by Iris Abbott
“Copper?” Please let it be him, she silently thought. As much as he disturbed her, he was better than the unknown, since someone was trying to hurt her. She was more than relieved when she heard the somewhat familiar voice again.
“Yeah, it’s me. Stop moving,” he reminded her. “You really can’t afford to lose any more blood for a while. You were only grazed by the bullet, but it bled a lot.”
“Where am I?” she asked in a cautious voice. “I remember getting out of my car and speaking to you, but I don’t remember anything after that point.” Since she wasn’t getting out of bed right that second, she grabbed the sheet and tugged it up to her chin. He might be her sister’s boss, but the large overbearing male made her nervous, and lying in bed made her feel vulnerable.
“You passed out before you could explain why you were here. Luckily I was able to catch you before you hit the ground. I felt the wetness of your blood seeping from your wound. I brought you inside to my bedroom. Steel cleaned and taped up the injury.”
Copper abruptly stood and strolled over to the bed. He turned on the lamp that was sitting on the nightstand next to her. “As to where you are, I would think that’s obvious. You’re in my bed,” he informed her with a smug smile.
Marla was intimidated by the large shadow looming over her. She leaned back into the headboard as far as the unforgiving wood allowed. It was instinctive to make herself as small a target as possible. Light flooded the room, and Marla rapidly blinked her eyes until Copper’s profile came into sharp focus.
She frowned and carefully scooted toward the middle of the bed. She needed the extra space between them. Having Copper too close was wreaking havoc with her body. Marla didn’t want him to know how much he affected her. He was strong enough, he didn’t need any more power over her.
“No offense, but this place is huge. I know because a college friend of mine stayed here when it was still a bed and breakfast. There were at least eight guestrooms in it then. I’m pretty sure Natalie mentioned that only the original members of the Metal Cowboys live here.” She gave him a pointed look. “There are only five of you.”
“Your sister’s right. After all, she knows most of what goes on around here. Obviously I live here. So do Steel, Mercury, Chrome, and Iron.”
“That’s five,” Marla pointed out. She crossed her arms over her breasts and glared at him. “That means you should have at least one extra guestroom in this house somewhere,” she insisted.
“Five private bedrooms, a weight room and gym, a home office, and one guest bedroom,” he confirmed. He shrugged his wide shoulders and stared at her with intense blue eyes.
“So,” she said in exasperation. “Why am I in your bedroom instead of the guestroom?”
“You’re in here, because someone needs to keep a close eye on you and your injury. I would have volunteered for the job, even if you hadn’t fallen right into my arms.”
Marla covered her face with her hands for just a few seconds. “Oh, God. I can’t believe I did that. You probably think I’m the biggest wimp on the planet.”
“Not at all. I’m impressed you were able to extract yourself from the danger and drive through the pain. Don’t feel bad about passing out and falling into my arms,” he teased. “It was my pleasure to catch you.”
Her breathing came just a little bit faster. Her heart beat just a little bit harder. She was cautious, not blind. Of course, she’d noticed how sexy Copper Ellison was whenever her sister dragged her to a Metal Cowboys’ party. But she’d tried her best to ignore the man and the heat he generated, for reasons best forgotten.
Marla didn’t usually go for the rugged type. Her body had other ideas, however. It was tingling from his nearness, and she loved the way he made her feel. She sucked in a deep breath and tried to regain control of her body.
Natalie! Her sister was her rock. Marla couldn’t believe it took her this long to think of her sister. This was a prime example of how Copper affected her. He addled her brain and made thinking almost impossible.
She instinctively reached out and grabbed Copper’s arm. “Where’s Natalie?” Panic made her voice high and thin. “I called her while I was making my great escape from the school parking lot. She’s the one that insisted I come here. She promised to meet me.” Her eyes darted around, taking in every square inch of the now illuminated room. Natalie was nowhere to be seen.
She was really getting worked up now, imagining all the bad things that might have happened to her sister. “Why isn’t she here?” The last sentence was screamed at Copper.
The big biker put both of his hands on Marla’s shoulders and lightly shook her. “Stop! I don’t need a hysterical woman on my hands. Natalie is fine. I promise.”
Marla instantly stilled. They were only distant acquaintances. But when it came down to it, on some deep instinctive level, she trusted Copper Ellison. She trusted him to tell the truth about Natalie and not sugarcoat things just to make her feel better. She could think of a lot of words to describe the head of the Metal Cowboys, and sweet wasn’t one of them.
“I believe you, but I need to see her.” The stubborn tilt of Marla’s chin indicated that she meant business.
“You can’t, she’s not back yet.”
“Oh!” That was one explanation as to why her sister wasn’t lingering by Marla’s bedside. That was definitely something Natalie would do. “Where’d she go?” She couldn’t imagine her sister wanting to be anywhere except by her side.
“She arrived about fifteen minutes after you collapsed. I informed her in no uncertain terms that you were staying here until the threat to your life was over. And she persuaded me that she would be staying here too. Since the two of you are going to be houseguests for an indefinite amount of time, she went back to your apartment to pack a couple of bags of necessities.”
