by Tessa Bailey
He took that love seriously. It was precious and hard-won and no one would fuck with it. This morning he’d walked into the kitchen and found her drinking a cup of orange juice at the table. She’d had her game face back on and he knew. She was going to try to talk him out of meeting with her stepfather. Even though he’d known they would butt heads over it eventually, he’d hated the idea of shattering the atmosphere between them. So when Derek had called to tell them they were needed, he’d found himself relieved to put off the inevitable a little longer.
Sera had been working at campaign headquarters for a week now, but Stark had never made an appearance. The previous day, she’d managed a peek at his assistant’s appointment book that heralded Stark’s arrival today at lunchtime. Which is why Bowen sat beside him white-faced, leg bouncing a thousand miles per hour. Connor suspected he was mostly there to make sure Bowen didn’t try to make a break for it, intent on retrieving his new wife and heading off into the sunset. They still had about twenty minutes until Stark was set to arrive. Erin would be back any minute, and he needed to talk with the team first. He didn’t trust easily, didn’t like discussing their private business with other people, but he’d learned something from Erin when she’d gone missing. Learned how to close his eyes and take a leap of faith once in a while. Not to mention, each of them had gone out of their way to help him find Erin. He wouldn’t forget that. But they didn’t know the full story. As usual, he’d gone solo the final day she’d been gone, starting his own mission.
“Erin’s stepfather bought a house in Chicago.” He scrubbed a hand over his beard. “He left a forwarding address at the Motel 6. It’s how I found Erin.”
Polly paused in the act of filing her nails.
Beside her, Austin only spared him a glance before going back to studying Polly with a slight frown on his face. “What of it, mate?”
“Erin burned the poor fucker’s house down,” Polly explained, taking everyone but Derek and Connor by surprise. “He’s been renting in Florida since then. My guess is he thought a permanent residence in the city where Erin is dwelling would give him a better chance at the conservatorship.” Her smile was tight. “Probably even painted her room pink.”
Connor’s stomach pitched at the idea of Erin sharing four walls with that monster. “That won’t be happening. Derek, did you manage to block the request?”
The captain lowered the headset he was using to listen in on Sera’s wire. “For now, yes. But I’m her employer, not family. It won’t hold forever.”
“Right. I want a restraining order filed. Today.” Connor checked his cell phone to see if Erin had called. She hadn’t. “I’ll convince her to sign the paperwork, but it needs to go through immediately. It might tangle up his request to control her assets.”
Austin fell back against the van wall. “We all know you control her assets now, hey?”
“Watch it,” Connor said. “I was just beginning to tolerate you.”
“That makes one of us,” Bowen muttered beside him, before jerking his chin at Derek. “Has this motherfucker Stark shown up yet?”
“Nope.”
Connor shook his head when both of Bowen’s legs started to bounce. “So far, all the court has is Luther’s account of Erin’s mental state. But they have nothing from her. It needs to be on record.”
“He’s right,” Polly chimed in. “We need to stop playing defense.”
Connor nodded to let her know he appreciated her use of the word we.
Derek eyed him closely. “I’ve got a car outside his house, like you phoned me about last night. I’m not going to get a call informing me that you’ve shown up and gone inside, am I?”
He didn’t respond. One thing he’d never been accused of was being a liar, and he wouldn’t start today. Before he could discuss it further, Erin tapped on the van window. Calmness flooded his system like ice water as he opened the door for her, took the coffee in one hand and helped her in with the other. True to form for a van full of cons, not a single one of them had a guilty expression on their face, as if they hadn’t been discussing her a moment earlier. Well, everyone but Austin, who never wore anything but a smirk.
Connor set the tray of coffees in the center of the van floor and watched everyone converge while he pulled Erin down onto his lap. “Okay?”
She buried her nose against his neck and inhaled. The girl loved to smell him. He’d never given much thought to his aftershave before, but it had become top priority. “Yeah.”
