Dawn Endeavor 3: Julian's Jeopardy (9 page)

Since she'd replaced Admiral London nearly a year ago, Mrs. Sharpe had taken the team on some weird turns. At first, the Dawn Endeavor mission had been set up to fight science gone wrong around the globe, on behalf of the United States government. After all, who better to exterminate mutant Circs than Circs themselves? Then the admiral's new project had come under attack, and Mrs.

Sharpe had redirected the team to eliminate the new threat. With Captain William Delancey now dead, they had only Colonel Ricardo Montaña and the man or men he worked for to take care of.

Jules swore again, wishing he could recall more details about his time away.

Despite Mrs. Sharpe's attempts to help him remember, he had a lot of dark spots he still couldn't make sense of mingled with bouts of clearheaded specifics. He remembered a Dr. Silva, the presence of rogue Circs. Most of his memories centered on a dark, humid place, where he'd been chained, drugged, and beaten. The heady smell of the tropics tickled his memory, and with it came the sultry scent of a woman and sex and need. The glimpses he had of her told him she
had
to be real, no matter that no one seemed to know a damn thing about her.

Jules huffed and worked some shampoo into his hair. He was sick of so much secrecy. Conspiracies around every corner. Women who disappeared like ghosts in the night…

No matter how often he tried to move on with his life, snatches of his experience in the jungle continued to return, obliterating any sense of peace. And on the edge of the fists, the knives, and the numbing drugs that held his beast in check, he'd envision the woman his beast considered
his
. While working on missions, eating his breakfast, or even staring into fucking space, Jules continued to see rich, dark red hair, blue eyes that rivaled the sky for clarity, and a pinup's body that rode his without cease.

As if she remained with him, Jules could feel her body gloving his, could taste the sweetness of her kiss, and experienced the fullness of her feminine curves as he claimed her as his own.

His arousal spiked, despite his recent relief with Tersch. As he soaped himself, he tried to remember more of where he'd been and what he'd seen when he'd been gone.

It didn't surprise Mrs. Sharpe that he couldn't remember much. The drugs in his system, combined with the physical, emotional, and mental toll he'd undergone, confused his memory. To hear Mrs. Sharpe tell it, that was probably a good thing.

Even Jules's beast couldn't make sense of his internment. The creature didn't like remembering, except when it came to the small goddess with large breasts, a tiny waist, and an ass that begged for his attention. Talk about one helluva fantasy to combat Montaña's treatment.

Jules groaned and rubbed his aching cock, needing to come again. His redheaded angel came to help.
Her mouth under his, so slick and soft, so needy. That
pussy holding him tight, clamping down as he spilled inside her. Those hot hands,
such power flowing between them as she cradled his sac and drew on his shaft
… He jetted a thick stream of cum against the shower wall and shivered from the intense climax under the cool spray of water.

He hadn't mentioned the woman again, not since he'd asked about her when Morgan and Hayashi found him. He wanted to keep the memory to himself, partially because a part of him still wasn't sure if she had been real or a fantasy.

Neither had he mentioned his growing lust nor the fact that certain sights and scents made him think of her. Bad enough that since he'd been back, everyone kept an eye on him. Olivia and Fallon treated him like a fragile piece of glass they expected to shatter at any moment. Morgan irritated him more than usual, actually being polite while he tried to usurp command of the team. Damned Hayashi watched him all the time with those careful eyes that saw way too much. And Tersch, the jackass, continued to act like his personal bodyguard whenever they went anywhere outside the mansion.

I’m fucking fine. Except for my stupid beast—and cock—needing that woman,
I’m good to go. Why the hell can’t they see that?

Jules sighed. He didn't think he'd given any of them reason to distrust his ability to lead. But maybe he had. Being gone for more than six weeks and returning less than focused apparently had them all worried. He flexed his arms.

Starting now, he wasn't taking any more TLC shit from the team. After tonight's display of dominance, hopefully Tersch would stop babying him and take his rightful place as general team troublemaker. Now Jules just had to convince the others to relax and let him resume his place as team leader.

