Jesse opened his eyes when the punch never came. A.J. had released him and was now tearing his hands through his hair. “You won’t be handling a damn thing. She’s my sister. I’ll talk to POTUS. My people will take care of the situation. You’ve done enough.” He started to walk away, but Jesse hurried to catch up with him, matching his angry strides.
“I have to do this. This is my mess. My problem. Not yours and—”
“You made it my problem when you fell for my damn sister!” A.J. whirled around and fisted Jesse’s shirt with both hands this time. “I will kill you with my bare hands if something happens to Ella. Do you understand me? You might be like blood to me. But I will fuckin’ kill you.”
“You won’t have to kill me,” Jesse returned in a low voice. “I’ll do it my—”
“What in God’s name is going on out here?” Jesse spotted his sister hurrying their way and Ella not far behind her.
A.J. focused back on Jesse. “We need to talk to Chris and Griffin. Fill them in,” was all he said before shoving at Jesse’s chest when he deserved a hell of a lot more than that. “What have you told Ella?”
Jesse shook his head. “I only told her she can’t go to Paris.”
“Don’t say anything,” he hissed. “Not yet.” A.J. turned and blew past Rory, then paused near his sister for one second before continuing toward the house.
Jesse bowed his head and tried to figure out how he was going to convince A.J. he had to back off and let Jesse and Falcon handle this.
And Jesse would personally plant the final blow into Zoran’s skull.
Rory stopped before him a second later. “I reckon that was about a lot more than Paris.”
Paris. How would they convince Ella to turn down her dream opportunity because he’d been a hitman once upon a time ago?
And unlike A.J., he knew Ella would swing, and that woman sure as hell wouldn’t miss.
Chapter Five
“I don’t think Rory is in danger,” Jesse told his brother-in-law, Chris, who stood opposite him between A.J. and Griffin outside by the stables. “But there are no guarantees.” He thought back to what Thatcher shared about the target on the phone earlier. “The two Bulgarian agents that were killed had siblings. Parents. One agent had a son. So far, Zoran has only targeted the men and their wives.”
“But we can’t assume your parents or Rory are safe just because of that,” Griffin commented. “As far as I’m concerned, we should consider this entire town painted with a bullseye, especially with you here.”
Jesse’s stomach tightened at Griffin’s clipped words and the heavy punch they delivered. Griffin had to be worried about his fiancée as well. Savanna was one of Ella’s best friends, and she’d been to hell and back more than once. The last thing Jesse wanted was for her to get caught up in anything else. Not ever again. And for damn sure not because of him.
“The Agency doesn’t believe he’ll come after anyone else. Just myself and whoever I . . .” Care about. “But I don’t plan on staying here much longer. I need to track down Zoran.”
Before Jesse had joined Falcon, he’d never had a hand in putting together the target packages. Neither in the Army nor with the CIA. Tell him who to kill and where to find the mark, and he’d design the best method for the hit.
Everyone on the Falcon Falls team had a specialty, skill-wise, but the entire team was involved in every aspect of an operation, especially the prep work. And because of that, Jesse would hopefully be able to use those skills to locate Zoran himself. Well, with the help of his team.
“Natasha’s on maternity leave, so she won’t be able to help us at the Agency. But we can reach out to the director,” A.J. offered. “We, um, have a direct line of communication with the head of the CIA. We can trust him.”
This was news to Jesse. But he wasn’t all that surprised, considering A.J.’s team had been working covert jobs for the President for years. And for that very reason, Jesse was sure their intel regarding those operations came from so high up the chain it could have been God himself for all he knew. Well, at the very least, a level or two above Thatcher.
“I can’t guarantee the President will assign us to be the boots on the ground for this problem,” Chris commented. “We’re a few men down on my team, Echo. Babies and all. Plus, we’re still training new recruits for Charlie Team.” He looked at his watch. “And as of one hour ago, Bravo Team boarded a flight to . . .” He paused and eyed Jesse and Griffin since they weren’t in the “need to know” on whatever clandestine op Bravo was about to take part in. “Somewhere overseas.”
“Falcon can handle Zoran,” A.J. quickly said. “But as for Ella—”
“Ella’s not staying here,” Jesse snapped, worried that A.J. was going to pull rank as Ella’s brother and insist on personally providing her protection.
“If she’s a mark, she paints as much of a bullseye on the town as does Jesse,” Griffin pointed out. “We need to talk to Carter, Gray, and the others. Get them working leads on this fucker as of yesterday. They should come here.”
“Make the call.” Jesse didn’t want to wait for A.J.’s opinion on the matter. They were losing time. And for all they knew, Zoran had a marksman watching them as they spoke.
Griffin nodded, phone to his ear already, and strode away to most likely make the call to one of their team leaders.
Chris stepped closer to Jesse, his expression darkening as it had when he’d first learned the news about Jesse’s previous line of work twenty minutes ago. “Do you really think Zoran intentionally waited for the Bulgarian agent to get hitched before he murdered him and his wife? Is Zoran that much of a patient psychopath that he’d wait it out?”
Jesse lifted his shoulders, not really sure what to say. It was speculation. But based on Zoran’s profile, it checked out.
“I find it hard to believe all we have to do is keep you single to prevent this guy from coming after you. That he’ll wait that long,” A.J. hissed.
“Based on Zoran’s history, he takes revenge seriously. And in the past, he waited months, even years, to exact retribution.” Jesse frowned. “I’m obviously not suggesting we wait around months or years for him to come after me. Or that we should consider Ella or anyone else safe because I’m single.”
“We’ll see what the rest of Falcon thinks.” A.J. motioned to Chris to head back toward the house. “But if you believe for one minute you’re going to take Ella anywhere with you,” he added, stabbing his index finger Jesse’s way, “that’s not happening.”
Jesse watched Chris and A.J. walk away, then lifted his chin and stared at the dark sky, trying to wrap his head around how this had all happened.
At the sound of footsteps approaching, he closed his eyes and let go of a deep breath, wondering who was going to give him the third degree this time.
“I need to know what’s going on. No bullshitting me, Jesse.” It was Ella coming in for the lecture. Well, for answers. “I need to know why my brother looked so spooked when he walked by me just now.”