Editor's Choice Volume I - Slow summer Kisses, Kilts & kraken, Negotiating point

by Stacey Shannon, Spencer Pape Cindy, Giordano Adrienne

  But then his breath hitched and he kissed the side of her head and she did open her eyes.

  Fantastic.

  Delight swarmed her and she grinned up at the ceiling. “I would like more please.” So much more.

  Gavin let out a heavy breath. “Insatiable, are you?”

  “Never before. Apparently with you I am. Is that a problem?”

  “Not in this lifetime.”

  But then he eased off her, dropping a kiss on the tip of her nose, then her lips. “I adore you. Even if you accuse me of sexual harassment.”

  She shoved him off with a laugh. “I think I was the harasser. Totally guilty.”

  “But I loved it.”

  Their gazes met for a split-second, two people riding the high of a couple of healthy orgasms. Janet rolled sideways to retrieve her scattered clothing. If she did it fast enough, maybe they could forego the whole wow-we-shouldn’t-have-done-that routine.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  She slipped her bra on, trying not to stare while Gavin retrieved his pants. “You have no idea how great I am. I shouldn’t feel this good. Not with Roxann in trouble, but I’m not going to overthink it. Let’s just get her out of there.”

  Janet took her seat, slid her headset on and forced herself not to think about the potentially colossal mistake she’d just made. Not that the sex wasn’t swoon worthy, but hello? She’d broken her most important career girl rule and boffed an executive. Worse, she wanted to do it again.

  Many times.

  Smart girl successfully turned stupid. In record time.

  “Yeah, well,” she muttered. Too late to worry about it. Besides, it was fun.

  Gavin picked up his headset to call Joe Smith. “What?”

  She looked at him. “What, what?”

  “You said something.”

  “I did?”

  He laughed. “Yes.”

  She nodded and went back to her laptop to see if she could find and hack into Joe Smith’s bank account. Why not? “I’m dandy.”

  He set his hand on her shoulder. “Are you freaking out again?”

  And, oh, this man.

  Sexy.

  Galore.

  “It’s sinking in. I mean, I don’t do this and now I’m afraid you think I’m the reverse unslut.” The reverse unslut? What the heck? Lost my damned mind. Total emotional vomit. Or maybe she was simply terrified of falling in love with him.

  He shook his head and laughed. “I don’t think you’re the reverse unslut. Although, I’m not sure I understand what that is. What I think is you and I have chemistry that rumbles a house and we need to figure out what to do with it. You don’t want to be the reverse unslut and I don’t want to be the executive who hounds female employees.”

  “This was more my doing than yours.”

  He held up his hand. “It doesn’t matter. We don’t want people gossiping, so let’s table the discussion until we get Roxann released. Okay?”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  “Nothing to be sorry about.” He waved a hand between them. “I don’t see us as a bad thing. I just don’t know how to handle it. Yet.”

  Welcome to Awkwardville. She motioned to the throw phone. “We can figure it out later.”

  After I hang myself because I can’t stop chasing you around the office with my pants down.

  Gavin initiated the call to Joe. That fast he’d switched gears. Amazing. Janet adjusted her headset and settled in to listen and take notes.

  “Joe?” Gavin said into the phone. “How was dinner? Everything quiet there?”

  “Yeah,” Joe said. “Where are we on Mr. Spelling’s release?”

  “We’re working on that. The Banner has confirmed they received your article. They’re looking at it.”

  Not a total lie on his part.

  “By the way, Joe, is there anyone you need me to call? Anywhere you should be? Family maybe?”

  Maybe she shouldn’t be feeling smug, but Gavin was so playing this guy. Going down, sucker.

  “Uh, no. I’m good.”

  “No family?”

  “I…uh…have a son. He’s with my mother now.”

  Going. Down. Sucker.

  “A son. That’s awesome. I don’t have any kids. Always wanted them, but haven’t found the right girl yet.”

  I could be that girl. But she didn’t dare look at him. No siree. She would keep focused on her notes. If she looked at him now, she’d not only be the smart girl turned stupid, she’d be nominated for president of the nonprofit organization Stupid Girls Unite.

