Stripping Bare (Steele Ridge Book 7)

by Kelsey Browning

  “I’m not trying to be a nosy witch,” Micki said. “But I love my brother.”

  “Things are complicated right now.”

  “Life is complicated. Ask any one of the Steele siblings. None of us have gotten our happy ever after without a decent amount of struggle.”

  Except for Jonah. And Tessa would love to give him that.

  She shoved her arms into the coveralls and shrugged them over her shoulders. She pulled the zipper only to find Micki had been right on. Getting the thing to fasten over her boobs was a struggle. When she finally zipped it to her throat, she looked down to find her chest smashed like a pancake.

  Brynne chuckled at Tessa’s plight. “Think of it this way. You don’t have to worry about support while you’re running around in the woods.”

  “Enough girly tits and panties bonding crap.” Micki thrust a helmet and gun into Tessa’s hands. “Let’s go kick some ass.”

  18

  When Jonah wouldn’t open up and immediately spill his guts about the clusterfuck with Mrs. Vanderwinkle, his brothers decided they needed to take this thing to the woods. If we can’t talk it out of you, then we’ll shoot it out of you.

  But he knew what would come after paintball. His brothers would nag the shit outta him until he spilled everything about what had happened the past few days.

  Yippee.

  Sometimes it really sucked being the youngest brother.

  Good thing he knew he could win this paintball game fast. After checking the traps he’d come out and set up a couple weeks ago, he climbed his cold ass up into an old deer blind.

  And waited.

  He really didn’t have time for this. He should climb down, hoof it back to his house, and try to nail that modder-hacker-bastard. He still hadn’t heard back from the bartender at Tucci’s, and it was making him twitchy. But on the way to his mom’s house, he’d gotten in touch with Steele Trap’s HR director and learned that Carson Grimes had recently taken a job at a Charlotte biotech. He intended to pay Grimes a visit pronto.

  The forest around him was alive with the sounds of bird calls and scuffling in the underbrush, which either meant none of his brothers were in the area or they were being so stealthy that even the animals didn’t realize they were around.

  Out of his peripheral vision, he caught a shimmer of movement. Gotcha.

  Grif came strolling out from behind a tree as if he were meandering down Rodeo Drive. His coveralls were pristine and his helmet gleamed as if he’d waxed the damn thing. What guy looked that put together to play paintball? Made Jonah want to nail him in the ass just for that.

  “I know you’re up there,” Grif called, his voice muffled by his protective helmet. “Go ahead and shoot.”

  Fine. The sooner he took them all out, the sooner he could get back to the business at hand.

  Jonah’s finger twitched on the trigger.

  “You know you want to.”

  He did. Right now, he wanted to take aim and leave a big red splotch right in the center of Grif’s visor.

  “Hurry up, or I might decide to shoot you instead,” Grif taunted. “Britt and Reid are over in the ravine. If you take me down, you can get over there and sneak up on them from behind.”

  When it came to playing games, most people believed they had to work within the rules. But Jonah knew there were always more ways to get what he wanted, was always a back door. He reached into the pocket of his coveralls and fingered the secret weapon he’d stashed there when they’d been suiting up in the barn earlier.

  If Grif would just take half a dozen more steps to the west, Jonah could…

  Hands on his hips, Grif strolled over and looked up at the blind Jonah was ducked down in. Damn, his brother was the perfect target. But rather than blast him with a paintball, Jonah pulled the trap he’d rigged for just this occasion.

  One second, Grif was standing on so-called solid ground, the next he disappeared into a holding pit Jonah had dug when they were excavating for his house.

  One down.

  “You cheating son of a bitch,” Grif called from the hole. “This is paintball.”

  Jonah climbed down from the blind and peered into the well-padded ten-feet-deep temporary prison. It wasn’t meant to harm, just hold someone for a little while. “Nuh-uh. This is Steele Survivor.”

  “Reid and Britt are gonna annihilate your ass.”

  “We’ll see about that.” Grinning so hard it strained his cheeks, Jonah loped off toward the ravine. After days of uncertainty and frustration over this hacker, it felt damn good to be at the top of his game.

