by Dawn Ryder
It was also the same spot they’d connected in.
So long ago.
Her cheeks stung but LeAnn’s words where still bouncing around inside Jaelyn’s head.
Bram emerged from the shadows.
He moved with a silent purpose that was slightly unnerving. It raised the hair on the back of her neck because seeing it drove home just how lax everyone around her was. He lifted the lid on the large trash can for her but she didn’t drop the bag into it because her mind suddenly latched on to the fact that she hadn’t heard his steps. She looked down and his feet were still laced up in black boots that looked ready for an inspection.
He plucked the bag out of her distracted hold and tossed it into the can while she pulled in a startled breath.
“Glad you came out, it saves me the trouble of texting you at an inappropriate time.” His lips twitched as though he was pleased to see her. “We were interrupted today.” His voice was deep and husky, awaking every daydream she’d indulged in. His head angled back so he could look directly at her, and in spite of the darkness, she felt his gaze settle on her.
Like he was hungry.
So was she …
“We were? It looked like you were happy to reconnect with LeAnn.”
She watched him shake his head and something rippled through the air between them.
Jaelyn could have sworn she felt the heat rising off him.
Or maybe it was moving between them, like some live current.
He stepped forward and she caught a look at his face. The muscles along his jaw were tight but there was something in his eyes that hinted at longing.
“I had some details which needed clearing up with her.” His voice was low and deep and it sent a quiver through her belly. Excitement curled into a ball and burned there because that tone was better than any daydream; it was ten thousand times better.
“What details?”
She shouldn’t have asked. Her brain was making way too much of the opportunity to contemplate what her options were if Bram had broken up with LeAnn.
“Making sure she knew we were finished,” he confirmed in a solid tone. “I came to see you today.”
Oh man … opportunity was calling her name …
Her world tilted off center again. Hunger busted through the barrier she’d sealed it behind, clawing its way through her core. Every logical conversation she’d had with herself melted like a cube of sugar under a faucet, leaving her with nothing but the man in front of her and how much she didn’t care about what anyone else thought.
Just the fact that he’d said he’d come to see her …
But reality was a vicious bitch who showed up right on cue to crush her budding fantasy with a reality check.
The look of fury on LeAnn’s face as she’d come in floated through Jaelyn’s mind.
She shook her head. “You’re on the rebound.”
Honestly, she was trying to convince herself as much as him. His eyes narrowed but Jaelyn shook her head again.
“I saw LeAnn when she came in.” Jaelyn didn’t give him a chance to argue. “So, we’re not talking tonight.”
It was logical.
It made sense.
It was safer.
And it sucked.
But she watched his face, saw the way he contemplated her words. There was resistance in his eyes, yet it melted under the cold hard facts. He nodded and she turned around.
Rabbit to burrow …
God, how she hated that visual!
The only thing that made her keep walking was the fact that she was pretty sure she would hate herself even more if she gave in and came back out to talk to him.
Because they wouldn’t be talking long.
Nope. Bram wanted something different and so did she.
It would be a hell of a ride, she didn’t doubt it. He’d deliver on the toe-curling experience she’s dreamed of, for sure.
But she’d be selling out on her dreams.
So she locked the door.
* * *
He wanted to go after her.
The impulse was stronger than he expected and the truth was, Bram was sort of tickled to feel the intensity.
A man’s thinking could get twisted up while he was deployed. But the urge to get close to Jaelyn was stronger than ever.
She had more sense than he did.
Even if he’d seen her fighting the force that was trying to draw them closer together.
His phone vibrated. He looked at his dad’s number and decided fate was reinforcing Jaelyn’s rational choice.
It would be better. He wanted to do things right, be worthy of her.
Not that he had a clue how to go about it.
“Bram,” came the voice over the phone when he answered the call.
Bram knew the tone his father was using. It was the one every child on the face of the earth recognized. There was parental authority in it but what made the spine stiffen but it was more than tone, it was also the fact that Bram was old enough to recall just how many times his father had been right to kick his tail.
“Bram, I try hard to let you be your own man because I know it’s important to you to be more than the colonel’s son.”
“Something I appreciate, Dad,” Bram answered. “What’s on your mind?”
“You mean besides the fact that you didn’t come to see me or your sister before heading out to California?”
“I’m old enough to remind you of how lonely being deployed makes a person.”
There was a snort on the other end of the line. “That crack didn’t win you any points. You came through DC and didn’t stop to see me.”
Bram grinned. “You’re locked in your classified lab…”
“I would have come out,” Bryan said. “That cheerleader is not the love of your life. Don’t expect me to be any too happy to know she ranked higher than me.”
“I’m not here to see LeAnn.” Bram cut to the admissions. “It’s her sister I came looking for.”
“Son—” his father began.
“I know,” Bram said, cutting him off. “It’s not the most advisable situation. But LeAnn was fooling around on me and I started something with Jaelyn. As stupid as it was, I can’t seem to shake it. They’re night and day, Dad.”
