A Steel Town (A Gateway to Love #3)

by Chloe Barlow

Finally, her Volvo came into view. He pressed her fully against his chest and reached for the car remote and keys sticking out of the pocket of her jacket. The automatic door responded to his hand and he eased her into the passenger seat. He rushed around the front of the car, quickly sliding into the driver’s seat and moving it back to accommodate his much longer legs.

  “You almost passed out back there. I’m taking you to the hospital, Claudia,” Trey stated brusquely, using his finger to engage the car’s push-to-start ignition. The force with which his body and mind demanded he rule the situation with an iron fist shocked him. Trey took a deep breath and relaxed his grip on the steering wheel before turning to her and softly adding, “Okay?”

  “No…”

  Trey slammed his right hand against the steering wheel and let his frustration take over again. “I don’t have time for your shit. I’m taking you, whether you fucking like it or not.”

  “I’ll be okay,” she muttered, as she twisted her body, reaching a shaky arm toward the back of the car. Trey stilled her, easing her back on her seat.

  “What do you need?”

  Claudia turned her face to look at him. Her cheeks were flushed and breaths rapid, but she was clearly fighting to maintain some kind of composure.

  “In the backseat… Go in my purse. My candy wasn’t enough. Can you grab my glucose pills? Please.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment, and Trey quickly twisted around to grab her bag. Diving into the tote and pushing aside her wallet, he saw a vial of insulin and other medical supplies. A plastic cylinder with cartoon-looking grapes on it, boasting Fast-Acting Glucose came into view, and his twitchy worry subsided a little. He quickly grabbed it and opened it for her, shaking out some of the quarter-sized discs into her awaiting palm.

  “Four,” she stated weakly, taking one after another into her mouth, until she’d eaten all four. Trey watched her intently, his hands itching to get her somewhere safe. But after a matter of minutes, she was already looking more like herself. The dramatic change seemed almost magical.

  Shakily, Claudia sat up in her seat. “Thank you, it must have been all the activity. I’m better now. Come on, let’s get back out there.”

  Trey snorted, and reached over to buckle her seat belt. Claudia turned her head a touch, brushing her soft cheek against his rough one. Trey’s heart froze, his chest feeling uncomfortably full with pain. She turned more, sliding her nose against his cheek. Her dark lashes fluttered as her wide, chocolate-brown eyes met his, and she whispered, “I’m fine, Trey. Trust me, I know my body. We’ve got to go back and figure out what’s going on. I don’t want to lose this chance.”

  She tried to unbuckle her seat belt and quickly became woozy again. Trey grabbed her arm, and pressed her back down.

  “Hey! Didn’t you hear me?” she protested.

  “You’re not going anywhere. I don’t completely understand what’s going on with you, but I know you’re not leaving this car except to enter your home, or a hospital. This is not negotiable.”

  She opened her mouth to speak — or more likely yell — when a booming crash resounded from the distance.

  “We have to figure out what that explosion was! I must really be on to something.”

  “Only thing you’re onto is a healthy death wish. I know that crazy single-minded look in a woman’s eye when I see it. As long as I’m here, there’s no fucking way you’re going back out there. Do you understand me?” Trey stated crisply. He eased his face away from hers, immediately noticing the absence of her warm skin against his. With a hard swallow, Trey looked straight ahead and peeled out of the rocky drive where Claudia had hidden her car.

  “What about your car?” she asked, her voice quieting down noticeably. He sensed her breath was quickening from their moment of closeness.

  He turned to see her staring out her window. Deep worry was etched across her delicate features. Trey turned away as fast as he could, eager to push down whatever feelings were swirling inside him.

  “Forget about it, I can get it later.”

  “But what if it gets stolen?”

  “I’ll have Uber pick me up after I drop you off. My car is replaceable. You’re not.”

