Wicked Ties (Steele Security Series)

by Justice, A. D.

  Chaise swallowed hard, swallowing the tears and trying but failing to hide the pain that was evident on her face. “I’m sure you will make an excellent uncle, Colton.”

  Bull couldn’t help but smile at this. “That I will, Chaise. That I will.”

  An hour, two drinks, and a couple of cartons of Chinese food later, Bull realized he had enjoyed his amiable meal and conversation with Chaise. He actively fought against his almost instant attraction to her. He kept trying to remind himself that she was a client at best and a threat at worst. But there was something about her, something that drew him in and made him want to get to know her better—as a person, not as a part of his job.

  These warring emotions were so far removed from Bull that he wasn’t sure how to proceed. His training told him to proceed with caution. The man in him urged him to pursue the attraction and enjoy it while it lasted. The logical part of him told him to play the middle of the road as long as possible so that he could find out her true intentions and assess the threat she posed to Noah and Brianna.

  Bull was intentionally friendly and relaxed with Chaise as he continued to watch her body language. When he was content in his ability to make Chaise feel at ease in his presence and trust him, he decided it was time for her to start sharing her story. He needed to know the whole story—why she was hiding, what scared her so much, why she needed Noah’s help, and why they were followed.

  It was time for her to give him a few answers.

  Chaise had watched Bull all evening—from the moment she saw him standing by Noah at the wedding, when he approached her outside the tent, in the SUV on the way to the building, and inside the comfortable, cozy room. She didn’t want to feel the intense attraction toward him.

  But, dear lord, the man was fine. The natural blond highlights in his light brown hair were no doubt from the strong Miami sun, as was his tanned skin. His stark blue eyes innately penetrated and captivated anyone who dared to hold his gaze. He was intense, and though he had been friendly over dinner, he was also powerful and intimidating.

  He was a little taller than Noah, which had to put him at about six-foot-five and he had the biggest arm muscles she’d ever seen. They just kept rippling and flowing down from his neck to his wrists. His expansive chest stretched his shirt tight across the middle, showcasing his impressive build and making her involuntarily salivate and gawk like an inexperienced school girl.

  Bull had made it plain to her, in more ways than one, that he didn’t trust her and he wanted her to leave. He questioned her motives, he questioned her integrity, and he questioned the reason why she specifically sought Noah out. But these things only made him more attractive—his loyalty, his protectiveness, and his unyielding resolve. He clearly loved Noah, Noah’s new wife, and their unborn baby. Men of his caliber were nearly impossible to find. He reminded her of Noah in so many ways.

  If she told him everything, would he believe her? Or would he turn her away, push her out the door, and leave her to figure it out alone?

  No, that wasn’t an option. There was too much at stake to risk that. She would tell him what she –could—what she had to tell him to ensure he gave his help. But she would give no more than that until she absolutely had no other choice. If, or actually when, that time came, she would pay the piper. In the meantime, she didn’t really see any other choice.

  Chaise could feel Bull’s eyes burn into her as he studied her every movement. It was quite unsettling to be scrutinized so thoroughly, like she was a specimen under a microscope. She shifted slightly in her seat and immediately knew that Bull detected her uneasiness. His eyes narrowed slightly as his head ever-so-slightly cocked to the side as he studied her.

  “Where is the restroom?” Chaise asked, hoping to convince him that her distress was from the need to use the facilities rather than from being so near to him. Or from having secrets she wasn’t ready to disclose.

  Bull stared her down for a couple of seconds too long for it to be a coincidence. He really didn’t trust her in the least, but there was also something else in the way he looked at her. There was a hint of masked desire. It was so faint; Chaise wasn’t positive that’s what she had actually seen or if it was just the reflection of her desire in his eyes.

  “This way,” he finally said as he stood and led her out of the discussion room and down a dimly lit hallway. “Right here,” he motioned to the door on the left as he leaned against the wall on the opposite side. He apparently intended to wait for her to finish and escort her back to the main room.

