by Lora Leigh
Her heart was racing, adrenaline surging through her body with a fight-or-flight instinct that had her throwing the blankets from the bed and moving for the bureau.
Shane and Sebastian weren’t in the bed, and she knew when she’d drifted off to sleep they’d been there, one on each side of her, surrounding her with warmth.
Moving from the bed, she hurried to the bureau where she’d laid out clothes for the next day. Jeans, T-shirt, and sneakers. She dressed hurriedly, only distantly realizing she should have opted for the gown and robe next to the bed.
For some reason, the clothes seemed the better choice, though.
Looking around the bedroom, she moved back to the bed and her cell phone. Grabbing it, she quickly hit the activation button and waited for it to load.
No missed calls and no messages, not that she expected there to be. But as the screen loaded, a message displayed that her volume was muted. She never muted her phone unless she was going into a meeting. And she hadn’t had any meetings in a while.
Only Shane or Sebastian could have muted the phone, and they would have only done so to ensure she stayed asleep.
Moving silently to her dresser, she opened the center drawer and drew out the small, holstered handgun Margot had insisted she learn how to use years before. Securing it between the band of her jeans and the small of her back, she stared around the room once again.
She was scared.
She would feel damned stupid if everyone was gathered downstairs for coffee and cake, but she was really scared.
Retrieving the cell phone from where she’d laid it while dressing, she hurriedly typed in a message to Shane’s phone.
Okay?
OK. [The answer came back quickly.]
She was just beginning to relax when the next one lit up the screen.
Keep doors locked, phone off. Stay in room.
She stared at the message.
Oh God, what had happened?
B there soon. [Sebastian’s text lit up the screen then.]
B there soon.
Dimming the light again, she pushed the phone into her back pants’ pocket before rubbing at the chill racing up her arms.
What should she do?
Just wait there like Shane told her to do?
God, she hated waiting; she always had. It was torture.
Walking cautiously through the bedroom and into the sitting area, she strained to hear anything over the sound of her pulse racing in her ears. How did anyone control their nerves enough to be spies or agents anyway? She’d end up giving herself away from nerves alone.
Watching the shadows carefully, she worked her way through the room, heading for the door leading to the hall when a hard surge of panic stopped her in her tracks.
A second later a sound at the bedroom door had her heart racing so hard she wondered if she was going to be light-headed. She nearly jumped out of her skin at the low knock a minute later.
“Alyssa? It’s Steven, from ground security. Shane sent me for you.” Shane sent one of the security guards hired to patrol the grounds rather than one of the military trained security guards hired for inside? Or even Crane, her father’s personal bodyguard?
He wouldn’t do that. She barely knew Steven. Hell, she could barely remember what he even looked like.
The very sound of his voice sent terror racing through her though. It struck so swift, so hard, she had to cover her lips with her hand to hold it back.
Shane would have texted her if he’d sent anyone for her, as would Sebastian.
She was really going to have to talk to them about waking her when danger required them to leave her bed.
“Alyssa, I need you to open the door now,” he ordered, his voice still low. “We have to go.”
Pulling the phone from her jeans, she sent Shane another text.
Did you send Steven for me?
No! Shane texted immediately.
She heard Steven test the doorknob again. If he thought she was asleep he would definitely find a way in.
“Stupid fuckers,” he cursed, not bothering to keep his voice lowered now. “Changing the fucking locks and not letting anyone know.”
Hurriedly Alyssa headed to the connecting door to her office. Opening it silently, she slipped past it before easing the door just almost closed behind her.
Now what?
Once he realized she wasn’t in her room would he check the office?
If Steven didn’t have a damned good excuse for being here, then Shane and Sebastian would take him apart.
She could hear something from the other room. A scraping sound she couldn’t identify. Had he already gotten into the room?
Where the hell were Shane and Sebastian?
“Fuck!” That curse came from inside her bedroom, only a few feet from the door, she was certain. “You fucking bitch.”
