They were nice. Alaskan Security must be doing decently well.
Eva read the signs as they passed. Most were medical related. A few were services. Two lawyers.
And then the buildings ended, the last one butting right against a heavy tree line.
A large gate blocked the road in front of them. Brock pulled up to a small box and rolled down his window before flipping up the plexiglass lid and punching six numbers into the keypad underneath.
The heavy metal barrier slid to the right as Brock dropped the cover into place and rolled the window up.
“Where are we?” Eva leaned forward as they started moving again, passing through the gate and between the line of trees so thick it was impossible to see anything but the spot directly in front of them.
“Headquarters.” He glanced her way as a row of buildings came into view. “Not what you expected?”
Eva didn’t answer him. She was too busy looking out the windshield at the cluster of modern craftsman-style structures in front of them. One was larger than all the others, standing three stories tall with large windows that reflected the snowy landscape.
Two smaller versions flanked each side with a covered walkway connecting them to the main building.
She pushed open her door and stepped out to get a better look. “Christ!” Eva yanked her coat tighter. “It’s so fucking cold here.”
Brock was there a second later, stepping close, wrapping one arm around her. “Come on.”
“What about the food?” Eva tried to drag her feet. “I don’t want my berries to freeze. They’ll taste like shit.”
“I will take care of it.” Brock kept her feet moving, picking up the pace as her teeth started to chatter.
Another keypad was beside the set of glass doors. Brock punched in a set of numbers and the locks clicked open. He held her close as they moved into the warm air of the building.
Eva sucked in a breath, trying to contain the running of her nose.
“Hey there.”
A tiny dark-haired woman with glasses and a smirk was propped against the large desk dominating the space. A tall insulated cup was in her hands, held close to her chest.
“Shit.” Brock barely whispered the curse under his breath.
“Who’s your friend?” The woman pushed off the desk and walked their way.
Eva looked between the two of them. There was something happening and the woman clearly found it very amusing.
Brock, not so much.
“I’m Eva Tatum.” She reached one hand out to the brunette. “I’m his current pain in the ass.”
The woman’s smile widened. “That is fantastic.” She gripped Eva’s hand, but instead of shaking it she pulled her in close, tugging her away from Brock. “I’m Harlow. You want some coffee?”
Eva glanced at Brock. “Um. I have some groceries that I should probably get out of the car.”
Harlow waved her coffee around. “The boys’ll get it.” She looked to one of the open halls at each end of the room just as a group of men came in. “Hey.” Harlow jerked her chin in the direction of the parking lot. “Go get Eva’s food out of the red Rover.”
“Always happy to help a lady out.” One of the men shot her a grin and a wink as they passed.
“Pretty sure this one isn’t for you, Tyson.” Harlow sipped at her coffee and pulled Eva with the hand still holding hers. “Come on. Let’s go find someplace comfortable.”
When Eva glanced back Brock was watching her with a steady gaze, hands tucked in the pockets of his coat.
“He’ll be fine. Dutch and Shawn are waiting for him. They have things they want to talk about.”
Eva peeked into every open door they passed. “This place is huge.”
“Right? Who knew there was any place like this in freaking Alaska?” Harlow pulled her through an open doorway into a huge room. A kitchen sat at one end with a table and chairs right beside it. A large sectional and a few armchairs sat in front of a line of windows overlooking a large body of water backed by distant mountains.
“Wow.” Eva stared out at the beautiful scene. So far she’d seen very little of Fairbanks. “I didn’t realize how pretty it was here.”
“I hear ya.” Harlow dropped her hand, leaving Eva at the windows while she went to the kitchen. “I was shocked as hell.”
“You’re not from here?” Eva struggled to tear her eyes from the view, eventually managing.
“Hell no.” Harlow had a mug out and was pouring in coffee from a full pot. “How do you take this?”
“Black.”
Harlow’s brows went up as she nodded. “Nice. I’m impressed.” She walked the cup to Eva. “I have to doctor the shit out of mine so I can drink it.”
“Nothing wrong with that.” Eva took a healthy gulp of the beverage.
“You hungry?” Harlow went back to the kitchen and started fishing around the commercial-grade fridge. “I think we got some pulled pork. Maybe lunch meat for a sandwich.”
“I’m a vegetarian.”
Harlow straightened, letting the door swing shut. “In that case we have to wait for the boys to bring in your stuff.”
“Who are the boys?” Eva moved to sit at the island separating the kitchen from the rest of the room.
“The team.” Harlow eyed her. “Brock hasn’t told you about the team?”
Eva shook her head. “Brock’s not a very chatty guy.”
Harlow blinked a few times. “Brock?”
“Delivery.” The men from earlier came in, each one carrying a bag.
“It took all of you to bring that in?” Harlow watched as they set the bags on the counter and went to work unpacking the refrigerated items.
“We didn’t want to be rude.” One of the men grinned Eva’s way. “Brock wouldn’t want us to ignore his new friend, would he?”
Harlow snorted. “I think that might be exactly what he wants you to do.” She smiled. “Which is why I’m so glad you’re not.” She pointed to the tallest of the men. The one who thought she was a lady. “That’s Tyson.” Her finger moved down the line. “That’s Reed, Nate and Abe.” She lifted her brows at them. “And they’re all supposed to be getting their physicals right now.”
