They nearly kissed… only to have Karl almost cause a car accident out front by turning fast in front of a car to get into the driveway. They paused when they heard the screech of tires, the loud shouting that both recognized as Karl Nash. When they got up, Laurie faster than Mickey, rushing to the window so they could glance outside, they could guess the rest. The car was in the middle of the road, nose pointed in the opposite side of the sidewalk, skid marks visible behind it, and Karl on the ground, in their front lawn, with the bike on top of him.
Both of them could see that he was all right because he was trying to move from under the bike.
Sighing in exasperation, Laurie went out to deal with her brother.
Chapter 10
He cursed the idiot lying on the ground with a bike lying on top of him. Mickey would have followed Laurie out there without thinking, just so he could get a piece of her brother himself, but he managed to stop in time.
Laurie wasn’t thinking about him, in that moment. She was more concerned about going out to clean up the new problem her brother had created. She didn’t even seem to realize she was leaving a near stranger in her house.
Mickey took the opportunity. He had the little idiot to thank for it, and while they were both distracted, he pulled out a few things from his pocket. He went around the room and then ran silently upstairs, placing several listening devices around the house. He would have considered video surveillance if he'd been expressly told to, but he was glad he didn’t have to. Mostly because it needed time to set up even just one camera. Really, he was glad that he didn’t need to.
He made sure to put two inside Karl's junked-up room, sneering at the mess on his way out. He couldn’t understand why Laurie put up with it. But then, he'd never had siblings he felt indebted to, and maybe that was why she did it? She couldn’t possibly be putting up with him because she wanted to.
Frankly, he was more than ready to get rid of him for her, if only she'd ask. Hell, if the spoiled brat hadn't been living with his sister, Mickey would have scooped him up for questioning. The only good thing that came out of this, was that he got to meet Laurie.
Earlier, when the punk had come home, thankfully it had been a short visit because he'd managed to anger his sister enough to have her send him out for a while. It had been hours since, but even though he had needed some way to get in to place the equipment, he just wished the boy had stayed away longer.
Although, the commotion he'd caused had been a big help in more ways than one. Mickey had pretty much forgotten himself, and the real reason why he'd left his house to come over to Laurie's instead of waiting for her. He was lucky that she was showing interest in him, but at the same time, it left him troubled. It left her distracted, but it also gave him chances to manipulate her.
This kind of confliction wasn’t allowed on the job. He had to focus. He and Laurie couldn’t be anything, not while the investigation was still going on, and he wasn’t even sure if there could be a possibility for after. Because however things ended, there were going to be consequences all around, and he couldn’t guess how Laurie would feel then.
He needed to hurry up this job and get it done quickly. It would be the best for Laurie, and maybe, if she didn't mind, he would try to see her after it was done. But because of that fear, of exactly what could happen between now and then, he didn’t want to finish too quickly, because it meant he'd have to leave her sooner.
To put it simply, he was getting way too involved with this woman. It would have been fine if it was just attraction, he could handle that just fine. But to be emotionally compromised… was unacceptable. His own standards would never let him fall to such a low. It could compromise his ethics, his job… even though they'd only just started, he needed to take a step back and focus on what he was supposed to be doing. But how many times had he told himself exactly that already?
Giving his head a hard shake after his internal pep talk, he then went back into the front room to eavesdrop on the less than quiet argument going on, right on the front porch and Laurie had even left the door a little open so he could catch the words clearly.
"I'm just saying I want you to be more careful," Laurie was trying to tell her brother.
But of course, he was being a big baby about it, complaining. Mickey wasn’t there, and even he could tell she was more worried than mad. The kid somehow got lucky, but his recklessness could have left him bleeding or dead on his sister's front lawn. How did the kid not realize this?
"Would you just fucking get over yourself?" he shouted at her. "Dad liked you better because he gave you a house, but that doesn’t mean you get to boss me around!"
Mickey tightened his lips. That was untrue. There was nothing about it in the files. If anything, the general had wasted most of his cash on his useless son. There was no way he would have bought her a house when she'd had to rely entirely on scholarships to get to college at all, and her brother got a trust fund for his college education, that went unused even though he was now twenty-one.
"Uh, that never happened," Laurie said, voice sarcastic and so bitter that Mickey was tempted to feel sorry for her again. "Remember that I bought my house with my half of our inheritance from grandmother. Dad didn’t lift a hand to help me. If anything, you were the favorite for being born a boy. You simply pissed your own half away on drugs and partying."
That answered a few questions. Mickey would have to remember to add that to the next report he sent back. It would only help him in proving Laurie's innocence. Specifically, to answer the question that Mickey's superiors had raised about how a graduate student could own a house.
He knew she had something like a job at her university, he wasn’t sure if it was teacher's assistant or lab technician, he hadn't deemed it necessary at the time unless he was required to check up on her college life. But it didn’t pay nearly enough, and she'd initially bought the house when she was still an undergrad.
Knowing his superiors, it still wouldn’t be enough to absolve her, but it was certainly a step in the right direction. Now, if only her brother would be a cooperative idiot, he would have all he needed to end this before it went too far. Something tightened in his chest at the thought, but he ignored it.
