Assumed Identity

chapter Twelve



“Joe! Hey, Joe!”

Jake looked up from the baby cooing in his lap on the gurney where a pair of EMTs had bandaged the through-and-through in his shoulder. The guy, blond-haired and long-legged, was chasing the ambulance in his jeans and cowboy boots, trying to catch it before the doors closed and they drove him away for a routine check and some stitches in the E.R.

The man wasn’t much older than Jake, but the badge and sidearm on his belt demanded that he didn’t just blow him off for a private ride with the Carter girls and, he hoped, one of those conversations that Robin liked.

“Detective Montgomery said you’d been avoiding me. If you aren’t the cagiest son of a gun to track down. The rest of the squad thought you were dead.”

Robin got up from the side bench and sat on the edge of the gurney beside Jake. Did she think he was in trouble with this cop? He grinned at how protective a mother could be, even with someone who didn’t need protecting. “Who are you?”

“Ma’am.” He extended his hand to introduce himself. “I’m Nash. Agent Charles Nash. DEA.” He pulled his badge off his belt to show her, and she passed it along to Jake. Hell. He sat back a little. It looked just like the badge he’d kept all this time—with a different name, of course. When Jake returned the badge to the officer, he made a face. “It’s Charlie. Your handler?”

“Charles Nash?” Jake repeated, waiting for some sort of recognition to kick in. “I work for you?”

“Yeah, Joe. What kind of game are you playing?” Agent Nash snapped his fingers at whatever revelation he was about to share. “Oh, man. I knew you’d been hit, but I had no idea it affected your memory.”

“You know me?”

“Yeah. Joseph Lonergan. DEA agent. Best undercover man I ever worked with.” He climbed up into the ambulance to take the seat Robin had vacated. “We lost you on a mission to Tenebrosa. You infiltrated Diego Graciela’s cartel. Killed the don yourself to save some girls he’d kidnapped to use as prostitutes. Blew your cover, of course. I tried to pull you out. But the compound got leveled by a rival cartel’s truck bomb, and the agency assumed you were dead.”

Explosions. Heat raining down. The nightmare was a real memory.

“I didn’t give up on you, though. I know how resourceful you are. I figured if there wasn’t a body, then you’d gone underground. I’ve been looking for you ever since. Thought I’d warn you about the hit Graciela’s brother put out on you.” He pointed out the door to the coroner’s wagon that was hauling away the shooter KCPD had identified as Johnny Cortez. “The symbol carved into this lady’s coffee table was Graciela’s—I’m sure that was a message from the brother. But I gather you already figured that out.”

Unfortunately, Jake followed the information about the cartel and hit man better than a couple of other things. “I’m Joe Lonergan?”

“He goes by Jake now,” Robin volunteered.

“Your head really is scrambled, isn’t it?” The perpetual grin faded from Nash’s expression. “So no memory of killing Graciela or feeding us enough intel to close down his pipeline into the U.S.?”

Jake shook his head. “The doctors say my memory may never return.”

Agent Nash nodded. “I’ll send you copies of the mission briefings and your reports up until the day we lost contact. You can read up and see what a pain you were—and see all the good work you got done for us.”

“Thanks.” Jake laced his fingers together with Robin’s. “So I’m a good guy, after all. Is that a deal breaker?”

She tightened her fingers around his. “What deal are you talking about?”

Whatever Nash was to Jake—boss, friend, coworker—he was a little slow about picking up the signals that Jake wanted some time alone with this very brave, very special woman.

“Your job’s waiting for you if you want to come back,” Nash offered.

Jake nodded his appreciation. “I’ll need some time to think about it. My brain has a lot of catching up to do.”

And he knew he wouldn’t be leaving K.C. until the potential threat to Robin and Emma was resolved and the Rose Red Rapist case was finally closed.

Agent Nash shook hands with Jake and stood. “Take whatever time you need. But we’ll keep in touch this time. No more going into hiding and covering your tracks. Come see me in Houston. And I’ll check in next time I’m in Kansas City. Ma’am.” He nodded to Robin. He tapped his finger against Emma’s nose and she giggled. “Cutie.” Then he was hopping off the ambulance. “Take care. If you need anything, call.”

“Agent Nash?”

He turned. “It’s just Nash. Or Charlie if we’ve been drinking.”

Jake nodded. Nash. Still not ringing a bell, but it was hard not to like the guy. “Can you answer a question for me?”

“Anything.”

“Am I married? Do I have kids?”

Nash shook his head. “Your philosophy was that the work you did was too dangerous to have any kind of family. Your parents are both gone. You’ve got no siblings—some cousins and an aunt in San Antonio, I think. But that’s one of the reasons you volunteered for the long-term deep-cover op. You were a free man.”

Jake tunneled his fingers into the silky waves at Robin’s temple. “Not anymore.” He couldn’t take his gaze away from those pretty eyes that seemed to like looking at him. “Thanks for finding me, Nash.”

“Yeah, well next time you get shot in the head, don’t make it so hard to track you down.”

Nash left and Jake scooted forward on the gurney, slipping his good arm around Robin’s waist and pulling her closer. “I don’t want to be a free man. I want connections. I want to be tied to a home and a family.”

She lay her hand against his scarred face. “Anyone in particular?”

“The Carter girls. If they’ll have me. I happen to have fallen in love with both of them.”

“All right, Joe.”

He frowned. That didn’t sound right. “Call me Jake.”

“Okay. Jake.”

He pulled her up to his chest and covered her mouth with his, claiming her lips, claiming her heart, claiming this family. They traded a dozen more kisses, some hard and fast, others sensual and lingering, and still others that were gentle and healing and perfect.

The doors closed and the ambulance shifted into gear. Jake settled both the Carter girls into his arms. He was dozing off toward a peaceful sleep when he realized the unthinkable and sat up. “Hey. Did I just win an argument?”

* * * * *