There was a long pause. “I’d argue with you but I know that tone you’re using.”
It was a relief to hear his father say it.
But it also tightened his insides because he knew without a doubt he had something bad for Jaelyn and he had no reason to expect her to welcome him when he’d been stupid enough to fool around with her sister.
It wouldn’t be the first time he challenged the odds, either.
“Bram, you aren’t going to want to hear this, but you’re going to.” His father began to lay out his pearls of wisdom. “I hear something in your tone I never have before. But you’ve chosen a very dangerous path with Hale and his team. I know you crave it, you come by the instinct from me. Your mother couldn’t live with it. She doesn’t even send you a birthday card because of how bad my life scared her. Beth doesn’t want to risk knowing you and your sister because my work might translate into someone seeking retribution through you two. I didn’t tell her before we got married who I was, because I wanted her too bad. It blew up in my face three years later and you don’t have a mother because of my mistake.”
It was a topic his father rarely discussed. The fact that Bram’s mother had left them, unable to deal with her ex-husband, even though it meant she would never get to see her children. She’d cut all ties, marrying again and never looking back. Bram only knew what she looked like from a picture album stored among his father’s things.
“Keep it in mind, son,” Bryan said, finishing up. “And you’d better get your tail out here to see me before you disappear with Kagan’s teams of Shadow Ops.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Magnus out.”
Bram looked toward the house.
He could walk away.
Maybe the correct word was “should” walk away.
The moment the thought crossed his mind he knew he didn’t have the strength to do it. There was something drawing him toward Jaelyn. It was so strong, so intense, part of him felt like it would be impossible to forgive himself for throwing in the towel when all he’d done was write letters.
Face-to-face.
That was the way it needed to be. If she told him to go, he would.
* * *
I came to see you …
Jaelyn chewed on her lower lip and headed for a shower. In spite of the fact that she’d dragged herself out of bed before dawn, she was now wide awake with her brain running in circles.
We were interrupted today.
A shiver went down her spine as she recalled the way the man looked into her eyes. It was beyond intense and just the memory of it made the hair on her neck stand up.
But a second before she turned on the light in the bathroom, she caught the hint of a shadow beyond the window. She blinked and the guy was still there, watching LeAnn through her bedroom window.
“What the hell?”
Her grandfather roared from the hallway. Jaelyn spun around but her grandfather was already yanking the back door open.
“Grandpa!”
Her grandfather charged at the man, yelling words she hadn’t known he knew. The man turned around and lunged at the old man. There was a sickening crunch as his fists collided with her grandfather’s head.
“Stop!” It was a feeble attempt to protect her kin. Jaelyn raced forward as her grandfather fell. LeAnn let out a scream and kept screaming as she watched through the bedroom window.
Jaelyn ended up in the dirt, feeling the skin on her hands being scraped away as the shadow shoved her out of the way. He ran toward the back of the house. A second later, Bram skidded around the front of the house. He covered the distance in a heartbeat, hitting his knee next to her.
“That … that way…”
She was panting but managed to point toward the backyard.
Bram pushed off his knee in a fluid motion, the light from the streetlamp flashing off a gun in his hand. But the sound of a car starting and tearing through the alley filled the night. Bram didn’t let it stop him—he climbed the fence and fired off a shot at the car.
Jaelyn reached for her grandfather. He was stiff and lying on the ground.
* * *
“Damned civilian law enforcement.”
Her grandfather didn’t care for the paramedic who tried to keep him on the gurney. “It’s just a knock on the head. I’ve had worse.”
“Grandpa,” Jaelyn said as she pressed him back with a firm hand. “Your heart isn’t handling it well. You need to see a doctor.”
“Ha!” Her grandfather snapped but stayed put. “You mean these medics want to wring some profit out of being called here tonight.”
“Mr. Sondors, I really think it’s a good idea for you to agree to transport.”
A second cop added his similar opinion. There were half a dozen police cars scattered on the front lawn.
“Only if you tell your fellow officers to stop giving Bram there a hard time. Just because he had a gun. You all act like a man doesn’t have the right to run a Peeping Tom off his property.”
“More than a Peeping Tom,” Jaelyn added. Her grandfather’s face was turning purple, his right eye already swollen shut.
“My point exactly!” he pointed a finger at the cop trying to give him advice. “And look at the way your buddies are acting. That young man was there when I needed him. Who knows what might have happened to my granddaughters if he’d gotten into the house.”
Jaelyn stole a glance over at where Bram was facing down four burly officers. They all had their hands on the butts of their sidearms. He had his back against a squad car but he still didn’t look pinned. There was something in his stance that warned her he would take them all down if he needed to.
“I’m not going anywhere until I talk to that boy.”
The cop grumbled but ambled away. He talked to the officer in front of Bram for a moment. The man finally nodded. Bram brushed past them without a single glance. Her grandfather lifted his hand and beckoned to him.
“Mr. Sondors.” Bram hit his knee next to the gurney.
“Tell him to go to the hospital,” Jaelyn said. “He’s being stubborn.”
