by Susan Stoker
They were standing by the kitchen, and Colt reached out and pulled Macie into his embrace until they were touching from thighs to chest. One hand spanned her lower back and the other buried itself in the hair at her neck. He rested his forehead against hers and continued. “I love you, Macie. It’s scary how much. Now that I’ve experienced life with you, I don’t want it any other way. Now that I know how it feels to come home from work to you, I never want to come home to an empty house again. Now that I’ve been lucky enough to hold you in my arms every night for over a month, I can’t go without it. And now that I’ve been inside you, felt you come on my cock, I can’t imagine being intimate with another woman for as long as I live. You’re it for me. I’m putty in your hands. My men know that—and they’ll do whatever it takes to protect you because you’re a part of me.”
By this time, Macie was crying. She wasn’t making a sound, but tears coursed down her cheeks.
“You do not have to be nervous about meeting Trigger or Lefty. Or Oz, Doc, Brain, Grover, or Lucky. They will treat you with respect. They will love you. They will be your brothers in every way that matters. They’ll have your back and your side and your front. You can trust them to be there for you when you need them, no matter what that means. Eventually, when they find them, their women will be your friends too. I don’t know what’s in store for them, who they’ll find to complete them, but I know those women are out there, waiting. And they’ll love you just as much as I do. Want to know how I know that?”
She didn’t answer verbally, but looked up at him with her beautiful brown eyes filled with tears and nodded.
“Because you’re you,” Colt said. “You’re considerate, kind, compassionate, down-to-earth, and so damn likable it’s hard for me to understand how you don’t see it yourself.”
“I love you too,” she said softly, and Colt closed his eyes, overwhelmed with emotion. He knew how hard it was for her to say the words, and he swore right then and there to never take them for granted.
He opened his eyes again. “I’m the luckiest man in the world,” he told her before using his thumbs to wipe away the tears on her cheeks. Then he leaned down and kissed her. It was a slow kiss that started out tender and sweet, but by the time he pulled back, his cock was hard and she was pressing herself into him eagerly.
“As much as I’d like to lift you onto the counter, pull down your jeans and bury my face in your delectable pussy, I don’t have time. Trigger and Lefty will be here any minute.”
“Rain check?” she asked with a small smile.
Colt grinned. “Fuck yeah. You want to go freshen up before they get here?”
She nodded, but didn’t pull away from him. “Colt?”
“Yeah, hon?”
“I can’t imagine my life without you in it either.”
He couldn’t stop himself from kissing her once more. After several moments, he forced himself to stop touching her, and he took a step back. “Upstairs with you, woman.”
She giggled at him and nodded, turning and heading for the stairs.
Colt watched her every step of the way. He stood where he was long after she’d disappeared from view, wondering how in the world he’d gotten so lucky.
Chapter Nine
A week later, Macie sat at Colt’s dining room table, working on her laptop. Over the last seven days, she’d not only met Trigger and Lefty, but the other men on Colt’s second Delta Force team as well.
They reminded her of her brother in a lot of ways. They were funny and polite, but there was an edge to them that was a reminder they were also lethal.
Most of the men were around her age. They varied in height and physical characteristics, but every single one had an intense look that would have made her nervous if Colt hadn’t been by her side. But by the time they’d left the house after their visits, she’d felt comfortable with each and every one of them. She could totally understand Colt’s devotion to them, and the devotion they had to their commanding officer in return.
It was weird for Macie to think about Colt as a commander. To her, he was just Colt, but it was obvious that he garnered a great deal of respect from his men.
Hearing a noise from her computer that meant she had a new email, Macie opened the program and read over the panicked email from one of her former clients. Somehow, her website had reverted to data that had been on it two years ago and everything was now out of date.
“Shit,” Macie muttered, and got to work trying to figure out what the issue was. After thirty minutes, she sat back in defeat. There had been an update to the platform the author was using, but no one had backed up the data on her website since Macie had done the work two years ago. Macie was pretty sure she could fix it, but the coding she’d done in the past was on an older backup drive at her apartment in Lampasas.
She fired off a note to the author, telling her that she was willing to work on the emergency issue and spelling out how much it would cost. Macie might not be good at face-to-face interactions with people, always worrying over what they thought or were saying about her, but one thing she’d learned over the years was that she couldn’t beat around the bush when it came to money.
Her clients appreciated knowing upfront how much she charged, and Macie appreciated being paid in a timely manner.
The author immediately emailed back, accepting the price for Macie’s help, but insisted that it had to be done as soon as possible. She couldn’t wait because she had a new book coming out in a couple days. It was book three in a new series, and as the website stood now, the other two books in the series weren’t on there. She had to have her site fixed.
It was a small disaster, and Macie couldn’t blame the author for being frantic. She bit her thumbnail and considered her options. She could recode the website from scratch, but that would take forever and would cost the author considerably more. If she could get the work she’d already done from her apartment, there was a chance she could have the website fixed and up and running by tonight.
