by Sybil Bartel
Chapter Four
Buck was around the front of the car before I had both feet out the door. He wrapped his fingers around my upper arm, scanned the parking lot then propelled us to the main entrance of my nondescript apartment building. I’d chosen this place because all the apartments funneled into interior hallways then you had to go through a locked door to get in. I thought I was adding a level of security but I was probably only jeopardizing the students who lived around me. And now I’d knowingly dragged Buck into my fucked-up mess.
We hit the main entrance just as a guy came out. Buck caught the door with his hand still around my arm. He stepped forward but I dug in my heels.
“Uh-uh, not happening.” I had to put a stop to this.
Buck glanced over his shoulder. Irritation was written all over his face but he didn’t say anything.
“Give me my keys. I’ll go up and call you a cab and you can be on your merry way. Thanks for...the alcohol, it’s been great.” I held my hand out.
Buck let go of my arm and slowly turned around. The anger fell away and the calm, impenetrable mask washed back over his features. He took a step forward, his toes almost touching mine, and pierced me with his gaze.
“The alcohol,” he stated.
My whole body went tingly. Not pins and needles tingly, like I might be blessed with a full-body spasm and drop to the ground so I didn’t have to square off with him. No, tingly like someone just tickled your back and the hairs on your neck stood at attention and every nerve in your body screamed more. That kind of tingly.
“Um, yeah, alcohol? Amber colored liquid? Fire water? Piss your pants if you drink too much of it kind of a thing? That alcohol?”
No response. He didn’t even blink.
My heart picked up and told me to run.
Then his lip twitched. “You’re fucking crazy.” And he broke out in a smile. A heart-stopping, bone-melting, swoon-worthy, fall head-over-heels, glorious, beautiful, Buck-sized smile.
“Shit,” I whispered just as my knees gave out.
Buck scooped me up before I hit the ground, his smile disappearing as quick as it had appeared. Holding me as if I weighed nothing, he strode into my building. “What number?” he asked calmly, as if he wasn’t carrying a pathetic lust-struck puppy.
“Two-A,” I panted.
Buck walked to the elevator, hit the call button then looked down at me. “If I’d known it was that easy, I would’ve smiled two hours ago.” The corner of his mouth tipped up and he winked.
“Bastard,” I breathed out. “Don’t flatter yourself. And put me down.” Please, please, please don’t put me down.
“No way, I’m not chasing you on an empty stomach.”
“Wimp,” I muttered.
Buck threw his head back and laughed as he stepped into the elevator. The deep bass of his laughter, rich and warm, was almost as stupefying as his smile. I couldn’t help myself—I broke out in a smile and rested my head against his chest. For the first time in three years, my life didn’t suck out loud. And that was dangerous territory.
I was glad and mad when Buck put me down to open my apartment. Since I’d been gone longer than I anticipated, the place was dark. Knowing Buck wasn’t familiar with the lay of the land, I stepped around him to reach for a light, but only got one foot over the threshold before he roughly pulled me back and pushed me against the wall in the hallway. A finger went to his lips as he put his palm up then made a one with his index finger. Seeing him reach for his gun and instantly switch to Marine mode made fear crawl up my spine. I nodded.
He disappeared into my place.
Anxiety prickled across my skin and my legs began to shake. What if I’d been wrong? What if Buck hadn’t hurt them as bad as he’d thought? Oh Jesus, it was pitch black in there. Shorty could be hiding anywhere. Shit.
I stepped toward the door and the distinctive sound of flesh hitting a solid surface echoed through the silent darkness.
“Buck!” I flew into my apartment, hit the hall light and called out in a panic. “Are you...” The rest of my sentence died on my lips.
Buck was standing in my living room over a facedown Shorty. He was either dead or unconscious. I was trying to decide if I cared which when Buck barked orders at me.
“Back in the hall, now. Lights off, wait till I come get you.”
