by Terry Spear
Marek stared at her, and she felt a shiver steal up her spine. As if Brock knew she was afraid of the wolf, he ran his hand down her back in a reassuring manner. She appreciated it. The wolf looked down at the bag and eyed it with hard speculation. He no doubt could hear her wildly beating heart, just as Brock surely could. And he had to know their bags looked so similar that it would have been easy to grab the wrong one.
Brock seized her bag’s handle and rolled it out for her, and they headed for the doors that led to the parking lot.
Marek came after them. “Hold up for a minute.”
Natalie wanted to ignore him and keep going, hating confrontation, especially with a male wolf who had already been so belligerent. She had to deal with complaints at their nursery because her parents hated dealing with dissatisfied customers even more than she did, but their customers weren’t criminals.
To her surprise, Brock wheeled around and said, “Yeah?”
She expected Brock to be all growly and angry because Marek was in the business of dealing in illegal money. But Brock managed a pleasant smile, which threw her and the guy off.
To Natalie, Marek said, “Your bag looks just like mine. Same color, same twenty-six-inch size. You were on the same flight as me earlier. How come you’re just now getting your bag? Did you grab mine by mistake? And where’s mine now?” He was growly.
“Not that I owe you an explanation for anything, but since I’m a nice person, I’ll tell you why. I was running late because my flight was delayed. Some drunken wolf had to be removed from the plane. Which meant I totally forgot my bag when I reached Denver. I didn’t even remember it until after we ate lunch, and I was going to give my friend her wedding gift. No bag, no gift.”
Marek didn’t look like he believed her.
She took hold of Brock’s free hand and pulled at him. “Come on, honey. We need to get back to the celebration.”
Brock looked down at her and smiled and squeezed her hand.
She felt her face flush with heat. She hadn’t dated in more than two years, and she had to admit Brock was total hotness.
The last guy she’d gotten close to had turned out to be using her. He’d wanted to get insight on her parents’ successful garden nursery in Wichita Falls so that he could start his franchise garden shop and get rid of his competition. After she figured that out, she’d had trouble trusting men’s motives, though she hadn’t met any eligible wolves in Amarillo after their move there. She hated feeling that way, but it only took one lousy rat to prove not everyone could be trusted. She’d felt so bad because her parents had suffered too, not just her.
She heard footsteps behind her and was worried that the wolf was following them.
“Don’t worry about it,” Brock whispered in her ear, then pulled her to a stop and kissed her, turning their bodies so he could see who was following them. Still, he got into the kiss, as if he really was her honey.
Well, she was totally into going along with the game, since she’d started this anyway. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into the kiss, tonguing him as his body pressed against hers. Hard muscle and the stirring of an arousal. She almost laughed at turning him on so quickly, but that would have ruined the ruse.
Their pheromones were zinging all over the place, calling for more, and she was surprised at the intensity of the intrigue between the two of them.
He smiled at her, almost looking a little sheepish, his eyes a bit glazed. Then he pulled her away to walk to the Humvee. She was dying to know if he saw Marek behind them, but if the other wolf was following them, he hadn’t walked past them when they’d stopped to kiss.
Brock slipped his arm around her as they walked to an elevator and got on and pushed the button for the second floor. She didn’t say a word, thinking Brock was going to the wrong floor so the guy wouldn’t learn what he was driving. And what his license plate number was. When the elevator opened on two, Brock punched the button for the third floor. When they reached that floor, he pushed one.
He smiled roguishly down at her. Natalie chuckled. She really didn’t believe it would work, but if the guy was trying to follow them, he’d be running up and down the stairs. When they reached their floor, they headed for their row and soon were in the Humvee and on their way. She was trying to see if the guy had figured out which vehicle Brock was driving. She noticed Brock glancing in his rearview mirror too.
“Do you think he’ll suspect something more since we were trying to evade him?” she asked, worried that it might have been a little obvious.
“He already suspected you took his bag. I was trying to prevent him from learning who I am and where I live. Which would mean he might follow you there too. That’s a lot of money to lose. He wouldn’t know I’m with a pack here or anything about me. So he doesn’t know the kind of danger he could face if he followed us out there. More than anything, I worry about you and when you need to go home. He won’t know your address or name unless he tries to follow you home, and that could be a problem.”
She hadn’t had anyone but her parents to worry about her in a long time, so she really thought the world of Brock for caring. “But I won’t have Marek’s money. Not after we burn it tonight.”
“He won’t know that. And he’d probably figure it would be easier to get the truth out of a lone woman than it would be when you have me at your side. If he didn’t make it to our parking garage level and see my vehicle and the license plate, he might hang around the airport, thinking you’ll be going to Amarillo soon.”
“Great.”
“Well, if he does come after you here, he’ll be one sorry wolf.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have tried to lose him.”
“Oh, I’ll go after him. He’s made the mistake of coming here. I’ve got his name, his scent, and I’ll run a check on him. As long as that’s his real name, I can run him down. I’ll definitely be escorting you to the airport when you leave and be watching out for the guy.”
