Read Agent S5: Jaydan for Free Online

Jaydan opened the back door to grab his bag. He stared at her across the back seat where she grabbed her tote.
    “How is my enhancement different from someone smoking, knowing it can kill them? Or, receiving an organ transplant knowing their odds for a long life are pretty slim?”
    When her eyes met his, it shocked him to see the hurt in their pale depths despite the stubborn tilt of her chin. “Hey, it’s your life. Your body. You do what you want with it.” She slammed the door.
    Jaydan walked around the vehicle. Were they… fighting ? Sure, they nagged each other all the time but this felt different.
    The smell of sweat hit his nostrils. Whipping around, he pulled Hope behind him. A Samoan boy, around ten or eleven, rolled to a stop on a skateboard, baseball cap turned backward on his head. He wore a black, Pearl Harbor t-shirt and khaki cargo shorts. With a bare foot, he stepped on the end of the board to flip it in the air.
    He caught it and smiled. “You staying here?”
    Jaydan straightened to his full height. “Who wants to know?”
    The boy held out a note. Jaydan opened the folded message, printed on plain, white paper.
    Tonight, go to the big luau on the beach. What you seek will be there .
    Jaydan glanced at the boy. How in damnation did someone know who they were looking for? Obviously, they had the boy watching the house so they knew its traffic patterns and the people that used it.
    Stepping beside him, Hope snatched the note from his hand and read it.
    Jaydan said, “Who sent you?”
    With another smile, the boy held out his hand and rubbed his fingers together. Sighing, Jaydan pulled out a five-dollar bill from his wallet.
    The boy’s smile vanished. Hope chuckled beside him.
    Pulling out a ten, Jaydan held it up in the air. “Will this do?”
    The boy reached for it. Jaydan held it away. “Who sent you?”
    “A friend.” The boy reached for it again.
    Jaydan held firm. “I don’t have any friends.”
    The boy glared at him below slanted brows. “Probably because you’re stingy.”
    A grin split Jaydan’s face despite his attempts to remain tough. “Look at the pot calling the kettle black.”
    A frown of confusion clouded the boy’s face. “What?”
    Laughing aloud, Hope reached out and touched the boy’s chin. A glazed look in his eyes teamed with a sudden blush on his cheeks. She spoke in a cajoling voice, her hand resting on his shoulder.
    “If this person is our friend, why didn’t they come see us?”
    Seriousness stole over the boy’s features, pinching his mouth. “My note said the risk is too great.”
    Jaydan frowned at him. “There’s another note?”
    The boy said, “That’s the only way we talk – in notes. I’ve never met your friend.”

Chapter 4
     
    Damp from the shower, Hope slipped into the complimentary terry robe and pulled the belt tight. Staring at her makeup-free face in the mirror, she admonished herself with unforgiving persistence.
    Seriously, Hope? Jaydan Rose?
    Squeezing her eyes shut, she braced her hands on the counter. He was a cowboy, for gripes sake. She didn’t even like cowboys. Pompous and arrogant didn’t begin to describe his faults, he used to work for a world-renowned criminal, and he treated her like she had one brain cell in her head.
    Considering she’d almost kissed him again, maybe she did.
    She’d gone from irritation to arousal in the span of an airplane flight. Everything had changed when he talked to his brother.
    Turning around, she plopped her bum against the counter. He’d been relaxed and happy talking to Gunner, his voice filled with love. He’d laughed aloud, his white smile striking against his ever-present five o’clock shadow. Even when he’d spoken of his stepfather, he’d had contentment about him, as though he’d come to terms with the past and no longer considered Booker a threat.
    He seemed human then, just a normal, everyday man, rather than the badass super agent he’d portrayed every day since she