Under Fire

by Scarlett Cole

  “Where are you going to go? If you think someone can look after you better than I can, you can always leave. You’re not my hostage,” he said, stepping back and raising his hands in the universal sign of surrender. “I just don’t want you to think you have to leave. Let me help you.”

  * * *

  If she thought he was letting her go after everything they had been through in the last twenty-four hours, she had another think coming. When he’d said he wouldn’t hold her hostage, he only kind of meant it. If it meant nudging her backward onto the bed that was a foot behind her and keeping her there for a while to persuade her, then he’d do just that. Because being leaned up against her by the truck, being so close to her that he could smell tart green apples that made his mouth water, was almost more than he could handle.

  And it wasn’t just the fact that she smelled so damn good. She was brave as shit in the face of what must have been a terrifying ordeal for her. Admiration didn’t even begin to describe the way he felt about her right now, and the more time he spent with her, the more he wanted to learn about her. His body, unused to being denied, was in full agreement and had been since he’d checked out those sweet breasts of hers the night before.

  All thoughts of his plans, his rules for himself, were evaporating fast.

  Plus, even she couldn’t deny what had just passed between them in his bedroom. Somewhere along the line, she’d found her way under his skin, and he was beyond intrigued, though determined not to rush things. She had enough to deal with without him dirtying the water. What she needed now was for him to behave like the trained operative that he was and help her figure out what the hell was going on in her life. Which required a plan. And action that wasn’t even remotely sexual in nature. The rest could come in time, and for now, he was resolved that the only action his dick was going to get would come from a bottle of baby oil and his hand in the shower.

  “You want me to stay here?” she repeated, and wandered over to a painting on the wall, which she straightened.

  “Yes. I do. The house might be a mess, but the one thing I’ve done since I got home is install security.” A buddy of his had hooked him up with everything from door and window alarms to security lights to CCTV that not only captured what was going on around the perimeter of his home but was also angled toward the stop sign at the end of the road so that anybody coming in and out of the street would be captured. It was all fed live to his laptop and recorded. “I also have a gun safe, fingerprint controlled, that has everything I need to protect us. I sleep with my loaded SIG in the bedside table. You can sleep with one in yours if you want, but only after I’ve taught you to shoot the damn thing.”

  Six shut up and waited for her to finish straightening the pillow she was currently fixated on.

  “I’m sorry for imposing on you like this,” she said, and finally looked at him again.

  How could it be that the world seemed to fall into place when she did? He walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “You aren’t imposing, although you might well get sick of my house before I get sick of you.” He pulled her in for a hug and kissed the top of her head gently, but even though she felt perfect in his arms, he stepped away quickly, keeping it brief and friendly.

  “First thing we need to do is call Meeks back and tell him where we are and that you are safe. I’m sure we are going to need to go in and see him, or at least have him come here and make an official statement. We’ll keep the police informed from here.”

  “So what happens now?” she asked, and flicked her bangs to one side. Damn. It only made it harder to keep his distance when he knew how much the small act cost her.

  “First, roomie, we need to get set up to hunker down. Like go get groceries. And as cute as that dress is on you, you are going to need more than that to stay here for a few days. I’d loan you some shorts and T-shirts but they’d be way too big for you.” A small part of him lamented that he wasn’t going to get to see her in his T-shirt anytime soon, but he knew his chances of keeping his hands off her would diminish if he did.

  “Is there somewhere around here I can get some things, like pajamas and some toiletries?”

  He was seconds away from telling her that she didn’t need anything to sleep in, but he bit his tongue before answering. “Yeah. It may not be the fancy labels you’re used to, but we’ll get you set up. Then we come home, sit down with a pen and a pad of paper and go through all of this piece by piece. See if we can’t make some sense of what happened by ourselves and get the ball rolling on some intel.”

  “Is it safe for us to go outside?” Louisa asked him.

