Page 81 of Above ’N’ Beyond

“Won’t they?” she cried, her face contorted with anguish and disbelief.

The puppy had gone to Jax, nuzzling the dog’s leg for comfort.

“And Jax?” She pointed. “Is that even his real name?”

He looked at his dog, still dutifully guarding Ianetti. The man was breathing but out cold. “Jax is my partner. He’s a Port Authority K-9.”

“No,” she whispered. “This was all an act. Everything. Everything you ever said. Everything you ever did. Was the fight in Sing Sing really staged?”

Jamie nodded. “Yes.”

“And you coming here, to the Bistro, staying in my apartment and working the bar?” Her voice had risen. “Helping me with Gnocchi and going with me to the food pantry? Making love to me? Was that part of your undercover act, too? Did the FBI order you to do all that for the job?” She clapped a hand over her mouth. Tears spilled down her cheeks and over her fingers.

“No,” he bit out. He hadn’t thought his heart could hurt any worse. It did. “That I did for me.” Telling her anything else—that he was in love with her and would die for her—would be stupid. She’d never believe him anyway.

Her hand dropped to the pendant. “I don’t believe you.” She yanked hard on the chain, breaking it, then threw the necklace against the wall.

The purple stone popped out, falling to the floor beside the chain and the rest of the pendant. A small black plastic disc about the size of a dime slid across the floor, closer to Bella’s feet. The transmitter.

Ah, hell.

Her brows drew together as she looked closer at the tiny device. “What is that?” She pointed to the transmitter. “Is that a bug? My God! You didn’t give that to me because you cared.” Her eyes widened as the full depth of the ugly truth hit her. “You used me. My own family’s been using me for years, but at least they don’t lie about it. But you—you… Bastard.” Fisting her hands at her sides, her whole body shook.

“Yeah.” That I am. If she ran over and slugged him, he’d take it. Willingly. His soul was every bit as inky black as he’d always known it was. Blacker now.

Jax growled deep in his throat, and Jamie looked at his prisoner, who’d begun stirring. As much as he wanted more time to explain things, there were more urgent operational matters to deal with. Letting Ianetti go wasn’t an option.

Jamie retrieved Marco’s gun from the floor, then stuffed it in his waistband. He whipped the phone from his pocket and punched in Special Agent Jenkins’s number. “Jenkins,” he said when the man answered sleepily. “Got an emergency. I need a team at Bella Bianco’s house now to come take out the garbage before it starts to stink.”

Jenkins lived just over the Tappan Zee Bridge in Tarrytown, not ten minutes from Bella’s house. As he explained the details of what had gone down, her trembling lips compressed tightly, and her chest rose and fell faster. He deserved every ounce of her wrath.

When he hung up, Marco stirred again, this time moaning and trying to push from the floor. Jamie leaned down and landed another solid blow to the man’s face. Bella gasped. Ianetti dropped to the floor and didn’t move again.

“What are you going to do with him?” she cried. “You can’t just keep hitting him.”

Much as he wanted to. “People are coming to take him away.”

“What people? And away to where? You can’t just kidnap him.”

Actually, exigent circumstances dictated he could. “The FBI will put him on ice until I’m done here. Jax, guard,” he said to his dog, then went into the bedroom and quickly finished dressing.

When he returned to the living room, Ianetti still lay unmoving. Bella had picked Gnocchi up again, holding him tightly to her breasts like a shield. From him.

Jamie bent to retrieve the transmitter and put it in his pocket. Gently, he clasped her chin. “What I felt for you—what I do feel for you—is real.” More real than anything he’d felt for another human being in his entire life.

She jerked from his grasp. “You’re such a good actor. I can’t know that for sure, can I? The only thing I can be certain of is that you’re not what I thought you were.”

Yeah, he’d figured that would be her response, and he understood what she wasn’t saying. He’d told her he wasn’t a good person. Now that she finally believed it, he wanted her not to. Back to his operational dilemma. “I need to know… Are you going to say anything to Paola or Tony?”

Rolling her lips inward, she blinked rapidly. He guessed she was teetering on that line between shock and anger. “I don’t know. The only thing I know is that I want you out of here. Out of my life.”

Swallowing his flayed-out guts and what was left of his barely beating heart, Jamie hefted Ianetti over his shoulder and put his hand on the front doorknob. He hesitated before opening it, willing himself to have the strength not to turn back, not to look at Bella one last time. But he was weak, so he did.

When a fresh flood of tears streamed down her cheeks, his heart squeezed so tightly he didn’t know how it could still be beating. His body might be moving, functioning, his tactical brain already running through the implications of what had happened tonight. Inside, he was dying an emotional death he didn’t think he would ever recover from.

He opened the door, then closed it behind him and Jax before making his way in the dark to his apartment where he unceremoniously dumped Ianetti on the floor. Not having a set of cuffs, he searched the kitchen drawers and cabinets until he found something that would work. A length of strong twine and a roll of duct tape. Working quickly, he bound Ianetti’s wrists and ankles, then slapped a strip of tape over his mouth. Part of him wanted Marco to regain consciousness just so he could smash his fist in the man’s jaw again.

“Jax, guard,” he said to his dog, then jogged outside to his Tahoe and retrieved the transmitter he’d stashed under the front seat.