  Jonah found Reid and Britt exactly where Grif said they’d be. Apparently, they’d decided to partner up until they took out Grif and Jonah. That’s about to go sideways, you lunkheads.

  Good thing Jonah had been secretly preparing for a day like today. He tossed a pine cone off to the right of where his brothers were hunkered down behind a cedar tree. As expected, their heads swiveled in that direction.

  C’mon. This one’s for Britt.

  Sure enough, Reid gave the hand signal for Britt to check it out. Although Britt was the unofficial head of the Steele family, when it came to battle plans, they all deferred to Reid.

  Just three more steps and—

  Whomp! From a nearby tree, the modified mace Jonah had crafted swung and broadsided Britt, the pine sap-covered volleyball connecting with his helmet and sticking. Jonah would probably owe his brother new gear for that, but seeing Britt scan the woods feverishly for the enemy was so worth it.

  Two down and one to go.

  As if he had all the time in the world, Jonah patiently waited for Reid to realize his comrade in arms was no longer in the game. Sure enough, Reid went to investigate and stomped around Britt when he found him standing there, volleyball glued to his head.

  Reid didn’t release Britt because that would be breaking the rules of engagement. But his face took on a determined stubbornness that in Jonah’s younger days would’ve meant a wedgie or a toilet dunking was in his future.

  Not today, big brother.

  Jonah had deliberately laid a very subtle trail on his way to the ravine. Of course, Reid picked it up quickly and a smug smile crossed his face. At one point, he squatted down to check the leaves in his path. He swung his head left, then right, and just as Jonah had anticipated, he chose the path less traveled.

  He’d taken all of ten steps when Jonah’s trap engaged. A camouflaged rope tightened around Reid’s ankle, pulled his feet out from under him, and yanked him three feet off the ground. Hanging there upside down, Reid used every cuss word in the book and some even Jonah had never put together. He was especially impressed with ass-chatting fucknut.

  Whatever that meant.

  With the way Reid was thrashing and cussing, it was a good thing Jonah had decided on a one-inch diameter bungee shock cord rather than some old rope from the barn. Feeling pretty damn proud of himself, Jonah climbed down from the tree the net was hanging from and sauntered up to his older brother.

  “Don’t walk up here looking like you own the world,” Reid said. “Grif is still out there. He may dress like a city boy, but he shoots the way he was raised.”

  “He’s currently cooling his heels in a pit.”

  “Sheeeeeit,” Reid drawled.

  “And since I’m the Steele Survivor, the three of you have to do anything I tell you to for the next twenty-four hours.”

  “What the hell? That’s never been part of the game.”

  “Winner makes the rules.” Damn, it felt good to get the better of his brothers. As a kid, Steele Survivor had been Jonah’s way of melding real life with his video game ideas to get the best of both worlds. Taking the beautiful North Carolina mountains and making boys’ play accessible to kids all over the world.

  “And you have no intention of telling us why you body-tackled Mrs. Vanderwinkle, do you?”

  “My problem, and I’ll solve it.”

  “That’s not the way it works. We’re a fami
ly. We handle things together.”

  “I—” Before Jonah could finish his rebuttal, something whacked him in the center of the back with the force of a…a paintball. “That doesn’t—”

  “Don’t say it doesn’t count,” Micki said. “Tessa got you fair and square.”

  Tessa?

  He swung around to find Micki and Tessa grinning at him from the trees. Brynne was behind them carrying an armload of ammo. In a helmet, sneakers, and coveralls clinging to her curves, Tessa looked as if she should either be a mechanic in Grand Theft Auto or a driver in Ridge Racer.

  His dick took one look and woke the hell up.

  Great. Now he’d never again be able to play two of his all-time faves without getting a stiffy.

  “And didn’t I just hear you say that the Steele Survivor gets to make the rules for a day?” Tessa asked sweetly, so sweetly it made his teeth ache.

  “You and Micki are still both live players.”

  Without so much as an eyelid twitch, Tessa shot his sister in the foot.

