Elite Ops Complete Series

by Lora Leigh

  It hit her fully then. If he hadn’t been supporting her she may well have fallen to the floor in hysterics. Someone had shot at her again. What if that bullet actually hit her the next time?

  Nik could feel the rage tearing through him as he looked past Mikayla to the other girl.

  Deirdre Maple was watching him closely, her green eyes curious, knowing. And suspicious. She didn’t trust Nik at all, and that was probably a good thing. It was a quality Mikayla should have developed before she let him into her bed.

  Not that he had any intention of betraying her, but she was so fucking trusting.

  “The car was a late-model Civic,” Deirdre stated as Mikayla continued to hold on to him. “Maryland plates.” She quickly rattled off the first three numbers. “It was a grayish or silver color, hard to tell in the low light.” She nodded to the busy street. “They shot up a side road and disappeared rather than continuing on Washington Street.”

  “I didn’t see anything but the glass exploding into the shop.” Mikayla pulled.

  “I was watching the street.” Deirdre shrugged. “Since the last time someone tried to gun you down, I’ve been trying to watch things better. I saw the guy stick his arm out the window toward our window, but I didn’t see the gun and I didn’t see his face.”

  In the low light, it would have been easy at that angle to miss the gun, Nik thought as he turned and stared out the door.

  “This is crazy,” Mikayla whispered as she moved back only as far as Nik allowed her to go. “Why try to kill me now? I’ve been questioning people for weeks.”

  “Because you’re getting too close,” he snarled. “For God’s sake, you have to stop this!”

  It was a warning to him as well, Nik knew. A warning to back off, just as that first shooting had been a warning to Mikayla. To back off the investigation.

  “And here’s our friendly neighborhood Detective Dumbass,” Deirdre’s tone was nearly a sneer as several police cars pulled up as well as an unmarked car.

  Detective Robert Denover stepped from the unmarked vehicle, his bald head shining dully in the overhead lights as he propped his hands on his hips and stared at the front of the shop with a frown.

  Deirdre moved back to Mikayla’s side as Nik slowly stepped away from her to meet the detective as he entered the shop.

  “Ms. Martin.” He nodded back to Mikayla before his gaze swung to Nik, his gray eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Mr. Steele. I’m surprised to see you here.”

  Mikayla’s gaze flickered between Nik and the detective. “You know Detective Denover?” she asked him faintly.

  “We’ve met.” Nik nodded shortly. “He’s investigating the Foreman murder as well.”

  Mikayla knew that, and she wasn’t pleased with the efforts she knew he had put in on that investigation. He had been almost insulting the night she had reported the murder once she had told him who she saw.

  Denover gazed around the shop, shaking his head before turning back to the officers behind him. “Find the bullet,” he ordered them with a hint of frustration. “Get the statements. I’ll go over your reports when I get back to the office in the morning.”

  He turned to leave.

  “You’ll take care of this yourself.” Nik wasn’t about to let him leave without properly investigating the matter. He’d just about had enough of this bastard’s attitude. “You’ll do it, or I’ll make certain your chief hears about your neglect.”

  The detective’s lips curled mockingly. “He won’t be surprised.”

  “But he may well be surprised when federal agents descend on his office with an investigation into how he’s running it,” Nik offered with mocking pleasantry. “I can arrange that, Denover. And I will arrange it.”

  He had every intention of arranging it anyway once this was finished. Mikayla wasn’t being protected and Foreman’s death wasn’t being investigated as it should be. The fact that Maddix was good friends with both the mayor as well as the police chief and doing business with the city had given him a cachet he shouldn’t have possessed.

  Denover’s lips tightened as he threw Mikayla an irritated look. Shaking his head, he proceeded to at least oversee the search for the bullet and the statements Mikayla and Deirdre gave.

  As they finished, Mikayla’s father’s pickup pulled in outside and the entire family spilled from the crew cab of the vehicle. Three brothers, a furious father, and a concerned mother.