  “It is, because it will take them a while to figure out where you went. The truck is registered to the company, so it won’t lead them back here. And let’s say they are highly connected individuals—even then there’s no way they can trace us using CCTV or anything like that because I took routes I know don’t have them. So at best Eagle Securities will be their starting point, assuming they can even get that far. Then they’ll have to narrow down which of us has the car and then figure out a home address. That’ll keep them busy for a while, so we should go get what we need now and hunker down. Then I’ll contact my guys and will see what we can figure out.”

  Louisa stood silently for a moment and then nodded assertively. “Okay. Is there any reason we shouldn’t call them now? I think I’d feel safer if more people knew what was happening, but the only person I have really is my mom, and I don’t want to scare her. Wait. Shit. You don’t think they’ll use my mom to get to me, do you?”

  The truth was that it had crossed his mind. “Okay, let’s talk as we go because we only have so much time.” Unable to resist, Six took Louisa’s hand and led her out of the house, grabbing his backpack off the hook in the hallway as they went by. It was only a couple of minutes’ walk down the hill to the grocery store, but the fresh air would do them both good. Then they’d get in the truck, and he’d take her over to The Forum mall in Carlsbad for clothes.

  “To answer your other questions,” he said as they crossed the train tracks, “two of my team members know what’s going on. They are the guys who brought over the cleaning stuff this morning. Unfortunately, everybody else is tied up on the job today, reuniting a kid with her mom, otherwise I’d have them involved already. With regards to your mom, you might want to give her a call. What you tell her is entirely up to you. You know her better than I do. Being honest is the best policy, for what it’s worth.”

  “My aunt could go get her, say it’s better while her ankle is still in a cast.”

  “That could work. If you tell her to just take a trip, she’ll think you’re crazy given her ankle, but if you tell her there is something going on, she’ll take more precautions and move faster.”

  Ever vigilant, Six led them through the small lot. A loud noise came from behind them, and he turned quickly, hand on gun, only to realize it was the sound of the dumpster being emptied into a garbage truck. His heart raced, but the response wasn’t as jarring as it had been the evening he’d met Louisa. Why the hell did it happen some of the time and not all?

  A hand on his arm made him jump. Louisa. Shit. “Sorry,” he said, trying to laugh it off with a grin he really didn’t feel. “Occupational hazard.”

  “You don’t have to pretend with me,” she said quietly. “I’ve been faking normal for as long as I can remember.”

  “I can keep you safe. You don’t need to worry about that.” Where the hell had that come from? Because you’re a jumpy mess, you idiot. He really didn’t want to seem incapable in front of her.

  She tilted her head to one side and smiled as she placed her hands on his biceps. “I have no doubt about that,” she said confidently.

  “Good,” he said, ignoring the way his voice sounded like he’d smoked a pack a day for a decade.

  It should have made him feel like a king that she trusted him. Relied on him.

  But it didn’t.

  Because for once, he did
n’t trust himself.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “So you don’t know the exact quantities of all the ingredients, but you know what the ingredients are?” Six asked as they ate her butternut-squash-and-black-bean burritos.

  He’d challenged her about eating bacon for breakfast because he’d been surprised to see it in her fridge, and she’d confessed to the one thing she couldn’t give up which was why she always said she was pretty much vegetarian. So they’d shopped side by side with two different carts containing two different sets of groceries. Uncertain as to how many days she would be staying with Six, she’d bought a week’s worth of food. She could always take it with her when she left if her carnivorous friend didn’t want it. But somehow between getting the groceries, picking up clothing from the mall, and Louisa starting to make dinner, Six had been curious about what was on the menu. And when she’d offered to make enough for the two of them, he’d agreed.

  Louisa put some salsa, spinach, and the filling made of rice, peppers, black beans, squash, and seasonings into her wrap and rolled it up. “That’s right. We have so many different samples on the go, so many different tests, and sometimes I would do part of the preparation and Ivan would do the other. I honestly don’t remember all the ratios.”

