Her cheeks warmed as his gaze roamed over her face. “What is it?” she asked.
“Joel and I can do this without you.” Pax stared at her lips as he said the words. “You can wait in the car or go back at the house. Connor should be there soon.”
Lost in the husky sound of Pax’s voice, she almost missed the comment. “Joel is already back in the office, heading up the comm.”
Pax reached over and rubbed a finger along her chin. “Didn’t take you long to pick up the work lingo.”
“I’d like to take credit but I’m only repeating what Joel said.”
As if on cue, Joel’s deep voice echoed in her head. “And I’m in your ear and can hear everything, so keep it clean you two. Or not. I’m flexible and happy to listen in.”
Her hand went to her ear, and she glanced around to see if anyone else could hear the voice. “That’s an odd sensation.”
Pax shrugged. “You get used to it.”
“That’s not what you normally say.” Joel chuckled as he talked. “I usually hear a lot of swearing and complaining. Then you tell me I should shut the—”
Pax cleared his throat. “Correction, you get used to ignoring Joel. That’s what I meant to say.”
They were one town house away from her building, the same one she’d scraped clean of wallpaper and then painted and loved even as it sucked every cent out of her bank account. Pax’s tempo didn’t change. His shoes tapped against the sidewalk in a steady beat, a weird rhythmic clicking that eased the pounding in her temples.
When she concentrated on the sound, she picked up something else—a slight drag on every other step that matched with a tensing in his jaw.
Her hand pressed against the firm muscles of his back. “How’s the leg?”
The last of his sexy smile fell. “Fine.”
“The stress lines around your mouth suggest otherwise.”
His fingers clenched against her. “Those come from having to answer the question every hour or so.”
Before this morning she might have let the subject go, assume she was out of line and feel guilty for asking. But so much had happened within hours and so little was in her control that she grabbed on to what she could. “Is your curt response supposed to get me to drop the topic?”
“Actually, yes.”
“That’s not going to work.”
“You’re like a female version of Joel.”
“For the record, I’m not sure he means that as a compliment,” Joel said, his voice crisp and clear inside her head.
When they crossed the small open space between her building and the legal firm next door, her steps hesitated, but Pax’s arm against her back propelled her forward. The move didn’t make much sense. “I don’t understand.”
“Keep moving. Look forward or look at me like I’m the best-looking thing you’ve ever seen.”
He kind of was. Not in the pretty-boy way. No, he didn’t possess that scrubbed-clean, out-of-a-prep-school-manual rich-boy look. He was all man—rough around the edges, tall and lean with a swagger that overtook that limp.
He was the guy who protected all and stayed fiercely loyal to the rare few people he let into his life and loved. She barely knew him and she knew all of that was true.
They broke off the conversation until the only sound came from their shoes and a random car horn blocks away. Right as they passed the large front window of her shop, he turned his head and coughed.
They were a full building past hers before he spoke again. “Nothing obvious going on in there, though it’s hard to see through the paper Connor put over the windows.”
The whole scenario struck her as out of context. Her mind immediately went to one word: subterfuge. If Pax was trying to stop the conversation, it worked...temporarily. “Want to tell me how it happened? The leg, I mean.”
He frowned at her. “Now? Really?”
“Yes, really.” When he looked as if he was going to roll his eyes, she aimed for fat but couldn’t find any, so she gave the skin on his back a little pinch.
“Fine.” He winced and the word came out through clenched teeth. “I got shot.”
Only Pax could boil down something so big into three little words. No way was that the whole story. “That’s it?”
“It was a pretty big deal at the time.”
“With a gun?”
His footsteps faltered. “How else does one get shot?”
“You’re serious?”
“Very.” There was no space between her building and the one on this side. He guided her past the window of the tailoring and backed her up against the bricks. His hands went to the wall on each side of her head as he leaned in.
“Well, that getting-shot thing is not comforting at all.” Neither was the thing where she kept swallowing and her breath wheezed out of her as if a tight band constricted her chest.
“I generally manage not to get shot, if that helps.”
This part of their act had her head spinning until she had to hold on to him for balance. Putting her hands against his chest sent a flush of warmth through her entire body. “Strangely, no.”
She was about to say something when a car raced down the narrow street. A boy hung out the back window and whistled as he went past. A round of nasty catcalls followed. The engine continued to rev and the laughter floated all around them. The tires squealed as the driver took the corner too fast at the end of the block.
Even ignoring the annoying horny-boy part of what just happened, she tried to remember a time when she felt that free. She couldn’t come up with an instance.
Pax put a hand under her chin and turned her face back to his. “Look, you’re safe with me.”
“I know that.”
His head snapped back. “Then what’s with the questions?”
“I was more concerned about how much pain you must be in. We probably shouldn’t be out running around until you have a chance to rest.”
“Oh.”
“Interesting response. It probably says something about the women you hang out with.”
