Page 10 of Lone Star Target

Jace had also noticed the gun. Or rather the slight bulge on the right side of the jacket. When Kit and he had been together, she definitely hadn’t been the gun-carrying sort.

“I do,” she replied. “And I’ve had all the required fire arms training. I didn’t start carrying because of my dad or brother though. Not because of Marvin, either. There was an incident with a client about a year ago, and I realized I should have some protection other than my smart mouth.”

Jace couldn’t help it. He smiled. Short lived though. But Kit did have a smart mouth all right.

“The client who assaulted you because you were trying to get him to accept a plea bargain,” Jace supplied. They started down the two flights of stairs toward the first floor.

Kit increased her pace so she could move level with him, and she glanced at him. Eye to eye. “You know about that?” But then she waved it off. “Of course you do. You were on the job then, and you would have seen in a police blotter or the actual report.”

He had indeed seen both, and it’d taken a lot of willpower not to call and check on her. “The client punched you in the face and cracked two of your ribs.”

“And I kneed his balls into his throat. I guess that’s sort of my go-to defense move.”

Again, Jace had to smile. And this time, Jericho noticed.

“How’d you two meet?” Jericho asked. “Because you don’t seem as if you’d travel in the same circles. Foster care,” he added, motioning toward Jace. “To the manor born.” He motioned to Kit.

Jace waited for Kit to explain. She was clearly waiting for him to do the same. Jerico was volleying glances to let them know he was waiting on both of them.

“We met at a party our first year of college at UT,” Jace said on a huff. “A party with alcohol involved.”

“We were practically naked,” Kit piped in. She didn’t huff. She chuckled. “It was at some rich guy’s house; his parents were away kind of deal, and all the lights were off, so it was pitch black inside. To be admitted, you had to strip to your underwear and go in and…mingle. I’d thought ahead though and wore a bikini under my clothes.”

“Yeah, alcohol involved in that,” Jericho muttered.

There had been but not for Jace. He wasn’t sure if Kit knew that or not. He’d gone to the party with Angel and their other foster brother, Presley Nolan, and Jace had only gone inside after he’d seen Kit.

Lust at first sight.

And, hell, the lust was still there after all this time.

Cursing himself and his stupid dick, they said their goodbyes to Jericho and then headed to Jace’s dark gray Land Rover SUV. Once he was inside, he forced his mind off Kit. Hard to do since she slid into the passenger’s seat right beside him. But he got help with that focus when he looked past the gates and reminded himself they were about to go out on a road where someone could spot them.

And try to kill them.

Thankfully, the SUV, like all the Maverick Ops’ vehicles, was bullet-resistant. They also had the advantage of not having to immediately drive out into heavy traffic. The headquarters was just outside the city and off a road where it would be easy to spot someone lying in wait. That would change though once they reached San Antonio, where Kit’s townhouse and office were.

Jace had seen the addresses on the monitor during Ruby’s briefing, and he knew that both locations were smack in the middle of downtown. Tall buildings jammed together that would be a haven for snipers and other assholes who wanted to get at Kit and him.

He drove forward, giving Angel a nodded greeting as they passed him, and Jace used his code to open the gate. By his estimation, they had twenty minutes or so to get to her townhouse, and during that time, Jace had to get a lot of things straight. For one, he had to spell out the rules. Rules that involved her doing everything he said to keep her safe. He didn’t get a chance to even start that though before her phone rang.

Kit took it from her purse and glanced at the screen. “It’s my nephew, Brandon.” There was alarm in her voice. “He rarely calls me.”

“Hell,” Jace muttered. “Answer it on speaker.” And he hit a series of buttons on his dash monitor to trace the location of the caller. It was a nifty app that, like the bullet-resistant glass, was standard issue for Maverick Ops.

“Brandon,” she greeted. “Is something wrong?”

“I think so.” The young man’s voice poured through the SUV. “I went to Dad’s office to pick up something I need for the next semester. He wasn’t there, he was at home recovering, so I looked in his desk to see if he’d left them there. Instead, I found something else, and I think you should see it.”

Even though it was obvious that Brandon was alive and hadn’t been kidnapped, Jace didn’t feel a whole lot of relief. Because there was just as much alarm in his voice as there was in Kit’s.

“What did you find?” she said.

“Three phones. The prepaid kind you buy at the store.” He paused. “I took them, Aunt Kit, and I brought them to my apartment in San Antonio. There are…some texts on them. And I think you should see them.” Brandon stopped again and groaned. “Shit, Aunt Kit. Is Dad trying to kill you?”

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Chapter Five

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