No way he’d found her. No way he’d come for her. No way he’d put himself at risk.
He wouldn’t be that stupid.
“Yeah, sounds good.” In a fast move, he hoisted her back into his arms, settled her close to his body, and for the first time in seven years, she felt safe, whole, home.
Oh, shit.
“Jay Mann,” Roman said, making the two words sound like a bad disease. “We’ve been searching all over for you, haven’t we, Maya? Or should I call you Rebecca now? Tell me, love, have we been collaborating with the wrong twin all this time?”
Oh, hell no.
No. No. No!
A new wave of panic swelled. At the same time, her muscles tensed, total certainty descended, and her gaze snapped back to the man whose arms she occupied, her eyes landing on his with laser focus. And yep. A set of onyx black irises she never expected to get lost in again stared back at her.
Familiar. Yet different. Jay. But not her Jay.
He’d never looked at her with such raw emotion before. Never had that hard edge she saw in him now. Never had those little crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes. This man was older. Wiser. More serious than she’d ever seen him.
Seven years.
Seven years she’d been running from him. Protecting him. Fighting for him. And he had the audacity, the unmitigated gall, the biggest set of brass balls, to show up here—in enemy territory—in the actual fucking flesh.
To rescue her.
Jesus Christ. If one of Alexsandr’s henchmen didn’t get to it first…she was going to kill the dumbass herself.
Confused as to why Becca would be expecting her sister, but relieved she seemed to be well enough to continue, Jay wanted to get the fuck off this island so the two of them could sort their shit out.
Unfortunately, he didn’t make it more than two steps before she put a stop to his rescue efforts. “You idiot!” she shouted, reaching for his face with trembling fingers. “You shouldn’t be here!” She pulled down the thin stretch of fabric doing a piss poor job of concealing his identity.
“Becca—”
“How could you?” She pushed at his chest, struggling against the hold he had on her.
“Baby—”
“Put me down.”
His arms tightened, his muscles contracting in automatic reflex as the urge to do the opposite of what she demanded took over control of his body. Jesus, fuck. He wanted to kiss her. Dip his head and plant his mouth right over hers until her plump lips parted and she let him in.
“Put. Me. Down.”
Oh, shit. He recognized that tone. The clipped syllables. The added emphasis of a poke to the pec with every punctuated word. He’d landed himself in some deep doo-doo. The love of his life wasn’t overly thrilled to see him in the flesh, and she was about to let it be known.
He set her down gently.
She hauled off and knuckled him in the arm, catching him smack dab in the middle of his bicep with a crippling right hook. “How could you?”
“Ow.” Proud as a peacock because she still knew how to throw a punch, he shook out his arm, an attempt to dull the tingling sensation creeping through his pain receptors. “How could I what?”
“Ruin everything!” she huffed. “Two years I’ve been on this God-forsaken island. Two years I’ve been working on destroying Dominion. And you decided to show up today? Out of the blue? What the fuck were you?—”
“Uh, Jay,” Cody interrupted. “Hate to break up the happy reunion, but Alpha team’s still under the gun, and we’re sitting ducks in here. We need to move. Now.”
“Copy that.” Hand on her elbow because he needed to be touching her, he attempted to guide her toward the door. “We’ll talk about this later, Bec. For now, stay close. Keep your head down. And when we hit the courtyard, run straight for the helicopter. It’s not too far, so your feet shouldn’t get too cold before we get you on board.”
She followed him for a step or two before her momentum stalled. “Jay, I can’t.”
