Dark Nights Dangerous Men

by Elisabeth Naughton, Cynthia Eden, Katie Reus, Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright, Joan Swan

A frown tugged at his mouth. His irritated dark eyes finally flicked her way, the first time since they’d left Chicago.

  She smiled her most sour grin.

  His jaw clenched as he looked back at the road. “It’s family stuff, Maxwell. Nothing you’d be interested in.”

  She was, though, and the fact he didn’t think she would be made her sarcastic smile fade. “Nice try, Sullivan. We made a deal, and you’re stuck with me.”

  “Fine.” His hands tightened on the wheel. “Tag along if you want. I don’t care. But my family’s not like yours, so consider yourself warned.”

  She settled back in the seat, feeling smug and victorious. “So what happened and where are we going?”

  For a moment she thought he wouldn’t answer, then he said, “My mother’s in the hospital. I need to stop and see her.”

  She looked over. “Is she okay?”

  Something in his eyes shifted, a look that tugged on her chest, but he kept his intense gaze focused ahead. “She’s got pancreatic cancer. Had a bad reaction to the chemo.”

  A ball formed in the pit of her stomach, and she swallowed, feeling like the biggest heel on the planet. “Oh.”

  He shifted uncomfortably in the seat as if he didn’t want to be having this conversation. “Like I said, you don’t need to go. I can pick you up when I’m done.”

  The fact he didn’t want her to go with him convinced her that was just what she needed to do. Maybe because she sensed the anxiety radiating from him. Maybe because she remembered the fear on his face when he’d answered that call. Maybe because she felt like she was getting her first glimpse at the man he was underneath, and part of her wanted to know what made him tick.

  Another part recognized that seeing him as anything other than a thief was a dangerous thing, but she ignored it.

  She shook her head. “You don’t need to be worrying about running me all over. I’ll go and just stay out of your way until you’re done. They’ve got waiting rooms at hospitals. I’ll just hang there.”

  He slanted a sideways glance her direction, no longer looking angry, simply exhausted. Her heart did that strange thump thing again at the vulnerability she saw in his dark eyes.

  Oh, shit. That look was pure trouble. Trouble she did not need on top of everything else.

  “Thanks,” he said softly. “I promise we won’t stay long.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Lisa hated hospitals. Always had. Every time she walked into one, it seemed someone was dying.

  Drawing in a deep breath, she followed Rafe into the lobby of Mercy Hospital, then waited while he checked in at the information desk.

  Jeans and a V-neck sweater had been a bad idea. She’d forgotten how freakin’ hot it was down here. She fanned her face with her hand as she stared at a giant ficus in the middle of the room. Who was she kidding? She wasn’t sweating from the heat but from the stress of being in a hospital again.

  When Rafe gestured toward the elevators, she willed her feet forward and followed. Beside her in the car, Rafe was silent, but she felt the tension hanging in the air like thick smoke. He didn’t want to be here any more than she did, and that knowledge helped ease her anxiety. At least a little.

  The door opened with a ping. Hailey Roarke turned their way and dropped her crossed arms. Curly blond hair cascaded around her shoulders and her porcelain skin glowed under the fluorescent lights, but worry lines marred her forehead. She wore a fitted white tank top, cute khaki capris, and beaded sandals that highlighted her purple-painted toenails. And while Lisa’s focus should have been somewhere—anywhere—else, she couldn’t help noticing that out of uniform, Rafe’s ex wasn’t just pretty, she was a knockout.

  That didn’t endear her to Lisa any. Frowning and feeling frumpy, she hated the woman more than she had when they’d met only a few days before.

  “You two look like hell,” Hailey said when she and Rafe stepped off the elevator.

  Oh, yeah. Definitely hated the woman. With a passion. The emotion may have been totally immature, but at least it gave Lisa something substantial to focus on besides her stupid neurosis.

  Rafe frowned. “Where is she?”

  “End of the hall.” Hailey held up a hand when he tried to push past her. “Wait. There’s something I need to tell you first.”

  Concerned dark eyes shot to Hailey’s face, and Lisa watched the color drain from his cheeks. Her heart kicked over at his reaction.

