His Toughest Call

by Joss Wood

  He’d rather be on the wrong side of a fist or a boot than a knife. The pointy ends tended to hurt.

  “Have you heard from Milo?”

  Leah walked down the stairs very early the next morning and shook her head at Seth’s question. He was sitting on the bottom stair, lacing up his sneakers. They’d had less than three hours sleep but, unlike her, Seth looked as if he’d had a solid eight.

  “I called or messaged him every twenty minutes since we got home last night and I haven’t heard a thing.” Leah bit her bottom lip. “I’m worried.”

  “He’s not in the guest house. He didn’t spend the night there.” Seth told her, putting his hands on his hips.

  Leah frowned. “How did you get into the guesthouse? I have the spare key...” She rolled her eyes. “Sorry, stupid question, I forgot who I was talking to.”

  “I have skills.” Seth shrugged.

  “Illegal skills.”

  “They come in handy.”

  “I’m going to kill him, Seth, seriously.” Leah rubbed her hands over her face. She glanced down at the phone in her hand and blew out a long breath.

  “He’ll turn up.”

  Leah’s phone vibrated and before the ring tone had time to kick in, she answered the call. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been out of my mind worrying about you!”

  “Wait...what?” Milo asked.

  “Are you okay?’ Leah demanded.

  “I’m fine...what is the problem?” Milo asked. “Why are you mad at me?”

  Leah dropped the phone, looked at the screen in disbelief, and lifted it to her ear again. “Seth and I drove to Sea Point last night to pick you up—”

  “What? Why?”

  “You don’t even remember? Milo, jeez! You were drunk and we couldn’t find you. Oh, and did I mention that Seth had to fight off some gangbangers after we looked in that building for you?” Leah raised her voice, her temper rising.

  “I wasn’t in Sea Point last night—”

  “Look, I don’t have a problem with what you do and your...let’s call them interests, but it wasn’t fair for you to text me to come down to that area to pick you up. It was dangerous, Mi!”

  “I didn’t text you!”

  “And I won’t do it again—” Leah stopped and looked at Seth, her eyes wide with shock. “What did you say?”

  “I wasn’t in Sea Point and I didn’t text you, call you, or send you a damned smoke signal.” Milo said, his voice calm but irritated.

  “But your name came up on my phone.” Leah gabbled, her fingernails digging into Seth’s skin. “The text came from your phone.”

  “Wasn’t me, Lee. I spent the night at Jo’s.”

  “Hold on a sec.” Leah dropped her phone and looked at Seth. “He says it wasn’t him, he spent the night meditating at a place called Jo’s Cave. He probably has about ten people who can vouch for him.”

  Seth shook his head, looking disgusted. “His phone was spoofed. The caller deliberately falsified the information transmitted into your display to disguise their identity. He knew you’d respond to Milo’s text. That’s why you couldn’t reach him by phone last night.” Seth took her cell from her hand, told Milo they’d get back to him, and disconnected the call.

  He passed her phone back and tucked his hands under his armpits, thinking. After a couple of minutes, he lifted his head and his green eyes drilled into hers.

  “Someone is messing with you, us. He lured us there and I suspect those gang members knew that we were coming, that they were paid to attack us. Shit.”

  “What?”

  “It’s a working theory, one I need to think about. I think best when I run. Why don’t you come for a run with me? We’ll work off some tension on the road.” Seth suggested and Leah nodded.

  She ran up to her room, quickly changed into shorts and a sports bra, and jogged back down the stairs.

  Since Seth was deep in thought and didn’t seem inclined to talk, they warmed up in silence and then left the property via a side gate, opening it with the remote device that Seth then tucked into the pocket of his basketball shorts. Leah noticed he shortened his stride to allow her to keep an easy pace and she followed his lead when he angled off so that they could run on the promenade that ran along the beachfront.

