Maya Banks - Hidden Away

Her cheeks warmed under the blatant admiration in his voice.

“You’re pretty damn special yourself, Garrett.”

His lips tightened and he looked down at his food, forking up a bite of eggs and shoveling them into his mouth.

“Tell me about you and Marcus. You were raised in foster homes and yet he’s your half brother. He seems pretty concerned about you now. Why weren’t you raised together?”

The question caught her off guard and for a moment she sat there, fork frozen midway to her mouth. She lowered it to her plate and was silent a moment.

“Marcus and I shared a father. I never knew him, but from what I’ve heard he was a real bastard. Marcus hated him because he was unfaithful to Marcus’s mom when he knocked my mom up. I would have thought that would give him reason enough to hate me. My mom wasn’t self-sufficient. She was the type of woman who floated from man to man, looking for someone to take care of her because she had no desire to be responsible or hold a job. When she got pregnant with me, I think she thought I was her meal ticket. The problem was, my father wanted nothing to do with either of us. He sent her away without a dime and told her he’d kill her if she ever tried to make trouble for him. Granted, this was my mother’s side and I was very young when she told me these stories, but Marcus did confirm that my mother did go to my father’s house when she found out she was pregnant with me and that our father threw her out.”

“Sounds like a real piece of work,” Garrett muttered.

“She died when I was eight and I went into the foster care system. You already know all that. Marcus has always felt guilty because he knew he had a half brother or sister, and he also knew our father would never accept me. After our father died, he started searching for me. When he found me, he wanted to give me things. A home. Money. Cars. I don’t know if he was trying to assuage his guilt or if just wanted the best for me. I was uncomfortable with it. I had a good job. I’d never get rich at it, but I was happy. And honestly just knowing he cared and that he’d been looking for me was enough. Suddenly I had someone when I hadn’t since I was eight. Plus ...”

“Plus what?” Garrett said as she drifted off.

She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t say this to insult you because I know you work for my brother, but I know he’s not perfect. I suspect ... I suspect he’s done a lot of things. Bad things. Our father wasn’t a good man. Part of me doesn’t want to know, because I love him and he’s my only family. I feel guilty because I stick my head in the sand, but if I knew—if I really knew—that he’d done terrible things, it would crush me.”

Garrett blew out his breath. Goddamn but this sucked. He didn’t even want to respond anything because anything he said at this point would be a lie.

“I don’t think badly of you,” she said in a rush. “I mean, I know this is a job. You just work for him.”

“You aren’t just a job, Sarah. If you believe that, you’re one hundred percent wrong. I don’t give a damn about the job. What I care about is you and making damn sure Cross doesn’t get close to you.”

Pink dusted her cheeks and her eyes went soft. “Garrett, there’s something else I wanted to tell you. Something I wanted to tell you when we were in that prison and I was so afraid. I didn’t think that was the right time, and maybe it isn’t now. I just—”

Garrett looked up in annoyance when Rio and Terrence let themselves in the back door. Sarah stood abruptly, her cheeks flushed and her fingers curled into nervous fists. What the hell had she been about to tell him?

“Do you guys want breakfast?” Sarah asked. “There’s plenty, and I could put on some more eggs and bacon if the others would like to eat.”

Rio glanced between Garrett’s scowl and Sarah with a raised eyebrow. “Are we interrupting anything?”

“Yes.”

“No,” Sarah said. “Really. We were just eating and talking about nothing. Why don’t you join us?”

Without giving Rio or Terrence a chance to answer, she hurried around to the fridge and took out more eggs and the rest of the bacon. She juggled another can of biscuits and plopped it all onto the counter.

“Your timing sucks,” Garrett muttered as Rio and Terrence took their seats.

Rio glanced over at Sarah, who was busy beating the eggs in a bowl. “Van called. Resnick’s sending one of his teams in. I don’t like it, but we could probably use the backup. Lattimer has resources. I don’t think it would be a bad idea to call up Steele for this. The last thing we want to do is underestimate Lattimer when all this goes down.”

“Do what you feel is best,” Garrett murmured. “My priority is Sarah. Your job is to make damn sure we’re both safe. If you need to call Steele in, then do it.”