  Oh no. Please, God. Don’t say we’re too late

  “What happened?”

  “It’s not her,” Hailey said quickly, reading his expression. “She’s going to be okay. She had a bad reaction to the chemo, got pretty sick and dehydrated, so they brought her here for observation. But she’s already doing better.”

  He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, opened them again. “Good. Then everything else can wait.”

  He took a step but Hailey stopped him with a hand on his chest. “No, it can’t. Rafe, I got a call from the billing office at the care center yesterday. They couldn’t find you, and they still have my name on some of the paperwork. Your payment bounced.”

  “What?”

  “The account’s empty.”

  Confusion crossed his face. “That’s impossible. There’s enough money in that account for the next six months of her care.”

  Hailey didn’t drop her hand. “I know. But I’m telling you it’s gone.”

  His eyes narrowed, then widened with realization. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

  Hailey tensed and moved fully in front of him. “Not right now you won’t. I didn’t tell you so you could rip his head off. I told you because she knows about it and thinks it’s a bank error.”

  “Bank error, my ass.” Rafe’s jaw clenched. “Where the hell is the little weasel?”

  “Inside. Regardless of what he did, he cares about her.”

  “He doesn’t care about her. He never has. All he cares about his own selfish ass.” He pushed her hand away and stepped around her.

  Hailey turned so her gaze could follow him. “Pull your head out of your butt, Sullivan. You lay into him in front of her and it’s just going to make things worse.”

  “Oh, I won’t lay into Billy in front of her,” he said over his shoulder as he made his way down the hall. “I can wait five fucking minutes to kill the prick.”

  Lisa watched the conversation with curious eyes. When Hailey glanced her way and frowned, Lisa stepped cautiously forward. Even though the woman wasn’t high on her list, she was possibly her only friend at this point. “Who’s Billy?” she asked quietly as they walked.

  “His brother,” Hailey said under her breath. “Black sheep of the family. Rafe didn’t tell you about him, huh?”

  Lisa shook her head.

  Nice. Oh, man, now she really didn’t want to be here. Rafe was already ticked at her, and this on top of everything else wasn’t going to help. She should have taken him up on his offer to hang in a hotel room for the afternoon.

  The door was open when they reached his mother’s room. Lisa tried to blend into the shadows in the hall, but Hailey tugged on her sleeve. “He’s gonna need a distraction. Come on.”

  The familiar scent of industrial cleaners stung Lisa’s nostrils when she stepped into the room, bringing a wave of memories. Painful days in a hospital bed when her head and heart had been in a really bad place. She swallowed back the bile sliding up her throat.

  A slim woman with sparse dark hair sat up in the bed. Her skin was pale, arms frail as she lifted them to hug her son. Wires and tubes stuck out of her hands, ran to machines at her bedside. She looked like a gentle breeze could take her out, but her eyes were wide and shining and very much alive when she looked up at Rafe.

  Eyes, Lisa noticed, that were just as dark and mesmerizing as his.

  The anger she’d seen flash in those gleaming obsidians before slipped away, replaced with gentleness as he looked at his mother. His broad shoulders seemed to engulf the small woman as he leaned down t
o hug her. “Hi, Mamá”

  “There’s my boy.” She kissed his cheek, ran bony hands over the day’s growth of beard on his jaw. “You didn’t have to rush down here. I’m fine.”

  “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be. You know that.” His voice was soft and gentle, as if he were talking to a child. He slid his hand down to clasp hers tenderly, touching her like she was made of glass. Fragile. Special. Worth more to him than anything in the world.

  And Lisa’s heart kicked over as she watched. In all the time she’d known him, he’d never once looked at her like that. Not in Chicago when he thought she’d been hurt. Not in Milan when he’d wanted her in his bed. Until this moment, she hadn’t realized just how much she wanted a man to look at her like that, like she was the center of his world.

  Not any man. This man.

  Oh, shit

  The tightness in her chest made it hard to breathe.

  The man standing with his back to the room turned from the windows and scowled, shattering the serene image. “Nice of the prodigal son to finally show up.”

