You Only Love Twice by Lexi Blake

was pushing a large laundry bin.
    Phoebe was in that bin. God, if she was in that bin and it
wasn’t moving then they’d knocked her out or drugged her.
    A secondary? Shit. She said there had been a secondary
sniper and he might still be around. Someone was serious about wanting him
gone.
    He let that knowledge settle in his mind.
    Jesse moved to the back of the van and got in. Alex pushed
the bin to the van and tilted it forward.
    There was Phoebe, her body completely slack. There was a
black wig on her head. It was short and curled at her jawline. She’d put some
makeup on, and for a second he thought maybe they’d gotten the wrong woman. She
looked so different from the Phoebe whose hand he held. She had dark hair, but
it was threaded through with reds and golds and there
was so much of it. She usually put it in a ponytail or a bun, but when she let
it loose it seemed to go everywhere. She certainly wasn’t this polished,
professional-looking woman.
    “Jesse, we’ve got incoming,” Tag reminded him.
    The cops. He could hear the wail of sirens in the background
now. He reached in and grabbed her, hauling her into the van. Tag reached down
again and came up with what looked like a suitcase and Phoebe’s purse. The gun
was likely in that case. They wouldn’t leave evidence behind.
    Tag, Alex, and Adam were in the back of the van in a
heartbeat, abandoning the bin to the street. The minute the doors were closed , Simon took off.
    And he was left holding the woman
who had tried to assassinate him.
    “Adam?” Ian asked.
    Adam needed no prompting. He opened his laptop and looked up
with a smirk. “We’re good. I took out all the hotel’s CCTV cameras. Luckily
Dallas is behind the times on security cams. No one is going to pick us up on a
camera. They’ll have to go off eyewitnesses and since no one was actually hurt,
they’ll dump it the minute something more exciting comes along. I’ve already
texted Derek. He’ll handle it.”
    There was a moment of silence before Ian turned to Jesse.
    “Do I need to say it?” Tag asked, his jaw clenched so he
spoke through his teeth.
    “I’m fired.” He was surprised he’d lasted so long anyway. He
knew he should put her on the floorboard, but it probably wasn’t clean down
there and Phoebe was always very neat. He couldn’t stand the thought of her
body lying there. So he hauled her into his lap and tried to look like he
didn’t give a shit.
    “No, you dumbass. I can’t fire you because you would be dead
in like fifteen fucking minutes. What the fuck was that? Which Army did you
serve in, son, because it sure as fuck wasn’t the one I did. My goddamn COs
taught me not to walk into the freaking bullet.”
    And Tag was off. He was yelling and cussing and there was a
certain comfort in it. Big Tag only got quiet when he didn’t care anymore.
Jesse had scared the hell out of him and this was his punishment. He would take
it.
    There was a lull in the yelling and he looked up. Everyone
was staring at him so he supposed it was time to say something. “I’m really
sorry.”
    “Sorry? You’re fucking sorry? You would have been fucking
dead.” Tag was off again.
    Jesse looked down at the woman in his lap. Her wig slipped
and he could see that she’d put her hair in something that kept it close to her
head. He didn’t like it. She was prettier without the makeup and the shiny
black hair. He wasn’t sure why, but he needed to see her real hair. He slid his
hands over her hairline, sliding the wig and the little cap off. Her hair
immediately flowered out like it had been desperate to get away from the
confines of the wig. Her hair tumbled over his arm. Her face turned up and he
could see she wasn’t completely out. Her eyes opened slightly and she looked
like a sleepy kitten.
    “Jesse. My Jesse. Good dream.” She curved into him, rubbing
her cheek against his chest. She moaned. “He’s so loud.”
    He couldn’t help but chuckle because Tag really was loud.
    Her