Enemy Lover Read Online Free PDF Page B

her chest when she graduated valedictorian of her class.
    Something foreign kicked him in the gut. Powerful but poignant. Making his chest burn in a way it hadn’t in a very long time.
    Satriano cleared his throat. “Okay, yeah. She’s something. She didn’t deserve what was done to her. But I’ ll say it again, she’s unstable.”
    Godfather nodded again, deep in thought.
    “What are you thinking?” Stone asked.
    Godfather threw the remote on the table with a casual flick of his wrist. “I’m thinking she’s perfect for at least two ops on the table right now.”
    “She’s too volatile!” Satriano shouted.
    Godfather let out a long breath and looked at Dom. “Satriano, there wasn’t a more pissed-off unstable operative than you the day we dragged your sorry ass through those doors. You were back on the street in less than a month.”
    Dante, another operative and one who had no room to talk, snorted, smacking Satriano on the chest but quieting when Godfather turned on him. “And you, I remember the day you were hauled in here, telling us all to go fuck ourselves and swinging those ham fists of yours.” He looked past Dom to Slade and Dylan. “Don’t shake your heads, you both were as bad.” He turned to Gage. “And you, Stone? No one could get near you.” Godfather stared down every one of them. “You were all fuckups when you got here. That’s why you were chosen. Because of the hell you’d been through. Because you weren’t willing to take it lying down. Because you wanted payback.” He pointed to the frozen frame of a stunning, smiling woman. “Jax is no different.”
    The room grew uncomfortably silent, and suddenly Godfather knew what was bugging them. He grunted. No one was willing to say it. Yes, they’d all been screwedup, but they were all screwed-up
men.
They weren’t ruled by hormones or the urge to nurture. Save for Naomi, his assistant, they were an all-male squad. That was about to change.
    “I respect your hesitation, men. But just in case none of you happened to notice, Jax Cassidy has some serious assets none of us have. We need a woman for the operations where a dick just won’t make the cut. We need a woman like Jax, who is trained, who is fearless and who won’t hesitate to use what she must to close a mission.”
    “Calculating,” Cruz muttered.
    Godfather smiled. “Exactly.”
    He turned and stared at the static images left on the screen. At every turn, Jax had challenged life—no fear, no hesitation, no regrets. The woman who’d left the room less than twenty minutes ago was hard as nails on the outside, but terrified on the inside. He’d seen it in her eyes. And he’d seen it magnify each time she’d thought someone had been about to touch her. Sighing, he rubbed the back of his neck.
    When he had chest-butted her, he’d honestly had no clue what she would do. But when she hadn’t attacked, he’d known then he had her. He liked that despite her instinct to fight, she had the self-control to do what was in her best interest.
    “She does a good job hiding behind that mouth of hers,” Stone said. “But she’s not just unstable. She’s scared, and fear causes mistakes.”
    Godfather nodded. The future of the team hung on every member’s being in top form, mentally andphysically. “Fear can be turned around and used to one’s advantage,” he said.
    “It can also make you second-guess yourself,” Cruz said from beside him.
    “In Jax Cassidy’s case, her fear will keep her focused,” Godfather rejoined.
    “I know we all agreed to recruit a female operative,” Stone started, “but . . . she makes me nervous. Our motto has always been no rules. We do the job and we do whatever it takes. Stealing. Killing. Fu—” Stone hesitated.
    Godfather shook his head. “She’s too smart to use her body as a first assault.”
    Cruz coughed. “Didn’t she just tell us she seduced the information she needed out of that fed?”
    Godfather nodded again, trying