Check Mate Part 7

Please, G.o.d, don't let me screw this up. Too much depends on my making Jake understand.

When she reached the bedroom door, she paused outside. Her hand trembled ever so slightly as she grabbed the doork.n.o.b. What the h.e.l.l was wrong with her? She wasn't the nervous, weak-in-the-knees type. Jake had most certainly done a number on her. And she didn't like it. Didn't like not being totally in control of her emotions. Didn't like letting her heart make her decisions instead of logic.

She eased open the door and gasped at the sight of Jake gagged, shackled to the bed and sporting a bruise on his right temple from where she'd hit him. But blood was also oozing from his swollen lip and there was a bright red spot on his jaw. Burgess must have taken it upon himself to rough Jake up a bit after he'd brought him upstairs. d.a.m.n the man!

Every feminine instinct within her urged her to run to Jake, to comfort and care for him. So why was she so surprised by her reaction? After all, those womanly instincts had already chosen Jake Ingram as her mate. Her man. But she managed to control that nurturing urge as she entered the room. Jake looked at her, his eyes a turbulent, stormy blue and filled with pure rage. Mariah sighed. He wasn't going to make asking for his forgiveness easy.

Jake had never been this angry with a woman. Rage was a new emotion. He'd been bored, entertained, fascinated, hurt, disappointed, repulsed, delighted and even aggravated. But never angry enough to explode. It wasn't that no woman he'd been s.e.xually involved with had never lied to him, but never a woman he'd trusted. And he had trusted Mariah. He had accepted her for who and what she claimed to be. And he'd mistakenly thought they had forged a bond-both physically and emotionally. Obviously he'd been wrong. He was nothing more to her than an a.s.signment. Had her orders been to keep Jake Ingram not only safe, but pacified? Had she been told to do whatever necessary to make him cooperative? If so, then the FBI's methods weren't much better than the Coalition's.

Okay, so he wasn't thinking straight. He was allowing anger to overrule his usual logical thinking processes. He was reacting like a spurned lover. But learning that Mariah had lied to him about something as important as Gideon's life was as devastating as if he'd found her s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around with another man. Both were betrayals. And the one thing Jake prized over everything else was loyalty. Complete loyalty. He expected it in his employees, in his family, in his friends and in his woman. He had been bitterly disappointed by Tara, whose loyalty and commitment hadn't endured the revelation about his unique birthright.

"Jake, we need to talk." Marian paused in the middle of the room, as if waiting for his permission to come closer.

He glared at her. He wanted to shout, "Stay the h.e.l.l away from me. You lied to me. You betrayed me. You're willing to let my brother die if that's what it takes to accomplish your mission!" But he said nothing. And couldn't if he tried, not with the gag in his mouth.

Mariah took several tentative steps toward him, then stopped by the side of his bed. It was a good thing his wrists were cuffed, otherwise he'd grab her and shake her until her teeth rattled. When she reached out and untied the handkerchief Burgess had used to gag him, a dozen different accusations came to mind. He'd thought he would bellow his condemnation of her the minute he could speak, but he didn't. Looking at her, seeing the stricken expression on her face, he realized two things. One: How he felt and what he thought truly mattered to her. Two: If she didn't mean so d.a.m.n much to him, he wouldn't be this outraged over her betrayal.

"Jake, please, listen to me," Marian said. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Gideon. I was wrong. I should have told you. But..." She crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed her hands up and down from elbows to shoulders in a nervous gesture. "My orders were to keep you safe, at any cost. I knew if I told you Gideon had been captured, you wouldn't escape with me, wouldn't go where you'd be safe- not until you found a way to free your brother."

"So you lied to me," he said. "You betrayed me. You would have taken me into custody and kept me under lock and key in order to protect me from the Coalition. It didn't matter to you that my brother's life is on the line." He narrowed his gaze and looked her light in the eye. "Do you have any idea how it makes me feel to know that my brother's life doesn't mean a d.a.m.n thing to you?"

"That's not true." She held out her hands beseechingly, but made no attempt to touch him. "Gideon does matter to me, but not... not as much as you do. Your safety comes first with me."

"Don't you mean my safety comes first with the bureau?"

