Wicked as Lies (Wicked & Devoted 3)

I love you, too, baby.

He kissed her forehead. That was as close as he dared let his mouth near hers. Besides, she didn’t need sex right now. She needed to rest in safety, in comfort, so she could escape and heal and rejuvenate.

“It’s almost midnight. Why don’t you try to get some sleep?”

“Because if I close my eyes, when I open them again, it will be morning. It will be time for me to go. And I don’t want to…”

Jesus, she was killing him. Honestly, he didn’t want her to go, either. They still had over a thousand days before they wouldn’t be fired for giving in to their feelings. Yes, he was counting. “You can stay as long as you want.”

“Thanks, but I don’t want to be a—”

“Don’t say burden.”

Her lips curled into a crooked grin. “Or you’ll spank me? Now that you clued me in, I can picture all of our bosses being that kind of guy.”

It was probably a good thing that the tequila had her thoughts hopping from one subject to the next. If not, he probably would have asked her to move in and fuck the contract. And he knew without asking that she wasn’t ready.

“Do you want me to go over to your place and clear Cash out before you go home?”

She looked at him as if she wanted to cry, press him to her chest, and thank him profusely. So he was shocked when she shook her head. “It’s really sweet of you to offer, but no. It was my screwup for believing him. I need to be the one to tell him to go. I just…can’t right now.”

No, not tonight. Maybe not even tomorrow. Zy didn’t blame her. She’d endured a lot. And now that he knew the truth, he could handle Cash living at her place without feeling homicidal…kind of.

“Get some rest, okay? Here.” He guided her to her back and laid her head on his pillow. “Close your eyes.”

Tessa tried to sit up. “I can’t take your bed.”

“I want you to.”

“I only want to be here if you’re with me.”

Fuck, he was running out of strength. “Baby…”

“Just lie next to me. That’s all.” She blinked solemnly, looking as if she’d cry if he refused. “Please.”

It was going to kill him, but better his pain than hers.

With a sigh, Zy toed off his shoes and lay down beside her. “All right.”

She turned her head, looking at him with a heavy-lidded smile as she reached for his hand. “Thanks. Since the colonel called you to my house, my life hasn’t been the same.”

“Mine, either, baby.” And as awful as seeing her every day and knowing he couldn’t have her was, he wouldn’t trade it for the world.

November 3

“Come in, Garrett,” Hunter called from the far side of the conference room. “Sit down. We need to talk.”

Logan motioned him to an empty chair.

Joaquin watched him with those expressionless eyes that gave him the heebies.

He had no idea what the fuck they wanted, and he’d never stepped a toe over the contractual line with Tessa—no matter how badly he’d ached to. So why were they crawling up his ass first thing on a Monday morning?

He planted himself in a chair in the middle of the room. “What’s up?”

“We have a problem.”

To be honest, they had a lot of problems. Cutter and One-Mile were at each other’s throats constantly. Rumors were flying that the sniper had gotten the Boy Scout’s girlfriend pregnant. The insults they kept slinging around the office were ugly enough for Zy to believe it. It wasn’t his problem, but the bosses had called him in here, so they obviously thought he had a solution to at least one of their issues.

“And you need my help?”

“Yeah.” Hunter nodded, pacing and looking serious as a motherfucker. “There have been some new developments over the weekend.”

“What he’s trying to say is we’ve had this shitty situation that’s been confusing, but now we have more light on it, and it’s clearly beyond fucked up.”

“Exactly.” Joaquin’s seldom-used voice sounded like a growl.

Zy sat up straighter in his chair. “What’s going on?”

“My brothers and I spent Sunday together looking at the chain of events this year relating to Valeria Montilla and all our missions to Mexico.”

“You still think we have a mole?”

Logan shook his head. “Now we know it.”

Dread started gnawing at Zy’s belly. If they wanted to tell him this shit, there could only be one reason. “It’s not Trees.”

“Shut and listen before you say anything else,” Hunter snapped.

Zy clenched his teeth.

“We had that failed mission back in March, remember? You said at the time it felt like they knew you were coming.”

“Yeah. But if Trees tried to set us up, why did he abort at the last minute?”

Logan shrugged. “I don’t know. But what I do know is that someone somewhere told Montilla exactly when, where, and how we were coming in.”