He hadn't anticipated how badly his capture had shaken them all. When Hayashi had gone missing nine months ago, they'd panicked. But they'd recovered him quickly. Abused and left for dead at the hands of Montaña's men, Hayashi had healed fast, thanks to Morgan's odd ability to share his energy with his lover.

Hayashi had rejoined the team in no time flat. Unlike Hayashi, Jules had been missing for a good month and a half. And to make matters worse, none of them had been able to find him. It was as if he'd vanished off the face of the earth.

Where the hell
was
I?

He didn't have any scars to prove torture, but he remembered enough to know he'd been pounded but good. He winced at the hazy recollection of Montaña stabbing him between his legs, at the flames burning his skin, at the raw rub of metal over open wounds.

His beast rose and growled, sniffing for any impending threat.

Nothing. Not a damned thing, just flashbacks of a danger Jules couldn't totally see. He tamped his beast back down. It went but settled into an uneasy curl.

Jules tried to calm himself, annoyed that he continued to spiral into an inner rage he found harder and harder to shake. He understood Tersch's despair, the need to release the rage, to hurt someone else the way he hurt. Swearing because he felt no end in sight for this confusion and anger, the need for something he couldn't quite name, Jules slammed his fist through the shower's tiled wall.

Bone broke and reformed, but the pain didn't help his frustration. Now he had a hole in the wall
and
more unanswered questions. Too bad Sheridan wasn't here.

She could have helped.

He froze.

Sheridan.

The name rang inside his mind like a bell, and his beast perked up, aroused and alert.

That quickly, the clarity faded.

But now Jules had a name to go with his dreams. Sheridan.

He finished cleaning himself and turned off the shower.
Have to get Jack in
here to take a look at the mess I made. At least he can be counted on to be discreet.

The handyman had a decent sense of humor and respected Jules's authority.

Jack Keiser had been an operative in the government at one time, a badass who decided marriage suited him a lot better than the probability of dying on the job.

The odds of living through the dangerous missions he'd been assigned worsened over time. Jules grinned. Then again, Melissa, Jack's wife, probably hadn't given him much of a choice.

Another love match. Another relationship that seemed to work, despite the drudge of day-to-day living. Jules's own parents had their own happily-ever-after, even dying together in a plane crash just days after he'd joined the Circ program.

Fallon loved Olivia more than his next breath, and the woman would do anything for her mate. Hayashi and Morgan fairly lived in each other's pockets, joined at the hip. Tersch, for all his denial, fit well with Fallon and Olivia, who'd seemed to take the big Circ under their wing.

Everyone but Jules had someone special, and his solitude, even among the men and women he considered family, tore at him.

For all of two seconds.

The moment of self-pity infuriated him, and he suppressed his pathetic needs.

When his beast moaned, wanting a mate, Jules shut him up, fast.
Suck it up,
princess. You’re alive, and you have a job to do. Quit whining. You sound as bad as
Tersch.

Jules reached for a towel. He dried off and, after dressing in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, headed downstairs into the family room the team used as a common center.

The large kitchen overlooked the area, which not only had a nice plasma television, pool table, and poker table, but also easy access to the outside via a set of French doors. A fireplace used to heat the downstairs during the colder winter months sat at the opposite end of the room. At present, Hayashi and Morgan played cribbage at the poker table.

He snorted. Trust Hayashi to play a game requiring math. Their sophisticated Circ, as Jules liked to think of him. Hayashi listened to classical music, read books, and wrote poetry—for fun—and had a mate who could speak several languages as well as kick ass in the gym—in spite of the fact that Morgan wasn't Circ.

Wasn't Circ yet could borrow Hayashi's energy to turn himself into a Circ-human hybrid. Shit, by harnessing Hayashi's energy, Morgan could grow bigger and stronger, but without the fangs, claws, and skinlike body armor. But Jules still didn't buy the story that Morgan wasn't Circ. He didn't know how Morgan pulled it off, but his beast knew Morgan was Circ. The same way Jules knew Mrs. Sharpe and Ava Belle had a lot more going on under the surface than either woman would admit.

“Hey, team leader. What's up, hoss?” Morgan grinned and fucking
winked
at him.

Calling me hoss because he knows it irritates me. Ignore him
. Jules drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Hayashi, Morgan. You two seem to have developed a card fetish.”