Bram considered her grandfather for a long moment. “Might be best.”
Her grandfather nodded at last. Relief spread through her.
“So long as you promise me you’ll look after my girls. Can’t stand the thought of them here with that peeper loose.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Bram said as he looked back at her and she felt the full force of his hard gaze. “You have my word on that.”
“Well, I am,” Jaelyn informed them both before she climbed right into the back of the ambulance and sat down.
Her grandfather reached out and grasped Bram’s forearm. “Stay with LeAnn. I know she’s…” He waved his hand in the air.
“She’s your granddaughter,” Bram finished.
The paramedics were pushing the gurney toward the open doors and lifting it up. There was a clatter as the wheels and supports folded up. It was too noisy for further conversation but Bram sent Jaelyn a look that was full of promise.
* * *
Gideon was shaking. There was a potent combination of rage and frustration swirling around inside him. He gripped handfuls of his hair as he tried to control his thoughts and regain control.
“Now that … is a fine looking pair of tits.”
Gideon jumped, turning around to find a man leaning against a tree and smiling at him like he hadn’t just said the word “tits.”
“Nice ass, too,” he added, before he offered his hand. “Sullivan’s the name, Ricky is what my ma called me.”
“How do you know what I was doing?” Gideon demanded.
Ricky took a drag off the cigarette in his hand and offered it across the space between them. Gideon gave in and took it, inhaling deeply so that the tip glowed red.
“I saw you follow them in the park,” he said, chuckling. “But only because I was doing the same. You’ve got good taste, my man.”
Gideon laughed in response. Ricky shook his head when he tried to hand the cigarette back and pulled another one from his shirt pocket. He took a moment to light it and draw a lungful of smoke that he let tickle his nose before he blew it out in a long, milky stream. “I’d sure like to fuck one of them.”
“Yeah,” Gideon remarked, shifting as his cock hardened. “It’s not going to happen. Chicks like that always go for the uniform guys.”
“I’m more of a take-it sort of guy,” Ricky said. “Don’t fucking care what anyone thinks of me, either.”
Gideon perked up, watching Ricky draw off the cigarette, waiting to hear what he’d say next.
“I mean, life’s gotten too damned polite if you ask me…” He blew smoke out again. “Today’s bitches won’t admit it, but they like a man who takes command.”
Gideon nodded, his eyes bright.
Ricky shook the cigarette at him. “All she needs is the chance to feel you jerking her hair.”
Ricky lifted the cigarette to his lips and drew in a breath. Sure, smoking was slowly killing him, that just made life more intense because he was aware of it slipping away. A concept Bram Magnus had introduced him to recently.
Bram and his team of Shadow Ops that was.
It was going to be a personal favor to track them down and get back in with Tyler Martin. At least until Ricky killed the man for double-crossing him. No one pulled one over on a Sullivan and now that he’d found Bram Magnus’s soft spot, Ricky had the opening he needed to extract his revenge.
Bram’s little cheerleader was popular on social media. They liked getting shots of Bram when he was with her, too, which was how Ricky had tracked Bram down.
Gideon would make the perfect resource. A nice pigeon to take the dir
t when it splattered. Damn but lady luck was paying up in spades today. The guy was almost too easy to work over. But then again, life had been a bitch to him lately. It was time for him to get his due.
* * *
Time warped inside a hospital.
Jaelyn rubbed her eyes and sat up as she tried to find a clock. The room her grandfather was in was cast in darkness, but there was still plenty of light spilling under the drawn curtain from the open door to the hallway.
An orderly had brought in a cot for her and she’d collapsed on it at some point just before dawn while her grandfather was still grumbling over the doctor’s insistence that he remain for observation.
She sat up, looking toward the bed but her grandfather was still sleeping. She picked up her shoes and tiptoed into the hallway on sock-clad feet to keep from waking him.
She fished through her purse for enough coins to buy a cup of coffee from a vending machine. The scent made her wrinkle her nose but beggars couldn’t be choosers. She wandered outside to add a little fresh air to the taste of the machine coffee in an effort to find a silver lining.
The coffee still sucked but Jaelyn smiled because her grandfather was doing well and honestly, she’d drink sucky coffee in exchange for not having him truly injured.
“Jaelyn Sondors?”
The coffee went flying but the guy in front of her didn’t seem too worried about it. In fact, she detected a tiny flicker of amusement in his eyes before he was flashing some laminated card in her face.
“Bram Magnus sent me to pick you up.”
There was a teasing hint of Irish brogue in his tone and when he smiled, his face was really sort of cute, if she didn’t notice the pink patches from healing wounds.
“This way…” He opened the back door of a sedan that was double-parked.
“Sorry, I’m not leaving.” Jaelyn turned and left. Her temper was sizzling.
She skidded to a stop just inside the hospital doors, fumbling in her purse for her cell phone.
But then she stopped.
Yeah, Bram had nerve. But he was also fresh from a military deployment, so attending to details likely just came second nature to him. And he had promised her grandfather.