by Nana Malone
“Another few days.”
“Fine. I’ll keep the kid safe till you get back.”
“Caleb, I don’t want to have to remind you of what happens when you go off script, do I? A family is dead because you went off script.”
Ice flowed into Caleb’s veins. “And I don’t want to remind you of what happens when people threaten me. Do what you have to do. I’m protecting the kid.”
Sabine knew how to get to him. But he also knew her. At least well enough to know that the story about Carlotta was bogus. Sure, she wanted the kid out of sight, but not for the reasons she’d given. He merely had to figure out what game she was playing.
Chapter 12
Caleb kept an eye on the empty hallway of their apartment building as Micha unlocked her door. It had been a long day, and from the looks of it, with her slumped shoulders and the tense set of her beautiful mouth, it was only getting longer for her.
She slanted Caleb a look over her shoulder. “Satisfied now? I’m in the door safe and sound. Now you can go home.” She might have met his gaze directly, but she shifted from foot to foot, and her tongue peeked out to lick her lips.
His gaze glued to her mouth. He couldn’t help but remember her sweet taste as she’d wrapped herself around him. He shook his head to clear it. “Still trying to dictate terms to me, princess? I thought you’d already come to the conclusion that this was how it was going to work. I’m now as close to you as a second skin. Everything you do I’ll know about.”
“Caleb, that works in the office and when I’m out and about, but for the love of God, in my own apartment? If you’re that worried, you can see me from across the way. Why not get yourself some handy dandy spy equipment and spy on me from there. I need some time to myself.” Stepping into her apartment, she tried to close the door on him.
She was strong, but he was stronger. Much stronger. Gently, he stopped the door’s progression. Caleb had to chuckle to himself. She really thought she’d get rid of him that easily? She was one stubborn woman. Though he was inclined to cut her a little slack. Her world had been turned upside down.
He tried for calm rationality again. “Look, this situation is hard on you, I get it. It’ll only be temporary. This is my job, and it’s what I do well. Until I can get all the security measures set up in this building, I’ll feel safer if I’m physically watching you and not from across the way. It’ll make me feel better. You’re a client now, but you’re also a friend.” Yeah right. A friend he was dying to make love to. Bad.
At this angle, given her height and how she was pressed up tight against him, he wondered what it might be like to make love to her standing up against those windows he watched her through every day. She was tall enough to make it all sorts of interesting. Shit. He inched back giving himself a little room. If he didn’t get his thoughts under control, he’d end up with a serious hard on, and that would get them nowhere.
Micha met his gaze as if assessing his seriousness. When she relented, he was surprised. He hadn’t expected that, but okay, sure. When he stepped inside, he watched her closely as she tossed her purse in a chair and her keys on the counter.
“Do you want a drink or something?”
“No. Thank you.” Then, because he realized that she must be a little raw from the whole day, he added, “I mostly want to get a look at the layout of the rest of the place. Then you and I are going to do some talking. But we’ll do that at my place so I can grab a few changes of clothes and toiletries.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re moving in? That’s bullshit. If that’s the case, I’d rather you sent someone else.”
He cocked his head and studied her from the roots of that beautiful head of hair, to her outstanding breasts, to the tips of her toes, pausing at all the interesting places in between. “Is there a reason you don’t want me to stay with you?”
Exasperated, she tossed up her hands. “Don’t be daft, Caleb. We used to be interested in each other. And given the other night when I was, uh, vulnerable”—a splash of pink tinted her dusky cheeks—”I don’t think this is necessarily wise.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “Look, you and I have a minor history. As much as I would kill to have you naked, under me and moaning my name, I gave up on pipe dreams years ago.” There, let her stew on that. He hadn’t given up on shit, but he’d let her believe what she needed to get through what was going to be a long night. “I’m here to work, not put the moves on you. So relax. Show me around.”
Her apartment mirrored his. Their master bedrooms faced each other across the courtyard. The inside of her bedroom was feminine without being overly frilly. It smelled of flowers and perfume and something else fruity, but it didn’t overwhelm. He checked her closet and her bathroom, as well as the windows. They were on the third floor, so he wasn’t as worried about access to her place, but there was a fire escape. He checked that it was locked up tight, but her windows were pretty useless. They locked, but they weren’t anything a determined stalker wouldn’t get through.
As they were leaving her bedroom, he caught something glinting and reflecting light from under her bed. Striding over, he bent down and reached for it. What the…
He slanted Micha a questioning look.
She shrugged. “Buffy had Mr. Pointy. I have Mr. Slashy.”
The knife in his hand wasn’t the average kitchen variety. It had a solid handle with a delicate grip, designed for a woman. The blade was long, larger than his hand, and deadly sharp. It was clean. “You want to tell me what you’re doing with this under your bed?”
Deadpan, she said, “It’s for when I can’t get a finished-with suitor out of my bed.”
Wow. Yeah. Then he spied the hair spray and lighter on her bedside table. “Do I even want to know?”
She shrugged again. “Homemade blow torch.”
This time a grin did escape. What kind of woman kept a homemade blow torch by her bed? Micha, of course. “You’re serious?”
