Marked (Hostage Rescue Team Series) (6 page)

“Well it’s good you listened to your gut,” Kim said. “This may be the break the agency needs to nail the guy.” He stood and scooped the laptop off the desk.

Rachel eased to the side to let Agent Kim pass her and leave with her laptop. Her phone rang and she grabbed it from her pocket. When she saw the call display she exhaled in relief. “It’s Brandon.” Thank God. “Can I tell him about all this?”

Jake shook his head. “Not over the phone. Just make up something urgent and tell him you need him to come over right away.”

Nodding, she turned away and answered. “Hey. You okay?”

“Yeah, fine. What’s up?” His tone was cool but polite, letting her know he was still pissed about how she’d accused Tim.

“Where are you?”

“Out with some friends.”

She bit her tongue to keep from asking if Tim was one of them, concerned only with getting her brother back here immediately. “Listen, I had an accident and my car’s been towed. Can you come over?”

“Damn, are you all right?” He sounded genuinely worried, all lingering traces of anger gone.

“Just a bit sore, and shaken.” Well, that last part was certainly true.

Brandon expelled a hard breath. “Damn, I’m glad you’re okay. I’ll come right now. Be over in twenty.”

“Thanks,” she said, aware that Jake was behind her, listening.

“Sure. You need anything?”

“Just to see you.”

“Be there soon. If you change your mind about wanting something, let me know.”

And there was the baby brother she knew and loved. Her throat thickened. Maybe having Jake here to back her up while she explained everything would make Brandon listen. “I will.”

After ending the call she exhaled and faced Jake, once again taken off guard by the sight of him, all masculine power and dark good looks standing five feet away. He was staring at her, the naked male interest in his eyes setting off a burst of heat inside her.

Kind of pathetic that she’d never been able to let the idea of him go, but it was impossible to forget him and truly move on when she measured every other man against him. If he hadn’t been leaving for a contract job overseas the morning after they’d said their goodbyes, she knew in her gut things would have turned out far differently for them. If he’d stayed, she would have gone to him and told him how she felt. Hell, she’d almost gone to the airport the next morning to do just that, then chickened out at the last moment because he’d still been with Linda.

Now she swallowed at the heated look in his eyes, her mind flashing back to that night etched so deeply into her memory.

Just the two of them, alone outside the restaurant with the full moon shining down on them. She wasn’t even sure when things had begun to change, when their friendship had suddenly become more. But she’d never forget that goodbye.

Linda had gotten into an argument with him at the table and taken off in the middle of dinner, and looking back Rachel realized she must have picked up on the vibes between her and Jake. Rachel had stayed to finish dinner, trying to smooth things over and distract Jake from the fight, even as she’d been furious that Linda would do that to him the night before he shipped out for a contract job in Afghanistan. But the most telling part was that Jake hadn’t gone after her or called her to make up before he left.

Instead, after dinner Jake had walked Rachel to her car. He’d stood close, staring down at her with an intensity she’d never seen from him before. Whether it was because he was fed up with Linda’s drama or not, she’d allowed herself one insane moment of hope that he’d reach for her, tell her
she
was the one he wanted.

Then he’d curved a strong hand around the back of her neck and gazed deep into her eyes as he spoke.

I’d do anything for you. You know that, right?

She’d stood there and nodded, her throat too dry to utter a single word in reply, even though the words were right there on her tongue.
Then end it with her and ask me to be yours.
It had taken everything she had to hold the reply back.

He didn’t blink, didn’t look away. His intent stare sent an almost electric current buzzing over her skin. For a few endless heartbeats she was convinced he was going to kiss her, but when she didn’t respond he dropped his hand from her nape and pulled her into a tight hug instead.

Part of her had been disappointed in her cowardice, but in hindsight she knew she’d never be able to respect or trust him if he’d kissed her while in a relationship with someone else. Not that Linda was a bad person. Her relationship with Jake had already been strained at that point and, adding in the additional stressor of finding out her boyfriend had feelings for another woman… Yeah, Rachel could understand why she’d been so upset.

