She hugged him and buried her face in his neck. Noah had to be the kindest man she’d ever met. No lecture, no harsh words. Just pure compassion. “I don’t know that I want to leave now. Or if I do, I may have to kidnap you and take you with me.”
His laughter rumbled in his chest and vibrated through her entire body. “Kidnap me, huh?”
“Yes. Or hire you as my bodyguard for the duration of my vacation.” The more time she spent with Noah, the less inclined she was to leave him. She liked how safe she felt when she was with him. What if she extended her stay in Miami, if he didn’t want to come with her? Would it hurt to spend her vacation in one spot? Her grandma would understand, right?
“I see. How about we go inside, get something to eat, and let the adrenaline wear off. Okay?”
Mia nodded. Adrenaline had nothing to do with wanting to keep him. She was falling for him. She wanted him to come with her because she wanted to know if falling would turn to fallen. It was looking that way. Unless he kicked a kitten, she could picture herself down for the count.
* * *
Someone living in Harrison’s world of sin wouldn’t be shaking so bad their teeth were chattering. Unless Mia was the best actress in the world, Noah was more convinced than ever that she wasn’t working for the man. He also had orders, and until there was physical proof of her innocence, he’d follow them.
He had tailed her after her meeting, watching her wander aimlessly for about two hours as he debated whether he should keep his distance or not. He’d seen the man she was talking to and sent Ryder a picture of him. So far, Ryder was still doing a search, but Noah had a gut feeling the guy who had followed her was someone working for Harrison, which was odd. Harrison never took care of anyone on his home turf. It made Noah wonder if Harrison was changing things up and if he needed to stick a little closer to Mia to keep her safe as he’d promised.
“I literally threw myself at you,” she said as she pressed herself against him in the booth they’d been seated in.
“I didn’t mind.” He had the pleasure of being close to her, and it had given him the perfect opportunity to snatch the bug from her bag and turn it off. Ryder could hear all he wanted of Mia’s meeting with Harrison. Noah’s conversations with her were off limits. In his book, it was a double win when she’d jumped into his arms.
She lifted her gaze to his, and tears ran down her cheeks. “I promise I’m not this clingy.”
Brushing his hand across one cheek and then the other, he wiped her tears away and then touched his lips to each side. “I’ve never been one of those guys who liked chasing a woman. Personally, it’s never made sense to me. Why wouldn’t someone want to feel wanted?”
“You’re not just saying that, are you?”
He smiled. “No.”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “I texted you when my meeting was over, and you never texted me back. I thought…I thought maybe you might have changed your mind or something.”
Yeah, he’d seen it, and, yeah, he’d actually considered changing his mind about spending so much time with her. So much so that he’d called Kolby. Not that Kolby was the go-to for relationship advice, but Noah knew he’d be painfully honest. Their friendship was different than the others in his company.
After what they’d been through, they were all tight, but Noah and Kolby were prisoners longer than the other guys. They’d been kept more than a month longer. Once their release was arranged, it had shaped their friendship and made them closer.
The advice Kolby gave him was to do what he’d been ordered to do and stay close, even though he was falling for her. Noah’s feelings were irrelevant. At this point, it didn’t matter if Mia or Noah would be hurt in the end. The team had worked too hard, and it was time to get the man off the streets. Of course, Kolby was right, and Noah knew it.
By the time he’d hung up, it was nearly time to meet her. He should have texted her, but, if he was honest, despite knowing Kolby was right, it had taken the walk to the restaurant to get his feet under him.
He cast his gaze to the table. He’d arrived at the restaurant with the determination that he’d let her down easy. They could be friends, but that was it because he just couldn’t be tied down at the moment. But as hard as he tried, the lie he’d taken time to weave just wouldn’t fall off his tongue. “Actually, I did see your text. I have too many secrets, and I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t seem to stay away, even if I should.”
“Oh. Well, at least you’re honest.”
Honest. The word was a knife to the heart. If he said anything, he’d be going against Pam’s direct order. Something he said—promised—her he’d never do. Not just because he respected her, but because if he did it, then the rest of the guys would think they could too. He didn’t want Pam losing control because he couldn’t keep his feelings in check. Feelings he shouldn’t even be having.
“I try. Sometimes I can’t be. Sometimes I have to lie.”
She chewed her lip. “Yeah, I bet you do, especially when you’re working.”
He nodded. She was so close to the truth. Maybe this conversation would replay when he finally told her the truth. Maybe she wouldn’t hate him the rest of her life.
Mia hugged him around the chest. “I’m grateful you were here.”
Noah wrapped his arms around her and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “I am too.”
He didn’t recognize the guy who’d been next to her. More than likely, Harrison had wanted to keep tabs on her today. Had she told him she was leaving tonight? Would he try to stop her? That wasn’t his typical way of doing things, but then again, Mia wasn’t typical. She’d been inside his computer system. Was it possible she’d seen something and he couldn’t let her get out of Miami?
“There’s a gym not far from here. The one my friend owns. We’ll eat lunch, let it settle while we go back to the hotel and change, and then we’ll go there. I’ll teach you a few things so you can protect yourself.”