“I don’t joke about weapons. I watch a lot of Myth Busters.”
Right. “I’m surprised I don’t see a gun.”
“Top drawer. I don’t keep it loaded. Bullets are in the mattress spring at the foot of my bed.”
Holy shit. “You know all this shit is dangerous.”
She crossed her arms over that magnificent rack. “I’m not an idiot, Caleb. I know how to shoot. I go twice a month to the shooting range. I also know how to use the knife. I do Krav Maga. The flame thrower I haven’t been able to try yet, but I understand the mechanics of it. I’m using Aquanet for a reason. Higher alcohol content.”
He blinked. “Yeah, but why?”
Her eyes went fierce and her jaw tightened. “Because I never wanted to need anyone like you. I want to be able to take care of myself. It’s better to not depend on anyone ‘cause what the hell are you going to do when they’re not there?”
Ah, that did it. If he hadn’t already been in love with her, that did it. Not the pontificating on weapons but her inner strength and her awareness of her own vulnerability. She might have been a warrior in a past life.
“Micha,” he said gently, “You won’t need any of this stuff. I’m not going to let anyone touch you.” And that went beyond the job. His possessiveness flared again, and he opted to go with it. This woman churned him up inside and made him feel things he wasn’t ready for. But there it was—he had to deal with it. And she would have to deal with it eventually too. After she was safe.
She tapped her foot impatiently. “We done here? I’m hungry.”
“Depends. Do you have any other weapons?”
She rolled her eyes heavenward. “There’s another gun in the lockbox in the office, another knife strapped to the bottom of my coffee table, and another gun in the wall by the kitchen.”
She had to be kidding, right? But no. After another perusal of her kitchen and living room and office, she showed him all the weapons. He took her word about the one in the wall. He wasn’t about to start tearing down her walls to se
e it. But now they needed to have a much broader conversation. This went beyond a woman who was scared because of a couple of isolated incidents. This level of caution spoke of a woman who had spent too much time afraid.
He studied her again, finally seeing her stripped of all bravado. She was scared and vulnerable and soft. Lethal, yeah, but still soft. “It seems you and I have a few things to talk about, yeah?”
After they’d left Micha’s place, he escorted her back to his to grab a few things and ordered food. When they finally sat back around her coffee table, he asked, “You want to tell me why all the weapons?”
“I like to protect myself.”
He frowned at her. “But instead of using an alarm system inside your house, you opt to arm up.”
She eyed his shoulder holster pointedly, and he made a mental note to start tucking his gun at the small of his back. He didn’t need her attention focused on it all the time.
“It’s fine for you to be armed, but not me?”
Yes. “No. It’s not like that. But there are simpler methods. You don’t have to go all nuclear.”
“I’m not getting rid of the guns or the knives, Caleb. You can forget it.”
Was that what she thought? That he wanted her to get rid of them? He liked that she knew how to shoot. Maybe he’d take her to the shooting range when this was all over. He was impressed she knew self-defense. The Israeli fighting technique she favored was a real field leveler. And unlike a lot of martial arts, it didn’t take years and years to learn how to be useful. From the jump they taught practitioners to defend and attack if necessary. So he liked that she knew how to fend off an attacker. The knife, well, that meant someone would have to get close enough for her to use it, so he wasn’t a fan. And as for her homemade incendiary, well, he didn’t know what to make of that.
The thought of some asshole trying to fuck with her filled him with conflicting emotions. It made him hot thinking of her taking care of business. It also pissed him off enough to kill, thinking of her having to.
“I’m not taking anything away from you. Matter of fact, think of me as an added weapon. But in order to be effective, I need to know everything. So why don’t you start by telling me the real reason you’re armed to the teeth?”
She chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully, and Caleb couldn’t help but stare. Much more of that, and he’d take the job away from her and do it himself. He cleared his throat and shifted on the couch. Getting a boner was not a good call right now. “We have all night, Micha.”
She hefted a sigh like carrying around that breath had been exhausting. “A few years ago, I had a stalker.”
“I need specifics.”
She rolled her eyes, but continued. “Six years ago. I had moved to New York after college to work for a magazine. Everything went great for a while, until I met this guy.”
Caleb ground his teeth but didn’t interrupt. His mind immediately ran through several ways he could rip the guy apart if he’d laid a hand on Micha.
“At first, everything was great. Dating was fun, then things became serious. I was young and didn’t know any better. He was an actor, so his hours were a bit odd. After a couple of months, this woman approaches me at work and tells me to stop fucking her husband.” Micha rubbed her nose as she met his gaze. Her eyes were full of derision and anger. Not fiery anger, but the quiet seething kind. Like merely reliving the memory was enough to piss her off all over again. “He had neglected to tell me he was married.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, he was a real asshole, that one. Anyway, he gave me the spiel about him being separated etcetera. I didn’t want to hear it and kicked him to the curb. A couple weeks later, his wife shows up again outside my building, and she’s going off about how I’m a home wrecker, and I’ll pay for what I’ve done to her family and stuff. I told her that as soon as I knew I broke it off and she was welcome to him.”
“How did she take that?”