“He’s coming over,” she said to him now, a hot ball of need pooling in her abdomen as she pushed the memory away. Did he ever think about that night too, and wish things had gone differently?

The heat was still there in his eyes, but he’d banked it now. “Good. Was he with Xang?”

“Not sure, but it’s possible. I didn’t want to ask him in case it made things worse.”

He nodded and tucked his phone away. “I want to head back down and talk to the security guys.”

“Okay, I’ll go with you.” She headed out into the hall and toward the front door, pausing only long enough to grab her keys from the island.

When she looked over her shoulder Jake was staring at her again, the focus of that laser-like attention making her mind slip into vivid and erotic images of what it would be like to be the sole focus of that concentration in bed. She wasn’t gutsy enough to call him on it or the attraction still simmering between them though. “What?”

“I like your place. It suits you.”

She wasn’t sure whether that was a compliment or not. “What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “Soothing. Elegant. Peaceful.”

He thought she was all those things? “Thanks. I love it here. I bought it because of the view of the bay.” Her fingers tightened around the keys. As much as she wanted to keep him here, keep him talking, she had to remind herself that he was only here to help and her brother could be in danger. But Jake had always made her feel so comfortable when she was with him. She’d missed his solid, unshakable presence in her life.

A wistful ache settled in her chest. “Remind me why we lost touch again?”

A flare of surprise registered in his eyes at the blunt question, but he didn’t try to dodge it. “Dunno. But let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

She smiled, praying he meant there was a possibility of so much more between them than just as friends. “Deal. Now just let me grab a sweater.” She turned to head to her room but one of the crime scene guys stood there, blocking her path. Though she didn’t know him, the look on his face stopped her in her tracks.

“There’s something you need to see back here,” he said to her, flicking a glance at Jake.

Rachel followed him to her bedroom, her pulse thudding hard and fast in her throat. She felt Jake behind her as she paused in the doorway. When the agent stepped aside, she gasped. The contents of her lingerie drawer were dumped out all over the place. A rainbow of lace and silk covered her neatly made bed and the floor beside it like multi-color confetti.

A hand flew to her chest and she instinctively took a step back. Whoever had done this had been in here after she’d left this morning. And they’d somehow disabled her security system to do it. A wave of cold flashed through her. “Jake.”

He must have heard the fear in her voice because his rapid treads sounded behind her and then he set a protective hand on her hip as he peered over her shoulder. “Shit.”

Yeah, that pretty much summed it up.

She took another step back, recoiling from the sight before her and what it signified, stopping only when her back met the solid warmth of his chest. Swallowing, she scanned the room. Nothing appeared to be damaged. This was a deliberate, pointed message.

Jake eased her to the side and stepped past her into the room with the two other agents, surveying everything. His expression grew even blacker when he focused on something on the bed. He turned to her, his eyes burning with fury. “He sliced them.”

He?
“What?”

“Your underwear. He cut them up with something sharp.”

Rachel swallowed hard to force the lump back down her throat, aware of the sudden increase in her pulse and breathing rate. It freaked her out that someone had managed to get past the security measures in the building, not to mention her privately installed alarm, and even more that they’d not only gone through her underwear but slashed them. From all the crime documentaries she’d watched, that spoke of sexual fixation and a deeply buried rage that obviously couldn’t be contained anymore.

Her mind whirled, trying to make sense of it. The only possible suspect who came to mind was Xang, but that seemed crazy. He’d gotten what he wanted yesterday, hadn’t he?

Jake crossed back to her, spun her around by the shoulders. “Let’s go. Don’t touch anything. I’ll call in a team while we talk to security downstairs.”

In a fog she allowed him to propel her out the front door and down the elevator to the lobby, her legs shaky as hell. What would have happened if she’d been home alone when the break-in took place? It could have been her lying cut up on her bedroom floor rather than her panties. Her stomach rolled at the thought.

The security guard on duty at the front desk escorted them into the back room where the chief of security was waiting for them. “I’m Franconi. You Agent Evers?” the man asked.

