by Lora Leigh
God, how had he known?
The heat that filled her face was beginning to set a flame to her temper.
“I didn’t have to be there, your handler was.” Her handler? Her stepbrother? Oh, God, this was getting worse by the second.
“And that misfit stepbrother of mine can go to hell for all I care.” She stepped forward, all but going to her toes to go nose-to-nose with him. “He’s always overexaggerating everything. He does it just to piss you off.”
“Are you trying to tell me Rogan”—he flicked his hand at Turk—“didn’t seduce his way into your bed last night?”
“I can tell you unequivocally he’s never been in my bed.” For the first time she was damned thankful he hadn’t joined her in her bed.
“Is he gay?” J.D. snarled then.
Erin backed down and stared at her stepfather in complete shock.
“I’m calling Mom,” she muttered before turning back to Cooper and the complete disbelief that seemed to be frozen on his face.
“What in the hell is going on here?” he asked her with impressive control as his gaze moved from her to J.D.
“My stepfather likes to think he somehow has a right to monitor my morality I guess,” she answered shortly. “We disagree on that. Often. But that was none of your business, just as he should have never sent me in here without informing you of my identity and the job he sent me here to do. Which was to monitor you and your agents’ efficiency in gathering intel from the various suspects that often spend their evenings here. In my own defense, the CIN does employ me as well though. So I really had no other choice but to keep my mouth shut.”
Turk cursed under his breath; the latent anger that filled the single, explicit word did cause a light flinch to ripple through her before she stilled it.
“I didn’t give you leave to reveal that information,” J.D. stated stiffly.
“You should be committed, J.D.,” she informed him caustically. “You’re a hazard to yourself, your employees, and the world at large. Now I’m going home before I kill you myself and take that pleasure from someone who actually deserves to go to prison for it.”
Turning, she left the office, furious, offended, and certain J.D. had just destroyed every iota of friendship she’d found in Simsburg.
* * *
J.D. let the smile he was holding back slip free as the door slammed behind his stepdaughter only to be followed by Rogan’s exit as well. Damn, he was crazy about that girl. She had so much of her mother’s fire and flash temper that he couldn’t help but be wary of her as well though.
“Drink, J.D.?” The cool drawl of Ethan Cooper’s voice sounded as if a smile turned into an amused quirk as he turned back to the man he’d been friends with since Cooper was a kid barely out of diapers.
“You’re pissed,” he stated.
He could always tell when Coop was pissed. It was a look the other man had, the way his eyes seemed to still, a hardening of his jaw.… Nope, Coop wasn’t very happy at the moment.
“You’re messing with my club, my agents, and my staff,” Cooper snapped as he moved to the small bar at the corner of the room. “I don’t appreciate it.”
J.D. lifted a brow, though he wasn’t really surprised that Cooper had come to feel protective of Erin. It was the same reaction most men displayed toward her mother, Esme, as well. They had a way of drawing a man’s protective nature out, whether the males wanted it drawn out or not.
“Of course you don’t, neither would I,” J.D. assured him as he accepted the whiskey the other man handed him even as he noticed the glimmer of surprise in his eyes.
“Then why do it?” The deepening of his voice was another sign of his disapproval, if not his anger.
Turning, J.D. resumed his seat, propping his ankle on the opposite and staring back at Cooper for a long, silent moment.
“I always send backup up to watch out for her, and my son John D. usually takes that duty,” he stated as Cooper returned to the desk and sat down as well. “It would kill Esme and I if anything happened to her. John D. has been watching Turk and Erin dance around each other for three months now, and that’s something she never does. That, added to the anomalies showing up here, and I’m damned concerned. It was better to get the truth out in the open and have it done with rather than hanging over her head where that boy’s concerned.”
“That boy?” Cooper grunted mockingly. “I don’t think I’d call Turk a boy and let him hear it.”
J.D. chuckled at the thought of the agent’s reaction should that happen.
“Probably not a good idea,” he agreed. “But, she loves him. Let her have her chance.”
“And you know this how?” Cooper was obviously not of the same mind-set.
“And he loves her.” J.D. grinned. “I have the pictures John D. sent of the two of them whenever they were working together. Trust me, it’s been like seeing me and Esme all over again. And that’s a fine agent, a good man. I couldn’t have chosen better for her myself.”
To which Cooper gave him a wry, mocking look. “Well hell, J.D., sounds to me like that’s exactly what you’ve done.”
J.D. only smiled.
Some things, he thought, people just needed a little help with.
Just sometimes.
CHAPTER 7
Erin was on the verge of crying as she pulled into the parking lot of the small apartment complex where she lived. That was something she never did, especially when it came to a man. Regret was a dark, aching wound in her chest. The bitter, painful feeling refused to be pushed away. Realization hounded her, lashed at her emotions.
She was falling in love with Turk. She’d been aware of it, and though she knew she should have fought it, still, that hunger for him, the need for something far more than physical, had grown inside her.
Because she’d believed she had a chance at his heart.
She’d fooled herself into thinking that if she hungered this deeply, then surely he did as well.
