Fatal Thrill Page 7

  Had kept samples in it. Those had gone up in the explosion.

  Nine weeks. I’ll never be ready.

  Who would do this? Was it some random stranger or someone associated with her dad? How had they found her?

  Too bad there wasn’t a pause button for her life, because right now, she’d be hammering the hell out of it. Just like when she was in a hurry waiting for an elevator and she kept jamming her thumb into the button. It did no good, but it made her feel better.

  Right now, she needed the biggest pause button on the planet. What did Mama used to always say? God won’t give you more than you can handle.

  Yeah, right! Testing that theory, Mom. Any minute she was going to snap. Just whap! Her head would explode into as many pieces as her poor van.

  “I’m really sorry about Kratos,” Shelby said. They stood side-by-side staring out at the ruined van carcass, Shelby rubbing Jaya’s back. “These people mean business.”

  “People?” Jaya eyed her friend. “Do you know who did this?”

  The front door opened and Jon entered, wiping muddy snow off his boots. “Get away from the window, Jaya.”

  Stepping back, she crossed her arms and padded across the floor. He removed his coat and hung it on top of hers again. “Someone blew up my van on purpose, didn’t they?” She glanced at Shelby, who followed her to where Jon stood.

  Both Shelby and Jon nodded at her. “It was no random incident,” Jon said. “Someone is targeting you.”

  “Because of the cross and my dad?”

  Another nod from them.

  “That’s brilliant.” She paced to the breakfast bar and back. “How do they expect me to track down the damn cross with no wheels? And what if they’d killed me? I can’t exactly find Dad or the cross if I’m dead!”

  Shelby tapped a finger against her leg. “I’m more concerned with how they found you, and why they felt the need to threaten you.”

  Jon went to the kitchen and poured a cup of cold coffee, setting it in the microwave. He motioned at Shelby to see if she wanted a cup, but she shook her head. As the microwave heated, Jon said, “Rory hasn’t found the exact location the text and video came from, but Sean and Finn’s passports show they arrived in Ireland four days ago and rented a car. A small B&B near Kinvarra claims they checked in but no one has seen either man in the past 24 hours.”

  Jaya’s blood cooled. “Kinvarra?”

  “Western Ireland, near the ocean.”

  “I know where it is. That’s the place my dad always talked about. The O’Sullivan clan had a castle overlooking the Atlantic there back in the 1100s. It’s where a bunch of my ancestors were born, got married, had their own kids, and died.”

  Jon took his cup from the microwave and sipped the hot liquid. “Is it possible someone there had the cross all along?”

  Jaya shrugged. “Anything’s possible. Do you think Finn is there?”

  “It’s the best place for us to start,” Shelby said. “I can contact the Garda and have them—”

  “No police.” Jon pushed away from the counter. “SFI will handle it.”

  Shelby buttoned her lips, and Jaya knew there was a retort there, but she kept it to herself. “Jaya, I did some digging into your dad’s…activities. He has a file.”

  “A file?” Jaya uncrossed her arms and leaned her butt on the back of the sofa. “My dad is wanted by the Bureau?”

  “Afraid so.”

  “You didn’t think to tell me this sooner?”

  “I don’t work international theft, J. This is the first I knew about it.”

  Jaya’s fingers dug into the cushions. “International theft?”

  “He’s implicated in several thefts of valuable jewelry in Ireland and the UK. The pieces were later sold on the black market. Interpol also wants him for questioning.”

  “Holy crap. I knew he’d done some bad things, but…”

  Jon was suddenly next to her, a hand on her shoulder. “We need to concentrate on Finn right now. I’ll call Beatrice and have her get the jet ready.”

  They had a jet? Jaya rubbed her forehead. “We’re going to Ireland?”

  “I’m going. I’ll coordinate a team and we’ll find your brother. Like I told you before, this is what I do. I don’t know how long it will take, but I’ll keep you posted every step of the way. You can stay with Shelby. She’ll keep you safe.”

  A shot of determination flooded her legs and she straightened, turning loose of the cushions. “You’re not going anywhere without me.”