The case needed to be over. For Laurie's sake.
He repeated the words to himself a few times.
Mickey edged a little closer to the slight opening of the door so he could peek outside. The two of them were so absorbed in each other that they didn’t realize they were being watched from someone so close by. He noted how Karl was pretty obviously high on some stimulant, as well as pot, stuff he must have gotten from his friend. No wonder he'd been unstable enough to nearly get himself killed. Also, Mickey could tell the drugs were getting to his head and making him a little more confrontational, aggressive. It gave Mickey a bad feeling.
A second later, it came to fruition.
Karl actually wound up to hit Laurie. Only to have Mickey burst through the door and grab him by the wrist before he could stop himself.
Because the brat was a little high, he just looked up at Mickey, looking dazed and confused, his mind not working on all cylinders so he just stood there dumbly.
Mickey didn’t dare look in Laurie's direction, though. He was a little scared to.
Chapter 11
Laurie was shocked by Mickey coming to her defense.
'Shocked' might actually be a huge understatement. Laurie was pretty much used to defending herself. It was just her, her dad and brother at home once they didn’t need nannies. She couldn’t exactly stand up to her father, the farthest she'd ever gone besides a little fudging of the rules was leaving the house and not going back. Not that he'd put up much of a fuss. She'd never expected her brother to defend her, either—though she'd never expected him to be someone she needed to be defended from.
She'd dated before, briefly, but she doubted any of the men she'd been with before would have tried something like this. It probably helped that Mickey was a little bigger
than her brother. And even with his temper, her brother was slight. Considering Mickey was a professional bodyguard, he was probably used to standing between people and danger. She flushed a little, remembering the proposition he'd told her mere moments ago. He might have been kidding, but seeing him in action, Laurie was seriously tempted.
A sound from her brother made her turn her eyes over to him. It was something between surprise and outrage, and Laurie was suddenly worried. He must have been surprised that someone stopped him, as surprised as she must have been that her little brother would raise a hand to her at all, but he was recovering now.
"Hey, Laurie. Who the fuck is your new boyfriend and why is he such a douche?" he demanded to know.
Laurie glanced at Mickey's face and instinctively knew it had been the wrong thing for Karl to say. She wracked her mind, wondering what she could do to diffuse the situation before they started a brawl. She could already tell her brother was outmatched in this, even if his obvious high was giving him some serious bravado.
But above all of that, Laurie was angry. She was furious that her brother would dare attempt to hit her after everything she'd done. She'd put up with him and not thrown him out yet, and all she'd been trying to do was show concern. He could have died if the other driver hadn't been so sharp. He was also lucky that the driver wasn’t willing to report the issue to the police. Karl had already been biking on the road without a license, without a helmet on, and high on whatever drugs he'd taken before coming back.
Her brother was way too damn reckless and ungrateful.
"He's our new neighbor," she snapped back at his question, her anger boiling over now that the surprise of his attack, and Mickey stopping him, was fading. "He came over for coffee and now he probably thinks we're both white trash as hell thanks to your behavior.
The words flowed out of her without her really thinking about it. Once they were out, she wished she could call them back, slapping a hand over her mouth and turning wide eyes to Mickey. He'd turned to look at her, too, clear surprise in his eyes. Her face was already flushed from her anger, but she imagined she now resembled a fire truck with how hot her face felt, and she glared back at her brother to avoid meeting Mickey's eyes.
Karl was gaping at her, but meeting her glare had on, he returned it with one of his own.
"Like I give a shit what he thinks?" he scoffed, snatching his arm out of Mickey's hold and taking a couple of steps back, his glare aimed at both of them. "I bet he's the reason why you wanted me out of the house, right? So you could fuck him."
Laurie winced at the language. "Shut up, you stupid brat! I sent you out because I needed to work, he just came over for coffee, and ended up having lunch!"
Mickey was caught in the middle as the two siblings resorted to slinging insults at each other. He was just stunned for a moment, and it held him still, but when Karl moved to get near Laurie again, he held him back with his arm, ignoring when the boy recoiled.
"Don’t you fucking touch me!"
"Then relax," he snapped right back. "Stop shouting like an idiot and get inside. Didn’t you just get hurt?"
He glanced over at Laurie and hesitated. Mickey was working to defuse the situation, wanting to calm Karl down and, if possible, win his trust. But what was he supposed to say to Laurie? He could see her face reacting to his words as she remembered that her brother had just had a close brush with death and she was arguing with him over it, even though he looked like he was fine.
Mickey would have to be extremely careful. He cursed in his head, hating the situation he'd found himself in. He somehow had to get Karl's trust without compromising Laurie's, and the latter was for more than just professional interest.
But he'd let himself get distracted, and Karl was coming at him again, shoving at his shoulder. The kid was unsteady on his feet, from the stimulants and the near accident. He was weak, to begin with, but right then, he was probably at his lowest.
"Look, kid. You nearly got hit by a car. Stop shouting on your front lawn like an idiot. Get inside, take a load off. Sit down and relax, yeah? You're going to be feeling some pain sometime soon. Do you really want to be out here when you do?"
