Page 1 of Traitorous Lies
Chapter
One
October 31st
7:57 P.M.
This was the absolute last thing in the world Jax Holloway wanted to be doing right now.
Running through an empty field with no cover while a dozen people were shooting at him, he’d rather be there.
Swimming all the way back Stateside from France wearing nothing but his underwear, he’d rather do that.
Hell, he’d rather jump out of a plane without wearing a parachute, and he had a thing about heights.
Anything but this.
The tuxedo he wore felt too tight against his skin, even though he knew it had been custom-made for him and in fact fitted perfectly. He just wasn't this guy, he didn't get dressed up like this, didn't mix with the rich and famous, and didn't prance around in a suit at charity galas.
But tonight he had no choice.
He had to be there. Had to suck up the uncomfortable feeling of the tux and Jack-o-lantern mask he’d been given to wear when he arrived atthe gate of the estate. If he had any other option, he’d snatch it up like a dying man would a cracker, but the truth was he and his family were fresh out of options.
It was this or nothing.
And it couldn’t be nothing.
So, he was here, surrounded by men dressed in tuxedos similar to his own, and women in fancy ballgowns that looked like something right out of a fairytale. Classical music played, and he caught sight of a pianist and small string ensemble on the other side of the huge dance floor.
Couples glided across it, laughing and chattering away, and he prayed he didn't have to attempt to dance tonight. It wasn't that he didn't know how to dance, he did, he was actually quite a good dancer, but it was bad enough having to be there. The last thing he wanted to do was take his mark for a spin like he wasn't there to essentially ruin her life.
Monique Kerr.
Twenty-six years old, shoulder-length brown hair, smoky gray eyes, and a dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks. Only daughter of Samson and Mary Kerr. Mother walked out on her when she was only two years old. Raised by a single father who, from all intents and purposes, sheltered her and spoiled her rotten.
That was his mark.
Truth be told, he wasn't particularly comfortable with having to fly all the way over to France to attend this Halloween ball just to make contact with her. Not just because the whole setup was so far out of his normal life that he had little to nothing in common with the people attending, but because this woman hadn't done a single thing wrong.
While Jax was sure Monique was every bit the spoiled, rich princess he expected her to be, she had committed no crime, and done nothing to facilitate Prey Security’s interest in her other than having the misfortune of being related to Samson Kerr.
Her father, on the other hand …
The crimes the former US Ambassador to Egypt had committed were many and varied.
And they affected Jax’s family personally.
Which is why he was there. Sucking up wearing the uncomfortabletux, and the mask that made him feel too hot and like he couldn’t breathe. It was why he would make contact with the Kerr princess as soon as he laid eyes on her, and why he’d do his best to charm her into agreeing to leave with him.
Once he got her alone, he wasn't quite sure what his next move would be. He was alone in Europe while his brother, four stepbrothers, stepsister, and all his brothers’ girlfriends were tucked safely away with Prey’s Delta Team. The men from Delta were … different. And after the last several months, with his family suffering from attack after attack, it was good to know that the people he loved were somewhere they’d be safe.
But it left him, as the one still single other than his younger stepsister, on his own in France to do a job he didn't feel the least bit qualified for. Sure, he’d served at a SEAL before leaving to join Prey’s Charlie Team with the rest of his brothers, taking the spot that had been left empty after a former Prey employee went completely off the rails, but never in either of his careers had he had to seduce a woman for information.
It left him feeling … dirty.
Spoiled or not, Monique didn't deserve this. While there was a chance she knew her father was the kind of man who would rape a woman, who would ruthlessly go after women and children just to attempt to keep his involvement in a conspiracy to frame two innocent people for treason, that didn't make her complicit in any crimes. And he had no doubt that she wasn't complicit, she was too young to have been involved in the near quarter of a century old rape, and two decades old conspiracy.
There was even a chance she’d been a victim herself of her father’s cruel whims.