  Chaise smiled warmly at him as she entered the windowless bathroom and closed the door behind her. She looked around for a minute but the room only held the bare essentials. No doubt it was the “guest” bathroom. She took her time, washed her hands, and splashed water on her face. She dragged the towel down her face to dry it and stopped when she caught the reflection of her eyes in the mirror.

  “You can do this,” she whispered to herself, “you have to. No matter how hard this is.”

  A knock on the door startled her. “Everything alright in there?” Bull called from the other side.

  She opened the door and put on her best smile again. “Fine. Just fine.”

  Leaning against the doorjamb when Chaise opened the door, Bull pushed up to his full, intimidating height as he crossed his bulging biceps over his equally bulging chest. Chaise’s eyes couldn’t help but wander to the impressive mounds, and for just a second, she forgot to be nervous around him.

  Her slow perusal of his imposing upper body made her momentarily forget where she was. That is, until her eyes found his eyes, the ones that were hard-as-nails and were currently piercing her without saying a word.

  “Look –” he started when the sound of the door opening caught his attention. Before she could even react, Bull had pulled his gun from God knows where and was silently stalking toward the sound. Male voices came from the direction of the door and Bull suddenly stopped, holstered his weapon, and stepped into the open doorway from where the voices emanated.

  “That’s a damn good way to get shot, man,” Bull said and then chuckled. He turned and saw Chaise was still rooted to the spot where he left her. He motioned for her to come to him, and somehow her feet got the message before her brain fully understood.

  Chaise’s heart was pounding and she felt dizzy as she moved toward the waiting Herculean giant. When she first heard the voices, she was certain they had found her, had come for her, and she was completely frozen with fear. Chaise couldn’t remember a time when she had been so scared before.

  It must have shown in everything about her because Bull’s countenance changed from being stern to showing concern. “Are you alright?”

  Chaise managed to nod but still couldn’t make a sound to answer him. She didn’t trust her voice just yet. As she reached Bull, the other two men came into view and she immediately recognized them from Noah’s wedding. Finally breathing again, she held out her hand and introduced herself to them.

  “I’m Chaise,” she said, intentionally not stating her last name.

  “Yes, this is Chaise Martin,” Bull added, intentionally emphasizing her last name yet again. She cut her eyes to him and couldn’t help but look apologetically at him. He knew she was lying but he didn’t know why yet. Maybe he would understand when she was finally able to tell him everything. She hoped so, anyway. He didn’t seem to be the type of man you could cross and get away with it.

  “This is Rebel and Shadow,” Bull continued as he pointed at the other two men. “They both work for Noah, too. And, yes, we all served in the Army together, so you can trust them, too.”

  She smiled and shook their hands as Bull formally introduced them. She noted that although Shadow was bigger built than Bull, which in itself was really saying something, he had a friendlier natural carriage about him. Rebel wasn’t quite as large as Bull but his eyes weren’t as hard and suspicious as Bull’s, either. He caught the emphasis Bull placed on her last name and gave her a look of understan
ding as he shook her hand. Even if Noah wasn’t there, she was sure she was in good hands.

  “What’s the word then?” Bull asked Rebel and Shadow. Chaise looked between the three of them and instantly felt invisible.

  “Low-level hired hand. Amateur. He was supposed to follow her and see where she went. Didn’t know shit about tailing someone,” Shadow answered with a laugh.

  Rebel picked up the story, “Thing is, he was hired by the leader of the Latino gang, Tres Seises. They’re not someone a nice, pretty lady would normally mess with.”

  The three men turned and stared Chaise down. The weight of their stares was palpable on her skin and made her involuntarily take a step backward. Their size alone was intimidating, but being under all three of their hard, probing stares was enough to make her squirm.

  “Well, Chaise?” Bull spoke and turned to face her fully. Her eyes searched his for any hint of empathy but found none.

