Royally Tempted

by Madison Faye

  “What?” I hissed. “Why the hell are they keeping you?”

  “Liability,” Jordan said, his voice like gravel and ice over the phone. “We’re fucking suspects.”

  “You’re kidding me.”

  “I wish I fucking was.”

  “Ari,” Luke addressed me. “We know who it is. It’s fucking Mark.”

  My eyes went wide in horror. Mark, as in Sasha’s shitty ex boyfriend who’d ended up shooting his way into Steel and Stone Holdings to try and rob the place after she’d hooked up with Luke and Jordan. He’d wound up winging Jordan with a bullet before Sasha had shot him herself. Last I’d heard though, he was in jail for a very long time.”

  “There was breakout — we heard about it, but until it was too late.”

  The emotion was raw and bitter in Luke’s voice, the same bitter rage I could feel inside my own chest. When I looked around the plane cabin, I saw the tightness in the faces of my three guys.

  “He has demands, Ari.”

  I couldn’t respond. All I could think about was that asshole Mark getting his hands on my friend.

  My friend and her unborn baby.

  “Listen,” Jordan growled. “We’re suspects right now, and they’re fucking keeping us at the hotel right now. But if we give them what we know and tell them it’s Mark behind this, you know they’re going to fuck it up. We can’t chance this, not with Sasha and sure as shit not with our kid.”

  The cabin started to spin around me, and Sean took over as Hunter helped me sit. “What the fuck do these clowns want, guys? Cash?”

  “That’d be easy, man,” Luke muttered. “He wants revenge.”

  I listened in stunned silence as Luke filled Hunter, Damien, and Sean in on what had happened that time back at their offices with Mark trying to rob the place.

  “He fucking called, us, Arianna,” Jordan said, his voice tight. “He wants revenge, he wants to hurt us, and he’s going to do it by hurting her.”

  “That not going to happen, guys,” Damien growled with steel in his voice. “It’s not.” He took a deep breath. “What do you know about me and Hunter and Sean?”

  There was a moment of silence before Jordan spoke up. “We did our homework,” he said evenly. “Marines, huh?”

  “Hoorah,” Hunter muttered under his breath.

  “Look, we can’t ask you guys to—”

  “Ask whatever you need,” Sean said fiercely, his eyes locked on me.

  “Mark’s got her at our lodge, in upstate New York. He’s got a lot of guys with him.”

  “We’re on our way,” Hunter said, before moving to the front of the plane to knock on the door to the pilot’s area.

  “Guys, could we talk to Arianna for a minute?”

  Sean nodded, took me off speaker, and handed me the phone.”

  “I’m here,” I said quietly.

  “Are you okay?”

  My breath hitched as I shook my head, trying to blink back the tears. “Am I okay? Jesus, Luke, I feel like I should be asking you that.”

  “We’re fine, just…”

  “We’re scared, Ari,” Jordan said quietly. “Look, the guys you’re with.” He paused. “Do you trust them?”

  “Yes.”

  I didn’t even think before the word came out, but it was true — utterly and completely.

  “No hesitation,” Jordan mused. “I like it.”

  “Look, I know they’re your competitors, but trust me when I—”

  Luke barked out a laugh. “We don’t give a fuck about them being business rivals, Ari. The point is, you trust them, and that works for us. We only did a little research, but it seems they’re good men. And if you vouch for them—”

  “I do.”

  “Good,” Jordan finished. “Are they keeping you safe?”

  “Definitely.”

  “Look,” Luke whispered. “Truth be told, we’re going to break out of this fucking hotel and fly home right after we get off the phone with you. Fuck these guys. But you’re going to get there before us.”

  Jordan sighed. “Put the guys on speaker again.”

  I looked up at my three men, all staring at me with hurt and pain and fierceness in their faces. “They want to talk to you guys.”

  I put the phone on speaker.

  “Guys? We need to ask you something big—”

  “We’re already on it,” Hunter said evenly. “We’ve already got parts mobilizing on the ground for when we land.

