Holding Mia

by Terri Anne Browning

  “Will you at least tell me if it’s dangerous or not?” she finally whispered.

  Unbuckling my seat belt and hers, I grabbed her and pulled her onto my lap. Her ass hit the steering wheel as she straddled me, and like it always did whenever she touched me in any way, my body instantly responded. Those big green eyes I loved more than life filled with hunger, and it took everything inside me not to unfasten my jeans and tear her leggings away so I could sink balls deep into her tight heat.

  “It’s not dangerous, I swear. This is just a meeting. If it weren’t important, I would be walking on to that plane with you right now. I hate that we’re going to be away from each other until Sunday. It’s killing me. But I have to do this.”

  For a single heartbeat, her chin trembled and my sanity began to claw at the inside of my skull. But then her face cleared, and she nodded. “Just be careful.” Reaching for the door handle, she opened it and climbed out.

  From the back seat, Braxton took that as his cue, and he got out with her. Opening the rear, he pulled out both their cases, and I hit the steering wheel. I owed Braxton a hell of a lot, especially for covering for me this weekend so Mia wouldn’t miss out on her time with her cousin and she wouldn’t be around for this meeting.

  If she got so much as a hint of what this meeting was really about, she would leave me. I wouldn’t let that happen, though.

  Falling in love with Mia wasn’t part of the plan. I was risking a hell of a lot because of it, but I was in too deep to care what the client said at this point. There was no fucking way I was letting her go, and I didn’t care who I had to take on to make sure I didn’t lose her.

  Mia started toward the stairs, but I couldn’t let her leave without one more kiss. Jumping out, I jogged after her. “Firecracker,” I called and she turned.

  Seeing the pain in those big eyes of hers, I nearly fell to my knees at her feet. Instead, I wrapped my arms around her tiny waist and lifted her up until our mouths melded together.

  She kissed me back hungrily, her fingers thrusting into my hair as my tongue took possession of her mouth. I tried to put everything I felt for her into that kiss, silently promising her all the things I knew I could never speak aloud.

  When I drew back enough to let her breathe, I pressed my forehead to hers. “Have fun. Don’t do anything reckless. Listen to Braxton. And most important…” I breathed in deeply, taking her scent inside me. “Miss me.”

  “Idiot,” she muttered with a laugh, shaking her head at me. “I already miss you.”

  “Mia!”

  She squealed and jumped out of my arms. “I gotta go. See you Sunday!” she called as she ran up the stairs and threw her arms around the beautiful girl standing at the top waiting for her.

  Laughing, they hugged like they hadn’t seen each other in years. “About time you got here!” Nevaeh Stevenson scolded with a grin.

  “Hey, hooch. I had to work.” Linking her arm through her cousin’s, Mia paused at the door and blew me a kiss before entering the jet.

  Braxton was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Both cases still in his hands, he had his eyes glued to where both girls had just disappeared. I walked over to him. “Thanks for this,” I told him for the hundredth time since he’d offered to go with Mia to New York. “I owe you one.”

  “Yeah, you fucking do,” he snarled, turning on me like a caged animal. “This shit is getting old. I’m tired of lying and hiding everything from her. Deal with it so we don’t have to sneak around.”

  I scrubbed my hands over my beard. “I’m trying. I really fucked up. But I swear to you, Brax. I’m trying to make it right.”

  “Apparently not hard enough, or you wouldn’t have to disappoint her this weekend.”

  “I’ll make it up to her,” I assured him.

  I waited until he was up the stairs and inside the jet before walking back to my Jeep. As I drove away, I couldn’t help looking back in the rearview mirror, and I tightened my hands around the wheel.

  I would make this up to her. This, and all the other shit I was keeping from her, I’d make it right.

  Somehow.

  --

  I drove into Georgetown and pulled up outside the Ritz-Carlton with barely five minutes to spare before my meeting was supposed to start. Driving Mia and Braxton to the airport had eaten up a lot of my time that evening, but there was no way in hell I wasn’t seeing my girl off personally.