Derek held up a hand for everyone to be quiet. Silence descended over the group as he listened to what was being said through the headphones. Bowen had gone still as death beside him. The captain hit a few buttons and removed his headset as Sera’s voice filled the van for all of them to hear.
A muffled shift against the speaker. “—to meet you, Mr. Stark.”
“My father is Mr. Stark. I’m just Max. Especially for the people working so hard to make my campaign a success.” A long pause before the politician said smoothly, “You’re so acquainted with my career, I feel like we know each other already.”
“Oh, fuck no,” Bowen growled, his hands curling into fists.
For the next hour, the group listened to a campaign staff meeting. From the sounds and explanations filtering through Sera’s wire, it was obvious some kind of PowerPoint presentation was taking place. Even Connor had to admit that Stark was an engaging speaker. He drew laughs from his audience even as he rallied them to work harder for his “noble” cause. It was enough to make Connor sick. Hell, there was suspicion he’d murdered Tucker May to silence the man. He didn’t want Sera, whose friendship he valued, to be anywhere near the sleazy asshole, either. When the meeting wrapped up, everyone in the van sat forward to see what would happen next. If Sera could get close enough to Stark, she’d been instructed to slip a listening and tracking device in his designer leather satchel. That task was what had Bowen ready to jump out of his skin. If Sera got caught, they would need to get her out immediately.
Stark’s voice came through distorted for a moment, then clear as a bell, calling Sera by her cover name. “Uh, Trish. Trish, right?” The sounds of chairs rolling back and a door opening, signaling the end of the meeting. “Can I have a word with you?”
The barest of hesitations. “Sure. Something I can help you with?”
“Oh, please. You’re doing enough. My assistant tells me you’ve brought in a record number of cold-call donations this week. How did you manage that? You’re so…new.”
Austin made a gagging sound. “The man is sorely lacking in anything resembling game.”
“Shut up,” Bowen bit off, yanking on the ends of his hair.
Sera spoke this time, sounding innocently pleased. “Oh, I was just friendly, I guess. My father always said the best way to make a sale is to listen first.”
“Wise words,” Stark murmured. “Listen, I’d love to take you out to lunch. Just to say thank-you.”
Bowen lunged for the van door.
“Driscol,” Derek said sharply. “You go in there and blow her cover, you don’t just screw her over, you screw us all. Stay put and let her do her fucking job.”
Bowen ground his head against the metal door once before denting it with a blow from his fist. “If something happens to her, I will burn this city down.” He turned a look on Derek. “How do you know he hasn’t already made her? She could be in danger.”
“Because I know,” Derek returned coldly, initiating a standoff. “Don’t question me.”
Sera hadn’t spoken in a few seconds, probably all too aware of how her husband was reacting to the offer of lunch. “Oh. Could we plan for another day? I’m…well, I’m seeing someone and I’m supposed to meet them for lunch today.”
Until Erin slipped from his arms, Connor hadn’t realized how quiet she’d been. She watched Bowen with concern, but there was something else happening behind her eyes. Plans taking shape, her sharp brain working overtime. She gave him a meaningful look and placed a finger
over her lips to silence his questions before slipping out the front door of the van. Every instinct in his body demanded he go after her, but he knew what her look had meant. He recognized it too well. Trust me.
A third voice filled the van. Stark’s assistant. She reminded him about a phone call he had that afternoon with the state education chairman before clicking back out of the room. Stark cleared his throat into the silence. “Another day is fine, I guess. Although my schedule is very tight. I was so looking forward to—”
“Honey? Did you forget our lunch date?”
Connor jolted in his seat as Erin’s voice joined the conversation between Sera and Stark. Four pairs of eyes swung toward him, obviously noting for the first time that Erin was no longer in the van.
Austin and Polly both burst out laughing. He and Bowen exchanged a speculative glance.
Derek pinched the bridge of his nose and cursed. “What the hell, Bannon?”
Fuck if he knew. But he would support Erin. She’d proven herself to be a valuable member of this group and he’d damn well have her back if she’d made a call that would help Sera. Even if it went against basic orders not to be seen while they were undercover. He hated the fact that she might have just thrown herself into a dangerous situation, but he felt marginally better knowing Sera, a damn good police officer, was there with her.
