not funny,”
Devon disclaimed.

Charlotte knew
they were trying to settle their differences in a brotherly sort of way,
without coming out and saying they loved each other if something went wrong. If
she wasn’t the intruder in this conversation they might have openly admitted
it.

Well, dammit,
she was not going to leave here until they did. She wanted no part of the
responsibility if something went wrong.

“Just tell him
you love him,” she blurted, “before either of you blows a gasket.”

Devon and Nolan
looked at her strangely.

“I thought we
just did,” Nolan said, giving his brother a toothy grin.

“Yeah! Love,
hugs, kisses, the works,” Devon agreed.

Charlotte rolled
her eyes. “You two are hopeless…and you think
I
have issues?”

“Hey, I don’t
have issues,” Devon argued.

“Me, either,” Nolan
responded.

“Yes, you do…the
both of you.” She pointed first at Nolan. “You have control issues, and he…”
Her finger moved to Devon. “—He has twin issues.”

“Twin issues?”
Devon asked. “Is that even a real thing?”

“Yes, it is,”
she said. “As real as it gets.”

Devon shook his
head. “I don’t have twin issues, but I will concur on the control thingy with
Little Brother.”

“See?” she said.

He gave her a
toothy grin. “Nope.”

“Ugh!”

“If you two are
done arguing about who has what and why, can we leave?” Nolan interrupted.

Charlotte gathered
herself together. “Sure thing, Boss.”

He grabbed her
suitcase and his, carrying them out to the Hummer. On impulse, she turned and
gave Devon a quick hug.

“I’ll bring him
back, safe and sound.”

“You better,”
Devon said, sounding choked up.

“Are you going
to miss him?” she teased, trying to force the worry out of going into a foreign
country and facing the unknown from bad guys intent on crime.

“Hell, no! I get
his place all to myself. Milking cows sucks a bit, but once you’re down there
and I can get the neighbor’s kid to do it for me, I’ll be in your face faster
than you can say Jackrabbit.”

“Fine. I’ll hold
you to that,” she said.

“Are you going
to miss me?” He gave her a huge wink, testing her.

“Devon…”

“What? A guy can
try, can’t he?”

“He can. But
he’s not going to get too far with the effort if his name’s not Nolan.”

His head bobbed.
“That’s what I thought.”

“What did you
think?” she feigned innocently.

“You and he are
so tight you don’t even know it. Or, if you do, you won’t admit it.”

“We are not—”

He held his hand
in her face. “Don’t deny what is black and white, Charlotte. He got to you
first. I’ll back off and wait. Sooner or later, my brother is bound to screw
this up. I’ll be there when you need me. My shoulder is well equipped to handle
heavy tears.”

Thankfully, Nolan
was not in earshot of hearing that his twin thought lowly of his abilities to
keeping a girl. Then again, she wasn’t kept by Nolan. She was his partner.

“I won’t need the
shoulder,” she reassured him.

Devon’s smile
was slow, but sure. “I’ll keep it open…just in case.”

Nolan suddenly
entered the kitchen. “Ready?”

Charlotte gave
Devon an easy grin, turned to Nolan, his hand out to her. “I was born ready,”
she said, placing her palm against his.