But the last thing she was going to do was drive over to Lampasas on her own. She wasn’t an idiot. Not when neither Colt and his teams nor the police had found Teddy yet.
Macie felt her chest get tight as she thought through what she should do. She could tell the author she simply had to wait, but that wouldn’t be good for her reputation. The author might turn around and bad-mouth her to others, and she could be blackballed in the profession. Macie knew Colt was busy today. He’d told her that he had meetings with other high-ranking officers on the Army post. They were setting up a new mission for Ford and his team, and the last thing Macie wanted to do was ask Colt to drop that for something that wasn’t an emergency.
Well, it was an emergency for the author, but she didn’t think that really counted when compared to making sure her brother was safe when he was sent out of the country on a top-secret mission.
Macie thought about Trigger and the others on his team. Trigger had made sure she understood that she could contact him at any time, and had added his contact information to her phone.
Biting her lip, Macie decided to wait for Colt to get home. He’d go with her to her apartment and get the drive she needed. She could just stay up late tonight, updating the website. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d lost sleep because of work.
But then another email popped up from the author. She had a newsletter that was supposed to go out that evening, and it had a link to her website for people to preorder the new book, and her public relations woman was on vacation and couldn’t update the email before it went out to literally tens of thousands of readers.
The pressure built in Macie’s chest. She had to have that code today. As soon as possible.
Without thinking too hard about what she was doing, Macie picked up her phone and clicked on Trigger’s name.
“Hello?”
“Hi. Uh…Trigger?”
“Macie? What’s wrong? Are you all right? Where are you?”
“I’m fine,” she reassured
him quickly. “I’m at home…er…Colt’s house. I…uh…something came up, and I know Colt is busy. Ford too. I wouldn’t ask, but it’s important.” The words were stilted, but Macie was proud that she’d gotten them out at all.
“You’re okay? You’re not hurt?” Trigger asked.
“No. I’m fine.” She heard him sigh in relief.
“Okay. So what’s up? What can I do to help?”
“If you can’t, I totally understand. I mean, you’re probably at work and it’s not like you can just leave whenever you want. Isn’t that called going AWOL? Absent without leave? I don’t want you to get in trouble—”
“Macie. What do you need?” Trigger asked, a hint of exasperation in his tone.
Macie closed her eyes and blurted it out. “I need something from my apartment. I don’t want to go by myself, and Colt and Ford are busy. It won’t take but two seconds for me to run in and grab it.”
“What do you need? Can I pick something up for you on my way to Colt’s house?” Trigger asked.
It was a nice thought, but unfortunately unhelpful. She quickly explained the situation, and finished with, “It’ll save me hours of work and my client hundreds of dollars if I can get the drive and use what I’ve already done.”
Trigger was quiet for so long, Macie wasn’t sure he was still there. “Trigger?”
“I don’t suppose you’ll let me drive to Lampasas and pick it up for you?” he asked.
Macie sighed. “I would, but I honestly don’t know where the drive is. I know I put a bunch of stuff in my front closet, but with the police being there and looking through things to try to find what had been disturbed, plus those men rifling through everything, it could be anywhere by now. I’m not sure you’d be able to find it, especially when I don’t remember exactly where it should be in the first place.”
“I’m on my way. Do not leave the house before I get there,” Trigger ordered.
“Of course not.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes or less.” And with that, he hung up.
Macie sighed and clicked off her phone. She wasn’t happy about needing to go to her apartment. The place gave her the creeps now, but she did need her old files.
Macie pushed back from the table and stood—then stilled as something occurred to her.
If she moved in with Colt permanently, she wouldn’t have to worry about needing things that might still be at her apartment.
The second the thought crossed her mind, she realized just how much she wanted that.
Things between her and Colt had happened fast, but she couldn’t deny there had been something between them at her brother’s wedding. There was no way she would’ve stayed the night with him if she hadn’t felt it. And she never would’ve gotten up the courage to leave him her number either. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t seen it; the fact that the spark had still been there a month later was enough for Macie to realize he was different from any man she’d met thus far.
Then her shoulders slumped.
She’d never bring it up with him. No way. She wasn’t brave enough. She’d never force herself on him. She fought a constant war in her head that things weren’t the way she imagined they were. And it would kill her if she brought up moving all her things into his house and Colt vetoed the idea.
Taking a deep breath, Macie did her best to stop her line of thinking before it went any further. She knew she wasn’t the best bet when it came to a partner. She’d take more than she’d give. But Colt had said he loved her, and she’d said it back, and the Earth hadn’t stopped moving.
She ran upstairs and changed into a pair of jeans and put on a bra before going back downstairs and tidying up her work area. Just when she was about to go crazy from waiting, she heard a knock. Checking the peephole and seeing it was Trigger, she opened the door. “I’m ready,” she told him.