“This…is who you’re meeting for lunch?” Stark’s voice. There was no mistaking the blatant heat in his tone. He sounded almost gleeful. “When you said you were seeing someone, I assumed—”
“I’d be a man?” Erin was closer to Sera and her wire now. “We get that a lot.”
Polly slow-clapped. “Well played, O’Dea. You are so getting that recorder planted today, Captain. Can we say distracted?”
Derek started to reply, but was cut off by the unmistakable sound of a kiss. Erin and Sera had kissed? Connor and Bowen exchanged a distinctly uncomfortable look.
Austin let out a hoot. “This shit is finally getting interesting.”
“Shut up,” Connor and Bowen shouted at the Brit.
“Lunch sounds great,” Erin said with a smile in her voice, silencing the van once more. “Where are you taking us, Mr. Treasurer?”
All right, so she wasn’t completely cured. That kiss with Sera had stung like a son of a bitch, but she’d managed to disguise her shock as arousal, which had probably worked in their favor. To be perfectly honest, she kind of liked knowing Connor was the only person it didn’t hurt to touch, to kiss, to allow access to her body. The wickedly sexual side of her he’d woken, this side of her that liked being dominated, wanted to give him that honor. For a man like him it would be the ultimate high, knowing his woman could stand only his touch. Maybe it was wrong or fucked up that she’d found a way to be happy about her affliction, but it made her feel secure somehow. She didn’t have to be cured completely. There was no pressure. She could still be Erin, but she’d been given an extraordinary gift to go along with all her screwy qualities. Connor. His hands, mouth…heart.
Right now, she needed to focus on the task at hand, though. That day at the courthouse, when she’d witnessed the wedding between Bowen and Sera, she’d fallen in love with them both. Not in the way she loved Connor. Nowhere close to that consuming or life-changing. But she couldn’t discount the feeling that these two new people in her life had given her hope, possibly even helped her heal. They’d proven that being dealt a shitty hand didn’t prevent you from folding and finding a new game. They had all done it, but Bowen and Sera had found their pot of gold at the end of a shit rainbow. No way could she sit by and let Sera go into something on her own. Let Bowen go insane with worry. These people had the unfortunate luck of being her friends now, which meant she would go to the wall for them.
Joining Sera undercover hadn’t been as spontaneous a decision as she’d made it seem. Okay, the timing was a little abrupt, but she’d already been planning on lighting a fire under this investigation. When things took too long, she got antsy. That morning, she’d come to the conclusion that Connor would pay a visit to her stepfather that night. Her plan had been to plead with Bowen to go with him and make sure he didn’t do anything crazy, so she could get Sera alone and plot without the men around to cramp their style. Honestly, they took protectiveness to another level. Did she like Connor wanting to keep her safe? Yes. Would she always try to find a way around it? Also yes.
Okay, maybe her plan wasn’t foolproof. Bowen being sent along to play the level head? Funny ha ha. But she hadn’t seen another choice. When this opportunity to help Sera had come along, doubling as a distraction for Connor? She’d jumped on it. Tomorrow she’d come up with another idea. If it meant signing over the money to Luther, she would do it to keep Connor out of it.
Sera sat in the front seat of Maxwell Stark’s car laughing politely at his lame-ass jokes. The guy was good-looking, she could admit to that, but it was in a weekly eyebrow wax appointment kind of way. Too pretty. Nothing like the rugged ex-SEAL she would have to deal with later. Damn. The idea of dealing with a perturbed Connor didn’t exactly seem like a hardship. Maybe he would—
Focus.
Erin draped her arms across the back of Sera’s seat and played with the ends of her friend’s hair. “You still haven’t said where we’re going. Is it a surprise?”
Stark barely managed to stop at a red light in time, his eyes were so focused on Erin’s fingers. “I, uh, thought we could head to my house. I’m always being hounded by photographers downtown…figured this would be a nice break.”