"Yes, keeping you out of Coalition hands is more important to the U.S. government than protecting Gideon. To them, you're the more valuable of the two. But wanting to keep you safe has become a personal issue with me. Can't you understand how important it is to me to protect you, to save you?"

"Why?" he asked, his gaze pensive, his voice hard.

"Why? Because I care about you."

"If you really cared, you wouldn't have lied to me."

"I've already apologized. I know I should have been honest with you."

"From here on out, it will be difficult for me to believe you," he told her. "Once trust has been broken, it's never easy to rebuild."

"Tell me what I have to do in order for you to trust me again."

"And if I tell you, no matter what it is, you'll agree?"

Mariah inhaled deeply, then exhaled. "Yes."

He heard the reluctance in her voice and knew it hadn't been easy for her to acquiesce. "First, I want you to find out where they're holding Gideon. Then I want you to contact your superiors at the bureau and see what they're doing to find my brother."

"Agreed," she replied quickly.

"That's not all."

She nodded.

"We are not going to escape. Not yet. Not until we know where Gideon is." Jake glanced at the closed door. "We'll fake another hypnosis session and this time you'll report to your Coalition contact that you've made progress breaking down my defenses, that my knowing they have Gideon has made me more cooperative. We have to buy time until either you or the Feds can discover Gideon's location."

Marian didn't respond immediately. He could tell she was digesting everything, running it through her logical mind. She could take his offer or leave it- he didn't care. He would never allow her to take him to a safe haven and leave behind his brother and the proof needed to stop the Coalition and their diabolical plans once and for all. He didn't have a death wish-in fact the exact opposite was true-but in the grand scheme of things, his life was insignificant. And on a more personal level, he believed his brother had more to live for than he did. After all, Gideon had a woman who loved him. Jake had none.

"My superiors at the bureau are not going to agree to your demands," Mariah said. "So the best way to deal with them is to make them believe we haven't had the opportunity to escape. Not yet."

Jake's eyes widened in speculation, understanding what lying to her superiors might mean to Mariah's career, if the truth ever came out. "You're willing to risk your career to do things my way?"

"If that's what it takes to make you .trust me again." She met his gaze head-on, without hesitation, unintimidated, equally as strong and determined as he.

"You do have a way to make contact with the bureau, don't you?" Jake asked.

"Digital phone, in my car," she replied. "I can tell Burgess and Lester that I'm calling my Coalition contact and want some privacy. There's no reason for them not to believe me, if I'm convincing enough. After all neither of them is the sharpest knife in the drawer."

"Find a way to make both calls-one to your Coalition contact and the other to your FBI contact- as soon as possible. I want to know what you can find out about Gideon from each source. If we're going to save my brother, we need to be armed with as much information as possible."

Mariah nodded. "I'm going to uncuff you, but I want you to pretend to be asleep while I'm gone. I'll tell Burgess and Lester that I've given you a couple of injections and it will take about thirty minutes for the drugs to become totally effective. When I come back upstairs, we'll fake a hypnosis session."

"Make sure those two stay downstairs. We don't want them eavesdropping, do we?"

"I'll put on some music and we'll leave the door open. The music will make it less likely for our voices to carry downstairs and by leaving the door open, we can see them if they get close enough to the door to overhear our conversation."

Mariah unlocked Jake's handcuffs and for a brief moment they stared at each other. On some basic, male/female level, Jake wanted to trust her, needed to trust her. She'd gotten under his skin in a way no other woman ever had. s.e.xual desire was a powerful motivator. But he should be thinking with his brain and not another part of his anatomy.

"Go," he told her. "Now."

"Jake...?"

"Not now. Maybe later." He knew she was asking him to discuss forgiving her and trusting her again. But the problem was he didn't know for sure if he could forgive her or trust her, so he couldn't give her a simple yes or no answer. Things between them were far too complicated to see their relations.h.i.+p in black or white, only in shades of gray.

"Lie back and pretend to be asleep," she told him. Her hand hovered near his b.l.o.o.d.y mouth. "I'm sorry Burgess got rough with you. I should clean your mouth and-"

"No big deal. The blood has dried. Leave it for now. If Burgess notices you've been doctoring me, he won't understand why."

"You're right." She gave him a lingering glance, then turned and headed for the door. "I'll find out what I can."

"Yeah, you do that."

