by Jana Leigh
“Dude, why is there a guy on me who was shot in the nuts?” Drake drawled, smiling and looking amused.
“'Cause he was gonna kill Joel, syringe is under the bed there,” Harper said briskly and pulled out her phone to call in an officer involved shooting. Well that just freed up her calendar, LT Prickwad was going to make sure she was put on suspension pending an investigating. Oh well, maybe she should get her hair and nails done, it was something she could honestly say she had never done. Maybe it was time to spread her wings. But as she looked around the room, she grinned. On the other hand, possibly offer her service and connections to her hunky men. Shit, where the fuck had that come from?
Thane and the other men stared in awe at the man who was yelling and screaming on the floor since Drake had pushed him off, while nurses worked to help him, then back to her and then back again.
“Remind me not to piss you off—like ever,” Jessie said and covered his crotch. She shook her head and laughed. When she turned, she saw that Joel was awake now as well, but no one had noticed.
She went to his bed and leaned over. “Mr. Lipit, can you hear me?"
He blinked a few times and then frowned. “Of course I can, I was poisoned not freaking struck deaf. I heard a gunshot, someone say a guy got shot in the nuts, and something about not pissing someone off.”
“That would be me you are not supposed to piss off. This guy snuck in while you were both out. I shot him.” Harper shrugged.
“Okay then,” Drake said. “We have a mascot, what was your name?”
She rolled her eyes and said, “Harper Bret. I work for the San Diego Police Dept. as a forensic profiler, no one was in the office, I took the call.”
“Oh, our own little shield,” Joel laughed and looked at Drake. “Hey, man, good to see you awake, you kinda freaked out there.”
“Fuck you, I stepped on a fuckin' nail, their maintenance needs to fucking clean this place,” Drake grumbled.
“Ya, love you too, man.” Joel laughed loudly.
“Prick,” Drake said.
“Asshole,” Joel said.
“Cuntasaurous,” Drake said and the guys in the room laughed. When Drake said that, they knew he was really using a term of endearment, the others in the room looked up in shock.
“You know women don’t like that word,” Harper said, putting her hands on her hips.
Drake’s eyes widened and he quickly covered his package and said, “Sorry, ma’am. No disrespect. I would never call a woman that. Joel is not a woman, or he wasn’t when I last saw him, I am not so sure now. I am seeing a little pussy over there. But not you. I am diggin' the whole female Rambo shit. It is sexy.”
“Hey, I saw her first, granted I am pretty sure I called her a prostitute but that is what makes me endearing,” Joel protested and they went back to calling each other colorful names. Harper could only stand there and laugh as they joked. She liked them more and more each second.
When the man was finally carried out of the room, Thane whistled loudly, silencing the cute buff men. “Can it. We have to get something going here, sooner rather than later. Harper, thank you for saving our men. I think you are gonna have a lot of questions to answer. We need to get the fuck out of here. So we are going to have to part ways.”
Harper nodded. She knew she had things to deal with, and although she totally wanted to yell at Thane that she wanted to stay, she couldn’t. She had her place. “Bye guys, it has been entertaining.”
Joel and Drake frowned and nodded then muttered a subdued goodbye while the others teased her relentlessly as she walked out of the door. She paused at the door when the nurses got the FBI killer on a stretcher and Joel finally seemed to be clear headed for the first time. “Frank?”
She waited as if she were a statue, as did the others in the room. The man was still screaming and holding his junk ignoring Joel as he struggled to sit up straight from his reclined position.
“Goddamn it, Frank. What the fuck? Did you come to visit?” Joel exploded.
“You know him?” Drake said, sliding his legs so they hung off the bed.
“Duh, that is my partner, Frank Vincent. You know, I told you about him, just was assigned to me a few months ago for the case I was working on,” Joel said.
“The one where you were investigating The Planes for smuggling weapons?” Harper said more sharply than she should have. All of them turned to look at her and stared intently.
“Yeah that one. How did you know? We were undercover,” Joel said suspiciously.
Harper laughed and said directly to Thane. “Did I or did I not say I had connections. I used to be in the FBI, I still have my sources.”
Drake laughed and said, “By the sour look on Thanes face, I would guess we are gonna have a little bit of company while healing. How is your chicken soup recipe?”
“Just like everything I cook—inedible. You should think about making sure there is a lot of takeout where we are going,” Harper snorted and walked out the door right into her LT's chest who was standing there frowning at her. He gripped her arm and pulled her away from the doorway.
“We are going to talk. Right the fuck now!” he yelled.
“Thane?” Drake said, standing up.
“On it,” Thane said and as he walked out of the door, “Dude, you are embarrassing yourself, close the back of the gown. I have no desire to see your lily-white ass.”
Drake snorted and replied loudly, “You didn’t complain last Saturday night.”
Thane paused and put his head down. His men snickered. They had become too civilianized. He could feel the head-slapping coming on.
Chapter Seven
“Do not touch me,” Harper said, pulling her arm out of his grip.
“You listen to me. I get called in to deal with an officer involved shooting and heads are gonna roll. Especially when it is someone who never should have been issued a damn gun,” her LT snapped.