  He glanced sideways to see Claudia blush faintly and nibble at the corner of her slightly upturned lips. Her face was twisted into the most adorable image of shyness. For the first time, he noticed that underneath all her cocky bluster was a confused, yet powerfully sexy woman. Trey squeezed the leather of the steering wheel, as he reminded himself he couldn’t let her get to him.

  “I can’t fail Jenna right out of the gate, can I?” he attested, with a coolness he didn’t feel.

  “Right. For Jenna. I’d hate for you to let her down on my account,” she gritted out, irritation quickly returning to her voice. “I don’t have to go to the hospital. You can just take me home.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure. Might as well end this week on a complete losing streak,” Claudia muttered to herself. “Maybe everyone’s right about me…it looks like I can’t handle the tough stuff, after all,” she added, her tone heavy with defeat and shame.

  Trey glanced over to see her studying her folded hands, with a lost look in her eyes.

  All her fierce strength had given way to an almost visibly crushing self-doubt and it shocked him how much he wanted to make it go away. She was ambitious, and impulsive, but she was also clearly feeling thwarted, and there was no telling what kind of risk she’d take next in her mission to prove herself to the world.

  Claudia needed a chance, and Trey suddenly felt the strongest desire to make sure she got it.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Knock, knock, knock…ring. Knock, knock, knock…ring.

  Claudia sighed, willfully continuing to ignore the thirty seconds of commotion emanating from her front door. Instead, she focused on reading her blood sugar monitor, relieved to see it was still registering as ‘normal.’ The night before, she’d used all her energy to eat a good meal, test her blood sugar levels, and then crash.

  After almost two months without either a hyper or hypoglycemic diabetic episode, she’d now had one of each almost back-to-back. Her life had evolved quite a bit from when she was diagnosed at seven years old, but what never changed was how these diabetic glucose roller coaster rides were never any fun.

  The brutal, almost hungover sensations, which came with the hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic swings she’d suffered through over the past few days were still swirling through her body. Yet, that struggle had nothing on the lingering embarrassment and disappointment she had in herself.

  She’d tried to blame her latest failure on her boss shoving her aside, as well as her brother’s — and now Trey’s — intrusiveness, but she knew it was a lost cause.

  Managing diabetes is tough for anybody, and the transition to her new career was making it all the more challenging. Yet, she couldn’t deny if she’d been stricter on herself, she would’ve turned down those pure-sugar cocktails her new friends had offered her. She also would’ve had enough confidence to scarf down her whole damn bag of Skittles, just as she would’ve done if she’d been alone. Instead she’d given into the prideful desire to hide her need for a quick sugar rush from Trey’s prying eyes.

  Ever since she was a little girl, lying in a hospital bed as doctors and nurses desperately tried to get her juvenile diabetes under control Claudia had known her life would be different from everyone else’s.

  This fact didn’t stop her from wanting a real life of her own. Rather, it only made her more insistent on fighting for one — resulting in a series of battles since she was a kid, which she’d lost more times than she’d won.

  But she wasn’t a child anymore.

  How will anyone treat me like an adult, if I’m too damn stubborn and foolish to show them I can actually take care of myself?

  When she couldn’t tune-out the sounds blasting from her front door anymore, Claudia stood from her bed and tied a bathrobe around her
body, covering the tiny tank top and panties she’d managed to strip down to the night before. She grabbed her insulin pump before it could clank against the floor, looping it around the side of her short robe and tucking it tightly into the sash.

  After clomping down the stairs of her small townhouse, Claudia gazed through the small window in her front door to see who had the nerve to invade the sanctity of her personal pity party. She groaned and leaned heavily against the wall next to the door when she saw Trey’s handsome face on the other side. With a deep breath, she stood again, undid the dead bolt and turned off the security alarm her brother had installed before she’d moved in, and opened the door to her fate.

  Trey’s strong, tattooed hand held a cardboard tray supporting two paper cups. He proceeded to look her up and down, settling on her bare left leg in a way, which caused her throat to tighten. She frantically slapped her hand against her leg, attempting to hide the bare flesh from his intent, gray eyes.

