Beneath the Secrets: Part One by Lisa Renée Jones Page A

interested.”
    “I’m offering to get you out, not keep you in with me. Cash, living comfortably, and anything else you need, for as long as you need it.”
    Baffled, she stared at him. “Why would you want to help me? You barely even know me. And I didn’t think…”— she stopped herself from saying “men like you”—“…just why?”
    Shadows danced deep in his brown eyes, the same tormented kind she’d seen that night in Denver. “You aren’t lost yet.” His voice was a rasp of sandpaper. “Not like me.”
    Her mind replayed something she’d said to him back in Denver. If I can be saved, then so can you. He’d replied We aren’t even in the same universe. Believe me. I’m lost. You can still be found. Emotion welled in her chest with the certainty of some deep pain haunting this man. She was right. There was more to Blake than met the eye.  
    But could she be saved? It depended on how this mission ended. It depended on what it forced her to do. And she’d do anything, absolutely anything to get what she’d come for. “You don’t know me well enough to know that.”
    “I know. I know because I still see hope in your eyes.”
    It was all she could do to not press her fist to the ache in her belly his words created. She did have hope. It was small but it was real, and she was desperate to discover it was for good reason.   But that hope had everything to do with why she couldn’t walk away.  
    “I’ll make you a deal,” she said, fighting the tightness in her throat. “I’ll let you save me the day you let me save you.”
    “I told you, Kara, I can’t be saved. I’ve made my choices. I have my reasons for staying my course. I’m headed to hell and I’ve accepted that.”
    And to make this “hope” reality she knew that she was headed the same place. “Then I guess I’ll see you there.”
    His eyes narrowed, sharpened. “I find it hard to believe that a woman who’s working in a dangerous environment to take care of a sick mother would welcome a trip to hell.”
    “How do you know about my mother?”
    “I had someone inside the company files before I ever walked into the building.” And, thanks to the contract he and his brothers had with a large number of airports, he’d been able to charter Kyle to San Fran the minute he’d known his destination. “I know what your HR file, DMV, and any other public record in existence says about you. I know Richter and Mendez believe you’re doing this to pay for your mother’s medical.” He closed the distance between them, towering over her again, the heat of his body radiating into hers. “I believe that’s what you set them up to believe; otherwise you’d jump at my offer to get out.”
    “How does being in debt to someone else inside this life get me out, Blake? At the pay Mendez gives me, I only have to work here a year to leave on my own, on my terms.”
    “No one leaves Mendez on their terms. Why do you think I contract only for my clients? So they don’t own me, Kara.”  
    “Mendez doesn’t own me.”
    “He does. You just don’t know it yet. Or else you know something I don’t know, and I’m leaning in that direction.” A knock sounded on the door and Kara almost jumped. “That would be our pizza,” Blake said. “Not my ‘crew’.” He reached up and gently slid her hair behind her ear, then leaned in close, his lips brushing her earlobe. “I’m not buying your life story and, one way or the other, be it you telling me, or me finding out on my own, I’m going to discover the truth.” He stepped away from her and walked toward the door.  
    Kara stared after him, barely able to breathe, frozen in place. Time stood still and her mind raced. She was in so much trouble with Blake, it would take a shovel and ten men she didn’t have to dig her out.  
    “Kara, can you grab the drinks?” Blake called from the door.  
    Grab the drinks? That snapped her back to reality. She was in a t-shirt and nothing else.