Bodyguards In Bed

by Monroe, Lucy; Denton, Jamie; Naughton, Elisabeth

  The guy on the ground scrambled to his feet, hollered in Spanish, then surged forward, slamming into Finn, taking them both to the ground hard. Finn’s gun flew from his fingers. The two reached for the weapon at the same time, wrestling for control.

  Lauren cringed as fist met bone. Cracks and grunts resounded. Finn and the terrorist rolled across the roof. Finn landed on his back. From above, the guy slammed his fist into Finn’s jaw. Finn’s head smacked back against the roof. The man shouted in Spanish again, his arm sweeping out, searching for his gun. Just as his fingers closed around the grip, Finn threw a right hook that landed square in the other man’s nose. A loud crack resounded. Blood spurted in every direction.

  “Mi nariz!” the man shrieked.

  Finn wriggled out from under the man’s weight, kicked him in the ribs. “Yer damn nose is the least of your problems, asshole.”

  Across the roof, the second man, dazed and bleeding, found his balance. The gun in his hand glinted in the moonlight.

  Panic nearly stole Lauren’s breath. Indecision froze her mind. Words clogged in her throat. “Gun! Turn! Tierney . . . oh, shit!”

  Finn looked up and saw the threat. In a blur, he jerked the other terrorist against his body, wrapping his arm around the man’s throat. His right hand closed over the man’s gun hand. He lifted and fired. Gunshots echoed and sparks lit up the darkness.

  A scream caught in Lauren’s throat. Before she could make a sound, the man on the other side of the roof dropped to his knees. The gun fell from his hand. Finn let go of the limp terrorist in his arms, blood seeping from the wound in his chest, and stepped over the body at his feet.

  Too stunned to believe what she’d just witnessed, Lauren stared at the carnage. Footsteps echoed somewhere close. She looked up and into Finn’s tight face, mired in blood and dirt and fresh bruises. “What the hell are you waiting for? Get off this fucking roof! There’ll be more coming.”

  His voice shocked her back to reality. She didn’t argue, didn’t question. She picked her way down the ladder on her bare feet, her sweaty hands slipping on the rungs while her heart raced. When she reached out with her foot and felt nothing but air, her gaze shot down. The ladder had ended and she was still eight feet above the ground.

  Oh, shit. “Tierney!”

  From three feet above, Finn stopped climbing, glanced down. “Shit. Can’t one damn thing go right tonight?”

  She knew he saw exactly what she did. No bushes, no trees, nothing but hard, packed dirt that ran all along the back of the building. “You’ll have to jump.”

  “I’ll break my leg!”

  “It’s either that or get shot. Hurryup, Slim. It’s not gonna take them long to figure out the two yahoos they sent up to the roof are dead.”

  Images of what she’d witnessed in the club assailed her, followed by the leader shouting her name and what Finn had just done on that roof.

  She took a deep breath, eased down as far as she could. On a gasp, her legs sailed free, swinging from side to side. She yelped, but Finn was right there above her, urging her on in a voice that was oddly gentle compared to the fury he’d just unleashed. “This is a piece of cake. You got it. That’s it, Slim. Okay, now, just drop.”

  Her pulse roared in her ears. Just drop? He made it sound so easy. She hated heights, always had. With one quick prayer she let go of the ladder and was airborne for only a split second before her feet slammed into the hard earth, jarring her legs. Her knees buckled, went out from under her. She landed with a crack on her ass. Pain spiraled up her spine.

  “You okay?” he called.

  She winced, wiped the dirt off her hands. “Great. Never better. I’m—”

  He was at her side in a flash, pulling up on her arm. “We have to keep moving.”

  “Hold on a minute, would you? I—”

  Voices echoed on the roof. Instead of heading around the side of the building toward where her driver was parked, Finn dragged her up the hillside and into the dark trees and thick underbrush.

  “Wait,” she said. “We—”

  “We’re not taking any chances.” He didn’t slow even a second to let her breathe. Vines and twigs scraped at her arms and legs. “This hill drops over into a residential area.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I pay attention.”

