Chapter 13

Thirteen

Jess checked herself in the mirror. She hadn’t brought a lot of clothes with her on this trip, and her jeans and T-shirt looked too casual for a dinner date.

Over the years, she’d learned to pack light, considering the dance company traveled all over the country, performing in one state and, a few days later, performing in another. There wasn’t much time off when they were touring.

The expensive apartment she paid her share of the rent on in New York was merely a place she and four of her fellow dancers laid their head in between tours.

It was exhilarating and exciting to learn new routines. Get fitted for new and more glamorous costumes. Visit new and exciting places, too. But it was tiring. There were times she just wanted to sit on the couch or laze in bed for the day, but she couldn’t because she either had rehearsals or performances.

“You ready to go?”

“I guess,” Jess mumbled and turned away from the mirror. Her breath caught when she spied Finn dressed in a pair of dark jeans that hugged his thighs. The white button-down shirt he wore accentuated the blueness of his eyes. “Now I definitely feel underdressed.”

Finn grabbed her hands, holding them out as he looked her over. “I think you look beautiful. I’m going to be the envy of every other man in the restaurant.”

Warmth stole over her. She didn’t deserve the compliment. “Thank you, but I think it’s going to be me who will be fending off every other woman in the place.”

“They can look, but I only have eyes for you,” he said.

Part of Jess struggled to believe he truly meant those words, considering all he’d done to avoid being with her. Having his attention and focus on her was a lot to deal with. “Are you sure this is fine for where we’re going?”

“You look perfectly fine for where we’re going.” Finn brushed his fingers against her cheek and her eyes drifted shut at the sweet touch.

He’d done more of those little touches throughout the day. They hadn’t done much. Just gone for a walk. He’d told her he had to go to the base tomorrow for a few hours to go through a few things before he went on leave.

After their conversation on the balcony, he’d called his commander back and told him he was going to take him up on his offer. It seemed a couple of the other guys on his team were doing the same.

Tonight, they were all meeting for dinner and drinks at a bar near the base with the guys from his team and their partners. One they frequented, which was owned by the wife of a retired SEAL.

“ Perfectly fine . Not the way to make a girl feel good about what she’s wearing,” Jess grumbled.

“You did hear the part where I said you looked beautiful, right?” Finn arched an eyebrow.

The way his gaze drilled into hers, willing her to believe him, she really had no other choice. “I did.”

“Then you know if I thought you needed to change, I’d tell you. Aces is a place we all go to relax. Jessyka’s focus is making everyone feel welcome. For years, it was known as a pickup joint, but Jessyka has gone to great lengths to change Aces’s reputation.”

Jess rolled her shoulders and stood straighter. “Anyone whose name is Jessica has to be a good person.”

He chuckled. “Yes, but her name, unlike yours, is spelled with a ‘YK’ instead of a ‘IC’.”

“Oh, that’s such a pretty way to spell it.”

“It is. Now come on, are you ready to go? I’m sure you don’t want to leave Kaley by herself for too long.”

Jess paused mid-action of collecting her purse from the side table. “What? Kaley’s coming?”

Finn’s eyebrows rose in surprise, higher than moments before. “You didn’t know? She didn’t tell you?”

A flush of embarrassment washed over her. “I switched my phone off again.” It was a habit she’d gotten into after her experience with Bartholomew. Whenever something bad happened, she’d turn it off. If Jess spoke to or texted her parents, they’d pick up that something was wrong.

When they’d asked her why she hadn’t responded to their calls or texts, she’d made the excuse that she needed to focus on an upcoming performance. They’d believed her and, after what happened a couple of nights ago—not to mention the conversation she’d had with Finn—she wasn’t ready to speak to them.

“That’s a habit you need to break,” Finn admonished.

She ignored him and fired up her phone. A few seconds later, the chimes sounded and, sure enough, there were a couple of messages from her best friend. “Yeah, Kaley messaged.” She tucked her phone back into her bag. “Any idea what’s going on with her and Oak? I’m assuming it was him that asked her along? Unless you did, so I wouldn’t feel alone and awkward.”