  “My son is nine,” Joe said. “Plays Little League baseball. Kid loves baseball.”

  From the corner of her eye, she glanced at Gavin, kicked back in his chair, arms folded across his chest like this was just a casual chat. And yet, hadn’t they just talked about him playing catch with his dad? The man’s ability to compartmentalize ranked right up there with Michael’s.

  “Oh, hey,” Gavin said. “I can relate. When I was a kid all I ever wanted was to throw a ball with my dad. Maybe shag some flies. Nothing better than that.”

  I could love him. She shook off that potentially life-bombing thought because really, she shouldn’t be sitting here imagining him playing catch with their children. And who said they were having more than one?

  Pay attention! She smacked herself—hard—on the head and Gavin looked over, his face twisted.

  Sorry, she mouthed and he nodded.

  I accept the presidency. Thank you.

  “You know what though, Joe?”

  “What?”

  Gavin slowly leaned forward, a panther bearing down on his prey. “What do you think your son would want you to do now?”

  “Huh?”

  “I think he would want you to walk out of that house, right? My dad was gone by my fourteenth birthday and you know what? I never got over that. Do your son a favor and come out of there before someone gets hurt. No one is hurt. What you’ve done isn’t all that bad. We can minimize this and your son will have his father.”

  And, God, Janet was dying inside, her heart aching for Gavin as a little boy craving his father and somehow, when she looked at grown-up Gavin, he seemed relaxed, kicked back, just shooting the bull with a buddy.

  Then he turned to her, literally shifting his body in his chair to settle that dark gaze on her and she yearned to curl into him. To soothe the suffering little boy who’d lost his father.

  He pushed the mute button on the phone. “Can you find me the son?”

  Varying thoughts slammed inside her head. Snap out of it. What was she doing? This was the game he played. His job. He probably wasn’t even thinking about his own father and she was what? Thinking they’d have some huge epiphany that she’d be the one to round out his lonely life?

  Please.

  She spun to her laptop. “Of course. I’ll track down Joe’s ex.”

  “You don’t know anything about my son,” Joe said.

  No, but he will in about three minutes.

  Gavin pushed the button on the phone again. “You’re right. But I was nine once, and I had a father I loved very much. I missed a lifetime of memories with my dad. Do you want that for your son?”

  “No, but this is important what I’m doing. Jackson Spelling doesn’t deserve to be in jail.”

  “Joe, let’s concentrate on you, and what we can do to get you out of this mess. Get you home to that little boy of yours. Can we do that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Janet kept at the code to crack into Joe’s ex-girlfriend’s Facebook page. So close. So darned close. “Almost there,” she whispered. “Come to Mama.”

  “And how about your mom?” Gavin said to Joe. “Are you close with her? Must be if you let her watch your son.”

  “Yeah. I’m pretty close with her. She takes great care of my son.”

  “It’s gotta be tough being a single dad. I give you credit. It’s good you have support from your mom. Jeez, Joe, you’ve got a great
family.”

  “It’s a decent life.”

  Gavin sat forward and stared straight ahead. “Even more reason to think about what you’re doing here. I get that you feel Jackson Spelling is being persecuted, I do. Maybe I can help you with that after we get you out of there safely.”

  “You can get us out of here by getting our leader out of jail.”

  A click sounded on the other end of the phone line.

  * * *

  Gavin snatched his headset off and shot out of his chair to walk off some energy. He eyeballed the iPod on the desk, but decided against it. “Damn. Thought I had him.”

  “I thought you did too. It seemed like you were so close.”

  He held his hands out. “That’s how it goes sometimes. You think you have them and—poof—gone.” He checked his watch. Almost 7:00 p.m. Shit. “Anything on the son?”

  “Give me one second. I’m about to grab the mother’s cell number.”

  “Excellent.”

