Mission: Impossible to Deny (The Impossible Mission Romantic Suspense Series Book 7) - Jacki Delecki (great novels of all time txt) 📗

add up to a happy outcome for either of them. With his blade, he worked frantically to saw through the rope. His chances of not being picked off—improbable. He was a sitting target, but XChoco wasn’t. He had to sacrifice himself if one of them could make it out alive—no choice, really.

How humiliating it would be to have lost both his and XChoco’s lives.

His ear drums were about to burst from XChoco’s blast above him. She was ripping through the magazine as if there were no tomorrow.

A bastard aiming for XChoco hit the rock behind Reeves, sending dust down on his head and briefly blinding him. Reeves didn’t stop. With one last thwack, the rope tore apart, and the bridge swung wide before dropping with the weight of their pursuers. Now that they were halfway across, they teetered in a slow dance before falling into the long abyss. Their high-pitched screams as they hit the water resounded throughout the canyon.

He and XChoco had prevailed. Fueled with the rush of adrenaline coursing through him, he wanted to at least high-five his partner.

The lights flashed, and a “#1” zoomed across the video screen. He and XChoco, his anonymous partner, had won the game. Their fifth win for the night.

He wished he could have watched the emotions play across his brash and ballsy partner’s face during the game. But she didn’t have a face cam, and she had altered her voice to Darth Vader’s bass. He could hack into her system and find her IP address, but it would take a lot of effort. And since she was savvy, she most likely had hidden her identity. Her address had jumped all over servers before landing in a pirate site in Macau or some other untraceable place. And there was the little problem that it was illegal to track her … and what would he do with the information? Call her for a meet-up? Talk about creepy stalker stuff.

But he couldn’t help how he felt. They had a connection—how she had anticipated his moves and protected him. They had moved perfectly in sync. The way his life had been going lately, it would be his luck that XChoco was an eleven-year-old boy. But “X” usually meant a female, and his guess was that “Choco” represented a love of chocolate.

Charlie would be laughing his ass right now if he knew how pathetic it was that Reeves, one of the game developers of Snakes Ahead, was hoping to get laid by an anonymous gamer because of her quick thinking and her choice of weapons. How sick was that? Reeves would have to agree with his dead friend.

Reeves glanced at his screen. 9:00 p.m. He had been playing for over three hours. He probably should head home. He hadn’t wanted to spend much time in the condo. The space felt empty, and the silence taunted him.

He shut down his system when he heard the sound of women’s laughter in the high-level security space. Very few had clearance to enter Jenkins Security.

“Sherlock Holmes much?”

Shit, shit, shit. Danni Knorr. He had been good at dodging her until now.

“I wouldn’t say it took much brain power.”

Yep, Sophie Dean, Danni’s bestie too. All he needed was Jordan Dean, Sophie’s older sister, to make the holy trinity of interfering women. Thank God, his sister Emily, a professional cellist, was touring on the East Coast.

He stood and prepared himself for the onslaught of female cross-examination.

Danni, as always, was striking in high heels, a tiny skirt, and long, blonde-white hair swaying around her shoulders. The Scandinavian beauty towered over the shorter but no less gorgeous Sophie Dean, who was also dressed for clubbing. The two women loved their dance time. He often had been dragged along with the ladies before they decided that the Jenkins brothers were more interesting.

“God, he looks worse than I expected.” Danni marched to him, getting nice and close to his face.

And then she shoved hard against his chest, almost knocking him off his feet. The woman had been working out. “You big jerk. I’m going to kick your ass, and then Sophie …” Danni turned toward Sophie, whose pitiful look was worse than a shove and much more painful.

“What are you planning to do to this big lump of stupid testosterone, Soph?”

“I only have SEAL brotherhood threats from Finn, and all of them sounded pretty awful since they involved Reeves’s manly parts.”

Danni snorted, then wrapped him in her arms, pulling him close. “Why didn’t you tell me? Any of us?”

A lump of emotion stuck in his throat, turning his voice rough. “Not much to tell.”

“OMG. Spare me from stupid men.” She stepped back and inspected his face. “Not much to tell? Lily was cheating, and you didn’t mention it to any of us.”

“I spoke with Emily, and you haven’t told her either. Why?” Sophie’s bewildered voice made him feel like a piece of … Just because he had listened to their heartbreaks didn’t mean he wanted to share his.

“What did you expect? That I’d meet for a glass of bubbly and ‘process’ my feelings?”

Danni’s scrutiny was what he had been avoiding. A ferocious and loving woman, she didn’t hesitate to get right into any of her friend’s business. Thank God Lars was responsible for the woman now.

“You must be really hurting to be such a fricking jerk.”

He wasn’t in pain, more like regret. He and Lily had started fizzling out at least a year ago. He was more ashamed that he hadn’t been paying enough attention to suspect she had another bedmate. How could someone with his IQ be that dense and that trusting? He had assumed that Lily was like his sister and his women friends, who were honest and loyal. Obviously not Lily. Who got their jollies on playing two men? Why couldn’t she have broken up with him instead of hiding the truth?

He looked at both women who were like sisters to him. He didn’t want them to worry about him.

 “Hey, sorry.” He shrugged, knowing he