  She felt the tears stinging the back of her eyes as she fought to keep her emotions under control. She had been on one hell of an emotional roller coaster and she was so ready to get off the damn ride.

  “I think it’s time for us to have that talk. Right now,” Bull finished as he advanced on her. Wrapping his enormous, thick fingers completely around her bicep, he easily steered her back toward their “discussion room.” Rebel and Shadow fell in step behind them and she suddenly felt something she’d never experienced before—complete claustrophobia.

  With her eyes downcast to her feet, Chaise focused on putting one foot in front of the other. One step at a time, she allowed Bull to guide her as she tried her best to block out the unwanted feelings. Entering the room, he marched her to the chair she had vacated earlier and let go of her arm. She instantly missed the warmth of his touch on her and the security of being linked to someone else it provided, even if only for a moment. Even if he hadn’t intended for his grip to be considered a lifeline, that’s exactly how it had felt to her.

  As Shadow started to close the door, Chaise exclaimed, “No, please, leave it open!” Bull eyed her suspiciously again. “I’m just feeling a little claustrophobic. Can you just leave the door open?”

  Wordless glances exchanged, Shadow replied in an easy manner, “Sure thing, sweetheart.”

  Bull watched Chaise’s heaving chest carefully as her breaths slowed slightly, showing that she was at least telling the truth about her incident. Her respiration rate had been close to hyperventilation, but he wasn’t convinced it was related to a sudden bout of claustrophobia. From his viewpoint, it only came on when he said it was time to talk.

  Chaise took her seat and waited patiently as the men moved chairs around to make it easier for them to hold a conversation. She looked to each of them nervously and didn’t even try to hide it. They all knew she was scared and she had no reason to try to convince them otherwise. She wanted them to know she was scared out of her mind so they would help her.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Why would the Tres Sieses be interested in you?” Bull asked with obvious scrutiny. He didn’t waste any time, she had to give him that. “That particular gang isn’t known for having people followed. They’re known for making people disappear.”

  Her hand immediately went to her mouth as tears sprung to her eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks before she could stop them. Quickly wiping them away, she pursed her lips and looked down, trying to quickly collect her wits so she could intelligently explain what was happening. She knew from experience that hardened, ex-military men don’t appreciate emotionally unstable, babbling women.

  Swallowing her tears and anxiety, her eyes found Bull’s and she asked with as much confidence as she could muster, “Do you mind if I just start at the beginning and explain? Then if you still have questions, you can ask them?”

  Bull leaned back in his chair, crinkling his eyes as he slowly took in her posture. “By all means. Go right ahead then,” he replied, but she detected at least a little disbelief in his voice.

  “My nineteen-year-old intern is missing! Suddenly and mysteriously. It’s not like her and I know someone took her. I’ve been looking for her and I’ve apparently gotten too close to someone who doesn’t like it,” Chaise blurted out hysterically before she could stop herself.

  “–Okay, what is your intern’s name?” Bull calmly asked.

  “Aura Perez.”

  Bull looked at Shadow and Shadow quickly moved to click a few keys on the laptop while they continued talking.

  “She’s nineteen, right?” Bull asked and Chaise nodded to confirm. “That’s pretty young—she’s probably just off having fun with friends, not taking her job seriously. Maybe being an intern wasn’t her thing,” Bull suggested, shrugging his shoulders like it wasn’t as big of a deal as Chaise was making it out to be.

  “No, she’s not like that. This is completely unlike her and she’s been missing for several days now. I know they got her—somehow, somewhere. I have to find her before they do something terrible to her,” Chaise retorted, desperate to make them understand.

  “Have you had some kind of run in with this gang that would draw attention to you and Aura?” Shadow asked.

  Chaise began wringing her hands and looking around the room at each of the men. “How long did you say Noah would be gone?”

  Bull quickly answered, “I didn’t say.”

