Chapter Four

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Well, shit.

That was Jace's first reaction, followed by a whole bunch of other emotions. Anger. Really bad, pissed-off anger that someone was targeting Kit and apparently planning on using him to get her to cave.

Yeah, that riled him to the core.

But so did that part about a dirty cop, and he wished the hell he knew the cop's name so he could go after him. Soon, he would learn that name and do the going after. For now though, there was a more immediate problem.

Kit.

With the two attempts to either kill or injure her, she was obviously in danger, and while he'd initially believed Ramsey was behind this, it seems as if he'd been wrong.

Her brother was.

And that was yet someone else now on Jace's list of people to deal with.

Of course, the likelihood was that Trevor and Ramsey were in on this together and that Trevor was simply carrying out his father's wishes.

"That text is the reason I came to Ruby instead of the cops," Kit murmured.

He hated the fear this had put in her voice and eyes. Kit was usually fearless. Or at least she masked the fear, but she wasn't doing a good job of that now.

"I wasn't sure who I could trust in San Antonio PD, Bandera Bluffs or anywhere else for that matter since the text doesn't say where he's assigned," Kit added. "Heck, I can't even be sure it is a cop. Maybe that's some kind of code name."

True. But if Trevor did have a dirty police officer in his pocket, it was going to make silencing his sister a whole lot easier. At least it would be if Kit didn't have Maverick Ops protecting her.

She did.

No way would Jace turn down this job.

"Jace, I'm so sorry," Kit repeated, shifting her attention to him.

She was no doubt about to embellish that, but Jace cut her off. "Don't apologize for an asshole who doesn't want the truth to come out. I'm guessing if Marvin testifies, whatever he says could end up implicating Trevor?"

Kit nodded.

He hated to ask this next question, but he had no choice. "And you? Could it implicate you?"

She blinked, maybe even had a bad kneejerk reaction to him basically asking her if she was a criminal like her father. "No, I never personally witnessed my father or brother committing a crime. Yes, I did plenty of legal work that involved both of them. Contracts and such. There were certainly some questionable deals, but I'm sure they kept me out of the loop on the down and dirty stuff."

"Because they knew you wouldn't settle for it?" Jace speculated.

Kit opened her mouth, closed it, and it seemed to Jace as if she changed her mind about what she'd been about to say. "They didn't fully trust me."

That could turn out to be a blessing because if Marvin did end up testifying, it likely wouldn't lead to Kit being arrested for something her father and brother had done.

"Trevor has a son," Kit went on. "Brandon. He's nineteen and a criminal justice major at college. He wants to be a cop," she added in a mutter. "And I don't believe he has any part in this."

"You don't believe it, or you don't want to believe it?" Jericho pressed.

"The first," she was quick to say. "Brandon has a lot of disdain for his father and grandfather and has essentially disowned them. The only reason Brandon sees either of them is because he's still close to his mother."

Interesting. And that led Jace to the next question he'd been mulling over.

"Why include me in this?" he pressed. "Why would your family believe that taking me would be the best way to get to you? Why not use Brandon since he's your nephew?"

No fast answer this time, and she dodged his gaze. Not a good sign. "My father learned about those other times we've been together," she finally said. "Those other times after the annulment," Kit spelled out.

Jace repeated his well, shit , but this time he said it aloud.

Jericho lifted his eyebrow. "I'm guessing you two hooked up after your marriage went south."

"Yeah," Jace verified.

While he wanted to say he hadn't noticed any one following or observing Kit and him, Jace couldn't swear to it. His dick became commander-in-chief whenever he was around Kit.

And, yes, maybe his heart, too.

But it was mostly dick-thinking, and that particular source of thinking didn't lead to a serious awareness of his surroundings.

"All right then," Jericho said to Kit. "Daddy and big brother know about the sex hookups and believe that's enough to get you to cave." He tipped his head to the burner phone she was still holding. "Is there another text explaining how they planned on kidnapping Jace and you?"

Ruby was the one to answer that. "No. This was the only message on the phone so it's possible there are other burners." Now, she was the one who paused. "I've talked to my legal team and to Kit, and we don't believe we have enough to get a search warrant for either her brother's or father's residences or offices."

