Jameson (In the Company of Snipers #22) - Irish Winters Page 0,58
didn’t want to bother you, Mr. Stewart, but she’s got a couple loan sharks pestering her,” he volunteered. “That’s why she’s been late to work. Mind if I take care of them for her?”
“Jameson!” she hissed.
“Stop calling me Mr. Stewart, and we’ve got a deal.”
“Yes, err, umm—”
“Boss or Alex,” Hunter supplied the missing title. “Never sir. He’ll roast your nuts over a slow flame for that.”
“I want in on that loan shark action, Jameson,” Adam said as he reached into the limo and cuffed Maddie’s biceps gently. “Should have told me you were having trouble, Mad Dog. I like shark meat.”
She almost smiled, but Alex could tell she hadn’t wanted her dirty laundry outed. He’d talk with her in private about that loan shark. See what else he could do for her.
“Mad Dog, huh?” Alex lifted a brow. “How’d you come to have Miss Shade’s limo?”
Maddie reminded him so much of Kelsey way back when. Timid, yet strong. Unskilled, yet willing to take on the monsters in her world. Afraid to ask for help, but obviously smitten with the young man holding onto her. Did Jameson Tenney have any idea what a treasure she was? Alex doubted it.
Her tongue made a quick pass over her bottom lip. “Well, Boss, it was parked in the barn, so first, I helped Mr. Vlad to his feet, and I drove him to a safe location, then—”
“After she punched holes in all Delaney’s guys’ tires,” Jameson interjected.
“Well, yes, I thought that was smart, and then I ran back to burn the barn down. W-w-wow. That fire went so, so fast. It got big in a hurry.”
“Old barns burn the hottest,” Alex told her. “Dust and dry timber make an explosive combination.”
“You’re telling me,” she breathed. “My pants were smoking. I almost didn’t make it out of there alive.”
Alex couldn’t help it. He grinned. “You’ve had a busy night, Ms. Bannister.”
“You have no idea. Once I got Mr. Vlad—”
“His name’s Vladimir Morozov. He’s an—”
“He’s an undercover FBI agent?” Jameson asked, his head now canted to the opposite shoulder.
“Yes. He works in their psychic unit. How’d you know?”
“Jameson has mad ninja skills,” Maddie declared, her pretty, light-blue eyes so wide with innocence and honest affection for the guy at her side, that it was hard to look at her and not see Kelsey. Had she ever looked so frightened, yet strong at the same time as Maddie did now? Absolutely.
“I can see that,” Alex admitted quietly.
“Wait. The FBI really has a psychic unit?” Jameson asked, dumbfounded. “Since when?”
“Since a year ago,” Alex admitted. “A couple of my agents now work in that unit. Listen, the EMTs are running late. How about we get Vladimir back to civilization? Looks like you two could use a hot meal and a couple days off.”
Jameson shook his head. “Not me. I’m good, and I’ll be at work tomorrow.”
“You’re a former SEAL,” Alex told him sternly, “which means you’re dumb as a box of rocks and you don’t know when to quit. But you work for me now. Two days R&R. That’s an order.”
Junior Agent Tenney had the good sense to stand down. He looked pretty damned content there with Maddie on his lap and in his arms. She was smiling, and it was happening again. Two people in the right place at the wrong time. Fighting together to survive. Beating the odds. Falling head over heels into who knew what.
“How many bodies did you leave back at that farmhouse?” Alex asked Jameson.
The thing about this young man was he was hard to read. He didn’t blink and his feelings didn’t show, well, except for the tenderness that softened his lips whenever Maddie spoke.
“I’m not sure—”
“Twenty-three,” Adam announced proudly.
Alex cocked his head. “You mean to tell me that Jameson took them out all by himself?”
Again, Jameson gave nothing away as he replied evenly, “I didn’t realize there were so many. I knew I ended the first three who came for me, then the six after Maddie showed up. I had to. It was totally self-defense and I used deadly force to protect Maddie. Luckily, I acquired a high-capacity, twelve-gauge shotgun after the first go-round, so I was prepared. But I lost track of the body count after reinforcements arrived. There were too many, and, oh yeah, Maddie ended Delaney.”
“Way to go, Mad Dog!” Hunter crowed.
“Damn fine shooting, lady,” Eric added.
Adam’s long arm reached in as he ruffled her hair. “That’s my girl!”
But the news stopped Alex’s heart. He turned to his