“Thank you.” She leaned back. “Not how you expected to spend your vacation, huh?”
“No, but I’ll enjoy my vacation a lot better knowing you can take care of yourself while you’re traveling.”
She palmed his cheek and kissed him. “That kidnapping thing I mentioned is becoming a real plan.”
And the idea of being kidnapped by her was more than appealing. His orders hadn’t changed. He was supposed to be staying close. “What if I said I’d let you?”
“I’d say, show me those moves, and I just might.”
He smiled. “Okay.”
That’s if she got to leave Miami. There was no telling what Harrison would do. According to Ryder, he’d heard her speaking to Harrison about providing internet security to his other warehouses through the bug Noah had planted. If that was true, would he try to kill her? Or was he only doing that so it would throw the police off his trail when she washed up on shore or someone found her in a dumpster?
Whatever the case, Noah’s plan to keep his head clear was going to be a challenge, especially now that he was going to have to stick even closer and possibly travel with her. His heart was firmly in her grasp, and that vice he’d worried about was slowly pinching closed.
Chapter 14
This was what Noah loved. Teaching someone how to protect themselves, especially women. He hated seeing a woman afraid and feeling out of control when just a little bit of instruction would give them power over the situation they were in.
With lunch over, he and Mia had returned to their hotel, changed, and driven across town to the gym. Now, they were in the ring, and Mia was catching on quickly. She’d already taken him down once. The smile on her face when she realized she’d bested him was better than an actual medal, which he would know since he had a couple.
“Okay,” Noah said and took her hand, flattening it against his. “In close combat, the best way to break free is to use the butt of your hand and smash it as hard as you can into the assailant’s nose. Don’t throw
a punch. Unless you have the muscle to back it up, you’re wasting your energy and possibly hurting yourself. A good thrust into the nose will deliver the most damage in the quickest time. The idea is to get yourself out of the situation as quickly as possible.”
Mia nodded. “Okay, but I thought it could kill someone by driving bone into the brain.”
He dropped her hand. “It can.”
Her lips parted with a gasp. “I don’t want to kill anyone.”
“If it comes down to you or the attacker, I want you to have the knowledge that gives you the opportunity to walk away. I’m not saying this is a move you have to use, but you should know how.”
Mia nodded. “So, just thrust?”
“Yes. As hard and as fast as you can.” He took her hand again, flattened it, and showed her where to hit. They practiced the move a few times and then moved on to several others that would help her if she ever found herself in trouble.
An hour or so later, Mia wiped her brow with her arm as Noah held the ropes so she could exit the ring. He followed her through, and they walked to their bags sitting on the bench against the wall, taking a second to catch their breath.
“I never thought I’d be taking an impromptu self-defense lesson,” Mia said and took a gulp of water.
“More people need to have them. With just a little bit of knowledge, you go from victim to victor.” He untwisted the top off his water bottle and downed it.
“You should do this for a living. The passion you have for it is evident. You’re patient, skilled, and encouraging. If I’d known it would be like this, I may have taken a class sooner.” She smiled.
He nodded. “I’ve thought about it. Maybe one day.”
“What’s made you so passionate about it?”
Seeing women and children traded and sold like things? “I don’t like women, or anyone else for that matter, being subjected to the will of another. I want people to know how to fight back so that they have a choice. You don’t have to stay in an abusive situation. You don’t have to be afraid to walk down the street. You don’t have to be cat-called. There’s power in knowing you can defend yourself.”
“You like giving people control over their circumstances.”
“Yeah, I do.”
She chewed her bottom lip as her lips curved up. “Thank you for teaching me all this. It does boost my confidence.”
“See? A little confidence is all you need to drop guys like the one who scared you.”
Mia stepped closer. “I desperately want to see the East Coast. I can’t come this far and not at least attempt some of the things on the list my grandma and I made. I know it’s crazy and strange and weird for someone you hardly know to ask you to drop everything and travel with them, but I’d really like it if you came with me.”
For a split second, he was thrilled at the prospect of traveling up the coast with Mia. Then he remembered she was asking Noah Wolandry, and the excitement was gone. These were his orders. To get her to trust him so he could stick close. And he’d followed them well. A sick feeling settled in the pit of his stomach at the thought.
“Let me think about it,” he said. Did he really have a choice? No, but maybe he could figure out how to handle spending so much time confined with her.
“That’s all I’m asking.” She pulled out her phone and glanced at it before returning it to her bag. “I’m hopefully leaving at nine, so you have five hours to mull it over.”
“So, you’ve picked a time to leave?”
She nodded. “I’ve picked one, but that doesn’t mean it’ll happen. This is a vacation, after all.”
Noah caught a little nervous undertone. She was hiding something. Why did that bother him so much? He was hiding things too. But he wasn’t working for a known trafficker. Neither was she, he hoped.
She cleared her throat. “Besides, if you were on the fence and needed an extra hour, I’m flexible.”
Noah laughed. “That’s good to know.”
She balled her fists in his t-shirt, lifted on her toes, and touched her lips to his. Pulling back ever so slightly, breath mingling with his, she said, “I’ve never in my life done this before. I’m a boring computer geek who likes eating popcorn, watching old movies, getting caught in the rain, and I’m not much on yoga.”
