Page 5 of Innocent Target

He could feel Mercy’s eyes on him, but he didn’t dare look at her, or he’d lose his cool. That she’d received an injury on the last mission, and nobody had told him, filled him with rage. That she had purposely hidden it from him had him seeing red.

James knew if he said anything, he’d end up in an argument with the beautiful, stubborn woman he couldn’t get out of his mind. He’d thought he was getting somewhere with her, breaking down her barriers to at least a friendship level, but apparently, all that was a lie and that hurt more than it fucking should have.

“James?”

He flinched when she touched his shoulder and he spun around to face her. He knew his hurt was written all over his face. “You don’t need to help me. We can get someone else to watch my six while I take care of Abbie.”

He saw hurt cross her pretty features before she closed it down. Crossing her arms, her eyes burned with fire. “Why the hell are you behaving like this? I can watch your back as well as any of the men.”

So that was what this was about. Mercy always seemed to have something to prove. She was tougher, harder, colder, stronger. It was always a competition with her. “It has fuck all to do with your abilities as an agent. There’s nobody I’d rather have at my back than you, but I need someone I can trust in this situation.”

Her cheeks reddened, her pale skin showing the flush of anger. “Are you suggesting I can’t be trusted?”

“I don’t know, Mercy, can you? You seemed to find it easy enough to hide your injury from me. Friends don’t do that.”

Mercy threw her hands in the air as she paced away from him and then rounded on him again. “I couldn’t tell you. Every time I get hurt or even have a fucking hangnail, you go all alpha protective on me.”

“Well, pardon me for caring about you.”

He saw the grief and regret move through her eyes before she spoke softly and with genuine feeling. “I can’t let you care, James, because if you do, I will too, and it will end in tears, trust me on that.”

He wanted to deny her words, to tell her she was wrong, but he didn’t. He knew she wouldn’t believe him anyway. Maybe he could use this time to show her instead. “What about a friend, Merc? Can you be that? Because I could do with one of those about now too.”

Relief hit her eyes, and he wondered if it was because he’d given up or if it was because he hadn’t, and deep down she knew it. “That, I can be.”

She moved toward him, reached up on tiptoes and hugged him lightly with Abbie in between and as he felt his cock twitch, he thanked God his niece was too young to remember this.

“Need some help with that list?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I have no clue.”

Mercy smirked. “Me either but Google does.”

Pleased to have the air cleared between them, he let her sit at the computer, and he plopped into a low couch, laying Abbie across his legs, his hand on her back.

James kept thinking back over every word his sister had said, trying to analyze what she didn’t say for any clues as to what the fuck was going on. She’d seemed frail, not like the sister he knew, but that could be because she was a new mom. He didn’t know from experience obviously but having a baby must be physically brutal on the body, and she was only a few weeks postpartum.

“I can hear your brain ticking, Romeo.”

James glanced up at Mercy, hating that she was back to calling him that and knowing she was using his nickname as a shield. Any other time he might call her on it, but things were fragile right now, and he needed her as a friend far too much to push her away.

“I’m worried about Beth. Abbie is so young, and she looked frail, like she hadn’t been eating.”

Mercy sat beside him, laying a hand on his forearm that made his skin prickle with attraction. “We’ll find her, but we need to get Abbie safe first. Scorpion is a dangerous man, and if he’s Abbie’s dad, you don’t want him anywhere near her.”

“I know, it’s just my older sister suffered from postpartum depression and it makes me worry about Beth having it too.”

“I won’t pretend to know a lot about that, but I hear it’s awful.”

James nodded, his eyes far away. “Mel had it, and she thought her baby was better off without her. It took a good amount of support from her husband and our parents to get her to see someone about it. She kept putting it down to tiredness, but it was depression.”

“You think Beth might have it, and that’s why she ran?”

“I doubt that’s the only reason, but it would play into it.”

The door opened, and Imari walked in with Alex behind her. The hacker was beautiful but cool, reserved. When she saw Abbie though, she walked straight over, her face creasing into a smile.

Crouching at his legs, she tipped her head to get a better look at Abbie and James felt pride fill his chest. “She’s adorable. How old?”