A pink hue highlighted his cheeks, something she wasn’t used to seeing on him. “I may have suggested to Oak he should ask her to come.”

“Why didn’t you ask her yourself?” Jess asked.

Finn shrugged. “I didn’t have her number. I could’ve asked you, but it was easier to send Oak a message. But you’re right. You’re her friend, so I should’ve asked you for her cell and told you why.”

In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a big deal how Kaley got there. The fact she’d be there would make it a little easier for Jess. “It’s fine. I’m happy she’s coming.”

“Good. Now before we go, I need to do one more thing.” Finn’s gaze never left hers.

“And that is?” Jess asked.

“This?” he said before he lowered his head and captured her lips with his.

The kiss was soft and gentle, and she wound her arms around his neck, clinging to him. Her nipples hardened against her bra. The previous night, Finn had slept in the other bedroom.

Tonight, she didn’t want that. Tonight, she wanted to sleep in his arms again.

Tonight, she wanted to connect with him in a way that they hadn’t before.

He broke the kiss, and they were both breathing heavily. “I should’ve known that kissing you was a bad idea.”

“Why?” Should she be offended by that?

“Because now I don’t want to go out. I want you desperately.”

“I want you too, Finn.”

He pulled her close, and the evidence of his desire pressed against her. A shiver ran down her spine at the connection.

“You shouldn’t say that to me, Jess.” His voice was thicker, filled with obvious desire.

She pulled back to look up at him. His eyes were half-closed, but wide enough for her to see the want flaring in their dark depths. “Why not?”

“Because I could so easily blow off my teammates and friends and stay here with you.”

As much as Jess wanted that, too, she also wanted to get to know the rest of his team. These people were important to Finn. They all went into dangerous situations together and looked after each other. She didn’t want their impression of her to be a woman who had creepy people stalking her.

As far as she knew, they still hadn’t found out any further information about who was responsible for dumping that stuff on her hotel bed.

“While I like the idea of staying, I do want to get to know your friends better. And as you said, Kaley would be annoyed if we didn’t show, and an annoyed Kaley isn’t one you want to experience too often.”

Finn laughed and pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. “Let’s go. Because the sooner we leave, the sooner we can get home.”

The desire stoked to life inside of her by his kiss intensified. Maybe Finn’s idea of staying in was better than going out.

“Come on, popsicle.” He grabbed her hand and led them out of the suite.

Jess couldn’t wait until they walked back through the door again.

Laughter surrounded Finn, and he relaxed into his chair, his arm around the back of Jess’s. He let his fingers play with the wispy tendrils of her hair that had escaped her high ponytail. The atmosphere in Aces was relaxed and, for the first time since he’d joined the team, he felt a real part of them.

Oak was beside him, brooding into his beer.

Kaley was sitting on the other side of Jess; she’d moved from where she’d been sitting the moment they’d arrived.

Was his buddy missing Sylvia? Was he having second thoughts about the breakup? Or was it something else?

Finn hadn’t missed the dark look Kaley sent in Oak’s direction before she’d gotten up from where she’d been sitting. “You good, man?” he asked under his breath.

Oak looked up. “Yeah, fine. Why?”

“Having grown up with a little sister, I know that saying fine means you’re anything but that. Not to mention, you’re staring at your beer, as if it was watered down so badly, it tastes like piss.”

“Tasted piss, have you?” Oak smirked.

“Remember that bar in Papua New Guinea and the beer they served us there? The only reason we all drank it down like it was an elixir is because we hadn’t had anything decent to drink in days.”

His teammate chuckled. “Yeah, that was pretty bad, wasn’t it?”

While Oak was laughing, he didn’t look completely happy, and their location, in the middle of the bar and surrounded by their teammates, wasn’t the ideal place for a deep and meaningful conversation.

“If you want to talk, I’m here, okay?” Finn said.