Marla broke into a smile for the first time that night. “That’s Natalie for you.” She breathed an inner sigh of relief. It was good to know that her sister was acting in character. It was also good to know that her sister would be by her side soon.
Copper gave his houseguest a contemplative look before answering. “Yes, she’s a tenacious one. It’s one of the many reasons she makes such a great personal assistant,” Copper said with a grin. “It takes someone with a backbone to handle a bunch of tough bikers with a military background.”
Marla frowned. “Natalie is strong, but she’s not invincible. I’m not sure who used me for target practice. What if my attacker knows where I live and went to the apartment looking for me after I escaped?”
“Then whoever it is will be in for one hell of a surprise. You should know better than to think any of us would let your sister walk into a dangerous situation, no matter how stubborn she is. Chrome and Mercury are with Natalie. They won’t let anything happen to her.”
All of the Metal Cowboys were intimidating to Marla, but Mercury with his glacial blue eyes was scary as hell. “That makes me feel a little better,” she shivered. “I’m pretty sure those men can be deadly when they need to be.”
“We all come out shooting when our backs are against the wall. You can bet your life on that.”
Marla wasn’t much of a gambler, but she’d take that bet. “I believe you. My sister wouldn’t have sent me here otherwise, but I’m not sure I should stay.”
“Not an option.” He practically growled the words. “You’d have to go through me to get out the door.” He raised a brow and smirked at her. “I don’t see that happening, do you?”
She lifted her brown eyes to meet his blue ones. She refused to look away. He might make her nervous, but she wasn’t afraid of him. She wanted him to know that. “I don’t want to be a burden, and I don’t want to put anyone in danger. I should report this to the police and let them handle it, even though I have absolutely no faith in the law enforcement around here.”
“You’re anything but a burden, Marla. And every man in this house is capable of taking care of himself, remember? I am more than able to
take care of you as well. You do have a point about the police. They are overworked, and you’d be just a number to them. You’re more than that here.”
Marla finally looked away from him, but not before she nodded in agreement. “I know Natalie’s worked for you for a long time, but I’m more or less a stranger. I don’t understand why you’d want to put yourself and the rest of the Metal Cowboys at risk for me.”
Copper used a strong finger to gently lift her chin until their eyes met again. “Maybe I want to know you better. I’ve never been one to waste an opportunity.” He shrugged. “As far as your last concern, all of my brothers and I have been in plenty of risky situations.”
“I just don’t want you to regret helping me.”
“What I would regret is standing around and doing nothing while you have a target on your back. You might as well know that I’m not made that way.”
She nervously twisted her fingers together. “I really don’t want anyone getting hurt because of this.” The thought was enough to chill her to the bone. She couldn’t live with herself if someone else was hurt or even worse killed because of her.
“Too late for that, you’ve already been hurt,” he pointed out. Then he played the one card Marla couldn’t ignore. “By not accepting our help you are putting your sister at risk. Is that what you want?”
“You know it’s not,” she said on a ragged sigh. “Of course I don’t want anything bad to happen to her. It’s just been Natalie and me for years. She’s all I’ve got.” She glared at Copper.
“Take it easy,” he said with a smile. “I wasn’t trying to ruffle your feathers. I was just stating a fact. Just so you know your sister isn’t all you’ve got, not anymore.”
Marla didn’t know what to say. She stared at him with a look of confusion marring her features, waiting for him to clarify the previous statement.
“You’ve got the Metal Cowboys now too. We don’t back down from a challenge, and we don’t walk away just because the going gets tough. That’s not what real man do. They don’t take potshots at innocent women in a deserted parking lot either.”
“Somehow I knew you would say something like that, but I had to try.” Deep down she was relieved that Copper wasn’t turning her away. Someone was after her, and she didn’t have a clue what to do about the deadly situation.
A delicate knock sounded on the door. “Come in,” Copper called out in a gruff voice.
Natalie pushed open the door and barged into the room before Copper finished speaking. She rushed to Marla’s side. She pushed her boss out of the way without a second thought.
“Thank God you’re okay. I was scared to death when you told me someone was shooting at you.” Natalie sat on the edge of the bed, and the sisters embraced each other.
“That makes two of us then.” Marla squeezed her sister hard. “For a few minutes I didn’t know if I was going to make it out of that parking lot alive. I had serious doubts until the gate guarding this property clanged shut behind me.”
Heavy footfalls echoed in the hallway. The women separated and glanced toward the doorway. Chrome, Mercury, and Steel filed into the room. They joined Copper at the foot of the bed. All four men had grim looks on their faces.
“Sorry to interrupt the reunion,” Chrome spoke up. The look on his face said he was anything but.
“We need to question Marla while her memory is still fresh,” Steel added to the conversation.
“The sooner we neutralize the threat, the sooner everything can get back to normal,” Mercury spoke up.
Marla felt like she’d turned a corner in her life, and nothing was ever going to be the same again. She stared at the imposing group of men with a slightly open mouth. That much muscle and testosterone in a confined space made her really nervous. She noticed it didn’t seem to faze Natalie. Then again, her sister had been working around the Metal Cowboys for years.
First, I want to thank you guys for keeping Marla safe.” Natalie stood up and hugged them one by one.
