“It’s my understanding from Chief Darber you have information on the brothers. Items you’ve collected. For now, all I’m asking is for permission to review the same.”
The same? Who talked like that? “My answer hasn’t changed in the last two seconds. Whatever vendetta you have, you’re on your own. I am not going to help you.”
Mallory leaned against the cash register. “Can you turn down an FBI guy?”
He cleared his throat. “Special Agent.”
Just what Leah needed, a guy with a gun and an ego problem. “You can call yourself a coffeemaker for all I care. The answer is no.”
He didn’t even twitch. “I could go through legal channels if I have to.”
“Have at it.” She actually had no idea if what he said was true. Time to call Beck and get his lawyer opinion.
“Why are you protecting them, you of all people?” The façade slipped just a little. The stance eased and he leaned forward.
The question in the voice suggested he never thought she’d turn him down. Made her wonder what kind of women he usually dealt with. After all, she’d been in the Hanover kitchen that first morning. Did he really not understand her relationship to them?
“They ruined your family,” he added.
Now he sounded like her dad. “Charlie did, not his sons.”
“I know you want to believe they’re different from their father.” Reeves stepped forward and put a hand on the counter. No ring. Not even a watch. The guy kept things simple. “And I’ll give you that maybe Beckett and Declan are, but not Callen. He’s knee-deep in his father’s activities. I can show you the surveillance tapes to prove it.”
A fissure of doubt cracked her confidence. There was still so much about Callen she didn’t know. Lost years she couldn’t fill in. Declan was rock solid, his reputation clean, but Callen’s background was not as clear.
But she would never let this guy know that. “I don’t believe you.”
Mallory tapped her nails against the side the register now. The clicking had Reeves staring at her. She stared right back. “If you have so much evidence, why not arrest him? Why do you need Leah?”
“I’m still collecting material.”
Last thing Leah wanted was Reeves turning his attention to Mallory. She’d had enough trouble in her life. She didn’t need an FBI agent sniffing around, special or not. “Collect somewhere else.”
He slowly returned his gaze to Leah. “You may feel different once you’re no longer sleeping with Declan Hanover. What happens when he moves on?”
Before he’d even finished the question, Mallory came around the counter and stood by his side. “That was too far. Now I have to tell you to leave.”
The agent frowned at Mallory. “And you are, again?”
She didn’t back down. It wasn’t her style. Mallory had learned the hard way to stand up for herself and what she wanted, and a badge didn’t stop her. “I’m the owner of this store and no matter how cute you are—”
“What?”
“—you don’t get to pull that crap. You keep your mind on your own dating and off my friend Leah’s, got that?” Mallory shoved a finger in his face.
Leah worried the guy would match that by pulling his weapon. “Uh, Mallory?”
The guy’s mouth twitched. On anyone else, Leah would have thought he was fighting off a smile.
“I’m here on business,” he said.
“Whatever you need to tell yourself.” Mallory switched direction and pointed at the door. As luck would have it, the bell chimed, and two ladies walked in lost in conversation about a movie. “Now, out. You can come back some other time flashing that badge, but not now. And if you even think of trying to pull the ‘do you know who I am’ stuff, I will kick your butt.”
This time he did smile. “What was your name again?”
Leah glanced back and forth between the two of them. Mallory and an FBI guy? It was hard to imagine a stranger combination.
“Why, are you going to report me or turn my name over to the IRS?” Mallory was almost on top of him now. If he reached out, he’d touch her and her body language suggested she might not hate that.
Leah was pretty certain she’d dropped into some sort of alternative-universe hole.
Reeves’ gaze roamed over Mallory’s face and kept traveling down. “I just like to know who I’m dealing with.”
“You’ll figure it out. Now, go.” Mallory shooed him out as her cheeks turned pink.
And damn if the guy didn’t obey. He walked to the door, his steps sure and shoulders back. He glanced back once and his gait faltered, then he stepped outside and was gone.
The confusion lingered long after he left. Leah stared at her best friend. “What just happened?”
“I showed Officer Hottie who was boss.” When Leah sputtered, Mallory kept talking. “What, you think you get to have all the fun with the new boys in town? Spread the riches.”
“He’s a jerk.”
Mallory laughed. “I do believe you once gave me the same speech about Declan.”
***
The day took forever to reach eight o’clock.
Declan wanted it over. It had started out so well, sex with a warm woman snuggled against him. It had gone steadily downhill ever since. He’d dragged his butt all over town for hours, gathering materials and lining up the few permits he needed for outside construction.
No fewer than five people got in his face to tell him about Leah having a meeting with Walker Reeves. The guy at the hardware store on the edge of town heard it from his wife. The guy at the gas station heard it from a customer. The owner of the lumberyard who was all too happy to take Declan’s money couldn’t remember where he heard the rumors. Then there were the two retired teachers who told him they never believed Charlie “did all those bad things.”