Oak nodded. “I know.”

Movement at the door had them all looking toward the entrance. Habit of the job—always on alert and, even though they were in a bar where most of the patrons were military, it didn’t mean that shit couldn’t happen.

He lifted a hand when Safe and Smiley came in, along with the rest of their team and Remi, Kevlar’s partner.

“Mind if we join you?” Kevlar asked, keeping a firm arm around Remi’s shoulder. Their team had been through a lot recently with Remi being kidnapped.

In the end, everything had turned out well, mainly thanks to another SEAL, Blink, who’d been recovering from a past traumatic event.

“The more the merrier,” House said.

Tables and chairs were added, and their group now took up a large portion of the area, not an unusual event in Aces. Teams often got together and took up a lot of the space. Jessyka didn’t mind. In fact, she encouraged it.

“That was messed up,” Oak said, as they all sat again. “What happened with Remi.”

“Yeah,” Finn agreed. “It’s no fun being taken, let alone by someone you thought you could trust. When my mom and I were kidnapped, we were taken by someone we didn’t know. She didn’t think twice about her life. Her only concern was keeping me safe.”

Oak reared back, arching an eyebrow. “You were kidnapped as a kid?”

Finn nodded. “Long story, and now isn’t the place to talk about it.” Plus, he didn’t want Jess to recall the trauma she and Aunt Poppy had gone through.

“I was, too,” Jess piped up, and Finn pulled her close to him.

“What?” his buddy asked.

“My mom and I were kidnapped by the brother of the person who took Finn and his mom.”

Oak’s eyes almost popped out of his head. “Shit, that’s some fucked-up stuff. The fact it happened to the two of you.” He shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe it. “That’s just wild.”

Their jobs took them all over the world in an attempt to take out sick fuckers and, yet, there were so many simply walking suburban streets—people who didn’t look like they would harm a fly, but there was a part of their soul that turned them into monsters.

“The world is a fucked-up place,” Finn said.

“You got that right. It’s always the ones you least expect to cause problems that do,” Jess said. “I speak from experience.”

He flexed his fingers around her shoulders. “We’ll get to the bottom of what happened in your hotel room. We’ll find out who’s doing this and why,” he whispered in her ear before brushing his lips across her cheek.

“Everything good, Hive?” Kevlar asked, his focus on him and Jess.

It didn’t surprise Finn that Kevlar had picked up on what was going on with the two of them. It was what made him a fantastic team leader. They’d done some missions with the guy’s team, and Kevlar was very thorough in ensuring they had all the intel and plans in place before they went into the fray.

Finn looked at Jess. It wasn’t his place to just blurt out what was happening to her. If she didn’t want him to say anything, he wouldn’t. After all, she hadn’t told her parents what she’d gone through.

She gave a slight nod.

He explained what they’d found in her hotel room and how the person managed to keep their face away from the cameras, as well as there being no trace of the person exiting the hotel.

Finn mentioned she’d previously had a stalker, but he was behind bars and didn’t seem to be involved in it. He wasn’t going to go into all the details of what Bartholomew had done.

“Have you contacted Tex to see if he can help?” Kevlar’s mention of the former SEAL, who’d made it his mission to keep the teams safe when they went on missions, didn’t surprise Finn.

It was because of Tex that Kevlar and Remi had been rescued in the middle of the ocean when they’d been dumped by a scuba tour captain off the coast of Hawaii.

“Yeah, we spoke to him today. House set it up.”

House looked up at hearing his name. “I did what?”

“Hooked us up with Tex.”

House threw a nod.

“Tex will get it sorted,” Kevlar said.

“Let’s hope so,” Finn muttered.

Were they expecting too much from Tex?

He hadn’t worked with the guy on something like this before, but everyone sitting at the table believed Tex would find out who was involved.

Finn didn’t like to put all his eggs in one basket, but he trusted his teammates and Kevlar’s team. If they said he could do it, then he’d believe it, too, and pray he hadn’t misplaced his trust.