Harper opened her mouth to tell him exactly where he could stick his sidearm, when Thane walked into the room.
He never said a word, held out the phone to her LT, who frowned and put it to his ear. Whoever was on the other side made his neck red, and she could tell he was about ready to blow. By the time he was done saying, ‘yes sir’ about thirty times, he handed the phone back to Thane who turned his back to continue the conversation. She braced herself for his anger. He didn’t fail, he stepped forward as if to grab her again, and Thane ground out, “Think real hard before you do that.”
She heard Drake who had entered the room without him seeing it, since her huge boss stood in her way. “Fuck that, move one more millimeter, and you are gonna find out how a SEAL deals with anyone who touches a woman like that. For my amusement, please move, oh please.”
Harper tried not to smile, but it was hard. Her supervisor was a prick, and she had been waiting to put him in his place. This was doing just fine. He dropped his hand, turned, and left the room without a word.
“Uh…okay, someone gonna tell me what just happened?” Harper asked.
“Sure, for your, Joel, and Drake's protection, you are being taken into the custody of the United States Marines in order to make sure the foreign threat is contained.” Thane shrugged. “I still have contacts as well, Ms. Bret.”
She smiled and nodded, finally she was going to put her skills to use in the private sector. This was gonna be fun. She looked up at the men who stared at her intently.
“What? Do I have something on my face?” she said, scrubbing her face really fast. She hoped it wasn’t something hanging out her nose, damn that would seriously suck.
“No, darlin',” Drake drawled. “Nothing on your face, we are all waiting for you to tell us if you're hurt.”
“Why?” Harper said, confused.
Drake sighed, it had taken him a few minutes to get his pants on, but when he had exited the room, his friends were trailing him while Joel protested in the bed he wanted to get out. He saw the large man practically throw Harper into a ro
om, Thane was hot on their tail, but he was pissed he had not been able to get there first. Damn drugs made him slow. No, she was asking why they cared. Was she nuts?
“Well, it looked to me like he had a pretty good grip on your arm,” Thane growled.
Harper pulled up her sleeve and looked. There were a few bruises that looked like fingers already forming, but she was light skinned. Hell, she could brush up against a doorframe and she had a bruise. “Oh, this little thing. Come on, guys, I am not gonna break down and cry and complain about the Big Bad Wolf, although the cuntasorous comment would totally fit here.”
“But you don’t actually like him, so it doesn’t count,” Mason pointed out and the guys snickered.
“Please, okay, this is done. What is the plan?” Harper grinned.
“Blood thirsty little one, isn’t she?” Vince frowned.
“I like it,” Drake said and took her hand. They went back to the room where Joel was still struggling to get out of bed, apparently the drug had not fully left his system.
“Damn, what happened? Is Harper okay?” Joel demanded.
“Of course I am," Harper pushed through the big bodies. “What is your guys’ deal?” she grumbled.
Everyone was silent and so she waited them out, all of the guys shuffling uncomfortably until Drake finally rolled his eyes. “Listen, we have seen the worst human beings every time we went on a mission. But what pissed us off the most was the way we saw women being treated. Some were turned into prostitutes, some beaten and the worst killed. So when we see that, it is like a trigger for us.”
“Well get your Neanderthal sides under control. I have been trained to deal with men like that, I know what I am doing,” she said confidently.
“Right, a little bitty thing like you going against one of us. Face it, lady, you are outgunned.” Jessie snorted, by the men's silence they all agreed.
Harper checked the room to make sure she had enough space to give them a little demonstration of her abilities. She calculated quickly which man she could use for this. She grinned and shook her head then walked over to Alex, he was built but she knew she was safe from these guys.
“Really? And you feel this way too?” she asked innocently to Alex who was looking around the room, refusing to meet her eyes. Finally, he nodded and stared her in the eyes.
Harper narrowed her eyes, and then nodded sadly and went to turn around. She could see the looks of sympathy from the men out of the corner of her eye, and wanted to laugh aloud. Harper turned around and in a fluid motion, using the techniques from her instructor about using her size to her advantage.
She grabbed Alex's arm, and swept his feet out from under him, with a thump he landed on his back and looked at her in surprise. She put her foot on his neck, pressing enough to let him know she meant business while turning his wrist in a manner that would, if she pushed hard enough, break the bone. “Nuff said.” She smiled and backed up.
“Dude, you just got your ass taken down by tinker bell,” Mason howled.
“Shit,” Joel muttered and stared at her in admiration.
The other guys helped Alex up and Drake threw and arm over her shoulders, “Okay, men, I think we know she can take care of herself. Hell, she shot one guy in the nuts, and now she took down Alex. For the grand finale, I may coax her into pantsing LC.”
The room laughed and the men patted her on the back. She grinned, trying to brace herself as they thumped her hard on her back after showing them her skills. It would suck to fall down face first from a pat on the back.
The guys were making arrangements to move while Harper was working with security to make sure until they departed, they would be locked down. They had moved them to a large employee break room, and then she stood guard with the others. It gave Joel and Drake enough time to speak quietly.
“Sorry, man. I mean, I never thought you would get wrapped up in this shit. You are superman, how the hell did you pull that case?” Drake said.