  “Thank you, really,” Jordan said tensely. “Look, I don’t need to tell you—”

  “You don’t need to explain a thing, we understand more than you know,” Damien growled, looking right at me.

  “Do not let him hurt her,” Luke said, his voice almost breaking.

  “That’s not going to happen,” Sean said, looking right at me with the same intense look on his face as his two friends. “We swear it.”

  Chapter 14

  It felt like I was walking in a dream by the time we landed in the private airfield outside Albany in upstate New York. The magic of what I’d just experienced down on the island, the warmth and the swirling emotions — all of it was put aside for one thought.

  My best friend was in mortal danger.

  She had to be okay. She had to make it out of this okay, or I didn’t know what I’d do.

  Sean, Hunter, and Damien had spent most of the rest of the flight on the phone coordinating with Jordan and Luke, with at least one of them sitting by my side the whole time. And it was a comfort, but it wasn’t everything. I still felt like something horrible was going to happen - something even more horrible than what had already occurred.

  A black, military grade SUV was waiting for us as we quickly left the plane. The three of them walked to the back of the SUV and popped the trunk, making my eyes go wide at what was inside.

  Guns, mostly. Guns and an array of military looking tactical gear.

  “Is…” I bit my lip. “Whoa.”

  “Look, Arianna.” Hunter turned to me, his icy blue eyes flashing over me. “There are some things about our past you should—”

  “I told her,” Damien said quietly. Hunter and Sean turned to him, but he held his stern look. “I told her about us, about before the company.”

  The two other men stared at him, and for a moment, I could see emotions flare across all three of their faces. I understood then that Damien had acted alone in telling me about their military pasts, hinting at the horrors they’d seen and endured, and I was suddenly worried that having done so would drive a wedge between my three men.

  “Good.”

  Sean’s sudden and gruffly spoken word shattered that fear.

  “Good, I’m glad you told her.” He turned and smiled at me, nodding.

  “We, uh, we don’t talk about that much,” Hunter mumbled quietly, turning to me as well.

  “I didn’t think you did,” I said quietly, putting both hands out and resting them on Sean and Hunter’s forearms. “I’m glad Damien told me, for what it’s worth. I think I just…” I trailed off, not sure how to put it into words.

  “I like knowing you,” I finally said, looking at each of them in turn. “And you don’t have to worry, I’m not going to—”

  “We know,” Sean said with uncharacteristic softness. “We trust you, more than, well, more than we tend to trust pretty much anyone.”

  The sound of Damien chambering a round broke the silence.

  “I’d hate to break the moment, but—”

  “Right, we gotta roll,” Hunter said with a growl, whirling and grabbing a flak jacket from the trunk.

  I started to move towards the trunk as well, but Damien stopped me with a hand on my arm.

  “I think it’s best if you stay here, actually.”

  “The hell I am,” I shot back, my blood pounding at the thought of my best friend being held captive by her psychopath ex.

  A hint of a smile crossed Damien’s face. “Arianna—”

  “I’m coming, and that’s
final.”

  The other two turned, crossing arms over broad chests, eyeing me.

  Damien finally nodded. “Something told me you were going to insist.” He turned back to the trunk, grabbed a smaller armored jacket, and passed it to me.

  “You’re staying behind us,” Sean muttered. “That part is not up for discussion.”

  “Here,” Hunter said darkly. I turned as he pressed the grip of a gun into my hands. I shivered at the feel of cold metal in my palm.

  “I really think this is a terrible—”

  “I’m coming,” I said flashing a scowl at Sean before my look softened at what was clearly just huge concern on his face. I reached out and squeezed his hand. “I’ll stay behind you, I promise. But there’s no scenario where I don’t come with you.”

  Hunter nodded at the gun in my hands. “That’s a forty-five millimeter. Ever used one of these?”

  Right, like I’d held a gun before.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat, slowly shaking my head. Hunter nodded as he moved behind me and wrapped his arms alongside mine.

