Violence terrified her and she’d spent hours analyzing behavior and worrying if she’d missed obvious signs. Big men and military men were on her no-go list. The mix of strength and weapons sent her head spinning with fear.
Then Garrett walked into her life. Instead of panicking over his combination of mystery and protectiveness, she enjoyed it.
Looking now at Jeremy, she felt something different. One second spent touring those broad shoulders and her blood heated in her veins and her mouth went dry. She wanted to talk and get to know him, even as her brain screamed at her to hide until he sneaked out of town again.
He cupped her cheek and ran a thumb over her suddenly dry lips. “Do you really not understand the question?”
“I’m not into big men.”
He leaned his forehead against hers. “Do you know how tempting it is to make a tasteless joke right now?”
The laughter bubbled up from her chest. This time she didn’t try to stop it. She let the amusement flow through her and wipe out some of the horror of the day.
She pressed a hand to her mouth and wrestled with her control. “You’d think I’d know better since I’m usually with a group of little boys all day. They say things that would make their parents cry.”
“Boys can be gross.”
“But cute.” She gave in to the urge to trail her hand across his chest. Firm dips and bulges pressed against her palm. “Especially the grown-up ones.”
“Maybe I should get a tip or two from your students.”
“You’re doing fine.”
“That’s good because unless you tell me no, I’m going to kiss you. Long and deep, hot and a bit naughty.” He shifted his hands to her hips and pulled her close until his body pressed against hers.
“Jeremy, I—”
“I’ll stop before we go too far because it’s been a pretty long and not-so-great day, but believe me when I say I won’t want to pull back.”
“Still dealing with that surge of adrenaline?”
“Don’t give the credit to the danger high. It’s been an hour. The night is dark and you’re sexy, and if you wiggle like that one more time I’m throwing you over my shoulder and carrying you into that room.” He nodded in the general direction of the door. “And I won’t care about my bad timing until tomorrow.”
Even his words made her insides all jumpy, as if her skin no longer fit right and her clothes were too tight. “You’re not scaring me.”
“Really? This—” he waved his hand between them “—scares the crap out of me.”
Then his mouth was on hers. No nibbling or hesitation. His lips fit over hers, caressing and coaxing until his tongue swept inside and his hand plunged into her hair. The heat enveloped her as the firm touch of him from head to knees sent her heart into a thudding beat.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on as he lifted her a little. All those boring dates and wasted minutes dropped away. This was about want and need, about the intoxicating feel of his firm body next to hers. About this perfect moment at the end of the most imperfect day.
The warmth wrapping around her. The clasp of his hands. The brush of his skin against hers. It all collided in an energy-sucking kiss that made her knees buckle. Everything from his scent to his hold would haunt her dreams.
He lifted his head, but not before treating her to one more kiss. “Did I really say I’d stop tonight?”
“You did.”
“Shows what an idiot I am.”
Her sneakers hit the floor but her heart floated about two feet above her. “In your defense, it sounded like a good idea at the time.”
“Go inside before I forget my training and lose control.”
His kisses made her dizzy. The force of her weakness for him snapped her back to life. “That would be a bad thing, right?”
His exhalation blew by her. “The timing is wrong.”
“Always the gentleman.”
“There’s nothing proper about what I’m thinking about right now.” He backed up, putting a foot between them that may as well have been a mile. “Besides that, I need to go torture my brother.”
“It’s my turn after you.”
“I’ll let him know he might have another slap in his future. And, Meredith?”
“Yeah?”
Jeremy caught her around the waist and pulled her in for a long, drawing kiss. The kind that had good girls thinking nasty thoughts.
Her vision blurred when she raised her head again. “Uh-huh.”
He shot her a knee-buckling wink. “Good night.”
Chapter Ten
Bruce traced his finger over the carvings in the tabletop. The graffiti consisted of a mash-up of profanity and empty declarations of love. Not very inventive, and barely interesting as a form of entertainment since he didn’t have time for either of those pastimes. Didn’t have time for prison, conference rooms or an overpaid lawyer either.
The overpaid professional in question smoothed his hand over his jacket lapel as he practiced his bored blank stare. “Why did you call me back here tonight?”
Bruce focused on a drawing of a tiny man with not so tiny private parts and tried to figure out why the other prisoners would use perfectly sharp weapons for such a stupid task as scratching figures and words in metal. And the pledges of love to women. He’d bet those same women had landed most of the men in there.
The last woman he let in his bed turned out to be a disloyal whore. Thanks to him she wouldn’t ruin another man’s life.
“I need to get a message to someone,” he said.
“You said this was an emergency. It’s after visiting hours. Do you have any idea how many favors I had to call in to make this happen?”
“I don’t care.” He looked up then, catching the dripping disdain on Stephen’s face right before he hid it.
“This is an abusive waste of my valuable time.” The lawyer stood up, swaying as he did thanks to the stomach puffing over his belt. If his puffy stomach grew any bigger, he’d have to lower his waistband to his feet. “I have other clients.”
