by Casey Hagen
The doc’s face contorted with disgust.
He’d never lay his hands on a woman. It would never occur to him that he had any right. He’d be gentle…maddeningly so. Like the way he started a kiss.
She’d always chased the heat, the flash, the rush of fire, but at thirty, tarnish marred the chase, the thrill.
Slow burns were so much sweeter.
“He hit me hard. The sound—I didn’t realize how loud a hit really was. Then I thought it was only loud to me, you know. My head snapped to the side, my eyes landing on my little girl…my little girl who hadn’t stopped giggling and reaching for the keys. Everything in my world changed that night. I found out my husband was cheating on me; it was the first of many times he would hit me, and I had my first sign that my little girl was deaf.”
“Laramie,” Lucas said, her name breaking on his lips.
“You would think that would be the worst of it, right? But no. The next day, I made sure Jackson was at work, and I went back to that apartment. Turns out she wasn’t the only one he was intimate with. Not even the only one in that apartment complex. He had fourteen women there. Fourteen women he was paying all the bills for. Fourteen women he was fucking so he could sell his own babies to the highest bidder. It got a little too complicated having to charm destitute women so he bought them. He was keeping them, housing them, and impregnating them for his own monetary gain.”
Dylan dragged his palms down his face. “Jesus.”
“Why didn’t you leave?” Lucas asked.
“I tried. I knew what he would say. He’d threaten to take Harmony. To adopt her out. Sure enough, he said he’d frame me for drugs, make sure I never see her again. And he just couldn’t handle being a single dad so no one would fault him for giving Harmony a family who could love her.”
The knock on the door made her jump, and the door cracked open. “Are we interrupting?” Angela asked, peeking in.
“Not at all,” Laramie said, smiling at the woman who’d done so much work to not only make her little girl feel safe, but in a short amount of time, she’d done a remarkable job of developing Harmony’s sign language skills.
“She just wanted to see her mama, and I knew you were in between physical therapy sessions so I thought we’d stop in.”
“Sure,” she said, winking at her daughter. “What do you say if she has lunch with me, and I can meet you in the gym after?”
“Perfect. Gentlemen,” Angela said before kneeling down and saying goodbye to Harmony.
Lucas watched her leave. “Maybe we should wait for another time to finish this.”
Harmony lifted her arms, and Laramie picked her up. So much harder than before, her arms shook with the excursion, but she managed to get Harmony situated on her lap.
“Lucas, she’s deaf. She’s not going to hear anything.” She glanced down and told her daughter that she loved her and that she was almost done talking to the adults.
Harmony pressed a kiss to her palm and flattened her little hand against Laramie’s, and her heart lightened just a little.
Then Harmony kissed her other hand and held it up for the doc.
He stared down at her, some internal war within himself, but finally held his large hand up so she could press a kiss to his as well.
Laramie’s breath caught, and she blinked back tears. Harmony had never trusted a man. Laramie thought she had done so well protecting Harmony from the worst of the abuse, but over time it became more and more clear how astute her little girl was and just how much it changed the way she saw the adults in her world.
And she trusted the doc.
Harmony held on to both of them, and Laramie cleared her throat. “Uh, so when he threatened to adopt her out, I was ready. I had paperwork from the doctor that confirmed she was deaf. Makes it a little hard to just adopt her out if you can’t find someone willing to deal with that.”
“Go on,” Lucas said, his expression a little bit less unyielding than before when he glanced over at the doc.
“He said there’s always someone willing to pay for a baby. Deaf or not. The market for little girls wasn’t just for infertile couples.” She swallowed back the biscuit from earlier that bubbled in her throat. The threat was still very much alive and able to suck the air right from her lungs the minute she thought about it. “That there were men who would have a good use for her, especially if she couldn’t communicate.”
“Enough,” the doc said from beside her, his voice cold and lethal. Unlike anything she could have imagined coming from him. They said he was a former SEAL, and it wasn’t until this moment that she witnessed the first signs of it coming to life.
“And that was going to be the basis of your testimony?” Dylan asked, his face pale and taut.
“That,” she said as she smoothed her fingers through Harmony’s dark hair and kissed her forehead. “And I have the women.”
All three men stiffened and cast weary glances at one another.
“What do you mean you have the women?” Lucas asked.
“The problem with Jackson is he loves money, but he’s not the best at tracking it. So over the course of the next three years, I pulled money out a piece at a time until I had enough to make eleven of them willing to speak out disappear. Since they were all from the same complex, he figured they all just started talking and agreed they were done and abandoned their tainted sugar daddy. What he didn’t realize was that I secured a place to house them all and protect them until they could also testify and put him behind bars for good. It wasn’t long after that he was busted, and during the investigation the missing money was addressed. I had to admit to what I had done, and they whisked Harmony and me right away, putting us in Witsec to keep me safe until I could testify. I don’t know how it all played out on their end, but Harland was adamant that I not mention those other women again. In any capacity. I assume he had suspicions about Jackson’s reach, and if it didn’t come out until court, they could address it then with it all being a matter of record. Can’t unring that bell.”