“Yeah, and we’ve got a problem.” After Jake explained everything the man’s grim expression made Rachel pause. He didn’t seem surprised by what had happened. It was as if he already knew someone had broken into her place.

Jake stepped up to the bank of screens in front of Franconi where he and another guard were reviewing footage from the security cameras. “What did you find?”

“Is this the guy you’re looking for?” Franconi asked Rachel, indicating a segment of footage showing Brandon and his friends in the parking garage. She knew it was from the day before because she remembered Brandon wearing that blue plaid shirt.

“That’s him there.” She pointed to Xang, nearly a head shorter than her brother and the others.

Franconi grunted and allowed Jake to play the footage back several times. “I’ve made a copy of it for you,” he said to Jake, then added, “There’s more.”

Jake cast Franconi a sharp look at the gruff tone, and the man tapped a button on the computer on the next screen over, bringing up a different camera angle. “This is from a camera mounted on the side of the building. It’s well concealed, so only a trained expert would find it.”

As Rachel watched, a male approached the camera. He wore a dark hoodie and kept his head bent so his face wasn’t visible to the camera from that angle. He reached into his hoodie and withdrew something metallic.

“Leatherman tool,” Jake muttered.

Whatever it was, the man brought it to the door handle and used it to jimmy the locking mechanism.

“He’s smart enough to know how to pick the lock without triggering anything,” Franconi said, “and it’s possible he somehow disabled the camera mounted on the interior wall of the stairwell too, because it doesn’t pick him up when he comes in.”

Sure enough, seconds later the exterior door opened. “Why isn’t the alarm going off?” Rachel asked.

“We don’t know, but we think he must have disabled it ahead of time. Probably been casing the building for a few days at least. We’re looking into it.” On screen the intruder started to slip inside, pausing a moment to glance up and around. “This is the part I wanted you to see.” He tapped a button on the keyboard in front of him, stopping the feed. When he moved back, she got her first good look at the man’s profile.

Trepidation rippled through her.
Shit.

She felt Jake stiffen next to her, then he moved in close, his gaze riveted to the screen. That’s when she knew for certain it was Xang who’d picked the lock and snuck into the building. Fear raked her with its icy claws. “When was this?” Jake demanded.

Franconi glanced first at her, then Jake. “Just over two hours ago.”

All the blood drained from Rachel’s face as she was confronted with the certainty that her gut had been right about Xang all along. And also so very wrong. He could have raped her. Cut her.

“I was out. I’d gone to meet…” She trailed off, looking at Jake. “So he’s been casing the building, waiting for me to leave so he can break into my place and do…that?”

“He took the stairs to the eighth floor, and the cameras pick him up exiting and walking in the direction of your place, but again, the cameras near your door weren’t working. He comes into view again seven minutes after that back at the stairwell and leaves the building the same way he came in,” the head of security finished, pulling up the footage.

Rachel watched it for a few minutes, then looked at Jake, her mind spinning. Had anything else been out of place and she’d missed it? She hadn’t noticed anything else missing, but they hadn’t checked anything except the desk.

“Xang broke into my place and cut up my underwear,” she said in a voice that sounded strangely wooden with disbelief.

Jake stepped back and took her arm, snagging the USB drive containing the security footage with his other hand. “Come on.” He spoke over his shoulder to the security agents on the way to the door. “I’ll be in touch within the hour.”

When he ushered her into the stairwell that led to the underground parking garage, she resisted. “Where are we going?”

“Taking you to the office to run these pictures of Xang through the facial recognition software to get an airtight ID on him. While that’s happening the team will keep collecting evidence, and once they do the forensics we’ll find out exactly what the hell we’re dealing with. And until I know you’re safe from that asshole, you’re not coming back here.”

She craned her head back to frown at him, feeling lost and freaked out of her mind. “Where am I supposed to go? For how long?” This was insane. She was angry and scared and outraged that Xang had victimized her this way. Her whole life had been upended in less than twenty-four hours.