The last twosome scared Declan the most. Sweet but naïve and clueless.
Through pure luck he held onto his shaky temper and his steady refusal to believe the meeting was anything more than Reeves being a pain in the ass. Then the flirty waitress at the diner mentioned Leah having lunch with that new blond woman in town, Kristin something. The explosion shattered in his brain a second after that. His jaw hurt from clenching, and a headache thumped from the anger surging through his veins.
He’d wanted to rush over and demand an explanation but forced himself to wait. Even took up Beck’s habit of pacing. Much more of that and there would be a circular path of dead grass around the work shed.
Now it was judgment time.
Declan raised his fist to knock on her front door and it flew open. Light poured out behind her, casting her in shadows. The combination of the raincoat and spiky black heels had his brain cells zapping.
She flashed him a sexy smile that said she had something big planned. “You’re late.”
“I am?”
“You said you’d be here around seven.” She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled him inside. “I was worried.”
He tapped the door and let it click shut. “You were?”
Snapping out of it seemed to be taking longer than he expected. He was in a full-on nosedive, sounding like an idiot and throwing out simple questions as he stumbled around. Good thing he didn’t drool, and looking at those bare legs tempted him to do just that.
Before he could break into his practiced statement, she touched him. Slid his damp windbreaker off his shoulders and let it drop to the floor. He tried to say something but the words lodged in his throat. So many questions, and a part of him that wanted to wallow in denial and not ask.
“Are you okay?” Her head fell to the side and that subtle confidence that ran through her faltered a bit. “Did something happen?”
That’s what he wanted to know. Days of being together and unbelievable nig
hts rolling around on the mattress down the hall, and he was left wondering what it all meant, if anything, to her. He thought he knew the answer this morning. Now, after finding out about the secret meetings piled on top of secret investigations of the past, his insides had that scrubbed-out, raw feeling. An empty blank sensation filled the rest of him.
Funny how the world could shift out of focus so fast.
He could only watch as she fiddled with the buttons on his shirt, opening them one by one. Her hand pressed against his undershirt and burned right through to his skin. Through the haze and the last pops of anger, he wanted her. No matter what she did, the light in her hair and fire in her eyes pushed him.
And how sick was that? Only an idiot would let this go a step further without getting an explanation.
“It’s been a long-ass day.” The comment bordered on understatement but he used it anyway.
She finished with his shirt and pulled the tails out of his jeans, letting her nails scrape against his tee as they traveled back to his shoulders. “I thought you were doing work on the caretaker cottage.”
“Getting the supplies took longer than I expected.”
The moment was surreal. She stripped off his shirt and he stood there making asinine conversation, all while a huge weight hung over his head and he wanted to carry her to bed.
“Did someone say something to you while you were out?”
The opening he’d waited for. It hung right there but the way his blood froze meant he couldn’t move. “About what?”
“Threats and that sort of thing. Are you getting more calls?” Concern vibrated in her voice.
Pity, great. Just what he didn’t want. “The calls never stop, but nothing out of the ordinary happened.”
“Well, you’re obviously stressed.” Her hand went to the top to his jeans. “I think I can make you feel better.”
She usually did. “We should—”
Once she had the belt open, her hands switched to the knot of the belt on her coat. His tongue swelled. He should tell her to stop. Insist they talk and clear up any confusion. Should but wouldn’t. Not when material slid against material. Not when the ends dropped to the side.
“I have two gifts for you.” Her hand slipped into her pocket. She held a shiny key between two fingers. “For you.”
He came prepared to fight while she was stepping them further down the relationship road. The flip in direction had him reeling. So did the peek at the shadowed valley between her breasts and his very hopeful guess she’d put on those black-zipper panties again.
Without thinking, he held out his hand. She smiled as she dropped the key in his palm then curled his fingers around it. The step forward wasn’t lost on him. He knew this meant something and didn’t want to ruin the moment, not when her vulnerability peeked out from under her sweet smile. Not when she was offering him something he didn’t even know he wanted until it sat in front of him and he ached to grab it.
“Mine.” He meant her as much as the key and put all his force and will behind the simple word.
“Yours.” Her fingers went to the big black buttons on her jacket. “Now for gift number two.”
She undid the first. Then a second. With the third she unveiled miles of skin. By the fourth her flat stomach came into view.
Naked. She was completely bare-ass naked under there, and it was all for him.
All thoughts of confrontation ran from his head. Forget talking and arguing. Forget sitting down and working it through. He wanted the coat off and his pants down and the hell with anything else.
She slipped the final button out and dragged the coat to the very edge of her shoulders. The ends hung open and every delicious inch of her body was on display.
Unable to hold back, he slipped his hands inside and pushed the coat the rest of the way off. His mouth covered hers before the coat hit the floor. Hot and needy, his lips met hers. Their mouths moved and his head cleared. This. He needed this and nothing else.