“Dammit!” Steven cursed before the sound of him running from the room had her finally releasing the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
Laying her head against the door frame, she nearly collapsed to the floor, her breathing harsh, jagged.
“Alyssa!” Shane’s voice snapped through the silence and had her throwing open the door to rush to him.
He caught her in his arms, his warmth wrapping around her as she buried her face against his chest, emotion swamping her with such violence that she swore she nearly passed out.
“It was Steven Richards.” Her fingers tightened in the dark cloth of Shane’s shirt as she finally lifted her head to stare up at him. “One of the ground guards. Why would he be here if you didn’t send him? He said you sent him.”
Before he could answer the sound of several gunshots ricocheted through the house, seeming to echo through it as Alyssa felt her heart suddenly drop, freezing her with fear as she felt Shane push her behind him.
“Fuck. Fuck.” Falcone’s voice came clearly through the radio Shane wore at his belt. “Sebastian’s down. Sebastian’s down.…”
*
Sebastian was waiting for Steven Richards when he slipped into the dimly lit kitchen, heading for the back door and the car he’d left parked behind the manager’s cottage. Falcone and Summer had found the vehicle no more than moments ago and disabled it. Once he’d known where the vehicle was hidden, Sebastian had known which way the son of a bitch would attempt to leave the house.
Alyssa’s would-be assassin wasn’t nearly as bright as Sebastian had given him credit for being, though. Khalid had cracked the program in a matter of days and contacted Sebastian with the programmer’s ID no more than an hour before Alyssa texted.
“Going somewhere, Richards?” Sebastian asked softly from where he stood in the shadows at the other end of the kitchen. “Or should I say Barkley?” Training his weapon on the other man’s head. “That’s your real name, I believe. Kevin Barkley. We’ve been looking for you.”
His identity had come through after Alyssa had gone to sleep, the picture and information sent by Khalid once he’d cracked the computer program and tracked it back to the programmer.
Turning to face him, Kevin smiled slowly, the cocky confidence in the move enough to piss Sebastian off that much more.
“Very good,” Kevin drawled. “I knew when the self-destruct notice on my program didn’t arrive this evening that you’d figure it out. You didn’t do it, though, did you? Someone else did.”
“Ah, that’s a story for later,” Sebastian assured him. He wasn’t about to reveal who had cracked the program, just to make certain if Kevin got away there was nowhere else for him to strike.
“A story for later,” Kevin grunted, his hazel eyes gleaming in the dim light spilling from the counter behind him.
“Why come after Alyssa?” Sebastian asked him softly. “You knew we’d come for her once we heard she was being threatened. Why take that risk?”
Kevin chuckled at the question. “Hell, Harvey was supposed to kill her two years ago when you found Gregory and the files. It was a sweet deal we had, ya kn
ow? Wait five or six years, cash it out, Harvey would kill his bitch wife, collect the insurance, and we’d all be set for life. That stupid-assed bastard never could do anything right. But I would have left her alone if you and Shane had stayed away from her. You and that fucking cousin of yours. When you decided you could come here and have her, I decided to take her. Permanently. That’s what you deserved. First you killed Gregory; then that fucking bitch Margot killed Harvey. Fuckers. I didn’t have a damned thing to show for six years of my life. Why should you get the girl?”
“So it was all for the money,” Sebastian said softly. “How stupid are you, Kevin? Harvey and Gregory are dead. Did you really want to join them that bad?”
“How stupid am I?” Kevin’s smile disappeared. “You didn’t even know who was after her, De Loren. You and Shane were stumbling around in the fucking dark. I could have taken her out at any time.”
“So why choose Alyssa?” Sebastian asked, watching Kevin carefully. He was what Shane called a little punk. Cunning, but stupid. “You’ve lost your mind, Kevin. Do you really think you would have made it past me and Shane? Really? I would have thought you were smarter than that.”
“Oh, I’m not finished, Sebastian,” he sneered. “Not by a long shot.”
“Then let’s say I end it right here,” Sebastian suggested.