Moving from the elevator and walking slowly to her apartment, she still marveled at how easily that hope had blown apart in her face. How quickly the need had lashed back to strike at a heart she hadn’t realized was so vulnerable.
But that was no excuse for losing the wariness that had been ingrained inside her since she was a child and she and her mother had endured her father’s rages. In the years before J.D. had come into their lives, there had been very little security in it.
It was no excuse for not being aware of the dangers she knew existed in the world though.
It was no excuse for what came next. The second Erin pushed the key in the door of her apartment to unlock it, she knew she made a mistake.
The door was already unlocked and someone was waiting on the other side.
Dragged into the apartment, the force exerted on her arm was excruciating. She let out a scream worthy of a horror heroine.
“Bitch!” The furious hiss accompanied a hard blow to her head, dazing her for a second. But it didn’t hurt her lungs. And it seemed screaming could actually be instinct, because she kept screaming.
Pain exploded through her head. Harsh fingers gripped her hair, jerking her head back forcefully a second before they tried to ram her face into the wall. Fighting, jerking against the hold, another cry left her lips as her shoulder took the impact instead, the sting not nearly as painful as a full-face kiss to the dry wall would have been.
She was beginning to think no one was going to hear her. That her screams were being ignored or everyone was just gone. It wasn’t that late, surely someone could hear her screaming.
The grip in her hair tightened as she reached back, her nails digging into skin as her assailant cursed and tried to ram her into the wall again. Turning quickly, the pain to her scalp enraging her, Erin kicked, scratched, her cries more guttural now than loud. She fought each attempt to disable her as she twisted, trying to claw at his face, knee him in the groin. She refused to stay still, refused to give in to the pain or allow the son of a bitch enough of a gr
ip to actually succeed in quietening her.
“Erin!” The sound of her name being called, the voice harsh, power resonating in the voice, was followed by the heavy thump of something crashing into her door.
“Turk!” Screaming out his name, powerless to stop the coming crash as she was thrown to the floor, Erin rolled with it instead.
Coming against the wall as her door was kicked in, Turk’s large, powerful silhouette rushed the room. His entrance was followed by the sound of glass shattering.
“Oh, hell no.” Scrambling to her knees Erin turned, staring at the hole in her living room wall where a large, picturesque window now lay shattered.
She couldn’t believe it. Wasn’t this just the perfect ending to this night?
“That was my window,” she whispered, shocked as Turk rushed past her, the weapon in his hand held ready as he braced himself against the side of the wall before quickly looking out.
The sound of a motor gunning and racing away could be heard, followed by another. John D. or his partner, possibly both, would be following the bastard. If anyone could catch the assailants it would be them. Scrambling across the floor she jerked her cell phone from where it had fallen to the floor, flipped it open and hit her stepfather’s number.
“Get out of there!” J.D. barked into the phone. “John D.’s trailing them with backup en route. Get to Turk’s place now, Erin. I’ll be there later.”
The line disconnected.
Collapsing against the wall behind her, she braced her arms on bent knees before looking up at Turk as he reentered the kitchen from the short hall that led to her bedroom.
Moving to her he reached for her wrists, pulling her to her feet and quickly into his arms. He wrapped her in that sense of security she’d always sensed her mother felt with J.D.
* * *
God help him. Seconds before, he was shaking like a kid facing the bogeyman! Or a man facing the loss of a woman who meant far too much to him.
That couldn’t be the case, Turk assured himself. It wasn’t terror.
So, why was he holding her in his arms, tight to his chest, his head bent protectively over hers as he kept his own back to the door? Why was he protecting her before his own security?
“I’m okay,” she whispered, her tone more hesitant than the delicate fingers gripping the sides of his back.
Forcing himself to move back, Turk stared down at her pale face, the sea-green eyes darker now with distress.
“Let’s get you the hell out of here before anyone realizes anything happened.” Gripping her wrist to keep her behind him Turk moved quickly for the door.
Easing it open and checking the hall quickly, Turk tucked his weapon at the small of his back before motioning Erin to stay in place, just out of sight. Crossing the short distance to his own apartment and opening the door, he gave the kitchen and living room a thorough scan before returning to Erin.
She’d managed to find her purse and the smaller-size baby Glock she now held firmly close to the side of her thigh.
Keeping her covered with his own body Turk rushed her into his own place. Closing the door, still silent, he went quickly through the rooms just to be certain, before returning to the kitchen.
“I’m going to lock your place up.…”
“I did that while you were in the other rooms,” she cut him off mid-sentence as he strode to the door. “The security auto engages as soon as the door closes.” Laying her purse on the center bar and tucking her weapon inside of it, she faced him calmly.
Calmly, as though she hadn’t just been attacked inside her own home.
His jaw clenched, the terror that washed through him moments before morphing into anger.
“John D.’s trailing my attacker until backup catches up with them. They’ll have him in custody soon, if he’s not already.”
Moving to the sink as she spoke she tore several paper towels from a roll, wet them, then applied the cool compress to her lip before turning back to him.
“I should fucking paddle your ass!” he snarled, his hands plowing through his hair as he stared back at her in bemused fury. “Do you think I dragged you over here first so you could just sash-the-fuck-shay across that damned hall without me?”
