“You don’t have a choice.” Victor was adamant. “We’ve got too much riding on this case. Jasmine is dead, and you need to move the hell on.”
Drake didn’t look at Victor. His gaze pinned Jasmine in place. “I thought that I’d watched you burn.”
“Drake…” She had to fight to keep her breathing steady. “Why did you come after me?” She’d never thought that he would. She’d already pictured him with someone else, and Jasmine had hated that other woman.
His jaw locked.
That wasn’t going to do for her. “Tell me.”
“You shouldn’t have left me.” The words were rough, bitten off. “You let me think you were dead.” A muscle jerked in his clenched jaw. “Do you know what that did to me?”
“I’m sorry.” She was. More sorry than she could ever say. “I didn’t want—”
“I’m the one who told her she couldn’t have contact with you.” Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Victor caught her hand and pulled her away from Drake. “Because you’re dangerous, Archer, and I knew you’d make this whole thing blow up around us. You’re pissed? Be pissed at me. I’m the one who made her leave you. I’m the one who did it all.”
And Drake most definitely was pissed.
Drake glared at Victor.
Victor glared back even as he tugged on Jasmine’s hand. “Let’s get back downstairs before Saxon starts swinging…if he hasn’t already.”
Jasmine let him pull her away from Drake and back down the stairs. Victor didn’t so much as flinch as he headed down all those steps, even though she knew his leg had to be hurting him. But that was Victor. Pushing through the pain, just like he’d done in their early days.
Drake followed closely behind her, and her body was so attuned to him that every muscle was taut. He’d come after her. That had to mean something, didn’t it? If she’d just been another lover in the dark to him, then Drake never would have bothered searching for her.
It has to mean something.
And maybe, just maybe, it could mean everything.
***
Drake hated Victor. The smug FBI agent was begging for an ass kicking, and if Jasmine hadn’t been standing between him and that jerk, Drake would be obliging him.
“How the hell did these guys get here?” The one called Saxon demanded. Big, blond, and with go-to-hell eyes, Drake remembered that fellow all too well.
So he was another one who’d been in on the FBI’s game all along. “You could’ve said something,” Drake snarled at him. “Instead of taking her away from my cabin and leaving me running after her in that swamp!”
Saxon lifted a brow. “Was I supposed to say something before or after you started shooting at me?”
Drake lunged forward.
“Try it,” Saxon invited. He didn’t back away. He stepped toe-to-toe with Drake. And he was smiling. A hard flash of teeth. “You think you’re so tough because you and your boys spent some time pulling Black Ops? You’re not the only one who knows how to dish out some hell.” His hands were fisted, and Drake could see the line of scars that ran across Saxon’s knuckles.
“No one is trying anything!” Jasmine’s voice rose as she shoved her way between them. The light glinted off her hair. Blonde and shorter than before. Still sexy. Hell, the woman would always be sexy to him, but he missed that deep red of her hair. He wanted her back the way she’d been. He wanted her…just the way she was before.
Her secrets. Her lies. He just wanted her.
The floor creaked as Noah stepped forward. Noah, who’d been far too quiet on this whole mission. “Is it true?” Noah asked, his eyes locked on Jasmine. “Are you my sister?”
Her lips parted in surprise then her gaze flew right to Drake. He saw pain in her stare. Betrayal? No, hell, no, he hadn’t betrayed her. “I thought you were dead! I wasn’t really thinking of controlling my mouth.” Sonofabitch. He’d only thought of her. Drake made himself take a few steps back. He had to get his control—and hold onto it.
She didn’t understand just how much things had changed for him. For them. She would.
“Is it true?” Noah was less than a foot away from Jasmine.
Her open mouth closed. She shrugged. A careless move, even as her chin lifted a bit into the air. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Trace stood near the fireplace. The unlit fireplace. “A DNA test will answer your question quick enough, Noah.”
Noah nodded. “Yes, it will.”
Jasmine backed up a bit. When she retreated, Drake noticed that both Victor and Saxon advanced, as if they’d protect her.
What had Victor snarled at him earlier?
I’m her brother! Me and Sax! We’re the ones who’ve always been there for her!
“Is that why you all followed me?” Jasmine’s voice was muted. Hurt. “Because you wanted to test my DNA and see if I was a match for Noah?”
Noah’s eyes flashed. “I want to know if you’re my family.”
“You have a family,” Jasmine said softly. “I saw your wedding picture. A beautiful wife who loves you. You don’t…you don’t need me.”
“Let me be the judge of what I need.” Noah’s voice was gruff and his eyes glinted with emotion. “Are you my sister?”
Almost miserably, Jasmine nodded.
He crept closer to her. “H-how?”
Jasmine’s lips quirked at that. Her dimples flashed, and Drake could tell by the expression on Noah’s face that her smile had just gotten to him.
The way it got me?
“The usual way babies are made.” Her smile slipped away. “Our mother had you first. She was sixteen then, and she gave you up. I-I have a picture of you as a baby. It’s upstairs. In my room. It’s you and the people who adopted you.” Her voice lowered. “That’s how I found you. That picture.”
Noah’s face whitened. So much emotion blazed in his eyes. “She kept you?”
There was an odd note in Noah’s voice. Confusion. Pain. And as much as Drake wanted to rush forward and grab Jasmine, to hold her tight, he knew that Noah needed this time.
So did Jasmine.
Even Saxon and Victor had retreated a bit, though they still glowered suspiciously at Drake. And as for Trace…he was at the window, keeping guard. Always on alert.
“She kept me,” Jasmine said with a slow nod. “I think maybe…at first…she had plans for us. Dreams. Because she regretted letting you go. She used to cry about that. About you.”
Noah’s face was a tense mask.
“It was better…for you not to be there.” Jasmine’s voice was so careful, and Drake knew that she wasn’t going to tell Noah the full truth about her mother. She doesn’t want to hurt him. “Life wasn’t easy then. The parents you had—they loved you, and they gave you a good life. You shouldn’t…you shouldn’t—”
“I already know,” Noah said softly, cutting through her words.
Her lashes flickered.
“Weston Securities,” Noah murmured. “You think I didn’t find out everything I could about you…and her…as soon as Drake told me?”
Now Saxon and Victor stepped forward once more, their protective instincts obviously aroused. I’m her brother! Me and Sax!