“Oh, you don’t have the guts.” Kevin smiled as Sebastian narrowed his eyes on him. “But I do.…”
Sebastian expected it. He’d been waiting for it. He just hadn’t expected the direction it would come from. Kevin was cunning; there had never been a doubt about that. That was why Sebastian was prepared to fire the moment the other man moved. What Sebastian didn’t expect was the sheer tenacity that kept the other man in place after taking a fatal shot to his chest.
Even though Sebastian jumped as the other weapon fired, suspecting Kevin could manage to buy that single second to pull the trigger on the weapon that dropped from the sleeve of his jacket, he didn’t expect the other man’s aim to be quite so good.
The bullet ripped into Sebastian’s chest, the impact throwing Sebastian back against the wall as agony tore through his senses.
Fuck. Alyssa was going to be upset.
As his legs slowly lost strength he felt himself slide down the wall until he was sitting on his ass, staring over at Kevin’s fallen body rather ironically.
Didn’t it just fucking figure?
As he sat there, feeling the blood oozing from the wound, the sound of the kitchen door slamming open was followed by the blinding overhead lights searing his eyeballs.
“Sebastian!” Summer’s voice was too loud. She had to pipe it down just a little.
“Shush,” he groaned. “Alyssa will hear—”
“Falcone, ’Bastian’s down. He’s down. We’re in the kitchen. Call nine-one-one now.”
Okay, she piped it down. She actually sounded rather calm, for Summer, as she knelt beside him and slowly eased him to the floor.
He forced his eyes open in time to see her strip her T-shirt off, then had to grin at the sight of the snug Lycra T-shirt she wore beneath it.
Balling the material up, she pressed it to the wound, attempting to slow the bleeding. She wasn’t going to help it much. He’d felt that bullet go in and he knew the damage it had caused.
That hole was a bitch.
“Summer.” He caught her wrist as he stared up at her imperatively. “Help Shane.… Alyssa will be upset—”
“You stupid fucker. I hate your sorry ass!” Summer snapped, ice filling her voice as her violet eyes burned with fury. “It won’t matter who helps Shane. She loses either of you and she won’t make it. Don’t you dare—”
“’Bastian!” Alyssa’s scream of rage, of pain, had his eyes closing briefly. “Oh God. ’Bastian. What did you do? What did you do?”
He opened his eyes just in time to see her execute a perfect slide that would have done any base-stealing ballplayer proud.
“No. Oh God, what have you done?”
“Look at her,” he marveled, staring up at her. “So fucking pretty, grown men weep of love for her.”
She was the prettiest thing he’d ever seen in his life.
“What did you do?” She touched his face, her cool palms against his cheeks so soft. “What did you do, ’Bastian?”
“Made sure you were safe.” He couldn’t take his eyes off her. “I think I miscalculated his speed, though.” He frowned a bit at the thought.
This was bad and he knew it. He could feel it. If he lost it all in this moment then he wanted her to be the last thing he saw when he took his final breath.
“How could you do this?” She stared down at him, her gaze filled with shock and denial. “How could you do this to me? How will I ever be safe without both of you? Haven’t I suffered enough? Lost enough?” Pure rage filled her voice as he stared up at her, feeling just a bit of trepidation. “Don’t you dare die on me!”
Damn, she was madder than he expected.
“Umm, ’Lyssa.” Damn, his fucking chest hurt. Bad. And she wasn’t showing the love like she should be, he decided.
“If you die”—her eyes narrowed, thunderclouds gathering in them—“then I choose Shane’s third myself.”
He could still be shocked, even with death knocking at his door, Sebastian found.
“Huh?”
“You heard me. I will choose our third myself. Not Shane. And I promise you, I’ll do it before I put your ass six feet under.”
“I want first option, sugah,” Summer spoke up, causing Sebastian to glare at her furiously. “We’d make a helluva threesome, ya know.”
“Shall I call second option?” Falcone drawled. “I state club rules, Shane, just to make it official.”
Like hell.
Shane would never allow it.