  This woman was amazing. Made his life so much easier. And she made him laugh. Not an easy thing to accomplish lately. He grinned at her, this cute pixie of a woman who was fearless in her job and did battle with men two and a half times her body weight. His chest expanded, a huge burst of something opening up inside him and filling him with respect and adoration for someone he had no business feeling that way about.

  It is what it is. If he was anything, he was a realist. By all indications after the gymnastic sex not half an hour ago, neither one of them would be interested in running away from said situation. Yes, he was an executive and she was support staff. No, she didn’t report to him. If they handled it carefully, it could work.

  He’d make it work.

  Janet handed him a slip of paper. “Here you go. The ex’s phone number. What are you going to do?”

  He stared down at the digits, contemplated the destruction they could cause. How Joe would react to seeing his son, Gavin couldn’t guess. The pressure, the emotional warfare, might be too much. Maybe he’d commit suicide. Maybe he’d drag the kid in as a hostage. Maybe he’d turn a gun on a pregnant Roxann Taylor.

  Who knew what drove people in these situations?

  Gavin ran a hand over his head. “It’s a hip-shot.” He stopped walking, looked at Janet and imagined how it would feel if she were the one chained to a bed. Rotting, foul sickness consumed him. Decision made. “I want the son here. This guy loves his son and the kid might slap some sense into him. Emotionally speaking.”

  “It’s getting late. You may not have time.”

  “Has Vic made contact?”

  “No, but they’ll be back soon.”

  Janet slid the headset off and set it down on the desk. She leveled her hand over it and tapped her fingers. This wouldn’t be good. “Go ahead. Say it.”

  She raised her gaze to him and their eyes held. That brief hesitation, the pinched tight lips, left no doubt she was struggling to find the right words.

  The ones that wouldn’t piss him off.

  “I think you need to prepare yourself. Vic held up his end, and he’ll come in here, literally, with guns blazing. The deal was nightfall and that time is approaching. I know him. Once it’s nightfall, there will be no debates.”

  “I’m not done yet. I almost had Joe. I felt it. That’s why he hung up.”

  “I realize that, but he—they—haven’t agreed to surrender.”

  Surrender. Not a word negotiators used. Hostage takers interpreted surrendering as a negative thing. Jail. Courtrooms. Either way, it meant failure.

  But Janet was right. He didn’t have the kind of time he would need to drag this guy out of there with words alone.

  Unless…

  He spun to the barn door. Janet had opened it and the waning sunlight splashed across the entry. The quiet surrounded him and the smell of fresh air cleared his mind. Go for it. He whipped back to Janet. “I need to get face-to-face with him. And I need his son with me.”

  She jumped from her chair. “What?”

  “If I can show him the kid, then get in a room with this guy, I can talk him out. He’ll keep thinking about his son and he’ll walk out. He’s nuts about this kid and won’t want him to see him this way.”

  “Gavin, you’re crazy if you think I’m letting you go in there. You have no idea what kind of weaponry they have. You could walk through the front door and get shot. You may not even make it to the front door! They might shoot you in the driveway.”

  “Not if I have his son next to me. I think I connected with him on the kid. We’ll get the team to line up like they did when you delivered the food. I’ll tell Joe I’m coming in to talk and I’ll have another go at him.”

  Both her hands went straight up. “Oh, no. No. No. No. Vic will go crazy.”

  “He’s not here. When he gets back, he can call me on the radio and scream, but this is a good idea. If I get in a room with these people, I can talk them out. I can also get a look at the interior and maybe see Roxann. If we wind up breaching, we’ll need that intel.”

  Yes. This was a plan he could live with. Gavin picked up his cell phone to call the child’s mother.

  * * *

  Janet paced the barn while Gavin talked with Joe’s ex-girlfriend. He can’t do this. The raging panic pounded her and she dragged her palms up her forehead. There he was, sitting in that damned crappy folding chair, his feet propped on the makeshift desk while she had a grand mal seizure.

  He’s insane.

  She should step outside and call Vic. Shouldn’t she? Let him know about this half-baked plan? Maybe Vic was close and could talk him out of it.