  It was a brilliant summer’s morning, the kind of morning when she was happy to be up early; cool enough to run in comfort but knowing that the temperature would climb later in the day. A lazy sea kissed the clean beaches and a few die-hard surfers tried to coax rides off two foot waves. A few fellow joggers shared the space with them and Leah let the occasional snippets of conservation wash over her as she allowed her stride to lengthen and her muscles to relax. Seth immediately sensed her need to push herself and picked up his pace, as if he were silently urging her to keep up. Leah felt her heart rate kick as they dodged past the slower joggers and found a stretch of open pavement. Every kilometer or so, Seth increased their speed and she eventually lifted her hand call uncle, to tell him she was at her limit. She knew he had a lot more in reserve but felt grateful when he slowed his pace to a steady jog and then to a walk.

  Leah put her hands on her knees and sucked in air. When she felt like she could string a coherent sentence together, she lifted her head. “I needed that.”

  Seth rested his broad palm on her back for a moment. “I know. I did, too. But we need to keep walking or else we’re going to stiffen up.”

  Leah fell into step beside him, her hands on her hips.

  “Want some water and a cup of coffee?” Seth nodded to a food truck advertising both a little way from them.

  At her nod, Seth walked away and Leah moved to the low wall and did some stretches to cool down. She smiled as a plump jogger caught sight of Seth and her jaw fell to the ground. Leah smiled as the woman’s friend yanked her out of the way of an oncoming cyclist. Leah sympathized; Seth had the same effect on her.

  Seth returned, placed their coffee on the wall and cracked the seal on the water bottle before handing it over. Leah drank half the bottle and reached for her coffee. Sitting cross legged on the wall, she lifted the lid of her cup and inhaled deeply.

  Seth joined her on the wall and stretched his long legs out in front of him.

  Seth sipped and rolled his head from side to side. “I left you at your door last night but when I came down, I found you asleep on the couch in front of the TV.”

  Leah’s fingers tightened on her coffee cup. “Yeah, I couldn’t sleep so I came down to watch some television.”

  “You have a TV in your room, why not watch it there?”

  He was as sharp as those knives that were pointed in his direction last night. Leah looked for an explanation but decided that she was just too tired to come up with one that sounded plausible. So she went with the truth. “I haven’t managed to sleep in a bed since that night we spent in jail.”

  A small frown appeared between Seth’s dark eyebrows. “Why not?”

  Leah lifted one shoulder and quickly dropped it again. “I try, most nights but I close my eyes and I see Heath and Sara in my wedding bed...stupid, I know. It’s not like I love him anymore.”

  “Did you ever?” Seth asked.

  “I was going to marry him, Seth.” It was all she could think of to say.

  “A lot of people marry for reasons other than love. Or are conned into believing they’re in love. Few marry knowing that this is absolutely, one hundred and fifty percent, what they want to do,” Seth said, in his ordering breakfast voice. “So, did you really, really love him?”

  She wanted to tell him she had, that marrying Heath was what she really wanted to do, but Seth would call her on her lie. “I wanted to be married, I wanted kids. I probably wanted those more than I wanted Heath.”

  Seth crossed his ankles and crumpled his empty coffee cup. “We’ve got to get you back to sleeping in your bed.”

  Leah cocked her head and her mouth twitched at the flirty mischief in Seth’s eyes. “And what do you propose, M
r. Halcott? Are you offering to chase those ghosts out of my bed?”

  Seth grinned. “Not yet. But we are closer to that happening.”

  Leah groaned. “You’re killing me, Halcott.”

  “Talking about murder, you do know Jed is going to kill me, don’t you?” Seth asked her, his voice dropping and become serious. “If we have an affair and Jed finds out, he will take me apart.”

  “I’m an adult, Seth, and I am perfectly able to make my own decisions about who I allow into my bed.”

  “Sure, but you’re also Jed’s baby sister and your being adult is not going to stop him from going ballistic.” Seth stared down at the coffee in his hand. “It could hurt our friendship, Leah.”

  Dammit, she hadn’t thought about that. “And that worries you?”

  “Damn straight that worries me. I don’t have that many friends that I can play fast and loose with the ones that I have. I’m risking our friendship for...”

  “For sex, with me,” Leah said and she regretted the bitterness she heard in her tone.