  She pulled on his arm, stopping him, dirt and twigs and things she couldn’t see digging into the soles of her feet. “I’m not wearing any shoes!”

  He stopped, glanced down at her bare feet, then swore just before grabbing her around the waist and tossing her over his shoulder.

  “Tierney!”

  “Keep it down, Slim. We’ll move faster this way.”

  “But the car—”

  “Is either not there or filled with people I’m pretty sure you don’t want to meet up close and personal. Now stop wiggling.”

  She didn’t like this situation—not with her ass sticking straight up in the air, barely covered by the miniskirt she’d worn tonight—but he was right. They did move faster. Before she knew it they were at the top of the hill, thick with palms and deciduous trees she couldn’t name, and he was already traversing the other side. Far below she could see the lights of Acapulco Bay. When she pushed her hands against his back and eased up to look in front of them, she saw the dark hillside indeed dropped into what looked like a heavily treed residential area.

  He put distance between them and the club faster than seemed possible. He was a man who didn’t notice he should need a machete to get through this damn forest. Lauren couldn’t tell if anyone was following them. All she could hear was Finn’s heavy breathing, the scrape of vines and tree limbs against skin and clothing, and her racing pulse.

  He dropped her to her feet in the shadows of several large palms. Soft dirt squished between her toes, moonlight filtered from the sky. Across an expanse of grass, a dark shape that looked like a Mediterranean-style house sat silent in the warm nigh.

  “What are we—?”

  “There,” he whispered, pointing past the end of the house. “Yeah, that’ll work.”

  She didn’t have a clue to what he’d spotted. Couldn’t see anything more than large, looming shapes. And the way he kept cutting her off before she could finish a thought was really grating on her nerves.

  His hand wrapped around hers and he pulled her into the yard. They made it halfway across the grass when voices echoed from the trees where they’d just been.

  “Shit,” Finn muttered. “Hustle.”

  He pulled hard on her arm. Her heart rate kicked up again. Seconds later, he tugged her to a stop on the other side of the garage next to what she now realized was an old rusted-out Jeep.

  He tried the door. It swung open. With a muttered “yes,” he dropped into the seat, leaned down and reached under the steering column, pulling out a handful of wires from under the dashboard.

  “Oh, my God,” Lauren whispered, his intent registering. “You’re going to steal this thing, aren’t you?”

  Finn didn’t answer. Instead, he used his fingernails to strip the wires, tapped them together until a spark lit up the darkness and the engine roared to life.

  A ruckus of noise echoed near the edge of the trees. Lights flipped on in the house and a dog barked. Finn bolted out of the front seat, pushed her into the vehicle and hopped back in, forcing her to slide across to the passenger side.

  Shouts and voices erupted from everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. Finn shoved the car into reverse, backed out of the drive and tore down the gravel road.

  “Holy crap.” Lauren braced her hand against the dash. “We just committed grand theft auto.” Her gaze swung his way. “You just stole a car!”

  “That’s what you’re worried about?”

  “That’s a major felony! I’ve never committed a crime in my life! I don’t even talk on my cell phone when I’m driving !”

  “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he mumbled, glancing in the rearview mirror, his fea
tures tense and focused in the light from the dashboard. He made a quick turn, then another, which jolted Lauren in her seat. “We didn’t steal it, Slim, we borrowed it. And in case you weren’t paying attention, it was either that or get chummy with your friends back there in the club.”

  “I don’t know them! I don’t know what the hell is going on or what they want from me!” The scene in the club flashed in front of her eyes, and her stomach rolled when she remembered Javier lying motionless on the dance floor. Her hand darted to her stomach. “Oh, God.”

  Finn glanced her way, made another turn. “Stay with me here.”

  She was trying. God knew she was trying, but . . .

  Finn shifted, pulled the fancy satellite phone that his boss made them all carry from his pants pocket and flipped it open. He pushed a button, shoved the phone to his ear and muttered, “Come on, Hedley. Pick up.”