“Right. You’re a PI. I keep forgetting. Do you ever do bodyguard work?” She never thought she’d be asking a perfect stranger if she could hire him as her bodyguard until this was resolved. But she didn’t want to bring this business home with her and get her parents into the middle of it without having some additional protection.
Brock smiled at her. “In the line of duty as a SEAL, yeah. As a civilian, not yet. But I’m up for hire for anything you might need.”
Anything? Lighting her fire further? She felt she needed to fan herself.
“God, I can’t believe I just came to a wedding and found I have to hire a bodyguard. I will never, ever again grab a bag at the airport baggage claim without checking the name tag on it first. My concern is when I leave here, he might have people watching for me on my return to Amarillo. They won’t know my name, but he could send a description. Then my parents could be at risk, if the criminal followed me home. I’m not into all this cloak-and-dagger stuff. So I don’t know what to expect.”
“Can you hang out here in Greystoke a while longer? You’d have tons of protection from the pack. And there are all kinds of things to do. Too late for skiing, but you can ride your first horse. Or I could drive you home, and you could avoid the airport altogether. It’s only about a six-and-a-half-hour drive from Denver to Amarillo.”
“Driving would be fine. I had so much work to do before I got here that I didn’t have time to drive, or I would have driven here instead of flying. Are you sure you don’t mind? You don’t have another job to do?”
“No, I’m free. I just finished up a case a few days ago. And anything criminal that affects the pack means I’ll be working on it right away. Why did this guy come to Denver? We have to know if he’s got wolf cohorts here and what else is going on. Are they working in Amarillo too?”
“I guess I should ask how much this is going to cost me to hire you as a bodyguard.”
�
�Oh, I’ll do it for free. This is personal.”
“Thanks.” Natalie really didn’t know what else to say. She thought the world of him for wanting to help her like this. She’d never known any man who would do so much for her when he wasn’t expecting anything back. But she wasn’t going to let him do all this for free. “How much do you make as a PI per hour?”
He glanced at her. “Seriously, I don’t need you to pay me anything.”
She let out her breath. She would pay him for his time. It was only fair. She’d just ask Vaughn or Jillian, who had both been PIs, what they charged. They would know what Brock charged for his services too. Well, for that matter, she could just do a Google search. She pulled out her phone and looked it up. Between forty to a hundred per hour, plus expenses. That was highway robbery! Okay, okay, so she was still paying him. That was seven hours of travel to her home and back for him. So fourteen hours of his time. And the average was around fifty dollars, so if she couldn’t find out his real charges, she’d just pay him the average. Unless he was under fire. Then she’d pay him more.
She frowned. Maybe she should be paying him for bodyguard services instead of PI services. She Googled that. Twenty-five to a hundred dollars per hour. She sighed.
He glanced at her phone and chuckled. “You’re not paying me. You can buy me a nice meal on the road, if you feel you owe me something. Fix me dinner, let me stay the night, and I’ll go back early the next morning. Unless there’s trouble and I’ll stay longer.”
“All right.” But she wanted to do more than that.
To her surprise, when they arrived back at the ranch house, he told Angie that Natalie had hired him as her personal bodyguard, and he had to stay with her the rest of the night.
Angie gave her a big hug. “He’ll protect you with his life.”
Natalie smiled. “I doubt it will come to that.” She opened her bag and pulled out her gift to Angie and Aaron.
“I won’t be staying in your room, of course. I’ll just sleep on the couch. Unless you want me to stay with you,” Brock said to Natalie.
She chuckled. “No, I’m sure you sleeping on the couch will be more than enough protection.”
“This really isn’t that serious, is it?” Bella asked. As pack leader with her mate, she or he had to let the whole pack know if they were going to have trouble.
“We do need to let everyone know about it,” Brock said.
“Maybe Vaughn and I should go with you when you go home,” Jillian said, sounding worried.
“Oh no, this guy probably won’t learn where my home is, if they’re even watching for me at the airport in Amarillo. He might think I live here and was just on a trip out there. If he didn’t wonder why I’d buy a wedding present for my friend in Amarillo. But hey, why not? I could have been out there and found the perfect wedding gift for her. I should have told him I was going home. In any event, I can only afford to have one bodyguard.” Natalie was still going to pay him to drive her home, but she didn’t see any reason to pay him if he took it upon himself to sleep on the couch here. She was sure he wouldn’t accept payment for that. But the trip to Amarillo would be the real inconvenience for him.
Jillian glanced at Brock, looking horrified.
He quickly held up his hands in defense. “I’m not charging her. I already told her so. She’s going to fix me dinner, and I’ll sleep over—”
The ladies all smiled.
“—before I return on the trip home,” he quickly added, frowning at Jillian and then at Natalie as if to say she’d better not even think of offering to pay him again.
“Okay, well, if you change your minds, we’re off for a couple more days before we have another mission,” Jillian said.
“We’ve even talked of her staying here a couple of extra days, just so she loses this guy,” Brock said.
“And you’ll be her bodyguard the whole time?” Bella asked. “Otherwise I’m sure there are others in the pack who would be eager to make sure she’s protected.”
“Yeah. After I drop her off at home, if everything appears all right, I’ll come home.”
