Jax Read online

  “Done,” he said. He closed the door gently behind her and headed over to talk to Beau, grabbing up the room service menu as he went. They quickly placed an order and were told it would take about forty minutes. At that, they both had time to take a shower, so Jax jumped in first, came out shortly thereafter, set up their laptops, and began a plan for the next two days.

  “We should check in with MI6,” Beau said. “Although they likely know we’re already here.”

  “Wish we didn’t have to,” Jax said.

  “We’re pissing in their backyard,” Beau said. “I highly doubt we can come and go without raising some kind of a major issue.”

  “It’s Dr. Windberg who will flag all kinds of issues. We need to let him into the country just so MI6 can pick him up.”

  “And, for that, you must talk to MI6.” Leaving that duty to Jax, Beau grabbed a shower.

  Jax snorted and pulled out his phone, then sent Griffin a request for a MI6 contact. His phone rang instantly. Griffin.

  “His name is Jonas.”

  “You could have waited until tomorrow,” Jax said in exasperation.

  “With MI6, you really want them to be in on it at the beginning,” he said. “They get their noses out of joint and make life difficult otherwise.”

  “But we’re waiting for food, and she needs to sleep.”

  “Got it,” Griffin said. “I’m sending you a bunch of files. I’ve got several links for you to take a look at as well. This doctor is an interesting character.”

  “Files on what?” Jax asked, walking to his laptop and bringing up his email and downloading the files. The Mavericks chat box popped up with a series of links. He opened them in different tabs.

  “History on Dr. Benjamin Windberg and history on the father, Nahim, and son, Abdul, and Nahim’s brother, Bahan.”

  “How do we know this is the sick boy?” he asked, studying the obviously sick youngster held in some man’s arms.

  “The doctor has made no bones about who it is he works for. He’s touting himself as a specialist in Dubai.”

  “They’ll lynch him if he kills that little boy,” Jax said.

  “He won’t see it coming either,” Griffin said. “But his ego is by far bigger than his sense of danger.”

  “MI6 says they have a thick file on him. Can you get the contents for us? They wouldn’t say anything earlier.”

  “Good question,” Griffin said, his voice distracted. “Let me work on that. They aren’t normally cooperative. So maybe not. I might be able to get a look at it and see if there is anything we don’t already know.”

  And they hung up. Jax put the phone beside him and searched through the files he did have, looking for anything that would help him understand the obsessive nature and the why behind the doctor who had gone after Abby. Obviously she was gorgeous and cute and smart and funny and courageous and full of grit and all those things that he didn’t think the doctor would really appreciate. She had a figure to die for, and that might be the part of her that most intrigued Windberg. Yet something about the whole package got to Jax.

  But what was it exactly that got to the doctor? Maybe his ego at work again, refusing to give up on her. Or the alternative side of that same flaming overblown ego—his first attempt had failed. Jax didn’t think this Windberg guy would deal well with failure.

  When Abby came out in a hotel robe, her hair pulled back with her face scrubbed clean, she looked like she was all of eighteen years old.

  He smiled and said, “That getup doesn’t do anything to age you.”

  “Drat,” she said. “And here I was hoping to look at least my twenty-nine years.”

  “No,” he said, “definitely a decade younger than that.”

  She smiled, curled up in the corner of the couch, and said, “At least I have clothes. I’ll get changed in a little bit, but I’m so tired I just want to put on my pajamas.”

  “Can’t you eat in pajamas?”

  The look on her face was one he hadn’t seen before, and her tone was dry when she said, “No, not these ones.”

  Immediately his mind spun to see-through lingerie or tiny, itsy-bitsy pieces that didn’t cover anything.

  He gave a hard shake of his head and said, “Don’t put images like that in some guy’s head. It’ll get you in trouble.”

  “Depends if it’s trouble I want,” she said, stifling a yawn. She sagged against the couch and said, “Really wouldn’t matter tonight. I’m so tired that I’d probably just sleep anyway.”

  Jax gave a bark of laughter. “Well, you might cut it short, but I can’t imagine you ever sleeping through it.”

  She shot him a grin. “So that means you’re a better lover than the ones I’ve been with, presumably.”

  He stopped, stared, and said, “Seriously? You haven’t slept through sex, have you?”

  Her lighthearted laughter filled the room. “No. I tend to view sex as a participation activity, not something I sit on the sidelines and watch.”

  He swore softly as more images slid seductively through his way-too-wild imagination. “We’re sidelining this conversation. You look way too cute and adorable in that outfit for me to even go down that train of thought.”

  “Why?” she asked with interest. But the twinkle in her gaze had him turning away.

  “Oh no,” he said. “I know how that teasing starts.”

  “Well, I can get dressed if you want,” she said, “but I can’t say that that’s terribly appealing.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Beau is in the shower right now. When he’s out, hopefully we’ll have food.”

  “As long as nobody else is coming,” she said, “I don’t care.”

  At that, he looked up at her and said, “Quite possibly we will have visitors.”

  She bolted to her feet. “In that case, I’m getting dressed.”

  “Don’t get dressed on my account,” he said. “I really like the view.”

