by Paige Tyler
Emily smiled again. “Yeah, we do. I’m being silly.” She gave Eden a sheepish look. “Sorry for dragging you all the way over here to listen to me whine.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Eden said. “You can call me to whine anytime. It’s what sisters are for.”
“Deal.” Emily sighed. “Still, I feel bad making you come all the way over here. What were you up to when I called, anyway?”
Eden had to fight to keep a silly grin from spreading across her face as she thought about exactly what she and Travis had been up to before her sister called. Even now, she could almost feel him against her. The fact he was so aroused even though he knew what she was made everything even hotter. She’d never been so turned on with a guy before and had no doubt they would be in bed naked right now if Emily hadn’t called.
Just thinking about that possibility made heat pool between her legs. The urge to reach down and touch herself through her jeans was practically impossible to ignore, but she obviously couldn’t do it with Emily sitting across from her.
Which reminded her. She hadn’t answered her sister’s question yet.
“Nothing really,” she said. “Just hanging out in my hotel room with a friend.”
“You met up with one of our friends from school?” Emily asked, surprised. “Who was it?”
Eden shook her head. “It wasn’t one of our friends from school. It’s a guy I met recently.”
Her sister lifted a brow. “A guy. When did you meet a guy?”
Eden almost laughed. “Outside the restaurant where we were having the rehearsal dinner.”
Emily’s eyes widened. “You mean that big, hunky guy who helped you out in the alley?”
“You shouldn’t be calling other men hunky,” Eden scolded with a laugh. “You’re about to get married.”
“Just because I’m getting married doesn’t mean I’m oblivious. I still know a sexy hunk when I see one,” Emily pointed out. “So, are you two sleeping together yet?”
Eden felt her face heat as an image of her riding up and down on Travis while he was sitting in the chair in her hotel room flashed into her head. She bit back a moan and redirected her focus to point out the obvious to her sister.
“We just met a few days ago. We were just talking.”
Eden looked at her doubtfully. “Uh-huh. My face always turns that same cute shade of pink when I think about talking with Brandon.”
“I am not blushing!”
“Of course, you’re not,” Emily agreed. “So, when were you planning to introduce me to him? You know, I never did get a chance to thank him for helping save Brandon’s and Tim’s butts. You should ask him to come with you to the wedding. I know guys can get freaked out about going to them, but I’d love to meet him.”
Eden almost told her Travis was already coming, then thought better of it. If she admitted Travis had already agreed to be her date to Emily’s wedding a few hours after they met, her sister would almost certainly think something serious was going on between them. And her sister would be right. By all accounts, that should have been terrifying since she’d just met him a few days ago. But it wasn’t scary at all. For the first time, she was with a guy she could be herself with. And it was a breathtaking feeling.
“I’ll ask him,” was all Eden said.
Emily pushed Eden’s ice cream bowl back in front of her then grabbed her own and dug into the melted mess. “Well, tell him I hope he comes. There’ll be plenty of food and drink, and if he doesn’t want to drive back to his hotel after the reception, the country club is offering rooms to the wedding guests for the night at a fantastic price.”
Eden smiled as she ate her own gooey ice cream. Suddenly, all she could think about was spending the day at her sister’s wedding and the night with Travis in one of the country club’s elegant rooms. She remembered from the brochure Emily had shown her that the beds were ridiculously huge. She could think of some deliciously naughty things she’d like to try with Travis in a bed that big.
* * * * *
Travis set the sandwich and bottle of iced tea he’d picked up at a sub shop on the way back to his hotel down on the table when he got to his room, then picked up the remote and switched on SportsCenter. Hanging out with the ESPN anchors wasn’t nearly as much fun as making love with Eden—which he had no doubt they’d be doing right now if her sister hadn’t called—but family was important. He got that.
He was halfway through his meatball sub when someone knocked on the door. He grabbed the remote and hit the mute button. Was it too much to hope it was Eden?
Grinning at the thought, he flipped the lock and pulled open the door. His smile slipped a little when he saw his sister standing there.
Gwen made a face as she brushed past him. “Nice to see you, too.”
Travis closed the door with a groan. “That’s not it. I always love seeing you. I thought you were someone else, that’s all.”
“Oh?” She turned to give him a curious look. “Who?”
He shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. “Someone I met after your graduation party the other night.”
His sister did a double take. “Where the heck did you meet her? On the way to your car?”
“Something like that,” he said. “It’s a long story.”
Gwen held up the brown paper bag in her hand. “Then it’s a good thing I brought burgers from the Southern Grill for dinner.” Her gaze went to the half-eaten sandwich on the table. “Although, it looks like you already got take-out.”
He thought he recognized the signature blue handle on the top of their paper bags, even if he hadn’t seen the stylized logo until just now. His mouth was already watering at the thought of their famous burgers. “You know I never say no to burgers, especially when they’re from the Grill.”
Travis took the plastic containers and two bottles of iced tea out of the bag while his sister washed her hands. Gwen came over to the table a few moments later, sitting down opposite him and pulling one of the trays toward her.
