by Nashoda Rose
“Phone’s for you,” the very masculine voice said.
I glanced up to see the bar owner, Matt, holding out a cell phone. “Me?” I asked.
He nodded. “Your man.”
“My….” Oh my God. Deaglan. That’s the third time tonight someone said he’s my man. “He’s not my…” my voice trailed off as he slid the cell on the table and walked away.
Ally gaped, her eyes following Matt as he strode toward the bar. “Now, that is a sweet, tight ass.”
I placed the cell to my ear. “Deaglan?”
“Babe, where’s your cell?” Deaglan said, his voice abrupt.
I was learning that Deaglan was to the point and there wasn’t a lot of fluff in his texts or his calls. I no longer took it personally, especially since he was calling or texting because he was checking to see if I was okay.
“It’s in my purse.” I rummaged through my purse and took out my cell. Six missed calls. All Deaglan. Not good. “What’s wrong? Why are you calling the bar?”
“I’m on my way.”
“Girls’ night means no men allowed, and you need to stop saying I’m your girl. I’m not your girl.” But even as I said the words, there were parts of me that liked that he said that.
“We need to talk, Eva,” he said quietly.
Okay. That sounded serious. “But Strikeback is playing.”
Kendra watched me, frowning, her disapproval of my “fling” evident on her face. She thought I was going to get hurt. She was probably right, but going two years without sex, then having amazing sex with a man who had alarms installed which made me feel safe, and helped me get unstuck with plans for the house, it topped the heart getting hurt part.
Silence, then, “It’s important.”
Okay, he was worried, which made me worried, and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. “Umm, yeah, okay.”
“I’m on my way. Be there in ten.”
He was gone before I had the chance to say goodbye. I slid the cell on the table and glanced at Ally and Kendra, who both watched me. “Deaglan is picking me up.”
Kendra shook her head, lips pursed. “I’m not sure about him, Eva.”
“He had alarms installed. And took her fridge shopping,” Ally said. “Most married men don’t do that.”
The waitress appeared. “You done with Matt’s phone? I’ll give it back to him,” she said with a sweet smile, revealing her perfect white teeth.
“Oh, yeah, thanks,” I replied, passing her the phone.
She smiled. “No problem.”
Kendra poured more beer in her glass. “What happens when he goes back to Ireland?”
“He goes back to Ireland. We’re not in a relationship,” I replied.
“Exactly,” Kendra said. “You need someone who is going to be there for you. And lives in the same country. What about Bob? He’s sweet, super hot, and has money. And he’s looking for a relationship.”
I laughed. “You mean Boring Bob?”
She snorted. “Why do you guys call him that?” Because he’s boring and his name is Bob. “He’s not boring. He’s settled.”
“He’s boring as fuck,” Ally blurted.
Kendra rolled her eyes, but a smile toyed at the corners of her mouth. She damn well knew Boring Bob was boring. But I knew she was concerned about me and didn’t want me to get hurt again.
“Why is he picking you up?” Ally asked,
I shrugged while sipping my beer. “He won’t say.”
“Maybe he found the mugger?” Kendra suggested.
Maybe.
“Or Curran. You said he was trying to locate the asshole,” Ally said.
Or he’d seen the sealed police report on the assault. Deaglan had said he needed to know what Curran had done to me.
But I didn’t want him to see the photos. I knew logically what happened wasn’t my fault, but that wasn’t always easy to believe.
Ally leaned back on the seat and slowly turned her beer bottle. “He’s so going to kill Curran when he sees what he did to you. He was scary mad when he saw those bruises on you after only knowing you for one night. Now he’s fucked you a lot and he’s going to freak.”
I huffed. “He is not going to freak. Deaglan doesn’t freak.” He gets scary and quiet, but freaking out he doesn’t do.
Ally lifted her brows and shook her head. “He’s going to go postal when he sees the police photos, Eva.”
“The police don’t release evidence to the public, Ally.” But as confident as I sounded, I wasn’t, because I was learning Deaglan was capable of getting his hands on anything he wanted. Including the evidence that had put Curran away for a year.
