by LENA DIAZ,
“I told you to wait for me in my office above ground. I didn’t give you permission to come down here.” Her father’s tone left no question about his current mood toward his assistant. He was furious.
“You were busy talking to your housekeeper, so I made an executive decision. I’ve never been down here before and wanted to check out your little sanctuary.” He waved toward the first stack of boxes near the stairs. “What’s the point of all this? Looks like the same crap you have at EXIT.”
“How did you know how to open the door?”
Sebastian laughed, not at all intimidated by Cyprian’s anger. “You’re not the most original person when it comes to technology. I punched the same code into your desk phone here that you use to open your hidden office at EXIT. You really should vary your routine. You’ve become predictable. Maybe I’ll join your little dinner party tonight and tell the Council that you’ve grown careless.”
“Get out. And mind your words, or you’ll find yourself on the next plane back to whatever gutter you call home. Council or no Council, I refuse to put up with poor manners and insubordination.”
Sebastian laughed. “You wouldn’t fire me. You can’t fire me. Only the Council can do that.”
Rapid-fire angry words said too low for her to make out sent a shiver of dread up Melissa’s spine. Suddenly, a small pistol was in her father’s hand, pointing directly at Sebastian’s chest, just a few steps down from him. Melissa must have reached for Jace’s hand, because his fingers closed around hers, and he gently squeezed as if to reassure her.
She started to shake.
Jace bent down next to her ear. “Keep it together,” he whispered.
She nodded to let him know she was okay even though she really wasn’t. The man she’d loved, adored, all her life, the man who’d been her rock, her world since losing her mother at such a young age, had just pulled a gun on another man because that man was being rude. And from the pale cast of Sebastian’s face, she knew that he believed her father was entirely capable of pulling the trigger. No, she was not okay.
She watched with relief when her father slid his pistol into his suit-jacket pocket and waved for Sebastian to precede him. Without a word, his assistant climbed the stairs and disappeared through the hole in the ceiling. Her father started to follow him, then stopped. He bent down and ran his hands over the carpet, then looked down into the basement. After slowly scanning the room, his gaze settled near the area where she and Jace were hiding.
Had he seen them? Heard them?
“Are you coming? Sir?” Sebastian sounded contrite for a change instead of sarcastic or condescending. “I assume you’ll want a full search of the property for your daughter. I can call Tarek. He should be back from his errand soon.”
Cyprian straightened. “You will call no one until I check the house myself and decide the next course of action.” He headed up the stairs. Footsteps sounded above, and a moment later, the panel slid shut, and the lights went out.
Melissa sagged against the boxes and slid to the floor. The light from Jace’s phone lit up their little corner of the basement as he holstered his gun and crouched in front of her.
“You okay?” he whispered.
“I don’t . . . I just . . . I need a minute,” she whispered in an equally quiet voice. Seeing her father with that gun, hearing him threaten Sebastian . . . it was just suddenly too much.
Jace sighed but didn’t say anything else. Melissa dropped her head in her hands as the sounds of shoes echoed again on the floor above them. A door opened and closed, then everything went silent.
“I wish I could give you more time, Mel,” Jace whispered. “But they’re searching the house for us. We have to get out of here in case they come back. We have to get out of here now.”
The urgency in his voice cut through the grief and fear that were sucking her into a dark void. “My father would have shot him, wouldn’t he? If Sebastian hadn’t backed down? And he would have hurt me, hurt us, if he knew we were here?”
“Sebastian would have hurt us, without hesitation. I know your father cares for you, and he might have tried to stop him. But if he thought we’d seen his secret files . . .” He shrugged. “Maybe not. Either way, I’m not willing to bet your life on speculation. Are you?”
“No. And I’m not willing to bet yours either. Let’s get out of here.”
She started to get up, but stopped when Jace gently pushed her hair back from her face and smiled.
“You’re an amazing woman. You know that?”
She blinked in surprise. “Why do you say that?”
“Because no matter what life tosses at you, you don’t let it keep you down. You’re also a hell of a lot more brave than half the men I know. We’re going to be okay. You’re going to be okay. All right?”
She drew a shaky breath and nodded. “All right.”
He smiled again and pulled her to her feet, then tugged her with him to the desk, using his phone app to light their way. A few quick presses of the button behind the desk, and the trapdoor above them slid open.
“Thank God.” Melissa started up the stairs.
“Hold up.”
She looked back, surprised to see Jace in the corner where they’d hidden moments ago. He turned with their box of folders and binders in his arms. “Wait, Mel. I go out first,” he whispered, reminding her of the need to be quiet. They thought her father and Sebastian had left the office, but even if they had, they could be close by, or the doors to the foyer could be open.
He jogged to the stairs, adjusted the box under his left arm, and pulled out his gun before heading up the rest of the way into the office. She followed behind and hurried to her father’s desk to press the buttons on the phone to close the trapdoor while Jace set the box down beneath one of the windows.
The panel in the floor slid into place and Jace jogged to the closed double doors. After listening against the wood for about half a minute, he turned around, his expression grim. He strode across the room to the bank of windows and looked out.
“They’re in the foyer?” she whispered.