  Rafe shot him a disinterested look and refocused on his mother. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m fine, m’ijo. I had a little trouble, but I’m better now. Mostly just tired and worn out. But that’s normal.”

  He squeezed her hand and pulled a chair alongside her bed so he could sit.

  She glanced over his shoulder toward the door, her large dark eyes lighting with excitement. “You brought a friend.”

  Lisa’s heart banged out an unnatural rhythm when Rafe turned, still holding his mother’s hand in his. But the flash of unease in his eyes said he’d forgotten she was there. Forgotten she even existed. Lisa’s heart dropped into her stomach, fast, swift, unexpected.

  Better that way, she told herself. Definitely safer, all things considered.

  “Mamá, this is Lisa Maxwell. We’re…business associates. We were working on a project together when Hailey called.”

  The man near the window coughed several times and shifted quickly away. Lisa’s gaze darted his direction, and in the time span it took for him to turn, recognition flared.

  Blue Jacket. From the bar in Chicago.

  No way.

  Words choked in Lisa’s throat. She looked from Rafe to his brother and back again, unsure what to say or do. She’d been thrown for a loop from the moment she’d stepped into the hospital, and it was getting worse. “Um…”

  His mother smiled. “Call me Teresa. It’s so nice to meet you.” She gestured for Lisa to come closer. “I never get to meet any of Rafael’s friends. The last woman he brought home he ended up marrying. And then divorcing.”

  Lisa didn’t miss the disapproval in Teresa’s voice. Beside Lisa, Hailey snickered and pushed her forward as if she’d heard it a hundred times and was glad someone else was in the hot seat.

  “Mamá,” Rafe warned.

  “What?” Teresa asked, solemn eyes set on her son. “It’s true.” She glanced at Lisa and smiled.

  “Mamá, Lisa and I are only professional colleagues.”

  Lisa’s gaze swept toward Rafe. He was no longer zoned in on his mother. No, he was watching her with that dark, mysterious look that made her heart rebound from the depths of her abdomen and trip a beat to the tune of Al Green’s “Here I Am (Come and Take Me).”

  “Let me get a look at you.”

  She thanked God for the distraction, for the chance to claw her way out of the sticky web this thief was spinning around her. Lisa tore her gaze from Rafe and looked back at his mother.

  A smile brightened Teresa’s face, bringing a warmth to her eyes that made them sparkle. “My, she is pretty. All that red hair. You’re Irish aren’t you?”

  Oh, great. This was a helluva lot better. Now she felt like a piece of meat. A very uncomfortable piece of meat, trapped between a rock and a sheer drop-off. Lisa nodded, wishing she were anywhere else but in this room right now. “Yes. I am.”

  Teresa’s smile widened, enveloping her whole face. “My husband was from Galway. Have you been there?”

  “No. I’m afraid not.”

  She waved her free hand, a wistful look in her eyes, and rested her head against the pillows. “Neither have I, but he used to talk about it often. Billy takes after his father, all light skin and hair.”

  Beside her, Rafe’s jaw clenched as he glanced at his brother, a reaction Lisa knew his mother didn’t notice.

  She looked between her boys. “You’d never guess they were siblings.”

  Lisa’s gaze shifted to Billy again. With his back to the room, he was doing a good job at avoiding her and the whole conversation in general. “No, you never would.” She glanced back at Rafe. “It’s definitely a surprise.”

  “Well, you know,” Billy said, turning quickly, keeping his eyes down. “I gotta go. Mamá, I’ll be back later.”

  Rafe was on his feet in a flash. “I need to talk to you before you leave.” His tone was even and calm, but danger brewed in his eyes. “Why don’t I walk you out? Make sure you don’t trip or anything on the way.”

  Panic and a hint of fear crossed Billy’s pale features, and he tried to shrug in a nonchalant way that looked anything but casual. “Yeah. Sure. Whatever.” His gaze moved past Rafe to his mother, skipping over Lisa as if she weren’t even in the room. “I’ll see you later, Mamá” He moved to the side of her bed and kissed her cheek. “Te quiero.”

  “Te quiero, m’ijo.”