  “To play devil’s advocate, though, why would they need you if they have all of the lab notes?”

  It was something Louisa had been considering while shopping. “The sample has been gone for two weeks now. My only thought is that somebody has tried to remake it outside the lab and it hasn’t worked for whatever reason. If that’s the case, they have two options: reengineer it backward from the sample they know worked or find the person who made it to see if she can re-create it.”

  Six suddenly pinned her with his stare. “Didn’t you say they have the sample, though? The one that was stolen? That’s what started all this. Right?”

  Damn. He didn’t know what she’d done, and she couldn’t decide whether that was the reason her mouth felt dry, or whether it was the way his eyes seemed to see her. Really see her. “They don’t have the sample,” she said. It was time to come clean, at least to him, and she knew it. She just hoped he’d understand when she explained. “On Friday, the day I saw you at the gala, I’d had a strange feeling that somebody had been in the lab. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. It’s like the energy was off or something, which I know probably makes no sense to you.”

  But to her surprise, Six nodded in agreement. “I totally get that. I rely on gut instinct more than any intel, especially if I only have a split second to make a decision. So what did you do?”

  “It bothered me, and I knew that the most … significant … thing we had in the lab was the sample and that the results of the trials we’d run were reasonably well known. I had to leave to get to the presentation, so I did the only thing I could think of. There was another thing I was working on, totally unrelated, so I switched the samples around. It seemed silly, but it was the only thing I could come up with.”

  “Ballsy move, Lou. So to the best of your knowledge, someone took the switched compound thinking it was the real thing and they’ve tried to re-create the test somewhere else but can’t and now realize they don’t have the real sample. And now they want you?”

  Louisa chewed her food and nodded. “Or Ivan. But if Ivan or Vasilii are involved in some way, they could also be working their way through the lab trying to find it. Ivan and I cleared out the lab recently, but other experiments build up quickly. They may have figured out what I did and might try to identify which sample I switched it with, but that would lead them nowhere. I hate thinking of Ivan as the bad guy. He’s been a good lab partner for a year even though he doesn’t want to be on the lab side of things. Vasilii kind of insisted he had to spend time doing some of the research to learn about the business from the bottom up. I think it’s a bone of contention between the two of them. But what I don’t get is if they wanted me, it would have been easy for them to set up. They could have called me into a meeting anytime in the last week or so, and taken me from there.”

  They sat in silence for a few minutes as they ate their food.

  “I know Ivan,” Six said eventually, and Louisa’s stomach dropped.

  He said it so casually, like it was something she should have expected. Her gut told her Six was a good man, but it was hard to understand why he hadn’t thought to mention that before. Confusion fought with trust at his revelation. She stood quickly, ready to leave if she had to. “What do you mean you know him? It’s a little late to be telling me that, don’t you think?”

  Six grabbed her hand gently. “Sit down, Lou. I can’t stand the sneaky asshole. He was a shit as a kid at school, and since his grandfather shared his money around, he’s become an even bigger one. But we’re growing our business, so we took the job at the fundraiser even though none of us like him.”

  Louisa’s heart raced furiously, but she took a deep breath and attempted to not cave in to the panic. Nothing in her life had prepared her for what was going on right now. It had never been a life-or-death decision as to who she could trust. And truth was, she’d known Six such a short period of time, but his explanation made sense, and he’d saved her life twice already. Plus, even to her inexperienced eyes, there was something about the way he looked at her sometimes with a flicker of more than just friendship that gave her an unfamiliar squishy feeling of hope. “Do you think he could orchestrate something like this?” she asked.

  “I honestly don’t know, but I do know I’ve seen men do stranger things for weaker reasons.”

  Louisa pondered Six’s comments. She might as well tell him the full truth. “On Monday, I got into the lab early, and destroyed the real sample. Nobody can use it for anything.”