I turned the light off and high tailed it back to my post in the hall when it hit me. They’d never, never, come inside my home before. Never. The shake started as a little tremor and was quickly a full-blown earthquake. I couldn’t lean on the wall for my shaking. They came inside my home. Inside. My home. All the ugly scenarios passed through my mind in a flash and even my teeth started chattering. Shit. Shit shit shit! I wasn’t safe anywhere. Had Miami ordered this? If he didn’t, and these fucking lackeys had taken it upon themselves to cross a line that’d never been crossed, I was so screwed. Shorty’s disgusting words about knowing me real well played in my head and suddenly, the edges of my vision went dark. My scalp prickled and the air in the hallway closed in on me.
Buck appeared in my narrowed line of vision. “Layna.”
Inside...my apartment.
“Layna.”
No. This couldn’t be happening. No.
My body moved without me. Buck kicked the door shut and I was in his arms. He rubbed his giant hands over my back and down my hair, whispering words I couldn’t hear. Panic roared through me like a freight train and suddenly I couldn’t breathe. Like no air at all, choking, gasping for breath, couldn’t breathe.
That’s when my feet left the ground. Wind whipped past me and my body stumbled a split second before ice cold water blasted me in the face. I swung my arms out and my hands slipped past the tile wall and grasped the shower curtain for purchase. Trying to get out of the arctic spray, I pulled, and the curtain and rod crashed to the ground.
“Shit!” I screamed.
“Breathe.”
“Kinda hard with water in my face!” But my stubborn lungs listened to the overbearing marine, took a few gulping breaths and the panic receded.
The shower shut off and ice blue eyes found mine. “I need you here right now. Can you do that for me?”
“I hate men,” I sputtered, now literally freezing to death.
Buck reached behind him for a towel and gently wrapped me up. “I know, baby, I know,” he placated.
My anger surged to a new level. “Baby! You’re calling me a baby? I am not a baby.” So I panicked, so what? I shoved his hands away and glared at him, not bothering to dry off.
His lip twitched. “No, you’re not. You’re a beautiful mouthy woman who’s having a bad day.” He took the towel and rubbed it over my hair.
I grabbed the towel. “Don’t patronize me.”
“I’m not.” He gently brushed my hair from my face. “I needed you to calm down and focus. I could only think of two ways to do that.” He ran a finger across my bottom lip. “But if I’d kissed you, you probably would’ve kicked me. I still value my ability to procreate at this point in my life, so you got the cold shower.”
My outrage at being put in the shower instantly evaporated. A warm tingling spread from my stomach and I didn’t hear a thing after he said kiss because my insides had turned to mush. I looked up at him and no lie—it was like seeing him for the first time. Except I wasn’t looking at a fearless, war-hardened marine. I was looking at a man. A man who looked dangerously close to kissing me.
“Don’t give me doe eyes.” He chucked a knuckle under my chin. “We’ve got work to do and precious little time to do it before the asshole in your living room wakes up.”
Okay. Yep. Marine back. Focus. Breathe in, breath out. I got this. Bad guys. Living room. Not good. “Where’s the tall one?” I asked, but I couldn’t look away from his lips. I was swooning. I never gave the word much thought, but right now? I was definitely swooning after this giant, muscle-y, take-no-prisoners, drop-dead gorgeous, do-as-I-say marine.
“Not here.” Still hold
ing my chin, his hand spread out and wrapped around the back of my neck. “Layna—” But then he stopped, his expression completely unreadable.
Heat rippled down my body in waves. “Yeah?” I might’ve been holding my breath.
“You’re going to have to decide how you want to handle this.”
Sure. “Okay.” Whatever you say. As long as I got to stare at his eyes. And his arms. And his lips, definitely the lips. I was in a daze. A great big Buck daze.
“But understand this. I’m in, no matter what. I’m not leaving you on your own.”