It wasn’t ten minutes later, it was five minutes when I saw Deaglan walk up to the bar. He and Matt shook hands and chatted for a second before both sets of eyes landed on me.
Firecrackers set off inside me and my belly flip flopped.
He said something else to Matt, then made his way toward me. I couldn’t help but notice the women gawking at him as he passed.
Even if you weren’t into that type of guy, you’d still look because Deaglan demanded attention. But he either didn’t notice or didn’t care that twenty-plus women stared at him because his eyes were on me, and I liked that. A lot.
I swallowed as he approached the booth. “Ladies,” he said with a nod to Kendra and Ally.
“Hey, Deaglan,” Ally said, smiling, her cheeks flushed from drinking and singing to Strikeback’s ‘Only Once’.
“Sorry for interrupting your night, but I need to steal your girl.”
Kendra didn’t say anything and it was because she was glaring at Deaglan.
Deaglan’s gaze met hers. “You have issues with me.”
Oh, shit. “We should go.” I slid out of the booth, and Deaglan’s hand settled on my lower back as if an automatic gesture.
Kendra raised her chin and met his eyes. “I don’t want to see Eva get hurt. So, yeah, I do.” Kendra interviewed some of the cockiest and most confident men in sports, so she wasn’t afraid of meeting Deaglan head on. Which was exactly what I was afraid of.
Deaglan’s expression softened. “I’m good with that, it means you’re looking out for Eva. You’ll get over it.”
My eyes snapped to his face. You’ll get over it? What did that mean?
Ally giggled. Kendra huffed.
I said goodbye and Deaglan kept me glued to his side as we weaved through the crowd and out to his car that he’d parked in front of Avalanche where it said no parking.
“Are you going to tell me what’s so important that you needed to drag me away from watching Strikeback?” I asked as he opened the door for me.
“We’re meeting the guys at VUR.”
I frowned. “Now? It’s after nine on Saturday night.”
“It’s important.” He met my eyes and my heart skipped a beat, but it wasn’t a good skip because he looked serious. “My warehouse blew up and the guy who attacked you is dead.”
My stomach landed somewhere back on the pavement as my mind spun because I wasn’t sure what to grasp first: they found the guy who mugged me, him being dead, or that Deaglan’s place blew up.
“Eva, you’re chewing your lip.”
I released my lip. “I’m processing.”
“Not a lot to process.”
“Umm, yeah, there is. Your place blew up, Deaglan.” I inhaled a shaky breath because saying the words made it so much more real. “You could’ve been in it. You could’ve been there and…” Words locked in my throat and I swallowed several times. “Was that the plan? Was someone trying to kill you? God, why would someone want to kill you?”
He turned right onto the ramp and merged onto the highway. “My guess, I pissed them off somehow.”
A snort-huff escaped. “If I piss someone off, they give me the finger, not blow up my house.”
He made a gruff sound. “I’ve made a few enemies over the years.”
“What kind of enemies?”
I knew whatever he di
d for a living was dangerous and involved security of some kind, and hunting bad guys, but he hadn’t been exactly the sharing type of guy and I hadn’t pushed because we weren’t in a relationship.
“Babe, nothing is touching you.”
But the truth was, I hadn’t even thought about what this had to do with me. I was thinking about Deaglan. “Was it the guy who mugged me who blew up your place?”
“No. His body washed up on shore. A man walking his dog found the body two days ago. It’s why it took us so long to find him.”
“Oh.” My fingers fiddled with the hem of my little black dress. “How did he die?”
“Overdose.”
“So, he did mug me for money to buy drugs, and it has nothing to do with you?” Does that mean Deaglan will stop coming over at night? Will he go back to Ireland?
He pulled off at the next exit. “There were no needle marks in his arms, but there were signs on his wrists that he’d been restrained. Ernie, a retired Navy SEAL who works for Kai, has spent some time with the homeless, so he asked around. None of them have ever seen him. Meaning he wasn’t homeless and likely wasn’t a drug user.” He glanced in his rearview mirror, then changed lanes. “The police know it’s homicide, but they can’t prove it yet, so for now it’s ruled as an accidental overdose.”