For a moment, he thought he'd overdone it. The kid was just standing there, looking confused, like he wasn’t sure whether to calm down or go on the defensive. But Karl finally chilled out, his body relaxing, though there was still a frown on his face. He glanced over at his sister before looking away with a wince.
"Whatever," he muttered with no heat behind his voice. "I'm taking a couple beers into my room. Don’t bother me."
With that, he turned and walked into the house. There was another wince as he stumbled a little, the pain catching up to him with his anger gone. Even if he was lucky enough to be uninjured, a bike had still fallen on his leg and there was no way he wouldn’t feel anything minutes after it happened. Once he was in the house, there was a short silence. Mickey turned to look at Laurie.
She stood with her arm crossed over her stomach, her other hand held over her mouth. There was a look of horror in her eyes as she watched where her brother had disappeared to.
"Hey, are you okay?"
She startled, wide, wet eyes looking up to meet his like she'd forgotten he was even there.
"Oh, um… yeah. Sorry. Thank you so much for helping me out, I just…"
She looked grateful and somewhat distraught, and Mickey knew he was the cause of it. But if he'd let her cool off by herself, she would probably have come to the same conclusion.
"Hey, come on. None of that," he murmured, stepping closer and raising a hand to rub up and down her arm, trying to be reassuring. He wanted to do more, so much more. Envelop her in his arms and let her draw comfort from him. But it was too soon.
"But really, it… I need to… I wasn’t even thinking about…"
"It's fine. Nothing happened." He wasn’t sure exactly what he could say to calm her down. "Would you like to get out of the house tonight?" he asked impulsively.
Laurie blinked, her hand dropping from her mouth. Then a small smile was on her face. He could tell she wasn’t entirely okay, but at least he got her out of whatever thoughts were making her look so bleak.
"I would love to," she agreed happily.
They parted company not long after, Laurie going into her house looking subdued, but closer to content. He went over to his own place, and she waited until he was at his door, then waved and closed her own door. Mickey returned the wave and then went inside the house.
Mickey immediately got his systems recording everything that went on inside the house. He sat down, got himself comfortable to listen in, picking the perfect place to get some visuals in, even if it was just him at the window with a pair of binoculars. He was just in time to catch something interesting.
Karl called up Randy. Because the equipment was pretty high tech, he could even hear the response over the phone.
"Hey. Are you busy? I wanted to head over there to hang out. I swear, man, I can't deal with my sister at all. A car nearly flattened me and all she can do is nag."
Only, Randy didn’t have the response he must have been expecting, even though the words had Mickey perking up in his seat.
"Have you found the papers you promised me in return for your kilo? I'm gonna need them soon if you're going to keep coming over here asking for more."
There was a short silence, Mickey practically holding his breath so he could catch everything over the slightly scratchy sound. This… could be just what he'd come here for.
Karl didn’t give a straight answer. He hemmed and hawed, looking around his wrecked room.
"Uh, I actually have it hidden in a family safe deposit box," he claimed.
Mickey was pretty sure it was a lie, but this, at least, confirmed a couple of things. The kid had the files, and he hadn't handed them over to anyone yet.
Laurie, oblivious, went on and talked to her friend Kizzy again.
It was soon after their recent chat, and Karl was in th
e house and not that far from her room, but she needed to talk to someone and Mickey had left. She was determined to put Karl out of her mind, though.
"So how did it go?"
"He came over before I could go to his place. It kind of ended badly, but…" she smiled. "I have a hot date with the hunky neighbor this evening."
"Good for you," Kizzy practically crowed. "Look at you, growing up and going on dates! I'm proud of you."
Her friend cheered her on, and even though there was an edge of teasing in there too, she felt a little better.
Chapter 12
Karl, being Karl, somehow managed to trash the room Laurie gave him thoroughly since moving in, and half his stuff wasn’t even unpacked yet.
Laurie had pretty much been cleaning up after him since he stepped foot inside her door. But, because he wanted his privacy, he didn’t like her entering, especially when he wasn’t there. After he'd shouted at her the last time she was in there without him knowing, she hadn't gone back.
Basically, this meant no one had cleaned his room in the two weeks since he'd been living with his older sister.
On the one hand, he was grateful she'd respected him on this one thing. Though she was a little too fond of walking in on him, he could tell she hadn't touched a thing in his room since he asked her not to. But on the other hand, he wasn’t exactly careful with his own stuff and picking up after himself wasn’t a skill he'd learned all that well. He didn’t even consider his room a mess until he wanted to look for something and couldn’t find it.
His room was a mess, and as a result, he had managed to lose the kilo of weed in there, along with the papers he copied from Pentagon files and printed on his dad's printer.
He had to find the stuff, though. He wanted his weed, he'd had to actually work to get it instead of just using his dad's money to acquire some. In a way, he had earned it. But he also needed the papers. He'd told Randy he'd get them ages ago. The only reason he hadn't handed them over yet, was because he'd been wondering if he could get more for them.
Deadly Seduction (Romantic Secret Agents Series Book 2) Page 6