Both men took their own chairs, briefly glancing at each other as if communicating in secret code. With the table at her back, they effectively had her cornered. Now what are you going to do, chica?
Marc braced his elbows on his knees and leaned a little closer. So close that with the slightest movement, the material of his slacks brushed against her right bare knee. She caught Colt appraising her from under hooded eyes and her cheeks flushed from the attention. She hoped her face didn’t betray the fear she felt inside. She needed to be strong more now than ever.
Colt shifted back in his seat and moved his focus to Marc. With a single nod toward the phone Marc held, Colt asked, “Why don’t we start over, Mia?”
Marc passed her phone back to her. When she reached out to take it, he captured her hand in a gentle hold. “Start from when you received these, please.” His gaze held something that bordered on pain. Like she was the one hurting him.
More for her to digest on the mystery that was Marc Dangere.
“First, why don’t you both tell me what’s going on with this? With the ‘sweetheart’ and the ‘darling?’” She motioned between the three of them. “You can’t just throw that at me and not explain,” she continued. Heat once again crept into her cheeks. Dios, would she ever stop blushing in front of these two? They continued to sit, their expressions giving nothing away. Mia nibbled at the flesh of her lip. Did she overstep and read too much into their words? Maybe they were just trying to calm her. ¡Por Dios! Why hadn’t they fired her by now?
As usual, Colt spoke first. His husky tone pulling at the tethers to her libido. “Because we’re tired of dancing around you like you’re a delicate freaking flower, sweetheart.”
Marc cut in. “Well, I guess that might have a truer ring to it than we thought.” He smiled, the effect reached his eyes and blew her mind all in a single second. Marc’s smile was like a shot of tequila. Warm, intoxicating and an experience you would never forget.
His square jaw with a feather-light dusting of stubble highlighted his kissable lips…simplemente maravilloso.
Her heart sank when his expression grew solemn again. Marc gathered her hand in his larger one. Colt sat forward too. This close and she could almost kiss them with just a small turn of her head. The air grew warmer around her, their mingled masculine scents working double time to calm her nerves. Was it because she wanted to trust them, have them this close to her always, or did they have that effect on all women? Probably a little of both.
“What I think we meant to say was, we’ve given it some thought and we’ve seen the small gestures from you to make us believe you’d be interested in something more than just…how should I word it…?” Marc paused.
“Traditional.” Colt threw out the word as if he had a hard time chewing it. He took her other hand. “Today we were going to ask you to stay after work so we could have a talk. Hell, it’s against all our work ethics, but there’s just something about you, Mia, that makes us what to throw the rule book away.”
Marc ran his free hand through his hair and let out a deep sigh. “Before we go any further…ah, hell, I don’t know…maybe we should just focus on this clusterfuck of a mess, then we can sort this other stuff out.”
Why was he throwing on the brakes? She cocked a brow and pinned Marc with a curious stare. “Are you not going to ask what I want?”
“Smooth, bro.” Colt shot a dirty look at Marc and if she didn’t know better, she’d say he blushed. That had to be a first.
The intercom buzzer from the downstairs security team went off beside them and broke the building tension. Colt squeezed her hand before he stood to answer the incoming message.
“Mia, pull up those images again. Let me see if there’s any information I can find and get the investigation started. While I do that, give me the run-down again on when you received them.”
Mia did as Marc requested, pulling up the images for the second time. “I was down by the coffee shop close to my apartment when this hit my inbox.” Mia scrolled past the images of her coming back from the lake after her ritual weekend skinny-dipping then stopped on the one where it showed all three of them grabbing lunch after a long morning with clients last week.
“The first thing I noticed, well, after my naked rump was, the sender’s email address. Or lack of, anyway.”
Marc nodded.
Colt was holding the door for them, looking back over the crowded sidewalk, while Marc ushered Mia inside the restaurant with a hand on her lower back. She remembered the day because both men had been so attentive to her over their shared meal. They asked her about family and her goals, and even touched on the subject of kids. Mia worried her lower lip and looked down at the picture again. How could someone intrude on such a private moment? For what reason?
