His arm tightened around me, and I could feel the controlled strength of his grip as he kissed me until I was breathless.
“Get in,” he said hoarsely as he let me go.
His beautiful eyes were turbulent as he nodded his head toward the passenger seat.
I could sense his barely leashed control starting to crumble, so I slid into the seat and fastened my seat belt.
Jax hopped in and started the SUV. “Are you ready to make that stop before we head back to Coronado?”
“If there’s something you want to show me, I’m definitely up for it.”
I was game for anywhere he wanted to go right now.
But I’d already decided that once we got back to Coronado, Jax Montgomery was going to be all mine.
I didn’t want to spend another night in his guest suite alone.
It was getting torturous for both of us.
If Jax wasn’t going to make a move, I was going to end up seducing the hottest man on the planet tonight.
Harlow
“Jax, where exactly are we?” I asked as he pulled into the parking lot of what looked like a small condo building. “We’re pretty close to Montgomery Headquarters.”
“We are,” he affirmed as he turned off the SUV.
I hopped out of the vehicle and looked at the brick building. It was an unassuming three-story structure, and judging by the amount of windows, it probably didn’t house all that many condos.
Jax took my hand and led me to what I assumed was a lobby door. “There’s no lights on inside,” I said in a hushed voice. “What if everyone is asleep?”
He grinned as he put his finger to a print scanner. “I guarantee that nobody is asleep in this building.”
I frowned at him. “How do you know that?”
The lock clicked and he pushed the door open as he said, “Because I own the whole building, sweetheart.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me inside. “Welcome to Last Hope Headquarters.”
I blinked as the space was flooded with light. There was a small lounge area, but the inside was nothing like I expected it to be.
It took me a few minutes to realize that the exterior was nothing more than a façade. Although the windows probably did have the closed plantation shutters I’d seen from outside, they were blocked from the inside with what looked like heavy-duty, metal security shutters.
“What happens if you need to get out the window?” I asked in an awed tone.
Jax flipped a switch near the door, and all of the shutters lifted. “They can be opened manually, too, but they’re pretty heavy.” He hit the switch to let them back down.
Obviously, the security in this place was amazing. And it was ingenious to camouflage the whole operations building to make it look like a small, boring condo building.
I suspected it had been a condo building at one time, but the interior had been completely overhauled.
I left the small lounge area and wandered into a huge open space that took up the rest of the ground floor.
“The biggest of our operations areas,” Jax explained from behind me. “As you can see, Marshall started to set up the weather analysis equipment, but didn’t get all the way there.”
There were several different stations, and all of them contained tables of what looked like high-tech equipment, computers, and desk chairs.
“This is one hell of a setup for a volunteer organization,” I said with amazement.
“We have more operations rooms on the second floor, but this is where we do most of the work,” he shared.
I strolled around to the different stations, recognizing some of the GPS and radar equipment, but some of the gadgets were completely foreign. What I didn’t recognize, I was sure Jax would explain to me.
When I got to the weather station, I stopped and started sorting through equipment. “This must have cost a small fortune,” I said to Jax. “It’s top of the line.” I crouched and then started crawling for some of the stored boxes underneath.
Jax grabbed the back of my dress and pulled me. “You don’t need to do this right now, baby. I just wanted to show you the headquarters. You’re not exactly dressed for crawling on the floor, and I’ll get everything out for you.”
I dusted my hands off. “It won’t take me too long to set everything up. I take it Marshall is making me an official volunteer?”
“Yes. Let me just say it’s a relief to know you can handle that part of our data.”
I squealed and threw myself into his arms. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
I was so ecstatic I started to kiss every inch of his face.
He wrapped his arms around my waist to steady me. “Damn, woman. I think you’re more excited about this than any of your other gifts. It’s not that exciting. It’s a lot of work for zero pay.”
I tightened my arms around his neck as I pulled back and our eyes met. “I’ll be part of something important, Jax, so it’s worth it to me. I want to help. I’d really like to take my position back at Montgomery, too.”
“When you’re ready, that job is waiting. I don’t want you to rush it.”
I stepped back and seated my ass on the table.
Jax sat down in one of the chairs next to me. “So what do you want to know? I’ll take you to the other floors and show you around in a few. The third floor really is condos. Hudson, Cooper, and I all have one upstairs in case we need to stay in the city.”
“So that’s your condo within walking distance of Montgomery.”
“Yeah. Like I said, I don’t use it much anymore,” he replied.
“How in the hell does Marshall manage all this on his own?” I asked. “I know you don’t have rescues happening all the time, but when shit hits the fan, how does he collect data from everywhere?”
Jax shrugged. “We all pitch in. If we’re working, it’s busy. I hate to break it to you, but we aren’t the only wealthy brothers involved in San Diego. There’s plenty of money flowing into Last Hope, but we don’t have the people to do some of the tech work we need. I think Marshall will start being a little more open to possibilities after this.”
“How has all of this flown under the radar of the government?” I queried.
“It actually doesn’t. Not completely. Several of the agencies know we exist, but officially, we don’t. We try not to step on their toes. Any rescues or missions we take on have already been marked as impossible for the government. We get fed referrals because there’s nothing more they can do, but they’d never admit they sent the information.”