His face fell. Every muscle shifted and his expression went blank. “Here we go.”
She’d almost forgotten why they came. If that was his plan, to tie her insides up in a twisty knot and cause her brain to hiccup, then he’d succeeded. “Now?”
The warmth surrounding her dissipated as he inched his way back toward her building, with only his fingertips reaching out to still touch her. This time he hugged the wall and played only in the shadows.
“Looks clear from here,” Joel said, breaking into the relative quiet.
Worse than forgetting to panic, she’d forgotten all about Joel and his front-row seat to the conversation with Pax. The heat hitting her cheeks could probably light the street.
But a stray thought found its way through the embarrassment. “Where exactly do you have cameras that you can see in my shop and house?”
“Don’t worry.” The click of a computer keyboard pounded over Joel’s words. “Nowhere interesting.”
Only a man would see that as a good answer. “Again, you guys need to work on your comfort skills.”
“I’d rather work on speed.” Pax’s fingers laced through hers as he tugged her closer, right to the edge of the building where it turned down the narrow alley next to her building. “Let’s move it.”
“Hold up. Looks like you’ve got one moving in behind the building.” A few minutes ticked by with Joel’s breathing being the only noise on the open line. “He’s leaning against the wall right outside her back door, the one that leads upstairs rather than the one that goes into the shop.”
Pax shifted and his knee buckled but he regained his balance a beat later. “There’s only one guy back there?”
“Is it Sean?” she asked. Her
brother had visited that one time more than six months ago, so he knew where she lived. The position at the “right” back door suggested some level of knowledge about the layout of the building.
“Only if he aged ten years and put on about fifty pounds of muscle,” Joel said.
Pax glanced over his shoulder at her. “Oh, okay. Now I see what you mean about the things we say and the lack-of-comfort thing.”
“Told you.” She rested her forehead in the deep groove between his shoulder blades. The sexy spot, the scent of his skin and heat rolling off his body, refueled her. Gave her strength when she didn’t even know hers was running so low. “Now what?”
Pax gave her one of those shrugs that suggested he thought the answer was obvious. “I take him out.”
“Assume he has a partner.”
Joel’s warning had barely settled in her brain when Pax took off. She held on to his shirt and used it to stop his momentum. “Wait a second.”
He turned around, which snapped her hold. He found her hand and covered it with his as he pressed it against her chest. “Do not move.”
Before she could get out a warning or pull him in close and hold him there, he pivoted and headed down the dark alley in a crouch. His right foot seemed to skim across the ground as he moved without making a sound.
Forget the loose gravel and few cans. He dodged it all and ended with his back flattened against the bricks at the far end, closest to the back service alley.
With the darkening sky she couldn’t see everything, but she thought she spied a gun in his hand. The anxiety pinging around inside her like a pinball gone wild increased until the balls bounced hard against her rib cage.
She shifted her weight, moved forward and then stepped back again. Seeing him peek around the corner and brace his body for attack brought home how real the danger was. Because of her. No, because of Sean and her family and whatever new disaster they’d tripped and fell into now.
Pax stepped in and saved her. Yes, it was his job, but that didn’t mean she didn’t owe him.
He lurched and spun around the corner, out of sight. She heard shouts and grunts and what sounded like shoes scuffing against the ground. It was enough to get her moving.
She took off down the alley, skimming her hands along the close-in walls and ignoring whatever she kept stepping on. Near the end, her ankle overturned and she stumbled, her shoulder smacking against the bricks and scraping her bare skin.
The sound of Joel’s voice finally penetrated her mind. “Stop, Kelsey. Now.”
She ignored the warning, blocked out everything except the screaming in her brain that told her to get to Pax and help however she could. She kicked something hard and heard metal clank. Dropping down, she felt around for whatever she hit, hoping she could use it as a weapon. But the sound of male pounding male had her standing up again.
She slipped around the corner as the noise grew louder. She watched as they rolled across the concrete. The attacker wore all black and had dark hair, but she could see the sweat dripping from his forehead when he wrestled Pax’s back to the ground.
They punched and kicked. The attacker landed a vicious shot to Pax’s stomach that had him coughing even as he swore. The attacker was on top of Pax with hands wrapped around his throat. Pax bucked his body and swiveled his head from side to side, but the other man was choking the air out of him.
Tension swirled around her as she raced over to the trash bin, looking for something—anything—to knock the attacker out. Joel kept shouting but she could make out only the word wait, the one thing she knew she couldn’t afford to do.
She turned back around, helpless and empty-handed, determined to crash into the attacker and at least buy Pax a few seconds of air. What happened after that she had no clue. She started the mental countdown and headed for the confusing pile of arms and legs. Through the thrashing, Pax glared at her. His eyes told her to back away, but this time he was the one who needed protection.
She would not let him down.