  Tossing the keys to the valet, I jogged in and went straight to the elevators. Punching the button for the top floor, I waited impatiently for the doors to close on me and the other six people in the metal box.

  When the doors finally opened for the penthouse suite, I straightened my black button-up and hit the doorbell. Seconds later, a bald man who was just as tall as I was, dressed in faded old jeans and a Demon’s Wings T-shirt, opened the door.

  Jesse Thornton thrust his hand forward. “You’re Seller’s stepson?”

  Gritting my teeth, I nodded. “That’s me. Nice to meet you, Mr. Thornton.”

  “Call me Jesse.” Grinning, he stepped back, waving me in. “Come meet the rest of my brothers.”

  Walking into the living room of the suite, I saw three other men sitting around watching ESPN. I took a second to assess them. The two on the couch I knew were biological brothers, Drake and Shane Stevenson. They looked so much alike, even with Drake’s long, dark hair and Shane’s buzzed short, that they could have been mistaken for twins at first glance.

  Drake was Nevaeh’s father, but he also had three other daughters and a son with his wife, Lana. Shane was married to the owner and editor of one of the biggest magazines in five countries, Harper Stevenson, and had a daughter and a son.

  The man sitting in a chair across from the other two stood, pulling my attention straight to him, and I forced myself not to tense. He was the reason I was there.

  It was because of him I was keeping so much shit from the woman I loved.

  Nik Armstrong stepped forward, holding out his hand. “Charles Barrick?”

  I nodded, shaking his hand. “Mr. Armstrong.”

  “How is she?” were the next words out of his mouth.

  “She’s good, sir. I just put her on Mr. Steel’s jet to New York with your niece, and she seemed excited to see her cousin.”

  “You have someone with her?” He motioned for me to sit. “Cole is a good guy, don’t get me wrong. But he’s old as fuck and lets the girls get away with shit that will get them into trouble.”

  I took the other couch and sat forward, giving him my full attention. “My cousin is an operative too. He’s with them, and I assure you neither will be let out of his sight the entire weekend.”

  Armstrong nodded. “Good, good.”

  “The bigger concern we have,” Thornton said as he sat on the other end of the same couch I sat on, “is that Mia doesn’t suspect anything.”

  “She doesn’t. Between me and my cousins, we have eyes on her all hours of the day and night.”

  “The other cousin, that’s the roommate?” Shane asked with raised brows.

  “Yes, sir. Lyla is one of the best. I would trust her with my life. She and Mia have become fairly close over the past weeks.” And she hated lying to Mia about her role in all this shit just as much as Braxton did. Just as fucking much as I did.

  “Just out of curiosity, how exactly are you staying so close to Mia without her suspecting anything?” Drake asked, his blue-gray eyes drilling into me.

  I clenched my jaw but looked Mia’s father straight in the eye. “Seller told me none of you were opposed to me getting close to her. I assumed that meant you didn’t object to me dating her.”

  My stepdad had also told me Mia’s mom knew nothing about what these four had come to him to ask. He wasn’t even charging them for it, even though I was still getting paid. Apparently, he still felt guilty after Mia got kidnapped not once, but twice while on his watch.

  I wondered how Mia’s m
om would react to finding out her husband and brothers went behind her back. Mia said her mother was a hothead, and I could easily imagine it if it was anything like how pissy Mia got at times. To me, that was adorable when it came to her, but I’d heard horror stories about Emmie Armstrong making grown men cry.

  Armstrong blew out a heavy sigh, but he nodded his confirmation. “If she’s happy dating you, then no, I’m not against it. All I want is to ensure she’s safe.”

  Some of the tension began to leave my muscles, and without looking away from the man, I told him the truth. “I want you to know, this isn’t about the job for me. In the beginning, I took it because Seller left me no choice. From the time I found out about the assignment until the day I met Mia, I hated my stepfather for putting this off on me. But the second I met your daughter, everything changed for me. I love her, sir.”

  “Of course you do,” he said with a laugh, not even the least bit surprised. “It’s hard not to love that girl.”