  “I got it,” I said breathlessly.

  I turned in his arms and kissed him, before turning again and doing the same with each of them, holding their equally passionate and yet wholly different kisses in turn.

  Hunter looked at the other three and nodded solemnly. “Alright then. Let’s roll.”

  Chapter 15

  The lodge was quiet, but I knew the silence was deceiving. I followed my three men through the footpath from the mountain road, the shadowy outline of Luke and Jordan’s lavish mountain retreat looming against the starlit sky.

  I felt a hand on the small of my back, and felt lips against my ear.

  Damien.

  “When I say hang back I mean hang way back, got it?”

  I nodded, shivering in the night air. “I got it.”

  “Nothing can happen to you, Ari,” he said softly, all of us stopping by the dark tree line.

  “I mean that.” He cupped my chin, raising it as he leaned in and kissed my mouth hard, as if to convey the things a hardened man like that couldn’t put into words.

  “If...” I pulled back, my face crumbling. “If something happens to Sasha, or the baby—”

  “It won’t,” Sean said quickly, shaking his head. He put a hand on my hip, rubbing me softly. “I promise.”

  He pulled me around as he kissed me then, different than Damien’s, but just as electric and just as passionate.

  I turned and grabbed Hunter by the shirt collar, kissing him and feeling the shiver run through me at the deeply masculine growl that rumbled in his throat.

  “Alright, let’s do this thing,” Sean said, nodding solemnly. “On my mark, we—”

  The sound of gunfire had us dropping to the ground, Hunter scrambling to cover me with his body as the tree-branches exploded like fireworks around us. The house suddenly lit up with floodlight, illuminating men in black with guns running out of various doors and from around the side of it, all converging on the thicket of trees we were in.

  “Now!” Damien roared, lunging to his feet with the gun in his hands blasting as he lurched out of the tree. Sean and Hunter exploded after him, roaring and laying down fire as they made a break for the house.

  The gun was like dead weight in my hands, and sweat suddenly broke out on my back. I could feel my heart pounding like a truck engine as I watched the scene unfold as if in slow motion. Sean, skidding to a stop behind a tree stump, his expression grim before he whirled around and squeezed off a few rounds into three men in black running towards him. They dropped to the ground, and Sean ducked back behind his cover as another fresh spray of lead raked the wood beside him.

  I could feel the cool of the gunmetal in my hot palm as I watched Hunter and Damien rush to cover him, hurdling over a fallen tree and bellowing like warriors as they rushed the group converging on Sean.

  Then it was chaos, like little vignettes flashing before my eyes. Sean jumping back up, and slamming his gun into the gut of one of the goons who’d tried to dash around his cover. Hunter dropping four more bad guys in cold-blooded precision. Damien roaring as something hit him in the arm, spinning him around and dropping him to a knee before he lurched back up, face a mask of rage as he shook off the hit and kept advancing.

  And for a second, it really looked like we were winning. The three men advanced steadily on the mountain lodge, and more and more goons fell under their honed skills. I made a move from the stand of trees where I’d been waiting, darting behind the men as they advanced on the big glass wall that faced the huge patio.

  “Behind us, Ari,” Hunter said breathless, his jaw tight and his gun trained on the glass door to the still-dark-inside house. “Stay—”

  “That’s far enough!”

  The lights suddenly kicked on behind the glass wall, illuminating the scene inside.

  And the whole world went cold and slow around me.

  There was Mark, an arm around Sasha’s throat and gun in his hand.

  A gun pointed right at her belly.

  Her face was drawn but, it wasn’t fear I saw etched across my friend’s face, it was defiant fury.

  Everything exploded in chaos after that. Damien and Hunter and Sean with guns drawn, roaring for Mark to drop his. Mark screaming back, a crazed, wild look in his eyes as he alternated between pointing the gun at Sasha and waving it them. I could still feel my blood pounding in my ears, the hair on the back of my neck prickling as the raw fear and fury of the moment blasted through me.

