Chapter 14

January 17th

6:34 A.M.

Didshe have enough courage to ask the question buzzing at the back of her mind all night?

Even while she slept it was there.

Even as Tate cooked for her.

Even as he smiled at her.

Even as he made love to her again.

Even as they slept tangled in each other's arms.

Scarlett wanted to ask so badly, but a part of her was afraid of the answer.

The thing was, when it came to this man she no longer trusted her gut. It was easy for Tate to say that he admired her for going after what she wanted in life, but the truth was that fear drove her, not some noble purpose.

Her biggest fear was being alone for the rest of her life.

Thatwas why she looked for love so hard, why she was willing to put her heart on the line, why she didn"t hold back.

"Tate?" she asked, deciding to get it over and done with was better than dwelling on it every second.

"Yeah, sweetheart?"

His voice rolled over her like a tidal wave of warmth and safety, and she loved the way he called her sweetheart. There were a few times he'd said it before he decided to trust her that made it sound like an insult, but now it was like a big dollop of sugary sweetness.

"Scarlett?"

"Oh, umm, yeah." She could feel the blush staining her cheeks a bright red, and subconsciously brushed at them. "Yesterday you said that I matter, but you've never treated me like that after the night we spent together."

Since they were still curled up in the king-size bed, Tate rolled her over so she was draped across his body, front to front. Even though the bed was large enough for them to have their own space, he'd held her all night, keeping her close, following her even in his sleep if she rolled away even just so much that their bodies were no longer touching.

Did that mean something?

Or was she clutching at straws?

Did she even want it to mean anything?

The way he'd treated her after their night together was hard to forget and … she kept expecting that guy to return. Was that something that would pass? Or would she always be waiting for Tate to panic and lash out?

"Look at me, sweetheart," he ordered, a clear command in his tone even though his voice was gentle.

Lifting her eyes to meet his, she was surprised by the warmth she saw there.

This was the man she'd thought she could fall in love with.

Please let this Tate stay.

"You do matter, Scarlett, and I hate that nobody in your life has made you feel as though you do. I hate that I made you feel as though you don't matter."

There was sincerity and regret in his tone.

What world was she living in?

How could the man who had slipped out of her bed without a goodbye, then not just ghosted her but been downright cruel when they randomly met up, also be this man who was so sweet she just wanted to gobble him up like candy?

"I … I"m not … it's just … what changed?" she asked helplessly. Tate had said he wanted to be more open like her, that he had been scared before but hadn"t been able to stop thinking about her these last few months, but that's not what she'd seen with her own two eyes. Already once in the last couple of days, she'd mistaken sex as meaning more than it had to him, and she was so afraid she was going to do it again.

Since she was draped over him, Scarlett felt the deep sigh that seemed to come right from Tate's soul.

There was a huge part of her that wanted to soothe his pain, but the other part knew she couldn't jump in with her eyes closed, her fingers crossed, and hope for the best. Not this time. Tate might have learned something, but she had too. She had learned that looking for love was fine, but being so trusting put both her heart and her life in danger.

What if she'd trusted a man who turned out to be physically violent?

Tate was dangerous to her heart, but he'd never hurt her like that, that she was confident about. He was a protector at heart, it was part of the reason she felt safe with him.

"You want me to be completely honest?" Tate asked, one hand stroking the length of her spine, she wasn't sure if it was to soothe her, or himself, but it did help settle her nerves.

"Yes. Completely." Propping her chin on Tate's chest she waited expectantly.

"I always wanted to give what you made me feel a chance, but I was a coward. Letting you in would have been becoming everything I believed I didn"t want to be. So, it was easier to shove you away, then make you out to be the bad guy. When I heard you were suspected of being a traitor my mind immediately went to my dad. After me pleading with him for two decades to get back out there and live after my mom died, he finally met a woman and married her. I pushed for him to give her a chance because I thought she'd be good for him. Turned out, she was dealing drugs, wanted my dad's money, got him addicted then set him up to take the fall when the cops came after her. He's currently serving a ten-year sentence for dealing and she's free. The guilt I feel, knowing I pushed him into that, it's been slowly crushing me. I used that to justify me pushing you away, to prove to myself that no good ever comes from loving someone."

Another sigh rumbled through his big body, the hand that wasn't sweeping up and down her back gripped her hip almost painfully tight, but Scarlett relished the tiny bite of pain because it meant he was holding on to her rather than pushing her away. He had been completely forthright with his answer, sharing about his past, and had apologized without making excuses.

It was getting easier to see herself giving him a chance.

