Joshua stared at her with his mouth open, clearly at a loss for words. Then he cleared his throat. "You sure?"
"Absolutely. Why do you think I'm doing this? Jake told me to."
"He did?" Joshua echoed. "That doesn't sound like him."
She nodded solemnly, gave a cheery little wave and roared off, leaving Joshua frowning after her in a swirling cloud of dust.
"Drake!" Joshua bellowed at the top of his lungs as he sprinted toward Drake's truck.
Drake beat him to the driver's seat, gun in hand, looking wildly around and then after the Jeep. "That wasn't . . ." He'd already started the vehicle and reversed, wheeling the truck around to follow the fast-moving vehicle. "Who's in the Jeep?"
"Emma." Joshua sounded like doom.
"Emma?" Drake echoed, barely able to believe his ears. "Where the hell is she going this time of night, and why aren't a couple of bodyguards with her?"
"The movies." Joshua grimaced. "Emma's going out. On a date."
"A what?"
Few things shocked Drake, and Joshua was pleased to see he was shaking at the news.
"Date--a date--with a man. Someone I don't know. Someone you don't know."
Together they groaned and said simultaneously, "Someone Jake doesn't know."
Drake called the main gate. "Emma's coming through, Jerico. Let her go. We're on it." He turned to Joshua with a raised eyebrow. "What movie are we going to see?"
"Hell, I don't know, but I'm definitely getting too old for this kind of thing. Don't get too close to her. If she spots us, we're dead. She has a mean streak in her. She'll pull our coffee privileges."
"We're probably already dead. You couldn't stop her? She's a sweet little thing," Drake said. "And you should never have allowed her to go without a bodyguard."
"Ha! You try it. She smiles at you sweetly, nods her head a lot and does whatever the hell she wants to do. You can't stop that woman short of tying her up. And believe me, I considered it."
"Jake's going to go up like a volcano," Drake announced grimly. "You should have tied her up."
"Hell, Drake, you gave the order to let her off the property. I'm going to make sure Jake knows that when he pulls off our fingernails." He brightened as he settled against the seat. "We could murder the guy while she's in the ladies' room."
They followed her right to the theater, Drake keeping a few cars between them at all times. "The movie better not be some sloppy love story," Joshua hissed as they crept through the parking lot, hiding behind cars, keeping pace with her.
"Uh-oh," Drake said. "I think lover boy is waiting. There he is, he's taking both her hands in his, gazing into her eyes. You recognize him?"
"I think he's the telephone guy. I've seen him around. Jake isn't going to like this," Joshua pointed out with a little groan.
"Neither is Emma if she catches us. I wish we could just get rid of this guy somehow. Got any ideas?" Drake asked hopefully.
"Maybe we should call Jake right now and just let him handle it," Joshua suggested.
"Are you crazy?" Drake pushed money at the woman at the ticket counter. "Whatever movie they're going into," he added, nodding toward Emma and her date as they went inside.
"Hey, we're in luck," Joshua exclaimed gleefully. "It's a comedy. I hope we get good seats."
"Joshua!" Drake smacked the younger man with his hat. "We're here to keep an eye on lover boy. How the hell did he slip by us that we haven't checked him out?"
"I hope you've got more money. I don't have a cent. This is great. I really did want to see this movie." Joshua was patting his pockets. "I need popcorn."
Drake shoved him, scowling darkly. "Will you keep your mind on the job? You keep it up and I'll leave you out here."
"Quick! They're going in," Joshua pointed out hastily. "We'll lose them. Get in line, will you?"
"Shh," Drake admonished, allowing several couples to go in front of them. "And I'm not getting you popcorn. We're working."
"Don't be such a cheapskate. I'd like popcorn. You just can't watch a good movie without popcorn. If he doesn't stop at the snack bar, you follow them and I'll catch up after I get us some popcorn. I'll need money though."
"Forget the damned popcorn," Drake ordered.
"You just don't know how to have a good time," Joshua sulked.
"Just keep your eye on her. What got into her anyway? Is she mad at the boss? They have a fight?"
"She said he told her to go out," Joshua said. "And if I know anything at all about Emma, it's that she doesn't lie."
