“I fucking told you that you shouldn’t have been there. Claire just told me that she knew exactly who you are. What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
“How the hell does she know me? I’ve never met her before.”
“I don’t have a fucking clue, but now there’s one more person that knows your true identity.”
“Then you’d better make sure she doesn’t talk or I’ll deal with her.”
I gulped and took a step back. I knew I shouldn’t have said anything to Derek.
“You’re not going to kill her. I’ll make sure she knows that it would be a very bad thing to let on that she knows who you are.”
“You’d better because it’s not just my ass on the line. Everyone here would be put at risk. We’d all be exposed.”
All be exposed. Did that mean that they all had these powers or whatever it was that Knight had? I backed up until I hit the door on the other side of the hall and slipped inside. Robotically, I went through the process of going to the bathroom and washing my hands. I had to figure out a way to get out of here before Knight made good on his promise. I couldn’t trust that anyone would protect me when they all had something to lose.
I opened the bathroom door and ran smack into a hard chest. I looked way up into the scary eyes of Knight. I stumbled back against the door and tried my best to hold it together.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
“N-No,” I stuttered. “Nothing at all. Everything’s just hunky dory. I was just going to the bathroom,” I motioned at the door. “You know, because I had to..go to the bathroom.”
“You sure everything’s okay?”
“Of course. Why do you ask?”
“Because that’s the men’s bathroom,” he pointed out. I looked at the sign on the door and realized he was right. I had been in the men’s bathroom and hadn’t even known it.
“Maybe you should watch where you’re going. It would be a shame if you..disappeared.”
The threat was clear in the deep rumblings of his voice. My whole body started to shake when he lifted his hand and placed it right next to my head on the door. I tried to slink back against the door, but I couldn’t move any further. He leaned into me and I was sure he was about to break my neck, but he pushed the door open and slipped inside the bathroom, leaving me a quivering mess in the hallway.
“You ready to go?”
Derek’s voice made me jump and I stumbled against the door. “Uh..yeah. I’m ready. Ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s hit the road.” Even I could hear that my voice was just a little too happy for what he was asking. He raised an eyebrow at me, but held out his hand, gesturing me ahead of him. I walked in front, trying not to look over my shoulder every five seconds. I was sure that he was having me walk ahead so that he could kill me, but then we made it down to his truck and nothing had happened yet. He ushered me into his truck and drove me home, barely saying a word as I got out and headed inside. As he pulled away, I breathed a sigh of relief that I had another day to live.
CHAPTER FOUR
Derek
“WHAT THE HELL was she thinking?” Sam “Cazzo” Galmacci asked me as we were training the next day. He was one of the other investors, besides me, in Reed Security. We left most of the paperwork to Sebastian because neither of us wanted that responsibility.
“I don’t have a fucking clue. The woman is so infuriating. One minute she’s stumbling all over herself and the next, she’s wielding a gun and trying to take out bank robbers. Who the hell does that?”
“We do that,” Cazzo said as he put away his weights.
“Yeah, we do that, but she’s not one of us. She’s a fucking librarian.”
“A librarian that kept you from getting your ass shot off.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“Yours, man, but you have to recognize that as weird as she is, what she did was kind of hot.”
“You know who else pulls shit like that?” He quirked an eyebrow at me. “Freckles. And look at the trouble she causes.”
Cazzo laughed and shook his head. “I don’t think you have to worry about Claire pulling the same shit Freckles does. From what you’ve told me, Claire seems like the type of girl that stumbles into a situation, not causes it.”
“It doesn’t fucking matter. She needs to stay on her farm where she belongs.”
“I wouldn’t let Lola hear you talk like that. She’d kick your ass for suggesting that a woman has ‘a place’.”
“Not all women, but Claire? Fuck yeah. She belongs as far away from our lives as possible. She’s a fucking walking disaster. She doesn’t pay attention to her surroundings, she’s totally fucking clueless about how dangerous people are, and she puts herself into danger so she can help others when she should stay the fuck out of the way.”
“Introduce her to Vanessa. I’m sure they’d have a lot in common.”
“How’s Vanessa doing?”
“Good. She’s finishing up school and trying to figure out her next move. I think she wants to work at one of the restaurants in town.”
“You should talk to Cap about hiring her as Reed Security’s own personal chef.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that would go over real well,” he chuckled.
“So, when’s the wedding?”
“I haven’t asked her yet.”
“Seriously? I thought you knew she was the one.”
“She is, but she’s finishing up school this year and I don’t want her to be stressed out over planning a wedding. Then there’s the situation with her mom. They’re talking, but they don’t have the greatest relationship. I think she needs more time before she really involves her in our lives. A wedding isn’t something you want a parent to miss, so I want her to have enough time to really decide if she wants her in her life.”
“But you are going to marry her, right? I mean, after all that happened with you two-”
“I know. That’s part of it. Everything was so intense with us. We need some normal before we take things to the next level. I will marry her, but I want it to be about us before anything else happens. I don’t want her waking up one morning and wondering where the hell her life went.”