  For a moment, déjà vu whipped through Nik. His parents had arrived at his home in a similar manner, his brothers and sisters close behind, the night his wife and daughter had died. They had gathered around him; they had sworn to support him. Until he’d gone against several politicians in his determination to find the men responsible for his wife’s and daughter’s murders. It was then that his family had turned their backs on him.

  Mikayla’s family hadn’t turned their backs on her when they saw how difficult the fight was, though. They were there. Her brothers lifted sheets of plywood from the back of the truck while her parents rushed inside.

  “Nik.” Ramsey Martin nodded in his direction as his wife, Jorrey, rushed to Mikayla’s side. “I want to take her home.”

  It was a similar conversation that had been conducted the last time someone had shot at Mikayla.

  “She’s not a child.” Nik shook his head. “Whatever Mikayla decides, I’ll help her. But it’s her decision.”

  “And I’m not moving back in with my parents.” Mikayla pulled back from her mother’s embrace with a frown. “I told all of you that.”

  Ramsey dug the fingers of one hand into the back of his neck in frustration, worry and love apparent on his face, in his dark gray eyes.

  “Mikayla, someone is trying to kill you,” her mother argued.

  “If someone was trying to kill me then I’d be dead,” Mikayla pointed out, and Nik couldn’t help but agree with her. “Someone is trying to scare me, and though they’re doing a damned good job of it, I’m not running away and hiding.”

  Mikayla said “Damned.” Nik stared at her in surprise, as it seemed her parents did as well. Mikayla just simply never cursed.

  “They’re going to get serious,” Ramsey protested. “I don’t want to have to bury my own daughter, Mikayla. I’d appreciate it if you’d hang around long enough to make certain your brothers pay for my funeral.”

  Mikayla’s lips twitched as she glanced at Nik. “He swears my brothers will sell his business and live high on the money for the few days it will last.”

  “Few hours,” Ramsey snorted as he turned and looked at the three young men working quickly to close the front opening where the window had been. “And that’s beside the point. The point is, this isn’t going to work. I don’t like knowing some bastard is shooting at my daughter.”

  “Hiding won’t change anything,” Mikayla argued, though Nik could see it was hard for her to argue with her father. “It just puts you in danger as well.”

  “I’ll take steps to make certain this doesn’t happen again, Mr. Martin,” Nik spoke up, and nearly snapped his own teeth no sooner than the words came out. What the hell was wrong with him? The best thing he could do was turn her over to her parents, finish this investigation, then ride off into the fucking sunset. He hoped without breaking Mikayla Martin’s heart.

  But he couldn’t do it.

  “She’s been shot at twice since you came to town,” her father stated, his look accusing. “She wasn’t having problems then.”

  “Dad, please.” Mikayla stepped in front of her father, as though she thought she could protect one of them. As though there were a reason to feel one of them needed protecting. “I’ll be fine.”

  Her father stared down at her, much as Nik realized he was staring down at her. Patiently.

  Then her father reached out, gripped her beneath the arms, and set her gently out of the way. Like a child.

  If Nik hadn’t been watching her face he wouldn’t have seen the pain that flickered over it at her father’s casual
disregard of her position.

  It was enough to make Nik want to lift her and put her right back. He didn’t doubt her father’s love for her, but Nik did doubt her father’s ability to understand the woman she was, rather than the child he wanted her to be.

  “Ramsey.” Her mother moved to her side. “You can’t force her to come home.”

  Ramsey frowned back at his wife, before turning the look on his daughter.

  Mikayla shook her head, that look of wounded pride glittering in her amethyst eyes.

  “I’m not a bone to fight over,” she said, the hurt thick and heavy in her voice. “I’m going to my house. Thank you, Dad, for bringing the boys to fix the window. And thank you for being here for me. But you can’t help me this time. And I won’t hide under your bed like I did as a child when the kids at school picked on me. I have my own bed now.”