"The man's a damned idiot."
"Either that or he was a misunderstood idiot." Joshua ducked behind a pillar. "They're getting popcorn. It smells so good. Come on, Drake, buy some popcorn."
"Will it shut you up?" Drake demanded furiously.
"I promise." Joshua folded his arms complacently over his chest.
They hung back, waiting for Emma and her date to be seated in the darkened theater, before finding a space two rows behind her.
Joshua was enthralled with the comedy, laughing so heartily the girls seated next to him kept giggling together.
Drake dug elbows into Joshua's ribs. "He's making his move."
"Who is?" Joshua's eyes were glued to the screen.
"The guy, her date. He put his arm around the back of her seat."
Joshua sat up, glaring daggers. "Wanna break his arm? We could make it look like an accident."
"Oh, shut up. You're no help. Just watch the damn movie." Drake sounded totally exasperated.
"Fine." Joshua managed to look hurt for all of five minutes, until the movie had him doubling over with shoulder-shaking chuckles.
They had a few bad minutes when the lights went up, finding themselves trapped by the people leaving. They had to pretend they were looking for something on the floor to allow Emma and her escort to pass. Drake sent up a silent prayer that Emma would go straight home, but it wasn't answered. They were forced to follow her to the Chateau, a very expensive French restaurant.
Drake looked down at their work clothes and boots. "She'll spot us for certain. Maybe we should wait outside."
"If we wait outside, and we have to tell Jake about this evening, he'll beat the crap out of us. And I don't feel like taking a beating because Emma is feeling frisky."
JAKE allowed the talk to flow around him. The scent of conspiracy was heavy in his nostrils and betrayal reeked at the table, but everyone there smiled and played their high-stakes games. Dean Hopkins, the manager for his small, seemingly failing business, was all for the sale, laying the advantages out carefully while the circle of investors nodded their heads and tried to convince him they were helping him out. Jake kept his face expressionless, watching them all closely, wanting to sniff out the underlying reason they were so set on buying a failing business.
The man who interested him the most was Bernard Williams, a lawyer for the firm known to represent his old enemy, Josiah Trent. Williams knew Jake was poised to take over Trent's business. One false move and everything would come tumbling down. Yet here the man sat, prepared to sell Jake out and make him an enemy for life, over what? What did they know that he didn't?
The small real estate chain hadn't turned a profit in three years. Jake intended to keep it that way. He could afford the loss, but it shouldn't have garnered any real attention, not from men like those seated around him, and certainly not the kind of offer they'd made. Hopkins must have discovered his plans and sold him out, or maybe he was a pawn. That was the question. Who had betrayed him? To find out, he would endure sitting through this boring charade, because once he found the man, he would destroy him . . .
Slightly bored, he glanced around the beautiful, elegant restaurant. A couple came through the door, catching his eye. For a moment time actually stood still, every muscle in his body paralyzed so that he was completely motionless. His heart seemed to stop beating. His breath stilled in his lungs until he couldn't breathe.
Emma. His Emma. For two long years, he'd
waited patiently for her to come alive. And now she had, but for another man. Not for him. Emma dressed up for another man; not for him. Emma smiling up at a perfect stranger and draping her sweater over the back of her chair. There was no possible way to concentrate on what was being said at his all-important meeting, so Jake didn't bother to try. Who gave a damn about a few million dollars and a traitor when his life had just gone up in flames?
Emma looked beautiful. When he wrapped his hands around her throat, he'd be sure to tell her that. He'd come to catch a traitor, and the biggest one of all was the person he'd come to trust above all others.
He was going to fire every damn bodyguard he had working for him. How dared they allow her off the ranch without a guard? Who was the son of a bitch who was trespassing on his territory anyway? Jake recognized the bastard as the man who'd come to his ranch and worked on the phones. He'd probably seduced Emma in Jake's own office. The image of her on his desk--naked--rose up to taunt him, and he felt the shift inside, the leopard snarling and fighting for supremacy. For one terrible moment he wanted to give the leopard freedom, wanted him to feel his enemy's throat torn and bleeding beneath the crush of his jaws.