  “Jaya, it’s not safe,” Shelby said before Jon could respond. “Whoever these people are, they mean business. They just set your van on fire.”

  “And thank God no one was hurt, but if they, or anyone else thinks that threatening me is a good idea, they better think again. Honestly, I don’t believe these people are all that smart, but I’m going to get my brother back, and then, if at all possible, hunt down my father and get rid of that damn cross once and for all.”

  How she was doing to do that, she had no idea. If she found her dad and the cross, she just might turn both over to the Feds.

  Jon opened his mouth and Jaya held up hand. “Don’t even try to talk me out of this. I’m serious. If you’re going to Ireland to look for Finn, then I sure as hell am too.”

  He closed his mouth, sealing his lips in an exaggerated gesture, just like Shelby had done earlier.

  Colton came blowing in the door. He stopped, took in everyone’s expression, and seeing the determination in Jaya’s stance and the fire in her eyes, he rocked back on his heels. “What’s going on?”

  “Well, lad.” Jon set his cup on the breakfast bar and affected an Irish accent. “Looks like we be headin’ to Ireland.”

  Jon was flying Jaya to Ireland, just not the way he’d planned.

  She wavered between Miss Confident and totally blown out, as if her world had gotten a lot smaller and meaner in the past few hours. It had, and there was no way around it.

  Colton was in the pilot seat, Morris “Moe” Bouchard his co-pilot. As the plane banked over the Atlantic, heading north, Jon made sure Jaya’s seatbelt was tight. His ballbuster was once again withdrawn. Her face had grown paler since leaving his apartment and the earlier nap had done nothing to fix the dark circles under her eyes. Rory—pretending to be Jaya—had sent a reply to the kidnapper, asking again where to bring the cross once she found it in order to exchange it for Finn. The only reply had been ‘your boyfriend knows,’ which made absolutely no sense to Jon unless the kidnapper assumed he would trace the text.

  Which was possible. If the kidnappers knew Jaya was connected to him and Rock Star—god only knew how they’d discovered him—they had probably assumed Jon could track them down.

  Damn right.

  Lightening flashed outside the window and the plane dipped, thanks to turbulence. North Atlantic storms this time of year were plentiful and Ireland was five hours ahead of DC, so they’d be arriving in the dark.

  Jaya was lights-out within an hour over the ocean and Jon was glad. The plane’s electric bucket seats would lean nearly flat and he gently adjusted Jaya so she was reclined. Shelby must have shared the same sentiment about Jaya’s need for rest, keeping the files she’d brought on Sean O’Sullivan to herself for the time being.

  The Bureau’s files didn’t interest Jon. Beatrice could get her hands on far more accurate information from a variety of sources. His first concern was locating Finn. Jon had no doubt that his boss had at least two or three people in Kinvarra who could give him the information he needed to start his search.

  The only reason he’d agreed to bring Shelby was for moral support. Jon wasn’t sure how to comfort Jaya or reassure her. She was usually a spitfire—seeing her reticent and guarded threw him off. He held her hand, her slender fingers cool to the touch, and rubbed his thumb in her palm. As the plane dipped again, she moaned in her sleep.

  He tightened his grip and rubbed a finger across a crease in her brow. Once her soft, even breathi
ng resumed, he relaxed. Motioning for Shelby to grab the blanket he’d laid on the opposite chair, he carefully released Jaya’s hand and tucked it around her.

  An hour later, he’d mentally run through his plan at least a hundred times. They’d left one storm behind only to encounter another.

  Shelby caught his eye. “I’m worried about her,” she said softly, cocking her chin at Jaya.

  He eased the blanket a little higher around Jaya’s shoulders. “She’ll be all right. I’ll make sure of it.”

  “It’s not just this mess with Finn and her dad. She looks…rundown. Sick, even.”

  “She’s got a lot on her shoulders with this expansion of her business. That lotion stuff.”