Her breath died in her throat and fire exploded throughout her body, her mind racing with a myriad of worst-case scenarios. Only she didn’t have any worst case scenarios in her past. No current boyfriends or jealous friends. Dios, she had too little of one and not enough of the other to even ping on her radar.
Marc peeled her fingers loose from the phone and shut it off. “You don’t need to look at these anymore, Mia. Is this why you were late this morning?”
She took a calming breath before answering. “Not exactly,” she said, her voice only half as shaky as she felt, “The images pissed me off, but what I found when I got to my car after my coffee run scared the crap out of me.” Her foot bounced in place and Marc rested a hand on her knee. “You’re safe, now, Mia. Take another deep breath and walk me through what happened. Slowly.”
She nodded and her eyes zeroed in on the soft contact of his skin on hers, thankful for the anchor. “Whoever took those images also left a nice little note keyed into the paint of my hood.” This time there was no stopping the tears that burned her eyes. She dragged in another deep breath to steel her jittery nerves before continuing. Silence settled over the room, and she knew both men patiently waited for her to continue.
“What message, sweetheart?” Colt coaxed her in a strained tone laced with a hint of worry. He returned to where they sat a couple of feet away from the intercom phone.
“Pronto Morirás,” she said in a thin whisper. Mia pulled her lip between her teeth and mentally patted herself on the back for not completely breaking down in tears. The men were the tough-guy types. No telling how they would react to a woman crying.
Mia clamped down on her emotions, slipped her hand inside her jacket pocket for the other half of the message and held it out for the both men to see. “It means, ‘you will die soon’. And if this is any clue to go by, it will be a quick death.” She dropped the silver-tipped bullet in Colt’s palm. “Sorry. I know I should have called or something and not touched it, but at the moment I went a little loca, no.”
Freaking bat-shit-crazy was more like it with the way she’d grabbed the bullet and peeled out of the parking lot so fast onlookers jumped out of her way. She’d had no real idea what to do but come to work, thinking she could figure something out before quitting time.
“Son of a bitch,” Colt drawled out through gritted teeth.
Marc slammed his fist down on the table and stood, sending his chair flying backward. The brute force left a dent in the opposite wall. “What a way to bury the lead, Mia. You should have told us that little detail first, damn it.” His face flushed red.
Banked anger rippled just beneath the surface. The veins in his neck throbbed. “And stop biting your damn lip, for God’s sake, and look at me.” He kneeled next to her and encompassed her face with both of his hands. His thumb grazing the place on her lower lip where she had a tendency to bite. A shock of energy rushed her and she inhaled sharply. He felt the zap of energy too, because his eyes lit, acknowledging the exchange between them.
“Why didn’t you tell us this sooner?” His words were a rough whisper. He pushed away and stalked over to the window and the view that had held her attention for the better part of the day. She watched as
he rubbed a hand along the outside of his right thigh out of habit.
According to the gossip girls of the office, Mia found out soon after starting her new job that the injury he sustained, and that forced him to retire from the Marines, gave him a slight limp. By all accounts he had become a hero that day by saving four members of his unit, including Colt.
She shifted her weight and glanced at Colt sitting beside her. Anger simmered just beneath the surface, but he held it in check. A tendon in his jaw twitched, his eyes leveled on the floor by her feet. When she moved, his gaze shot up and pinned her with a heated look. Anger swirled in the depths of his eyes, but she saw fear there too. Fear for her? Her heart swelled at the thought.
She knew neither of the men would hurt her, but she couldn’t help but think that they were a force to be reckoned with when ticked off. The tension in her shoulders eased a fraction.
“He’s right, Mia, you should have told us sooner. Now we might have missed any chance at nailing the person behind this quickly.” Colt remained seated beside her. He leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees like Marc had earlier, but instead of holding her gaze he dipped his head, effectively hiding his eyes. Regret crept in. Mia realized she didn’t like it when he hid his eyes from her. What a time for a revelation.