Hayashi snorted. “I'm just trying to let him recoup his losses. Morgan is down four sets of laundry and dish duty on Thursdays.” Morgan scowled. “That's because you keep releasing that scent anytime it looks like I'm winning. That's cheating.”

Hayashi raised a brow but didn't reply, and Jules chuckled. He sat on the comfortable leather couch and tried to lose himself in some mindless television while the pair sniped and tried to outdo each other. Friendly competition, a rivalry based on love, mutual respect, and need.

It had taken Hayashi long enough to admit he was gay, not that Jules hadn't known it for years. But for some reason, Hayashi had thought the team would kick him out if they knew his natural proclivities leaned toward loving men. Jules shook his head. The whole team had fucked one another more times than he could count, and Hayashi worried about them rejecting him for taking a man as mate?

At least Hayashi and Morgan didn't seem to have any major issues, nor did Fallon and Olivia, fortunately.

“Oh, here you are.” Ava entered the room, looking pissed as hell.

He groaned. So much for relaxing for once.

“Ava, baby. What's Kisho holding?” Morgan asked, distracting her.

Hayashi frowned at his mate. “That's cheating.”

“All's fair in love and cards,
kitsu
.” Little fox. The endearment Morgan called him brought a blush to Hayashi's cheeks.

Ava grinned at them. “Two jacks and two fives. You're screwed.”

“Ava.” Hayashi muttered something under his breath in Japanese.

She turned her attention to Jules. “We have a problem.”

“Look, I talked to Tersch. He's better now. Okay?” Jules squinted at the screen as some actor shot an alien with three heads, hoping she'd leave him alone.

“Our problem is sitting in her study right now, refusing to okay our medical transfer until she talks to you.”

Hayashi and Morgan froze.

“What transfer?” Morgan asked.

“Medical? Are we finally getting a Circ doctor? Man, it's about time,” Hayashi added.

Jules ground his teeth and reminded himself not to take out his annoyance on Ava. “Dammit, I told her we didn't need any new staff. Not with Montaña's men still out there. We can't trust anyone until we nail the leak we seem to have. Montaña is like a ghost. Any time we get close, he disappears. I was taken three miles from a damned US Marine Corps base by men wanted by the CIA. Now how the hell do you think they got so close to me without help from someone in our organization?”

“I'm not disputing that. I'm just telling you, you need to talk to Mrs. S. about this.”

“I don't want anyone else in the one place we should be able to think of as safe.

And I don't want to talk to Mrs. Sharpe about it
again
. Hell, I'm all talked out.

That's all she's been arguing about for a week.” Ava huffed. “So tell her, not me.”

“No. I want to relax for once,” he muttered, taking the coward's way out. “Hell, Ava. Just tell her I'll talk to her about it tomorrow, okay? I'm tired, I have a headache, and I—”

He broke off when he noticed the concerned glances from the others.

“Fuck it.” He quickly rose and stormed from the room, tired of being constantly watched like he might break. Hell, he felt like Tersch.

Tersch, though, had given them signs he was unstable. Jules hadn't. Since his return to the group, he'd been the same leader, the same take-charge SEAL trying to find and take down their enemy. Not his fault they couldn't seem to nail Montaña's location. During his time back, however, the Dawn Endeavor team had found and stopped two hits on members of the admiral's staff and ruined a failed kidnapping attempt on the admiral himself.

So why did the others continue to treat Jules like a wounded animal?
Probably
because Fallon can’t keep his mouth shut. I knew that bastard was combing through
my mind a few days ago
. And just when Jules had flashed back to Montaña's wicked knife. Trust Fallon to share with the others.

He scowled and increased his pace toward Mrs. Sharpe's study. The woman practically lived in there. Day or night, he could always track her down at her desk.

He reached the door right when she opened it.

“Jules, I trust Ava told you I was looking for you?” Mrs. Sharpe smiled warmly, but he wasn't fooled. The woman was a shark in heels, even if she did come to just under his breastbone.

“Yeah.” He might as well admit defeat. Mrs. Sharpe might look like a graceful aristocrat, but she had the tenacity of a pit bull. He wouldn't find any peace tonight until he dealt with the business of medical personnel.