“We take care of our own,” Copper reminded her. “Now let’s get this done. I want to make sure Marla gets all the rest she needs. Iron hasn’t returned from the drop off yet, but I will fill him in when he gets back.”
Marla cleared her throat and finally found her voice. She might as well get this over with as soon as possible. “What do you need from me?”
“A step-by-step recount of everything you remember about the incident,” Copper told her. “Don’t leave out any detail no matter how small you think it might be.”
“All right.” Marla took a deep ragged breath and started talking. Ten minutes into it, her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh no, the box!” She gave the roomful of people a crestfallen look. “I didn’t plan on going back until the start of the next school year, so I cleaned out my room this evening. It’s why I was so late leaving. The box has all my personal items in it, and I just left it laying on the ground.”
“Don’t worry about that right now,” her sister said, putting a comforting hand on Marla’s shoulder.
“Someone will go back to the school and look for it after we’ve finished getting all the information we need to start an investigation,” Copper promised. “What happened after you dropped the box?” he asked trying to get her back on track.
Marla could feel five pairs of eyes on her, and she hated it. She wrapped her arms around her body to try and stop the slight tremor she couldn’t seem to control any other way. There weren’t really any words to express the terror she felt when bullets were zinging around her, and she was fearing for her life. She didn’t really know what to say, so she stuck to the bare facts.
“I heard a loud popping noise. It scared me so badly, I thought I was going to have a heart attack,” she admitted. “It took me several seconds to figure out someone was shooting at me. I guess I’m pretty lucky, whoever it was must not be a good shot.”
Copper snorted at that. “Not funny,” he growled out.
“No, it really isn’t,” Marla agreed. She finished describing the events as she remembered and ended with the terse exchange with Copper before she blacked out.
Natalie shot daggers at her boss. “That is so not what I wanted to hear.” She glared at all of the men in the room.
“I’m not going to apologize for being suspicious,” Copper said, returning Natalie’s glare. “Your sister’s never been here alone before. And you know how meticulous we are when it comes to guarding our garage and workspace.”
“I don’t blame him,” Marla told her sister. “And you shouldn’t either. You’ve mentioned several times how cautious everyone around here is when it comes to the garage and custom bike specs,” she reminded her sister.
“I understand,” Natalie finally admitted. “Security is always tight around this place. It’s the main reason I sent you here.”
“Now for the hard part,” Mercury interrupted. “Marla, do you have any idea who might want you dead?” Mercury didn’t mince words.
Marla sucked in a deep breath of air. She opened her mouth but no sound came out.
“Really, bro? You don’t have to be so blunt,” Copper snapped at his brother. He didn’t even try to hide his annoyance.
Mercury sent him a look cold enough to cause frostbite even on the hottest Texas day. “Do you want us to mollycoddle her, or do you want to get the information we need to find the person who shot her?” He threw the words along with a smug smile at his older brother.
Copper wasn’t fazed by Mercury’s glare. He gave him a snarky grin before answering. “I expect you to do both.” The harsh tone of his voice said he meant business. It made the other three men stand just a little bit straighter. The tension in the room shot up several notches.
Mercury’s cool blue eyes did a leisurely sweep from Copper to Marla and then back again. The smug smile disappeared. He nodded his understanding at his brother. A silent message passed between the two men.
Marla, who’d tensed up when Mercury and Copper first exchanged words, sl
owly relaxed. “Thank you, Copper, but it’s okay. Really. I was there, got the wound to prove it. Nobody has to sugarcoat anything for me. I’m stronger than you could ever know,” she insisted. “I might look delicate, but I won’t break. Trust me. I’ve lived through worse than a bullet graze to the side of my body.”
Copper stared at her hard but didn’t question the comment. Instead, he focused on the shooting. “As soon as you realized someone was shooting at you, who was the first person that popped into your mind?”
“I um…” Marla’s face went blank and then turned a pasty white. She couldn’t look at Copper or anyone else. She fixed her eyes on a spot over and beyond Copper’s shoulder and blindly reached for Natalie’s hand.
Copper paced up and down by the foot of the bed. After about the sixth time back and forth, he suddenly changed directions and came to a stop right in front of Marla. The silence stretched out for several seconds before he finally broke it. “I wouldn’t press the issue if it wasn’t important,” he said in a gruff voice.
“Your intuition is the only thing we have to go on right now. It can be spot on in situations like this. We need a starting point, and it’s up to you to provide us with one.”
Marla looked at him with clouded eyes that begged for his understanding. She didn’t want to talk about the sordid part of her past that haunted her, but what if Rob was the one responsible for her attack? Shooting at an unarmed woman in a darkened parking lot was probably right up her ex’s alley.
She took a deep breath, let out a ragged sigh, and started talking. “I used to be in an abusive relationship,” she whispered. Her voice was so low that Copper and the other men leaned forward to catch what she was saying.
Marla glanced around the room. All of the men had locked jaws and fierce frowns on their faces. In addition to the scowl, Copper was also clenching and unclenching his large hands to make very dangerous looking fists. She forced herself not to flinch and move away from him. She was tired of giving Rob that kind of power over her.