He rose, a fluid rippling of muscles, causing a sudden hush among his business associates. Without a word of explanation, he stalked across the room, carelessly loosening his tie, his eyes glittering gold, fixed on his prey. Emma glanced up, and her velvet eyes widened in surprise. Jake couldn't detect the littlest bit of guilt. His fingers itched to punish her. Instead, he toed a chair around and very deliberately wedged it between theirs.
With casual ease he bent his dark head to her silky red one to brush a lingering and very possessive kiss on her shocked mouth. He made certain he used tongue, lots of tongue, one hand anchoring in her hair, forcing her head up so he could take his time making his statement. A blatant brand of ownership.
Color rose in Emma's face and her eyes went emerald green, but she had sense enough not to pull away from him or fight. He let her feel the edge of his teeth on her soft lower lip before dropping into the chair, his mouth smiling, his amber eyes diamond hard. He extended his hand to the man. "Jake Bannaconni. I don't believe we've met." He remembered everyone, but he wasn't about to let a rival believe himself memorable.
"Greg Patterson." The man was totally flabbergasted, his face pale beneath his tan. "We met the other day in your office."
Jake leaned back, stretched his arm casually around Emma's chair. His fingers found the nape of her neck, began a slow, intimate massage. "So who's at home with the kids, baby?" He spoke to Emma but his eyes were measuring the width of Greg Patterson's hands against the marks on her skin.
"Susan." Involuntarily, Emma placed her hand over the smudges on her arm. Damn, the man saw everything. And his fingers were inducing a spreading heat in her body, one that she couldn't possibly ignore.
"You think she's old enough to handle them?" There was a soft intimacy in his voice, one that excluded all others and wrapped them together.
"She's sixteen, Jake," Emma reminded.
Jake rubbed his knuckles along her jaw before turning his attention to Greg. "Where'd you two go tonight?" Jake's voice was perfectly pitched, friendly, interested, filled with urban sophistication. The golden eyes were merciless, slashing, a cold, bleak, brilliant challenge as they settled in an unblinking stare on Patterson's face.
Patterson squirmed uncomfortably. "The movies."
Jake threaded his fingers through Emma's, brought her palm to the warmth of his mouth, his eyes meeting hers. "Did you enjoy it, honey? You know you never should have left the ranch unescorted." With absolute deliberation he bit down into the center of the palm. His eyes dared her to make a scene. She gasped, but he refused to relinquish her hand when she tugged. Instead, his tongue swirled over the bite, soothing the sting.
Retaining possession of her hand, he tucked their laced fingers comfortably, intimately, under his chin, and turned his attention back to Patterson. "It isn't safe for Emma to be out without a bodyguard. I have enemies and they know they can get to me through her."
He rubbed her knuckles along his blue-shadowed jaw, back and forth, a lazy, sexy movement. Every now and then, he brought her hand to the warmth of his mouth to nibble almost seductively at her fingertips.
"Of course, I'd kill anyone who tried to take her away from me." He made the statement matter-of-factly in a low, velvet-soft voice, looking Patterson directly in the eye, meaning every word.
Greg paled visibly and a shiver of apprehension went down Emma's spine. Her gaze jumped to Jake's face. He smiled at her but his eyes glittered with promise until she looked down.
"Don't worry," Emma murmured. "We weren't exactly alone." She could barely stammer the words out.
Jake was doing all kinds of things to her body with his absentminded ministrations. Although he was acting so seductive and loving, she knew he was angry with her. Jake was at his most dangerous, acting possessive and skimming far too close to the edge of his control. She'd never been on the receiving end of his anger. Her pulse had sky-rocketed and every nerve ending sizzled with heat. A little desperately, she tried to pull her hand away, but Jake didn't seem to notice. If anything he tightened his hold. Her heart began to beat faster.
"We weren't?" Greg sat up straight, aware he was in deadly peril. No one could call Bannaconni subtle, and he had the kind of power that could make men disappear.
"Drake and Joshua were seated two rows behind us. Joshua really enjoyed the film. That was him laughing his head off," she explained to Greg, trying to ignore the way Jake's fingers bit into her wrist.