  Dark houses, trees, shapes and lights Lauren could barely focus on whizzed by her window. Javier. They’d killed Javier. Right there in the club. He hadn’t done a single thing to them. All he’d done was shout—

  “Mick,” Finn said in a frantic voice from across the car. “We had an incident. No, wait. What?”

  The alarm in Finn’s voice brought Lauren’s atention around. She gripped the door with one hand, the dashboard with the other, trying like hell to keep the contents of her stomach from lurching up her throat.

  “Fuck,” Finn muttered after listening for a second. “No, shit, we can’t. How the hell—”

  Lauren didn’t like the sound of this. The hair on her neck stood up.

  “Mick, no, listen—”

  A loud pop echoed from Finn’s phone. He yanked it away from his ear, stared at the cell in his hand and pressed it back to his ear with more urgency. “Hedley? Hedley!” Another series of popping sounds echoed across the line before it went silent.

  “Fuck,” Finn yelled, slamming the phone against the steering wheel. “Fuck!”

  Lauren’s anxiety went through the roof. “What happened?”

  His jaw clenched with controlled fury. He glanced in the rearview again and made a sharp turn. “We gotta get off this damn road.”

  He wasn’t answering her. That was an even worse sign. Fear mixed with the anxiety to send heat prickling her skin. “Tierney, what the hell happened?”

  “I don’t know. Hedley told me not to come back to the hotel. Said the cops were there, looking for you.”

  “For me?” Lauren’s brows drew together. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. Before I could ask him . . .”

  “Before you could ask him, what?”

  Finn’s jaw clenched like he didn’t want to answer. “Someone fired.”

  Lauren’s heart lurched into her throat. The popping sound had been gunfire. “Oh, God.” She sat back in her seat, breathing slowly as she tried to make sense of everything in her head. Javier was dead. Mick was probably dead as well. Her staff . . . Oh, God, Moira. Her stomach churned again. All those people in the club . . .

  Dear God, what the hell is going on?

  “I don’t know,” Finn said, taking twists and turns in a road Lauren barely saw. She didn’t even realize she’d voiced her question out loud until he added, “But I’m going to find out.”

  His intense gaze shot her way. In the dim light from the dash, she saw worry, anxiety and a whole lot of pissed off. “What the hell are you wrapped up in? You’d better spill the damn truth right now or I swear—”

  Her eyes flew wide. “Me? You think I did this?”

  “They were looking for you. They called yer damn name back there!”

  Anger replaced the fear and guilt. “I’ve never seen those men in my life. I don’t have a clue what they want with me! And who the hell are you to say I’m wrapped up in anything ? You’ve been with me all week. Do I look like someone who would have anything to do with a group of terrorists?”

  His mouth slammed shut. He glanced from her to the road and back again. She could practically see the wheels turning in his head, replaying everything that had happened. While she was pissed he’d immediately suspected her, part of her couldn’t blame him. His partner was either injured or dead, and everything did seem to be pointing her way.

  She closed her eyes, the guilt rushing back in over everyone who’d been hurt or killed tonight because of her. “I don’t know what they want with me,” she said softer. “I don’t . . .”

  Words caught in her throat.

  Her eyes flicked open. “I am being honest, Tierney. I’m as clueless as you are right now and this whole thing is pissing me off.”

  “That makes two of us,” he mumbled.

  He made another turn, and his gaze shot to her again. In the dim light she saw his dark eyes had softened considerably. “I’m going to keep you safe. Whatever’s happening . . . I’ll get you out of it. You trust me, don’t you?”

  Lauren swallowed hard, felt a wave of emotion she couldn’t define sweep over her. Finn Tierney was a man who made things happen. Regardless of what had or hadn’t gone on between them, she knew he meant every word he said. The key was getting her to believe them as well.

  In the darkness of a night that had turned into a nightmare, she couldn’t bring herself to answer. The best she could do was nod.