  “Ha,” she said. “But do you want other men seeing that view?”

  And the door shut quietly in his face.

  Good point, he thought to himself. The answer to that was, no way did he want anybody else to see her like this. She was adorable in many, many ways, but she was also somebody he’d come to greatly admire. She hadn’t broken down in tears once during this whole ordeal; she hadn’t had a fit of hysteria at seeing dead bodies, both the pirates’ and the passengers’. She hadn’t fainted when he had killed several men in front of her, and neither had she blanched nor run away from the violence or what was asked of her. She’d stepped up each and every time. Especially when daring the pirates to kill her for not doing as they said, standing her ground with them. Twice. He shook his head. Scary shit, but that was something he could respect too.

  When Beau stepped out, his hair was slicked back and wet, but he looked a whole lot better. His friend said, “I’d really like to know what put that look on your face.”

  Jax just shrugged and stared at him, deliberately keeping his gaze off the bedroom door beside them.

  But Beau nodded. “There really is something between the two of you, isn’t there?”

  “Nope,” Jax said. “In different circumstances, maybe. But this one, absolutely not.”

  “That’s because you’re too professional to take a sideline trip like that,” Beau said. “But you also must realize that you should act when the opportunity is there.”

  “Again, shitty timing,” Jax said.

  “Agreed.”

  On that note she stepped from her room in capris and a T-shirt this time. And, if she thought it would look any less revealing, she was wrong because the capris were stretchy and hugged her hips and tiny waist. And even though she didn’t have long legs, what there were of them were extremely shapely. And the T-shirt clung in all the right places. He deliberately returned his gaze to his laptop and tried hard to focus. But it was damn difficult. She had curves bursting in all the right places, and his hands were just itching to cup and slide
and explore every one of them. He was saved from an embarrassing moment when a hard knock came at the door.

  She instinctively raced toward him. “Any way to know who that is?” she whispered.

  “Don’t need to know,” he said. “That’s MI6. I was hoping our food would arrive first, but we aren’t so lucky.”

  “We didn’t order enough for them, did we?”

  He gave a bark of laughter. “No, they can get their own.” He walked over, checked the peephole, and then threw open the door. He looked at the man, MI6 all the way from the suit to the wingtips. Then he held out his hand and said, “Jonas, I believe.”

  Jonas nodded, shook his hand, and said, “Jonas Halpern, at your service.” He glanced into the rest of the room. “How many are you? And how soon are you leaving? It can’t be fast enough for my liking. Do you Americans do anything but cause trouble?”

  “Just Beau and I and, of course, Dr. Dalton.”

  Jonas stepped inside, closed the door quietly, and said, “Are you trying to stay low?”

  “We’ll do our best,” Beau said. “But obviously we’ve both been tagged through security already.”

  “Indeed, you have,” he said. “Partly why I’m here. I understand it’s got something to do with our doctor here. But you’re also bringing in another criminal and a very sick boy. We need an explanation for those.”

  At that, Abby piped up and said, “We’re not trying to cause any trouble, but I admit that Dr. Windberg and Abdul’s father do make things happen and not always pleasantly.”

  He studied her for a long moment, then reached out and shook her hand. “Pleased to meet you. Your reputation precedes you.”

  She shrugged. “Don’t know why it would have,” she said. “But I’m okay as long as it’s all good things.”

  “Well, it was until you arranged for this little boy to come here onto our doorstep.”

  “I was trying to get out of a very difficult situation,” she said. “And the sins of the fathers don’t necessarily slide down to the children. And, if I can help the boy, I will. But that Dr. Windberg …” She shook her head. “He needs to be put away.”

  “And yet, you want him in our country,” Jonas said. “How are we supposed to reconcile that?”

  “Well, I was hoping you’d catch him, incarcerate him. He’s a criminal. I just don’t know to what extent, outside of his harassment of me.”

  “And what has he done wrong?”

  Jax watched a neutral look settle on Jonas’s face.

  She quickly explained, and Jonas frowned. “So why isn’t he in jail in the US?”

  “Because he shipped out first,” she said.

  “So you’re hoping that he’ll do something wrong here, and we can snag him and throw him into our jail at our taxpayers’ expense?”

  “I don’t know what other crimes he may have committed, but I’m sure you’d be more aware of all that than I would,” she said. “Besides, if he went after the Queen, you’d arrest him in a heartbeat.”

  “Maybe,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean that you’ll be given the same consideration.”

  Just then another knock came on the door.

  Jonas turned to look at Jax, but he was already at the door, checking the peephole. When he opened the door, a trolley was pushed in from room service. He quickly took it, tipped the server, and closed the door before the employee could even see who was inside the hotel room. Jax brought the food over beside the table and apologized to Jonas. “We’ve been traveling steadily for most of the last two days. We wanted to get a meal and then go to bed.”

  “At least that was my plan,” Abby said. She looked at the men. “You guys can stay up if you want, but I’m done.”

  “Understood,” Jonas said. “But maybe it’s better that way. We have plans to make.”

  Immediately she glared at him. “Meaning that, you’d be better off making the plans without me?”