"When I walked into Prey yesterday, Eagle was there, and it just hit me how firmly on your side your Prey family was from the very beginning. They didn"t doubt you, not for a single second, and suddenly I realized the flip side to what I"ve always seen. Yes, my parents shouldn't have excluded me the way they did, there was room in their hearts for each other and their child. But there's a positive to having someone love you so strongly they don't even have to question whether you"re guilty. That unconditional love must be amazing. I"m so glad you have that from your Prey family, and I want that too. Maybe all these years I haven't been running from relationships because I didn"t want to lose myself to another person, but because I thought I would never find someone who could love me that deeply. It was the weirdest thing, but that night … when our eyes met … I felt … I don't even know what, I just felt it, deep inside."

A bright smile lit her face. "You did feel it too. I was so sure you did, but then after, when you wouldn't answer my texts or calls, and then at the grocery store, I thought I imagined the whole thing."

"Cowards don't deserve chances, and I can"t promise I won"t do something stupid, or panic, because this is all new to me and something I was sure I didn"t want." Tate grabbed her under the arms and pulled her further up his body so their lips were mere millimeters apart. It was hard to focus on anything but kissing him when he was this close, but his gaze was so serious that she met and held it. "I can promise you that I will always put you first. I'll be open and honest. And when I do feel that panic creeping in, I won"t run or lash out."

Wasn't this everything she had wanted for the last almost three months?

To have a chance with Tate, to see if that weird feeling she'd gotten the moment she laid eyes on him was real. To see if they could have something real, something amazing, something all-consuming.

For Tate, that was a terrifying thought, but for her all she'd ever wanted was to be somebody's number one, to matter enough for them to care about her needs. Tate was offering her all of that, and it wasn't like they had to jump into marriage, they had time to get to know one another and maybe fall in love along the way.

This could be the start of the most amazing journey of her life. It could be the beginning of everything she'd ever wanted.

There was only one answer she could give.

"I want to try, to see where things go with us."

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than Tate's lips were on hers as he kissed her senseless.

January 17th

11:46 A.M.

There wasa lightness inside him as they sat side by side at the small kitchen table.

Now that he'd taken that first step, Tate wondered why it had seemed so terrifying.

Hindsight he guessed, and a heavy dose of perspective.

In the end, it came down to the answer to one simple question. Was he going to be happier keeping himself isolated so he never risked loving and losing, or was he going to embrace any chance life gave him to find something wonderful?

Put like that it was an easy answer to find.

Despite the pain it had caused him, his parents' love had been a beautiful thing. Soul deep, all-consuming, the kind of love that fairytales and songs were written about. Maybe all along he hadn"t so much been afraid of falling for someone with that same intensity, but that it would consume both him and the woman the same way it had for his parents.

The thing was, though, with Scarlett he knew that could never happen.

Their childhoods had been similar in so many ways, and they both knew the pain of being ignored and shut out. There was no way either of them would ever do that to another person.

Maybe all along he'd just been waiting for the right woman.

Taking Scarlett's hand, Tate entwined their fingers. If fate hadn"t tipped his hand and brought Scarlett screaming back into his life, he might have missed out on this chance. Because without this added push, he likely would never have allowed himself to believe that love could be different than what he'd witnessed growing up.

The laptop screen suddenly changed, and up came the same conference room that he'd sat in nine days ago, no idea he was about to learn the woman he hadn"t been able to forget had been kidnapped and branded a traitor. So much had changed in those nine days that it was hard to believe it had been such a short space of time.

Actually, everything had changed so much in the last twenty-four hours that it was hard to believe that just over a day ago he'd locked Scarlett in this room and headed into Prey to try to figure out a plan to get the target off his woman's back.

His woman?

Why did that sound a whole lot better and a whole lot less terrifying than he thought it would?

Shoving away those thoughts for now, there was no future for him and Scarlett if she was kidnapped, tortured, and eventually killed by Raul Castillo, or if she wound up convicted and locked away in some tiny cell, in some off-the-books prison where traitors were kept.

Any future he wanted could only start after they found the mole.

Which meant work first. It had to be the priority if he was going to keep Scarlett safe and alive.

Giving Scarlett's hand a squeeze, he focused on the people gathered in the conference room. "Do we have anything?"

Like they were one person instead of a dozen, all sets of eyes seemed to hover over his and Scarlett's joined hands, before blinking almost in unison.

It would be comical if they weren"t under more pressure than he'd ever felt in his life.

While he had no intention of hiding the fact that he and Scarlett were a couple, he also wasn't going to do or say anything that she wasn't comfortable with. This was her family, the people who mattered most to her, the people who had her back even if she hadn"t realized it at first, they handled this however she chose.