Twenty minutes later, Mariah returned to the upstairs bedroom she shared with Jake. Unfortunately she wasn't alone. Burgess had insisted on helping her set things up for the next hypnosis session and she hadn't protested very strongly, fearing he might become suspicious.

Since she and Jake were not going to attempt an escape anytime soon, she had to maintain her cover, otherwise her life and Jake's would be in imminent danger.

When Burgess and she entered the room, Jake lay quietly on his bed, his eyes closed, his breathing steady and even. Sighing with relief that Jake had followed her instructions to feign sleep, Marian hurriedly went to work setting the scene, choosing soft, repet.i.tive music that would blend in with conversation and mask the individual words if heard from a distance. She ordered Burgess to adjust the lighting, then once the mood was set, she asked him to help her rouse Jake and get him to his feet.

Jake played his part well, acting lethargic and completely cooperative as they placed him in the chair beside the desk. His arms hung loosely on either side of the chair and his head lolled backward slightly as he seemingly struggled to keep his eyes open.

"Thank you," Mariah told Burgess, offering him a warm smile. "I'll certainly let my boss know how much help you've been to me."

"If he gives you any trouble, just holler." Using his index finger. Burgess tapped Jake in the chest with hard, quick jabs. "You behave yourself. Ingram."

When Burgess went downstairs, leaving the door open behind him, Mariah turned up the music just a bit, then knelt beside Jake and said very softly, "Gideon is alive and safe. For the time being. I won't lie to you ever again. I promise. My Coalition contact informed me that things are beginning to fall apart. They're feeling intense pressure from outside forces and are becoming greatly concerned that Gideon's whereabouts will leak out, so they plan to move him around from one Coalition safe house to another."

"d.a.m.n!"

"Shh. Stay calm. And keep your voice low."

"Yeah, I understand."

"More bad news. It will be difficult to find out where Gideon will be at any given time because all info about his location will be transmitted by secret code. His whereabouts within the Coalition will be on a strictly need-to-know basis. And unfortunately, they believe that I don't need to know."

"Figures." Jake glanced at the door. "What did you tell those two downstairs?"

"The same thing I just told you-the truth."

"Right." Jake focused his attention on Mariah. "Did you get in touch with your superior at the bureau?"

"Yes, and I shared what information I had with him. They're doing everything they can to find Gideon. And now that they know the info about his whereabouts will be shared in secret code only, they plan to bring in your sister Gretchen to see if she can break the code."

Jake released an indrawn breath. "Gretchen is the best. If anyone can break the code, she can. But she'll be under tremendous pressure, knowing that time isn't on our side and Gideon's life might well be in her hands. And she doesn't need any stress. Not right now. She's pregnant, you know."

"Considering the fact that you Extraordinary Five siblings were only recently reunited and haven't been together since you were all kids, the loyalty and love you feel toward one another is remarkable."

"Each of us is regaining his or her own specific memories," Jake said. "In time we hope to remember everything about the past. It's only natural, considering our sibling bonds go beyond the normal, that we would reconnect so strongly."

Mariah heard footsteps. "Shh. I think we're about to have company again," she whispered.

Immediately Jake went into groggy, easily manipulated mode. By the time Lester appeared in the doorway, the Coalition stooge saw and heard what he was supposed to-Mariah putting Jake under to gain control over his subconscious.

"Betty's a lady, and wears a gold ring," Mariah chanted the trigger that Agnes Payne and Olive Grimble had implanted in Jake's mind when he'd been a child. "And Johnny's a drummer, who drums for the king."

Jake murmured incoherently, pretending the old conditioning still affected him. Mariah glanced over her shoulder and glared at Lester. Shaking her head and placing her index finger to her lips as a signal for silence, she warned the man off. Lester grinned. d.a.m.n infuriating pest. Go away, she wanted to shout. If either Lester or Burgess knew anything about hypnosis other than what they saw on television, neither would buy her act. Lucky for her-and for Jake-that she apparently had the two men fooled.

After several minutes of watching Mariah take Jake deep into a hypnotic trance, Lester came into the room, leaned down and whispered to her, "Can you make him cluck like a chicken?"