  “No, sir. You don’t understand. I’m in love with her.”

  That had the laugh drying up, and his face tensed for all of a second before he blew out a heavy sigh. “You were honest with me. Now I’m going to be honest with you, son.” As he leaned forward, the look on his face changed to something darker. “I went to Seller for help because Mia’s mom was going to let her have her way no matter what I said or did. But Seller had his own motives for choosing you. He could have picked anyone. He has staff younger than you, who could have blended in and never made themselves known. Yet he picked you. Why was that?”

  I gritted my teeth, but I shrugged. “Because he’s a bastard who wanted to make my life a living hell?”

  “No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Because after we talked, we decided this was the best fit for both of you. I know my daughter, and whether you want to admit it or not, Seller knows you. We suspected the two of you would hit it off, and even if you didn’t, there was always that cousin of yours—Braxton? Yeah, I’ve seen pictures of him too. He would have been my second choice after you.”

  “Choice for what?” I demanded, pissed at the idea of Mia with my cousin. I knew there was nothing between them. They acted like brother and sister so much, it was hilarious. But more than that, Mia was good for Braxton. He hadn’t had nearly as many mood swings since she’d come into our lives, and when he did, they didn’t last long. Brax smiled more these days, laughed so much it was like the old times, before he’d lost his leg.

  “Look, I know Mia is technically an adult now, but I can’t sleep at night thinking of her out in the world all by herself. Anything could happen to her. Fucking anything. And it drives me crazy just imagining all those things. I nearly lost her, son. Twice. No father should ever have to face that kind of loss, and I can’t let that happen again. She needs someone in her life who can and will take care of her like I have all these years. Someone capable of handling her sassiness. And yes, at times, her pure bitchiness. I think that is you, Barrick.” His clear blue eyes bored into me, trying to see beneath the surface and straight into my soul. “I’ve hoped, at least.”

  Chapter 14

  Mia

  Cole Steel could have been sixty—he wasn’t, but he could have passed for it—or he could have been ninety. I wasn’t really sure how old he was, but it was somewhere in between. I doubted anyone really knew his age, even him half the time.

  Even at his age, he was a good-looking man. A silver fox, as Momma had called him plenty of times. Women of every age acted like they wanted to hump his leg, and many of them did if given the chance. It was sick and pathetic the way they clawed and begged and cried whenever a horde of chicks saw him.

  One such horde was waiting outside the hotel when the limo pulled up in front of it. Cole had two members of his own security to help us through the pack of wild beasts, holding the crowd back. Braxton was on edge until we made it into the hotel, but it wasn’t until we got up to the huge presidential suite that he finally started to relax.

  “I’ve got a party I need to get to, pretty girl,” Cole told Nevaeh not two minutes after we got settled. “Order room service. Order a movie. Do whatever you want, but do not leave this suite.”

  Nevaeh blinked up at him behind her huge glasses. “Okay, PopPop,” she said with a smile. “Have fun. Will we see you for breakfast?”

  “Probably not,” he said with a shudder. Mornings were not Cole’s thing. “You three be good if you go sight-seeing. Take security with you, or your mom will skin me alive. And your dad will hold me down while she does it. We’ll leave for the event tomorrow night at six.”

  “Okay. Goodnight.”

  “Night, pretty girl.” He kissed the top of her head, hugged me, then threw a salute at Braxton on his way out the door.

  As soon as the door was closed behind him, Nevaeh had the phone in her hand. “What do you two want to eat? I was thinking pizza, steak, burgers, and every dessert on the menu.”

  “Yes, please!” I laughed as I flopped down on the couch beside Braxton.

  “Brax, what do you want on your pizza?” Nevaeh asked.

  “Whatever. I’m not picky.” He was playing with his phone, not even looking at her, something he hadn’t done much of since we’d gotten on the plane back in Virginia.

  It was like it was impossible for him to look right at her, and I found it beyond weird. He normally met a person’s gaze every time he spoke to them, giving them his full attention. Yet when he did that to Nev, he reacted as if he were in physical pain.

