Those traits did sound familiar. “None of what you just described is a plus in my book.”
“Yeah, well. Enjoy the ride.”
“I’m not riding Walker Reeves.” Mallory didn’t realize she’d yelled that until the entire store turned to face her. She spied some skeptical looks, including one from Grace. “Well, I’m not riding him anymore.”
And with that she tripled her embarrassment. Mallory decided to blame Walker for that, too.
Chapter Two
Walker Reeves looked up from his seat in the back booth of Rosie’s Diner, the one hidden in the corner and blocked from the view of most of the restaurant, and did a double take. Two men he did not want to face right now headed straight toward him.
It was as if he had a homing beacon in his ass. There was just no other explanation for the Hanover brothers tracking him down so easily. Except possibly the fact Walker had the worst fucking luck of any human alive.
Before he could get up and stalk out, which was exactly what he planned to do, Declan and Callen pinned him down. Callen slid into the booth across from Walker. In the next second, Walker got shoved further into the corner by Declan who took the seat next to him in the fake leather booth.
“Hello.” Declan offered the greeting as he scanned Walker’s plate of half-eaten food.
Wanting to be clear on his position and how much he hated their company, Walker went with jaw-clenched threatening. Even slammed his open palm against the tabletop and watched the water glass jump.
Callen rolled his eyes. “Are you done being dramatic?”
Not even close. Walker was just getting started. “How is it possible I’ve been in town less than a day and I run into you two?”
Declan shrugged. “Luck.”
“About eight people live in this town, so the odds were good,” Callen said at the same time.
Declan reached over and took one of the forgotten chips off Walker’s plate. After two seconds of munching, he continued his annoying conversation with Callen. “More like a thousand people live here, but it does have the feel of a small hunting party sometimes.”
They didn’t need him for this talk and Walker wanted to be anywhere else right now, so he jumped to the point. “What do you two want?”
Declan stretched an arm in front of Walker and grabbed a napkin out of the holder on the far inside end of the table. “Now that we’re related—”
“Don’t do that.” Walker hated that phrase and the openness with which they accepted his biological connection to them, or seemed to.
Being a Hanover by blood but not in name had haunted Walker’s entire life and here these two sat, taking the news in stride. The reaction wasn’t normal. Kind of ticked Walker off, too.
“As your brothers we thought we’d help you,” Callen said.
This topic—anything relating to their idiot father or bloodlines—needed to stop. Walker had known the truth for years. He was the first-born son of Charlie Hanover, not Callen. He and Callen shared two parents and Beck and Declan were their half-brothers. As far as gene pools went, theirs qualified more as a cesspool.
The bottom-line reality had hit Walker long ago and colored every choice he ever made. He was the one son Charlie refused to acknowledge or claim. The one they all left behind and ignored.
Now it was his turn to shove people off. “Go away.”
“That’s not going to work.” Declan rolled his used napkin into a ball and threw it on Walker’s plate.
He hated to ask, but it wasn’t in Walker’s nature to let information sit out there without charging after it. “I give up. What?”
“This.” Declan waved his hand between Walker and Callen. “The ducking and grumbling. That’s Cal’s thing. You’ll have to find something else.”
“Thanks, man,” Callen mumbled under his breath.
They talked and Walker’s confusion grew. They should hate him. That he could handle. Mutual hatred. But this, the ongoing chatter and act where they had some sort of connection, didn’t compute for him at all. “What are you two talking about?”
Declan stared at another chip but didn’t pick it up. “You’re in trouble.”
No kidding. “Want to be more specific?”
Callen shot Walker a stop-being-an-asshole glare. “Women.”
“You lost me.” But they actually hadn’t. They’d hunted him down at the diner for whatever reason and now they were moving in for the kill. Thanks to the seating arrangement, Walker couldn’t escape unless he planned to climb under the table. A tempting thought.
At least if he got out of there he could find the one person in this town he did want to talk to. Mallory, the woman he pictured every time he closed his eyes. Curvy and hot with long black hair and big green eyes. She was full of life and energy, all artsy and sexy in those short skirts and motorcycle boots. She didn’t back down or take his shit. She liked to push him around even as she met him touch for touch in the bedroom.
He wanted her until he could taste it and that driving need sent him into a panic. That was his only excuse for fucking it all up. That and practice. He tended to fuck things up in his private life far too often.
As if he read Walker’s mind, Callen launched into the new topic. “You were sleeping with Mallory then left town.”
“How is that your business?” Walker craved privacy. Mallory had honored that but these two appeared ready to bulldoze over every firm wall he’d set up to keep people out.
“Leah is going to kill you. Since I’m her boyfriend I’ll be obligated to help and then clean up the aftermath.” Declan made a tsk-tsking sound. “I’m really not in the mood to bury your body.”
“And Sophie and Grace plan to help Mallory. I think even Mom would join in.” Callen leaned in closer. “That should scare the hell out of you, by the way.”
Mom. Not his mom. Not really Callen’s either, but Walker didn’t drop that reminder. Regardless of the gene-pool confusion this was not his problem. “I’m not afraid of your women.”