Mariah barely contained an exasperated groan. Changing the tone of her voice from the melodic and soothing rhythm she'd been using with Jake to a sharp, no-nonsense clip, she replied in a quiet yet deadly serious manner, "Please leave immediately. You're interfering with my work. You don't want me to report you to-"

"I'm leaving." Lester backed off. "I just thought we might have a little fun with the boy wonder here. Nothing like seeing Mr. Superhuman Genius making a fool of himself."

Mariah simply glowered at Lester, once again amazed that someone hadn't already shot this idiot out of nothing more than sheer aggravation. Lester shrugged, then obediently slithered away.

"d.a.m.n little p.i.s.sant," Mariah said.

Jake reached out and grasped her wrist. "Should I thank you for not making me cluck like a chicken?"

She stared at Jake and couldn't believe he was actually smiling at her. Had his sense of humor returned so quickly? Had he already forgiven her?

"I don't believe any reputable hypnotist would make such an idiotic request of a patient," Mariah said. "But while we're faking these sessions, we should be talking. After all, I'm supposed to be trying to reprogram you. So, I'll ask you some questions and you reply. We need to kill at least an hour before I make a report to my Coalition contact."

"Perhaps we should discuss what you're going to tell him." Jake released her wrist abruptly, as if he had just realized he'd touched something he shouldn't have.

Mariah's breath caught in her throat. She swallowed hard. "All right. What do you suggest? Anything other than you are being cooperative and I seem to have made some progress in reprogramming you, that you're susceptible to the old nursery rhyme trigger?"

"That should be enough... for now." Jake paused, thought awhile, then added, "Maybe you should suggest that it might make me even more cooperative if they brought Gideon here, so that I could see he's all right."

"I don't think they'll buy that argument. They'll want to keep you two apart until they're certain they can control you completely."

Jake nodded. The silence between them became deafening. Mariah rose to her feet and paced around the room. How was she going to do this, be with Jake twenty-four hours a day and not touch him, not act on her feelings? And dammit, she did have feelings-strong feelings-for Jake. Remember you're a federal agent, she told herself. Act like a professional, will you? And not some lovesick teenager!

It shouldn't matter so d.a.m.n much what Jake thought of her, but it did. As long as she kept him safe, she was doing her job. And if she somehow managed to help him save Gideon and retrieve the all-important computer disks, then Jake would forgive, her, wouldn't he? But by proving her loyalty to Jake, wasn't she also risking the job that meant everything to her? Of course she was.

"Mariah?"

Sensing Jake directly behind her, she gasped, not realizing until that very moment that he'd left the chair and crossed the room. She turned slowly and faced him. Before she had a chance to say anything, he reached out, grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to him.

"I don't trust you," he said, his voice rough.

"I know."

"You lied to me."

"Yes, I did."

"I don't know if I can ever forgive you."

She wanted to cry. And she wanted to swear to him that she'd never betray him ever again. But the words lodged in her throat.

"d.a.m.n you, Mariah!"

"Oh, Jake, don't you know that we're both d.a.m.ned."

He shook her once. Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. He grabbed the nape of her neck and held her in place as his mouth covered hers in a desperate, hungry kiss.

Eight.

His mouth ravaged hers, the kiss demanding and turbulent-and tinged with anger. He didn't have to tell her that this savage desire overruled his common sense. She knew only too well, because she felt the same. They were consumed by a hunger bred into their species in primordial times, a basic human instinct. With his lips on hers, his hand grasping her neck, his body pressing intimately, his arousal strong and hard against her, she couldn't resist her own primitive needs. A voice inside her head told her that they shouldn't be doing this. The door was open. They could be seen. And Jake was angry and hurt, the motives for his actions a combination of pa.s.sion and rage. The logical part of her nature demanded that she put a stop to this immediately; but the emotional side wanted more. Think, dammit, Mariah, think, an inner voice cautioned. But her body disregarded the warning. Her body had needs. Her heart had deep-seated longings.

She clung to him, her hands running wild and free over his shoulders, her fingers threading through his hair. They kissed and touched, their bodies in tune as all five senses came into play. He smelled of soap and water and manliness. Jake's own unique scent. She knew that she could pick him out of a lineup of a dozen men by his scent alone. As he thrust his tongue into her mouth, he moaned, the sound bursting inside her head like skyrockets. Her nipples peaked, her femininity moistened. Ceasing to think coherently, she gave herself over completely to the moment, to feeling and not thinking.