Free Marked (Hostage Rescue Team Series) by Kaylea Cross

After that, there was no question where his priorities lay. “No, I mean as in this could be turning into a work situation.”
    A startled pause followed as Tuck digested that. “The hell did you do, man? You’ve only been gone a couple hours. Even you couldn’t find trouble that quick.” He sounded genuinely interested.
    “Nothing,” Jake said with tried patience. “Look, I don’t want to go into details over the phone, but I need some backup. Unofficially,” he added. Their overlapping work schedules should do fine for what he had in mind. And though Tuck loved to give him a hard time whenever possible—Jake was one of the newest members of the team, after all—he knew Jake would never ask him for a favor on their day off if it wasn’t really important.
    “Can you and Bauer meet me back at our place within the next couple hours?” He felt bad that it would end their dirt biking adventure before it had gotten started, because downtime was precious and Tuck sure as hell could use some R&R with everything that was going on in his personal life right now.
    But Tuck didn’t hesitate. “Whoa. Yeah, man, if you need us, we’ll be there.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Don’t worry about it, brother. We’ll just add this to your tab.”
    “You do that,” Jake replied with a grudging chuckle. The form of payment at the end of all this would no doubt be taken out in the form of food, alcohol, or some shitty-ass job no one else on the team wanted to do.
    Hanging up, he already felt better knowing his buddies had his back in whatever was unfolding here. Until he knew Rachel was no longer under threat, he wasn’t taking any chances with her safety. It made his skin crawl to think of that asshole invading her place and pawing through her underwear.
    Slashing a woman’s underwear to pieces meant the guy had a shitload of rage underscored with sexual undertones and it was a definite warning sign that things could easily escalate to something like rape or worse. Jake wasn’t going to let that happen, and the FBI team hunting Xang would be doubly motivated to bring him in before he did something worse.
    A few minutes later there was still no sign of Brandon and Jake’s phone buzzed with an incoming text from Rachel.
    He’s not here and won’t respond to my messages.
    They’d already been here nearly forty minutes. It should only have taken her brother fifteen to get there after their last conversation, and unless his phone had died in the past few minutes there was no reason for him not to reply to her. Jake didn’t like the implications involved in all of this. Come on out , he texted back.
    The diner door opened a few moments later and Rachel strode toward his truck, all poised, feminine grace with an aura of confidence that never failed to stir him. Letting her slip through his fingers had been a huge mistake, but he was a different person in a different place now and he wasn’t making that same mistake again. The circumstances of their reunion sucked ass, but at least now he’d be spending a lot of time with her until this was dealt with. That was a start.
    He hopped out to open the passenger door for her, taking in the tense set of her shoulders and the worried frown marring her brow. He wished he could make this go away for her.
    “What now?” she asked, looking up at him as though she hoped he had the answer that would make everything all better. Unfortunately he had nothing.
    “We’ll wait a bit longer out here.” He helped her up, shut the door and rounded the hood to climb back behind the wheel. Once inside the cab, he could practically feel the tension pulsing off her. “He might’ve been farther away than we thought when you last talked to him.”
    She shook her head, anxiously scanning the parking lot. “He said he’d be here in twenty. And he was really worried about me, so I know he’d come straight here.” She turned those big, green-flecked eyes on him and he didn’t even think—just reached