“Do you want me to open my present now?” Angie asked, looking as though it killed her not to see what was inside the wrapped package.
“Yeah, sure, go ahead,” Natalie said.
Angie unwrapped it and smiled at a round wooden box with four cheese-cutting utensils inside, the top of the box engraved with their names and two howling wolves standing together. “Ohmigod, this is just beautiful! I’ll have to have it on display.”
“I’m sure glad you like it. I wanted to get you something really unique.”
“I do. It’s beautiful.”
Someone knocked on the door, and Brock went to investigate.
“The guys must have heard you arrive,” Bella said. “I told them about the money. Everyone was waiting to hear how it went with the suitcase at the airport.”
Vaughn was at the door. “Hey, we heard you come in. We’re ready for the bonfire if you are.”
“Yeah, we’ll join you,” Angie said, the women all having changed into jeans and T-shirts while Natalie and Brock were gone.
“I’ll run up and change,” Natalie said.
Brock immediately carried her bags up to her room. He set them on the floor and hesitated to leave, as if he was waiting for her to do or say something.
“Thanks again.” She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him again. She didn’t know what had come over her, except that she was so grateful to him for everything. And it seemed so natural between them. Maybe it was to see if their pheromones would react in the same wildly passionate manner as before. Maybe it was because just saying thank you again didn’t seem to be enough.
He kissed her right back, his arms wrapped around her, proving he wasn’t the least bit adverse to showing her more affection. “You know this is so not a good idea.”
She smiled up at him. “Yeah, I know. Felt good though, didn’t it?”
“Hell yeah. See you downstairs.” He rubbed her arm, then turned and headed out of the room.
Wow. That was all she could think. Just. Wow.
She quickly slipped out of her heels and dress and pulled out a pair of jeans, sneakers, and a shirt. Once she was dressed, she headed downstairs to find Brock waiting for her. Her bodyguard.
“You take your job to heart.”
“Always.”
They joined the others, who were all waiting for them at the firepit since it was Natalie’s “money.”
The wood had already started burning, while the suitcase full of fake money was sitting on a chair.
Devlyn opened the suitcase and tested one of the bills with a pen, just for the heck of it. “We have these pens at our leather goods store, one of the outlets for our leather goods factory. Sure enough, the money looks like the real thing, paper-wise. We have a UV-light counterfeit detector too. A five-dollar bill will have a security strip that glows blue. If it’s a hundred-dollar bill, the line will glow red; a twenty, green. If they used a five-dollar bill, removed the ink, and then printed a hundred on it—”
“It would glow blue,” Natalie said. “That’s cool. Sounds like something we should get for the garden center.”
Everyone was gathered around the firepit, which was great for having s’mores and roasting marshmallows.
“Well, I didn’t expect to be doing this right before the wedding—roasting s’mores over fake money—but I’ll always remember it. I never expected you to bring the perfect game to the party, Natalie. Forget movies.” Angie tucked her roasted marshmallow on top of the chocolate bar sitting on the graham cracker, then topped it with another graham cracker and bit into her s’more.
Aaron sat beside her and kissed her cheek. “You never told me how much excitement your friend could bring to a party.”
Taking a deep breath, Natalie hoped th
is mess wouldn’t cause real problems for any of them.
Chapter 4
It was about five when Shawn and Vaughn brought out the ingredients for taco dogs: Mexican chorizo, pico de gallo, and shredded lettuce with melted Mexican cheese, as well as hot dogs, cheese, buns, and condiments for the party, wanting something more substantial to roast over the fake-money bonfire than marshmallows.
In the meantime, Brock and Natalie were telling the pack about running into the man at the airport’s baggage claim. Brock hadn’t planned to tell about the elevator ruse, but he was glad to see Natalie feeling more comfortable with the pack and everyone laughing about what he had pulled off. They were drinking beer while his brother started roasting hot dogs, although others just stuck to the sweeter stuff.
“I’ve never been with a tactically trained guy who’s good at evasion. I’m not sure what I would have done if I’d been alone. Probably walked back inside the building and tried to lose him there. So I was glad Brock was with me,” Natalie said.
Vaughn was smiling at Natalie, and then he raised his brows at Brock. Brock hadn’t changed his mind about her. He was a sucker for offering assistance to a woman who needed extra protection. He definitely wasn’t looking at this as a possible courting. He was damn glad Natalie didn’t tell about their kissing each other to throw the wolf off. Though he figured staying in the house longer with her might have led to some gossip.
When it came to males interested in a single she-wolf, gossip was a natural consequence.
“Well”—Natalie paused to sip some of a rum toddy—“we suggested we were close friends, so he might believe I had come back home here and that I wasn’t from Amarillo. I really should have said something to that effect. You know, like ‘I’m so glad to be home!’ But I didn’t think of it until it was too late.”
Angie was eyeing Natalie with speculation, but she only smiled and didn’t say anything, thankfully. Brock figured she knew her friend well enough to realize something more had happened between him and Natalie. He thought about the remarkable kiss they’d shared and how he really hadn’t wanted to end it. Even now, his gaze drifted to her soft mouth, parted in conversation, her easy smile, and again he thought of kissing her.