Wire (Pierce Securities Book 2)

by Anne Conley

  Paige took a step closer. “Fuck you, Evan.” The flame burning in her eyes was something fierce, tugging at his groin like a rope.

  “Sorry, sugar. I believe you already have.” He saw the flame flicker and change, and something inside Evan clicked into place.

  Desire lit her eyes, and Evan reached out, tugging her dress closer. She was jealous. That knowledge gave him a bravado he’d been missing lately. Paige knew how to push his buttons. Coupled with his recent suspicions she was setting him up, and he felt a need to push her buttons right back.

  Hurt dampened the desire on her face. “You said you were keeping things professional,” she whispered.

  “I did.” Another tug.

  “Why?” Her tongue wet her bottom lip—that plump, full, ripe lip that Evan knew tasted so sweet. He nearly groaned at the memory. As it was, his cock was hard as a fucking rock, and he couldn’t resist the impulse to tug her skirt again. Closer.

  “Because my boss told me to. He doesn’t trust you.” And neither did he, but he couldn’t remember why, and the old adage about keeping enemies close seemed like a fantastic idea right about now.

  “But you do?”

  “I don’t know if I trust you or not, but I can’t stop thinking about you.” Another tug. Her breasts brushed against his chest. He could feel her nipples, and this time his breath left his body in a tortured groan.

  “Stop fucking with your co-workers,” she whispered breathlessly.

  “Or what?”

  “Or I’ll have to fire you?”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Because I don’t do this with employees.”

  “Do what?”

  She grabbed the lapels of his jacket, yanking him off balance, and crashed her lips against his. He grabbed her waist to keep from falling down, hauling her against him. When she whimpered into his mouth, Evan spun her around, pinning her against the wall. His hands dipped to her ass, squeezing the soft flesh in his grip, and he groaned his own surrender. He no longer cared if she was trying to sabotage him, he needed her. Like he fucking needed air.

  It was all reactionary. He went along telling himself he didn’t need her, didn’t want her, until he couldn’t lie to himself anymore. Then Evan would go on the offensive. It was like she was the one person he couldn’t be around without kissing. No matter how much he lied to himself about her.

  Every time he kissed Paige, even when she was Sandra, he’d known she was different. Her kisses spoke of more than lust, they talked to him about passion. Passion is an animal with much more depth than just lust. Lust is superficial, passion is bone deep.

  Right now, she was kissing him with a bone deep passion that colored his monochromatic world. Lights went off, blinding him with vivid hues, shocking brightness.

  He wanted her with a desire that awed him. He wanted to bow before her and worship her.

  Evan hiked one leg up over his hip and ground his pelvis into her core, needing her to feel how much he wanted her. Her fingers clawed at his hair, twisting and pulling it. One hand went under his jacket, clutching at his back. He slipped a finger under her dress, tracing the outline of her panties.

  They were lacey and barely there. He would give anything right now to see what she looked like under her baggy clothes. Without any thoughts of consequence, he dipped his finger inside, just once. He didn’t want to cheapen her here in a bar, on Bar Night, but he had to find out if she wanted him as much as he needed her.

  With a moan, he broke the kiss, pushing her back against the wall. With the ecstasy-inducing knowledge of her own desire, his own intentions came crashing into his consciousness. He couldn’t do this with her. He wasn’t even sure she wasn’t trying to ruin him. As long as he had those suspicions, this couldn’t go on.

  “I have a job to do, Paige.” He swiped a hand across his face, delirious with needing her, and realized he’d just swiped the finger inside her across his nose. “Dammit.” He took two steps back. “I can’t think straight when I’m around you. All I want to do is fuck you.” Shock registered on her face. “Sorry. That didn’t sound the way it did inside my head.” Closing the distance, he grasped her shoulders. “Look. You hired me to do a job. Let me do it, and then we can pursue this.” As long as you’re not the bad guy here.

  She hadn’t said anything to him, her almond-shaped green eyes wide with shock. Then she shut down, a look he was becoming familiar with. “Fine.”