"Because there's a chain of custody issue on this burner," Jace said, filling in an explanation. "Trevor could say it isn't his, that maybe he found it or it was planted on him. Since he doesn't have any priors and probably has a judge or two in his pocket, the odds of getting a warrant are nil."

Jace couldn't even hope there was a slim possibility of getting such a court order. He'd seen Ramsey slip through the legal cracks way too often, and he was betting Trevor had done the same. Added to that, by now Ramsey would have destroyed anything that could be linked to Kit's and his planned abductions.

"So, how do we play this?" Jace asked after he blew out a hard breath. "Do I make myself bait while Jericho or someone else is protecting Kit?"

"No to both," Ruby stated, and her tone was that of the woman in charge. "For one thing, Jericho is going home. It's his fiancée's birthday, and I'm sure he has something planned."

"The plans can be put on hold," Jericho volunteered.

"I'm certain they could be, that your fiancée would understand, but it's not necessary because Jace will be the one bodyguarding Kit. I've tapped Angel DeLuca to assist him." Ruby looked at Jace, and she obviously knew that he wouldn't have an objection to that.

And he didn't.

Angel and he had been raised in foster care together, and they were like brothers. They also had had similar training with both of them first being in military special ops, then the police force before joining Ruby's team. Angel had taken a diversion when he'd become a deep cover detective rather than working in homicide as Jace had done.

"Angel's going to stay in the background," Ruby went on, putting up something on the monitor. It was the camera feed from the front gate of the Maverick Ops' headquarters, and there was Angel sitting behind the wheel of his black van. "He'll follow the two of you first to Kit's townhouse so she can pick up some things she needs and then to her office."

Jace muttered some profanity. "So, Kit is bait?"

"I wanted to be," Kit blurted. "I want to draw out the human snake who's supposed to try to abduct us. Then, he can be arrested and maybe confess about the person who hired him."

Jace moved closer to her so he could get right in her face. "You could be killed," he said through clenched teeth.

"No." She got in his face, too, and he saw a fresh spark of the fearless side of Kit. "If they'd wanted me dead, they would have already used something more surefire than a rattlesnake or poison."

"Either could have left you dead," Jace reminded her.

"But more likely, they were scare tactics. And judging from that text, they don't want us dead. They want us alive and kidnapped, so I can be coerced into not testifying."

"Killing you will stop you from testifying," Jace snapped.

Kit didn't back down. "You're not going to let them kill me. Angel and you will stop it. I've spoken to him by the way," she tacked onto that, and it put the pause button on the argument that he still hadn't finished. "And Angel is ready and willing to help us put a quick end to this."

Jace had no doubts about that readiness or the willingness. Angel had a soft spot for Kit. Ironic since the man didn't have a lot of soft spots for, well, pretty much anything or anybody. But Angel hadn't been a happy camper when Jace had walked away from the annulment and hadn't fought to keep Kit as his wife.

"I know this plan isn't ideal," Ruby interjected, turning to Jace. "I have my own concerns and objections to it, but Kit wants things to proceed this way, and I believe we can make it work. If you want to back out though, just give me the word, and I'll assign someone else."

"Over my dead body," Jace grumbled. Groaning, he scrubbed his hand over his face. "I don't want to be replaced. I can do the job."

He hoped.

But this might be akin to dick thinking. Because there was still plenty of fire between Kit and him. Both of the sexual variety and their turbulent past. However, he wasn't handing Kit over to anyone else. She was right when she said that she trusted him with her life.

Because he would protect her at all cost.

"All right, then," Ruby said. "Then, do the job." She shifted her attention to Jericho. "And you go home and tell Rachel that I hope she has a wonderful birthday."

Ruby turned to go to her desk, a clear signal that this conversation was over. And it was. But Jace knew the mission wasn't.

Nor the danger.

"Hell," Jace muttered as Jericho, Kit, and he walked out of the office together. "Have you ever been put on a bait mission like this before?"

"Yeah," Jericho verified. "They're not fun, especially when sex baggage is involved, but it's doable." He glanced over his shoulder at Kit. "You have a permit to carry that gun you've got concealed in your shoulder holster?"

Jace had also noticed the gun. Or rather the slight bulge on the right side of the jacket. When Kit and he had been together, she definitely hadn't been the gun-carrying sort.

