“Sometimes,” he said, his voice a bit lower and sexier than he’d intended. Suggestive. Shit. Not what he’d meant to do.
She cocked her head to the side. Then she smiled. “Are you flirting with me, Alexei Kamarov?”
He could lie. Or he could tell the truth. Then he could play it off. “Yeah. A bit. You mind?”
She hugged herself. It was a defensive gesture, and that bugged him. He didn’t think she was aware of it though. “I should. But no, I don’t mind.”
“Look, you don’t need to worry about anything while you’re here. I don’t expect payback and I’m not hinting you owe me, okay? It’s just that you’re kinda sexy and I’m a man who hasn’t had sex in a couple of months because I’ve been working.”
She frowned and laughed at the same time. “Well, thanks. I think. And I didn’t think you were suggesting payment in sexual favors. Honest. But working where I do—well, I don’t get the normal kind of flirting, you know? It’s kinda nice.”
He hated to think about what happened to her at the Pink Palace. He knew the bouncers took care of it, but that didn’t mean guys didn’t grab her anyway. Or hang out waiting for her because she’d smiled at them or given them a lap dance they couldn’t forget. Men should know better, and yet they didn’t. He’d dragged plenty of sailors out of bars around the world for precisely that reason.
But he did know better. He put the pizza in the fridge. “You don’t have to be uncomfortable with me, Bailey. I’ve got your back.”
He’d like her front too, but he wasn’t going to say it.
“And what about when the test comes back? If the results are what you think they’ll be?”
She expected him to bail. He could hear it in her voice. He should bail. Why wouldn’t he? Most guys would, given the circumstances. He’d already gone above and beyond. He could walk away free and clear. Not his problem. Not his kid. Et cetera.
But she looked so certain he was going to toss her out. Her and the pip-squeak. His gut twisted at the idea. He couldn’t do it. He just wasn’t wired that way. If he had been, he wouldn’t be HOT.
“We’ll figure it out,” he told her. “Don’t worry.”
Chapter 8
Bailey didn’t want to rely on anyone, and yet the conviction in his voice soothed her. Because she was alone, dammit, and she didn’t always know how to look after Ana and take care of herself too. It was nice to know someone had her back, even if his answer changed in the next few days. For now, it was enough.
For tonight, it was enough. She’d go to sleep feeling secure even if she woke up feeling totally different.
“I want you to be Ana’s father. But I don’t as well.”
He tilted his head like a puppy that’d heard an odd noise. “Really? Why not?”
“Because you seem like an honest, stand-up kind of guy. If you’re her father, does that cease to be true?”
And then there was the part where if he really was Ana’s father, she felt like he belonged to Kayla and Ana. Which made her inconvenient attraction to him very inappropriate. Hell, it was already inappropriate. She’d known him less than twenty-four hours and she was already fantasizing about what it’d be like to have him in her life, standing between her and the world.
He did things to her insides just by existing that she hadn’t experienced in a very long time. Or had she ever? She wasn’t sure. Whatever, she’d like to experience them guilt free, thank you very much.
“If I’m her father, then no, it doesn’t cease to be true. It just means that all my precautions failed.”
“It also means you fucked my sister and forgot about it.”
“Yeah, it would mean that.”
“I’m not sure how I’ll feel about you then.”
“First of all, I’m not convinced it happened. But I’m a man, Bailey. I sleep with women I forget. I’m pretty sure it happens in reverse as well. Men don’t have a corner on one-night stands or fucking because it feels good.”
Her heart thumped. Just hearing the word fuck on his lips made her insides squeeze tight. Other parts of her responded as well. Parts she’d rather did not.
“Well, if you slept with Kayla, she didn’t forget you. She knew your name and she had a picture of you and your friends. I’d say she remembered you pretty well.” Bailey grabbed her bottle of water from the table and went to sit on the couch. She was tired and she couldn’t do this standing up. “Why did you take that picture with her, Alexei? Do you even know?”