“Someone is. I heard fabric on fabric, like someone shifting in their chair or standing outside the door. We’ll have to go out a window.”
She helped him unlock the window and shove it open. As he lowered the screen and dropped it to the ground, she leaned in close. “Our coats are in the foyer. We can’t just sneak out the window and run to your car and leave. They’ll know we were up to something if we disappear without an explanation.”
“Yeah. I’m working on that. Come on.”
“Well at least I can be thankful that I’m not wearing a skirt.” She lifted a leg to climb over the windowsill.
“I wouldn’t have minded the skirt. And a stiff breeze.” He winked and lifted her the rest of the way through the opening. Then he was gone, and a second later he was handing her the box. She set it on the ground and grabbed the screen. It couldn’t have been more than thirty seconds from the moment he’d opened the window to when they were both out, and the screen was back in place.
A cold breeze swirled her hair around her shoulders and had her rubbing her hands up and down her arms. It was cold, but it wasn’t snowing. That was something to be thankful for she supposed.
“Where’s that greenhouse you told me about earlier?” he whispered, seemingly unaffected by the cold. He lifted the box again and managed to hold it against his side with just one arm while he scanned the yard and the acreage that surrounded them.
“Over there, just past that stand of oaks.”
He looked around again. “All right. Don’t stop until you reach the greenhouse. Go.” He put his hand on her back, giving her a gentle push. But it was the raw tension in his voice that galvanized her into action—that, and the fact that he had his pistol out again.
The short sprint across the dead-looking lawn seemed more like a marathon. But maybe that’s because it took years off her life in terms of worry. They raced around the first th
ick oaks and didn’t stop until they were at the door. A shout sounded from behind them somewhere. She sucked in a breath and looked back, but the trees blocked her view.
“They must have seen us,” she whispered.
“Count on it. And I’ll bet they saw the box, too, so I can’t just hide it like I was going to do. That would make them suspicious.”
“Like they aren’t suspicious already?” She glanced past him, expecting to see Sebastian at any moment, pointing his gun.
“We would have heard them shouting earlier if they’d seen us running from the house. They probably just caught a glimpse of us whipping around the first tree and don’t know what direction we came from.”
He yanked open the door and pulled her inside. Crouching down, he quickly shuffled the binders from her father’s office to the bottom of the box and placed the folders from the attic on top.
“I don’t see why it matters what direction we came from,” she said, as he shoved the box to the side. “Only guilty people run. Isn’t that what they say in those courtroom TV shows?”
More shouts and thumps sounded from outside. Someone was running toward the greenhouse.
Jace stood and looked around.
“We need to think of an excuse, a cover story. What are we supposed to tell them?” Melissa asked.
“A convincing reason for being here.” He snapped a large pink bloom off a nearby plant.
“No kidding. Like what? I can’t think of anything.” She put her hands on her hips, exasperated that she was finally on board about how much danger they were in and now he was . . . gardening? “Jace, what are we going to do?”
He shoved the flower into her hair over her right ear. “This. We’re going to do this.” He yanked her to him and covered her mouth with his.
And just like that, the world around them faded away, leaving only the two of them. Their first kiss had been a surprise, all about discovery, awakening feelings inside her that she hadn’t felt in a long time, if ever. But this . . . this was consuming, ravenous, wild. This kiss seared her from the inside out, breaking her down, molding her, changing her and reforging her into someone new, someone different, someone who would never, ever be the same again.
And she didn’t want to be.
She embraced the change, drinking it in, tangling her tongue with his. He made a ragged groan deep in his throat and put his hand beneath her bottom, lifting her in his arms to bring her closer. Every wish, every desire, every longing she’d ever had focused into a raw, aching need at the very center of her. She lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist.
“What do you think you’re doing, Melissa Ann Cardenas?”
Her father’s voice broke over her like a bucket of ice water. Her eyes flew open, and she yanked back, blinking in shock to see him standing three feet away, holding the coats they’d left in the foyer, his face beet red. Beside him, Sebastian coughed as if hiding a laugh.
Jace turned with her in his arms and set her on her feet. Then, as if suddenly realizing how livid her father was, he shoved her protectively behind his back. “Mr. Cardenas, I—”
Her father slammed his fist against the side of Jace’s jaw, knocking him to the ground.
“Daddy! What did you do?” She dropped to her knees and bent over Jace so her father couldn’t hit him again. She glared at her father over her shoulder. “I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m a grown woman. You had no reason to hit him.”
He pointed at Jace. “I have every reason. He’s on my property mauling you like a randy—”
“Dad! Stop it! You’re embarrassing me.”
“You’re embarrassing yourself with this undignified behavior.”
“Oh, good grief,” she said.
Jace gently forced her back and sat up. “I’m okay, sweetheart. No worries.”
She lifted a hand to his jaw.
He winced and jerked away.
“We need to put some ice on that,” she said.
“I’m. Fine.” He sounded irritated now.
“It’s not broken is it?”
He rolled his eyes. “No. It’s not broken. But I’ve about had it with the sucker punches around here. Next time I’m throwing the first punch.” He aimed an aggravated look at her father, then grinned. “You’ve got a good right hook there, sir. I’ll give you that.”