  CHAPTER 4

  They ditched the Jeep in an empty lot miles from where they’d started. When Lauren threw another fit about the stolen car, Finn dug around in the glove box until he found some kind of registration, jotted down the name and address of the unsuspecting owners and promised they’d make it worth their loss when this was over. That seemed to appease Lauren for a few minutes, until he told her they needed to hoof it a mile or so till they could find another means of transportation.

  Standing beside the rusted Jeep, Lauren’s eyes blazed as hot as the ruby-red pendant dangling from a chain around her neck. A pendant he didn’t remember seeing before. “I’m not wearing any shoes, in case you didn’t notice.”

  He glanced at her bare feet, surrounded by rocks and dirt. “What did you do with yer damn shoes?”

  He was pretty sure she’d had them on when they’d been in that stairwell. Vaguely remembered the sound of her heels clicking against the concrete floor. Then had a visual flash of her in that stairwell wearing those fuck-me heels on her slim little feet and her bare thigh wrapped around his hip.

  A rush of heat slammed into him out of nowhere, lighting up his groin and pissing him off all at the same time.

  “I threw them at that idiot on the roof when he came after you with that gun.”

  His mind raced back to the scene. He’d heard her scream his name when all hell had broken loose, had wanted to smack her for coming back up the ladder when he’d told her to go down. He realized now she’d pretty much saved his skin. A little of his anger eased. “Did you really think throwing yer shoe was going to do any good?”

  “It gave you the chance you needed, didn’t it?”

  “Maybe.” He couldn’t stop wondering when she was going to freak out and lose it over the way he’d killed those two men. “But I’d have been just fine without yer help. And at least then you’d still have shoes.”

  “You son of a bitch. That’s the thanks I get for saving your life?”

  Pissed, he told himself, was better than a melted puddle. Safer still than turned on like she’d been in that hallway. He was still awed by the way she’d rallied when he’d turned on her in the car. He’d had terrorists crack under the weight of his stare more easily than Lauren had under his interrogation. The woman was tougher than he’d given heit over thedit for being. But she was still a woman, and they were all the same.

  His gaze swept her moonlit body. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair a wild tangle, her eyes as intense as he’d ever seen. Right now she looked sexier than any photo, hotter than she had in that skimpy bikini on the beach. And staring at her in the middle of the vacant lot, he realized, hell, yeah, he wanted to thank her. Thank her with his mouth and hands
and body and finish what they’d started in that damn stairwell.

  He took a deep breath, glanced around the empty lot, tried to shove the memory of her riding his hand to a blistering climax out of his mind for good. “We need to get going.”

  “I can’t walk without—”

  He swooped her up in his arms. She pressed a hand against his chest, glared at him again, but didn’t fight his hold. He ignored the feel of her silky skin against his arms, the heat from her body infusing his own. But when her lips turned down in a sexy little pout, it was all he could do not to kiss it from her face.

  “Do you even know how much those shoes cost?” she asked. “They were my favorite pair.”

  He cut across the lot, headed for the little fishing village nearby. “You can buy another pair when you get home.”

  They needed to regroup. He needed to call Jake and figure out what the hell was going on, and Lauren needed to rest. Okay, so she hadn’t yet cracked, but she would. All women did sooner or later.

  “Not those shoes,” she said, softly. “They were ten years old.”

  “They’re just shoes.”

  “Those weren’t just shoes. They had sentimental value. Not something I’d ever expect you to understand.”

  There was enough hurt in her voice to tell him she was serious. Though why someone like her would hang on to a pair of outdated heels when she could buy a new pair any day she wanted was anyone’s guess.

  They moved in silence across the street, staying in the shadows. The sidewalk was cracked and overgrown with weeds. At this hour there was barely a soul around, with most of the businesses shut down for the night. Half a mile ahead, Finn spotted what he hoped was a motel, its flashing neon sign burned out in two places. He headed in that direction.

  He dropped Lauren to her feet outside the door of the two-story structure. “Stay close to me.”

  She didn’t answer, but at least now she was following directions. As he pushed the lobby door open, she stepped in after him and stayed by his side while he headed for the chipped tile counter and rang the bell.