Free Still The One (Family Stone #4 Jack) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense) by Lisa Hughey Page B

right now. “My brother knows nothing about Maria Torres being found.”
    Bliss opened her mouth to yell at him again, so he started talking over her objections. “Second, you’re making the assumption that Fernandez has our phones tagged.”
    “Assume everything is tagged.” Bliss put her hand to her forehead and paced. “Un-freaking-believable. I should have taken your damn phone away from you.”
    “I was right. Ava was attacked.”
    “Bully for you.”
    Jack hated having to explain himself. He hadn’t been that much of a self-centered ass when they’d been together, had he? He frowned as he tried to make her see reason.
    “Look, Bliss,” Jack tried to explain. “She’s like my little sister. How could I live with myself if something happened to her? I wasn’t just blowing off your rules for the hell of it. She’s my responsibility.”
    It was as if he’d punched her. Her shoulders slumped momentarily. And she closed her eyes, blocking the pain reflected in her gaze before she hid it from him.
    Bliss’s stomach dropped. Damn him.
    “My responsibility is Maria.” She closed her mouth and breathed hard, trying to control the overwhelming urge to screech at him. How could he not understand? Maria was her charge. She’d already lost her once. But she was more than just a job. “I have to protect her at all costs.”
    “Who are you?” Jack shot back. “You have to protect her, even at the expense of my brother and a woman I consider like a sister?”
    The blood drained from her face. It was clear from this fight that neither one of them was the person they were thirteen years ago.
    “I could ask you the same,” she attacked. He’d kept some pretty big things from her. They had practically been living together. Jack had spent most of his nights at her place. It had taken boxes to get all his stuff and clothes from her apartment before he left for the Navy.
    Her face had gone from deathly pale to bright red at the memory of his reply to Jill. Her feelings of anger and betrayal simmered and boiled over. “We’ve met?” she snarled.
    “What are you talking about?” Jack tried to play it off. But he knew.
    “We’ve met. That was the sum total of your response when Jill introduced us?” Her voice stayed even, he would have thought she was calm, except for the sparks shooting from her golden eyes.
    Jack was done. The last two days had pushed his patience to the limit and he wasn’t the most tactful guy to begin with.
    “Yeah, well, what did you want me to say?” Yes, he’d kept things from her but she’d kept things from him as well. He was not the bad guy. So, he’d been trying to protect himself by indicating that their association was casual rather than the truth. “We used to fuck, but then she ripped out my heart?”
    Peripherally Jack realized that Shane was standing in the doorway to the cockpit, frozen, clearly trying to be invisible, which was impossible for a six five, black man with a barrel chest and tree trunks for thighs. But Jack gave him points for trying.
    Bliss just stared, the bow of her pink lips rounded in a startled O.
    “I’ll just...take off.” Shane’s voice rumbled from behind Jack.
    And this just turned into a bigger cluster, because Jack was pretty sure they couldn’t do this alone. If Bliss didn’t want him to contact his brother or Ava, then Jack needed to draft Shane into service.
    And fuck but he didn’t know if he wanted to continue this conversation with Bliss or pretend he hadn’t just left his guts on the sleek, carpeted floor of the Bombardier.
    “Sorry, bud.” Jack shook his head, his gaze still locked with Bliss’s tormented honey eyes. “I know you don’t usually do fieldwork but I may need to tap you to do some surveillance.”
    Bliss’s eyebrows rose.
    “He’s not on the official payroll. He’s an independent contractor,” Jack said before Bliss could object. “We have him on retainer, but he has other clients as well.”
    Jack