“We need to find Harland East. Like yesterday,” Lucas said with a look in Dylan’s direction.
“Yeah. I’ll call Tex the minute we get out of here,” Dylan said, sliding his hand in his pocket and pulling his phone out.
“So you and Harland are the only two people who know where these women are?” Dylan asked, shooting her a glance as he scrolled through his phone.
“Yup,” she said, plastering a smile on her face when she felt her daughter look up at her.
“We need to make plans to move them here where they’re safe. We can see if Tex can round up a team to fly out and help us move them. I don’t want Josie telling her dad about this. I don’t want anyone even discussing the address of the place outside of these walls.”
“Well, that won’t be hard because I’m not giving you the address.”
Dylan froze. “Excuse me?”
“They need to see my face or Harland’s if you want them to come with you. And if you try to take them by force, they’re going to return fire.”
“You’re shitting me? They’re armed?” Lucas asked.
“Of course. Don’t be a child.”
Dylan bobbed his head and shrugged. “Then we get Harland to take us.”
“I’m better. I can go,” she said.
“No,” they all said in unison.
“I’m an adult, and I’ll do what I need to do to finish this. You guys won’t stop me.”
“What about Harmony?” Lucas asked, shooting a glance down at his niece.
“She’s in good hands here,” she pointed out.
“She needs you,” the doc said quietly next to her.
She glanced down at her little girl warm and safe and glanced up at him. “And she’ll have me since I have every intention of coming back.”
“Wait. Everybody take a breath. Christ, Lucas, you look like you’re going to pop a vein. Let me get in touch with Harland and see if he can help us first. If not, you’ll take us there.
“That will give me a few more days to get stronger. So yes,” she agreed.
“Laramie,” the doc said, glancing down at her.
God, that expression of his said it all. Anger, fear, and a part of him trying to retreat to safety from the dance their hearts were doing with one another.
She cupped his cheek and ran her thumb along his skin. “Doc, make me stronger. Just give me what I need to do this.”
They sat there suspended in their own turbulent histories. She didn’t know what his was yet, but she’d bet everything that her situation, and Harmony, had brought every last wound of his to the forefront and that’s why he’d been so distant, only daring to show her how he felt for her in the shadows.
He took her hand and pressed his warm lips to her palm. “Okay,” he whispered. “Okay.”
Chapter 11
What have I done?
Yes, Laramie needed to learn to protect herself. So did Harmony. Those were the two points he planned to make, but then Lucas and Dylan had shown up unannounced at the worst possible time, leaving him unfocused. Then she’d revealed everything, and he’d completely forgotten what the whole meeting was supposed to be about.
So he hadn’t mentioned what they needed to teach Harmony.
He never once brought up the special trainer they’d found to work with the little girl on evasive techniques, because let’s face it, at four, the likelihood she could fight off an attacker was slim to none, but there were things they could teach her. Tricks that could buy her time or help her reach safety.
But worse, when Laramie looked at him, the look in her eyes resolute, a scheme he suspected brewing in that feisty mind of hers to make sure she was the one to go collect these witnesses whether they located Harland or not, he’d had the opportunity to convince her to play it safe.
He’d had the chance, a chance he never had with Sarah, to avoid looming disaster, but no…what had he done? He’d taken one look in those twin seas of blue and caved.
Ooofff!
He doubled over as the air whooshed out of his lungs with her gut shot…and said a quick thank you to the powers that be that she only caught him in the gut and not lower.
Laramie danced on the balls of her feet, boxing gloves dwarfing her hands. She should have looked ridiculous, but the glint in her eye and the way she held her shoulders back, tight and proud, she looked like a flyweight female boxer taunting her opponent.
“Wow, that one was your own fault. Get your head in this, Doc, or it might just be that pretty face of yours I aim for next.”
They’d been working out together for a couple days. Tomorrow the special trainer would arrive to work with Harmony. Not because she was going to get tangled in the fray, but because she lived in a world where she needed every tool, even in a four-year-old’s arsenal to be safe.
Today, that little girl’s mom was full of energy and hell-bent on kicking someone’s ass.
He grinned and took a step toward her. “Did you just call me pretty?”
“Well, you are. Makes me wonder just how much you did in the SEALs. Dylan has a couple visible scars. So does Lucas. I wasn’t even a SEAL, and I’ve got scars now, but you, Doc, you’ve got the Henry Cavill perfection thing going on. Makes me wonder if you were really a SEAL or if you were just a pretty face used to recruit others.”
“Laramie,” he growled, taking another step.
“What?” she said, a twinkle in her eye and a smirk on her sassy mouth.
“Shut it,” he said.
“Or what? You’ll take out your superhero uniform and vanquish me like a villain—” Her words died, and her squeal pierced the air when he picked her right up off her feet and hoisted her over his shoulder.
“Hey, put me down,” she demanded breathlessly, catching him in the kidneys with the side of her glove.
“No.”
“I thought you were a gentleman.”
“I am.”
She snorted. “More like a caveman.”
