RELENTLESS

by HelenKay Dimon

  His control shattered.

  “What about you? You okay?” Connor asked, clearly refusing to be ignored.

  “Sure.”

  “I meant the gunfire.”

  The amusement in Connor’s voice had Ben lifting his head. The flat line on the boss’s mouth didn’t match the tone. Concern played there, too. In his eyes, in the way he leaned forward. This wasn’t about Jocelyn. It was about injuries, and Ben figured he could handle that talk.

  “Can’t lie. That was a close one. I felt the bullet whiz by my head.” He knew it sounded nuts, but he could see the thing move through the air. That shot had come close to ending it all.

  His bulletproof vest wouldn’t have stopped the bullet to the head he’d only barely sidestepped. “I thought that was it.”

  “You’re taking a lot of knocks on this case. Still think you should head to the hospital to take care of that filleting of your stomach,” Joel said. “Lucky for you Jocelyn has the skills to keep you mobile.”

  Connor nodded. “She’s a good woman.”

  Ah, there it was. Didn’t take Connor long to circle from gunfire to Jocelyn.

  Ben cursed the ease with which he got sucked in. “Agreed, but why do I think I’m about to get a lecture about women and safety and how those things don’t easily square with our work?”

  Leaning back in his chair, Connor tapped his pen against his open palm. “She’s got a lot of secrets.”

  “Don’t we all?” The list went on for pages—the real story about the whereabouts of Connor’s wife, everything about Joel’s past and Ben’s doubts about whether he had done the right thing in the NCIS case. And those were just the ones that came to him on the spot. Davis and Pax came from a family that defined dysfunctional. No one walked away clean on this one.

  “You still have secrets?” Joel asked. “I’m thinking most of your life is on display right now.”

  Leave it to Joel to drill down to the point. He wasn’t the type to tiptoe around anything, no matter how uncomfortable. The straight shooting tended to take the squirming out of most issues. This time Ben didn’t mind. “Unfortunately, true.”

  “Just tread carefully with her.” The intensity of Connor’s voice suggested he wasn’t kidding.

  Even Joel glanced over at him. “You think she’s a danger?”

  “I think she’s in danger and I’m guessing this isn’t the first time.” Connor’s pen kept tapping. “But I think Ben knows that.”

  He knew most of the information but not all. That didn’t stop him from wanting to go after the guy who terrified Jocelyn. Maybe he wouldn’t jump in a car and drive to whatever prison the guy was in, but he could poke around and make sure the guy wasn’t coming out anytime soon.

  “There’s a piece of crap who wouldn’t take no for an answer from her and is now locked away.” Ben stopped there. Jocelyn could fill in the rest if she wanted to.

  Joel’s jaw clenched. “Give me the name and I’ll check in and make sure he’s not instigating the attacks on her now. I’ll refrain from arranging for him to get shanked in the group shower. Probably.”

  Connor nodded. “Focus on the check in part.”

  “Appreciate that.” Ben knew they’d been outraged at the idea of some moron hurting Jocelyn or any other woman. Still, hearing the anger in their voices and seeing it in the way their shoulders tensed backed up what Ben already knew—regardless of how he’d ended up at Corcoran, he was in the right place.

  The pen flipped fast enough for Connor to launch it across the room. “You’ve had a rough few months, so be careful.”

  “Are you giving him the rebound speech?”

  For some reason Joel’s words made Ben smile. “Good question.”

  “I’m saying the timing of a relationship with her is not ideal.”

  Joel snorted. “Connor means it stinks.”

  Ben thought the same thing at least ten times a day. “You’re not wrong about that.”

  “But I’m thinking you’re going to keep seeing her.” Connor didn’t ask it as a question.

  “Yeah, Connor. That is definitely going to happen.”

  * * *

  SHE SHOULD HAVE gone back to her room.

  She went to his.

  Jocelyn stood in front of the dresser and ran her fingers over the folded stack of T-shirts and thought about how they fit over Ben’s warm skin. One, two...she pulled out the third and frowned at the way one sleeve stuck out of the side. Before she could stop, she refolded it. Tucked the edges in just so. Switched the order, top to bottom, from light to dark.

  The constant movement of her hands soothed her. Fixing things just so eased the anxiety that pinged around inside her. She’d endangered people, set off a chain of events that left people dead, and she had no idea how. The not knowing had her fought-for confidence puddling on the floor.

  “Got twitchy when I couldn’t find you.” Ben leaned against the doorjamb watching her.

  The idea he went hunting made her heart go a little wild. “Were you afraid I left the building? Because I’m not even sure that’s possible.”

  “I was more worried I’d get stuck sleeping alone.” He stepped into the room and stood next to her, facing the mirror above the dresser. “For the record, that would be a very bad thing.”

  “Tragic even.”

  “I agree.” He folded his hand over hers and wove their fingers together. “How are you really doing?”

  “My crazy is showing.”

  “The shirts?” He flipped through them with his other hand. “You can touch my clothes, my stuff—me—anytime.”

  “This sort of thing doesn’t scare you?”