  I loved Braxton, but if he hurt Nevaeh’s feelings, I was going to kick his ass.

  “Pickles and anchovies, it is, then,” she said tartly, standing there eyeballing him like she wanted to stab him in the throat with a fork.

  His head snapped up, and she wasn’t quick enough to hide what she was thinking. Pink filled her cheeks, but she didn’t look away from him. Instead, she just smirked when his jaw dropped, and then he laughed.

  “Okay, I’m sorry,” he said as he tossed his phone onto the couch between us. “I will eat anything on my pizza with the exception of pickles and anchovies. Anything else, please.”

  While she ordered us enough food to feed an army, I grabbed my phone. I’d sent Barrick a message when we’d landed, along with one to my mom and another to my dad.

  I still hadn’t gotten a reply from Barrick about my earlier message assuring him we’d landed and were on our way to the hotel. I hadn’t heard from Daddy either, but Momma had replied almost immediately, telling me to have a good time with Nevaeh.

  I felt a little bad about this trip since Daddy was in Georgetown with the other Demons to promote their new album that was about to come out, but he’d told me not to worry about it. Which made me wonder if I was going to see him soon anyway with my birthday coming up.

  Momma was back in California with Jagger, who was doing some young celebrity cameo on a popular kids’ show. He was really eating up his new fame from his and Cannon Cage’s music career. Not that I could blame him. I’d eaten up my own fame in the dance world when I was at the top. I hadn’t let it go to my head, though. Momma would have thrown a fit if I’d done that.

  Me: Hope your meeting went well. About to eat my weight in room service food. Brax is being weird with Nev. Just FYI…I might punch him in the balls if he doesn’t start acting like himself. Miss you. xo

  The message went unread, and I tossed my phone aside, disgusted with myself for caring that he wasn’t watching his phone as anxiously as I was just to have some kind of contact with him.

  Hanging up the phone, Nevaeh walked over to the minifridge and grabbed us each a drink since it was already stocked. As she sat down beside me, her phone rang and she made a face, but her eyes lit up with love. “It’s Daddy,” she muttered. “He can’t go ten minutes without checking in.”

  I snatched the phone out of her hand and answered it with a grin. “Hey!” I greeted Uncle Drake. “I kinda miss you.”

  H
is deep chuckle was music to my ears. “I kinda miss you too, kid. How was your flight?”

  “Cole snored the whole way from Virginia. I told him he should see a doctor about it, but he said his snoring helps keep his voice hoarse.” I rolled my eyes.

  “Yeah, Angel says the same thing whenever he falls asleep on our couch. What’s my girl doing? You two getting into trouble?”

  “Not yet. Figured we would hold off until tomorrow on that kind of fun. Right now, we’re about to pig out on room service food. What about you? Causing trouble with my dad? Uncle Shane climbing the walls yet because Harper isn’t there?”

  “Getting there,” he said tiredly. “I’m ready for this weekend to be over, myself.”

  I heard voices in the background, and my heart ached from missing my family. They were low, but I could pick out Uncle Jesse’s voice, then Uncle Shane’s laugh. Daddy’s followed…

  Then one more.

  One that had the small hairs on my body standing to attention because I knew that laugh. It was one I would recognize anywhere.

  But it didn’t make sense. Why would Barrick be with my dad and uncles?

  Breathing in slowly, I asked my uncle to hold on a second. Before he could comment, I hit the mute button and looked straight at Braxton. “Who is Barrick’s meeting with?”

  He shrugged. “No clue.”

  “Liar,” I whispered and jumped to my feet so I could glare down at him. “What the fuck is going on?”

  A vein began to pulse in his neck, but other than that, he gave no outward sign that he was upset. That vein, though, that was plenty enough for me to know that something was definitely going on.

  “Mia, I don’t know. He didn’t tell me anything about his meeting.”

  “Yeah, right,” I said with a roll of my eyes. But I wasn’t in the mood to be lied to. Unmuting the call, I hit the speakerphone. “Uncle Drake?” I greeted in a sugary-sweet voice.