“Okay,” she said, glancing at him as she opened a packet of ketchup and squeezed it onto the tray beside her fries. “Tell me about this mystery woman.”
He couldn’t help smiling as he helped himself to a few packets of ketchup. Gwen must have asked for extra because there were a buttload of them. Not that he was complaining. As far as he was concerned, you could never have too much ketchup.
“Her name is Eden and I actually did run into her on the way to my car,” he said in answer to his sister’s question. It wasn’t exactly a lie. They had been running at the time. Besides, it wasn’t like he could say Eden was a government-trained agent and a shifter who could sprout claws and fangs and run like Usain Bolt. “She’s in town for her sister’s wedding.”
Gwen frowned at him over her burger. Instead of a traditional bun, the Grill served all their burgers on waffles, which only made them even tastier. As well as unique. “She doesn’t live around here?”
He shook his head. “She works in DC.”
His sister seemed to consider that as she chewed. “You seem to know a lot about a woman you just ran into.”
He grabbed a handful of french fries and dunked them in ketchup. “That’s because we had dinner together last night.”
Gwen smiled, her eyes lighting up. “So, do you think you’ll keep seeing her after this weekend?”
Travis shrugged and bit into his burger. “I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it. I’m not even sure how that’d work since we’re basically on opposite sides of the country.”
Which sucked now that he thought about it. Yeah, he and Eden might have just met, but he was already falling for her. As crazy as that was. Hell, he was practically counting the minutes until he could see her again. He’d dated women he’d known longer than Eden and hadn’t ever felt that way about being apart from them whenever he deployed, and that was for months at a time.
“Maybe this is all a sign that it’s time to get out of the Army,” Gwen said.
He looked up from his fries to see her regarding him thoughtfully. “And what do you propose I do for work?”
She sipped her iced tea. “There’s a lot of stuff you could do.”
“Yeah? Like what, become a cop?” He snorted. “I watch LivePD. I don’t have enough patience to do that job. And whether you want to admit it or not, it’s not an easy transition from my job in the Army to the civilian workforce. It’s not something I can do on the spur of the moment.”
Her brow knit. “I know, but there must be some kind of job you could get at one of the Navy bases if you don’t want to be a cop.” She gave him a chagrined look. “I know you love what you do, but I just miss having my big brother around, that’s all.”
He smiled. “I miss you, too, sis.”
Gwen’s lips curved. “Besides, if you moved back here, you’d be closer to Eden. Who knows? Maybe you guys’ll get married. Then you can have kids and Mom can stop bugging me for grandchildren.”
Travis stared at her in disbelief. “Okay, that’s kind of a big leap. I tell you I met someone nice and you’ve already got us settled down with two-point-three kids and a white picket fence? If you don’t want to have kids right now, just tell Mom that.”
His sister shook her head. “No way. It’s much easier to get you married off and buried under a pile of kids. Mom would disown me if I try to tell her that I want to wait.”
“You’re a wimp, you know that?”
She grinned and bit into her burger again. “Yeah, but you love me anyway.”
CHAPTER SIX
EDEN AND TRAVIS sat in his rental car a couple blocks down from the sports bar Kendra had told her about that morning. On the outside, it looked reputable enough with its classy sign and promise of more than a dozen giant TVs for fans to watch their favorite games, but Kendra said this was where Tim did most of his betting. Even though the place wasn’t open yet, there were a lot of people going in and out, and they didn’t look like they were there for takeout.
“The guy who runs the place is named Gus Spillane,” Eden said. “The bar and grill is a legitimate business, but all the real money comes from his bookmaking. Kendra told me he does almost everything through member-only chat rooms and websites, which is all very clean and hard to track. He’s probably pulling in at least a quarter million dollars a month. Organized crime figures from New York, Washington, and Chicago have tried to move in on his business several times over the years, but his hired muscle makes sure they change their mind.”
Travis eyed two men who walked out of the bar, then glanced at her. “So, what’s the plan?”
“We go in, introduce ourselves to this Gus guy, make some small talk, then ask him what he knows about Tim and his little gambling problem.”
Travis’s mouth quirked. “You’re kind of new to this planning thing, huh?”
She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him. “Very funny. I don’t need a plan. I’m simply going to politely ask him to leave Brandon and my sister completely out of any beef he has with Tim.”
“And if he doesn’t agree?” Travis asked.
She smiled. “I’m sure I’ll have no problem convincing him. I can be very persuasive.”
Travis chuckled. “I have no doubt.”
Eden glanced at the bar again. The people who’d been going in and out since she and Travis had gotten there must be involved with the betting operation, but she didn’t know enough about how the criminal enterprise worked to know what they did for Gus. Hopefully, they were runners or something like that. If she and Travis were lucky, most of them would bail the second things started getting tense.
If not, this could be an interesting morning.
She reached around behind her to pull the small frame Glock 9mm holstered at her waist, handing it to Travis. He dropped the clip to make sure it was loaded, then checked for a round in the chamber. His hands moved so fast and efficiently, she could barely follow them as he slid the clip in and tucked the weapon behind his back.
“What about you?” he asked.
She held up her right hand and let her long, curved claws extend, then retracted them again. “I’m good. But I always keep a back-up piece strapped to my ankle just in case.”
