by India Kells
He stroked her wet cheek, and Malco swore she leaned into his touch before straightening.
“I need to speak to Shane. Now.”
Chapter Two
The pain in her feet was the only thing keeping her mind from going over the helpless fear she’d felt when she saw the man walk out of her home office. Fear wasn’t a feeling she was comfortable with. She’d left the life of fear and helplessness behind, and yet for the first time in years, she felt it tugging at her.
Malco, the man who had helped her, walked back into the conference room where he’d left her, with bandages and water. The simple, caring gesture meant more than it should, but she put it down to shock.
Frida hadn’t had time for dating, not while she’d been studying and then as she worked her way up as an intern at Rogers & Gold. Then it had been about establishing her own firm, working the cases she wanted while building her client list.
It had left her little time for men and relationships, but the sexy savior with rough edges who now faced her piqued her interest. Trust her libido to choose now to come raring to life. A time when she’d need all her wits about her to figure out this case and stay safe.
He moved to touch her bloody foot, and the slight touch sent a current of need straight to her pussy, making her ache for a connection. He must have felt it too because he dropped her ankle as his eyes moved to hers.
Warm eyes, ‘trustworthy eyes’ her grandfather would have called them. They were a warm chestnut brown that made her feel safe, even now.
He moved slowly, his hand reaching for her calf and placing it on his hard thigh. “I need to clean your feet before you get an infection.” Frida nodded, not trusting her voice, knowing it would come out shaky. Whether from desire or from the ordeal of running for her life from men sent to kill her.
And they had been sent to kill her. She had no doubt without Malco she would be dead in a dumpster about now.
He finished bandaging her feet and then raised his eyes to hers. “Would you like to tell me what that was about?”
She realized she wanted to, she wanted to tell him everything. She barely knew him, except for the brief work they had done together previously, but even then, she’d felt the undercurrent of attraction for this man.
Frida nodded. “I will, but I’d prefer to wait for Shane and Emme to get here.”
Malco acquiesced and stood from his crouching position, making the muscles in his arms flex. “Of course. They shouldn’t be long. Did you run all the way here?”
“There was an intruder in my apartment. I just had time to get out and was lucky enough to hop into a passing cab. Unfortunately, when the driver realized someone was following us, he didn’t want to go on and kicked me out. Two men came after me. They grabbed at me, but only got hold of my clothes. I ran the rest of the way here.”
He walked out of the door with the bloody wipes he had used to clean her feet, and she felt the door whoosh closed.
Frida closed her eyes as she thought back to earlier. She’d felt as if someone were watching her and dismissed it. She knew better than to do that.
Growing up in the area she had, her gut had been the only thing that kept her safe some days. To ignore it was suicide, and she knew that. Had she come so far from the girl she’d been that she’d forgotten all the lessons she learned there?
Maybe not forgotten but perhaps ignored. Tonight had been a lesson. To win this case, Frida had to go back to her roots. Dig into the past and unearth things she thought long buried. Unlike then, when she’d been alone and weak, now she was strong, and she had people at her back who could protect her.
Frida had not become the woman she was today by being stupid, and doing this alone without back-up was stupid. Asking for help wasn’t something she did lightly, but paying for it was a different thing.
Just then, the door flew open, and Shane Rhodes’ formidable face filled the room. His presence made the large conference room suddenly feel small. Behind him, his fiancée Emme Wallace looked worried.
“Frida, what the fuck?” Shane growled as he moved to her.
Her eyes caught on Malco, who was watching her intently as he leaned against the wall silently. “I ran into some bother, and I didn’t know where else to go.”
“You came to the right place.” Emme gently patted her arm as she smiled.
Frida gave her a grateful look.
“Tell us what you need,” Shane demanded.
That was the response she’d hoped for, but the relief she felt on hearing it almost made her shudder. “I landed a case a few days ago. It’s big and if it goes to trial a lot of people are going to go down. I don’t know if they have a lot of money, but they have influence and power to spare, power which makes them desperate.”
“What’s the case?” Malco asked, moving to sit to her left.
Her eyes flashed to him and then the other two. “I can’t say a lot yet, but it’s related to a gang.”
Frida caught the look Emme shot Malco, but he didn’t react.
“Okay, but why is this one any more dangerous than any other case involving gangs?” Emme asked.
“Because it takes me back into the ’hood where I was brought up and people like that, they hold grudges. Girls like me don’t get to leave and then come back.” Frida knew she’d revealed a lot, but she was going to ask a lot of them, and they needed to know the dangers. Gang wars were ugly, and people died, and the only people who didn’t get hurt were those at the top. And as she’d seen tonight, the people at the top had friends in high places.
Nobody should know she was working this case, yet here she was only a couple of days in, and already her life was in danger.
“Tell us what you need.”
Shane was no-nonsense, and that was one of the reasons they’d hit it off, and she liked working with him. The other was that he always looked out for the underdog, and in this scenario that had just become her.
“I need protection and someone who can work with me on this case. I’ll pay you as my private investigators. That way, I won’t be breaking privilege.”