Still, Sebastian’s gaze sliced to his cousin, the bastard. He merely shrugged rather fatalistically.
“Club rules.” He grimaced. “Who can argue with them? Besides, she’ll be grieving. You know I can’t bear to see her cry.”
By God, he could.
Never would Sebastian even consider sharing Alyssa with anyone but his cousin and yet Shane would consider such a thing?
He was lying there dying and they were already vying for his place in her bed, pushing him into the grave and he had yet to take his last breath?
“I’m finished grieving, Sebastian!” she snapped as his gaze slid back to her. “I’m finished waiting for the two of you. If you can’t love me enough to live then why shouldn’t I give someone else the love I’ve saved for you?”
“Uh-oh, she said the l word,” Summer drawled. “We’re all in trouble now.”
“Don’t you dare die on me, Sebastian De Loren.” Her eyes were so bright.
God no, were those tears?
“Leave me and I’ll let Falcone and Summer take turns as Shane’s third. So help me I will.”
Sirens were blaring, lights striking Sebastian’s vision, and a cacophony of voices assaulting his ears. Female cries, male demands. The hell if he knew what was going on. What he did know was that if there was a drop of blood left in his body for him to hold on to, then he’d live. He’d be damned if Falcone or that Georgia-talking southern belle was taking his place in Alyssa’s bed.
Not if he had anything to do with it.
26
It was the second most horrifying event of Alyssa’s life. The sight of Sebastian sprawled on the kitchen floor as Summer tried to keep the blood from flowing from his chest completely terrified her.
God, how she loved him. Him and Shane both. Why had she tried to deny it? Why had she tried to hold back something that was already so much a part of her? What had she thought she was protecting? Her heart? Her soul? They already belonged to these men. So much so that she had shut down every part of her that belonged to them to ensure she was able to wait for them.
“’Lyssa?” Sebastian whispered her name as she hurried into the seat next to the gurney the EMTs
secured in the back of the ambulance.
He wasn’t going anywhere without her.
“Yes, ’Bastian.” She caught his hand as he lifted it to her weakly.
“I love you, baby.” He stared up at her, the blue of his eyes barely discernible they were so black. “I always loved you.”
“I know that,” she told him, trying to smile. “I always knew that, ’Bastian. If I hadn’t known, I wouldn’t have been here, waiting for you.”
His gaze was almost feverish, pain and the loss of blood finally affecting his incredible strength.
“I was there when you left,” he told her then. “I watched you board the plane. The way you kept looking back, the hope and pain on your face, destroying me. I stayed drunk for weeks. Shane and I both did. We couldn’t have let you go, couldn’t have protected you, otherwise.”
She leaned closer to him, determined to keep the EMTs from hearing her, just as determined to tell him what she remembered.
“After I lost the baby, I dreamed of you and Shane,” she told him softly. “It was very dark, but I could hear you. Both of you. You were talking to each other. Assuring yourselves that I would wait for you. That I loved you enough to know you would never willingly let me go. Just as you felt me in your heart, I would feel you in mine.”
Surprise widened his eyes, tightened his fingers around hers.
“The loss of our baby would have been too much for me if I hadn’t made myself believe that dream was a bond to you and Shane.”
“You’d been gone for over two months,” he said faintly. “The nightmare…” He swallowed tightly. “Both of us heard you crying. Screaming for us.”
Tears fell from her eyes now. “Don’t make me live without you. Please, ’Bastian. Don’t make me do that.”
“Hold on to me,” he sighed, his voice so weak, faint. “Don’t let me go, ’Lyssa.”
“Never, my ’Bastian,” she swore. “I’ll never let you go.”
*
She wasn’t a crier. Alyssa often thought it was the only trait she shared with her mother. Margot, to her knowledge, had only cried once in Alyssa’s life. The night she’d sat beside Alyssa’s bed just after Harvey’s attempt to kill her.
“I didn’t protect you as I should have,” Margot whispered as Alyssa fought to keep her eyes open. “Now, I’ll protect you the only way I know how.”