  “Look, Paige…” he started, wanting to explain so she’d understand.

  Holding her hand up to stop him, he could see the hurt in her eyes before she lowered her face. “I get it, really.”

  “No, I don’t think you do.”

  “Yeah, I do, Evan. You fuck around. You want to fuck around with me, but I’m too big of a distraction. You’d rather fuck around with Terry. Well, go right ahead. Fuck Terry until your dick falls off!”

  Her voice was loud in the bar, and Evan was positive some, if not all, of their co-workers had heard, but he didn’t give a damn. With his hands on her petite shoulders, he pushed her against the wall and lowered his face so it was inches from hers.

  “Let’s get one thing clear, Paige. I can’t stop thinking about you. I haven’t in months. So having you hire me, when you damn well knew all along who I was, has been fucking with my head. But the truth is, you hired me to do a job, and I’m going to fucking do it. You’re in danger, and I’m going to protect you. And I’m going to do it well. If I need to sleep around for information, I’ll damn well do it.” His face contorted into something that felt like a sneer as he tried to control the lust raging through his system and his voice lowered in volume, but not intensity. “But mark my words, Paige Lawson. What’s between us isn’t over. I will know what you taste like as you come all over my fucking tongue.” He released her and took a step back, trying to clear his head.

  Without another word, he turned and stalked out the door, ignoring shocked looks from their entire table.

  In her office the next afternoon, Paige found work difficult. All morning, she’d replayed the night before with Evan, and that kiss. She had no idea what she’d been thinking, except seeing Terry’s hands all over him made her crazy. And when he’d reciprocated, she’d just about crawled out of her skin. She remembered her words about sleeping with her employees as an excuse, and scoffed. She’d never done it, but didn’t have a rule about it. That was something she’d never said out loud and allowed her team members to think it was a hard and fast rule of hers. But the truth was, she’d never technically ‘hired’ Evan Rocco through PSL. He was here to do a job, planted undercover to discover the identity of The Crimson Lady. She needed to act like an adult and help him.

  She needed to get to the bottom of this Crimson Lady business, but it hurt to know Evan would be sleeping around for information. And she couldn’t really count the number of reasons why that bothered her. Paige hadn’t slept with anyone since that magical night she’d spent with Evan. Even knowing it was probably just a casual hook-up for him, and he’d probably gone about his playboy ways, didn’t make it any less special for her. She just didn’t want to dwell on the fact she was probably just another conquest for him. Despite his words in her office the other day. How could she trust a playboy?

  But last night kept flashing through her mind. Not in any consequential order, just random images: his hands on her body, Evan’s mouth on Terry’s ear, his back as he walked away from her. And the jealousy she couldn’t get a handle on surged through her body each time she saw him.

  He wasn’t in the office today, and she was thankful she didn’t have to see him. She’d checked around, not noticing any other team members missing, so she was confident he hadn’t called up Terry to come over for a fuck. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t gone to a different bar to pick up someone else to take home.

  Paige shook her head. Evan wouldn’t do that. Would he? He might. She didn’t really know him at all. That might be just the type of guy he was. But if she sat here
imagining it, she’d make herself nuts. Never mind that’s where her mind had been all morning, and now it was one o’clock and she still couldn’t stop thinking about him. She had Crimson Lady code up on her computer, staring at it blankly, unable to wrap her mind around the events of last night.

  Evan Rocco was a serious mistake.

  A soft knock announced a visitor, and before she could speak, her office door opened and Neil’s smiling face came around the doorframe.

  “Hey there, Paige. Have you eaten?” He held up bags of take-out, and her stomach rumbled in appreciation.

  Grateful for the distraction from the distraction that was keeping her from working, she beamed at him. “Not yet. What did you bring?”

  “Burritos. That okay?”

  “Of course!” She cleared her desk of papers and her laptop to make room for the enormous packages Neil was unwrapping.