That did it. Swoon out, shock in. A quick reel played. His hand crushing Shorty’s throat, his hands around my wrists at the bar, his movie-star smile, the cold shower, his finger brushing across my lip. It all boiled down to his words. And they were more sobering than any cold shower. For one stupid, idiotic moment, I wanted to believe them. Every single one. But I couldn’t. That would be emotional suicide. So, instead, I asked the hard question. “Why?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Because I want to.”
“Simple as that?”
A fierce storm passed across his face, melting the ice in his eyes into a pool of fire. His rough hand cradled my face and his voice dropped to a sexy whisper. “Simple as that.”
The tremor started in my chest and radiated out. “You’re lying.” He had to be.
“I don’t lie, Ms. Dellis.”
My stomach clenched and I recoiled. “Don’t call me that,” I whispered.
Gently brushing my cheek, his eyes burning with a determination I didn’t understand, Buck moved in close and surrounded me with his body heat. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. I promise.”
“You can’t make me that promise.” No one could.
“I just did.”
“Buck—”
He stopped me. “Trust me and I won’t mention your real name again.”
The feel of his hands gently holding me, the strength of his presence, I fought to keep my resolve. “This isn’t about trust. I get that you can handle yourself, that’s not what I’m saying. You don’t even know me. You don’t know what you’re getting involved in.” I couldn’t let him do this.
“I know what happened to your parents. I know what I see in front of me. A marine doesn’t walk away from that. I’m going to help you.”
The offer he was making, if even for a day—an hour—it was pure unadulterated relief. I knew I should push him away but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. “Because you want to?” I asked, repeating his pretty words.
“Because I want to.” And he kissed me.
One hot, breathless, burning touch of his lips to mine and I was sunk. Every cell in my body screamed for more and it took everything I had not to grab him and pull him back to me.
His forehead touched mine and he inhaled like he was trying to focus. “You have to make a decision, Layna. Either he goes or we do.”
“What?” Would he kiss me again?
Buck abruptly stood to his full height and an expressionless mask slid over his features. “The asshole in the living room. I either get rid of him or we leave. What do you want to do? If we stay, you said more will show up. If we leave, they’ll probably follow. I don’t know exactly what I’m dealing with and that makes it harder for me to stay and fight, but I can make you disappear, at least for a while. It’s up to you. I’ll stay just as easily as I’ll take you away from here.”
“Then what?” I’d be on my own again but with a really pissed off Miami.
“Then we take it from there.”
“And when you have to go back to active duty?” I’m shit out of luck.
“I have friends that’ll watch over you.”
“So you’re just blindly signing up for a life of servitude and bringing your friends down with you?” He was insane.
His eyebrows raised up once and his glorious smile spread across his face. “Crazy, huh?”
“Certifiable.” I couldn’t help it, I smiled. And for a split second, I saw tenderness in his eyes before they turned serious again.
“So what will it be?”
I didn’t have to think about it. “Leave.”
Buck inhaled sharply and if I didn’t know better, I’d say he looked relieved. I was ashamed to admit it, but it felt liberating putting the burning torch in someone else’s hands.
“Alright, first, you’re taking nothing. You can get some new clothes along the way. When we’re back on the road you can freeze your bank account and any credit cards you have. You’ll leave the cell phone here and we’re going to stage a kidnapping. Have you been approached by anyone other than Miami’s men?”
Despite my personal mantra of no attachments, I inwardly cringed at leaving everything. Not that I kept anything important here, the few things of value I had were in a safe deposit box in Fort Lauderdale, but still. When I’d left Miami, this apartment represented my attempt at a new life. And when I actually thought about that, I wanted to laugh. What a total shit, crap, suck out loud, pathetic excuse for a life. Some representation.
“Layna?”
“Yeah?” I could leave it all. What Buck was offering? It was priceless.
“We’re out of time. Does Miami have any competition that’s ever approached you over the years?”
Right, competition. “No, why?”
“I was hoping for a possible motive for someone kidnapping you.” Buck was looking at me but he wasn’t.
“Why?” What would that do?
