Page 2 of Traitor
A loud beeping penetrated his panic. It took Jay a moment to realize it was the sound of a machine keeping track of his heartbeat.
Crisp kept caressing him. “That’s it. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. You’re fine. I’ve got you. No one can find you here. You’re safe.”
Jay listened to the sound of Crisp’s voice and the beeping slowed.
“Here.” Crisp ran a piece of ice across Jay’s cracked lips. “Chew on this. It’ll help.”
Jay opened and accepted the ice. Crisp was right. He calmed a little more.
“Take another.” In between feeding him ice chips, Crisp went back to rubbing his chest. Jay felt his body relax. “That’s better. Are you in pain? I can press a button and have more pain meds pushing through your IV in no time, if you need it.”
Jay couldn’t trust drugs right now. They fogged the mind. Jay needed to be alert and ready for anything. He had been taught to push through the pain. “No. I need my head clear in case they come for me.”
A sweet smile touched Crisp’s lips. “I promise you’re safe with me. You realize I’ve had the same training you have, right? I can protect you.”
Jay didn’t want to scoff and hurt any feelings. Not to mention, Crisp currently kept him alive. It would be dumb to antagonize his caretaker. The problem was Jay was already drugged, in pain, and his tongue unguarded.
His eyelids grew heavy as the ice and Crisp’s touch soothed him. “You are so small. I will protect you. You will see.” The Russian accent he had been trained to keep hidden thickened along with the heaviness pressing down on his body. He heard a soft chuckle and then nothing.
The book he had been dying to read sat face down on the bedside table, marking his spot. Crisp didn’t go back to reading. He stared at his patient. Jay was all muscle. Crisp wondered if Jay was the name he had chosen for himself, or—like them—he simply still went by his call name from the academy? All Crisp knew about Jay came from Jay’s first abduction in their home. He had been dressed like a leather daddy when he had shown up to take Scout back to Russia. Kuznetsov had intended to use Scout to lure Rain back to him. Not the program. Him. But once Jay had realized that if he wanted Scout, he had to go through Beau Bosi to get to any of them, his tone had changed quickly. He had recognized the trap Kuznetsov had set for him. It was actually a genius plan. Beau wasn’t in Hawaii at the time. All he had to do was send Jay to grab one of them. However, Kuznetsov had known something else about the situation Jay hadn’t: Jay had met Beau’s husband, Kylo, before. He had stopped to rescue Kylo from the side of the road when his tire blew. No way would sweet Kylo let anyone kill Jay. So, it was simple: bring back a brother or get captured and released, bringing all the Agafonov running. Either way, Kuznetsov won.
Crisp wondered why Jay had forced Kuznetsov to torture all the info from him that he had gathered while in Beau’s hands.Crisp didn’t understand. Jay was in bad shape. Crisp couldn’t believe he had survived so far. It was obvious Jay had held out for a very long time before breaking. He had every toenail and fingernail pulled out except for one little toe and a pinky. That was only because those appendages had been removed. There was so much damage to his testicles he definitely wouldn’t be having kids. Of course, most agents were given vasectomies before graduation from the program, but still. Crisp cringed just thinking about it. He also couldn’t even tell the color of Jay’s eyes through all the blood vessels basically exploding in his eyes. Austen had said he couldn’t guarantee Jay would regain all of his vision. Then there were the broken bones. The non-fatal stab wounds that were perfectly placed and cauterized. They had left him incapacitated with only one stab wound bleeding so he would suffer as long as possible before dying. It was hard to look at.
So, once again, why? That was the question that drove him. Had Kuznetsov’s betrayal been the straw that broke him? Maybe, like them, he wanted freedom. For whatever reason, his torture had bought Crisp’s family time. Precious time they had needed to take down the commander for good. No matter Jay’s reasoning, Crisp couldn’t let Jay die for them, even if his intentions had nothing to do with saving them. He also wouldn’t let him be in pain for the sake of pride. Crisp pressed the button, sending more pain meds through the IV. He stood and swapped all the bags hanging above Jay to fresh ones. Crisp had a lot of medical training for his role in Killers Inc. There was a ton of science behind making people and evidence disappear. Crisp was just putting that knowledge toward saving someone for once. All Crisp had needed was for Austen to do the heavy lifting so he could take over the rest of Jay’s care.