With a palm under her knee, he tugged until her thigh balanced on his hip and her body stood open to his. His fingers dipped inside and his erection kicked to life when he felt how ready she was. If he wanted to design the perfect woman for him, face, body and will, he would describe her. The way she moved under his hands and mouth made him forget every woman who came before.
One hand cupped her ass cheek and the other slid around to her bare breast. She fit in his palm and he fought the urge to lick his way down there. When she broke away and kissed over his chin and down his neck, he inched back to rest against the wall. He had a feeling he’d need the support if his heart gave out over this amazing seduction scene.
It almost did a second later when she kissed her way down his chest to his stomach. Her knees bent and he looked down at the fiery mane of hair as she rubbed her cheek over his erection and skimmed her lips down his fly.
His blood caught on fire. “Unzip them.”
Fingers tugged at his top button then the pressure eased. A zip and a push and her hand passed inside his jeans and her tongue slid over him and a new tension swam through him. His back slammed harder against the wall as his erection disappeared in her mouth. Licking, sucking. Driving him wild until he thought his head would blow off.
She gave and didn’t ask for anything in return. She was open and sexy and when he closed his eyes he wanted to wake up again with her beside him. But now he wanted to be inside her and fast.
The incredible sexual torment continued for another minute, until he had to count backwards from twenty to keep from ending this with her on her knees. He craved the friction of his body rubbing against hers. He wanted it all. Whatever else there was they’d figure out later. Now, he needed to feel her, all of her.
His knees gave out and she sat back, staring up at him as he slid down the wall. A question lingered in her eyes.
This one he could answer. “Best gifts ever.”
He kicked his shoes off and dropped the final distance to the floor. Before common sense could smack him or life could intervene, he rolled her over him. His back hit the floor and her knees straddled his waist.
He trailed his fingers over her bare thighs as he stared up into those perfect gray eyes. “You are so fucking beautiful.”
“I was thinking the same thing about you.”
With his hand behind her neck, he brought her down, her mouth lowering to his. The kiss slow at first, drugged him, weakening his muscles until he didn’t know how he could move. Just when the churning inside him spurred him to pull her closer, she deepened the touch of her lips. Her tongue caressed the inside of his mouth as she treated him to a soft and lingering moan.
“Damn.” The last of his control vanished.
She lifted her head and her gaze met his. “Tell me what you want.” She whispered the words against his mouth.
In that moment only one thought thumped through his mind.
“Ride me.”
Chapter Twenty-one
The next day Declan sat in his bedroom at Shadow Hill and scanned the documents from Beck’s files downstairs. Since Declan started his late-night information sessions on the stacked boxes at Leah’s house, he’d become hooked on searching for information. There was so much on Charlie, and more on Callen than Declan had expected.
But something kept bothering him. He’d looked at the same files in those white boxes three times. Every time he stumbled, but he wasn’t sure why. Just last night he planned to move on to the brown boxes, but he stopped.
The white boxes. It all came down to the white boxes.
He shuffled the Beck’s files across the bed, the ones they’d all reviewed so many times, about the house. There was a match he didn’t see but a part of his brain fixated on.
Declan got to the old banking files and replayed Charlie’s sins. He stole from the town’s accoun
ts. He took the money. He was the only one who knew . . . that was it.
Shoving Beck’s yellow legal pads to the side, Declan unburied the actual bank statements. Not Beck’s analysis. The original documents. The same ones that would have been a part of Charlie’s trial if he had been found out all those years ago and the statute of limitations hadn’t run on this crime.
One specific bank statement . . .
***
Later that night Leah turned over and reached out to cuddle against Declan’s side. Once that happened, kissing his stomach and roaming lower wouldn’t be far behind. When it came to him, she had zero control. But she doubted he’d protest. Slipping her hand below his waist usually guaranteed his complete attention. Usually stopped all conversation, too, except for a grunt or growl.
She expected to brush her hand over a warm, satisfied male then spend some time getting him revved up again but her fingers hit the cool mattress. Exhaustion tugged at her even as she forced her eyes open. Focus took another second or two. Drawing the sheet against her breasts, she sat up and glanced around the room. She blinked and the furniture took shape in the shadows. Bed, tables, lamps . . . no hottie boyfriend.
The door to the bathroom stood open and the light was off. That left the kitchen. Made sense. The poor guy missed dinner last night. He walked in and she had him rolling across the floor about a minute later. She’d planned to feed him after, but he carried her to the bed and all thoughts of food vanished.
Once he locked on a task, whether it was building something or kissing her, his intensity spiked and he dedicated his whole soul to the act. Being the center of all that energy, all that focus, made her breathless.
With him she was feminine and strong. Powerful. After the way they met he had every right to make demands on her and insist she spill every bit of information she’d gathered through the years, but he seemed content to let her open up as she felt comfortable. He didn’t even balk when she talked about missing her dad and wanting to figure out a way to mend the tremendous rip in their relationship.
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