“We can discuss payment later.”
Shane waved it off, but the Alliance Agency was still in its infancy, and despite some big government contracts, an operation like this cost money.
“Fine, but I’m paying you the going rate.”
Shane looked at Malco, and she wondered what unspoken conversation they were having.
Malco nodded and turned to her. “I’ll work with you. I know gang wars, and I’ve had experience with situations like this.” The man didn’t elaborate, but she sensed there was more to the story.
“Thank you.”
“Do you have a safe place to stay tonight?” Emme asked.
“I can get a hotel.”
Malco shook his head. “Stay here, it’s safer. There are spare clothes and stuff in the ladies’ changing rooms. We can go to your office tomorrow and get what you need.”
“No!” Frida stood awkwardly, making Shane frown.
“Why not?”
“I need to secure my files tonight. My office is fine, but the ones in my home aren’t.”
Shane and Emme stood. “We can do that, Frida. Stay here with Malco, and Shane and I will go to your home and secure everything.”
Frida hesitated and then handed over her keys. She trusted these people to help her. She glanced at Malco, who was regarding her silently. She knew she was a far cry from the poised woman he’d met before and cringed inwardly at her loss of control.
“I’m not normally such a mess.” Frida felt self-conscious for the first time in many years, and the feeling reminded her of weakness.
“You’re not a mess. You had a fright and handled it well. It’s normal for the adrenaline crash to hit hard.” His eyes held warmth, and again she felt the pull of attraction to this man.
He turned suddenly on his heel and stalked from the room, and Frida wondered if she’d offended him in some way. He came back shortly, holding a cryst
al glass in his big hand, the amber liquid promising to soothe her frayed nerves.
He handed it to her. “Drink this. It will help with the shock.”
Frida took it gratefully and sipped the expensive, smooth Scotch. It burned her throat, and she felt the heat spread from her throat to her belly and lower into her womb. That wasn’t the Scotch though, that was the heated gaze of the man watching her with calm assurance and the look of pure sin on his face.
Malco had always struck as the handsome, calm one who steadied everyone, but the look of sensuality in his dark eyes made her think perhaps she had misjudged this man.
He had secrets, and for the first time in a long while, she wanted to unravel the mystery of a man. Know what made him tick, what made him the man who looked at her with desire and control.
“Emme and Shane will be back with your files soon. Let me show you where you can sleep tonight.” Frida began to stand on her abused feet, and Malco stepped up close and silently offered her his help. Frida nodded, and his strong arm slid behind her back, and he helped her hobble the short distance to the changing rooms.
She stopped at the door. “I can manage from here.”
He tilted his head as if she were something he wanted to figure out.
“There are clean clothes in the lockers. Cleo keeps them stocked.”
“Thank you. I’ll be out as soon as I change. I won’t sleep until I know my files are secure anyway.”
“I’ll come and get you when they return.”
Frida regarded him. “Don’t you have somewhere to be? A wife or girlfriend waiting for you?” She saw the tilt of his lips and knew he’d caught the inelegant way she’d tried to find out if he was single. A blush tinged her cheeks, so unlike the woman people saw in the courtroom—the woman they’d nicknamed ‘The Barracuda’ behind her back.
“No, ma’am, nobody is waiting for me. Not even a cat.” Frida offered him a small smile and nodded and moved away.
“Thanks again.”
“No problem, beautiful.”
Frida closed the door and sagged against it. What the hell had happened to her? Where was the confident, strong woman who was feared by opposing council? She had turned into a quivering mass of nerves in the presence of the tall, imposing operative with ‘come to bed’ eyes. Allowing him to call her by a cutesy name was so unlike her. She would have annihilated any other man that dared to treat her that way. But as she conjured up Malco’s image, she couldn’t find the natural indignation. No, all she saw was a man who was willing to help her, a man who had saved her from God knew what tonight. Whether he would be her salvation or her destruction was undecided, but she felt a wisp of excitement at the thought of working with him.
Chapter Three
Malco waited by the ladies’ locker room door, phone in his hand, scanning the compound’s outdoor cameras, making sure nobody was lurking in the shadows and waiting for Shane and Emme to return with Frida’s files.
He could hear her shuffling inside the locker room where she was changing, followed by a gasp and a moan of pain, making him wonder how far the woman had run barefoot to find refuge at the Agency. It had been a gamble to run in this direction as it wasn’t an active neighborhood at night. It would’ve been wiser to head toward the more lively parts of the city or even a police station. Or maybe she’d headed for the safest place she knew.
Earlier, she’d revealed her past connection to gangs, and it wasn’t unheard of for there to be links and corruption within members of the force. Was her case related to that?
Frida Montalvo was a rising star in Miami. He’d heard her name often and had witnessed firsthand how formidable she could be when she went into lawyer mode.
As brilliant as the woman was, she wasn’t the City of Miami’s official attorney, which created more questions as to why she’d been assigned such a case.
