Ella looked over at Jesse as he took a knee to pet Bear, who had been glued to his side for some reason. Did he sense the alpha in the room?
Of course, according to Savanna, Griffin was very much an alpha in the bedroom.
And when Ella thought back to New York City, well, Jesse was . . .
Let go of that thought.
But how could she? She’d never slept with another man because of that weekend. He’d ruined every other man in her eyes.
“I want to know more about the person who wants me dead,” Ella found herself blurting. Bear suddenly howled, as though he understood what she’d said, and the idea of her “dead” made him sad.
Jesse’s jaw clenched at her words, and his eyes fell to Bear. After a moment, he lifted his hand from the dog’s head and stood, and Bear went directly to Rory.
“We can go into that more when my team is here,” Jesse finally answered, turning at the sound of the door from the kitchen opening again. Ella’s throat tightened at the sight of the gun tucked at the back of his jeans, not even holstered. Just casually there as if it were part of his body.
Realizing his shirt had caught behind the grip of the gun, Jesse adjusted the material to conceal his weapon again.
She’d seen Jesse shoot before. Well, at the range. But the gun had a whole new meaning now.
“We can find another way,” was the first thing from Beckett’s mouth when he walked into the room with A.J. at his side.
Chris and her other brothers must’ve still been out on the property. Did Shep and Caleb know how to “secure the perimeter,” as A.J. had called it? At this point, she had no freaking idea how much her brothers knew about any of this stuff.
“It’s not too late to back down,” Beckett went on, sidestepping Jesse, his eyes lingering on him as he moved past. Oh, the anger was still there. At the highest of levels.
“He’s right,” Jesse said in a low voice while peering at A.J. “We can protect you instead of putting you right in the line of fire.”
“Call off this bullshit wedding. Please.” Beckett strode past Rory and Bear to get to his sister.
Savanna nudged Griffin in the side before taking his hand and leading him from the room, followed by Rory and Bear.
Her two brothers and Jesse didn’t budge. Well, they didn’t leave the room, at least.
“Jesse thinks this fucker will wait until he’s married for his revenge, so why rush this? Why get married at all?” Beckett hissed. “I get that he won’t wait forever, and his patience will eventually run out. And I understand you don’t want to live in fear and protective custody until then since the man can easily figure out you’re still who . . .” He let go of a breath. “But—”
“But why wait? If we can draw him out sooner, then there’s one less bad guy in the world we have to worry about, right?” Ella pointed out, working through the same thoughts that had led her to the marriage decision last night.
One less bad guy in the world. That’d been Jesse’s job, hadn’t it been? To take out those bad guys. But that didn’t alleviate the achy pain in both her stomach and her chest when she thought of the man she’d always loved as a contract killer.
“We can’t even confirm this guy knows Jesse was on the long gun that day taking the shot,” A.J. drawled.
Ella quickly circled the table so she could put all three guys in her view. Jesse’s back was to the room, eyes on the fire, though, so she could only see the hard lines of his back moving as he took in what appeared to be deep breaths.
A.J. swiveled his American flag ball cap backward and folded his arms. “The CIA didn’t provide the Bulgarians with Jesse’s identity. So if anyone at Bulgarian Intelligence knows and passed that intel along to our bad guy, that means someone from Bulgarian Intelligence had eyes on Jesse the day of the hit last year to identify him. The traitor just left out the major detail to Zoran that Jesse didn’t kill his wife. But in my opinion, that’s the only way Zoran did or will find out. There’s almost always an insider helping out.”
A.J. was a conspiracy theorist, and Ella wasn’t so sure what he was talking about. Sofia. The Bulgarians. Zoran. She didn’t know the details yet, but A.J. was pretty damn smart, and she’d be inclined to believe him without question.
“And what do you think?” Ella asked, assuming Jesse would know she was speaking to him, and he slowly turned and faced her.
“My old boss at the Agency is following leads, but he thinks we ought to assume Zoran will or already has learned my name. He still wants me to go back to work for him, though. I was never undercover on jobs, so my identity being known is more of an inconvenience in his eyes.” Jesse was quiet for a moment. “Pretty sure that’s my old boss’s main objective. To get me back.”
“Back?” Ella hadn’t meant to gasp, but yeah, it happened.
“I’m not going back. I’m with Falcon now,” Jesse quickly said. “But that didn’t stop my old boss from throwing out your name to try and put the fear of God in me to ensure I handle this hit personally.”
“If anyone’s going to put the fear of God in you, it’s—”
A.J. slapped a hand against Beckett’s chest, cutting him off, as well as stopping him from taking another step toward Jesse.
“So, you see, the wedding’s not necessary,” Beckett said instead of trying to take a swing at Jesse. “Because Falcon can stop this guy before he learns Jesse’s name. Hell, Falcon can stop him even if he already knows Jesse was the shooter that day. And we’ll keep you safe in the meantime just in case.”
Ella peered at Jesse again to get a read on him. His face was blank. So she looked to A.J. for answers. “Do you think you can find him before he finds you?” she asked. “If he hasn’t already, that is.”
“We have a lot of resources at our disposal. But we should assume the worst, and that’s that Zoran already knows Jesse’s and your name,” A.J. said solemnly.
“How can you be okay with allowing our sister to go to Paris and lure out a cold-blooded killer?” Beckett’s anger was now directed toward A.J.
“Marriage or not. Paris or not. If the bastard knows Jesse shot him, then Ella’s his target no matter what,” A.J. reminded Beckett, sounding almost like he was on Ella’s side, which was both surprising and a change from how he’d first reacted to the idea last night.
“I can’t watch another fight,” Ella whispered, moving between Beckett and A.J. with outstretched hands. “I can’t deal with this right now. We all need to be on the same side.” She released a shaky breath. “I didn’t sleep last night. I’m gonna go lie down.”
“I’m so sorry, Ella,” Jesse said in a low tone, taking her by surprise. His gaze swiveled to A.J. and then to Beckett before moving back to her. “I’m sorry you have to marry a man like me,” he added, his voice cracking as he started to leave.
“Fake,” she called out, feeling just as broken as he’d sounded. “It’s only fake,” she whispered. He looked at her from over his shoulder, his mouth a tight line, and that small nod from him had her legs buckling.
There had never been, and she doubted there would ever be, anything truly fake about how she felt about that man. So much for going to Paris to get over him.