"Umm," she said nervously, obviously sensing the same shock he did. "Tate apologized for being jerky and explained why, and … we're kind of … together now." She gave a nervous laugh, and he gave her fingers an encouraging squeeze.

It was the youngest one, genius Cassie, who broke the tension when her face broke out into a huge grin. "That's amazing, I"m so happy for you, Scar."

Like all they needed was for one of them to say something, the rest of the people in the room came to life, offering smiles and encouragement, before the reason for the video call settled on all their shoulders and they grew serious.

"Do we have anything?" Tate repeated his question.

Looking exhausted, Fox dragged his fingers through his dark hair. "We've made a list of every Prey employee who knew about the Reactivator. It's longer than I would have liked."

"There were also two lab workers who have been at Prey during the time Athena Team have been working on the drug," Night added, his silver-gray eyes filled with helpless frustration.

The same frustration Tate felt.

It was the worst feeling in the world to be helpless.

Knowing it had to be one of the people on the list wasn't enough. If they couldn't find the mole in time, Scarlett could pay the ultimate price. He would do whatever it took to keep her safe, but even the best-laid plans could go awry. Especially when dealing with someone so ruthless that would set up an innocent colleague to take the fall for them, knowing what that would entail.

The traitor had allowed Scarlett to be tortured.

Tortured.

And there was more to it than Scarlett had so far admitted if the lie she'd told while taking the polygraph was any indication.

"We've started working our way through the list. Prey's tech people are doing a deep dive into all of their lives," Spider continued. "Looking into all the usual things. Financial troubles, other motives, anyone with a connection, however small, to Mexico. Damn, I hate that place." Spider's now-wife Abigail had been held prisoner by a Mexican cartel leader for over a year before she was found by accident by Spider and his team while they were still in the SEALs. Although the couple had finally gotten their happy ever after, after two previous tries, it was obvious Spider still carried around some guilt.

Tate hadn"t realized his grip on Scarlett's hand had tightened until her thumb began to brush softly across his knuckles.

Soothing him.

Reading him so clearly.

He had messed up with her and almost lost her to the Mexican jungle. If that had happened he would have felt some responsibility.

Clearing his throat, he pushed away his guilt, there was no time for it now. "Do we have anyone who's standing out as a suspect?"

"One of the lab workers who was let go is high on the list," Lucy spoke up. "Even though it would have been harder for them to have access to Prey's systems to fake the emails it wouldn't have been impossible. Prey rarely fires anyone. The vetting process is so extensive that it usually weeds out anyone unsuitable. But this guy got through anyway. We all had bad experiences with him," she said, indicating herself and her team. "He was lazy, didn"t respect us as a Prey team while he was there just to help us with the workload. He asked all four of us out and was pushy even when we all turned him down."

Ella shivered at that. "Yeah, he was creepy. That kind of creepy women can just … sense. Everything was documented and reported, and when he was drunk one day and almost messed up—a big mess up that would have cost lives—he was fired."

"How did he leave? Did he go quietly? Put up fight?" Tate asked. Drinking problems could lead to all sorts of other issues, and it seemed like he might have a personal grudge against Athena Team, which means he could want to not just get the money for the drug, but also make them suffer.

"It was bad," Scarlett answered. "He lost it, trashed the lab, destroyed equipment, and claimed it wasn't fair. But it was almost a year ago and we never heard anything from him since."

"Takes time to set up a deal with a weapons trafficker," he reminded her. As far as he was concerned, the fired lab worker was top of the list. "Who else stands out?"

"One of the security guards has a brother who recently got himself entangled with a gang," King replied. "People have been known to do crazy things when it comes to family. It's less likely he would know about the drug since he doesn't have direct access to that information, but it's not impossible that he found out, we weren"t actively trying to hide it from anyone."

"And the third person who stands out is one of our IT people. She would definitely have the skills to fake those emails, and she would have access to everything that went through the computer system," Chaos explained. "She lost her husband about nine months ago. Terrible car accident, he was in the hospital for almost a month, fought hard, but it wasn't enough. Now one of her two kids is battling cancer. All those medical bills could make her do something stupid."

Three viable suspects, that should make him feel better.

But it didn"t.

Because there were no answers yet, just a whole lot of questions.

The only thing that was going to make him feel better was knowing the woman he was taking the biggest risk of his life on was no longer in danger.

Truth was, he was no closer to making that a reality.

This was one op he couldn't fail on.

Falling in love and losing that person had always been his biggest fear, but maybe falling but never getting a chance for it to turn into love before you lost that person was a worse fate.