“It’s a threat. They want to make you afraid to come home again by showing you how easy it is to get to you,” he said.
“If Max testified against these guys, does that mean I’ll never be safe again?” Max wouldn’t be the only one who needed a new identity. “That might’ve been what Max was trying to tell me. I wish I’d taken his calls.”
“Don’t blame yourself. You couldn’t have known,” Jaden insisted.
Lauren sucked in a breath and kept moving. A similar scene was found on the second floor, and it angered her to the core that everything she’d worked so hard for could be destroyed in one evening. Then again, she’d only worked for things so far. It wasn’t like she’d spent the past few hears investing in anything real. Like a family. Kids.
Lauren shook it off. She never thought of wanting those things before she met Jaden.
“We have to leave. Grab a change of clothes and anything you want from the bathroom. My place isn’t far.”
Chapter 18
Lauren followed Jaden’s instructions without argument, still numb. She focused intently on folding and placing clothes in her overnight bag.
“What else did you learn about be in my folder?” Did it tell him how much of her life had been spent alone?
“That you’re a runner. You like to jog in the morning,” he said.
Her gaze trailed up to meet his. He alternated between watching the door and the window, and she was reminded how dangerous the situation was. It should be strange to be alone in her bedroom with a virtual stranger. Although, Jaden didn’t feel like a stranger. Not after what they’d survived together. “What else?”
“You’ve been a successful entrepreneur—”
“I won’t be for long. Not after I raided all the cash.” She suddenly realized she didn’t leave enough to pay vendors next month. She’d taken it all. Left her entire life savings along with all the money she could secure in the middle of the sea. She heaved a deep sigh. “I was a successful business owner. Did that file tell you anything else about my private life?” Anger flooded her, had her asking questions before she could stop and think. “Does it say who I’ve dated? Who I’ve—”
“Slept with? No, it doesn’t. Satisfied?” A flash of what looked like shame crossed his features. A pang of guilt washed over her. She was yelling at him because she couldn’t yell at the real people provoking her.
Frustrated, Lauren sat down on the edge of her bed. “I’m sorry. I’m taking all this out on you. Look at you. You’re hurt. You’ve been through everything I have and more. I shouldn’t be giving you such a hard time right now.”
“Believe me when I say I’m just as irritated,” Jaden said, holding his position and watching the door intently.
“Of course you are. I remember you told me about your brother and how you hate all this. You must see his face in every situation,” she said.
“It’s more than that. This one’s even more personal for me.” His back teeth clenched.
“Why? What happened?”
“This bullet hole in my shoulder happened. I attended the funeral of one of my operatives. Not two weeks later, I lost another. Then, I had to tell a wife she was going to bring up her children alone. In the past forty-eight hours I lost one damn good man on the beach and a fucking kid at my safe house.” There was so much guilt and anger in those words.
“I’m so sorry, Jaden,” she said. It was easy to see that he blamed himself for every loss.
He didn’t immediately speak.
“How did you get shot?” She could tell this wasn’t easy for him. Every muscle in his body tensed. His hands fisted and released. His lips thinned. She’d never had this much difficulty getting a few words out of him.
“Miscalculation. I trusted my partner. Smith got involved with a woman whose brother is a big time dealer in South America,” he said.
“Menendez?”
He nodded. “She convinced him she was innocent. I believed her, too.”
Hard to believe anyone had ever tricked a man like Jaden. Then it occurred to her why a man’s judgement might slip, and a pang of jealousy rippled through her.
“Was she very beautiful?”
“Yes.” His answer made Lauren wonder if that was the reason he didn’t trust her back on the rocks.
She resisted asking the question she wanted answered and settled on, “What happened?”
“She walked us straight into a trap. We were supposed to meet to exchange guns for drugs. Instead, we marched into an ambush. My partner, Smith, took a bullet between the eyes. I took one to the shoulder.” He nodded toward his left shoulder. She’d noticed that he’d been nursing it at times.
“And lived,” she added, unable to imagine the sense of betrayal he must’ve felt. “You said before that all of this could be caused by someone from the inside, a mole. Why would one of your own do something like that?”
He shrugged. Anger scored his stormy blue eyes. “Why does anyone maim or murder? Greed. Sex. Power. Money.”
A creak sounded on the stairs. Jaden switched gears instantly. He unlocked the safety on his weapon. “It’s probably nothing. Settlement noise. But stay here while I check it out.”
Lauren was used to the sound. Dallas houses were built on clay soil. And yet, hearing it after what she’d been through unnerved her just the same. She quickly finished her packing, more than ready to get out of her house.
Jaden returned a moment later. “Looks fine. We should get going, though.”
“I’m ready.” As they returned to the borrowed vehicle, Jaden kept a close watch all around them.
Sitting there, doing nothing but waiting for him to put her suitcase in the trunk made her feel like stink bait being dragged along the bottom of a pond full of catfish.
Her skin pricked.
Her stomach clenched.
Something felt very off but she couldn’t pinpoint the reason.
Then she caught sight of a blacked-out
