Page 67 of Defenseless
“Fuck off. Both of you,” Chad said, glaring at them. Which only made them laugh. Sabina bit back her own laugh and leaned over and kissed his cheek.
“I know you want to protect me, so thank you for that. But aside from my role in the plan, what do you think of it?” she asked.
“Potential plan,” he muttered. “Stella and Hunter would have to sign off on it. They aren’t going to like putting their best cyber lead in front of a man like Jacobs any more than they are going to want to throw a civilian into the mix,” he said with a nod to Kara. Sabina refrained from pointing out that HICC wasn’t a military organization so technically, they were all civilians.
“What do you think of thepotentialplan?” Kara asked.
The wheels of the plane touched down smoothly on the Miami runway, and the cabin filled with the sounds of the engines reversing as they slowed to a taxi. Finally, when it quieted enough to speak again, Chad sighed. “Jacobs might not take the meeting. And even if he takes the meeting, he might not talk. Not even when he believes you’re not wired.”
“But?” Sabina pressed.
His shoulders dropped as he met her gaze. “I don’t like it, but I don’t have anything better to offer.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
They landedin DC six hours after touching down in Miami, and Chad was still feeling uneasy. They’d called Stella and Hunter from the plane, laid out the rough workings of the plan, and gotten sign-off. If they could get Jacobs to agree to meet in a public place, Chad didn’t think he’d do anything too dangerous. But that didn’t mean he might not try something either before or after the meeting. He’d already shown himself as a man who didn’t shy away from violence. And the way Jacobs had taunted Sabina with the postcard made Chad’s skin crawl. As if he enjoyed tormenting her.
And yet here he sat, awake in the early hours of the morning, staring out at the DC skyline contemplating the plan. HICC had booked a hotel for them not far from the Capitol building, and they’d only stumbled in an hour ago. Sabina was sound asleep in bed, and he assumed Kara, Ethan, and the others were as well. But not him.
Kevin Jacobs was a guilty man. Guilty of murder. Guilty of funding and benefiting from criminal activity. And probably guilty of everything the SEC and the election commission were investigating him for. Chad understood Sabina and Kara’s desire to bring him to justice. What he couldn’t wrap his head around, though, was their willingness to put themselves in his crosshairs to try to get a confession that Chad had some serious doubts they’d get. Jacobs might be an arrogant prick, but he wasn’t stupid.
A man darted down the street below the hotel, and it sparked an errant idea. Was it worth sneaking out now, catching Jacobs off guard, and doinghisbest to get a confession out of him? Jacobs might be smart, and he might be a little twisted, but Chad had learned a thing or two in the army and FBI that he was quite certain the pampered senator wouldn’t be able to withstand.
“Come to bed.”
Chad turned to see Sabina walking toward him, her silhouette lit by the ambient light coming in through the window. She’d been a part of his life—a part of him—for so long, and yet everything between them was new. And not.
She wrapped her arms around him from behind and rested her cheek against his back. He’d always hoped they’d end up here. Not quite in this scenario, but here, like this, together. It felt more right than anything had in a long time. They weregoodtogether. She made him laugh, made him think, and made him a better person. He hoped he did the same for her.
“Are you out here planning how you might torture Jacobs into confessing?” she asked. He could feel her smile against his back.
He grunted. “Maybe.”
“You know confessions gained through torture aren’t generally admissible.” Now she was laughing at him. Not outright, but he heard it in her voice.
“I’m not sure why you think I’d care,” he countered, fighting his own smile. It was kind of a ridiculous conversation. He wasn’tactuallygoing to torture Jacobs. But he did like the idea of it.
“You care, because I care,” she said. “I know he might never get convicted of the murder, but I do want him to admit to it. It’s not all that logical. What good is a confession if it doesn’t lead to him paying for his crime? But it’s how I feel. He’s manipulated so much over the past decades, and I guess this is Kara’s and my way of sayingenough.”
He turned and wrapped his arms around her, resting his cheek on the top of her head. “I know. I get it.”
“But you don’t like it.”
He shifted, a little uncomfortable. He wanted to support her—he did support her—but he couldn’t lie. “It doesn’t matter if I like it or not. I love you, and this is what you want. You deserve this opportunity.”
She drew back and looked up at him, her eyes sparkling in the dim light. “You love me?”
He studied her face, not understanding the confusion he heard in her voice. Not confusion, exactly. But maybe uncertainty?
“Of course I love you. I have for a long time,” he said. “Even when I wasn’t sure I wanted to, I couldn’t stop myself. That’s why I kept my distance from you. It hurt to only get bits and pieces of you. It was like a constant reminder that I wasn’t good enough. Keeping my distance was the only way I could feel like I wasn’t torturing myself. But once I fell in love, there was no way I was falling out. Not even on those rare occasions when I wished I would.”
She blinked, and his heart stuttered. He’d made her cry. “Please don’t cry,” he said, tipping her head up and brushing kisses along her damp cheeks.
“That’s the first time you’ve said it,” she said, squeezing her arms around him and burrowing her face against his chest.
He ran his hands through her hair as he stared into the dark room. “Is it?”
She nodded against him. “I’ve said it. But you haven’t. Not until just now.”