  She had no right to be hurt, to feel rejected, Jed and Seth’s friendship was a long-standing one, built on bullets and bombs and trust. Seth had a right to protect his friendship—even though Jed had no right to be upset about her and Seth—and it was the honorable thing to do. It was even the right thing to do. How could she compete? She shouldn’t feel hurt. She had no right to be hurt. But she couldn’t help feeling that she was, again, second best, someone’s second choice. But it’s only sex. You have no right to be upset about this. If sex was all she wanted then she could go to a bar or club and she was sure she could find someone with whom she could have some fun with.

  Fun...that was what she was after, wasn’t it? Honesty compelled her to admit, even without any sex, she enjoyed spending time with Seth, being with Seth. She liked his sharp brain, his slightly acerbic tongue, his confidence. But liking Seth, beyond the physical, was dangerous.

  Leah sighed and blew air into her cheeks. This wasn’t supposed to be so complicated. Sex, a little bedroom-based fun and they’d both move on. But her farcical marriage, her stupid husband-in-name-only and whoever it was who was playing games with them was standing between her and Seth and a little, or a lot, of fun.

  It would be easier if they just stopped this, put the brakes on, stopped thinking about sleeping together. It would be simpler, cut and dried...When life kept throwing up roadblocks maybe it was time to reevaluate and heed the warning signs.

  Leah felt Seth’s hand under her chin, turning her head and then he dragged his lips over hers, as if he were desperate to taste her again. Caught off guard, she noticed he closed his eyes and she felt his small sigh on her lips. Her hand curled around his hard neck and he echoed her action by digging his fingers into her hip. His thumb found the bare strip of skin above her jogging shorts and he dusted sparks across her skin with every swipe. His mouth curved into a smile over hers and just like that, thoughts of Jed and Heath and the ugliness of last night faded away. Milo was fine, grumpy but unhurt, the sun was shining, and Seth was kissing her, his tongue slow dancing with hers. Life, right now, at this moment, was good.

  How was she supposed to back away from him when he kissed like a dream, kissed like he was created to kiss her? How could she resist him, how could she walk away from this heat? If she did, he would be her biggest regret and she’d always be disappointed she’d never experienced what making love with him felt like.

  “Your brain is spinning,” Seth muttered against her lips.

  “Yeah,” Leah whispered back.

  “About?”

  Leah gathered her courage. “That maybe it would be better if we didn’t...you know.”

  “Make love?” Seth clarified, their breaths still mingling. Seth pulled his head back, looking rueful. “Honey, neither of us is that smart. It’s going to happen, maybe not today, or tomorrow, but at some point. And we’re just going to have to live with the consequences.”

  Seth stood up and pulled her to her feet. “Come on, let’s get going. I’d like to swing past the Khan’s house before you head in to work.”

  He didn’t think that he could resist her for much longer. Seth stood in the kitchen waiting for Leah to come downstairs. He’d only been in Cape Town for just six days but he felt like he’d been waiting for Leah forever. Their attraction kept burning bigger and brighter and, to be honest, it scared him. This didn’t happen in real life, normal life. He was a guy who’d had a lot of sex over a lot of years, and whatever the hell was happening between him and Leah was atypical. In his experience, situations that built so quickly, usually died even faster.

  Usually by detonation.

  The attraction he could handle—Leah was a sexy woman—but he was disconcerted by the fact that he liked Leah more than he expected to, that he was as attracted to her mind as well as her body. And, if he were being very honest, that mental attraction was the reason he was applying pressure to the brakes. He could easily sleep with her and leave if he wasn’t mentally...intrigued, but leaving would not come as easy if she managed to slip under his skin. Commitment, a steady relationship, wasn’t his thing, he was a rolling stone, a nomad, he gave everything he had to his job and then another hundred percent into tracking down The Recruiter.

  He couldn’t afford to feel more for her than he should. He had a job, a life back in New York, hers was here. She was three weeks off a crazy breakup situation, still vulnerable and oh, yeah, she was still married, dammit!

  And, the other little thing, they had some asshole playing dangerous games with them and he had a missing teenager to find.

  Sleeping with Leah, losing himself in Leah, was a distraction he could not afford. Sort your priorities out, dumbass.

