“Hey, what’s up, Baby?” he asked. “You hauled ass in a hurry. Want to explain?”
She looked over.
Where he expected her to make an excuse, she didn’t. Instead, she went there.
“I don’t want to tangle withBlackStone. That’s a really bad idea.”
He stared at her.
Was this fear?
That wasn’t Maura’s MO. Normally, she was fearless, balls to the wall, and sometimes, careless.
That she was hesitating…
They didn’t know everything. Jagger would bet on it.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “I mean, I know their MO, but you’re usually all over things like this. A criminal organization who caused Marine deaths? That’s kinda your thing. What gives?”
She shared what she could.
“I’ve met him,” she said, keeping the details light so he didn’t lose his mind. She knew the kind of man that Von Donore was, and he was trouble.
Did she want to go down that rabbit hole and risk their family, Elizabeth’s career, and their lives?
Not particularly.
At her words, he lifted a brow.
“Pardon?” he asked. “You’ve met him? Like face-to-face?”
That was crazy for him, since more often than not, Maura and her team, the old Marine one, didn’t let anyone see them. They were able to walk through a grocery store at noon, and no one suspected shit.
They were ghosts.
She explained.
“Before he was a military contractor nightmare, he had connections to the government. I was in a meeting, getting our next operation, and I met him. If he sees me…,” she began, “we have issues.”
Oh, he didn’t like that.
Not.
At.
All.
That wasn’t good. He couldn’t name ten people who saw her face, and knew what she did. Maura looked like the girl next door. She was pretty but she didn’t do anything that made her stand out, and for a reason.
“So he’s seen your face?”
Oh, he could say that.
“He knows my name, Jagger. Well, he knows me as Major Maura Gaines.”
Jagger sat there.
Now, he was feeling edgy. Oh, not as a Marine, but as Maura’s husband. She was no longer Major Maura Gaines. She was Maura Gaines-Mars-Armstrong, hisWIFE, and mother of his children.