Cyprian swore.
Melissa’s mouth dropped open, and she stared at her father in shock. In all her years, she’d never, not once, heard him swear. He’d been incredibly strict, especially about what he called “bad” words. She could remember more than a few times as a teenager when he’d washed her mouth out with soap.
Sebastian dropped a handful of files back into the box near the door. Melissa’s stomach clenched. She’d totally forgotten about her father’s assistant, and the box.
“Nothing in there but old client files from tours,” he announced. “I’ll meet you back at the house.” He yanked the door open and headed outside.
Melissa silently mouthed “thank you” to Jace, grateful that he’d thought to bury the binders at the bottom of the box. If he hadn’t, or if Sebastian had been more thorough and had looked at everything in the box, they’d have been in trouble.
He gave her a barely perceptible nod and rose to his feet, pulling her with him.
“Mr. Atwell, consider yourself fired from EXIT Incorporated,” her father said. “Don’t bother coming into work tomorrow.”
“He doesn’t work for the company, Dad. He works for me. You can’t—”
“I can. I did. Get yourself a new bodyguard, young lady. I’ll see you at the office in the morning, once I’m calm enough to discuss this disgraceful episode. And for the love of God, take that ridiculous flower out of your hair and change out of that . . . that . . . denim. Put something decent on.”
He threw open the door, then frowned at the coats still in his arms. He tossed them at Jace and headed back toward the house in long, angry strides.
Melissa pulled the hibiscus blossom out of her hair. She couldn’t believe her father was furious about her wearing jeans and kissing a man. He’d been so furious about her lack of decorum that he hadn’t even asked her why she was at his house. The whole situation suddenly struck her as hilarious. She let out a laugh, then another, and then she was laughing so hard, tears started running down her face.
Jace stared at her like she’d lost her mind. For some reason, that just made her laugh even harder. But then, like the flip of a switch, her laughter turned to tears. All the fear, the revelations, the shock of reading those files, and feeling trapped, was too much. She covered her face with her hands.
Dropping their coats to the ground, he scooped her up and hugged her to his chest. He carried her to one of the benches deeper inside the greenhouse and sat down with her in his lap. The silly words he whispered were probably supposed to be soothing. And from the way he was awkwardly patting her back, he’d probably never comforted someone like this before. Which had her thinking how incredibly nice and sweet he was to try. And that just made her cry even harder.
The emotional storm was a big one, but over almost as quickly as it had begun. Her face flushed hot over her loss of control. She wasn’t a crier. Had never been a crier. And she hated that Jace was the one she’d cried in front of when she’d finally broken down. She wiped her eyes and pushed against his chest. “I’m okay now. You can put me down.”
“I’d rather not.”
She thought he was teasing. But the look on his face was anything but amused. His arms tightened around her.
“You’re driving me crazy, Mel. You know that don’t you?” He gently swept her hair back from her face. It was incredible how that one, sweet gesture that seemed to be becoming a habit made her flush hot all over.
“I’m . . . driving you crazy?” she whispered, still tingling from his touch.
He nodded. “I’m completely off-balance around you. Normally, I can read people. I know what to expect, how they tick. But I can’t
. . . I don’t.” His jaw tightened. “I don’t want you to be miserable. I don’t want to hurt you. I want you to be safe. And happy, damn it. I want you to be happy.”
She blinked. “You want me to be happy?”
He gave her a curt nod. “No more crying.”
“Jace?”
“What?” he snapped, looking so adorably bemused and irritated that she wanted to kiss him.
“You know that I can’t control whether I cry or not, right?”
He mumbled something under his breath.
She cupped the side of his face. “Thank you for worrying about me, and for trying to comfort me. I know that was difficult for you.”
“Damn right it was.”
Her mouth twitched, but she didn’t dare smile. “I’ll try very hard not to cry again.”
“See that you don’t.” He set her on her feet. “Let’s get out of here before Sebastian’s evil twin shows up and decides to look through our box of files.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” She retrieved their coats and handed him his while she shrugged into hers. “Wait a minute. Evil twin. They are almost always together. It’s rare that I ever see Sebastian without Tarek. Doesn’t it seem odd?”
“Sebastian mentioned an errand when we were in the basement office.”
“I wonder what constitutes an errand in the world of evil twins.”
“That’s not something I want to find out. And it’s just one more reason to get out of here as fast as we can.” He picked up the box, and they went straight to his car out front, not wanting to chance another encounter with her father or either of his assistants.
It wasn’t until they were on the highway, miles from her father’s house, that Melissa was finally able to relax back in her seat. She blew out a deep breath and forced herself to release her death grip on the armrest.
“You okay?” Jace asked.
“I will be. Thanks to you.” She rolled her head to look at him. “You think fast on your feet. Burying those binders beneath the files saved us when Sebastian looked through the box. And I never would have thought to use a kiss as a way to throw both of them off. My father must have assumed that I was giving you a tour of the property, and we were so overcome with passion that we ran into the greenhouse for privacy.” She laughed. “I’ve never seen him so shocked. Thank you for kissing me to save my life.”