Rio gave a short nod as Sarah walked over to put two plates in front of him and Terrence.

“What about the rest?” Sarah asked. “Aren’t they hungry?”

“They can’t leave their posts,” Rio explained. “Terrence and I won’t be long. We just wanted to check in on you two and make sure everything was all right.”

“Oh, we’re fine,” Sarah said breathlessly and gave Garrett a shy look that made him smile.

She sat back down, fiddled with her now-cold food some more and then looked up first at Garrett and then the others, and she frowned. “Do you really think they’ll find me here?”

Rio shot Garrett a look that clearly told him he wasn’t sure who the “they” were that she was referring to and furthermore, he wasn’t going to venture onto shaky ground.

“Cross. Or the people he hired, I mean,” she amended when no one immediately answered her.

Garrett reached over and squeezed her hand. “It’s not impossible. But probable? It would take time to pick up our trail from Mexico and a lot of resources to track us here. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done. We didn’t have the cleanest exit in the world, and my brothers hauling ass to Corozal didn’t help I’m sure. But regardless of whether they know where you are, what you need to realize is that we’re not going to let those bastards take you.”

Garrett glanced over at Rio. No, it wasn’t Cross and company who concerned them. But make no mistake, once Lattimer was taken care of, Cross was definitely next on their list.

THE slight bulge in Marcus Lattimer’s jaw was the only indication of his mounting fury. He stared coolly at the email from Sarah he’d just opened and leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowed in concentration.

It shouldn’t surprise him that someone had gotten to Sarah. She hadn’t done the best job in disappearing. He’d tried to persuade her to come to him, but he’d understood her reasons why. Sarah had become a target from the moment Marcus had killed her rapist. It was one of the few times he’d lost control in his life. It was one of the few mistakes he’d made.

Not that he regretted killing Allen Cross even for a moment. But he’d handled it all wrong. He’d allowed his rage to rule his actions. Stupid. What he should have done was get Sarah away from Boston and settled. Somewhere she’d be happy and taken care of. Then he could have dealt with Cross. Sarah would be none the wiser and he could have returned to her. They could have been a family.

Damn Culpepper. Another of Marcus’s recent mistakes. He was growing careless. Culpepper must have gotten information to the U.S. government before Marcus dispensed of him a few days earlier. He’d lasted longer than Marcus had thought he would. But no one could last forever under such horrific conditions.

Now Marcus wanted to kill him all over again for selling out Marcus’s only family. Sarah, who’d never hurt anyone. Who’d already been dealt enough misfortune in her life. He’d been so determined to make it up to her, and in the end he’d only caused her more pain.

It was all too pat. Too easy. Marcus doubted that Sarah even composed the email staring him in the face. She was too careful. She’d never blab such explicit details through an email. The question was whether Sarah was even in Belize as the email stated. It was a trap. No doubt there. But were they using her for actual bait or were they just trying to get Marcus to walk blindly into capture?

They weren’t the first to underestimate him. They wouldn’t be the last.

He leaned forward and punched the button on the desk to summon his head of security. He needed as much information on Sarah’s actual location as possible. If she wasn’t in Belize, he could go in, destroy the sons of bitches who bent low enough to use a woman in their war. If she was in Belize ... then he was going to have to be extremely careful. He wasn’t going to give himself up, but neither would he allow Sarah to be sacrificed on his behalf.

It was time to call in a few favors.

RIO wasn’t happy when Garrett informed him Steele and his team were coming in hot. The team leader’s lips thinned and his jaw went taut.

“Should have just hung up some balloons and announced a fucking party,” Rio muttered.

Garrett gave him a look of sympathy. Rio was a loner and it had probably been hard enough to open up his private sanctuary to Garrett and Sarah but now he had to play host to Steele and his entire team and there wasn’t much love lost between the two team leaders.

“Tell him this is my show. He’s not barging onto my turf and taking over.”

“He knows,” Garrett said. “Van was clear. You’re on point. You know this area. You have all the escape routes. Steele and his team are here to provide cover and support.”