“You got her in trouble?” I asked incredulously.
“Absolutely not. She’s the one who didn’t pay her taxes. It must be tough now that she’s cut off from Jett’s money.”
It struck me as funny that Marcus could share that information without ever tipping his hand. If I didn’t know he’d instigated the investigation on Lisette, I’d swear he was completely innocent. “You’re bad,” I told him, secretly happy that the woman who had dumped my brother so heartlessly was now in a mess of trouble. “Honestly, I’m glad she’s paying in some way for what she did to Jett.”
“Oh, she’s going to be paying,” Marcus remarked casually.
Just the fact that he’d tried to avenge Jett was pretty damn awesome. I’d never seen that side of Marcus. Really, I hadn’t ever known him at all. His arrogance annoyed me at times, but if he was spying on foreign countries, he had to have balls of steel. “Thank you,” I said softly.
“Jett is my friend,” he stated simply. “And now we need to stop talking about me and get back to this issue with Becker.”
“I can’t give up, Marcus. And it isn’t all about a scoop. Becker has to be stopped for many reasons.” People like Ruby and everyone Greg was putting in danger needed somebody to fight for them. If I could help put him away, I was going to do it.
“He’s been on our radar for a long time. But without solid evidence, there isn’t much we can do. He’s a slippery bastard,” Marcus grumbled.
“He’s paranoid,” I agreed. “He’s anal about covering all his bases.”
“What’s your plan?” he asked unhappily.
“I’m going to have access to his house next Friday. He wants me to meet him there in the evening. Somehow I have to get into his home office. I think that’s where he keeps his records of his nonbusiness transactions. If I can get those, they can be tracked and confirmed pretty quickly.”
Marcus took the ice pack I’d let slide away from my face and held it gently back on my cheek. “This is all crazy. You know that, right? Becker is an international criminal and has never hesitated to eliminate anybody who gets in his way.”
I nodded. “I learned that the hard way.”
“Christ! I hate this, Dani. I hate you getting involved with him. I hate the fact that you put yourself in danger. I hate that the fucker actually hit you, and I can’t kill him for that. Just the fact that he’s touched you in any way makes me insane,” he finished with a growl.
My heart was pounding against my chest wall, the intense look on Marcus’s face reminding me of our earlier encounter. “Then help me,” I pleaded, knowing I could use his expertise. I was in over my head, and I was smart enough to know it. I didn’t want to get him involved, but I knew it was the only way he wouldn’t sabotage my efforts.
“I’m going to do more than help you. I’m going to be your partner. And if you do a single thing that I don’t agree with, you’re out of there,” he demanded.
“Okay,” I murmured, willing to agree to his terms. I had no doubt he could execute a plan better than I could.
“You should still be recovering, not putting yourself into another bad situation,” he muttered irritably.
I gave him a weak smile. “I guess I’ve never been good at being idle.”
“I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt, and then I’ll insist on you taking some downtime. It hasn’t been that long since you nearly died, Danica. You need to take some time off, whether you want to or not. You can find something a hell of a lot less dangerous to do.”
Not staying busy did nothing but remind me how much I’d isolated myself. Before, I’d spent so much time chasing stories that I never really thought about how alone I felt. Sure, I had great siblings, but they were all busy with their own lives. “Time off gets lonely,” I admitted before I could stop myself.
Marcus’s arm snaked around my waist, and he pulled me against his very solid, warm body. “You’re not alone anymore, Dani,” he stated in a husky voice.
I absorbed his warmth, soaking it up like a sponge. Honestly, maybe the reason Marcus and I had fought so much in the past was because we were both so much alike in some ways. We were both independent, and we’d spent our whole adult lives traveling by ourselves. Neither of us had ever had somebody to lean on or talk to about how we felt. Both of us had put emotion aside like it wasn’t important.
The problem was, I couldn’t ignore how I was feeling anymore.
I laid my head against his shoulder and breathed in his masculine scent, feeling like I wasn’t really alone. At least for a little while.
Marcus
“Hey man, what’s happening with my little sister?” Jett Lawson asked as I opened the door of my condo the next afternoon.
I was surprised, but I probably shouldn’t be. Nothing kept Jett down for very long. “I thought you were having surgery,” I answered, slapping him on the back as he entered with a canvas bag slung over his shoulder.
“They did it yesterday. It was no big deal,” he answered, dropping his bag on the floor. “How do you feel about having a visitor? I wanted to see if I could talk some sense into Dani.”
“You don’t ever need to ask if you can stay with me. You always have an open invitation.” I was glad to see him, but I felt a little bit guilty over the fact that I was lusting after his sister, and it kept getting worse every single day.
He dropped his bag on the floor. “Thanks. So what’s up with Dani?”
I moved into the living room to get us a drink. Jett followed behind me with a slight limp. He was doing okay, but his leg bothered him when he did too much, which was pretty much all the time. My friend had a tenacity that humbled me sometimes. I knew he’d come out of his accident with injuries that not many people could survive, but he kept himself in optimal condition, which had probably saved his life. He was stubborn, but it was a quality that served him well right now.
“There’s a lot happening that you don’t know about,” I warned him as I went to the bar to pour us a drink.
Jett flopped onto the couch. “Good or bad?”
I grimaced. “Both. The good news is that your sister isn’t in love with an asshole. The bad news is that she’s gotten herself into a situation that’s going to be messy.”
I caught him up with the whole situation with Becker, and then answered his questions after I’d handed him a drink and took a seat in the chair next to the sofa.
Jett shook his head. “I love my sister, but sometimes I wish she’d take up something a little less adventurous to do for a living.”
“It’s not just about a story for her anymore, Jett.”
“Shit! I know that,” he replied with frustration. “But I feel so damn helpless to do anything to help her.”
“I’m helping her,” I reassured him. “One sign of danger and I’m pulling her out.”
“And she agreed?” Jett questioned skeptically.
I shrugged. “More or less. Probably less than more, but her ass is gone if Becker so much as looks at her the wrong way.”