Page 63 of Command and Control: GHOST Operative

And my smile widens even more when Vincent scoops me off the bed, carries me to the bathroom, and lowers my spent body into the bathtub I was too delirious to notice he’d filled. After slipping in behind me, he reaches around to gently remove the clamps still in place, dropping them over the edge.

I relax against him, head dropping back. “I think you’ve ruined me.”

“Good.” His hand smooths across my skin, like he can’t stop touching me. “It makes us even.”

“Hardly.” I rock my head to one side so I can see his face. “You still know way more about me than I know about you.”

He continues stroking me with a soft touch, calloused fingers gliding over the swell of one breast. “What do you want to know?”

I swallow hard because what I want to know will be difficult for him to talk about, and Vincent usually shuts me down when I bring up tough topics. But I have to ask. “What happened to your mother?”

He’s quiet for a minute, his touch continuing over my body as the warmth of the water sinks into my bones. Finally Vincent takes a deep breath, like he has to prepare himself. “She wanted me to be a pianist. Fully believed I had the talent.”

He pauses and I wait a minute before urging him forward. “Did you have the talent?”

My body shifts as he shrugs. “Does it matter?”

“I guess not.” I try to imagine little boy Vincent sitting at the piano practicing for hours, wanting to make his mother proud. It’s not difficult to conjure up. “Why didn’t you do it?”

“Because she died when I was twelve.” He traces the line of my jaw, following it up to curve around the shell of my ear. “I didn’t even know she was sick. She hid it from me because she thought it would distract me.”

I want to be angry that she did that, but as a mother I understand the need to protect your child. To shelter them from anything that might cause them pain. Isn’t that why Iwaited until my sons were both out of the house to divorce their prick of a father?

“Her death seemingly came out of nowhere. I didn’t have time to prepare. To brace myself for the loss. One day she was there and the next she was gone.” His voice is soft. “I was devastated.” His fingers slide down the column of my neck. “After that I didn’t play for years. I couldn’t stand the thought of it.”

“But you play now.”

“I do. I started a few years ago.” His soft strokes continue, like touching me makes this easier to talk about. “My house was too quiet.”

It’s just as easy for me to imagine grown up Vincent sitting at the piano, trying to fill the void in his life with something safe. Something that won’t suddenly disappear without warning. “You were lonely.”

“Maybe.”

I roll my head back to look at him again, lifting my brows.

He chuckles, the sound low and deep. “I was used to it. Planned to be alone forever.” His arm slides across my chest, flexing to hold me tight. “But then you showed up and ruined everything.”

23

HOVERING IS A LOVE LANGUAGE

VINCENT

"WHAT DO YOU mean you can't figure out where they came from?" I struggle to get the question out through clenched teeth. “You got through their proxy and found the VPN they’re using, didn’t you? Set up a man in the middle attack. There’s got to be holes in their browsers somewhere.”

"I’d love to do that, but all the origination sources are gone now. Fucking disappeared into thin air. One second they were there and the instant I got close, they vanished." Elias sounds just as frustrated as I am, but it doesn't make me feel any better.

“That’s not fucking possible.” It’s the one constant in what we do. There’s always a trail. It might be fragmented and concealed. Hidden behind firewalls and proxy servers, but it’s always there. “They can’t just disappear.”

Elias sighs. “Two hours ago I would have said the same thing, but I saw it happen with my own fucking eyes. We’re trying to figure out where they went, but we haven’t had any luck.”

"Keep trying. Find out where they are and how in the hell their trails disappeared like that." Any other outcome is unacceptable. Julieanne is safe, I know that, but it's only a matter of time before the people connected to her aren't. At some point, whoever went after her is going to step it up. Because you don't order an op like that and just quit when it goes sideways.

That means Julieanne’s sons could be in danger. But, unlike I did with Julieanne, I can't bring them here and lock them down. Some people would argue I shouldn't have done it with her, but those people better keep their fucking opinions to themselves.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, Vincent. There's nothing left to try. They’re fucking gone. I can't make them magically reappear." Elias has the balls to act irritated with me, and it only amps up my agitation.

"Fine. Then I'll find someone who can."

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