  “Morning, little one. Looks like I woke you up, or caught you coming out of the shower…”

  “What makes you think it’s okay to just show up here like this?” she stammered, yanking her pump out of her robe sash, allowing the fabric to flutter down and cover her more fully. She chose to hold the pump in her hand instead of letting his stare potentially burn a hole into her exposed skin.

  “I brought you a Cuban coffee from that coffee shop you like in Oakland.”

  “How the hell do you know that about me!” Claudia exclaimed.

  “You’re kidding, right? I’ve used my skills to learn enough about you to know you’ll use yours to find out everything you can about me.”

  “Fine. Yes, I may have planned to spend half of today trying to figure out who you really are.”

  “Don’t hold your breath on that being successful. My life is best served by trying to manage information, including what’s out there about me.”

  “Ooh, you’re sooo mysterious.”

  “That’s what they tell me. I thought you women liked that in a guy.”

  “Not this woman, but that’s just one reason why I want you to leave. Look, I’ve had a couple of seriously humiliating days. I don’t need you here making me feel worse about myself.”

  Trey ignored her, pushing past her into her home. Her mind filled with fast and hot indignation, but her stupid body tingled at the sensation of the quick brush of his forearm against her shoulder. The crisp morning air was still leaving cool remnants on the leather of his jacket, making her skin feel like it was sizzling in response.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Adler?”

  “Making myself at home, or at least finding a place for the coffee I brought you.”

  Claudia’s mouth watered at the thought of the much-needed caffeine, but she tried to fight through it so she could get back to being pissed at him.

  “Are you going to keep following me around like a creep? If you leave now I promise to help you out and leave one blind half open so you can watch my refrigerator with a pair of binoculars.”

  “Nope. Stalking you only managed to get me knocked on my ass. I’ve decided this approach works better.”

  “Oh…you’ve decided? Well, I’ve got news for you — no, it doesn’t, because I need to get to the office. Which means, you’re slowing me down.”

  “No, you don’t.”

  “Don’t what?”

  “Have to go to work.”

  “What would you know about my job requirements?”

  Trey looked past her into the main area of her first floor. He’d dressed nicely that morning, with gray slacks and his black leather jacket layered over a blue button-down shirt. It was open just enough to reveal a distracting amount of his neck and the very top of his muscular chest, which featured the hint of more ink. She stared at the spot where his skin met the cotton, and it was like water stroking the sand on a secluded shore.

  Claudia squeezed at the pump in her hand and sucked lightly on the middle of her lower lip. She couldn’t help but wonder what he would look like shirtless on a beach — the sun finding the few strands of lighter brown hair amongst his otherwise dark waves.

  “You’re staring at me again, little one.”

  “What? At you? No, I’m not. Shut up,” she blurted out, prattling on defensively.

  Truth was, she had been ogling him. How could she not? It felt as though her eyes were connected to his body by a string, which she couldn’t cut. For some reason, every time she was close to him, some part of her brain turned into a horny puddle of goo — a feeling she had absolutely no experience with before she met him.

  “I talked to Assistant Director Jacobs.”

  “Huh?”

  “I told him you weren’t feeling well and wouldn’t be coming in to the office today.”

  “Wait…you did what? Christ, do you have any idea how bad this is for me? I can’t have Jacobs thinking there is something wrong with me!” She yanked herself back from the brink of momentarily basking in her dirty thoughts to process his ridiculous words.

  An all too familiar surge of irritation and helpless fury began tingling in her fingertips and moving up her arms. Without even realizing it, her right hand curled into a fist, poised to fight back in any way she could. Trey looked down at her and curved his mouth into his signature sly grin, which creased his cheeks in a completely frustrating way.

  “Breathe through it, little one. It’s for your own good. You look like shit…”

  “That’s it!” she screamed, pointing a finger toward the door. “Get out of my house!”