  “Wow, Lou. Just when I think you’re the toughest woman I’ve met, I learn something new about you that impresses me even more. That takes guts.”

  After they’d cleaned up from dinner, Six went outside to work out in the garden. As much as she’d vowed she wouldn’t, she’d spied on him, watching as he performed pull-ups, pushups, and burpees in a pair of shorts that hung low on his hips and no shirt. The sight of his abs flexing while he did jump-rope cardio meant there was every chance she’d be unable to sleep tonight due to a frustration she was unused to feeling. It felt like an itch she had no clue how to scratch. Eventually she gave in to the tiredness she felt and collapsed into bed, but the sound of the shower running followed by the low drone of sports news from the bedroom next door made her feel even more uncomfortable.

  She’d never thought of herself as particularly sensitive. Cripplingly shy, yes. But years of conditioning had taught her how to make the best of any situation. Intellectually, she knew she was safe. Six had walked her through all the precautions he’d taken, and even though she had no intention of picking up the gun he’d left for her in the bedside cabinet, she appreciated that he was looking out for her.

  Perhaps it was leftover emotion from the car chase. Adrenaline and lactic acid buildup could make her feel out of sorts. Plus, her stomach had felt as though someone was standing on it for most of the afternoon, although she wasn’t sure whether that was nerves from being around another person for such a prolonged period of time. Or maybe it was simply Six, and the fact that the sheets she slept in smelled like him, or at least the scent she associated with him. She closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep.

  As they’d shopped for groceries, it had felt so normal, like the start of a new relationship. Six was clearly well known in the neighborhood, and the cashier at the grocery store had called him by name.

  She’d seen the admiring glances from women as they’d walked by, though, women who had plenty more to offer him physically than she could. It had taken every ounce of self-control for her not to compare herself to them or make internal bitchy comments about their IQs. She’d seen the confused looks as people tried to figure out exactly what she was to Six. Yeah, they were confused, and so was she.

 
Her thoughts wandered back to the man across the hall. Did he sleep in boxer briefs? Or naked? She shivered at the visual of the hot body she’d seen covered in sweat in the garden. Damn, she needed something else to focus on, like the logistics of their situation.

  They needed to talk about contracts. If he was helping her out as Eagle Securities, then she was more than willing to sign a contract and pay. And it sounded like they needed the money. Perfect timing. But she couldn’t figure out why Six was so personally invested. In her. Beyond the obvious business opportunity, it made no sense. Maybe she’d relied on logic for too long, but why the heck did he care enough to bring her to his home? He could have dropped her at her mom’s and been on his way. She could have gone to stay with her friend Julie in LA, even though she hated the damn place. Too many people. Too much everything.

  Thoughts ricocheted around her brain, leaving her staring at the ceiling.

  Eventually, Six turned the TV off, and the light spilling out into the hallway from his room went off. A garbage can clattered outside the window, and her whole body tensed. She listened carefully for the sounds of footsteps, windows opening, or even gunshots. Rationally, she knew it was more likely that it was just a new neighborhood with new sounds. But she was scared they were back. Scared they were trying to get into her room as she lay there.

  Louisa pushed back the covers and crept to the window. With the tip of her finger, she pushed the curtains open a fraction just in time to see a cat jump off the neighbor’s fence. A freaking cat. Wide awake, she gave up trying to sleep and wandered along the hallway past Six’s bedroom. The door was open and Six lay on his front, his face hidden from view. For a second, she was tempted to crawl in with him, but she hurried past to the kitchen. The clock on the oven told her it was nearly midnight. She was going to be exhausted if she didn’t find a way to go to sleep soon.

  The plants in the bay window that had been left behind by Six’s tenant bothered her. They were all over the place. Tall ones at the front, shorter ones at the back. Gray containers, blue containers, red containers. Normally she’d fix them, but with everything else going on around her, she didn’t have the energy. She sat down on the sofa and debated turning on the television but was concerned it would wake Six.