  She turned and walked regally, as regal as a fairy could be as her wings drooped from a father’s lack of respect. Ramsey Martin loved his daughter, but to Ramsey she was still a little girl. And his little girl was in danger and refusing to listen to his advice.

  Nik turned to her father slowly. He was staring at Mikayla as though she had just robbed him of his heart.

  “You’re going to get her killed,” Ramsey accused Nik, his voice low, vibrating with fear and anger.

  Nik shook his head. “I’m the only one who can save her, Mr. Martin. You can’t help her; your sons can’t help her. I can.”

  Ramsey rubbed at his neck once again, a grimace tightening his face. “I can’t help but think you’re the reason this is happening to her.” He looked to the closed office door. “But she’s not going to let me take care of her, is she?”

  “She doesn’t want to be taken care of,” Jorrey Ramsey stated, though her gaze stayed on Nik. “She wants to be a part of her life. Not a spectator.”

  And what the hell that meant Nik could only guess.

  Shaking his head, he turned back to the investigator as he moved from the back of the room.

  “We found the bullet,” Denover informed him. “Ballistics will take over from here. But I wouldn’t expect anything more than we got on that last one.”

  “Which was?” Nik stared back at him coldly. There still wasn’t a report on the last shooting.

  Denover smiled mockingly. “Nothing.” Nodding, he moved for the door, the officers standing behind him following closely.

  Which essentially meant anything concerning Mikayla Martin was not high priority.

  That would change the minute Nik had a chance to make a phone call. If Jordan wanted him back anytime soon, then his commander could see about getting this case moved a little higher on the list of priorities where the police department was concerned.

  “That is what is wrong with the world today,” Ramsey Martin growled as the investigator and his officers left the shop. “A complete lack of respect. I knew that little bastard’s father. He’d be rolling in his grave to see his son acting that way where the law is concerned.”

  It didn’t surprise Nik in the least. It only went to reaffirm his belief that the world, politics, and the police had much in common, no matter the nation one was in.

  “Mr. Ramsey, take your family home.” Nik turned back to Mikayla’s father. “I’ll take Ms. Maple and Mikayla home. And I’ll get to the bottom of this. One way or the other.”

  One thing was for damned sure. If he managed to get his hands on the person shooting at Mikayla, then he was going to kill him. There wasn’t a force on this earth that would be able to keep Nik from tearing the bastard’s head off.

  Nik had no doubt there wasn’t a special place in hell reserved for men who dared to threaten to harm pretty little fairies. On the off chance that there wasn’t, Nik would make certain the shooter suffered before he died.

  “Think she’ll say goodbye to me?” Ramsey wondered aloud as he glanced at the office door once more.

  “I’d say she’d be more hurt if you didn’t go to her,” Nik responded as he moved away to test the plywood barrier the brothers had put up.

  He left the Martins alone now as they moved for Mikayla’s office. Perhaps, if the father tried, he could erase the hurt he had put there earlier.

  “You know, you’re going to break her heart,” Deirdre said as she moved behind Nik.

  Nik turned and faced the redhead, seeing the concern in her eyes for her friend.

  Deirdre Maple and Mikayla Martin had been friends since childhood. The report he’d put together on Mikayla showed an endearing friendship between the two. Deirdre was the sister Mikayla’s parents hadn’t been able to give their daughter. And at the moment Deirdre was playing the big sister, just as she always had.

  And Nik didn’t have an answer or an assurance for her.

  She shook her head at his lack of response. “I know that look. She won’t be the only one left with scars, will she, Mr. Steele?”

  “No,” he finally answered her softly. “She won’t be alone, Miss Maple.”

  He moved away from her and left the shop to check the work the boys had done. As he moved out, they went in, eyeing him suspiciously as they did so.

  They were men; they knew he wouldn’t be questioned where their sister was concerned, just as they knew that he was an entity to be wary of.

  He’d never harm Mikayla, but if her brothers got in the way of his protecting her, then God help them.

  God help another living soul that dared to hurt her again.

  He was sick and damn tired of people picking on his fairy.