  Billy stepped toward the door, and Rafe slapped a hand on his shoulder in what appeared to be brotherly affection. But the way Rafe’s fingers dug into Billy’s muscles, Lisa knew the gesture was anything but friendly.

  She darted a worried look at Hailey, who quickly dropped her arms and stepped toward the bed to keep Rafe’s mother from seeing too much. “Teresa, Lisa is an archaeologist.”

  Teresa’s tired eyes brightened. “You are? Tell me, how did you meet my Rafael?”

  Oh, geez. That wasn’t a story Lisa wanted to tell. Tearing her gaze from the door, she looked at Hailey who only smiled and lifted a shoulder as if to say You’re on your own.

  Shit, shit, shit.

  Lisa glanced back at Rafe’s mother. What she needed to do was talk to Rafe before he seriously injured his brother. She didn’t put it past him, considering the fire she’d seen brewing in his eyes.

  And if her hunch was right, he didn’t know his little brother was tangled up in this mess with the Furies. Her stomach clenched at the thought of telling him. Billy might just be their best link to finding out who was after them.

  ***

  The stairwell was the most private place Rafe could find in a pinch. He yanked Billy through the door and tossed him against the cement wall. The door clanged shut behind them.

  “Hey. Watch it.” In a defiant show of attitude he’d perfected over the years, Billy straightened, more shocked than hurt, shook his hair back from his face and scowled.

  Yeah, like Rafe had never seen that look before. He set his hands on his hips and did his best to smother his bubbling temper. It didn’t work.

  “Where’s the money?”

  Billy’s eyes darted to the floor. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Bullshit. Don’t play games with me.”

  Billy clenched his jaw, shifted his feet, but didn’t look up. Rafe could see he was contemplating his choices, that he knew he was cornered.

  “I was just borrowing it,” he said after a long pause. “Like a loan.”

  “Jodienda.” Rafe ran both hands over his face. It didn’t matter that Billy wasn’t even listed on the account. The kid was smart. He knew how to pull a scam of his own. And hell, who better to hit than your own brother, the one you’ve always despised? He had access to account info, social security numbers, knew Rafe’s signature and had a photographic memory. Piece of cake. The fact he hadn’t pulled something like this sooner was what should have surprised Rafe more.

  Shit, he wasn’t even a kid anymore. H
e was a grown man who always managed to get himself into more trouble than he was worth. He might have a genius IQ of 165, but when it came to common sense, he was seriously lacking.

  Hailey’s frequent reminder popped into his head. The one she’d uttered whenever Billy had gotten into trouble over the years—which had been a lot: You can’t kill family members. They put you in jail for that kind of thing, and I don’t think even I could get you out of that one.

  “Where the hell is it?” Rafe asked.

  “I used it to pay off a debt.”

  “A what?” Rafe’s temper skyrocketed.

  “Look, I’ll get it back, okay?” A hint of panic laced through Billy’s words. “I did a job for this guy, and it didn’t work out the way I planned. He’d already given me an advance, and I had to pay it back. But I’ve got other work lined up. It’ll be a bit, but I’ll pay it back.”

  Rafe’s hands curled into fists at his side. If Billy hadn’t been his brother, he’d have beat the crap out of him. As it was, he loved the punk, even if he was a royal fuckup.

  “When?”

  Billy lifted one shoulder, dropped it. “I don’t know. A couple months.”

  “Fuck that.”

  “I swear.” When Billy glanced up, fear flashed in his eyes. “These guys were serious, Rafe. Said they’d break my legs if I didn’t pay up. I was out of options. I’m good for it, though. You know I love Mamá”

  He’d heard it all before. Rafe blew out a calming breath, pressed fingers against his tired eyes. This was messing up all his plans. Now not only was he on a time crunch because of his mother’s health, he had cash-flow problems to worry about.

  He dropped his hands. “This is the last time, Billy. I’m tired of bailing your ass out when you get in a fix. Use those brilliant brains of yours and figure out a way to replenish Mamá’s account now, not in a few months. Even if you have to sell everything you own, you do it. I don’t have time to deal with this shit right now. And I swear to God if you cross me again, it’ll be the last time. Family ties only go so far.”

  “Okay, I will.” Billy inched toward the door.