“Eli had to take an emergency.” Tyson leaned against the counter. “Said he’d page us when he was finished.”
“Shit.” Harlow looked down the row of men. “Who’s hurt?”
“Someone on Alpha Team.” Tyson peeked in one of the bags. “I think it’s minor.”
Harlow snorted. “Your idea of minor and my idea of minor are two different things.”
A low hum buzzed around them as each man slid a phone from his pocket.
“And it sounds like Eli is ready for you.” Harlow pointed at the door. “Go. Leave me and my friend alone.”
Eva stared at the small woman.
Harlow watched as they left, waiting until they were out of sight before turning back to Eva. “Let’s get some food and take it back to my office. I’ve gotta try to find those cameras Brock’s all wound up about.” She pulled out all the fruit smiling wider at each container. “Thank God. I was worried with Bess gone I would be stuck with all these carnivores and only fed steak and sausage.” Her eyes snapped to Eva’s. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.” She let out a long sigh. “It’s been a long damn time since I’ve had good sausage.”
“Same.” Eva stood from her stool and helped fill one of the bags with some of the easier to eat foods.
“Really?” Harlow glanced at the door. “How long is a long time to you?”
Eva thought back. “Ugh. Like a year.”
Harlow lifted a finger. “So, you’ve been alone in a house with Brock Cassidy and you still haven’t had sex in a year?”
“What’s going on?”
They both looked Brock’s way.
“I’m finally getting fed.” Eva shoved a tray of hummus into the sack along with a bag of pita chips.
Brock studied Eva for a second before turni
ng to Harlow. “Dutch wants to know if you found those feeds yet.”
Harlow’s head dropped back and she groaned. “Maybe Dutch should find the damn feeds himself.”
Another man stepped into the room behind Brock. He wasn’t short, but standing next to Brock made him look that way. His brown hair was slicked to one side and his short beard was neatly lined and trimmed close. “We hired you to help Dutch, Mowry. If you’re not going to do it then I’m going to have to find the second best hacker.” The man’s voice sounded familiar. “And I really don’t want to do that.”
“Whatever.” Harlow rolled her eyes at him before turning to Eva. “Come to my office before you leave.” She grinned. “Maybe you can come back and hang out tomorrow.”
“Not happening.” Brock’s answer came before Harlow was even finished talking.
She didn’t even glance his way. “Not talking to you, Cassidy.” Harlow grabbed her in a quick hug. “We girls gotta stick together with all this testosterone trying to choke us to death.”
Brock grabbed the bag of food with one hand and pressed the other to the small of Eva’s back, easing her out of the room and into the long hall before turning the opposite way that she came in.
“Who’s the team?” Eva peeked into what looked to be a board room.
“We can talk about it later.” Brock directed her into the next door on her right.
“What if I want to talk about it now?”
“We have other things to discuss right now.” The man with the short beard came into the room right behind them. He offered his hand. “I’m Shawn. We spoke on the phone.”
Eva took his hand. “Eva.”
“I ran those plates, Brock.”
She spun just as yet another man appeared. “You’re the guy with the nice voice.”
He shot her a devastatingly handsome grin. “I am.”
“Shut it.” Brock stepped between them, blocking her view of Dutch with his broad body. “We need to talk.”
“We?” Eva looked around the room. “Who is we?”
“All of us.” Shawn answered her question as he sat beside Dutch and motioned to the chair across the long conference table from them.
“So it’s me against you guys?” Eva grabbed the chair and pulled it out, sitting down before Shawn could answer.
If he thought she was the kind of woman intimidated by facing down three men, then Shawn was about to find out he was real fucking wrong.
She set her elbows on the table edge and folded her hands.
This was her arena. Her strength.
“What is it you would like to discuss?”
Dutch and Shawn exchanged glances.
“Told you.” Brock yanked out the chair next to hers and dropped into it, scooting it in close at her side.
Eva watched him get situated. “You told them what?”
Brock draped one arm across the back of her seat as his lips pulled into a barely-there smile. “I told them they better bring their A-game in here.” He leaned in close enough she was the only one who could hear his next words. “Make me proud, Tatum.”
Of all the things he could have said, somehow he came up with the one that would fluster her.
Why would he ever be proud of her?
Why should she care if he was?
“The information we were given on your case seems to be pretty bare bones.” Shawn flipped open a file and scanned the pages inside. “No specifics about the threats you received. No police records associated with them. No potential culprit.” He closed the file and slapped his hand on top. “Nothing.”
“Because it’s completely irrelevant information.” Eva leaned back in her seat, but bumped into Brock’s arm which sent her sitting straight up again. “You were hired to make sure I was safe from whatever.”
“We need to know what that is.” Brock’s tone was significantly softer than Shawn’s. “What happened that made you come here?”
“Nothing serious.” Eva looked around the faces of the men at the table with her. “I didn’t even need to come here. I would have been just fine.” She grabbed the bag Brock brought in and pulled out the hummus.