  Tessa was still glowing from her victory after she and Jonah changed out of their paintball coveralls and were back in street clothes. He held the farmhouse’s front door and followed her outside. “I need to make a quick trip to Charlotte.”

  “You just told your family you would explain what’s going on.”

  His mouth was turned down, making her cuddle him. But this wasn’t the time to be sympathetic. He needed to let his family in. “I will. Later.”

  Uh-uh. Something about this was hinky. “Keeping people in the dark never comes to good.”

  “This isn’t their deal, and I don’t want them in anyone’s crosshairs.”

  Crosshairs. Charlotte. “Why the sudden need to go to Charlotte?” she demanded.

  She made her way down the steps and realized halfway to the car that he wasn’t behind her. He was standing on the porch staring at his shark car, the one she’d taken from his garage. “You drove Clementine?”

  Oh, yeah. That was a perfect name for this delicious car. Sweet with a distinctive bite. “Yes.”

  “She’s a four-speed.”

  “I know what to do with a gear shift.”

  At that, he cut her a speculative look, which served to remind her exactly what she’d done with his gear shift last night. If she had her way, she’d be test-driving him again soon.

  “She’s a 1970 Plymouth Hemi Superbird,” he said.

  No wonder it had made her think of a roadrunner. “I like her. A lot.”

  “The interior is all restored original.”

  Tessa rolled her eyes skyward. “I didn’t take a box cutter to the seats.”

  “Don’t joke about that. It actually happened to Grif once.”

  Trying not to get defensive because Jonah was looking at her as if she’d threatened his firstborn, she waved at the car. “You left me. I came downstairs and you were gone. What else did you expect me to do?”

  “Sorry.” He winced. “Since I moved out of Mom’s house, I’m not used to checking in with anyone. And my brothers can be very persuasive.”

  “Next time, do more than leave a note.” She unlocked the driver’s door and glared at him across the top of the car. “Get in. I’m driving you to Charlotte. Can you ask one of your brothers to check on Badger?”

  “Dammit, Tessa.”

  “After last night, I thought you’d stopped shutting me out. You can’t do one thing with your body and another with your mind.”

  His face took on a stubborn cast.

  Uh-uh, buddy.

  She would use whatever weapon she had to. “Last night, I was so tired and then I was so busy that I forgot to mention something.”

  “What?”

  “When I took Badger outside, something was rustling around at the edge of the yard.” Now his expression turned dangerous, so she hurried on. “It was probably nothing, but now I’m a little nervous about staying alone.”

  “If something else like that happens, you tell me immediately. I mean it.”

  Success! “So why are we going to Charlotte?”

  “To talk to Carson Grimes.”

  He’d planned to do it behind her back. He would’ve if she hadn’t pushed the issue.

  Once Jonah was inside, Tessa cranked the car. She was tempted to gun it just to spite him, but she and Clementine had bonded earlier, so she wasn’t eager to take her frustration out on her new friend.

  Wow, she’d made a lot of new friends today, hadn’t she? Miss Joan and Brynne and Micki.

  And she’d won a game of Steele Survivor. She was kind of a badass.

  She injected that into her voice when she told Jonah, “Don’t do it again. Don’t ever leave me behind to protect me.”

  By the time he and Tessa made it to the Charlotte biotech company where Carson Grimes worked, Jonah was so on edge it took all his acting skill to smile at the receptionist and casually lean a hip against her desk. “We’re looking for a new employee of yours. Name’s Carson Grimes.”

  The receptionist’s brow furrowed for a few seconds, then her face brightened. “Oh, you mean the one from Seattle.”

  “That’s him.”

  She picked up her phone receiver, her finger hovering over the buttons. “May I give him your names?”

  Jonah upped his smile a notch even though it pained him. “We’d really like it to be a surprise. We’re old friends and we wanted to welcome him to town.”

  “Gotcha.” She hit a couple of buttons and smiled flirtatiously at Jonah while she waited. “Is this Carson? Great. You have some people here to see you. You can meet them in the reception area.”