“Sash-the-fuck-shay?” A single fiery brow arched as she lifted the compress she fashioned to reveal a swelling lip and the bruising at the side of her face.
A fist slammed into his gut, pure jagged rage at the sight of her perfect creamy flesh so abused.
“God, you’ll be the death of me!” Swinging away from her he stomped to the other side of the room before turning back with a glare.
“What’s your problem anyway?” Frustration flashed across her face but beneath the irritation was a hesitant wariness.
“These fucking bruises on your face? The fact that some bastard just tried to kill you? For God’s sake, Erin!” Pure rage ran through his senses. And there she stood, her head tipped to one side, the once-neat disarray of the tumbling curls now torn from the clasp and falling to her shoulders. The white shirt was ripped, her little vest missing a button, her hose were all but shredded, and she was barefoot. And she was staring back at him as though she really didn’t know why he was so pissed off.
She propped one hand on her curvy hip and glared back at him.
“How would you feel if you had to accept Iron’s help if a gang jumped you, then had to listen to him bitch because your poor little face was bruised?”
His eyes narrowed. “I’d cut the smart-assed remarks.”
A mocking little roll of her eyes had him forcibly restraining the need to spank her tight little ass. The problem was, if he got her panties over that cute little ass then he’d end up doing far more.
“You know, Turk, you seriously need to do something about that double standard of yours. Now tell me what you intend to do about slipping back over there for my clothes? Since I forgot and I’m fairly certain you don’t intend to let me go back.”
His arms went across his chest as he simply stared at her silently, darkly.
“Didn’t think you did.” She sighed.
“You called J.D.” Dropping his arms he moved toward her once again.
Predatory male grace and determined sexuality nearly stole not just her mind, but her breath as well.
“Yes, I called him.” She stepped back warily as he stepped to the refrigerator, opened it, and pulled free a bottle of water.
“Did he tell you to get to my apartment and stay put?”
She frowned at that. “How did you know?”
“Standard procedure for female agents,” he growled. “Why weren’t you aware of that?”
“Maybe I’m not your standard female agent,” she suggested softly as he twisted the lid from the bottle. “I could be so much more.” A sexy little wink shot his blood pressure sky high and had the room feeling way too damned hot.
“He’ll be here soon.” Turning from her and lifting the bottle to his lips he took a deep drink.
“Yeah,” she murmured. “We wouldn’t want J.D. to catch you fucking his favorite agent. That would be bad.”
The water shot down the wrong side of his throat as the sudden memory of the effects of fucking her shot to his brain. Hunger pulsed in his dick as he suddenly wheezed, while his balls tightened in lust.
Turning to her he glimpsed her satisfied smile a heartbeat before he took that first step to have a second taste of her. At the same second a short imperious knock sounded at the door.
“Mmm.” Her satisfied little murmur came with a wicked glance in his direction. “Talk about timing.”
Narrowing his eyes he let her enjoy the moment. For now.
Erin almost laughed. He’d nearly spit that nice mouthful of water clear across the room. Who knew he’d be so damned easily unsettled.
The urge to laugh died a quick death as her stepbrother entered the room behind Cooper and J.D. And John D., like his father, didn’t look happy.
CHAPTER 8
Her at
tacker had gotten away.
Erin stood silently as she listened to her brother’s report, aware of Turk close behind her. The warmth of his big body, the feeling of security he exuded kept that first, hard flare of fear from igniting inside her.
“Sorry, sis.” John D sighed, his light-blue eyes concerned as he watched her carefully.
“Nothing was taken from the apartment that I could see,” J.D. assured her. “Your window is being repaired as we speak. I’ll have a female agent come in and pack your things. When we leave I’ll make arrangements to have you transferred…”
“No.” Surprised, the word popped from her mouth before she could hold it back.
J.D.’s eyes narrowed slowly, tension radiating through his body with such energy. Erin swore every male in the room followed suit with instinctive dominance.
Give her a break. She was going to smother from testosterone at this rate.
“What do you mean, ‘no’?” her stepfather finally growled.
“I’m not leaving, J.D.,” she informed him firmly.
“Then I’ll fire you!” The threat was an old one. Even John D. smirked at the sound of it.
* * *
“And you’re not firing me either.” Erin moved carefully away from Turk, all too aware that he and Cooper were none too pleased with J.D.’s warning.
J.D. glowered back at her. “Erin, this is serious,” he informed her as he leaned forward slowly and braced his hands on the counter. “You were attacked.”
“I wasn’t hurt.”
Sometimes, it was best to simply stare him down.
“Have you looked at your face yet?” he snapped when she didn’t blink. “Take a look in the mirror then tell me you weren’t hurt.”
She snorted at that. “It hurt more when John D. wrecked the four-wheeler last summer. And the bruises were worse.”
J.D. turned to his son slowly. “You said you were alone,” he reminded John D. with a hint of anger.
John D. shook his head with an air of brotherly exasperation.
“Come on, Dad, I told you she lies on me. Those innocent green eyes are hiding a heathen determined to get me disowned,” he accused her