  “Whoa, easy there. Hot coffee here, you maniac,” he chastised. After pausing to look around her foyer, he stated, “This is a nice place. Not too far from mine, actually. I guess your brother didn’t do his homework when he picked it for you.”

  “Please cut the crap about my brother for at least one morning. I chose this place myself and I pay the rent. I do have an actual job, you know — even if you’re trying to mess with it.”

  “You’re doing fine trying to fuck it up all on your own, little one.”

  “Fine, so you think I’m a rotten little brat. I get it. But you’re wrong.”

  “I don’t think that about you. Stop rolling your eyes. I mean it. Calm down.”

  “I was perfectly calm before you showed up in my life.”

  Trey snorted at her derisively, “I find that hard to believe. Look, on top of needing to rest, if you go in and face Jacobs and his team today, they’ll want to know where you ran off to yesterday. Do you really want to answer that question right now? I’ve covered up for you, but I need it to sink in with him for a day or two. Do you want a future with the FBI or not? Well?”

  “I do,” she muttered, trying to unclench her teeth.

  “Good. Now calm down and show me where your kitchen is.”

  Claudia sighed, pointing toward the kitchen area. She turned and helplessly shuffled behind him. After he placed the cardboard tray on the counter, Trey turned around and crossed his arms, presenting such an air of authority Claudia suddenly felt like a guest in her own home.

  “What was your excuse?” she asked.

  “With Jacobs? I lied and told him I caught wind of a lead and didn’t want to risk being seen, so I used you. He believes I sent you an email as a test to see how you’d handle it, because you look innocent, and you weren’t officially on the case as of yesterday. It was better than telling him you decided to go rogue and conduct your own investigation and then follow up on a lead with no backup or clearance, and it works perfectly for the plan I have for you.”

  “A plan for me? What does that even mean?”

  “It means I got you on the Taylor case. Letting Jacobs keep you off it clearly only makes it harder to keep you safe, and now I can make sure I have an eye on you. I looked at what you accomplished as an intern at D.C. headquarters. You’ve got a real gift for cybercrime investigations. Jacobs is wasting your talents. So I talked to him and he agreed — you’re now on my te
am.”

  “Your team? What the hell are you doing for the FBI? Really?”

  “Let’s just say I’m kind of an indentured servant to the federal government. They need what I can do to crack the Taylor case, and I would rather not go to jail for what I’ve done already. Plus, I have enough friends where it matters that I’m given the leeway to at least make my servitude effective.” Trey paused, looking into her eyes intently enough to make her heart race a little. “Which means, when I see something I need, I get to have it. And like you said, this investigation has hit a dead end, and it’s driving me crazy. So maybe right now what I need…is you.”

  “Oh.” Claudia breathed out softly. Turning toward the kitchen table, she fought to gain some balance within herself. “So, you do care about solving the case? Not just because of your deal?”

  She turned back in time to see his face turn to stone and his jaw twitch with frustration, “I may not be working on this case on my own terms. I may not have known Jack Taylor. But the people who mattered to him matter to me, which means, I can’t let his death go unpunished… This isn’t a game for me, Claudia.”

  Claudia crossed her arms and again found that vein full of fierce energy, which Trey’s presence had temporarily blocked since he’d barreled into her home.

  “I’m glad to hear it, boss,” she said tersely, “because I don’t play games.”

  “Good. So, you’ll do whatever I tell you?”

  “That’s not really what I had in mind,” Claudia responded, her arms falling to her sides and nervousness tickling at her throat.

  “Listen to me, Special Agent McCoy. You’re going to have to accept sooner or later that the world’s not going to do everything the way you want it to. So you might as well get over that idea right now. It’s this way…my way…or nothing.”

  “With you babysitting me, and all?”

  “Until Jenna takes me off my assignment of keeping you safe, you are going to have to take things on my terms. Unless you want to chase after strung-out Russian credit card thieves all day…”

  “You know I don’t.”