"Emma's very precious to me," Jake murmured, nuzzling her hand again. "It's nice to know I don't have to commit murder tonight."
Emma closed her eyes briefly. He was so angry. Had she deliberately set out to make him that way? She had a sinking feeling she might have.
Patterson cleared his throat. "Were you considering murder?" He tried to smile, make it a joke.
The golden eyes slashed at him. "Very seriously considering it." There was nothing humorous in those glittering eyes.
"Jake." Josiah Trent's lawyer, Bernard, stood over them frowning at each one of them. "Is something wrong?"
"Nothing I can't handle." Jake barely glanced up.
"We haven't got this thing settled," Bernard objected.
"As far as I'm concerned we have," Jake answered with deceptive laziness. His arm curled around Emma's shoulders, his hand sliding down, his fingers absently playing with her hair. "I gave you an answer."
"You didn't listen to the proposal."
"We'll take it up again later."
A swift look of annoyance crossed Bernard's face. "This is so important?"
The golden eyes flickered over the lawyer. Jake brought Emma's fingers to his mouth. "More important than anything else, Bernard. Now go away." Deliberately, and quite rudely, he dismissed the lawyer.
Bernard Williams stalked angrily away.
Jake glanced at the gold watch on his wrist. "You finished with your coffee, baby? It's getting late." He stood up, one hand drawing her up with him, clamping her to his side, refusing to give her any other choice, the other hand extending to Greg. "It was a pleasure meeting you. I appreciate your taking Emma to the movies." Carelessly he dropped several bills on the table, paying for the coffee and dessert they hadn't touched. "We can't be out late, Patterson. You never know when a little one is going to have nightmares. Right, honey?"
Emma didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Surely he could see the impression he was giving her date. Talking about the children, who was watching them, for heaven's sake. Kissing her very publicly, practically shoving his tongue down her throat. No wonder people talked about them. Greg already looked as if he might faint. She barely had time to whisper a quick good night before Jake drew her across the room.
"Slow down. Jake, it's a little undignified running after you in high heels. Your step makes three of mine."
"You shouldn't
be wearing the damned things," he snapped, but he did slow a fraction. He glanced down at the top of her silky head, his rough features etched in granite. "You can ride home with me. Joshua will drive the Jeep."
"They probably left," she pointed out logically.
"They damn well better not have."
She put a small, placating hand on his arm. "Are you angry with me?"
"Angry? What the hell would I have to be angry about?" He nodded curtly to several of his business associates. Most of them stared at Emma in open curiosity.
She glanced back to see Greg Patterson standing by their table, looking as if he'd been run over by a truck.
Jake jerked her around when he caught her looking back. "Finding my woman out with another man, dressed the way you are? Why the hell would I be angry about that? I hope you weren't expecting him to kiss you good night." There was an audible snap of Jake's white teeth.
"What is wrong with you?" Emma's temper began to rise. Something alive ran under her skin, creating a wave of heat that itched as it spread through her body. "I'm not your woman."
"Like hell, you're not." His fingers were an iron band around her arm as he dragged her out to the parking lot.
Jake spotted her two bodyguards immediately. They were lounging against their truck, waiting just as he knew they'd be. Jake held out his hand for the keys to the Jeep, and scowled at Emma when she hesitated.
"I'm perfectly capable of driving myself home," she protested.
"Don't," he hissed. "Just give me the fucking keys."
Emma dropped the keys into his hand. Jake tossed them to Joshua. "I heard you enjoyed the movie."
"I don't appreciate you two following me," Emma felt compelled to point out.
"You'd better appreciate it," Jake snarled. "They're the only reason I haven't strangled you." His hands caught her shoulders in a firm grip, gave her a little shake. "You never, ever, leave the ranch without a bodyguard. Not ever. Do you have any idea the kind of danger you put yourself in?"
"I refuse to argue with you over it," Emma said. "It's cold out here. And I'm not riding home with you, Jake. Give me back the keys, Joshua."
"Do you really want to make a scene here in the parking lot, Emma? Because I can throw your ass over my shoulder and toss you in the car, if that's the way you want it. You're going home with me."
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