Callen shook his head. “Oh, you poor dumb bastard.”
A part of Walker did wonder if he could take on all of the women and win. More than once he’d walked into Gossamer and gotten backed down by a group of females hovering around the room. FBI training taught him to plan for every contingency, but nothing had prepared him for Mallory or the way she fought. Add in her friends and a man did have a hell of a climb.
Not that he’d admit that out loud. No, he chose the pontificating asshole route instead. “Mallory will understand what I did and why.”
“So, you’re going to play the role of the stupid Hanover brother.” Callen motioned for the waitress. “Interesting choice.”
Okay, that went too far. “Excuse me?”
Callen waited until the waitress delivered glasses of water and menus. “Beck is the lawyer with the big brain. Declan is the rational one who people listen to and generally like for some reason.”
Having compiled thick files on every member of the family, Walker thought those tags sounded about right. Still . . . “What are you?”
“Cal here? He’s the dictatorial pain in the ass who thinks he knows what’s best for everyone else.” Declan suggested as he paged through the plastic-coated menu.
“That’s probably not that far off.” Callen didn’t bother with food. He crossed his arms in front of him and leaned on the table. “But we should get back to the main topic. Do you think Mallory Able is going to welcome you back into her bed without making you crawl first?”
Just thinking about Mallory in bed had Walker sweating. “Let’s pretend I’m willing to talk about this, which I’m not.”
Declan kept flipping pages. “Uh-huh.”
“Mallory and I had an understanding . . .” Walker’s confidence faltered. “Stop shaking your head at me, Callen. I am three seconds away from smashing my fist into your skull.”
Declan finally looked up. “He has that effect on everyone, your girlfriend Mallory especially.”
The amusement in Declan’s voice had Walker jumping on the defensive. “She’s not my—”
Callen snorted. “Well, she’s not now. You fucked that up.”
“That’s not true.” Walker refused to let that be true. Yes, he didn’t handle Mallory as well as he should have. He’d admit to that, but he did have something with her and there was no way he would let that slip away without a fight.
“Dude, she usually hates me, and right now there is no question I rank above you,” Callen said.
“I had to leave town for a few days.” Walker justified and explained even though the words rang hollow inside him.
Declan finally lowered the menu. “Twenty-eight.”
Walker had no idea what question Declan was answering. “What?”
“You were gone twenty-eight days.”
“We can count.” Callen winked. “Unfortunately for you, big man, so can Mallory.”
Before Walker could catch his breath, Declan was off again. “Did you call her while you were gone?”
Anxiety started whirling in Walker’s gut. He went from worrying about Mallory’s reaction to dreading it. She was not a woman you crossed, and he’d done it more than once.
Well, shit. “Again, not your business.”
“So, no.” Callen shook his head. “Douche move.”
“Yeah, she is going to make you pay for that,” Declan said while staring off into space.
Walker took the opportunity to make a point. The one where he was done talking and certainly had no intention of discussing his personal life with these two. “We didn’t have anything serious between us.”
Declan closed one eye and made a face that looked a lot like a pained wince. “Does she know that?”
“I do now.” Mallory’s voice vibrated with fury. So did her body as she stood at the end of the booth and glared the males and half the diner into a startled silence.
Damn it. She came out of nowhere. He’d been so focused on staying on his game with Declan and Callen that Walker missed her sneaking in the diner. Talk about an FBI training misfire. No wonder some people thought he’d become too obsessed with the Hanovers and should hand in his badge.
He tried to stand up then remembered his position smashed in the corner of the booth made that impossible. “Mallory.”
Callen’s eyes bulged. “Sweet damn.”
“I almost feel bad for him,” Declan said.
Mallory’s hand sliced through the air and those sexy bracelets of hers jingled. “Don’t.”
Okay, corner or not he had to move. Scrambling on the seat to get out, Walker ran right into a solid wall of Declan. He pushed and shoved and tried to move the guy out of the way.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Declan said in a low, barely audible voice.
Rather than fight it, Walker sat back with a harsh exhale and stared up at Mallory. “We need to talk.”
“You need to go to hell.”
Even the waitress openly gawked now. She stood a few feet behind Mallory and eyed Walker up with a “you’re dead” smirk. The low rumble of diner conversation had stopped and more than one head turned to watch the showdown.
“Don’t do this. Not here.” Not quite ready to give up on privacy, Walker lowered his voice and pointed at Declan and Callen. “Not in front of them.”
Declan snorted. “As if we’re the problem.”
Callen shook his head as he shot Walker a mixed look of disappointment and disbelief. “You can’t be this much of an idiot.”
“Have we established that? Because he really seems to suck at this.” Declan’s gaze switched from Walker to Callen. “Like, worse than you.”
If he didn’t put a stop to it, the annoying banter would keep going round and round, and Walker couldn’t tolerate that. Because nothing they said washed the grim expression off Mallory’s usually sunny face.