Break. Right. Erin smiled. “Sounds…intimate.”
Sera smiled at her in the rearview, embracing the act. But there was tightness at the corners of her mouth, probably because the team, including Bowen, could hear everything being said. She hoped Sera realized they would have to separate at some point so one of them could search the house for the elusive Mr. May. Ever since she and Connor had brainstormed that theory yesterday, she hadn’t been able to get it out of her head. If he wasn’t there, they would plant the listening device, make an excuse and leave. If he was there? She’d play it by ear. And trust that Derek would have Chicago PD descending on the house if trouble presented itself.
There was that word again. Trust. It got easier every time.
They drove for fifteen minutes, leaving the city proper and entering the suburbs. Manicured lawns and long driveways, so foreign to her, threatened to snag her attention, but she focused on the street names and the turns they were taking. Stark finally pulled into a gated driveway, hitting a button on his sun visor to open a wrought iron gate. He winked at her and Sera, looking super pleased with himself, and continued toward the house where he parked beside a marble fountain. When Stark climbed out and went around back on his way to the passenger side, Erin snatched the gate remote off the visor and stuffed it into her pocket, keeping an eye on the rearview to make sure Stark didn’t see.
When Erin was in prison, she’d always imagined the correctional officers sharing a big house like Stark’s when they were off the clock. They would play paintball and munch on giant turkey legs in front of the television. Common sense had told her they probably lived in one-bedroom apartments devoid of reading material or color, but it had made her feel better somehow. Making them characters in a cheesy reality show instead of the assholes who watched her use the toilet or treated her like cattle.
Erin turned in a circle in the foyer, which had two carpeted staircases ascending to the second floor on either side. “Wow.” She placed a hand over her heart as she spotted the gaudy chandelier. “This place is amazing.”
“Designed it myself.” Douche. “It’s the one thing my wife didn’t take in the divorce.”
Erin made the pouty face she knew he wanted to see. “Some people are so greedy.”
Sera nodded. “It would have been a shame to lose something you worked so hard on.”
If she could have high-fived Sera at the moment for her subtle insertion of the phrase “hard on,” she would
have. Instead, she reached up and gathered her hair on top of her head, letting her belly button peek out as she perused the art on the wall. Sera did the same across the room, although Erin knew she was looking for much more. Stark stood between them with his hands in his pockets, checking each of them out in turn.
Erin turned back in time to see Sera smiling over her shoulder. It was an innocent smile, but there was a hint of daring. Nice. “Is there a bathroom I could use?”
“Sure, just down the hallway—”
“Ooh, can I see the kitchen?” Erin asked, cutting him off as Sera slipped from the room. Great. They were on the same page. Now all she had to do was keep Stark distracted while Sera did her thing. Only problem was, Sera wore the wire. She didn’t have squat. Wait. Except for the cell phone in her pocket. Guess the electronic handcuffs Connor had foisted on her would come in handy after all. As Stark led her toward the back of the house and through a giant archway, she pulled out the cell and dialed Connor’s number before quickly stowing it away once more.
The kitchen looked like Architectural Digest had thrown up in it, and Erin was willing to guess the expensive-looking, stainless steel appliances were never used. It looked too clean, like it hadn’t been lived in. She would take her and Connor’s tiny eat-in kitchen over this place any day of the week. Not bothering to hide her smile over the spark of pleasure the phrase “her and Connor’s kitchen,” she pretended to be absorbed in Stark’s explanation of how much everything cost and how hard each piece had been to come by.
When he turned his back on her, gesturing to the crown molding decorating the ceiling, Erin slid open a few drawers. If her hunch proved correct…bingo. Beneath a stack of take-out menus, the butt of a Glock peeked out. A nice one, too. It would make too much noise to check if it was loaded, but she shoved it into her jeans’ waistband at the small of her back anyway. Stark circled back on her, obviously finished with his explanation of the finer things in life. She knew his expression from experience. It said enough with the small talk bullshit.