  Shelby seemed to think his “lotion stuff” term humorous. “It’s a big deal, but she’s working too hard. I mean, I’ve seen her go a hundred miles an hour most of her adult life, chasing what she wanted and being damn successful at it, but this is different. Something is off.”

  Jaya had seemed that way to him too. At the hotel on New Year’s Eve, she hadn’t wanted anything to eat, saying her stomach was queasy. He’d had to take off soon after and he hadn’t thought much about it. A dozen different viruses floated around this time of year, and he’d assumed she’d probably caught one. He never got sick, so he hadn’t been worried about picking it up himself. When she’d been at his place earlier, she’d only eaten toast and drank tea. Her appetite was normally a lot bigger. “I think she’s got a stomach bug.”

  Shelby nodded, seeming to think that over. “My mom always said if Jaya didn’t have bad luck, she’d have none at all.”

  “Sounds like she had a rough home life.”

  The expression Shelby made, crinkling up her nose, told Jon that was putting it mildly. “Rough and weird. Not that her parents were abusive or anything, but neglectful? Definitely. Jaya had to be mother and father to Finn most of his life or he would have turned into a juvenile delinquent like Colton. Maybe worse.”

  “Is that possible?”

  Shelby’s patient smile said no. Her husband had been quite the handful in his youth. Still was.

  Thunder boomed outside the plane and Jon held his breath, but Jaya’s sleeping form stayed still except for the rise and fall of her chest. “Finn’s got himself into a real jam, following in his father’s footsteps.”

  Shelby touched the file on her lap. “Sean O’Sullivan is definitely not a good role model, but he is an interesting one. I’m not surprised Finn fell under his charm. I’m sure treasure hunting is a lot more fun than being responsible and helping Jaya take care of their mom.”

  Jon tried to put himself in Finn’s shoes. Finn wasn’t a kid anymore, but he was still only twenty-one and had no clue what he wanted to do with his life from what Jaya had said. He’d never been interested in school, so college was pointless. He’d worked a job at a grocery store but found that too boring and had quit. Jaya had given him a job at her spa, only to have him not show up half the time, forcing her to fire him right before Christmas. She hadn’t said it, but Jon had picked up on the fact that she felt guilty. Had she pushed Finn into her father’s arms, setting him up for what had followed?

  Finn was a grown man with no ambition, but it was easy to understand why she was tight-lipped and distant. She was processing a lot of shit.

  Having her on this mission might be the wrong move—he’d debated with himself all the way to the airport. But she needed to feel in charge, like she had some say in what went down, and leaving her behind would have backfired on him. She wouldn’t have stayed put, even with Shelby keeping her in lockdown. Jaya had a mind of her own and nobody could force her to do anything.

  He loved that about her, probably because he was the same. The harder people tried to push him into a hole or label him, the harder he fought back.

  There was no way he’d let her get hurt. She was the air inside his chest now. He needed her like he did oxygen to breathe. He planned to keep her safe, no matter what, and the sooner he figured out who these bastards were, the sooner he could dole out justice and wrap up this case. He wanted Jaya to be happy again. Full of fire.

  She shifted, turning her head. Her eyelids opened and she stared out at the darkness over the Atlantic. “I still can’t believe my father is an international thief. No one is more of a juvenile delinquent than Colton, and yes, I’m sick.”

  Jon and Shelby exchanged an oh shit look. Jaya hadn’t been sleeping the whole time, obviously. “You heard all that?” Jon asked.

  She hit the seat adjuster and righted her chair, then handed Shelby the blanket before standing and motioning for him to let her pass by. “I need my overnight bag. Where is it?”

  He jumped up, feeling like a heel for being dumb enough to talk about her while she was right there. In his defense, he really had thought she was sleeping.

  Note to self… Jaya’s good at bluffing.

  Down at the end of the plane near the restrooms, he opened the door to a small cargo hold where their bags were stashed. Hers was neon pink with purple polka dots, a sharp contrast to the rest of the bags in drab shades.

  Jaya always stood out, even if it was just her suitcase.

  She stood behind him, looking a little green around the gills. “What do you need out of it? I’ll get it for you. Go sit down.”