He came and sat across from her, a beer bottle in his hand. He twisted it back and forth, eyes and mouth broody. His answer wasn’t what she expected. “It’s a bar. People take pictures. I know that’s not what you want to hear. I remember she was a waitress named Harley. I remember that she was young and sweet and she served us quite a bit. She might have asked for the picture. It happens. Chicks ask for pictures with us sometimes.”
She could believe that. All three of the guys in that picture were freaking fine. Tall, muscled badasses who inspired confidence—and maybe a bit of envy out of a girl’s friends if she had a picture with them.
Alexei sat back and gazed at the ceiling, tapping his fingers on the arm of the chair. The tapping stopped and he sat up again.
“Wait a minute. That guy tonight. Stocky, dark hair. Neck like a football player. Biker jacket. Fucking hell, I wonder if it’s the same guy who used to hang around when your sister worked? Not sure he had a scar though. Could the scar have been reasonably new?”
Bailey’s heart tripped a little faster. Was it that easy? Was the guy tonight the same one who’d waited for Kayla almost a year ago at Buddy’s Bar & Grill? And if so, what did that mean for Kayla? For Ana?
“I-I don’t know. It was dark, but maybe it was kind of reddish. Like new scar tissue.” She frowned hard, trying to recall the scar in detail. “Maybe I should tell Brian and Deke to let him back into the club. That way you could see if he’s the same guy.”
He nodded after a long moment. “Yeah, that could work.”
“I don’t perform again for another two nights, but if we can find someone to watch Ana, you can go with me. Maybe he’ll come back, and then you’ll know.”
He nodded. “We’ll try it. But it’s more than ID’ing him, Bailey. If this guy comes back, regardless of whether he’s the same one from a few months ago, I’m going to make him regret he threatened you.”
A shiver rippled down her spine. His words were filled with dark conviction. She liked it more than she should. Brian was threatening enough in his own way, but he wasn’t a Navy SEAL badass like Alexei.
“Don’t do anything that’ll get you in trouble.”
“Don’t worry. I have a lot of practice at not getting caught.”
“Thanks. I think.” What did one say to that anyway?
He glanced at his watch. “One of us needs to get to sleep because the pip-squeak will wake up wanting a bottle in a couple of hours.”
She still couldn’t reconcile that a guy as big and badass as he was could be so in tune with Ana’s needs. It was seriously sexy in ways she didn’t want it to be.
“The pip-squeak?” She smiled. Then she waved her hand. “You go. It’ll take me a while to come down from the night.” It wasn’t quite true because she felt a yawn welling up inside. She held it back, but only barely.
He peered at her. “I didn’t mean one of us has to stay awake until then. We can both sleep—but one of us is waking in two hours or so.”
She sighed. “It should be me. You had her all night.”
He shook his head. “You need the sleep. You haven’t been sleeping since Kayla left.”
“No, I haven’t.” She hated that he knew, and yet she liked that he was sensitive enough to figure it out. “But I won’t always have you to help, so I need to get used to it.”
He stood and held out a hand to her. She took it and he lifted her effortlessly to her feet. “Not tonight, Bailey. Go and catch up on your sleep. We’ll make plans tomorrow. After you�
�ve had at least eight hours.”
As if in response to his order, she let out a jaw-cracking yawn. She hated that she couldn’t hold it back.
He grinned. “Go to bed, Bailey.”
“Thanks, Alexei.”
“No problem, babe.”
She gave him an answering grin before turning on her heel and heading for the guest room. Five minutes later, she was sound asleep.
Bailey slept until almost noon. Alexei prowled around the house, feeling restless as hell. He was trapped—and he’d done it to himself.
He flopped onto the couch at one point, opened his laptop, and did some online shopping. He ordered stuff for the pip-squeak. Nothing big, but stuff she’d need, like extra onesies, booties, caps, and a Boppy pillow. He rolled his eyes that he even fucking knew what that was. But his sisters used them, so he knew.
A little while later, he fed and changed Ana, played with her, and gave her some tummy time. When he put her down for a nap, he called Blade to see if there was any news.