  CHAPTER 12

  People saw her as a pushover, and Mikayla knew it.

  As she stepped from the shower that night, dried, and dressed in a long cotton nightgown and robe, she admitted she might well be too damned nice.

  Even Nik treated her with kid gloves. There was a difference between needing to be protected from a killer and needing to be protected from life.

  She had no desire to be protected from life. She wanted to live life, experience it. She wanted to laugh and she wanted to love, and if that meant getting her heart broken, then she wanted that, too.

  She’d had plans, she admitted. Plans to be a virgin on her wedding night, plans to wear her white dress, but those plans had changed. She had a very bad feeling there was every chance Nik wouldn’t be sticking around for a white wedding.

  Not because he was a heartbreaker. Not because he had any desire to hurt her, any desire to spoil the plans she had made. Because the darkness inside him might not allow him to love with the same need, the same intensity, as Mikayla could allow herself to love with.

  Moving through the house, she was aware of Nik in the living room sitting on the edge of the couch as he cleaned his gun at the coffee table.

  He had done that the night before when they left the bed for a snack. While Mikayla made sandwiches, he had cleaned his gun. He took exceptional care of his weapon.

  “I ordered pizza,” he called out as she moved for the fridge. “It arrived a few minutes ago.”

  She had to admit, she hadn’t been looking forward to cooking at midnight.

  “It’s a good thing I’m not on a diet,” she muttered as she poured herself a glass of sweet tea and moved into the living room.

  Sure enough, a pizza box sat on the end table next to the recliner, along with several paper plates.

  Mikayla made short work of a slice, sipped at her tea, and watched Nik finish cleaning the gun.

  He’d showered as well.

  His hair was nearly dry, fanning around his face as he bent his head to his task and carefully put the weapon back together.

  “What are you doing tomorrow?” she asked as he laid the weapon aside.

  “I’m heading to the job site to talk to the new foreman and a few of Eddie Foreman’s friends. There has to be a reason someone wanted him dead; I just have to figure out what that reason is.”

  “What have you learned so far?” She knew what he had learned, the same thing she had. Not a damned thi
ng.

  “Just a few rumors.” He sat back on the couch and stared at her thoughtfully. “Foreman wasn’t well liked by a lot of people. I called your friend. He gave me the same information he gave you, but I haven’t been able to verify it, or find Steve Gainard.”

  “Steve’s out of town,” Mikayla stated before breathing in deeply. “For a man so unliked, no one wants to discuss Eddie.”

  “We’ll see.” Nik shrugged. “I have a few more leads to follow.”

  “I’m going with you.” She straightened her shoulders and stared back at him in determination. “Deirdre has dared me to come back to the store until this is taken care of.”

  “No. You’re not.” Steel encased his voice as he watched her with warning, icy eyes. “You’re in enough danger, Mikayla; I won’t allow you to compound it. Your brothers will be at the store with you tomorrow, and you’ll do as you’ve been doing; you’ll work in the back room. I’ll pick you up myself once I get another vehicle tomorrow and begin taking you to work and back myself.”

  “No, you will not.” She surged to her feet. “I won’t like that, Nik.”

  “Then you’ll die,” he growled as he came to his feet as well. “And that’s not an acceptable trade as far as I’m concerned. You’ll only endanger yourself further by going with me.”

  “It’s my business and my life.” Her arms went across her chest as she lifted her chin.

  She was going to help him; it was that simple.

  “No.”

  She wasn’t going to do anything of the sort, and it was that simple. The very thought of Mikayla putting herself that much closer to danger was enough to send terror racing through him. It simply wasn’t going to happen. Even if he had to tie her to her office chair and release her himself at the end of the day, it wasn’t going to happen.

  Damn, she was stubborn, though. He could see that militant little light in her amethyst eyes, the determined angle of her chin, the pure fire in her eyes.

  His cock, already rock hard and engorged, seemed to thicken that much more and ached with a hunger he wondered if he would ever sate.