“I’ll be freezing my ass off outside if you need me.” Jack set his hat back in place and left the living room, and once he was gone, Jesse gathered Ella into his arms as if they hadn’t just shared body heat not too long ago.
“You left me alone. Almost shocking,” she said into his chest before lifting her chin to search his gaze.
“You’re safe here, but I don’t think we’ll be at this place much longer,” he replied, sliding his hand up along her silhouette before sweeping her hair over her shoulder.
He cupped her cheek, and she leaned into his touch and closed her eyes. They hadn’t discussed the call with A.J. or the fact her family knew the truth or any of the other problems they were facing since they’d gone to bed earlier, but he supposed they would need to face reality soon.
At least he wasn’t in a wall-hitting mood anymore, thanks to Ella.
“Any news?” she softly asked, peeling her eyes open to find his gaze.
“Not sure yet.” He gathered some of her hair now at her back into his hand, twisted it around his knuckles, and lightly tugged, tipping her mouth up before stealing a kiss. He was worried that as soon as the team made an appearance and discussed their lack of leads, his mood would grow foul again.
“Mmm.” She pressed her lips to his palm after their kiss and brushed her mouth over the inside of his hand.
“Sorry to interrupt.” Sydney’s voice had Ella’s palms sliding up Jesse’s chest while her shoulders fell, clearly disappointed they were no longer alone.
He slowly released her and turned to see that both Sydney and Zoey had joined them in the living room. Dark jeans. Red tops. Had they matched on purpose?
“We think we stumbled upon something that might help us,” Sydney announced as she maneuvered around him and Ella to get to the table littered with tech devices.
Zoey crossed her arms over her red fleece sweater, her expression about as unreadable as Carter’s usually was. And yet, since she’d arrived, Jesse had caught glimpses of Carter’s defenses slipping while in her presence.
It was understandable though. Being the one to walk away when a teammate didn’t was a fate worse than death. No Ranger, soldier, Marine, sailor, SEAL, or the like ever wanted to be in that position.
In Carter’s case, his work with the CIA also cost him his wife. He’d been to hell and back, and he was somehow still walking. Jesse’s greatest nightmare was to suffer the same fate, which was the main reason he’d kept his distance from Ella over the years.
There wasn’t a chance in this life or the next that Jesse would survive the loss of Ella. But he refused to let himself imagine any scenario that didn’t result in her being over a hundred when dying of natural causes. And he had to go first. No alternative.
Their life together cruised through his mind now. Snapshots of a future for them he’d never allowed himself to visualize before filled his head. He brought a hand to his chest to try and make sense of the strange feeling those thoughts had stirred up. Was that what peace felt like?
“Did you hear me?” Sydney cocked her head, and at the feel of Ella’s hand on his back, Jesse blinked and reset his focus to the present.
“Sydney and I believe we can get to Zoran through his wife. Well, because of his wife’s murder.” Zoey’s lips matched her fleece, and knowing Ella, she’d called it Christmas red. Or candy apple red. “This whole thing is in motion because she died and he survived, right?”
Don’t remind me.
“There’s nothing Yuri loves more than a client out for revenge. According to our sources, that is. Given what happened to his parents, it makes sense for the retribution-angle to hit closer to home with him. So, Yuri accepting the assignment from Zoran fits.”
Jesse had always considered the op last year a failure because Zoran’s wife had been killed. He’d been so furious about what happened that he would have left the CIA regardless of Ella’s decision not to marry Brian.
Had Jesse known Zoran survived the shooting, he would have hunted him down long ago to prevent the entire situation from spiraling into the colossal disaster that it now was.
He’d have snuffed the life from Zoran while in a coma if he’d had to, taken no chances the fucker would wake and seek revenge. And so help Jesse, if Thatcher also knew the prick had been alive all that time, being kept in hiding by his people, that’d be one more nail in Thatcher’s coffin.
“What is it? What aren’t you saying?” He didn’t know the woman at all, but there was something in Zoey’s eyes that he was picking up on, and he’d take her theory over no leads at all.
“She’s quiet because she doesn’t have all the facts.” Carter’s rumbly voice from behind had Jesse turning to see Carter and Gray standing at the edge of the room like they were waiting for an invitation to join them.
“What we have is better than nothing,” Zoey remarked, and Carter kept his focus on Jesse without offering her his attention.
“And what is it that you have?” Jesse prompted, wanting to be clued the fuck in.
Carter swiveled his gaze past Jesse, presumably to focus on Zoey before speaking. “They think Dragan, Zoran’s brother, may have set up Zoran. Possibly cut a deal with Aleksa and Bulgarian Intelligence as well. Or just the Bulgarians.”
Zoran’s brother? Jesse turned to the side so he could look back and forth between his teammates. And for now, he supposed that included Zoey.
“I’ve listened to enough crime podcasts to know family members are usually at the top of the suspect list,” Ella shared, which had Jesse squeezing her gently, hating she was involved in all this. And also, since when did she listen to crime podcasts?
“What would be his motivation?” Jesse asked. “We assumed the brother may have been somehow connected to the business before I shot Zoran, but from what we can tell now, Aleksa is running the show, and the main outcome of Zoran and his wife’s shootings was that Dragan got . . .” Ohh. Jesse looked up to see Zoey nodding as if confirming where his thoughts had trailed off to. “You think Zoran’s brother wanted the kid? His nephew?”
Zoey pointed toward one of the laptops in response. “I won’t go into detail how we know, but—”
“Because she can’t,” Carter hissed. “Because she doesn’t have facts. This is all speculation.”
Zoey shot him a sharp look, but Carter didn’t back down. Hell, the man didn’t so much as move a muscle from what Jesse could tell. Stone cold again. How hard did he have to work to keep his emotions in check around this MI6 officer?
“Just tell me.” I need to hear it, whatever it is. If there was a chance they could use the information to help get to their targets, then damn it, they had to do it.
“We believe Zoran’s wife was having an affair with Dragan. Well, a while ago, at least,” Sydney jumped in to continue their theory. “I think the kid is Dragan’s son, not his nephew. Not that Zoran knows that.”
Didn’t see that coming. “Why would Dragan want the mother of his child dead?” Gray interjected, drawing Sydney’s attention. “If they had a kid together, why arrange for her death?”
So, he was on the same page of disbelief as Carter? And Jesse fell somewhere in between. He wasn’t sure what to think or if this news would ultimately help them get to either Zoran or The Chechen, but he’d listen.