Eden hoped the people working in the bar would think she and Travis were there for an early lunch and not pay much attention to them. That way, they could quietly ask to see Gus. Unfortunately, Gus’s employees were onto them the moment she and Travis walked in. The bartender as well as every one of the guys who’d been casually leaning back in their chairs at various tables watching baseball sat up straighter, eyeing her and Travis suspiciously. Even the three men sitting at a booth on the right looked their way. The only one who didn’t was a big guy in a loud Hawaiian-print shirt sitting in a booth near the back, watching five different TVs at once. Eden easily recognized Gus Spillane from the photo Kendra had sent.
“We’re closed,” the older man behind the bar said.
Eden ignored him. Instead, she walked toward the guy in the Hawaiian shirt. “Mr. Spillane, we’re here to chat about a common acquaintance named Tim Ainsley.”
She hadn’t gone more than a half dozen steps before three big, muscle-bound goons slipped out of one of the closer booths and blocked her path. Two had dark curly hair while the third was blond. She looked past them to their boss.
“We’re just here to talk, Gus. This doesn’t have to get nasty.”
The blond stepped closer. “I’ll show you nasty, you stupid—”
No doubt, the man was probably going to call her something rude, but he never got the chance because Travis stepped in front of her and punched the guy straight in the jaw. The hulking bodyguard flew back into the booth where he’d been sitting earlier, unconscious. He was definitely not going to be getting up anytime soon.
Silence reigned over the bar for a fraction of a second before four other men rushed them. Eden cursed silently. This wasn’t the way she’d hoped the meeting would go. After this was over, Travis was going to look her square in the eye and say, I told you so.
She threw a quick glance in his direction, not sure how he was going to handle this. She hoped he didn’t take out the gun she’d given him. If he started shooting, they’d spend the rest of the day and into the night trying to explain to the local police what the hell happened.
But Travis didn’t pull the handgun she’d given him. Instead, he turned to face the oncoming tide of new arrivals with an almost lazy grin. Like getting in a brawl with a bunch of lowlifes was the most amusing thing in the world to him.
She prayed he knew what the heck he was doing because the other two big goons were moving in her direction, and they looked really pissed.
The first one to reach her took a swing. Apparently, he hadn’t gotten the memo about it being wrong for men to hit women. It wasn’t like she was going to let him land a blow, but it was the principle of the thing. Couldn’t he have the decency to hesitate for at least a second?
Eden ducked under the huge fist coming her way, then stepped around the guy and delivered a mule kick to the center of his back. The look on his friend’s face when the guy hit the floor was priceless. The second guy must have realized she was faster and more dangerous than she looked because he didn’t to take a swing at her. Instead, he bull-rushed her, probably figuring he could overwhelm her with his greater size.
She stood her ground, then just as the big guy spread his arms wide to tackle her, she sidestepped to the left, brought her right fist up, and rammed it into his solar plexus. The breath exploded out of him and his knees immediately sagged. Eden caught him before he collapsed to the floor, spinning him in a circle and tossing him across the room.
It wasn’t until then she realized she’d thrown the guy right into the middle of the brawl between Travis and four other men on the far side of the room.
* * * * *
Travis almost laughed as he ducked the punch aimed at his face. He hadn’t had this much fun since that barroom brawl
in a nightclub in Germany a few years ago.
The man throwing the punch was committed, Travis had to give him that. Fortunately, the man’s abilities didn’t match his enthusiasm. When he missed, the force of the swing overbalanced him and he stumbled forward a little. That left him completely open to Travis’s fist, which connected solidly with his jaw. The man fell heavily to the floor, not out cold, but probably not in the mood to get up right away. Since Travis had already headbutted one of the men into unconsciousness in the first five seconds of the fight, that meant two down, two to go.
The other two men must have realized they were in over their heads because neither seemed interested in taking him on next. That was a good thing. Unless one of them decided they didn’t feel like being a punching bag anymore and pulled out a weapon, of course. Then things would get nasty fast. Travis knew these guys weren’t angels, but that didn’t mean he wanted to kill them. He wasn’t exactly sure if Eden’s position in the DHS—or the DCO—or whatever she’d tell the cops, would get him out of that.
Fortunately, neither bozo reached for a weapon. Instead, they got smart and split up, trying to get into positions where they could come at him from two directions at once. Damn, these last two might actually share a brain cell between them. The space among the tables and chairs was tight, but if they actually could get it right and hit him with a synchronized attack, they might cause some damage.
Travis risked a quick glance in Eden’s direction. It had only been thirty seconds at most since he’d punched the guy who’d been about to call her a bitch, and he wanted to make sure she was okay.
She was standing there while a guy who must have outweighed her by more than a hundred pounds rushed her like a psychotic bull. It took everything in Travis not to say the hell with the two guys he was dealing with and leap to her rescue. The only reason he didn’t do it was because he knew Eden could more than handle herself. It was still gut-wrenching to see her in danger. That was one of the reasons he’d come with her. The idea of her doing something crazy without him there to keep an eye on her made him feel physically ill.