“Someone killed him,” I said quietly.
“Deck wants you to look at a photo. Confirm it’s the guy.”
“I didn’t get a good look at his face. I don’t think I’ll recognize him.”
“We need you to take a look anyway, babe,” he said. “Confirm it’s the same tattoo on the back of his right hand.”
“Oh.”
He pulled up in front of a modern, four-story office building and parked.
“Eva.” He dangled one arm over the top of the steering wheel as he turned to face me. “I don’t know if Deck called her in tonight, but I don’t want you walking in there blind to the fact that VUR’s secretary and I were together. Once. Before she worked here. She’ll make it clear that we were a thing, but that thing was one night.”
I was well aware of the fact that Deaglan had been with other women and didn’t do relationships. I opened my door and said over my shoulder. “I’m sure she won’t be the first girl I meet who has sucked your cock.”
He snorted. “Jesus, babe.”
Deaglan opened the frosted glass door for me, his hand on the small of my back. There was a silver plaque on the door that said, VUR by Appointment Only. If you didn’t know VUR, you would have no idea what it stood for or that these guys hunted bad guys. Or as Tyler said, “the worst motherfuckers in the world.”
The place was classy, yet minimal with hardwood floors, a black bench in the foyer and straight ahead an oak desk where a twenty-something-year-old woman wearing bright cherry-pink lipstick typed on a computer.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled meeting a woman he’d slept with, but I was fully aware of Deaglan being sexually active without strings. This was bound to happen if we spent any time together outside of my bedroom.
She didn’t look at me. She looked at Deaglan, her brown eyes dancing and her tongue gliding across her plush lower lip.
She squeaked and jumped from her chair. “Deaglan. Why didn’t you call me? I didn’t know you were back in Toronto.”
I rolled my eyes and leaned into Deaglan, whispering, “Did she squeak like that while you were—”
“Eva,” he growled, arm sliding around my waist and fingers digging into my hip.
God, she was nothing like me. Nothing.
She pranced around the side of the desk wearing spiked, red heels, and a tight, mid-thigh-length red dress. It looked like she’d been out at a club when she’d been called in to work.
“Claire,” Deaglan said. “Are Deck and the others here yet?”
Her hips swayed and large, gold-hooped earrings dangled as she approached. Her gaze flicked to me then to Deaglan’s arm loosely hooked around my waist.
She stopped in front of us and I gagged on her pungent, flowery perfume.
“When the guys asked me to come in tonight, I didn’t know it had to do with you. Are you okay?” she purred, with her painted pink lips squished into a pout. She placed her hand on his chest, matching pink fingernails grazing his shirt.
Deaglan’s fingers twitched on my hip. “Deck?” he repeated.
Her sweetness catapulted to venom as she glared at me like it was my fault she was being rejected.
“Boardroom.” She spun on her heel and walked back to her desk and sat. “Connor, Tyler, and Vic are here, too. Kai is on his….” She glanced past us to the door. “Just pulling in.”
I shifted to look through the glass doors and saw a tall, lean man wearing a tailored suit climb out of a classy charcoal-gray sports car.
He strode into the building. Sunglasses, expensive. Shoes, expensive. And suit, expensive.
Not a commando guy. But from his confident stride, he looked just as foreboding.
“Deaglan Kane,” he said in a husky voice with a hint of humor, but it wasn’t exactly friendly.
“Kai,” Deaglan said, and they shook hands. “Been a while. How’s that figurine collection coming along?”
Not a chance did this man have a figurine collection.
Kai chuckled and the sound was like smooth, fine brandy. “How is your Crown collection?”
Your Crown collection? My eyes darted to Deaglan. What were they talking about?
Deaglan tensed and his fingers tightened on my hip. “They aren’t mine, as you’re well aware.”