Her pride bristled at what they said, but they were right. And this was no time to act scared no matter how much this shit made her want to run for the hills. They dealt with this stuff day in and day out. Death threats were just another day on the job, but she wasn’t equipped for this. She rubbed at her eyes, tired from a choppy sleep the night before.
Wait. Last night. Mia shot up and grabbed her phone from the table. “Last night I received a phone call. Actually, three. I didn’t connect it until now. They were all hang-ups and I thought it might have been my ex-fiancé or some prank. Now I’m not so sure.” Mia flipped and swiped until her recent calls tab popped up on the screen. “Here’s the proof.” She handed the phone to Marc with a sigh, hopeful that it was something they could use. She wasn’t up to date on all the high-tech things that went into tracing people, but even she understood how the phone system worked.
“You think your ex has anything to do with this, Mia?”Marc stepped back from the window and closed the distance between them in three strides.
“Who knows? I didn’t think he’d beat me, but now…I wouldn’t put this past him. The restraining order is still in effect, but those are as useful as toilet paper in a rainstorm.”
Marc nodded. “Colt, we have our first name for the list of suspects.”
Her gut told her Steven, her douche bag of an ex, wasn’t the one behind all the chaos though. She held back from saying anything, second-guessing the man would be a mistake.
Mia turned her attention to Marc. This near she could feel his heat surround her again. Her inner tigress purred, wanting more of whatever it was about him that had her so calm in his presence.
Holding her gaze, Marc spoke to Colt. “Call Tech, get our best guy up here and have them bring a burner phone on their way up.”
Colt peeled off from them and moved over to the speakerphone, relaying orders to their team.
“Mia…” Marc said her name on a long, drawn-out breath. She understood his frustration. After all, she was the one marked for death by some lunatic. She worried her lip. Her gaze on anything in the room but the man now sitting directly in front of her. “You keep biting your lip like that and I’ll do exactly what I’ve dreamed of since the day you walked into my office, Mia Vega.” His voice was a grave whisper of intent.
A shiver of desire rushed her. Talk about straightforward.
For the second time today Mia swallowed hard, only to find her mouth completely dry. This time it was out of pure shock. Marc Dangere just issued her a warning and she was tempted to see what he had to offer as a punishment or prize, depending on what his dream involved. She hoped something that would take her mind off the twisted events of the day.
Mia licked her bottom lip, soliciting a deep, throaty growl from Marc. His eyes heated and he settled his hand over hers where they rested on her lap. “Don’t push me, darling. I promise you I bite.”
Ahí Dios, por favor. God, please let him bite. There went her inner tigress again.
Before she could test the chain and tempt the beast closer, Colt walked over and kneeled beside her. Both men surrounded her again, their nearness a delicious combination of comfort and relief. She was safe here. She needed to remember that. And Marc’s threat of something promising...she smiled inwardly.
“I just explained the situation to Walter Reid down in Tech. We’re getting the ball rolling on identifying who the hell’s behind the threats on your life, but they’ll need your phone for that. In the meantime, you can use this.” Colt passed the burner phone to her. “We stock a few here in the office for clients that require immediate action.”
Heat tinged her cheeks and she cringed. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
“Those pictures,” disgust left a nasty taste in her mouth, “they’re going to be out there for everyone to see.” She clasped a hand over her face. It took all she had to show them the violating images, now the guys in Tech would know what she looked like after going skinny-dipping and what she looked like in black lingerie too. She talked with them on a regular basis dealing with one thing or another for Marc and Colt. Now she’d never be able to look the Tech team in the eyes again. Maybe she should find another job?
“No, they won’t, sweetheart. I sent the pictures over to our secured phones a few minutes ago in case they’re ever needed and erased them from yours. Tech only needs to know what happened not see the evidence.”
Marc picked up from there. “That’s step one. Now we need your car. Did you drive it here this morning?”