  Rebel gave Bull an odd look and answered Chaise’s question, “Two-week honeymoon on a tropical island. There’s no way we can reach him without going there ourselves. And I’m not ruining Reaper’s honeymoon.”

  Chaise nodded in understanding, “Well, I can’t wait that long, anyway. It’s already been way too long.” She took a deep, calming breath in and let it out before continuing. “I work as a field human resources consultant. Companies without full time human resources professionals will hire me as a consultant to make sure their employee files are in order, that the policies and procedures are being followed, and that payroll policies are maintained. That sort of thing,” Chaise explained.

  “Anyway, Aura is a college student and she was assigned to me as my intern. I found some discrepancies between the employee paperwork and the payroll paperwork, so we started investigating them together. When we saw there were just too many coincidences, I told Aura to stop looking into the documentation. Something was terribly wrong and we were being pulled into the middle of it. I wanted to find out more on my own and leave her out of it. I’m afraid it was too late, though,” she finished.

  “What information did you find?” Rebel asked, as Bull shifted his position to lean in closer.

  Before she could answer, an explosion from outside rocked the building, sending all three men scrambling for cover. Bull grabbed Chaise from the comfortable chair on his way to the floor, secured her in one spot, and then crawled to the windows to look out.

  “There’s a car on fire in the parking lot,” Bull called to Shadow and Rebel. “It’s the one Chaise and I rode in on the way over here.”

  “Time to move, people,” Shadow commanded. “They know where we are and they want her. We need to get her to an unknown location. I’ll have one of our other men meet the police here, but we need to split now.”

  “Let’s split up, divide their attention,” Bull responded. “I’m taking her south. Rebel, head west. Shadow, head north. We’ll rendezvous tomorrow at thirteen-hundred hours.”

  The sound of gunfire erupted outside, but Chaise appeared to be the only one concerned with it. Bull relieved some of her fear when he simply stated, “Bulletproof glass.” He led Chaise down the hall, through a doorway, and down the stairs into the underground garage.

  Once inside his truck, Bull slowly pulled forward to exit from a side entrance. When he was satisfied that the exit was clear, he pulled onto the street, weaved in and out of traffic, and circled several city blocks to ditch any possible tail, before heading toward the southbound interstate ramp.

  Chaise watched Bull as he navigated his full-size truck expertly through th
e downtown Miami streets. His eyes constantly searched and assessed possible threats. He was definitely in his element and Chaise thought she caught brief glimpses of what he must have been like when he was in the military. With Noah.

  “Did you do this kind of thing in the military?” Chaise asked, unable to hold her curiosity any longer.

  Bull glanced at her over his shoulder before responding. “Not exactly the same thing. We learned to do most everything and anything. And we were good at it.”

  Chaise knew he wasn’t being conceited. His tone was humble and the thoughtful look on his face conveyed his nostalgia without saying a word.

  “You miss it, don’t you?” she asked, trying to pry information out of the man who seemed intent on only giving single syllable answers.

  “I do sometimes—I miss parts of it, anyway,” he answered. “The best thing about the military is here with me, though—my brothers and Brianna.”

  Chaise smiled at his reference of his ‘brothers and Brianna.’ “You love her, don’t you?” the words poured out before she could stop them.

  Bull’s face took a serious look as he answered, “She’s earned her place as my sister. Just like the others earned their place as my brothers. I love her like a sister—nothing more.”

  “I didn’t mean to offend you. I wasn’t implying you’d betray Noah like that. You just always include her when you do talk about them, so it’s pretty obvious that she holds a special place in your heart,” Chaise explained humbly. Bull was protecting her and the last thing she wanted to do was offend him or appear unappreciative of his actions.

  Bull shifted uncomfortably in his seat and took a moment before he responded. “Trust and honor are very important to me. Sunny—uh, that’s Brianna’s nickname—well, it’s a long story, but I misjudged her and turned my back on her once. I won’t ever do that again.”