Kai’s brows lifted, but he didn’t say anything. He removed his sunglasses and turned to me. I was met with hard, piercing green eyes that were definitely assessing, as if he were trying to figure out if I was worthy of his attention. If you could get past his intensity and scariness, he was absolutely beautiful and had a magnetic quality about him.
“Kai.” He offered his hand and I shook it.
“Eva,” I said.
The hardness evaporated from his eyes. “The nurse from St. Micks Hospital. You met my wife London at the Treasured Children’s charity.”
Oh wow. This was Kai. London’s husband, Kai, the mysterious, wealthy, sex god who worshipped the ground she walked on.
Everyone in the medical field knew of London and her work in finding a cure for cancer. She’d written several research papers and owned a laboratory north of the city.
We’d spoken for several minutes at the charity event before her little girl, Hope, dragged her away to go see the horses.
“Yeah, that’s me.”
Deaglan urged me forward down the hall. “Deck’s waiting.”
Kai didn’t follow as he stopped to speak to Claire.
The door was open into the boardroom and there was a twelve-person, glass table and twelve, black leather chairs. Along the far side of the room were tinted floor-to-ceiling windows with the blinds pulled a quarter of the way down.
There was also a small, stainless steel fridge in the far corner beside a filing cabinet.
The men were standing around the table, leaning over and sifting through a bunch of photos and papers.
Vic, Tyler, Connor, and Deck straightened as we walked in. All wore cargo pants, some black, others khaki, and every one of them was muscled and tall. Deck was the broadest and scariest, well, besides Vic, but I didn’t count him because I was pretty sure Vic wasn’t human.
“Eva,” Deck said, nodding.
“Hey.” I half waved.
“You met Connor O’Neill at the charity event, Georgie’s brother,” Deaglan said.
“Yeah, hi, again,” I said.
Connor offered a grin and his eyes were friendly, but there was a hidden seam behind that friendly. Something dark and painful that I hadn’t noticed the first time we’d met, but then I had been focused on Deaglan. But I shouldn’t be surprised as I imagined all these men had experienced the unimaginable being in the military.
Connor had his tattooed, scul
pted arms crossed. He wore a black T-shirt with a holster that contained a gun in full view, which in Canada was highly illegal.
Deaglan gestured to Tyler, who flipped a pen between his fingers as he perched one foot on a chair and leaned his forearm on his thigh. “You know that asshole. And Vic.”
I smiled at Tyler who winked at me. I half smiled at Vic on the other side of the table, who didn’t do anything but briefly glance my way.
Kai walked in. “Gentleman,” he said as he pulled out a chair and sat.
Everyone else did, too, with Deck at the far end, Tyler on one side, Vic on the other, and Connor beside him.
With his hand on the small of my back, Deaglan directed me to the seat beside Tyler, who already had pulled it out for me.
“We were just going over the police file,” Deck said.
He sifted through a few of the photos before handing one to me. “Frank Davidson, the man we believe attacked you. Forty-two, military for two years before he was discharged for assault. Numerous charges since. Most minor and given a slap on the wrist. He’s a known lackey in the underground, does shit jobs for shit money. Video footage at Deaglan’s reveals a man we think is Davidson was in the alley seven times. And that’s what we can confirm. He knew to keep out of view of the cameras. We assume he was there more often and likely doing surveillance. First time we saw him was the day Deaglan arrived here from Ireland.”
He nodded to me. “Is that the tattoo?”
I studied the photo. The man looked ten years older than Deck said he was. My eyes trailed down to the hand in the photo and my heart skipped a beat. “That looks like it. The spider. It had long legs and the eyes. The eyes were red like that. But it happened so fast and… I can’t be sure.”
“And he only wanted your purse?” Deck said.
I swallowed. “Yeah.”
“No chance Frank Davidson was after a few dollars,” Connor said.
“Staged as a mugging,” Deaglan said. “It might have worked if he’d avoided the cameras when he chased her with a fuckin’ seven-inch, serrated blade.”
Deck nodded.
Connor, Vic, and Kai sifted through the other photos on the table.