“Sit.”
Stephen fell back into his chair. “I’m listening.”
Amazing how one word said in the perfect tone got the job done every time. Bruce learned that lesson from his father. The only worthwhile thing the man ever passed on.
“I am your priority, Stephen, and I expect to be treated as such.” Bruce held up a finger when the other man started to open his mouth. “When I call, you come here. That is the rule from now on, Stephen. Do you understand?”
The other man clenched the arms of his chair. “How dare—”
“Cleary, you don’t. I’ll try again.” Looked like it was time for a serious reality check. Bruce had nothing but time, and making threats came to him as easily as breathing. “You will do as I say or your career will end.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I think you know.” Bruce leaned back in his chair, enjoying the way Stephen gulped in air and fidgeted in his seat. “Back to the topic of my message.”
Stephen’s big-lawyer sputtering and red-faced rage died down. “This is moot. All of your mail except specific correspondence with me that could be privileged is reviewed. That’s one of the rules around here.”
“Which is why I’m coming to you with this request.”
“I have no intention of smuggling notes out of here for you. This isn’t fifth grade and I am not about to lose my law license over something so obvious to the guards.”
For a smart man with a bunch of fancy degrees, Stephen sure wasn’t getting the point. Proved that all that money and growing up with servants didn’t buy street smarts.
Bruce decided to be a bit less subtle. He wasn’t accustomed to watching his words anyway. “You will do as I say.”
“You’re not listening.”
“You don’t seem to understand your position here.”
“You’re the one in prison.” Stephen smiled as he dropped that fact.
<
br /> “You think a few bars on the window stopped my business? All this talk of drug tunnels and marijuana, and you’ve missed the bigger picture.”
“Which is?”
Bruce let the legs of his chair fall to the floor with a thwap. He slapped his hands against the table, satisfied when Stephen jumped in reaction. “I have a network of allies and business associates. I can’t control all of their actions, but I do find their loyalty to me very comforting.”
Stephen’s face fell flat. All the light and color seeped out of him. “Are you threatening me?”
“Merely making a statement. After all, our relationship only works when we can be honest with each other, right?” Bruce figured he had waited long enough. Time to stop this nonsense where Stephen thought he had the upper hand. He’d see who was in charge. “I’m sure your son would agree. Conrad is his name, isn’t it?”
If possible, Stephen turned even paler. “He’s not involved in my business. He’s just a kid.”
“And a smart one. How is he doing at Brown?”
Bruce was enjoying the performance now. Watching Stephen shift in his seat and loosen his tie made Bruce wish he’d pulled this stunt earlier. Every part of him vibrated with the thrill of taking a bloated hypocrite down.
Sure, Stephen would accept his money while insisting he valued the system. He’d bask in the glory of his amazing litigation skills but insist they never share a meal. It was garbage. Bruce knew the truth. They were the same. They shared a common goal—make money, build the business, succeed.
“How did you know about my son?” The question came out as a whispered plea.
“I know everything, Stephen. That’s what you seem to forget.”
“But I—”
“I hear Archibald House is nice. That roommate of his, though.” Bruce shook his head as he made a tsk-tsk sound. “Lots of alcohol and a C in chemistry. You need to be careful with that young man. I’d hate to see Conrad get sucked into that lifestyle. He could be in the wrong place at the wrong time and who knows what would happen.”
Rage poured out of Stephen. “What do you want?”
“As I said, I need to get a message to a business associate.”
“Is he in Arizona?”
“He’s on assignment in San Diego at the moment, and I’m depending on you to help us keep in touch. It’s imperative right now that I communicate with him.”
Flustered, his hands waving as he dumped his briefcase back on the table, Stephen gritted his teeth as he talked. “I can put him on your guest list.”
The more out of control the lawyer got, the more at ease Bruce felt. This was a balance of power he could appreciate. “My associate isn’t in a position to come in and out of here. He’s needed in California.”
“For what?”
“Do you really want to know?”
Stephen shook his head. “What’s his name?”
“You don’t need to know that either. I’ll give you all the information you require to get the job done.”
“And then?”
Jeremy Hill will die.
Bruce smiled. “I’ll let you know.”
* * *
STANDING IN THE motel bathroom, Sara slipped the oversize T-shirt over her head and let it fall to her knees. Joel had dropped off the change of clothes and a few toiletries a few hours ago. Despite the fact that it was nearly two in the morning, she still couldn’t sleep. Her nerves jumped from all the excitement and fear swirling inside her.
Running into Garrett’s open arms the second after his face appeared above the stairs had been pure instinct. She’d seen the firm jaw and those intense blue eyes and her heart had melted. The terror of the moments before, lying in the back behind a bed with her arms over her ears as she prayed for a miracle, hammered at her anger toward him. When what she thought was the end had come, she’d wanted him with a desperation that stunned her.
Now, hours later, she wasn’t sure she even wanted to see him. Not that he’d honored her concerns. No. When she’d asked him to get his own room he’d dumped his bag on her bed and told her he’d be back after the men talked strategy.
