He and Jack were headed for the kitchen when they heard Gray blurt, “Wait, what? Are you serious?”
“What’d we miss?” Jack settled on a stool at the island opposite where Oliver and Sydney worked.
Carter, who appeared to be much less shocked than Gray, stood from the table. Jesse was still clueless as to what in the hell he’d missed.
“Griffin wants to bring Savanna to Paris,” Gray muttered, his grumpy tone making it obvious he considered the idea utter bullshit.
“I need to be on this op with you guys,” Griffin explained, he and Savanna by the door. “And if I leave her here under someone else’s protection, I’ll be worried and distracted the entire time.”
Savanna leaned into Griffin as he positioned his arm tight around her waist, and Jesse stared at the couple, trying to wrap his head around the news.
“If there’s any chance someone might come after Savanna because of all this, you know that’s a risk I won’t take.” Griffin’s voice dropped a few octaves in warning. He put eyes on Carter since it was clear Gray planned to reject the idea.
Carter was quiet for a moment as all eyes in the kitchen seemed to point his way, and Gray appeared to wait to find out if the man he was partnered with would side with him or not. Carter’s dark gaze moved to Jesse, and he studied him for a moment. “Jesse’s the one with the kill orders from the Agency, and you said he should be the one to take out Zoran when we find him,” he said in a steady tone, his focus switching to Gray, repeating what Gray had noted a few hours ago. That it was Jesse’s job to kill Zoran. “But Jesse won’t leave Ella with just anyone when he has to operate either.”
“I’ll watch Ella and Savanna,” Griffin said in a deep, commanding tone. Zero fucks about the chain of command at the moment with the woman he loved thrown in the mix. “Yes, we’ll have Carter’s other guys overseas joining the team for an assist, but you know I’ll never let anything happen to Savanna or Ella.”
Shit, Griffin was right. Jesse was the one who had to take out Zoran, but he hadn’t thought through who’d watch over Ella while he operated. “I trust all of you here. It doesn’t have to be you,” he told Griffin. “There’s no reason to bring Savanna over there and place her in harm’s way.”
Savanna stepped forward from Griffin’s embrace. “I think it’d be a good idea for Ella to have me there. This isn’t going to be easy on her. And this kind of danger is no longer foreign to me. I can help Ella get through this. Those of us connected to you, no offense, aren’t truly safe anywhere until the threat has been handled, right?”
Jesse tore his fingers through his hair, hating the idea of yet another woman he cared about caught up in the middle of his greatest nightmare.
If only he hadn’t extended his employment with Thatcher after Ella announced her engagement to Brian two years ago. No, what he should have done was fought for her. Gone to her and told her to cancel the wedding and marry him instead.
Of course, someone else from his past could’ve easily popped up to hunt him now instead of Zoran. The “Wheel of Fortune” of bad guys Jesse had encountered in his time would forever spin and be a problem. But Zoran was the only one I left alive.
“Ella rejected the plan, but I’m stubborn like her, and she realizes I won’t back down,” Savanna added. “So, I strong-armed her into agreeing just like she made you agree to fake marry her.”
Jesse lifted his gaze to see the headstrong woman back in Griffin’s arms. “What about the café?”
“If Griffin wants her to come, then she comes,” Carter said without checking with Gray first. So much for the 50-50 partnership thing. But everyone on the team knew it was a bit more weighted in favor of Carter given his bags of billions he seemed to have hidden around the globe to fund their ops, among other things.
“Thank you.” Savanna went to Carter and hugged him, and Carter went still, leaving his arms stiff and unmoving as she squeezed the devil who didn’t appear to know how to hug. She moved to Gray next, hugging him before the man had a chance to reject her puppy dog eyes or warm embrace.
“Okay, okay. Enough hugging other men,” Griffin said in a teasing voice, but knowing that man, it wasn’t entirely a joke.
Savanna rolled her eyes and playfully swatted Griffin on the ass, which had growly Griff nearly spanking her right back from the looks of it, but he seemed to refrain, given the audience.
Yeah, they were going to head back to their place and have sex, that was for sure.
And he hated how envious he felt right about now, especially when Ella walked through the door a minute later with Chris and Rory. Bear trotted in as well, squeezed between his “parents,” and plopped down on the dog bed Jesse kept in a corner of the kitchen, along with a water bowl for when Bear visited.
“Well, Deb Hawkins wore me out. I’m just as tuckered as Bear,” Rory said lightly.
“Y’all learn anything new while we were being bossed around by your new wedding planner? Aka your future mother-in-law?” Chris shot Jesse a lopsided smile.
“We’re still working to locate Zoran’s right-hand man,” Jack spoke up for the first time since the Savanna-coming-to-Paris conversation had begun.
“We filled Ella in on what we know so far about the case in between the wedding details while we were at the ranch,” Chris let Jesse know, and Jesse wasn’t sure how he felt about Ella knowing everything.
Ella pinned Jesse with a hard look, and it was the first time she’d made eye contact with him since entering the far-too-crowded kitchen. And Ella’s mom was right. It did look like a command center, but they weren’t in a tent in Baghdad and wearing uniforms.
“Um. Can I steal my brother for a second?” Rory abruptly stepped forward, grabbed hold of Jesse’s arm, and marched him down the hall toward his bedroom as if she were their mom about to ground him for one of the many times he’d misbehaved as a kid.
“What’s up?” he tossed out once they were alone in his room with the door closed behind them.
Rory sank onto his king-sized bed. “You know what’s up.”
Jesse set his back to the French door that led out back to a private patio while eyeing his sister. “I really don’t. There are a lot of things that could be up. Spell it out for me.”
“Ella’s not doing well,” she announced. “She was barely keeping it together at the ranch earlier during the wedding preparations. And it’s not because she’s worried about this Zeus guy.”
“Zoran,” he quickly responded instead of sharing how Rory’s words really made him feel. Guilty, then add some more guilt. Topped with another Everest-sized pile of fucking guilt.
“Whatever. He sounds like a mythical creature. Anyway.” Rory waved her hand in the air as if Zoran was the least of their problems.
He had to remember his sweet sister didn’t scare so easily. She had faced off with the worst of the worst and came out victorious, so Jesse knew she didn’t need to be coddled. Basically, his sister was a badass. Lara Croft in the flesh.
“The point is, Ella has been dreaming about her wedding day since she was a kid. And you were who she always wanted to marry. Certainly not Brian.” Rory stood and came before him, angling her head. “And now her family and the whole town is going to watch you two say vows, and it’s not going to be real.” Her shoulders fell. “She won’t admit how much that’s screwing with her head, and I know it was her idea, but I’m just . . .”