  They sat and ate, Paige wondering why she couldn’t like Neil as more than friends. Really, he was the only friend she had outside of work. It was just so hard to have a social life when she was working so hard. And The Crimson Lady had taken priority these last few months. Neil had sort of forced his friendship on her, and she welcomed it. At the moment, it was a reprieve from Evan.

  She studied him, watching his fastidious neatness—the way he licked the tips of his fingers daintily before wiping them and his mouth on the napkin between each bite he took. He was a nice looking guy, if a little faux. His blond hair was too evenly colored to be natural, and it didn’t quite match his skin tone. She could tell he worked out, but his trim figure was always clad in long sleeves, as if he were hiding something. She wondered if he was scarred or something. She’d never asked.

  “You want to go biking in the morning? I just discovered some trails at Barton Springs that look like they’d be fun.”

  They’d been biking together before, another time when he’d worn long sleeves. She shrugged. “I’ve been really sporadic with my biking lately.” Pointing to her laptop, she continued, “Busy with work stuff. I’ve got to get this Lady off my system.”

  “She’s really got you, hasn’t she?” A gleam came to Neil’s eyes, and she wasn’t sure where it came from, but when he stood and walked around behind her, she realized it was the opportunity to touch her that got him so excited.

  He started rubbing her shoulders, slow and hard, just like she liked it, and she moaned her encouragement. Honestly, Neil was a nice guy, attentive, and reminded her a lot of Dale in some ways. Why wasn’t she attracted to him? Maybe it was because he reminded her of her old friend, and she’d definitely discovered she had never really been attracted to Dale.

  “You’re tied up in knots…” he muttered, but she couldn’t see his face, as her eyes were closed in total rapture. His fingers kneaded the muscles of her shoulders like a pro.

  “That feels good.” She tried to relax as he massaged her muscles, but her laptop was staring at her from the corner of her desk as if it was accusing her of not focusing on the task at hand. She had to stop thinking about boys and get busy.

  With a sigh, she sat up straighter, using nonverbal cues to get Neil to stop rubbing her. He did, but left his hands in place, not moving.

  “I’ve got to get back to work. Thanks for lunch. I’ll repay you as soon as all this is over. When I have time, I’ll take you to Flemings to make up for all the lunches you’ve brought me in the last few weeks. Deal?” She tried to flash him a smile, but he hadn’t moved from behind her. He was still clutching her shoulders.

  “Deal. I’m going to hold you to that, Paige,” he whispered in her ear. He finally released her after a brief squeeze and walked around to the other side of the desk.

  Paige watched him leave, wondering, yet again, why she didn’t feel that spark with Neil. It was obvious he wanted more than friendship from her, but he’d been nice enough not to push her. He knew how busy she was with work and all the Crimson Lady madness. He was giving her the time and space she needed to get her life sorted before she delved into something with him. That should have meant something, right?

  So why didn’t her stomach flutter and her core clench when she thought about Neil like it did with Evan?

  Evan called in sick that morning after a night of tossing and turning. Images of Paige kept running through his mind, interspersed with Peggy standing behind her with a knife, ready to stab her in the back, Terry trying to kiss him, or Neil feeding Paige stuff off tiny swords. His brain was revolting against the idea of sleep, so he grabbed both his personal and PSL laptop and went into the Pierce Securities offices.

  In the front office, he found Miriam, huffing and puffing while sorting the massive stacks of papers on her desk.

  “Good to see you back, lady,” he greeted her. He hadn’t been in the office much, but her presence had definitely been missed.

  “Good to be back, Evan. How’s the job going?” She sounded genuinely glad to be back, as if she’d been out for something like teeth-pulling.

  He sighed. “Not great. How was your break?” he prodded.

  She shrugged. “Just needed some time. That’s all.” She was hedging.

  “It’s not anything with the ex again, is it? You know all you have to do is say the word and I can rock his world, don’t you? I can make his retirement disappear, fuck with his work history, you name it, I can make it happen.” He smirked at her and put on a gangster’s voice, “You want I should break his knee-caps?”