  The sex really must have turned her stupid because after all the arguing she’d heard today, Gavin would never allow Vic, of all people, to talk him out of a turkey sandwich, much less meeting with a hostage taker. It would be a whole new ballistic missile thrown into an already tenuous working relationship.

  But, dammit, she wanted Gavin out of harm’s way. With this plan, he’d be locked in the jaws of it.

  No.

  Finally, Gavin hung up and she wasted no time. “You can’t go in there. You have no idea what this guy will do when he sees his son. What about the people with him? We don’t know anything about them.” She stepped to him, grabbed both his hands and squeezed. “I know you hate the idea of going tactical, but this is too extreme. Let Vic win this one. Please.”

  To his credit, he remained seated rather than taking a position of strength by standing over her. “It’s not about winning. It’s about making sure a pregnant woman goes home to her husband. If we go tactical, I have no confidence, no matter how good I know our team is, that Roxann won’t get hurt. I’m not worried about our side. It’s the people in the house that concern me. They’re unstable. I think if I put this guy’s son in front of him, the love for his child will trump this crazy-assed mission they’re on.”

  “You think?”

  Gavin nodded. “Never any guarantees, but my instincts are good. Better than good. This is the way to go.”

  All this, she knew. When Gavin left the FBI he’d been one of their top three negotiators. Six months ago, he’d joined Taylor Security and on his first day, after he’d been introduced to the team, she hacked into his employee file. Not something she was proud of but she’d convinced herself it was idle curiosity about the new guy. Now, months later, she didn’t bother denying she’d been attracted to him the second she’d seen him. He’d walked into that conference room, faced a team of hulking, deadly, spec ops guys and never flinched. From that moment, she’d locked on to his confidence.

  And now, the man who clearly had no issues being surrounded by other exceptional men was asking her to trust his judgment. Concerning Michael’s pregnant wife. She slapped her hands on top of her head. “I know your instincts are great. This is personal though. Too much emotion involved.”

  “But in this case, the emotion is the key. He’s a loving father holding a woman hostage. He will not want his son remembering this about h
im.”

  He leaned forward, pressed a kiss on her lips. “Trust me. Please?”

  She kissed him back, let the sensation of its softness ease her panic for a few seconds. She hated being caught between supporting him and terror. Her heart banged inside her chest and she thought about Roxann and her unborn baby. It all came down to getting Roxann out of this and if Gavin thought he could do it, well, she’d have to believe in him. What harm could it do?

  Aside from him getting killed.

  * * *

  Gavin pulled back from the kiss and rested his hands on her soft, cupid cheeks. “What do you say?”

  “I say I hate you.”

  Not that he believed it with the smile she wore. For a few seconds he’d convinced himself she wouldn’t agree with him. He wasn’t sure when it happened, but her support had become vital to him. Here they were, two people in the chasm of coworkers becoming lovers. “Good,” he said. “The mother will be here with the kid in thirty minutes.”

  “And then what?”

  “Then I show Joe his son. First, I need to get him on the phone and convince him to meet face-to-face.”

  He snatched the headset and pressed the button. “Joe, it’s getting late. I’m taking a walk over there and let’s talk face-to-face.”

  Only give him the options you want him to choose from. Another negotiator truth. And right now, there was only one choice Gavin wanted him to have.

  “No.”

  “Joe, listen to me. My guys aren’t going to move unless I give the word. Haven’t I played straight with you all day?”

  “Well, yeah, but how do I know you’re not going to send your army in?”

  “Not gonna happen. Not with me in there with you. You know I want you to get out of there safely. I think we can talk this out face-to-face and make that happen. Everyone can get what they need, Joe.”

  Need. Not want. Jackson Spelling wouldn’t be getting out of jail. Not this way. Maybe Gavin was skirting the lie—the only lie will be the last—but this was as good a reason as any.

  “Okay,” Joe said. “Just you. And we search you before you come in.”

  Gavin pumped his fist. Yes. “Deal. My guys will line up just like they did with the food, okay? Just like last time. Nothing crazy.”