“You find anything on Kayla Jones?” he asked.
“Nope,” Blade said. “Can’t find a trace of her since she left here six months ago. It’s like she didn’t do anything that required her to use ID. She has no credit cards, so there are no purchases and nothing to track down. She didn’t rent a place, didn’t change her driver’s license to another state, nothing.”
“And the baby?”
“If she had the baby in a hospital, she used a different name.”
“Birth certificate?”
“None that I can find. Yet. If she had the baby somewhere other than a hospital, it’s possible it hasn’t been filed yet. Ana’s only a month old, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll keep digging. I popped over to see Hacker. Got him looking too.”
Hacker was Sky “Hacker” Kelley, Echo Squad’s IT guy. He’d been damned useful when the team had gone to help Viper, aka Mendez, in Russia a few months ago. If there was anything to find, Hacker and Blade would find it.
“Thanks, man. Appreciate it.”
“You got it.”
They hung up and Alexei checked on Ana, who was sound asleep. He pulled the door to, not closing it, and went back to the living room to clean his weapons. He unfolded the pad on the coffee table, got out the supplies, then reached into his range bag and pulled out a Glock. He’d just taken apart the slide, barrel, and spring, and placed them on the pad with the grip when he saw movement in the hallway.
Bailey emerged, lavender hair mussed, eyes sleepy. She moved with a sexy grace that drew the eye. He had a quick vision of her lying in his bed, naked, with those same sleepy eyes and tousled hair. His dick started to throb.
Down, boy.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” he said. “You get enough rest?”
She shuffled over to him and flopped down in one of the chairs nearby. “I feel like I slept a week. Why didn’t you wake me?”
“Why should I? You don’t have anywhere to be. I don’t have anywhere to be. May as well rest while you’ve got a babysitter.”
She frowned slightly. “Don’t make me feel any guiltier. Did you get any sleep at all?”
“Yeah. A couple of hours at a time. She’s sleeping pretty well for an infant, actually.”
“I don’t think she stayed down for more than half an hour the past few nights when I’ve had her.”
“Well, you might not have figured out what she needed.”
“You might be right. So she slept, huh?”
“Yep.”
“But you still had to get up every couple of hours.”
He could tell she felt guilty about that. He thought about teasing her but decided not to. She’d take it seriously anyway. “It’s how I sleep on missions. I’m used to it.”
She laid her head back against the cushion. “So you’re a Navy SEAL. Do you really do the kind of stuff they show on television?”
“You mean those prime-time dramas about Navy SEALs that have popped up lately?”
“Yes.”
He oiled the gun, then picked up the slide and ran a nylon brush over it, cleaning away all the gunpowder and grit. “I wouldn’t say they’re one hundred percent accurate, but they certainly give the general idea of what we do.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“It can be.” He brushed the outside of the barrel and spring as well as the grip before wiping off all the residue. “But we’re well trained.”
She watched him start on the inside of the barrel with a wire brush and more oil. “So you could be killed.”
He met her gaze. “Could be. But that could happen whenever you get behind the wheel of a car.”
Her lips twisted. “Well sure, but you don’t typically drive a car at a hundred miles an hour on an icy road with no seat belt, right?”
“The job isn’t that dangerous, Bailey. It’s more dangerous than driving a car, but it’s not like playing volleyball on a minefield or anything. We’re not only trained, we’re also outfitted with the best equipment and technology that money can buy. Besides, what we do is important.”
“And what is that? Chase terrorists and drug dealers?”
“Partly. It’s important to eliminate those people and the threats they present. It’s also important to rescue civilians caught in the cross fire.”
She pushed a hand through her hair. It fell in an artfully tousled wave across her cheek. She curled it behind her ear. “If Ana is yours, how will you care for her with that kind of job?”
Instead of denying the kid was his, he answered the question. “You’ll help me.”
She blinked. “What makes you so sure about that?”
“Because you will, Bailey. If you didn’t care about her, you’d have dumped her off somewhere the minute your sister left her. But that’s not who you are.”