"I do," she replied. "And I've had all the required fire arms training. I didn't start carrying because of my dad or brother though. Not because of Marvin, either. There was an incident with a client about a year ago, and I realized I should have some protection other than my smart mouth."

Jace couldn't help it. He smiled. Short lived though. But Kit did have a smart mouth all right.

"The client who assaulted you because you were trying to get him to accept a plea bargain," Jace supplied. They started down the two flights of stairs toward the first floor.

Kit increased her pace so she could move level with him, and she glanced at him. Eye to eye. "You know about that?" But then she waved it off. "Of course you do. You were on the job then, and you would have seen in a police blotter or the actual report."

He had indeed seen both, and it'd taken a lot of willpower not to call and check on her. "The client punched you in the face and cracked two of your ribs."

"And I kneed his balls into his throat. I guess that's sort of my go-to defense move."

Again, Jace had to smile. And this time, Jericho noticed.

"How'd you two meet?" Jericho asked. "Because you don't seem as if you'd travel in the same circles. Foster care," he added, motioning toward Jace. "To the manor born." He motioned to Kit.

Jace waited for Kit to explain. She was clearly waiting for him to do the same. Jerico was volleying glances to let them know he was waiting on both of them.

"We met at a party our first year of college at UT," Jace said on a huff. "A party with alcohol involved."

"We were practically naked," Kit piped in. She didn't huff. She chuckled. "It was at some rich guy's house; his parents were away kind of deal, and all the lights were off, so it was pitch black inside. To be admitted, you had to strip to your underwear and go in and…mingle. I'd thought ahead though and wore a bikini under my clothes."

"Yeah, alcohol involved in that," Jericho muttered.

There had been but not for Jace. He wasn't sure if Kit knew that or not. He'd gone to the party with Angel and their other foster brother, Presley Nolan, and Jace had only gone inside after he'd seen Kit.

Lust at first sight.

And, hell, the lust was still there after all this time.

Cursing himself and his stupid dick, they said their goodbyes to Jericho and then headed to Jace's dark gray Land Rover SUV. Once he was inside, he forced his mind off Kit. Hard to do since she slid into the passenger's seat right beside him. But he got help with that focus when he looked past the gates and reminded himself they were about to go out on a road where someone could spot them.

And try to kill them.

Thankfully, the SUV, like all the Maverick Ops' vehicles, was bullet-resistant. They also had the advantage of not having to immediately drive out into heavy traffic. The headquarters was just outside the city and off a road where it would be easy to spot someone lying in wait. That would change though once they reached San Antonio, where Kit's townhouse and office were.

Jace had seen the addresses on the monitor during Ruby's briefing, and he knew that both locations were smack in the middle of downtown. Tall buildings jammed together that would be a haven for snipers and other assholes who wanted to get at Kit and him.

He drove forward, giving Angel a nodded greeting as they passed him, and Jace used his code to open the gate. By his estimation, they had twenty minutes or so to get to her townhouse, and during that time, Jace had to get a lot of things straight. For one, he had to spell out the rules. Rules that involved her doing everything he said to keep her safe. He didn't get a chance to even start that though before her phone rang.

Kit took it from her purse and glanced at the screen. "It's my nephew, Brandon." There was alarm in her voice. "He rarely calls me."

"Hell," Jace muttered. "Answer it on speaker." And he hit a series of buttons on his dash monitor to trace the location of the caller. It was a nifty app that, like the bullet-resistant glass, was standard issue for Maverick Ops.

"Brandon," she greeted. "Is something wrong?"

"I think so." The young man's voice poured through the SUV. "I went to Dad's office to pick up something I need for the next semester. He wasn't there, he was at home recovering, so I looked in his desk to see if he'd left them there. Instead, I found something else, and I think you should see it."

Even though it was obvious that Brandon was alive and hadn't been kidnapped, Jace didn't feel a whole lot of relief. Because there was just as much alarm in his voice as there was in Kit's.

"What did you find?" she said.

"Three phones. The prepaid kind you buy at the store." He paused. "I took them, Aunt Kit, and I brought them to my apartment in San Antonio. There are…some texts on them. And I think you should see them." Brandon stopped again and groaned. "Shit, Aunt Kit. Is Dad trying to kill you?"

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