Now he was back, and the time to deal with him, with them, and all that had passed between them, had come.
Her hand curled around the doorknob and she stopped. On the other side of the bathroom door stood the one man who both lit a fire of need in her belly and filled her with a brain-chilling fury.
He’d walked out on her.
The door rattled on its hinges as the pounding started. “Sara? What’s taking so long in there?”
Working up her nerve while clamping a lid on her fury had taken longer than she’d expected. Night had fully fallen and the abandoned area around the motel added to the desolated feel. They rode only a short time outside of downtown San Diego, but this place felt hours away. No street lights. No other cars. Just the Hill brothers, Garrett’s team and a woman named Meredith.
Just thinking about the other woman put a flame to Sara’s already sparking anger. “Why don’t you go to your new girlfriend’s room?”
Something thudded against the door, likely his hand. “That’s you. You’re the only woman I have in my life and I’m having a difficult enough time dealing with you.”
He acted like she was to blame. The idiot. “You won’t have to worry about that anymore.”
“I will break this door down if you don’t—”
She threw it open and his weight against the wood pulled him into the bathroom. “What, Garrett? Tell me.”
His mouth snapped shut.
Seeing the spooked expression cross his face, the wide-eyed confusion she’d never seen before, built a new wall of strength inside her. “Well?”
“I need to talk with you.”
She pushed passed him into the bedroom. She stopped when her knees hit the bed because she realized she didn’t have anywhere else to go. No way was she wandering around outside alone. She’d had enough excitement for one evening. For a lifetime, actually.
She was the assistant manager at a bridal store. Brides could be strange and difficult but none of them tried to shoot her.
“You said everything a few weeks ago, or should I recap for you?”
He frowned down at her as his hands hit his hips. “What’s gotten into you?”
She understood the root of his confusion. Their relationship had bumped along with her accepting and him running here and there with little to no notice. She’d spent a lot of nights and weekends alone. She’d gone weeks without seeing him and barely hearing from him.
She rarely complained. She accepted, thinking it would all be fine once they got married.
Seeing him get down on one knee and propose had been the best day of her life. The night under the stars, the roaring waves as they’d hit the beach and the sand that seeped between her toes. In an airy white dress, she’d felt free and so loved.
Then he’d started talking about getting the wedding over so he could protect her better. The words, his attitude, sucked all the romance out of what should have been the sighing early days of their engagement.
“You turned me into this,” she whispered in a voice filled with all the anguish stirring inside her.
“The fire and gunfire in the safe house was my fault. I take responsibility for that.”
“I’m talking about when I didn’t agree to stand in the living room and let some stranger marry us on a random Tuesday night. The next day you told me we needed to rethink our relationship.”
“We’re back to that? Look, I wasn’t thinking straight. I was upset.”
“That made two of us.”
“True, but—”
“Then you left town.” Tension twirled and twisted in her brain until the spring popped loose. “And now I meet Meredith.”
“Right, I can explain about that.” He reached for her.
Sara shrugged away from him. The thought of his hands on her right now made her murderous. “Who is she?”
“It’s not
what you think.”
“I think you’re a jerk.”
He held his hands in front of him as if he knew the chance of being slapped again was pretty good. “Maybe, but not for the reason you’re assuming.”
“I’m waiting.”
“She rented an apartment from me.”
The words lay there. Sara turned them over in her mind and still couldn’t make sense of them.
“What are you talking about?” The air hiccuped in her lungs and refused to come out. “Wait a second. You have another place?”
“A house in Coronado.”
The force of his betrayal nearly doubled her over. “Were you planning to tell me before we got married?”
“Of course.”
The snide tone had her back teeth slamming together. “Don’t say it like that. You don’t get to be angry. Not when you lived with another woman behind my back.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
Sara wrapped her arms around her stomach and pressed as tight as she could. She knew if she let go her insides would spill onto the floor. Her body rocked as the words poured out of her in a deflated rush. “I was so stupid. I actually thought this was a cold-feet issue. That you’d take some time and get over it.”
He touched her elbow and moved in front of her. “I asked you to elope.”
“You wanted to rush everything until it meant nothing. And all the time you had this other woman.”
“Never. I wouldn’t cheat. You know that.” He held her upper arms, bringing her in close. “Meredith rented the upstairs apartment, and thanks to me she lost everything when the house blew up.”
“Don’t ask me to feel sorry for her.”
“She’s as innocent as you are, Sara. Don’t hate her.”
He had the wrong target. Interesting how a smart man could so easily miss the obvious. “Right now I hate you.”
But she didn’t. That was the terrible secret that made her doubt her brainpower. Despite all the hurt and pain, all the fear and lies, she loved him with every breath.
“I don’t think you do.” He laid a hand against her heart.
It beat even harder through her skin. She wanted to lean in, to borrow his heat and his strength. Instead she dug deep into her reserves and found the will to fight back.
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