Right when she would have kicked out or climbed on the stranger’s back, Pax’s strength seemed to double. He lifted his back off the ground and slammed a fist right into the attacker’s face. The man dropped like dead weight on top of Pax.
The whole thing unspooled in seconds, but she couldn’t take it in. Couldn’t get her feet to move or her breathing to restart. He’d been at the edge of death and now acted as if he’d been toying with the guy the whole time.... Had he?
Joel’s voice broke into the silence. “Someone talk to me.”
Pax pushed and shoved until the other man fell to the side. Sitting up, Pax wiped a hand across his mouth and a red smear stained the back. He shook his head. “He’s down but it was too easy.”
“Sure seemed quick,” Joel said.
What was happening? “Are you both crazy? The guy was choking Pax.”
“You were supposed to stay out front.” With one hand balanced against the ground, Pax pushed up to his feet. His right leg stayed bent as he rolled his shoulders back. “The deal in bringing you along was that you would do what we say.”
“I thought you were in trouble.” Even to her ears she thought her voice rang hollow.
His teeth clamped together as he stepped over the downed body to get to her. “So, you came running?”
“You wanted me to leave?”
His eyes twinkled but not in a flirty way. In a way that flashed fire. “I want you to stay alive.”
“Kids, we still have a problem and a job to do,” Joel said.
Pax fought off a bruiser who outweighed him by more than a few pounds and yet they acted as if they’d lost this battle. She would never understand men. “I hate to ask what that means.”
“We likely have a partner around here somewhere. Hard to imagine there’s only one guy out here ready to cause trouble. Guys like this usually work in pairs.” Pax bent over and searched the attacker’s pockets and came away with a phone but nothing else. Pax whipped a white plastic tie out of his pocket.
“What are you doing?” Her real question had to do with how most people didn’t carry those things around with them.
“Keeping him quiet for a few minutes.” A flip and a turn and Pax had his knee in the attacker’s back and the guy’s hands tied. Pax dragged the guy to the opposite side of the trash Dumpster and stuffed something in the unconscious man’s mouth. “I’m going up.”
She was smart enough to know that qualified as a bad idea. “No, Pax. Not without Joel or someone else here to help.”
“I sense a lack of trust in my abilities.” The scowl had morphed into a determined stare.
She didn’t like either look. Not when they led to him walking straight into danger. “We should get out of here for now.”
“This isn’t a vote.” When Joel exhaled into the comm with enough force to make the line crackle, Pax closed his eyes. They had cleared when he opened them again and walked back to her. “This is my job, Kelsey.”
“And?”
“Let me protect you.”
“I am.”
“Good.” He winked and then got to her back door. He used the key she’d given him and disappeared up the staircase.
She stammered, choking out a few words before finally getting one out. “Does he always move that fast?”
“You should see him without the injury,” Joel said.
“I’m just hoping he doesn’t make the leg worse.” She really wanted Pax to say something in response, but he’d gone silent on the comm. The longer his silence lasted, the more her worry festered.
She bit her lip as she stared at the closed door. More than anything she wanted to break in and run upstairs just to check on him. To hear him talk. To see him.
“He’ll be okay,” Joel said as if reading her mind or seeing the concern on her face.
She didn’t know which one, but she wanted a guarantee of his assurance. Joel started swearing. Not just a word or two. No, this was a whole line that spelled trouble. “We have a new problem.”
“I’d guessed that.” The line filled with three long clicks that had Kelsey tapping the mic in her ear. “What was that?”
“A signal for Pax.” Joel’s breathing grew louder. “Kelsey, you have someone rounding the corner and about to head down the alley in your direction.”
Her heart thundered in her ears until everything sounded stuffy and distorted. The sounds of the small city blended into the background as she fell against the wall and struggled to breathe. “It could be someone who works or lives on the street.”
“I did the facial recognition scan and it turned up negative.”
She shook her head, trying to block out the fear that was slowly swamping every inch of her body. “You can do that from your desk miles away?”
“Kelsey, I want you to go inside,” Joel said.
“And?”
“I’m on the way down.” Pax’s low voice finally rumbled into the quiet. “Kelsey, move.”
Chapter Eight
Pax stopped halfway up the narrow staircase to Kelsey’s apartment above the coffee shop when he heard Joel’s warning about their new guest. Balancing his hands on the walls that were barely a shoulder width apart, Pax pivoted on his good leg and took the stairs two at a time back to the entry.
As he neared the bottom, the outside door opened and Kelsey slipped inside. With wide eyes and a face paled to a color that almost matched the off-white paint, she stared up at him. She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth and hugged the black T-shirt she’d slipped on before they left the team headquarters.
He would be happy to go a lifetime without seeing that fear on her face again.
Careful not to bang his feet against the steps or make any unnecessary noise, he closed the distance between them, stopping on the step right above her. She didn’t say anything. Didn’t have to. Her frozen facial features and the subtle tremble moving through her and shaking her shoulders said it all.
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