“More yelling. I left her where she stood.” Micha shrugged. “A month went by, and I hadn’t seen either of them again, so I thought it was all over. Then one night I came home, and there was someone in my bedroom. I had an alarm system, so I thought it was Simon, come back to try to get back in my good graces. He had the code after all; he had practically lived with me. But it was her. She’d slashed my bed, trashed the place, and broken every dish.”
He frowned. “How the hell did she get into your apartment?”
“I don’t know. The police said she must have taken his key.”
“You didn’t change your lock?”
“I took what I thought was the only key. He must have given her the combination to the alarm too. I don’t know. She uhm…” Micha’s gaze slipped down to her hands, and she licked her lips nervously. “She had a gun. Took me outside and told me to get in her trunk.”
Her voice went cold and flat, and Caleb wanted to hold her. To comfort her. To chase away the nightmares, like he’d done in the elevator.
“Once I was in the trunk, she held a knife to my neck.” She pulled back her hair to reveal a thin, faint line below her jaw.
Lifting his fingers, he used then to trace along the faint scar he’d never noticed before.
“She told me she was going to gut me. I wanted to fight, but I didn’t know how. The gun and the knife—I was so panicked.” Micha drew in a shaky breath before continuing. “We drove for what felt like hours. Then nothing.”
“What do you mean nothing?”
“I mean nothing. She parked and left me there in the trunk. I eventually grew tired of waiting. I figured since she was going to kill me anyway, I might as well make her work for it. I finally managed to get one of the headlights out, and I stuck out my arm and waved it around. I freed my mouth and started screaming holy hell. It took two days for anyone to find me. She’d parked at the far end of a mall. Some kid had seen my arm sticking out and called the cops.”
Icicles formed in his gut as she recounted her story. Someone had made her this fearful and distrusting. The urge to maim and kill flooded him with adrenaline and cold fury. “Shit, Micha, I’m so sorry.” He put a hand on her knee for comfort.
Micha didn’t take his hand. But she didn’t brush him off either. “Yeah, well. It’s why I don’t like small spaces. I was in there for thirty-six hours. Cops arrested her. She’d gone back home like nothing was up. She was sentenced to ten years in a psychiatric ward.”
His head throbbed. He didn’t like the sound of this. “Is there any chance she’s out?”
Micha shook her head, and her curls flounced around her shoulders. “No. They would have called me to tell me.”
“Okay. I’ll look into it just to be sure. What about the guy? Have you seen him since?”
Micha’s breath caught. Her eyes hardened, and the soft grey irises went the color of flint. When she spoke, her voice shook. “He was in my office today.”
Caleb stared at her. The asshole who had triggered the worst event of her life had been in her office today, and she was only now telling him? “Micha, this is the kind of shit I need to know. What’s his name? I’ll have the cops pick him up and talk to him.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand. He was there to do the screen tests. My ex is Simon Jax, the actor.”
Say, what the fuck? “Simon Jax. The action star. The one who does more explosion scenes than Michael Bay can dream up?”
“Yeah, that’s him. He’s also my first assignment for the new entertainment channel.”
Caleb dredged up curses so foul they would have made his Army Ranger father proud.
Micha seemed impressed. “Wow. I should have been taking notes on how to curse properly.” She cleared her throat. “Turned out he had been still married when we started seeing each other, but had filed for separation when we became serious. That’s what sent her over the edge, I guess. I haven’t seen him since. Until this assignment.”
“There’s no way you can do that interview. When did you get the flower
s?”
“The day I found out about the job.”
“Is there any way someone could have found out about the position and that you were in the running?”
Micha shrugged delicate shoulders. “It’s possible. Simon was there for screen tests. Since he’s invested in the production company as well, the network wants Simon to do a running piece where he follows other stars like himself as they do humanitarian work overseas. They’re trying to tie it into the show. His team might have leaked the information. It wouldn’t have taken too much work to find out who at SDM has on-air experience.”
“So it’s possible his wife could have found out?”
Micha blinked rapidly. “Ex-wife. And it’s possible, but she’s still locked up. I don’t know how much access she has to media.”
The hair on Caleb’s neck stood at attention. He didn’t like any of this. But he’d get some confirmation before he freaked her out. “I’ll start checking in the morning. In the meantime, you look like you could use some rest.”
She nodded as she unfolded her long, bronzed legs and stood. “Caleb, I won’t go back to being afraid.”
“I’m here now. You don’t have to be afraid. I’ll find out who’s doing this. I promise you, no one’s going to hurt you.”
Chapter 13
Micha tossed in her bed. Moonlight seeped in through the cracks in her plantation blinds, casting the bedroom in an eerie light. She should be able to sleep. She was exhausted. It had been a hell of a day. Between the cops, Jax, and Caleb, she had nothing left to give. But her damn eyes wouldn’t stay closed. She flipped again. Her brain worked in overdrive, trying to piece together how everything had spiraled so out of control.
A sliver of fear snaked under her covers, trying to worm its way into her body, but she shut it down. She was not the helpless woman who Trisha Jax had locked in her trunk. She was not afraid to be alone. She didn’t need the feel of a warm body to reassure her that everything was okay. Specifically not Caleb Atkins’s warm body.