“More like I’m going to show you once and for all what I did in the SEALs so maybe you’ll stop looking at my lack of scars as proof that I’m bullshit.”
“I—fig—ured—you—we-re—a—med—ic.” Her voice came out staccato to the beat of his walk.
“A flight medic, but only because I decided against becoming a sniper.” He crossed to the hall on the other end of the gym and through a double set of doors to the lobby just outside of the shooting range.
Although soundproof, they kept it opposite of the residences to ensure the families here didn’t have to even see its existence until they were ready.
“A sniper. Really?” she said as she slid nice and slow down the front of him, landing softly on her sneakered feet.
Thick beats of awareness pounded in his blood. “Yes, really. Just because I had the kind of skill they looked for, medicine is what called to me. So I worked as a flight medic. But my eyesight, my adept way of handling weapons, my innate judgment all were particularly attractive for extraction. I’d stand by, my weapon ready, and pick off the enemy one by one as they closed in for the time it took to get loaded and back in the air. Then I’d focus on the injuries. Lucas, Dylan, and a good portion of the other guys in Fierce, they wear their scars on their skin. Mine, I wear them in here,” he said as he tapped on his temple, his explanation long but enough to cool down the heat of attraction spiking through him.
“Oh, how you lie to yourself, Doc. I think you wear them in here,” she said as she yanked off the glove on her hand and laid her palm over his heart.
He shook his head. “What I did, it wasn’t personal.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and propped her chin on his chest the way she’d taken to doing after their first kiss. “How could it not be? Your need to save lives at war with your skill at taking them. That’s about as personal as it gets.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that you see me so clearly,” he murmured, brushing a kiss over her soft mouth.
“Mmmm, that’s okay,” she hummed against him. “I’m not sure how I feel about you having seen me naked,” she said, showing just how much she understood him, even when he didn’t quite understand himself, by making a joke that deflected from his confession.
He laughed against her mouth, the feeling still foreign but getting more familiar every day he spent with her. “Come on,” he said, taking her hand and stepping up to the counter.
Silas, the man who designed the target systems for the range, leaned toward them and grinned. “I was beginning to wonder where you were, Thorne. It’s been a long time.”
“A week. Not that long.”
He smiled at Laramie and hitched a thumb in Xavier’s direction. “Says the guy who was in here daily for a good month and a half before that.”
“A month and a half,” she said, her words trailing off as she looked up at him.
He shrugged and shook off her assessing stare. “I needed to blow off some steam, and I wasn’t leaving the hospital so…”
“If that was blowing off steam, I’d hate to see you when you went all out. You’re like a one-man army. So what can I get you for today? You’re usual?”
“The G20 and set me to two seconds.”
Silas whistled. “Two seconds. You mind if I record this with my cell?”
“Go for it,” Xavier said, trying not to smile and encourage the man.
“What’s a G20?”
“A ten-millimeter gun with a fifteen-round magazine. Silas is going to set us up on the end.”
“And the two-second part? What’s that for?”
“A new target is going to pop out at varying distances every two seconds.”
“How will you even see—”
He swung his gaze to hers and raised an eyebrow. “Just watch. Here, put these on,” he said, handing her sound protection headphones.
Taking the G20 from Silas, he led the way to the last row. He slid the clip out of the gun, counting the rounds, then checked the chamber. “Pick a body part.”
“What? Why?”
“Ladies’ choice. You name the body part, and that’s what I’ll aim for each and every time. I don’t want you thinking I’m going for the easy shot that I ordinarily go for. Pick a body part.”
Laramie nodded, and her high ponytail bounced. “Okay, go for the junk.”
He snorted and met Silas’ grinning face. “Women are brutal.”
“Yeah, but you gotta love that fire in ’em,” Silas said, winking down at Laramie.
“Okay, you have a junk preference?”
“What, you mean the frank or the beans?”
Silas doubled over in laughter. By the time he stood, he had to rub the tears running from his eyes. “I like her.”
“What? That’s what you meant, right?” Laramie said, glancing between the two of them, her hands firmly on her hips.
“Yeah, that’s what I meant,” he said, cupping her neck and stealing a quick kiss from her smart mouth.
Clutching his T-shirt, she tugged him in for one more and held him there. “Go for the frank…and Doc, he tucks left.”
Chapter 12
The lingering laughter died on Laramie’s lips when the target sequence started. The headphones didn’t block out the sound entirely, just enough that the quick pops didn’t make her jump.
The doc’s arms locked, his muscles taut. His face changed before her very eyes. Gone was the reserved-to-the-point-of-being-shy doctor. Before her stood a man with laser focus and a core of solid steel.
The intensity in his eyes was enough to make a twinge of jealousy flash inside when she wondered, even if they were to make this thing between them work, if she would ever spark the kind of intensity coursing through him, pulsing around him right now.
And if she did—Lord help her if she did—could she handle it?
High, left, low right, dead center, middle left, on and on he went, man turned machine, until the targets shut down and his bullets were gone.
“Let’s see how he did.” Silas said, punching a button that had all the targets shift into the middle before they glided forward. “Tucked left and spot on.”
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