When the door opened, Malco looked up from his phone and felt like he’d had a punch to the gut. The Frida he knew—beautiful as an ice queen in her business suits, perfect make-up, and up-style hairdo—had been magically replaced by a completely different woman. Her face scrubbed clean and her chocolate hair brushed into a shiny cascade over her shoulder, she was dressed in a plain t-shirt and jeans that detailed her wealth of soft feminine curves and made her look even more alluring. Keeping his expression professional would be hard. With her tiny, damaged feet in canvas sneakers, she was still wobbly, but steadier than before. Her dark eyes held strength and resilience in them, as if she’d shored up her defenses while she cleaned up.
“Any news from Shane?”
He shook his head. “No, not yet. But knowing my bosses, and the fact that intruders were in your apartment, they’ll take precautions to avoid running into anyone.”
Taking another step, Frida nodded. “That sounds like Shane.”
The way her voice softened and her body relaxed made him wonder what kind of relationship the lawyer had with his boss. There was no way in hell Shane Rhodes would cheat on Emme. What the dynamic duo shared was off the charts, but maybe Shane and Frida had a relationship way before the Alliance Agency.
“You seem to be close to Shane.” The statement was out before he could prevent it, and in a much rougher tone than he’d intended.
“I met him on the West Coast, just before I moved here to Miami.” Suddenly, a glimmer flashed over her onyx irises, putting a frown on her face. “I hope you’re not insinuating anything untoward, or I don’t care if my feet hurt, I’ll put one of them up your ass.”
Malco’s gut unclenched, and he fought a smile, unexpectedly relieved to hear her words. It was obvious Shane would never betray Emme; the man was too devoted to her to even think about it.
And why was he concerned with who’d been in Frida’s bed?
He didn’t have time to ponder the weird discomfort that rose with that thought as a ring broke the silence.
Frida jerked and reached for her back pocket. “Frida Montalvo.”
Apart from hearing a male voice, he couldn’t understand the words, but the expression on her face as she locked eyes with him told him something was wrong.
“I’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t touch anything.”
Malco tensed and immediately went to get his coat he’d left on a nearby chair, never letting her out of his sight.
When she hung up, he saw her brace herself, her fire returning. “Someone has broken into my office. Police are already there. They cut the alarm but didn’t count on the silent alarm I’d installed in my locked safe where I keep all my important files. The security firm alerted the police, and they arrived before they could access anything. I need to go. They’re waiting for me.”
Frida started to hobble toward the door, but Malco gently put a hand on her shoulder. “Easy. Let me call in reinforcements.”
The look of irritation that passed over her face was quickly followed by a contained snarl. “I told you the documents in that locker are sensitive to the case I’m working on. It seems they’re no longer safe, and I won’t leave them there, not even with the cops.”
Malco felt like he was handling a stick of dynamite with this firecracker of a woman—one on the point of explosion. He tried his best to keep an even and calm tone, even though he was tempted to put her over his knees and force sense and caution into her.
“I totally understand. However, we’re protected and safe inside the Agency, but outside, we don’t know where the threat is coming from. We’re talking about gang members that are volatile and dangerous. A gang that’s possibly in cahoots with the DA’s office, so they’re even more unpredictable. We need to be smarter than them, or the only place you’re going to be headed to is the cemetery. You know what gangs are like, how they think. You need to do the same.”
Under his touch, Malco felt her relax a little, taking a deeper breath to get her impulses under control. When she finally locked her gaze with him, the fire had turned into embers, just as fiery, but dosed with logic. “You mean they’re probably o
utside, waiting for me to leave so they can put a bullet in my head.”
That statement coming from her lips made him wince, his guard coming up instantly, making Malco want to protect her more than he would on any other case. There was something about Frida and the threats surrounding her that made his protective side surge like never before. That made him stop and consider if it was wise for him to be on this case. He barely knew her. Why was he reacting that way? He told himself it was probably because of his own negative experience with gangs.
“There’s a strong possibility they are. Let me make a call, get more of the team in on this, either with us as back-up, or as tails to see if they can pick up anyone following us. I’d prefer more people than less when we leave the compound. At least until we have a better sense of who’s after you.”
He could almost see the wheels turning in her head, her intelligent mind assessing the circumstances like the talented lawyer she was.
When she finally nodded, Malco almost sighed in relief. He’d half-expected her to fight him, but her will to win was greater than her pride. Reluctantly, he removed his hand from her and took out his phone. The woman was headed for a fight, so Malco would make sure she had enough soldiers by her side to get the job done.
Frida’s office was but a stone’s throw from the Miami-Dade Courthouse and close to Little Havana. In a little side street with mature trees, the location was posh without being inaccessible to common people. Wasn’t a lawyer’s firm supposed to be that? Powerful and competent? From the way she looked and dressed, there was no doubt Frida Montalvo was a woman of means, who’d built her life and goals around success and power.
Malco’s only focus had been his missions, until one turned against him, turning his life around. Finding his way back with the Alliance Agency had been his saving grace. Money had never been his objective. A safe place to sleep was his only requirement. The gap between them was another reason, apart from remaining professional while on protection duty, to keep his distance from the incredibly beautiful, very intriguing woman in the seat beside him.