Page 12 of Reckless
The instant the call was answered, he growled, “Jazz was there.”
Shocked silence followed and then, “Did she see you?”
“Yes.”
“And she recognized you.” It wasn’t a question. Of course Jazz had recognized him. She hadn’t seen his face, but that didn’t matter. He had seen the recognition in her expression. In a flicker of seconds, he’d also seen all the other emotions, like pain, fear, and deep disappointment. Each one had pierced his soul.
“What do you want to do?”
What could he do? Nothing, absolutely nothing.
“I need OZ to back off.”
More silence, this time followed by a sigh. “The team makes those decisions.”
“You owe me.”
Okay, yeah, that might be a bit of a stretch. It had been a mutually beneficial relationship, but in this, they shared a common goal.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
The line went dead.
By rote, he disassembled the burner and put it with the other one. Rising, he stuffed his toiletries into his duffel, grabbed the phone parts, and exited the room. He’d been here for two days. Way too long.
It was time to move on.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Jazz stared numbly at the stack of pancakes in front of her. Why had she thought she could eat? She had gone to bed last night with rocks in her stomach that now felt like boulders. She’d gotten almost no sleep, with nightmares waking her every few moments. Though the nightmares had changed up each time, they all consisted of the same horror—OZ and Brody in a deadly shootout. In some, a member of her OZ family was shot. In some, Brody was killed. In one, Xavier made a daring maneuver to capture Brody and was shot point-blank…by her brother.
In the last nightmare, everyone was dead, and she was walking through a yard strewn with the dead bodies of her OZ family and Brody. Too afraid to close her eyes again, she had gotten out of bed after that one.
When Xavier had knocked on her door to see if she wanted to go down for breakfast, she had already been dressed and had eagerly agreed. Getting out of the hotel room had seemed vitally important.
Last night, after the meeting with the team, they’d barely spoken to each other. The moment they’d gotten back to their hotel, without a word to Xavier other than a muttered, “Good night,” she had gone straight to her room and locked her door. Maybe it had been cowardly of her, but she had needed to be alone.
Allowing herself to think about the way she had hoped their evening would end had been too painful to even contemplate. Their kiss before they’d left for the restaurant had been what she had hoped was the beginning of something bright and beautiful. But that dream was gone, dead like so many other dreams she’d once had. There was no way she and Xavier could ever have more than what they had now. And if she kept going down this secretive path, even that would be destroyed.
She had never kept a secret from him. Or the team. Yes, she had prevaricated a time or two when she’d been questioned about her past and what she had endured. The darkness that came with those memories was best buried deep in an abyss. She never wanted them to see the light of day again. But this was completely different. This secret involved an ongoing OZ mission. Keeping such significant intel to herself went against everything she believed in.
And still, when she’d had the opportunity to reveal all, she had kept quiet.
Brody, her gentle, caring, overprotective brother, was a killer. She simply could not wrap her head around that fact. What could have happened to completely transform his personality? People didn’t just change like that.
Was this why he had disappeared? Had he been kidnapped and brainwashed? That might seem like a ridiculous premise, but it was no more unbelievable than the idea that her gentle, loving brother was a paid assassin. It just didn’t seem possible.
Did this go all the way back to Arthur and his search for them? She hadn’t thought about that creep in years, but had he had something to do with Brody’s disappearance? If so, why? What could the man have gotten from either of them? It made no sense.
A large male hand appeared in her line of vision, touching her wrist gently. “I’m sorry, Jazz. I had no idea what I said to you last night at the restaurant would have this kind of effect on you.”
Dragging her attention back to the present, she stared at the man across from her. If anyone would understand what she was going through, it would be Xavier. Her partner might be a badass undercover operative with eight-pack abs and muscles for days, but he somehow got her. The moment they’d met, she’d felt a connection with him, as if they’d known each other in a different life.
That connection had saved their lives numerous times, but when it came to Brody, that connection failed them. She knew he understood her love for her brother and her need to find him, but there was always a tension between them when they talked about Brody. Xavier had never hidden how he felt. It angered him that her brother had left her…that he had abandoned her. But he hadn’t known Brody, didn’t know how caring and protective he had been.
Last night, when Xavier had confronted her about not asking the entire OZ team to search for him had been the first time he’d pushed her. She and Xavier were often blunt to the point of pain with each other. They were both strong-willed, opinionated people, and that had always worked well for them. The subject of her brother was one line Xavier refused to change his mind on.
“I don’t think I’ve ever hated your brother as much as I do right now.”