After all that Cazzo had been through, we were all rooting for him and Vanessa to finally get hitched. He’d had a shitty year and we’d all felt like we’d let him down in some way. It felt like every time we had good news, something fell apart with one of us.
“Who knows, maybe you and Claire will be hearing wedding bells before Vanessa and I.”
I reared back and set my weights down. “Whoa. There will be no wedding bells for me anytime in the future. I don’t want a wife and I don’t want someone nagging me to take out the garbage.”
“Sure. You keep telling yourself that. I’m telling you though, once the love bug bites, you’re fucked.”
“What the hell is wrong with all you sappy ass mother fuckers? You find a woman and suddenly you’re talking about ‘love bugs’ and ‘wedding bells’. Where the hell are your balls?”
“Vanessa owns them, and let me tell you something. I wouldn’t trade it for all the pussy in the world.”
“There’s something seriously wrong with what you just said. Give me your wallet.”
“Why?”
“Because, I’m revoking your man card. You no longer belong to the club and all your privileges have been revoked.”
“Just wait. It won’t be long before you’re coming to us ‘sappy ass mother fuckers’ for advice. And when you do, I’m gonna laugh my fucking ass off.”
He turned and walked out of the weight room with a grin on his face. There was no way I could ever let that happen. I’d seen the way these guys let women control their lives and turn them inside out. I didn’t ever want that from a relationship. Hell, I didn’t even want a relationship. He could grow feathers and shit in a tree because there was no way I would ever be one of them.
✯✯✯✯✯
Two weeks later and I was still getting hard every
time Claire crossed my mind. I wanted to get my hands on her hips and feel her body rocking against mine. Damn. I only had one reason to go see her and I didn’t think that paying her a friendly visit to remind her to keep her mouth shut would be welcomed. I didn’t have any other ideas though. Dating her wasn’t an option. She was way too flighty for me and would probably expect some kind of relationship. I wanted to fuck her, I was sure of that, but I knew well enough that women like her got thoughts in their heads about more. And more was something I definitely didn’t need.
Still, I had to see her again, so I headed to the library and took the chance that she was working. It was an older building and the inside was not well lit. My security spidey senses were going off at the thought of her being here alone late at night. The library was on two floors and looked more like a smaller version of the Library of Congress than a small town library. It even had those ladders that rolled across the bookcases. I could definitely see why she liked working here. It had a certain old fashioned feel that was reminiscent of a time where things weren’t quite so chaotic.
I walked around the deserted library looking for her. When she wasn’t at the desk or in the office, I started wandering the aisles until I spotted a cart with books stacked in it. At the end of the aisle, Claire was perched on a rolling ladder, standing at the top. I stopped dead in my tracks as I took in her gorgeous figure. She was every man’s fantasy, wearing a calf length pencil skirt that showcased that gorgeous ass and a blouse that was tucked in. She also had on black high heel shoes that had a strap around the ankle. Her hair was pulled up in some kind of bun and she wore glasses that were perched on her nose. It was fucking sexy. I had no idea that Claire had this side to her. She always looked like a regular girl that I would see on the street. Not a girl, a woman, but she had never looked this damn sexy before.
She was stretching to put a book away and it was just out of reach. Get down and move the fucking ladder, I said in my head. Of course, she didn’t listen. She kept stretching until she just barely had a toe on the ladder. Her other leg was stretched out as far as her tight skirt would allow. A piece of hair fell out of her bun and fell in her face. She blew out a breath, trying to move the errant strand, but it fell right back in her face. I knew it was going to happen. I could see it happening in front of me and I took off like a rocket down the aisle, sure that she was about to kill herself, or at the very least break something. I pulled out a baseball slide and held my arms out as she shook her head one last time and her foot slipped off the rung. She screamed the whole way down until she plopped right in my arms, exactly where she was meant to be.
I shook my head of those crazy thoughts and set her down on the ground, doing my best to not snap at her for being so stupid. She shoved her glasses back up on her face and straightened her clothes as best she could before she stumbled to her feet.
“Thank you, Derek. I didn’t realize I was that close to falling.”
“Really?” I asked, reigning in my temper as much as possible. “You were practically hanging off the fucking ladder. If I hadn’t been here, you could have broken your neck. Shouldn’t you be wearing something more practical than fucking high heels while you’re climbing ladders? This isn’t the 1950’s, Claire. You’re allowed to wear sensible shoes.”
She looked down at her heels and then back up at me, flushing bright red under my glare. “I-I didn’t know-”
“You did fucking know! Have some common sense next time. Those shoes are shoes you wear when you wrap your legs around a man’s back when he’s fucking you. Those most definitely are not shoes you wear when you climb ladders.”
“I just-”
“Don’t give me any fucking excuses. You’re all alone in this fucking building and no one would have known you were hurt. Do you have any sense of safety for yourself?”