  When she replaced the receiver, her expression turned apologetic. “Sorry, but I can’t let you in the office since you don’t have an appointment.”

  “No problem,” Tessa chimed in, her voice cheerful. “We completely understand corporate espionage when it comes to R and D.” But her smile at Jonah was edged with shark teeth. Yeah, she still hadn’t forgiven him for trying to ditch her.

  Rather than standing in eyesight of the hallway he assumed Carson would emerge from, Jonah waved Tessa toward the exterior door, “We’re going to step outside for some fresh air,” he told the receptionist. “Carson can meet us out front.”

  Outside, Tessa asked, “Why not talk to him in the lobby?”

  “Because I didn’t want him to bolt.” He urged her to the opposite side of a neatly trimmed holly bush.

  A few minutes later, the front door whooshed open. With the speed he normally used on a keyboard, Jonah rounded the shrub.

  Carson’s eyes popped wide. “What the hell—”

  “I’m asking the questions today.” Although Jonah wanted to grab the guy, he tried to breathe through the tension wadded in his stomach.

  Slow and easy. You don’t know that he’s behind all this.

  “Jonah?” Tessa’s tone was soft, as if she instinctively knew his control was fraying by the second.

  Carson’s skinny chest was rising and falling rapidly, and his eyes were darting left and right. “What…what are you two doing here?”

  “I ran a multibillion-dollar gaming company. You don’t think I got there by being stupid, do you? You weren’t hard to track down. Now you’re going to tell me why you’re threatening Tessa or I will reach down your throat and turn your organs inside out.”

  Great. That was sure to convince Tessa that you won’t lose your shit on someone else.

  “You two need to leave me alone.” Although the temperature was hovering in the low forties, the dude was sweating as if he were trapped in a sauna, and his gaze was ping-ponging between Jonah and Tessa. “If you don’t, I’ll go to the police.”

  “Oh, that’ll be handy. You can march your ass in there and explain how you hacked Tessa’s files and painted threats on her walls.”

  “I…I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His Adam’s apple convulsed, and he nodded toward Tessa. “She’s the one threatening me. Telling me to give her money o
r she’ll blab to people about our counseling sessions. She did the same thing to Davey and he ended up dead. There’s something wrong with her.”

  “You could’ve written that blackmail e-mail, trying to throw suspicion off yourself.”

  “Dude, I just started a new job. I don’t have time to play games like that even if I wanted to.”

  “I think he’s telling the truth,” Tessa said softly.

  “What about me?” Jonah demanded. “What do you have against me?”

  “Other than the fact that I think you were stupid to sell your company? Not a damn thing. I liked working for Steele Trap.”

  “Then why did you quit and move all the way to Charlotte? Why did you follow me to North Carolina?”

  Carson’s laugh was strangled, but it was real. “Dude, I didn’t move here because of you. I came because I met a girl. She works for a real estate company here, and I knew we’d never make it work long distance. I want to get married, have kids and shit. She could be the one.”

  She could be the one.

  Jonah glanced at Tessa, standing there so fierce. She’d proven again and again that she had a soul of forged steel. She was tough and resilient.

  She could be the one.

  It reverberated through Jonah’s mind. Tessa was his one. He loved her. He knew it to the end of his soul, and now that he was willing to admit it to himself, he felt like he was fighting shadows to keep her safe.

  Could he have made a mistake about Carson? “When’s the last time you were in Asheville?”

  “Uh…half after never?” Carson said. “I’ve only been here for a couple of weeks. Haven’t exactly had time to play tourist.” His focus shifted to Tessa. “You really aren’t using the stuff you know to try to squeeze money out of people?”

  “Believe me when I say I would never do that,” she said. “Someone hacked my files and is using the information to hurt all of us.”

  “Then you’d better figure out who’s behind this, because I’m not your guy.”

  19

  When Tessa climbed into the driver’s seat again, Jonah didn’t balk. Didn’t say a word. In fact, he said not a word for 130 miles. When they were closing in on Steele Ridge, he finally spoke. “Your car should be at my place by now.”