  Miriam giggled and swatted his chest. “Go on and hide in your office. It’s not Vince. I’m fine.”

  Reluctantly, Evan left her, knowing in his gut it was something major. Miriam had been a driving force behind the success of their company. Her upbeat attitude and mothering ways kept himself, Ryan, and the Pierce brothers going when times were tough. And they’d been tough, for sure. It wasn’t until after the last case, Ryan’s protection detail, that they’d started getting business. Granted, that was mostly because they’d done a shitty job at catching bad guys and Krista resorted to the media’s involvement. But it had catapulted them to a level of fame, and jobs had been rolling in ever since.

  Miriam’s ex-husband, Vince, had done a number on her, though. And none of them really knew what it was. Only that she’d come into work on more than one occasion with swollen eyes from sleepless nights and too many tears, especially when they’d first started out. They were all very protective of her, but she hadn’t let them do anything for her, with the possible exception of Quinten. With his law degree, she’d allowed him to draw up divorce papers for her, which he wouldn’t talk about. Everyone in the office knew he was a fucking vault. Anything told to him in confidence would stay there.

  In the office, Evan laid down his laptops and sank into his chair, trying to focus on something besides Paige. His current obsession with Neil drew his attention and he decided to focus on him. Koen was probably just a boyfriend, nothing else, but Paige had said they were strictly platonic, and Evan didn’t see things that way. Koen definitely wanted in her panties. Plus, significant others were nearly always the primary suspect.

  His office at Pierce Securities was cluttered but tidy. Evan had several computer towers, because this was where he did the bulk of his coding and hacking, and each tower had different performance focuses. Several monitors crowded his workbench and a spaghetti mish mash of wires connected everything. He had printers, scanners, modems, as well as a ‘graveyard’ of old equipment that he scalped for parts. While the other offices in the suite had comfortable chairs, a large desk, and steam releasers, like dart boards and such, Evan’s office was full of computer equipment and peripherals. This was how he blew off steam. If he needed something physical, he’d go to the gym.

  Headphones on, electronica dance music playing, he focused on Neil Koen, and his findings moved the boyfriend up to number one on the list of suspects, knocking Patton out of first place.

  He was just typing everything up in a spread sheet for Simon when the boss knocked on the door frame.
/>   “You’re here early. Not going to work today?”

  Evan pulled off his headphones and ran a hand through his thick, dark hair. “Nope. I wanted to get something done that wasn’t PSL related. Everyone’s constantly interrupting me to do Operations Manager stuff. I called in sick.” Turning his laptop toward Simon, he pointed to the screen. “Look at this.”

  “I don’t see anything,” Simon responded, a frown marring his features.

  “Exactly. There’s nothing there. Neil Koen just invented himself six weeks ago. Before that, there’s nothing.” Evan banged his palm on the desk to emphasize his point.

  “But he went to high school, college, stuff like that.” Simon pointed to the screen. “He works at this law firm.”

  “Yeah, but if you’ll notice, all that was input into a system six weeks ago, post-dated.” He pointed, “This law firm has him in their system as a long-term employee, but if you restore their system to six weeks ago, he wasn’t there. And the DMV records are the same way. I bet if we went back to 1998, he wouldn’t be in high school at Dobie High, either.”

  “So he’s created his identity?” Simon crossed his arms. He was an old school cop, most of what Evan did was above his head, but he was smart, and trying to grasp the implications of what Evan had found.

  “Pretty thoroughly, too. He knows Paige is a computer genius and would probably do a background check on him at some point.”

  “So why didn’t she notice what you did?” Scratching his chin, Simon leaned forward, as if all of the clues were on the monitor just waiting to be put together. If they were, Evan would have found them.

  “For some reason, she trusts him. She sees the good in people, makes her blind.” Evan was still on the fence as to whether that was a good attribute or bad.

  “Or she’s in on it, somehow…” Simon found a chair and sat down while Evan ignored his comment. It was something he was trying desperately to ignore. He didn’t want her to be in on anything. “What else do you have?”