She dipped her chin, hiding her gaze from him. Now why was he going and being all sensitive and shit? He didn’t need to encourage soul-baring. That kind of thing gave women ideas.
“No, it’s not. I know what it’s like to be left alone and uncared for, so no, I wouldn’t do that to Ana.” She ran her fingers along the arm of the chair. “Our parents would leave us, sometimes for days at a time. I think I was about eight the first time it happened, which made Kayla four. I didn’t know how to cook, but I could use the microwave. I microwaved bacon, bags of popcorn, cans of soup. Whatever I could find to feed us. There wasn’t much there, quite honestly. But I used what we had and I got us to school every day.”
There was a sudden ache in his chest. “I’m sorry. No kid should have to go through that.”
He didn’t know what that was like because his mom had always been there. She’d been frazzled and torn in too many directions quite often, but she’d taken good care of them all.
Bailey shrugged. “I did what I had to do. I got really good at taking care of us—hiding food, hoarding supplies, making contacts I could trust when my parents disappeared on one of their drug-fueled weekends. I was scared most of the time, and then I was numb. At a certain point, you just don’t give a fuck anymore.”
She’d stunned him into silence. He’d seen the dregs of humanity in his job and he knew how low a person could sink. To think Bailey had suffered at the hands of her dysfunctional parents filled him with a kind of rage that surprised him.
She didn’t seem to notice. She dashed a finger beneath her eyes, and he wondered if she was crying. But then she looked up, her jaw hard and her gaze clear. He recognized determination when he saw it. “I won’t let that happen to Ana. I can’t. And if it means I have to give her up to foster care, then I’ll do that too—only it’ll be the absolute last fucking resort, believe me.”
Chapter 9
Alexei looked angry. Maybe she shouldn’t have said any of those things, but then again, what the hell. It was true and she wasn’t going to hide it. There was too much at stake.
“I’m sorry, Bailey. Your sister left you in a pretty shitty position, didn’t she?�
��
“She did.” Bailey had tried not to be angry with her little sister, but she couldn’t quite help it. She was angry. Their childhood had been harder on Kayla, mostly because she’d been so young when the bad stuff started, but Bailey was having a hard time giving her sister a pass for abandoning her baby.
And now she was worried about what kind of trouble Kayla might be in. What if Kayla hadn’t left Ana because she’d wanted to? What if she was trying to protect her baby?
Because Bailey thought that if Kayla had learned anything from their childhood, it would have been that family had to stick together. Maybe their parents hadn’t been so great at it, but Bailey sure had. She’d kept Kayla with her no matter what, and she’d taken care of them both. There were times when it would have been easier to leave her behind, but Bailey had never done that. She’d worked and scraped and fought for two people, not just one.
So if Kayla was giving up now, was there more of a reason behind it?
“Do you have any idea where she might go?” Alexei asked.
Bailey shook her head. She’d been racking her brain, but she couldn’t think of any particular place to look for Kayla. Kayla went where she wanted to go, where she felt called to go, which was part of what made this so difficult now. Was she being flighty or was she in trouble?
“She’s always taken off for a while—weeks sometimes—but she comes back. Except when she went to California and had Ana. That was the longest absence.”
“So what about it—do you think she could have had a boyfriend?”
Bailey chewed her lip. If the man who’d threatened her last night had been Kayla’s boyfriend, she’d certainly never told Bailey about him. “I don’t know. I mean, why wouldn’t she have mentioned him if she did?”
“Maybe she thought you wouldn’t approve of him.”
“If it’s the same guy, I probably wouldn’t have.”
“Did she ever talk about any guys?”
“Sometimes. She was impressed with the military guys coming through Buddy’s. But I don’t recall hearing your name until I pushed her to tell me who Ana’s father was. And then she blurted it out, like maybe she said the first thing that came to mind.” She shook her head sadly. “There, I’ve admitted it—you’ve got me thinking you might not be Ana’s father after all. And I think that scares me more than if you are.”
HOT SEAL Redemption Page 7