Trigger was good-looking. As far as she could tell he was a couple years older than her and even taller than Colt. He had dark hair and an intense look in his eyes that Macie figured someone would take one look at and back off. But, because of Colt’s little speech the other night, Macie wasn’t afraid of him. She wasn’t particularly worried about what he thought of her either, mostly because of Colt, but also due to how friendly and open Trigger had been when she’d first met him.
“The faster we go, the faster we can get back,” Trigger said.
Macie eyed him and asked, “Do you think it’s too dangerous? I’ll wait for Colt if you think it’ll be safer. The last thing I want is to put you in danger.”
“I can handle your ex,” Trigger said with a hint of disgust in his voice. “And I didn’t mean anything by that statement. I just know you’re more comfortable here than in your own place. And it’s hot as hell out here today.”
Macie smiled. Texas always seemed to be hot, but today was oppressive even by Texas standards.
She set the alarm by punching the code into the box on the wall then shut and locked the door. She followed Trigger to his vehicle, a sleek black Porsche, and smiled when he opened her side of the car for her. When they were on their way, she asked about the sleek sports car.
Trigger shrugged a little self-consciously. “I’m single and have saved up a lot of money. Why not?”
“I like it,” Macie reassured him. “Have you guys found out anything else about Teddy or who he had break in?”
Trigger sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Not as much as we want. Brain has tracked down a few leads, and we’ve passed them on to the detective in charge of your case, but either Teddy is the luckiest son of a bitch alive, or he’s gotten help from someone we’ve missed.”
“I think it’s probably the latter. I mean, I’m not that confident with people, but something about him made me put down my guard faster than I normally would. I have a feeling he’s conned a lot of people.”
“I know you’re right,” Trigger said. “And you shouldn’t feel bad about dating him. Some people just have more charisma than others, and if he chose to use it to be an asshole, that’s on him, not you.”
Macie nodded, not completely convinced. The rest of the trip, she worried about why Teddy had singled her out. Did she look that gullible? She tried to remember when she’d first seen him in person, and couldn’t. That said a lot about how she really felt about him.
She could remember the first time she saw Colt. It was in Ford’s hospital room after he’d been injured at the holdup at Mary’s bank. She’d felt the chemistry between them then, but it was at Ford’s wedding when she really took notice of him. He was sitting near the front of the church in his dress blue Army uniform. He had a half smile on his face the entire time.
Macie remembered thinking that he looked like a man a woman could count on.
And she hadn’t been wrong.
“We’re here,” Trigger said, snapping her out of the mini trance she’d been in. “I’m going to come around and open your door for you.”
Macie nodded and watched as he unfolded himself from the low-slung sports car and strode around the front of the vehicle. He held out a hand to help her out and stayed right by her side as they walked up the stairs to her apartment.
It was the first time she’d been back in a few weeks. The apartment smelled a bit musty. Wrinkling her nose, she turned to smile at Trigger and say something about how it had smelled better when she lived there—but the words caught in her throat when she saw Teddy standing behind him with an evil smirk on his face.
Macie’s mouth opened to warn Trigger, but Teddy had already reached out and pressed the prongs of a taser to his side.
The soldier’s mouth opened in shock and he fell to the floor with a thump, jerking and moaning.
Chapter Ten
“Trigger!” Macie yelled, then backed up when Teddy calmly stepped over the writhing soldier on the floor.
“You’ve got something of mine, bitch, and I want it back,” Teddy said with deadly intent.
Macie backed up as Teddy kept stalking
forward.
“I don’t!” she said, feeling the tell-tale signs of a full-blown anxiety attack coursing through her body.
“You do. Where’s that stupid box of keepsakes you kept in your closet?” Teddy asked.
Macie blinked in surprise. That’s where he’d hidden something? She hadn’t even looked inside the beaten-up old shoebox because it was the last place she figured anyone would hide anything. It wasn’t secure in the slightest, and only held silly, cheap mementoes of her life. Of course, now that she knew that’s where Teddy had stashed whatever it was he so desperately wanted, it made sense.
She couldn’t come up with an answer fast enough, and he reached forward and wrapped a strong hand around her throat and squeezed.
Macie’s hands immediately reached up and tugged at his fingers, to no avail.
She looked into the face, which she had once thought was good-looking, now feeling complete terror. His blue eyes were narrowed in anger and the beard he used to keep trimmed neat was bushy and unkempt. She even saw what looked like food stuck in the hair.
She looked down at the arm she was clawing, still trying to get him to release her, and stared at the tattoo that now adorned it. He hadn’t had any tattoos that she’d seen when they’d been dating, but the new ink terrified her. It was a black-and-white design of a naked woman, with her arms tied together in front of her and a knife sticking out of her chest. Blood dripped from the knife, and the words, Women are like weeds— to be exterminated, were inked in cursive around the frightening image.