  Enough disbelief and outrage were in her voice that he immediately said, “No, not at all. But making plans when you’re exhausted is not good either.” As a backtrack, it was weak, and he knew it.

  Jax chuckled. “I wouldn’t try to pull anything over her. She isn’t exactly a dumb bunny.”

  “No, I’m not,” she snapped in exasperation. “And, even if I were, I wouldn’t take kindly to being called that.”

  Jax rolled his eyes. “An intricate game of chess is involved, which takes time. Sit down and eat. You’re obviously getting hungry.”

  She snorted at that too, but she let him get away with it. As soon as they were seated, she looked at Jonas. “I don’t think we ordered enough for you.”

  “That’s fine,” he said. “I’m not hungry. But, if there’s coffee, that would be good.” When pointed in the right direction, he walked to the corner where a small coffeemaker sat and quickly put on a pot.

  Meanwhile Jax served the food and soon had her eating.

  “I still don’t understand,” Jonas said, “why you chose this country. You should have gone to Dubai. Kept the doctor there.”

  “But then I wouldn’t have gotten out of Dubai, now would I?” she snapped.

  Jax looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

  She groaned. “Look. I’m sorry, but I’m pretty tired of all this.”

  “Understood,” Jonas said. “At the same time, I must come up with some justification for my own government as to why this is happening.”

  “Oh,” she said. Obviously she didn’t realize what problems the country itself had to consider. “Well, sorry if that’ll cause you an issue,” she said, “but I didn’t know what else to do. Besides I’m sure some British citizens were on that cruise ship at the time the pirates took over, killing some of the passengers. Won’t that work in our favor?”

  He frowned at that and then shrugged. “I can try that angle. But it won’t be about saving those citizens because they should be home already. But maybe getting the man behind it all, yes.” At that, he appeared satisfied.

  Abby dug into her food and ignored him.

  Jax felt a little bit better himself, and Beau had been very quiet but had pulled his plate of food toward him and ate at an impressive rate. Finally the two men were done, but she still worked on hers. Jax looked at Jonas and asked, “Have you got security in place, or do we take care of it ourselves?”

  “We’ll double up security at the hospital,” Jonas said. “We’d like to talk with the father who orchestrated the takeover of the cruise ship.”

  “I thought you didn’t want anything to do with him,” she said.

  “We don’t, but if he’s coming here on our turf, then we do.”

  “He probably wants clear passage to the hospital, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he somehow diverts his plane to another location and can’t make it in time,” she said caustically.

  “Why?” Jax asked at the same time as Jonas.

  “Could be another move by Dr. Windberg to get closer to me, to leave Dubai. Even the father may have ulterior motives, like meeting with a new doctor to become the family’s private physician. Who knows?”

  “What will you do about the father?” Beau asked Jonas.

  “I’m not sure,” Jonas said. “It’s deemed a diplomatic mission at the moment.”

  “Hardly,” Jax said. “Not when he’s played a major part in taking over that cruise liner.”

  “True, but we don’t have any proof,” Jonas argued. “He was never there, by your own accounts, and, as far as he’s concerned, he’ll probably say his head of security had gone off on his own rampage.”

  Jax nodded. “So you’ll arrest him on suspicion of terrorist activities? Or are you letting him come in and leave again?”

  “I highly doubt the little boy will leave anytime soon, will he?” he asked, turning toward Abby.

  She shrugged. “I haven’t a clue. I haven’t seen his medical records. I haven’t seen anything about him, no recent history at all.”

  “I do have something that wa
s given to me about twenty minutes ago,” Jax said. “I could forward it to your email.”

  “Good,” she said. She finished her plate, stood, collected all their dishes, and put it on the trolley. “That might hold me for a little bit.”

  “We have dessert coming too,” Jax said, “with a big pot of coffee.”

  At that, she nodded, cleared off her space, and got her laptop. He took the dishes to the door just in time to see the dessert and coffee tray coming. He exchanged the trolleys, brought the new one in, and served coffee. There were enough desserts for them to have several.

  “What are you looking at?” Jonas asked.

  “The boy’s medical records,” she said. “I’m trying to figure out the details of the blood disease and why he has it.”

  “Is there a why?” Jonas asked in interest.

  “Sometimes,” she said. “Not always. But I’m not seeing very much in the records here. I need X-rays. Blood work. Biopsy results. So far, nothing like that is here. His file should be thick with test results.” She frowned and quietly asked, “Do we even know if the little boy is coming?”

  Jax looked at her. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I need to see more obviously,” she said, “because I have no medical confirmation of any blood disease.”

  At that, a dead silence hit the room.

  Chapter 9

  Abby wasn’t even sure what to say about what she had seen, but obviously she didn’t have everything. She didn’t even have the most important data. “Somebody needs to get me an up-to-date medical file,” she said crossly. “And I want the results where this cancer is supposed to be sitting and exactly what treatment he’s already gone through.”

  “You’re saying that all of our security for the hospital isn’t even necessary?” asked Jonas.

  “How do I know?” she said. “I’m only looking at the medical side of it.” She closed her laptop and stood. “And obviously I’m not seeing much of the medical part either.”

  “Is it really missing that much information?”