  “Having someone try to kidnap you scares me.” He lifted their clasped hands and kissed the back of hers. “Watching you overcome what haunts you fills me with nothing but awe. You impress the hell out of me.”

  Sweet-talking hottie.

  He let go of her hand and his palm went to the side of her face. “Does the organizing help?”

  “Still shaky.” But the touching had her mind switching gears to much more interesting topics. Being close to him, smelling him, watching him, it all calmed her nerves.

  “I’d be worried if you were fine with all of this.”

  She could take anything. She’d learned that a year ago. She survived. But... “You almost died.”

  She clamped her mouth shut to keep the strangled sob from escaping her throat. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw him sliding across the floor. If he’d been hit, if she’d seen him go down... A dark, suffocating curtain fell over her at the thought.

  She didn’t know when or how he’d come to matter so much, but he had. Even when she’d pushed him away and given him every reason to move on to any of the other fifteen nurses who eyed him up, he’d never given up on getting to know her. He’d never gone for someone who might be easier to win over. And now he refused to walk away when any smart man would.

  He turned her until they stood face-to-face and his hands massaged her upper arms. “I could have gotten hit, but I didn’t. Focus on the latter.”

  The strength. She had no idea where he found it. He kept calling up reserves and never swayed. She envied that even keel.

  But truth was he’d been sliced and shot and now almost killed because of her. “How can you look at it that way? Just shrug it off like the danger almost doesn’t matter?”

  “There isn’t another way to move on.”

  She didn’t wait for him to draw her close. She stepped into the circle of his arms and rested her hands against his muscled chest. “You got lucky and you wouldn’t have needed to if I hadn’t insisted on going to the bank.”

  “Whoa, back up.” His fingers threaded through her hair and tipped her head back as his gaze searched her face. “Don’t
take that on.”

  “It was my fault and—”

  A lingering kiss stopped her sentence. “I agreed you should go to the bank. Connor and Joel agreed. We own that blame.”

  “Because I insisted.” His smile caught her off guard. “What?”

  “Don’t get all feisty on me when I say this, but we wouldn’t have gone if I didn’t want to.”

  “Because you’re such a big, tough macho man.” She snorted as she said it to let him know she wasn’t buying the he-man act. “Oh, please.”

  “Do you forget I carry a gun?”

  “Never.” Seeing it used to touch off a strangling panic. Now, knowing he controlled his anger and could handle his weapon, never turning it on her, she felt nothing but safe.

  “While I admit I am no match for you when you pile on the charm and insist on getting your own way—”

  Okay, now, that was ridiculous. She laughed. “When has that ever happened between us?”

  “Even you could not topple the joint pressure of me, Connor and Joel.” Ben’s firm tone never wavered.

  “You’re saying you could have said no to me today?” That was not the way she remembered the conversation.

  “I’m saying we’re all grown-ups. The visit should have been fine and the fact it wasn’t is one more piece of the puzzle.”

  Relief tumbled through her, erasing all those rough edges of guilt. She dropped her forehead to his impressive shoulder. “Dealing with this is so exhausting, and that’s coming from a woman who is used to working brutal twelve-hour shifts on her feet.”

  “Hmm.” That husky voice vibrated against her ear.

  “What?” When she lifted her head again, she faced the bed and found her back balanced against the dresser. She didn’t even remember moving.

  His fingers traced the dip of the neckline of her T-shirt, skimmed over her collarbone and down to the tip of the shadow between her breasts. “I was kind of hoping you weren’t tired.”

  Yeah, well, she was wide-awake now. “Subtle.”

  With a small tug, he lowered the shirt and slipped his thumb underneath. “I’m not sure I was trying to be.”

  His finger stroked over her nipple, making her gasp. “I bet I can be persuaded on this point.”

  “Oh, I will try very hard to convince you.” Then he dropped his head and licked his tongue over the straining top of her breast. “Put every ounce of my energy into the task.”

  She forgot about guilt and fear. She forgot about everything but him.

  Her hand went to the back of his head and she held him close. “Yes.”

  “We’re never going to make it to the bed.”

  She didn’t think they’d make it to the floor.

  Chapter Twelve

  Gary sat with his elbows balanced on the desk and his fingers steepled in front of his mouth. All of his focus stayed on the man across from him. The same one fidgeting as if he would jump out of his skin at any minute. Colin shifted and tugged on his pants. Even glanced around. None of it broke Gary’s concentration.

  They’d been back in the office for hours. The sun dipped and the night fell, and still they reviewed today’s disastrous plan. The outcome cried out for punishment, but Gary refused to end Colin’s torture that easily by killing him.

  Gary sat and waited. He glanced at the clock on the wall and calculated the time since he last spoke.

  Eleven minutes.

  Colin crossed and uncrossed his legs, sending the chair into a symphony of creaking. When he opened his mouth, Gary broke in first. “I’m starting to believe Ms. Raine has some sort of power over men. Makes them stupid and sloppy.”

  “She brought the entire Corcoran Team to the bank with her.”