  Seth picked up his flashing phone and saw a message from his Pytheon contact, saying he had no news on his fake father but it might be worthwhile for Sethto talk to a young man called Abdullah Ali, the leader of a small group connected to Fayed’s mosque embracing radical viewpoints. He might, or might not, know Fayed. Some US dollars would help him remember.

  Funny how, all over the world, dollars had the magical ability to restore memory.

  “Problem?” Leah asked.

  Seth looked at her and shook his head. “No, maybe a lead on Fayed.” Seth looked down at his phone again. “And my colleague landed this morning; he’s supposed to help me with both situations.”

  Leah made him a cup of coffee and Seth lifted the mug to his lips and took a sip of the scalding liquid.

  Leah’s eyes radiated sympathy. “God, the Khan’s must be mad with worry.” She dumped more sugar into her coffee and looked thoughtful as she stirred the liquid. “Do you have any ideas on where he went? And how to get him back?”

  Seth wished he did. “Nothing at the moment, which isn’t unusual. We suspect we know who took him but trying to track him is like trying to catch mist. The guy is a freakin’ ghost. Hopefully my contact’s lead will point me in the right direction.”

  “Kids talk, especially teenagers. They can’t keep their mouths closed. I’d bet any money that one of the kid’s friends know where he is or where he’s gone.”

  “I was thinking the same thing. I’ll send Jett to talk to them; maybe he’ll get something out of them.”

  Seth noticed Leah was tapping her finger against her mug, a sign that she was about to say something. She nibbled the inside of her cheek and he waited patiently.

  “About last night...” Leah started. She looked toward the kitchen window, sighed and wrinkled her nose. “I shouldn’t have left, shouldn’t have gone out on my own. I should’ve trusted you enough to ask for help.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Seth asked, leaning back against the counter.

  Leah shrugged. “It wasn’t something I haven’t done ten, twelve, fifteen, times before. Milo gets into situations and I go and get him. I thought last night would be more of the same. I didn’t want to bother you with something that has never been an issue for me before.”
r />   “When was the last time you did that?” Seth asked, frowning.

  “Rescue Milo? Um...actually, it was a couple of days after the wedding.”

  Seth thought for a minute and nodded. “Time line wise, I think that makes sense.”

  Leah frowned at him, obviously not following. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”

  “I was here in Cape Town at your wedding nearly three weeks ago. I think my fake-father-slash-real-father got wind of that, I have no idea how. Through your wedding and your arrest he made the connection of you to me, via Jed. He was watching me then, here. It’s a lot easier to do than in New York...yeah, that makes sense. He planned to bring me back here, planned to use you to get to me.”

  Leah swallowed. “So those thugs last night were supposed to kill us, kidnap us?”

  Whatever plans were in place, they failed. But, yes, I think they had orders to take me out of the game. You were collateral damage.”

  Leah flinched and her color faded but she didn’t drop her eyes from his. “I’m fairly glad that you are, as you said, hard to kill.”

  “Damn straight.”

  “But why?” Leah threw her hands up in the air. “What does he want?”

  Seth wished he knew. But this was an elaborate plan, something that took time and thought and a lot of preparation. This was a guy with an agenda. Unfortunately he had, thanks to his position in Pytheon, a long list of people pissed at him. And the person at the top of that list was The Recruiter, the same guy who snatched Fayed from Cape Town.

  Too many coincidences. Coincidences made him itchy.

  “Anyway, I just wanted to say sorry, that I put us in that stupid situation, that I put you in danger,” Leah said, her eyes on his.

  A simple apology, no frills, no excuses. Shit, Seth thought, another reason to like this fascinating woman.

  “Accepted. Don’t do it again.” Seth couldn’t help stepping forward, rubbing his thumb across her full bottom lip.

  He wanted to kiss her but he didn’t dare; he didn’t think he’d stop at a kiss. So much heat and want and craziness. The air between them swayed and shimmered, thickened and danced. The hair on his arms lifted and he saw the shiver that skittered across her skin. And the shiver wasn’t from cold...she wanted him as much as he wanted her.