“I’m not sure actually, Frank dropped the file in my inbox, it sat there for a few weeks, by the time I actually read it, I figured it would be easy. The two suspects had just been reported dead. But when I was reading the report, I saw something interesting. The same DoD rep had signed off on every single shipment that was hijacked. I was trying to pull his service record. But seriously, I figured the dude had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean, he is a General. You don’t get to that status unless you are firm in your beliefs,” Joel explained.
Drake was silent for a moment. “Do you still have the files?”
“Shit, Frank took them when we were shot at, said he was gonna get them to our supervisor. When I called to check in, my boss told me to lay low until he could talk to Frank. That was the last I heard. I noticed a few guys following me and went underground. Just came out two days ago, and here I am,” Joel said and shrugged.
Both men sat silently and stared at the wall, until finally both of their gazes moved to Harper. “I like her,” Drake admitted. “Don’t know what it is, but something about her makes me feel like I have known her for a long time.”
“Fuck, me too. I figured I had a clear shot at her going to the safe house,” Joel admitted.
They looked at her some more. “I don’t think I can sit back and watch her with just you,” Drake admitted.
“Yeah, me either. And now is not the best time to ask her for a date.” Joel laughed.
“I know but damn, if I don’t let her know I am interested, she is going to walk away in a few days,” Drake said.
Joel looked at his friend and nodded. “Hey, go for it.”
Drake looked at him in surprise. “You sure?”
“I got some healing to do. I seriously don’t have the energy. Just take it slow. I get the feeling she has no clue that anyone is interested in her. Hell, even Thane has been looking at her when he doesn’t think she is looking. But I don’t feel the vibe from him. I think he is impressed,” Joel said.
“Yeah, I will talk to him. I don’t want to fuck with our relationship. But damn, haven’t gotten a hard-on just from looking at a woman,” Drake admitted.
“I get it, just don’t flaunt it in front of me, and we are good,” Joel admitted. There was no way he would ever let his friend know the full extent to the pull he had to Harper. He had felt her in the room when he was hallucinating, he had felt safe with her for some reason. Even when he was out of his mind, he recognized her presence. Strange but true, but he had no intention of hurting his brother. After all this, he was the only thing he had left in this world, and he would be damned if he lost it.
Drake stood and squared off his shoulders. No matter what else happened he was also still a part of this team and woody or not, he needed to get things squared with what was going on.
Chapter Eight
They arrived at the new house and all of them should have learned by now when Noah and Dallas were involved, it wouldn’t be a hole in the wall like they were accustom to when on a mission. House would be an understatement to the gated and walled mansion they pulled into.
Hell, thanks to Jolly and Steve, they had to practically give their next born to get in the gate. The guards who were situated at the entrance asked for IDs then called to speak to someone in the house, they had to stand in front of a camera one by one and were told to stare directly into the lens. Whoever they were looking at would then confirm or deny their identity. Freaking cool if you asked Drake, it didn’t have to be a hole in the wall dive to be undercover.
Finally, they were allowed inside the gate and when they saw the house, even Harper who had been trying to act as if she lived like this every day stopped and gazed at the huge house. The front had white pillars, and the entire front of the house was a for lack of a better word—a showcase. As they drew closer, you could see behind the pillar windows. There were couches, chairs, and a small garden in the entryway. They were shocked at the extravagance of the house. They could also see one huge man standing at the front door, with his a
rms folded and legs apart. It took them a moment to realize he was the leader of the men they were going to be collaborating with.
“Good Lord, really the dads need to fucking learn the word moderate. I swear, ask for a cupcake, then you get a huge cake you can never finish. They overdo everything,” Alex snorted.
“Dads?” Harper asked.
“Yeah, Noah and Dallas are my fathers, and Bailey is my mother. The rest of my family is basically the same. They live in a ménage, and it works. Never come after one of them or you face the whole fucking family. They are a bit scary. However, the only thing I have ever asked for is that they are happy. My mom would shout it from the rooftops how much she loves both of my fathers the same and with a fierce devotion. It was the way I grew up, so it seemed natural when Slone and I came back into contact with each other, we made the commitment to share one woman, Sable.” Alex shrugged.
“Isn’t there any jealousy between anyone?" Harper said curiously.
“Hell no, it takes both of them to control my mother.” Alex laughed and got out of the car. "It's the same with the rest of us who are in ménage relationships."
It made her think, but only for a moment, she didn’t have time to actually process anything because the next half an hour her world got turned upside down again.
They got out and introduced themselves to the towering man. His name was ‘Tank’, that was it, never expanded at all, which gave him an air of mystery. He admitted he was retired FBI, and Harper wanted to know what division he was in, but she was a bit too overwhelmed by his size to actually do anything but nod.
They were led through the house, which was spectacular inside as it was out. They each had their own bedroom with an office built in a small separate room that was attached. There was one main office on the ground floor, which she could only explain as being like frickin' NORAD, it had so many bells and whistles. Monitors mounted on the wall were running information they had received. Drake and Jessie were drawn to the screens and began speaking in geek before her eyes. She was impressed by their knowledge.