  “Not quite.”

  Gary had done his homework, or tried to at least. Finding information on the team had proved difficult. They had no website, and the internet appeared to be scrubbed clean of any reference to the business being involved in any project anywhere. He could find only a general reference to the general work they did.

  Yet, their doors remained open, which meant paying clients. The leader’s name, Connor, showed up now and then with veiled references about corporate risk assessments but without any real definition of what that meant.

  The only clue was Ben Tanner. There was a name even the best hacker could not make disappear. Turned on his boss, took down the upper levels of NCIS. Yes, Ben had been a busy boy and now he’d appointed himself Jocelyn Raine’s protector.

  It wouldn’t be hard to make him disappear and shift the blame to any number of disgruntled military types. Gary smiled at the thought. Tanner was the type of man who could experience an accident and no one would be surprised. Media coverage would likely include a “what did he expect would happen?” quote from anonymous sources. The fingers would point in a lot of directions, but not in Gary’s, and the police would quietly close the case because that was what they did with snitches.

  “No one expected a gun battle today. It was a simple snatch job. The men were to make it look like a robbery gone bad without being obvious about taking one woman,” Colin said.

  Gary saw the comments as further proof of his employee’s incompetence. “You should have known this could go sideways. I did and I warned you. The men protecting her are not amateurs.”

  “And neither were the ones I hired.”

  “Your mistake was in thinking you would be able to control the situation when your dealings with this woman suggest anything but.”

  “You think the Corcoran Team knows about the data-and-funds exchange?”

  There was no other explanation. They protected for a living and they were currently protecting her. Had been from that first night at her apartment.

  Protecting her meant making his life difficult, and Gary was just about done with that nonsense. “It’s beginning to look that way.”

  “What about Detective Willoughby? He’s on every crime scene.”

  Gary lowered his hands to the desk. “I’m not worried about him.”

  “Really?”

  Colin refused to learn. The last thing Gary wanted was a challenge to his authority. When Colin paid for his failures in this matter, Gary would lead with that one.

  “My main concern now is blowback. Being implicated,” he said, ignoring the question that started a tic in his jaw. “I need to know what can be traced to me, which means I need to know what Corcoran knows.”

  Right now he’d be happy to know what exactly Corcoran was.

  “You going to plant a device in their headquarters?” Colin asked as his jumping around subsided.

  Normally that would resolve the issue. Gary would devise a way in, have his best people set up the equipment and collect the data. But that didn’t work with a company like Corcoran that thrived on playing the clandestine card. “I assume they’d find it, and that’s under the assumption I could even get past whatever security they have and get it in there.”

  “Understood.”

  Gary doubted that. “No, I think there’s only one way to get this done in the time we have left.”

  “How?”

  Gary no longer had a choice. “I’m going to walk through the front door.”

  “What?”

  “Better yet, I’m going to bring them to me. Tomorrow morning.”

  * * *

  BEN COULDN’T SHAKE the tickling sensation at the base of his neck. The two-story drapes were drawn, blocking out the sun and the view to the street beyond. The bank stayed closed, which was a problem, since this was a local bank with few branches. The locked doors and police tape kept people out.

  Being in this cavernous room the day after the attack explained part of his unease. Standing next to the counter in the middle of the room where he almost bit it didn’t h
elp. Neither did watching Jocelyn page through the deposit slips that once fanned over the top but now were stacked in neat piles.

  She shuffled them, then straightened them again. The repetitive action seemed to soothe her. The neater the pile, the less her hands shook. That she’d figured out a way to quiet the demons inside her left him humbled. He knew how the noises and doubts could grow into a deafening thunder, but she kept them at bay. It just made him gut-sick that she had to.

  He reached over and touched his fingertips to hers. Nothing too obvious. Not with Ed and Joel circling the balcony upstairs for clues and Connor questioning Kent at a desk a few feet away.

  They were sleeping together and Ben wasn’t about to hide it or lie about it. Kissing her at the conference-room table this morning with Joel and Connor watching probably ended any questions on that score. But he could hold off on a general broadcast of his preferred sleeping arrangements until they had the “we’re exclusive now” talk, and he definitely planned on having that soon.

  He waited until she glanced up. The wary darkness in her eyes had vanished somewhat, but not totally. “You okay being here?” he asked.

  She looked over and around, taking in every inch of the first floor before answering. “I see the shooting when I close my eyes. It hardly matters if I’m here or back at the house.”

  Not that he could blame her. The latest shoot-out was on a slow-motion reel in his head, as well. “For a few hours last night, you seemed to forget.”

  She slipped her fingers through his. “And I plan to use that tactic again tonight.”

  “Never been called a tactic before.” This woman could call him anything she wanted. Could do anything she wanted with him. They’d been on fast-forward since they met and he did not want to slow them down.

  Joel broke the spell when he walked up beside her. His gaze stopped on their joined hands but he didn’t say anything. Still, hand-holding at a crime scene qualified as unprofessional and borderline stupid, so Ben gave the back of her hand a quick rub and then let go.