Her cheeks flushed that sexy shade of pink and she squeezed his fingers but didn’t say anything else.
Axel didn’t like staying out of the action because he wanted to be the one to bring this guy down, but he wanted to protect Hadley a whole lot more. And he wanted to be the one by her side. He might not be able to control everything, but he could sure as hell keep her safe. More than anything, she was the priority. “Have you found anything on the person who actually hired these guys?” he asked.
“I’m working on it,” Gage said. “Douglas has already pulled up all of his old and recent business deals to see if there’s someone he might have pissed off. Because this feels personal. Kidnapping his daughter, the daughter he just found out about, with the intention of—” Gage glanced at Hadley then cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’m working hard on that angle and following the money trail of anyone who’s a suspect. But nothing solid as of yet.”
Axel nodded. That would have to be good enough for now. And he agreed with the other man because this did feel personal. “I can do grunt work if you need extra eyes on your files or whatever.” He’d worked for the Feds once so he understood how tedious that kind of work could be.
“All right, thanks. I’ll let you know.”
That would have to do for now.
*
“So what do you think of Axel?” Skye asked as she and Colt stepped inside Hadley’s cute little home. The way she’d decorated was homey, with earth tones. It reminded her a little of Darcy’s place. Soft, sweet women that Skye was a little baffled to be friends with.
He moved to the security panel and punched in her code. “She needs a better system. Actually, she needs to move somewhere more secure in general.”
“Yeah, I know. After this I bet she will.” Even if Hadley didn’t like the idea of her dad paying for a place for her, it was only logical that she move somewhere different after this. A condo with a doorman and security. And she needed freaking cameras too. Not this basic security system that a toddler could hack.
Colt set his bag of weapons on the center island. “To answer your other question, he seems okay. His file from the FBI is solid. And even the jobs he did—or the ones we suspect him of doing—I won’t be losing any sleep about the assholes he took out.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of what do you think of recruiting him?” She’d thought that had been clear.
But Skye realized she’d surprised her husband as he paused. “You’re serious?”
“We’ve been taking on more jobs and everyone has family and might not be able to take last-minute jobs. It wouldn’t hurt to have more employees. Since we can’t do actual interviews for the stuff we do, and he clearly works in a gray area already…he’s kind of perfect for the type of person we’re looking for. I’m not saying definitely, because we don’t know enough about him yet, but I see the way he looks at Hadley. He’s not going anywhere.”
Colt nodded at that. “Yeah, he looks at her like Gage looks at his computers.”
She snickered. More like how Gage looked at Nova, their office manager/woman-who-kept-them-all-in-line. Something neither of them would say aloud, not when Gage was currently on their comm line. “It’ll drive Brooks nuts.”
Colt shrugged. “If things work out with those two, he’ll get over it.”
True enough. Now it was time to get to work. “So how do you want to do this?”
He glanced around the small, clean kitchen. “I’ll head upstairs and set up while you stay down here. We can open a few blinds as if they got left open by accident and you can turn the TV on. If you sit at the right angle, it’ll look like Hadley. Whoever is after her only has pictures of her. They won’t know her well enough to know it’s not her.”
Skye patted her wig once. She’d learned the art of disguises when she’d been with the CIA, so slipping into this role had been easy. “Sounds like a plan to me. Should we leave the alarm system on or off?”
He paused for a moment. “Off.”
She nodded once. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.” They didn’t want an alert going out to Hadley’s security company. If someone did break into Hadley’s house, Skye was certain they could neutralize any threat quickly and efficiently, but it was better not to take any chances. Because they didn’t plan on involving law enforcement in anything.
“Did you get all that?” Skye asked into her earpiece.
“Yep,” Gage said. “And not that you guys asked for my opinion, but I agree about Axel. I kinda like the guy.”
Skye grinned at her husband. She had a good sense about these things and Colt was a great judge of character. Since her husband hadn’t said no outright, she figured that he must feel the same way about the man as well.
Before they did anything else, Skye leaned over and pressed her mouth to Colt’s. Hard and fast. “A kiss for good luck.”
Her husband grinned at her as he opened up one of their duffel bags and pulled out a SIG. Her favorite.
Taking the weapon, she tucked it into her holster and kept it hidden. It was showtime.
Chapter 16
—Love is a lot of things, but it should never be hard.—
He drove down his target’s street at a normal speed, not wanting to draw any undue attention. For the first time in the last twenty-four hours, he spotted lights on downstairs. Time to get to work.
Instead of parking on her street, he headed down a couple blocks and parked near a children’s park. It should be easy enough to subdue her, then grab his vehicle and dump her in it. Or he would just toss her in the trunk of her own car, which was no doubt in the garage. It was early enough so she should be eating dinner or doing homework or whatever college-aged girls did. He didn’t know and didn’t care. All he knew was that he was going to get paid. The guy who’d hired him seemed like a jackass, but his money was good and that was all that mattered. Because jackasses made the world go round.
As he headed toward her house, there was a woman walking her dog about thirty yards in front of him on the sidewalk so he crossed to the other side. He’d worn jogging gear, a beanie and a headset—that wasn’t pumping out any music. But he needed to blend in, play the part. It wasn’t so late that jogging was out of the ordinary so the woman might remember seeing some guy out, but she wouldn’t remember him. Out of the corner of his eye he watched her as her dog took a crap.
She didn’t even look over in his direction. Perfect. Keeping his pace steady, he headed down the street then looped back around. The woman and her dog were gone.
The time was right that most families would be having dinner with their kids or spouses. It was a Sunday so people were winding down from the weekend and getting ready to head back to work tomorrow. He might not have a typical job but he understood people and their routines.
Her neighbors didn’t seem to have outdoor dogs either so that was a plus. From his file on the female, he had her address, marital status—single—and other benign information. The only thing not benign was who her family was. Her father, specifically. Some rich douche. He figured the man could have sprung for better digs for his kid but that wasn’t his problem. Besides, this place was in a “safe” neighborhood. She probably felt safe right now.