  The screaming was getting louder and louder, every single second feeling more and more tense until there was no way it couldn’t shatter.

  That’s when it all went dim around me.

  That’s when I suddenly tuned it all out, ignored all of it, and concentrated on one thing.

  I looked up, almost in slow motion, and locked eyes with my friend. I weighed the gun in my hand — cool, heavy, full of purpose. I squeezed it, running my thumb over the ridges of the grip and feeling my breath slow to a crawl. Everything around me slowed to nothing, the yelling and gun waving tuning out until it was just me, the gun in my hand, and my best friend.

  I looked up and locked eyes with her.

  She nodded.

  Sometimes you just have to jump in.

  I raised the gun in my hands, my fingers curling around it as I looked right at Sasha.

  “Jump,” her lips said silently.

  I pulled my eyes from her, locked them on Mark, centered the gun, and squeezed as hard as I could.

  The gun exploded in my hands, and for one quarter second, everything was frozen.

  And then just as suddenly, it roared back to full speed.

  I was dimly aware of the gun in Mark’s hand dropping to the ground as he seemed to fly backwards, his arms up in the air. I was aware of Damien, Hunter, and Sean lunging forward, the gun dropping from my own hands, and then my own voice screaming.

  Arms caught me, familiar, protective arms.

  Sasha.

  I fell into her, wrapping my arms around her as all the emotions poured out of me.

  It was over, and she was okay.

  We were all okay.

  Chapter 16

  “That was some damn good shooting, you know.”

  I turned to Hunter and smiled. “Thanks, I know.”

  The guys laughed warmly as I grinned at my own joke.

  We were back in New York City, cleaned up, exhausted, and just being together in closeness after what had happened. The glassed-in roof deck at the very top of the building that housed Camelot Holdings was dimmed, with only the lights of the city illuminating us all.

  Luke and Jordan had in fact broken out of their “house arrest” hotel and flown back home. Sasha was safe and sound back with them, and an immediate doctor’s visit had confirmed that the baby was just fine. All pending interest in her two men being involved in her kidnapping was obviously dropped.

  Mark was in critical condition, but al
ive. I’d apparently hit a one in a thousand shot of hitting him in the chest but missing his heart. We’d been told he was currently in the ICU coming out of surgery.

  There were plans to arrest him the second he came to, and this time, they were going to throw the book at him.

  “You seriously pulled out a shot like that on your first try?” Sean raised a brow at me.

  “Beginner’s luck?” I shook my head, looking into my glass of champagne. “I knew I couldn’t miss.”

  Hunter grinned, leaning over to kiss the top of my head.

  “So, that was interesting as first dates go.”

  I laughed along with the other two. “Well, why don’t we call it a second and third as well.”

  “And what does that mean?” he grinned.

  “It means I think I like you guys,” I said quietly.

  “Yeah?”

  “It also means I quit.”

  “What? No way!” Damien’s jaw dropped.

  “I am not going to be your secretary,” I said sharply.

  “Bodyguard, then?”

  The guys cracked up as I turned and punched Sean in the arm.

  “Hey! I’m just saying, with a dead-eye like that, we could probably use you,” he grinned.

  “We’ll figure something out,” Hunter said evenly. “As long as you stay with us.” His eyes locked on mine. “And I mean it, with all of us.”

  “I—”

  And right there, sitting with them with the gorgeous view of the city behind us, I knew I wouldn’t be able choose one even if I wanted to.

  “I feel like this is one unit, like we all work together as one.”

  “We do too,” Damien said softly.

  “I want this,” I said, nodding at each of them in turn. “And this is crazy, I know, but—”

  Damien’s lips cut me off, pressing hotly to mine.

  “Life is crazy, Ari. That’s why you hang on to what’s good.”

  I kissed him back, moaning into his mouth as I felt hands move over my back, another pair on my thighs. The kiss broke, and Hunter brought my face around to kiss me forcefully, making me shiver at his strong touch.