It was a fantasy, and yet, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling as the lyrics played in his head. “How about the rest of the song?”
“I don’t know yet,” she said and touched her lips to his again, sliding her hands up his chest and circling them around his neck.
Noah was officially in trouble. That slippery cliff he’d been standing on gave way, and he tumbled down. Whatever happened at this point, he’d be a broken mess by the end if it meant he had to give her up. The course was set, and there was nothing he could do to change direction.
* * *
Mia shut her hotel door and leaned her back against it. She liked Noah. More than liked him. He made her giddy. Gave her butterflies that landed on her goosebumps. Set her nerves on fire and sent a thrill all the way to her toes. She’d never felt about anyone the way she felt about him. It was sudden, strong, and totally nuts, but there was no denying how she felt.
After spending a few hours teaching her some self-defense, they’d come back to the hotel to get a shower and dress. The plan was to meet up again in a couple of hours and spend the last little bit of time they had together…if he didn’t end up deciding to do something crazy like come with her.
She couldn’t believe she’d actually asked him. Even as she’d asked, she’d wondered what on earth had come over her. He had his own plans. He couldn’t just drop everything and travel up the coast with her. But the less logical part of her brain had taken over and asked anyway. The worst he could say was no, and that didn’t mean he didn’t like her. It meant he already had plans.
Her phone rang, and she pulled it out, putting it to her ear. “Mr. Harrison? What can I do for you?”
“Hi, Ms. Milan, I apologize for interrupting your vacation again, but my tech guy says he’s seeing some strange activity. Almost like someone’s made it through—what’s that he called it? Oh, the firewall.”
She smiled. After downloading his hard drive, she’d created a program to mask her activity. But on the off chance that the IT guy was smarter than Mr. Harrison let on, she’d written another program to make it look as if they were being attacked by someone so they didn’t suspect her. “Let me get my laptop out, and I’ll check for you.”
“Thank you.”
Once her laptop was fired up, she pulled up the system she used to monitor her clients. “It looks like it’s coming from the Cayman Islands. Let me write a patch, and that should stop them in their tracks.”
“I don’t know what I’d do without you. Thank you.”
“Give me ten minutes, and the activity should stop. If it doesn’t, feel free to call.”
Mr. Harrison sighed. “Again, thank you. Have a good evening. Sorry for troubling you.”
“No trouble. This is why I monitor activity after I install my system. It’s not uncommon that I need to tweak things a little,” she said as she took the little bit of code out that was sending the false alarms.
“That makes me glad you’re on the payroll.”
Mia shivered. She wasn’t going to be on his payroll, but she’d give him that news when she was safely out of Miami. “Me too. Have a good evening.”
“You too.”
She ended the call and pulled up the encrypted files to see if they’d been unlocked yet, only to find her program still working on them. Whoever had encoded them knew what they were doing for it to take so long. This was almost a federal-government level of encoding, something like the CIA would use.
But whatever was in those files would need to wait. At the moment, she needed to get showered and dressed so she could meet up with Noah. As much as she wanted to know what was in those files, she wanted him even more.
Chapter 15
With
the phone to his ear, Noah paced his room. “A guy in a light-gray suit and pencil tie followed her for about block today. I’ve sent a picture to Ryder.”
“Good. What else?”
“She’s asked me to come with her as she drives up the coast. I can’t.”
Pam was silent a moment, most likely trying to hear what he wasn’t saying. She was good at that. “So, you like her.”
He folded into one of the chairs in his suite. “There is no way she knows who Harrison is or what he does. It’s not possible. I know we don’t have solid proof, but I’m telling you, she doesn’t.”
“Do you think if we asked to see her laptop, she’d willingly let us?”
“I don’t know. She’s pretty tight-lipped about her clients.” That was putting it mildly.
Pam’s nails clicked as she drummed them. “I’m sending Elijah, Mason, and Ryder. Kolby’s tagging along, but he won’t be staying. I wanted him to talk to you before he went on this new assignment since I don’t know how long it’ll take, and I could be out of the picture by then. They’ll be there in a few hours. Keep her close and in the dark until we get there.”
“I thought for sure you’d be on the plane as well.”
She was quiet a little too long. “I would have, but as soon as this is over, you’ll be in charge. I thought it would be good to go ahead and get your feet wet by giving the orders once the team gets there.”
Noah exhaled loudly. “Okay.”
“Back to Mia. You do understand that if you’re wrong about her, Harrison will no doubt use her to get away. Hundreds, if not thousands, of women, and children will be put in danger. Not only would we be bringing him down, but we’d be crippling that entire network. Are you willing to risk that for a gut feeling? She’s on the phone with Harrison as we speak. I’m not saying she’s guilty, but she is working for him.”
On the phone with Harrison? Great. His head dropped back, and he closed his eyes. What choice did he have? If he was wrong and Harrison remained free, would he ever be able to forgive himself? The answer was a resounding no. What kind of man would he be to put his own wants and desires ahead of the safety of countless people? Not a man he could look in the mirror.
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