A knocking sound caught his attention, freezing him. Fuck. There was someone at the door. Crisp hurriedly closed off the section of his mini apartment inside Bosi’s ridiculously massive house. He prayed Jay wouldn’t wake or make a sound. After pulling himself together, he opened the door. Tracker stood on the other side.
“Hey.” Crisp hated how surprised he sounded, but Tracker never came to his room. He wore surgical gloves. Crisp focused on that. “Why are you wearing gloves? Have you decided to literally cut me loose?” He laughed at his own bad joke. “I don’t think Tidy would help you clean the scene.”
Tracker’s newscaster-worthy smile appeared. “Ha. No. I’m going around gathering the DNA samples we talked about.”
“Oh.” Yay. That was all he could think. Crisp was leery as hell about Tracker’s plan to find out their parentage. They had already started to drift apart since Field had gotten married. While Field was more than owed the peace Henry brought to him, he had been the glue. Crisp hadn’t noticed that until Field chose to take a step back and heal. Still, nothing good could come of this test.
“Just open up. I’ll swab your cheek and be out of your hair.”
Crisp wanted to reassure Tracker that he didn’t see him as an inconvenience. Unfortunately, he had a secret patient in another room he couldn’t risk. While Crisp didn’t think they would harm him, he was their brother after all, he couldn’t say what they would do to Jay. He was a traitor among them. Dangerous totheir new life and freedom. As Tracker swabbed his cheek, Crisp realized there was no way this would end well. That didn’t mean he intended to stop. Crisp had heard the humanity in Jay’s voice when he had sworn to keep Crisp safe. He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t. He wouldn’t.
Chapter Two
Amonthinbedhad healed some things, but not enough to set him free from the boredom. He had several new scars. That added a crankiness to the situation he couldn’t seem to shake. Crisp turned the page of his book. Jay’s eye twitched. Four weeks and they barely spoke. Crisp just quietly fed him and bathed him. He kept Jay alive and helped in any way he could. It was fucking irritating. They had been raised in the same spy program. Neither of them had been taught to care about anyone. In fact, it had been drilled into them that compassion was weakness. Relationships were pathways to exploitation. Emotions got people dead. End of story. It really pissed him the fuck off that Crisp acted the way he did. Jay didn’t like the way this made him feel. Worse than that, he knew Crisp didn’t try to hold a conversation with him because Jay had made it abundantly clear there would be no attachments here. He would repay this favor one day, but this time together meant nothing. But holy shit did it make him crazy how Crisp could peacefully lose himself in a book and ignore him. He sighed heavily sinceCrisp obviously hadn’t heard him the last four times he had done so. Jay wanted to growl when Crisp’s sparkling green eyes continued to move back and forth across the pages in front of him, completely unbothered. His stomach growled.
Crisp immediately looked up. He glanced toward the clock and set his book aside. “I didn’t realize it had gotten so late. Are you ready for dinner?”
If that meant Crisp would focus on him for a minute, then yes. “I could eat.”
The sound of bones popping was the only sound that broke the silence as Crisp stood.
Even that bothered Jay. “You sit around too much. Your bones are weakening by the second. Is there no gym in this place? No street to jog? You’re dumb to not stay sharp.”
Crisp laughed. “You’re funny.”
Jay rolled his eyes. What was Crisp’s deal? “It’s sad. You have no sense of self-preservation. There are agents all over this country. They have—no doubt—seen your face. They know you and your brothers’ names. What if this Bosi person cuts ties with you? You’ll have no protection and flabby arms.”
Crisp never stopped smiling through his entire spiel. He was just perfect straight teeth, flawlessly styled blond hair, and fresh faced. Weak, but beautiful. It hit Jay. Crisp had likely been ontrack for a position that used his beauty as a weapon. Maybe even the same path as Jay.
Jay narrowed his eyes. His vision was still extremely bad, but Crisp stood close enough for Jay to make out his details. “What job were you meant to have?”
Crisp sat on the bed at his hip, as if settling in for a chat. Jay didn’t know why that simultaneously enraged him and took a weight from his chest. “My areas of study were science mixed with medicine and chemistry. Trained to leave no trace behind, but I was also highly trained in acting.”
