“Have you heard from Lucy? Do they know where Sean is? How he is? I can’t seem to get any information.”
“Lucy texted me that she had a lead and would call later. She has a good team with her in Houston right now, my job is to make sure that Jesse stays safe.”
“I went to see Brad at the hospital. I wasn’t supposed to—but after I was reamed by Salter, I just wanted to make sure he was okay.”
“Did they let you in to see him?”
She had a sly smile on her face. “Not exactly. But I saw him for like two minutes.” Now she frowned. “He was sleeping, on painkillers. I read his chart. That little bitch tortured him. There were cuts all over his back. She branded him. He’d been naked like that for God knows how long. Burn marks on his arms and legs. A cut on his face. His body temperature was dangerously low. Two broken ribs. A skull fracture and concussion. They only had him for thirty hours but he would have been dead if they had him much longer.”
“That was their plan, Aggie.”
She cleared their plates, rinsed them. She was working through something; Nate remained silent. He went into the freezer and found Lucy’s stash of chocolate ice cream. He dished up two bowls.
“Hey,” he finally said as she scrubbed a pot that was clearly already clean.
She glanced over at him.
He pushed a bowl toward her spot at the island. “Ice cream.”
She turned off the water and came over. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.”
“I’m angry.”
“I know.”
“Thank you.”
“No thanks.”
“No, seriously, you saved my life. I wasn’t thinking when I went after Elise. It was like all my training evaporated and I just wanted to stop her. I was so angry; I didn’t see all the ways it could go wrong.”
Nate put his hands on Aggie’s shoulders. He felt a jolt, something he wasn’t expecting. He said, “Your instincts are solid, Aggie. You need more training. I can help with that, if you want.”
She looked up at him, her head tilted to the side, and then Nate kissed her.
He shouldn’t have. He shouldn’t kiss anyone; he wasn’t relationship material. Too many demons battling inside him. And Aggie was the type of girl who was relationship material, not a casual fling.
But he wanted to kiss her, so he did.
She returned his kiss, wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him in. He picked her up and placed her on the island so he could kiss her face to face, without bending down.
A small moan escaped her throat and his body went into overdrive.
He pulled back. Stared at her.
“What?” she said, breathless.
“Not now.”
“I like you, Nate.”
“I like you. A lot. But I can’t tonight—not when I have a responsibility. I can’t afford to be distracted.” He touched her hair. It was soft and messy and he couldn’t wait to take her to bed.
Just not tonight.
She didn’t say anything. He kissed her again, so she would know that this wasn’t about her, this was him. He took his responsibilities very seriously, and right now protecting Jesse was his job. Taking Aggie to bed—something he really wanted to do—could wait.
And sometimes, waiting made the reward ten times better.
“You’re one of a kind, Nate Dunning,” she said with a smile. “Let’s eat that ice cream before it melts.”
Chapter Forty-two
OUTSIDE MONTEMORELOS, MEXICO
Talking to Megan grounded Jack, reminded him to be safe because he had someone he loved to go home to. Something he needed while he and Kane made camp for the night.
Megan explained Lucy’s theory that Senator Jonathan Paxton was behind the prison break, though she was skeptical.
“Lucy hopes she can get Thompson to slip up,” Megan said.
“When are you talking to him?” he asked.
“We’re waiting for him to be brought to the interview room. Lots of hoops to jump through.”
“Bureaucracy,” he grumbled.
“Is everything about Paxton true? I mean, I know Lucy used to work for him, and that he was behind the vigilante group that was taking out sex offenders, but I didn’t realize that Lucy looks like his daughter.”
“Everything Lucy said is accurate, and more. I confronted him once and to my face he called Lucy Monique. That’s his dead daughter. I’ve seen pictures, they do look alike, not identical, but enough where people would mistake them as sisters. But remember—Monique was killed before Lucy was born. Paxton grieved, which I understand, but he turned his grief into rage, anger, and retribution. He was obsessed with Lucy and if he’s