“Again, go the fuck away,” he said, wondering what words he should use to show just how serious he was about the order.
Before they could move Mallory jumped in. “They can stay.”
“See? She likes us,” Declan said.
That could not be true. Walker refused to believe it. “God, why?”
He’d barely talked about the Hanover brothers with her, though he’d been tempted. She had intel but he honored that line and did not cross it . . . mostly because she’d threatened to kick him out of her bed if he used her.
“I consider them family.” The words shot out of her.
“Even me?” Callen asked.
“Believe it or not, yes.”
The words sliced right into Walker. He felt every syllable like a body blow. But he guessed that was the point. Unleashed, Mallory’s anger was a wild thing. It sucked up all the oxygen in the room and spit out fireballs that had him ducking.
This wasn’t the first time in the months they’d known each other that he’d pissed her off. But it was the first time the divide between them stretched so wide that he wondered if he could cross it.
Declan let out a long breath as he sat back hard against the booth. “Uh-oh.”
Something in his voice caught Walker’s attention and had him taking his gaze off Mallory, but only for a second. “What?”
Callen looked from Mallory to Walker and back again. “Something bad is about to happen.”
“How can you—”
“From now on you can find someone else who likes to play your little games in bed.” She practically shouted the comment.
An angry flush heated his face. Walker wasn’t a prude but, damn, there were some things that did not need a general announcement to the good people of Sweetwater. “Mallory, that’s enough.”
She put both hands on the edge of the table and Callen and Declan jerked back to stay out of her way. Not that it looked as if she saw them. No, her unblinking stare never wavered. “Yeah, Walker it is. I am done with you.”
The whole conversation had spun out of control. Something about her made his common sense snap and his good judgment take a hike. He’d been trained to calm hostile situations, but she went off and he followed.
Not this time. “We can talk about this later. I’ll come to your place.”
“We’re done talking, touching, having sex.” She glanced in the direction of his lap. “You should get used to using your own hand.”
“Whoa.” Declan more mouthed the word than said it.
Walker only heard the comment because the entire diner had gone quiet. Grown men rushed to get out of Mallory’s way as she stalked to the door. Nobody ate a bite, and the joint force of everyone’s glare had Walker’s insides ticking with the need to storm out after her.
And he would have, if Declan hadn’t still blocked his path. This time Walker didn’t even try to move the guy. No, for some reason he decided sitting there and watching out the window as Mallory walked down the street, drawing stares as she went, seemed like a smart move.
Declan cleared his throat. “Well, that was embarrassing.”
“What kind of kinky shit do you do in bed?” Callen asked.
With his patience expired and his energy gone, Walker barely had the brain cells left to fight back. “I’m going to shoot both of you.”
This time Callen smiled. “A totally rational response.”
Normally any comment from Callen would have pissed Walker off but his mind clicked a step or two behind. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t jumpstart his thinking and work through what to do next. “She is really ticked off.”
“He’s finally getting it.” Declan picked up his water glass and downed the rest of it. When he signaled for the waitress for a refill, she shook her head and walked in the opposite direction.
Walker assumed that slight was really meant for him, though he didn’t totally get why. “How can Mallory not understand that I needed to step away for a few days?”
“Again, twenty-eight,” Declan said as he stole Callen’s water glass.
The first time was annoying. The second remin
der sent Walker’s temper spiking. “What are you, a fucking calendar?”
“Okay, stop. Both of you.” Callen took his glass back and set it as far away from Declan as possible before turning to Walker. “Did you come back to town for her?”
This was not a conversation he wanted to have. Not one he could have, because all the explanations and comebacks jammed in his throat. “I, uh . . . sure, in part.”
Callen leaned in with his fingers behind his ear. “What was that?”
They weren’t going to stop. They refused to move and kept asking questions. Walker knew the only way to bring this to a close was to play the game.
“I came back because Beck called me, insisting he has a business proposition.” A cryptic message about reaching out and giving him what he’d been searching for.
Since he’d been hunting down Charlie’s stolen goods and looking for reasons to arrest Callen, Walker doubted that’s what Beck meant. But with his job inches away from being lost and his mind in free fall ever since he stood in the side yard of Shadow Hill a month ago and admitted to the whole Hanover clan that Charlie was his father and that he and Callen shared a birth mother as well, Walker was out of choices.
That would teach him to use his forced leave of absence to travel to Sweetwater and keep the hunt going. In hindsight, he should have been clear that he was actually on a leave of absence when he started asking questions in town. Now the police chief and the Hanovers knew all about his work problems, and his boss wanted him gone. Yeah, this time he’d managed to blow up his work life to match the chaos of his private one.
Declan nodded. “Beck was talking about a proposition that will save your job.”
“My job is fine.” The response was automatic. Not believable and not true.
“You’re delusional.” Callen knocked a fist against the table. “Hey, I guess that does mean we’re related.”
Before Walker could comment on how much he hated statements like that, Declan launched into a new series of questions. “So you didn’t even come back to Sweetwater for Mallory?”
Too Far Gone Page 2