Mia nodded. She had to wait for the car insurance man to come and look at the key scratches in her hood, which landed her a good hour and a half late to work. “It’s in the underground parking of this building, you can’t miss it. It’s the only one with a black bag taped to the hood.”
Colt moved over to the phone again to make a call with a grimmer look on his face than before.
Marc stood, this time to pace the small patch of hardwood floor between the table and the floor-to-ceiling windows. “Do you have any other family in town or close by besides your sister, Mia?”
“No.” Her sister, the only family she could speak of, lived almost three hours away in San Diego. Too far for a commute and she didn’t want to bring her into this if it would put her in danger as well.
“Then you’re coming back to the house with us tonight. It’s too dangerous to be on your own.” Marc’s words held no room for debate. Her ego bristled again and she tightened her fingers in her lap. What was it about men—especially military men—and their belief everyone would fall in line with what they think was best? Her father had been that way before he’d died. Her mother knew how to maneuver around his controlling tendencies, but Mia never understood why she put up with it in the first place.
A frown creased her brow. “Mr. Dangere, are you trying to get me in bed?”
Surprise flitted across his face, quickly replaced with a sizzling heat before doused with a stone cold stare, but he couldn’t hide the slight tilt to his lip. “And I thought I was direct, Miss Vega.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and held his gaze. It was amazing to watch the myriad of emotions right before his usual cool, calm and collected took over. What was he so afraid of? Six months and the past hour was the first time he’d even hinted at something more than the secretary and employer relationship. Why the change?
Colt on the other hand, was the smooth talker of the team. He cut in from his place by the phone. “We have a lot to discuss, sweetheart. But your safety takes top rack right now. Everything else has to wait.” He nailed her with a heated look that gave her a good indication of what ‘everything else’ entailed.
Demonios. They have this tag team duo do
wn to a science.
“That’s a promise.” Marc cut in this time, and she held his gaze. She watched the golden specks in his brown eyes dance with banked emotions.
“I realize you guys are worried, and I am too, but there has to be some other way. I refuse to be run out of my home over a few pictures.”
Marc’s mouth hardened into a firm, stubborn flat line again. He had the look down pat.
Mia stood. Suddenly the room seemed too small. In a breathy voice she continued, “I do happen to have the state of the art home security system thanks to company benefits.” She plastered on a fake smile for their sakes. Or hers. Maybe both. Her insides quivered with a foreign mixture of fear and lust.
If she was going, now was the time. She wanted the two Marines more than her next breath, but pursuing the attraction they obviously shared wasn’t the wisest decision. Especially now. They’d have to figure something else out. “I know a hotel close enough for a cab ride.”
Both men shook their heads in unison. “What Marc said is true—you can’t be alone, Mia. Not for a while anyway. Let us find out what this is all about first. It could be a prank from your asshole ex gone overboard or it could be something graver than that and carry even more weight.” Colt made his way back over to them. “We don’t know who is responsible for this, and leaving you on your own wouldn’t settle well with me.”
“Or me, for that matter. Mia, you know this is more than just a few pictures. Playing coy doesn’t suit you. You’ve been issued a death threat. That’s serious shit in our book.” Colt tossed a reprimanding glare at Marc who shrugged it off before continuing. “Are you willing to put yourself in danger for your pride? Or have us sitting outside your house all night because there’s no way in hell we’re going to leave you out in the boondocks all alone?”
“In case you forgot, you two have a trip to prepare for. Speaking of,” Mia glanced at the big clock hanging on the back wall. Late afternoon had slipped into early evening. “The flight leaves for Puerto Vallarta in a little over seven hours. You can’t miss this meeting because of me. You’ve been working on closing the contract with your first international client for three weeks now. I don’t think rescheduling with the governor of Jalisco is a wise move. And sitting outside my house will do nothing but set you back in everything you’ve worked so hard to build. Beside, living in the country isn’t like living on another planet.”
Sunrise For Three: A Military Erotic Romance (Sexy Siesta Series Book 3) Page 2