“Believe it or not, I was too angry to panic. And…” She glanced over her shoulder. “He really didn’t know what he was getting into, Ash. I figure Turner spilled the beans, but she must not have told him much.”
“You’re right. He wasn’t remotely prepared to handle us.”
His hand swept through her hair, caressing the silkiness. “I don’t want to ever go through that again.” Cupping her head in his hands, he continued, “Tomorrow doesn’t come with guarantees, and the lives we live make tomorrow even less likely.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, promise me that we are forever. No matter what happens…no matter what comes…this is it. This is us.”
Grabbing his wrists, she held them tight. “Nothing and no one will ever come between us. This is us. Ash and Jules forever. I promise.”
Ash kissed her then, with all the fervent and pent-up need he’d been feeling since she’d been taken. No, there were no guarantees, but knowing she’d be with him every step of the way made the journey much more bearable.
A throat cleared behind them. Slowing releasing her lips, Ash glanced over his shoulder.
Jazz was grinning at them. “I would tell you to get a room, but you might want to find a better place than this.” She walked in a small circle, looking up at the enormous mansion. “Bet there’s a camera in every bedroom in this place.”
Jules smiled at Ash. “And the bathrooms, too.”
Remembering the hot, steamy kiss they’d shared, he whispered against her lips, “But there are plenty of ways to avoid cameras. You just have to get creative.”
Another throat was cleared, and Ash reluctantly released Jules. “Let’s get out of here.”
With Jules’s hand in his, they walked out the door together.
Hours later, they were sitting in the back of the plane, holding hands. Except for a trip to the bathroom to shower and change clothes, Ash had not let her out of his sight. That was quite all right with her. This had been a disquieting reminder to them both that anything could happen at any time.
Other than hugs from Serena and Jazz and welcome-back pats on the back from Xavier and Sean, the team had made themselves scarce. Jules could hear them in the front of the plane, talking, but behind this curtain, she and Ash were in their own little world.
“Is there any way to trace the people who hacked us?”
Settling her closer to his side, Ash shrugged. “Serena’s team is working on it, but if they’re good enough to hack us, they’re good enough to hide their tracks.”
“And you’re sure Turner had nothing to do with it?”
“She may have instigated it, but the hack came after her death. And whoever it was knew what to do with the intel.”
“But how—”
Ash’s phone chimed. He pulled it from his pocket, and they both noted it was Gideon. Putting the call on speaker, Ash asked, “What do you know?”
“Not much more than we did before. Schrader says someone with an androgynous voice called and told him Humphrey’s real identity, as well as Elsa Olsen’s real name. Nothing more. His people did some quick research for him. They didn’t find that much.”
“Which is why he wasn’t prepared for the OZ team,” Jules said.
“Yeah, he believed Humphrey and Elsa were doing this all on their own.”
Jules shook her head in wonder. How on earth Omar Schrader had been dealing with some of the most dangerous people in the world for almost a decade and was still alive was a mystery. He might know weapons, but he was incredibly naïve about the people who purchased and used them.
“What about our location in Tahiti?” Ash said. “How’d he get that?”
“A bike messenger delivered a note to him a couple of days ago. I’ve got it right here. Just says, ‘Asher Drake and Juliet Stone are at the Zanzibar Resort in Tahiti.’”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah. We can try to get prints off it or the envelope, but I doubt we’ll find anything other than Schrader’s.”
“What about the messenger?”