“If Miami thinks there’s someone else after you, or someone else takes you, I’m hoping it will force him out of hiding. I can handle his rookies. I figure if I go through enough of them, he might come at me himself.”
Huh. “You think that will work?”
“You have a better idea?”
“Yeah, run away, have plastic surgery, shave my head and join a convent—in Italy.”
Buck cocked his head to the side like he was trying to hold back a smile. “I like your hair too much to let you do that.” He fingered a stray strand. “I need a motive.”
Except, it didn’t sound like he meant motive motive. I sighed. “That’s easy.” Real easy.
“Because?”
“There was a state attorney after my parents got killed. I never told anyone, never admitted I was on the phone with my dad when they came into his office and...” I couldn’t say it. I cleared my throat. “Anyway, I’d been using one of the pay-as-you-go phones my dad had given me because he’d always been paranoid. I’d called from school and was on the phone—you know—when it happened. I um, heard everything.” Normally, thinking about that day made me fall apart at the seams. I’d fight the panic until I couldn’t take it anymore then the tears would come. But right now, being next to Buck’s larger-than-life presence, I almost felt like I was retelling a scene in a movie.
I rushed to finish before the false sense of calm left. “When it was over, Miami picked up the phone and threatened me. It was the first time I’d heard his voice.” I’d never figured out how Miami knew who he was talking to. I hadn’t said a word but he’d immediately said my name. I shook myself at the memory and continued. “The cops were never able to trace the phone call to me. I tossed the phone in a dumpster before anyone was the wiser. When the school’s head mistress came for me later, I had to pretend I didn’t know anything. I knew my life was over.
“Fast forward a few months and the state attorney figured it out. I was sitting in a coffee shop, away from the front windows, when he came in through the back exit and sat down next to me. It was almost as if he’d known I was being followed and picked the perfect time to get me alone. He flashed an ID, said he knew who killed my parents and that I was on the phone with them when it happened. How, I didn’t know and I didn’t care. I was panicked that Miami’s men would see me with him. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. He put a recorder on the table and said all I had to do was listen to some voices. He said he would protect me. I knew it was bullshit
. Even he was sneaking around Miami’s men. I asked him why he needed me if he already knew who did it, but he only said the state attorney’s office had to follow the parameters of the law.”
A muffled groan sounded from the living room.
Buck took off faster than I could blink. I scrambled around the corner but was too late to see anything except Buck holding a limp Shorty by the scruff of his shirt before he unceremoniously dropped him. An ominous thump echoed through the apartment when he hit the carpet.
Remind me not to get on Buck’s bad side. “What’s that? The Vulcan nerve pinch?”
“Force in readiness,” he said instantly, as if the words had been drilled into him. He spared me a glance. “You’re too young to reference Star Trek, and I hit him, much more effective. We’ve only got a minute so let’s wrap this up.”
His calm demeanor was a trifle concerning—and because I clearly had issues, a lot hot. “Okay.” I spared Shorty a glance. Besides, who was I to stop Buck?
“Go get dry clothes on. You have thirty seconds.”
I ran to my bedroom and threw on jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. It took all of twenty seconds before I was back in the living room. “We good?”
“Almost.”
Then he went to work.
The next few minutes were like a hurricane, a Buck-sized hurricane. If this was a harbinger of things to come, I’d seriously underestimated Buck. He systematically went through the apartment, tossing the place. Nothing was left untouched, even a stupid picture hanging on the wall got a little shove. When he was finished, my apartment looked like it’d seen the battle of a lifetime and lost. The only thing left standing was a chair in the middle of the living room, which he’d carefully surrounded with the contents of my purse. As a final touch, Buck took the sash from my bathrobe and fitted it through the rungs of the chair, as if someone had been tied up there.
“You have a passport?” Buck asked as he went to the kitchen and filled a glass with water.
“Um, yeah.” Were we going on a trip? Should it bother me that right about now, I’d probably follow Buck to the ends of the earth without questioning it?