Mine to Crave (Mine #4)(42)
Author: Cynthia Eden

And a brother…family. Real family. Not the kind that was always drunk or high or…willing to sell you.

Her lips clamped together and she stormed around Drake. He wasn’t stopping her. Good. He’d gotten the message. She was trouble. She was also going.

“You’ll be dead before the sun sets.” That was Trace making that grim prediction. “Do you want to die?”

She couldn’t have what she wanted. That was why Jasmine planned to leave Drake behind.

Her hand touched the doorknob.

“I don’t trust you.” Drake’s voice stopped her cold.

But that was what she wanted, right? No trust. No attachment.

“Maxwell wants you. He wants you very badly.”

She opened the door.

Saw the guards in the hallway. Four of them. Hell.

Drake’s hand closed over her shoulder. “And I’m not going to let that bastard have anything that he wants.” He turned her to face him. “I don’t trust you,” he said once more, like he was driving a nail into her coffin.

Her chin lifted.

“But I am going to use you, princess. You’re going to be the bait that brings down that bastard. Then we’ll both be free. You can vanish from my life, and I’ll stay the hell out of yours.”

***

He didn’t like the way Jasmine stared at Noah.

Drake frowned as he watched Jasmine send yet another furtive glance toward his friend. Why did she keep gazing at the guy with that lost expression in her eyes?

Yeah, okay, fine, Noah was a ladies’ man. Or he had been, until the guy had settled down with his Claire. Now Noah was full-on obsessed with his lovely new wife, and the guy wasn’t playing the field.

Jasmine needed to stop watching Noah.

Fucking now.

“That’s jealousy.”

He turned at Trace’s voice. They were in a small, private airport outside of the city. Noah’s plane was supposed to be taking off soon.

Taking off with Jasmine.

She’s bait, all right. But she doesn’t have to actually be here when the trap is sprung. He wanted her safely away because he…well, he just wanted her safe.

“The way you’re glaring at Noah, it’s a dead giveaway.” Trace sighed softly. “You really sure you want your woman flying off with him?”

“I trust Noah.” He did.

“Ah, right. But not her? What if she tries her hand at seducing him? I mean, the woman can’t seem to keep her eyes off the guy.”

He was growling. Drake tried to stop. He wasn’t an animal, no matter what he might be feeling at that moment. “Noah doesn’t see any woman but Claire.”

“Huh. Is that how it works?”

Drake shifted a bit because he’d just noticed that Noah was staring at Jasmine with a guarded, assessing gaze.

As soon as Jasmine caught the other man’s stare, she immediately stiffened and glanced away.

“Maybe he was another target for her,” Trace mused. “I mean, the way she’s acting, the woman knows him. Or she knows something about him.”

Fuck. “The photograph.”

“The what?”

He marched away from Trace and headed for Jasmine. Noah stood near her, and his friend nodded as he approached. “About fifteen minutes until take-off,” Noah said. “Once we’re safe in New York, I’ll call you.”

Drake didn’t glance his way. “You never told me why the photograph mattered.”

“What photograph?” She immediately asked as her chin notched up.

Back to that old game, were they?

He caught her sexy little chin between his thumb and forefinger. “It’s a dead giveaway,” he told her.

Her eyes widened. So dark and deep. A man could get lost in those eyes.

Noah would not get lost there.

“When you lie…your chin rises up a bit.”

“No it doesn’t,” she whispered back. “It does that when I get scared.”

He blinked.

“Uh, we should get on the plane,” Noah announced. “The pilot told me that we’ll be—”

“Why do you watch Noah so much?” Drake demanded, and he heard the bite of jealousy in his own voice. He’d never been jealous over a woman. Not like this.

Noah coughed a bit. “Okay, I think I’ll wait on the plane…” He started to back away.

“Don’t go anywhere,” Drake ordered because he was trying to figure this thing out.

Jasmine had paled. The sun was up, and he could easily see the sudden pallor of her skin and the flash of fear in her eyes. “That was Noah’s wedding picture.”

Now Noah was crowding in closer. “What are you talking about?”

The pilot advanced toward them. “We should board the plane now.” He shifted a bit nervously, from one foot to the other. “The pre-flight checks are all clear. We’ve got the okay to take-off.”

Two mechanics were over in the corner, packing up gear.

Jasmine tried to head toward the plane. Drake moved with her, blocking her path.

“What is with you?” Jasmine demanded. “You want me to go, you want me to stay. Make up your mind!”

“I want to know why you took one look at Noah’s wedding picture, and you decided not to hack my computer. I want to know why one look at that picture changed everything for you.” And it had. She’d betrayed Maxwell and set this deadly chain of events into motion.

But she didn’t betray him for me.

Jasmine’s gaze slanted toward Noah.

She did it for him.

“I saw you on the security footage.” There had been such longing on her face. Longing for Noah? Rage pumped through his blood.

Jasmine wet her lips with a quick, nervous swipe of her tongue. “I don’t know what you think you saw—”

Drake’s stare lasered onto Noah. “Have you met Jasmine before?”

Surprise flashed on Noah’s face. “No.”

Trace had closed in next to Noah.

“Are you sure?” Drake pressed. “Think about it.”

Noah’s stare swept over Jasmine. A very tense Jasmine. “I don’t think I’d forget a woman like her,” Noah said.

Drake unclenched his back teeth.

“But…but I swear,” Noah continued, voice roughening, “there’s something familiar about you, Jasmine. I look at you, and I…”

Jasmine pushed through the men and headed for the plane. “We need to get this show on the road.”

“How do you know him?” Drake demanded.