Spy Games: Lethal Limits by Mia Downing Read Free Book Online Page A

it.
    No! He wasn’t finished. I can’t just sit here while your world falls apart.
    Yes, you can. You have a mission. Please see to it. Don’t contact me until it’s done.
    With that text, he’d been dismissed, the boundary in place, unable to cross over until he found a woman of his own. He’d never felt smaller. More alone. Not in a long, long time.
    “Why do you do that to yourself?” Tia asked.
    “Do what?” He pocketed the phone and his emotions.
    “I know you’re texting her. Blondie. Why? Why invite the pain?” Tia looked away, disgusted.
    “I guess I can’t hide my dirty secret from you, partner.”
    “You call that hidden? Jake, you could take out a billboard ad on the highway and fewer people would know.” She turned back to him and arched a perfect brow. “You think Chase doesn’t know? That man misses nothing. It’s just a matter of time before that mess blows up in your face.”
    “I know. And I’m doing my best to walk away.”
    “By texting her? Sure.” Tia snorted. “Is she that much of a bitch that she’d string you along like that?”
    Jake bristled. “This isn’t her fault. It’s mine. She was up front from day one about how it would be. Even before Chase, she made it quite clear where I belonged in her life. She wanted a friend, because she knew at that point I would have devoured her and then left her behind, and she would be the one with the broken heart. That sounds conceited, but you know how I go through women. Love wasn’t something I cared about. So that’s all we were—best friends and partners.”
    That wasn’t true. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about love. He was afraid of love, probably more than anything he’d ever faced in his life. He knew too well the deep void left behind when love was wrenched away too soon. He closed his eyes and sighed. Losing Chase and Kate… No, not an option.
    “So what happened?” Her voice softened, and he heard compassion instead of judgment.
    He didn’t want to have this discussion with her, but she was his partner now, like it or not. They had a history, like it or not.
    “I don’t know. One day, it just changed on my part. I had always been attracted to her, but it was never an issue. Somehow, the feelings went from being her friend, her partner, to being…more. She says—” He swallowed. “She says I’m not in love with her. That what I love is how Chase has changed, and that I want what Chase has. I love her because she’s good for my buddy, and I want that for myself.”
    “Isn’t that the same thing? She made Chase change, so wouldn’t you love her?”
    “She says it’s not.” Jake looked at her. “And I’m not allowed back in her life until I make things right.”
    Tia frowned. “You’re sure Chase doesn’t know.”
    “Not yet.”
    Tia frowned deeper. “So why did he pull her?”
    “She’s pregnant.”
    “Yours?” Her brows flew up over her brown eyes as she assessed him.
    “Christ, Tia. Give me some credit.”
    “I know you’ve slept with her—you had that look in Paris. So it’s not that far of a jump.”
    “Never as her lover—only as their third.” Jake met her surprised gaze, and he shrugged. “Chase enjoys that sort of play, and Kate decided she could go there if I was the third.”
    “Awkward now, huh?”
    Jake shrugged again. It wasn’t awkward. It was miserable torture.
    “So what does she want you to do?”
    “She wants me to find a woman of my own.” He laughed, and it sounded sharp, bitter. “I thought I was happy. I spent years living this life, loving every minute. The new cities, the adrenaline rush. I never realized down deep that maybe I wanted something different.” Not in years. Not until Kate.
    “With a partner like that, you don’t need enemies.”
    Jake shot Tia a glare. “It’s not like you’re any nicer to me.”
    She winced. “I deserved that.”
    “You didn’t have to leave.” It was time to shift the heat back to her, to make himself feel