  “Bring it to the bathroom.”

  “Okay.”

  The restroom was a few feet away and he released the fold-out changing table Beatrice had installed before Sloane arrived to set the bag on. He turned to get out of Jaya’s way and found her crowding in behind him.

  Good thing the room was bigger than a normal plane’s restroom, because even though Jaya didn’t weigh more than one-twenty, he did, and the two of them together still filled up the extra space.

  The plane dipped, turbulence once again nailing them, and she ended up in his arms.

  He held her until it passed, enjoying how well she fit against him. Like she was made for him.

  She maneuvered around him and locked the door. His brain blipped for half a second and he thought he might be getting lucky, but then he looked at her wan face and lowered gaze and knew sex was the last thing on her mind.

  Reaching out, he touched her hair, slightly messy from sleeping in the plane seat. “Do you want me to make you some tea?”

  He saw her visibly swallow, her jaws seeming to clench. “No, I don’t need anything. Well, that’s not exactly true, but…”

  His hand dropped to her shoulder and he rubbed it. “But what? What do you need? Whatever it is, I’ll get it for you. ”

  She pressed past him so she could get to the bag and he moved back as far as he could, his backside hitting the vanity. The sound of her bag’s zipper seemed loud in the tiny room, the low ceiling adding to the enclosed feeling. “You know my stomach thing?” She sighed heavily. “I wasn’t being exactly honest about that. It’s not a virus.”

  For one god-awful moment, he thought she was going to drop a bomb on him. Like she had cancer or something. He grabbed her by the arms and turned her to face him. “Jaya? What is it? Just tell me…”

  In her hands was a slender package. She held it up, silent.

  His eyes went wide and his eyebrows jumped skyward. The words on the box blurred, but he didn’t need to read them. The picture said it all and more.

  His heart did a funny thudthud inside his chest. His pulse raced like he’d just ran a four-minute mile. “You’re…?”

  Another hard swallow made her slender throat work. Her voice was soft and timid. “That’s what we’re about to find out.”

  “You haven’t taken it already?”

  “I wanted us to do it together.”

  Oh. “Okay.”

  Her gaze came up, her gorgeous eyes searching his. A defiant look passed over her features. “Okay? That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?”

  “I, uh…” What were the right words here?

  He’d been in plenty of battles, hellfire raining down aroun
d him. Had himself in some tight jams where he saw his buddies being blown up, and believing he’d never see another sunrise. During all of that, his brain never stopped working.

  But now? It was scrambled. Total fuzz. She didn’t seem at all happy about the situation, and he had no idea what words would be the correct ones to say at this moment.

  Maybe her unhappiness was because of the situation—the other with Finn and her dad—not because she might be pregnant with his kid.

  Right?

  Deep down he knew better. No woman in her right mind would want him to father her child. No smart woman, anyway, and Jaya was definitely one smart gal.

  Taking a deep breath, he figured he was damned no matter what he said, so it was best to reassure her and buy some time, because Jesus God, if she was pregnant with his child…

  How the hell had this happened?

  Dumb question.

  He squeezed both of her arms. “I’m here for you, J. With you all the way, whichever way that is. You know I’m absolutely crazy about you and no matter what the outcome of that test is, you and I will figure out what to do together, okay?”

  Her defiant face melted. She lowered the box. “You know what Shelby’s mom said? About me having no luck but bad? She’s right. Some Irish woman I am. I’m…”—the breath she drew came all the way from her toes—“scared.”

  The last two words were no more than a whisper, barely there over the noise of the plane’s motor. She was scared to find out for sure she was pregnant and considered that bad luck. He didn’t blame her—getting tied to him by a kid was definitely not good.

  He was shitting his pants too, so that made two of them in the scared department. What did he know about being a dad?

  But she was completely overwhelmed. She had a mother living in a home with Alzheimer’s, a growing business with dozens of employees to run, her brother being held by kidnappers… Yep, she won in the overwhelmed, freaked-out department hands-down.