“Would you stop yelling at me for two minutes and let me explain myself?” she shouted. It was the most outspoken Claire had ever been with me and it was then that I realized, for the moment, we had switched positions. I was the one losing my fucking mind and rambling and she was the one trying to get a word in. I closed my mouth and gave a sharp nod. “I was at a meeting today about the library. I don’t normally dress like this when I’m working. The woman that was working this morning got sick and needed me to come in early. I didn’t have a chance to go home and change, so I wore what I wore to the meeting. She had gotten behind since she was sick and these books needed to be shelved. No, I’m not normally stupid enough to wear an outfit like this to the library.”
I stood there speechless, partially disappointed that she didn’t normally dress like this. It was fucking hot. I opened my mouth to say something, but found that I didn’t really know what to say. Was this what it was like to be her?
“Did you have a reason for coming here other than yelling at me?”
“Uh, yeah. I just wanted to remind you that it’s very important that you don’t say anything about what you know. About Knight.”
She stiffened and took a step back, almost like she was afraid of me. “Yes, I remember. Knight made sure I knew what would happen if I said anything. I swear, you have nothing to worry about.”
“Fuck,” I swore as I ran a hand over the back of my head. Leave it to Knight to go spouting off at Claire, threatening her if she didn’t keep her mouth shut. Yes, it was important that no one ever found out who Knight was. It would mean a lot of people, myself included, would be in a shit load of trouble and Knight would end up in Leavenworth. Still, he didn’t have to go threatening her. “Look, I’m really sorry that he said anything to you. He’s very intense, but I swear, he would never hurt you.”
“He referenced me disappearing,” she said, crossing her arms protectively over her chest.
“Yeah, I’m not gonna lie. He could definitely make that happen, but he hasn’t killed anyone in over a year.”
Her eyes widened in shock and she quickly pushed the cart down the aisle like she was trying to get away from me. Her ass swayed from side to side as her heels clicked along the tile. I stood there confused for a minute, trying to figure out why she was running. I was trying to reassure her, but I seemed to make her even more nervous. I ran after her, catching up to her and gripping her by the arm and spinning her around to face me.
“Look, I’m trying to reassure you. He has a deal with Sebastian and one of the stipulations is that he keeps his anonymity as long as he doesn’t kill anyone.”
“But he did kill someone. In the bank. He shot someone and broke another man’s neck. And you stood up for him. And Sean is in on it. I heard you,” she said. “Why would I trust your word? I could end up strung up by my toes if he suspects I’ll say something. I just don’t understand,” she looked down in confusion. “How could a man that does such great things be so evil?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “Sure, he has good intentions, but I don’t know that I would go so far as to say he does great things.”
“How could you say that? He saves people. Think of all the women and children that would suffer without him?”
Great. The woman I wanted to fuck had a thing for Knight. She was treating him like he was fucking Superman. And apparently, I was just an average Joe Shmoe.
“You’re right. He’s fucking great, but you’ve missed your chance to have him. He’s engaged to someone else.”
She shook her head and her brows furrowed. “No, I don’t want him. I’m just shocked. He’s not the man I thought he was.”
“And what kind of man is it that you want?”
“I-What do you mean?”
“I mean that you seem so wrapped up in a man that can take a life as quickly as he saves another. Is that the type of man you want?”
“No. No, I’m just so surprised. When I found out who he was and finally met him, I was just so shocked that he wasn’t quite the hero I thought he would be.”
“Claire, none of us are fucking heroes.” She nodded and dropped her eyes like that was
disappointing to her. “We’ve all seen and done things that would curl that beautiful hair of yours. It doesn’t mean we’re bad, but we aren’t the saints you’re thinking of.”
“I know. I realize that now. I know that Knight isn’t the man I thought he was.” My anger was spiking again. Every time she mentioned Knight’s name, I wanted to punch something. What the hell was so great about him that she was fawning all over him? A little over a week ago, she was flirting with me in the grocery store. She was touching my muscles and stumbling all over herself. Now I was competing with fucking Knight, a man that wouldn’t give her the time of day if she threw herself at him.
“He’s not the man you’re thinking of at all. If he’s who you want, you’ll be sorely disappointed. He wouldn’t give you a second look.”
Her eyes widened and she started shaking her head. “I don’t.” She shouted. “I didn’t mean to give you the impression that I did. I mean, yeah, he has that sexy, broody look to him and he’s definitely gorgeous, but I’m not interested in him..sexually. He doesn’t have anything on you. As hot as he is, you actually smile and it’s very sexy and you have these awesome muscles that just..whew! I mean, totally hot and a lot sexier than what he has going on. Plus, you have really great hair, which I’ve always thought was one of the best features on a man. I’m pretty sure my fingers could get lost in your hair. Definitely pull worthy, you know, in bed.”
“Pull worthy, huh?”
“Yeah,” she said as she shuffled from one foot to the other. “Anyway, I just..okay, well, I have to get back to work.”
She quickly started walking away, obviously embarrassed by how much she had told me. I didn’t care though. She had just told me exactly what I needed to hear. She still wanted me and now that I knew how much, there was no way I was letting her walk away until I had a taste.
I let her get back to work, sure that she didn’t really want to talk to me any more. She was the kind of woman that sometimes you had to go slow with or you’d scare her off like a frightened deer.
Irish: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 5) Page 5