“Why are you here then?” Shawn watched as she shoveled in pita chips piled with dip.
“Because my business partners made me.” Eva blocked her chewing with one hand. If they wanted to talk now they were just going to have to watch her eat while they did it. “They are blowing shit way out of proportion.”
“Does this have to do with that guy who stalked you in college?” Harlow’s voice sent her spinning toward the doorway. The other woman shot her a grin. “You didn’t think I’d leave you in here all by yourself, did you?” She flopped down in the seat at Eva’s other side, sliding her laptop onto the table in front of her. “He was pretty freaking crazy.”
“He was confused.” Eva corrected the assumption. “He believed I wanted a relationship with him and I didn’t.” She lifted her shoulders. “That’s all.”
“It doesn’t usually require a protective order to convince a man you’re not interested, though.” Harlow tapped on her keyboard. “It looks like it just expired too.” She turned her computer around for Shawn and Dutch to look at.
“Got it.” Dutch was staring at his own screen.
Eva shifted in her seat. “Stop.” She stood and reached for Dutch’s computer. “That’s none of your business.”
“You paid a lot of money for this to be our business, Ms. Tatum.” Shawn’s expression was impassive. He was sitting there like this was all perfectly above-board.
“I paid a lot of money for you to make sure nothing weird happened, not for you to go digging through my past.” She leaned forward and made another grab for Dutch’s laptop.
He scooted it away. “Looks like the guy was convicted of menacing, stalking, breaking and entering, and theft.”
“Stop it.” Eva shoved her chair back, planning to go around the table.
“Throw this at him.” Harlow slid the container of hummus closer.
“What? No. I want that.” Eva grabbed her food and held it close to her chest.
“Hmm.” Harlow eyed her. “I pegged you as a thrower.” She went back to her own computer. “Don’t worry. I won’t hold it against you.”
“A thrower?” Eva thought this was going to be her game to play, but these people were nothing like the ones she was used to dealing with.
“Sometimes you just gotta throw something to get your point across.” Harlow glanced up. “Are you gonna go fight them or are you going to sit your ass back down so we can figure this out?”
Eva glanced at Dutch and Shawn.
Harlow started cackling beside her. “You actually had to think about it.” She wiped at one of her eyes. “I love it.”
“Sit down, Eva.” Brock was standing beside her.
When did he get up?
He gently took the container of hummus from her and set it back on the table. “I know this feels invasive, but we have to know what we’re dealing with.” His eyes rested on hers. “I need to know who I’m protecting you from.”
Eva’s belly flipped at the thought of Brock as her protector, which was silly.
There was nothing to protect her from. It was all ridiculous.
“Fine.”
She flopped back into her seat.
“When I was in college a guy at school broke into my apartment and stole all my panties.”
CHAPTER 7
HARLOW’S HEAD SNAPPED to Eva. “Holy shit. Were they expensive?”
Brock stared at her. “That’s what you’re worried about?”
Harlow lifted one hand, palm up. “Do you have any idea how much panties cost?”
“They were nice ones.” Eva held up her thumb and finger about an inch apart. “The kind with the lace band around the top.”
“Thongs?”
Eva looked like Harlow slapped her. “I don’t hate myself.”
Harlow wrapped one arm around Eva’s shoulders. “You are my favor
ite person right now.”
“Did you get them back?”
Harlow’s eyes snapped to Shawn. “First, don’t pretend you’re part of this conversation. Second, ew. He probably whacked all over them.”
Shawn pinched the bridge of his nose. “I wasn’t asking out of concern. I was asking to find out if she knew what he did with them.”
“He whacked all over them.” Eva’s head bobbed in a nod. “I didn’t want them back.”
Brock grabbed Eva’s chair and pulled it closer to his. Hearing what had gone on when she was younger made him edgy.
Harlow leaned to look at him around Eva. “Just because you sucked her face in a parking lot doesn’t make her yours.”
Eva’s body stiffened. “That was because of those guys.”
Harlow snorted. “I saw it. It was definitely not because of those guys.”
“Can we get back to the guy from college?” Shawn leaned into the table, eyes on Eva. “How did you know him?”
“I didn’t.”
“You didn’t?”
Eva shook her head. “No. He was just some guy who’d seen me around I guess. Decided I should want to date him.”
Shawn’s eyes met Brock’s.
“Do you think he knows where you are now?”
“Like now, now?” Eva tapped one finger on the table with each word.
“Like in Cincinnati. Do you think he knows where you are in Ohio?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. I’m listed on the website for Investigative Resources.” She shook her head. “There’s no way what happened was him.”
Shawn didn’t miss a beat. “What happened?”
Eva sighed. “I was getting things left on my porch.”
“Things?” Brock scooted his chair even closer to hers, glaring at Harlow as he did, daring her to say anything.
“Nothing big. Like flowers. Sometimes food and clothes and stuff.”
“Panties?” Harlow sounded almost hopeful and it was impossible to tell if it was because she was hoping to confirm it was the same guy, or because she was hoping everything was right in the world of missing panties.
Counterfeit Relations (Alaskan Security: Team Rogue Book 2) Page 6
