Harlequin Romantic Suspense May 2018 Box Set

by Regan Black

  He brushed his lips across hers in a fast kiss as he bolted for his turn in the shower. She set the table and poured wine for each of them while she waited. It felt so natural and so strange at the same time. She tried to focus on the natural part of the equation.

  It was easier when Shane breezed back in with less than a minute to spare on the oven timer.

  “Perfect timing,” she said.

  “I’ve discovered life sort of takes care of the timing if we let it.”

  She would agree, unless they were talking about Nico and the puppy currently subject to the Larson twins’ treatment. Depending on the training techniques employed, both dogs might never have valid working careers.

  “You’re thinking of Nico,” he said as he set both plates on the table.

  She couldn’t deny it. “Every day means less chance of a full recovery. I won’t stop thinking about him or the puppy until they’re both safe at the training center again.”

  “The way Noel was going, the training center might need to invest in more steak,” Shane said.

  She knew he was trying to make her laugh, and it worked a little. “If that’s the worst of it, I’ll cover the expense out of pocket.”

  He reached over and touched her hand. “We’ll get the dogs back. You’ll see. And then you can work your magic.”

  His confidence was contagious and it washed over her, easing the persistent frustration with the unresolved situation. “Any new messages from Demi?”

  He shook his head.

  She noticed the tension bracketing his mouth. “As worrisome as it is to have so many people injured or killed, it must be convincing more of the RRPD that she’s innocent.”

  “That is one positive.” They finished dinner, and after taking Stumps for a walk, they returned to Shane’s house to watch the movie that had been interrupted when Tyler had been skulking around outside.

  By the time the credits rolled, Danica decided Hayley had been right. It was much better to take a chance and claim love without worrying about how long it might last. They’d purged the past and cleared a path for something new, something that gave her hope.

  She’d never experienced a relationship that filled her with such a sense of peace to balance the excitement. She’d never given herself permission to seek that kind of relationship, really, burdened as she was by the guilt of her grandfather. Of course, love or not, she wouldn’t look far into a future with Shane. It was way too soon for that.

  For now she was happy to be happy.

  “I’ll let Stumps out,” she said as Shane turned off the television.

  Stumps went racing out into the yard and did a big circuit that made her laugh. When the corgi decided it was playtime, he did it with the same exuberance and gusto he applied to every working and training activity.

  She walked inside and right into Shane’s embrace. The unknowns on resolving the case would be waiting for them in the morning.

  From his pocket, Shane’s phone hummed and his face turned thunderous as he read the message.

  “Is that news on the shooter?” she asked hopefully.

  He shoved the phone back in his pocket. “The initial trail away from the shooter’s position went cold. I’m not sure how he managed that. And the trail in town went cold, too.”

  “You could have told me earlier.” She wasn’t fragile.

  “We had more important things to discuss when you woke up.”

  “Right.”

  He stepped close. “You realize you’re even more beautiful when you blush?”

  She looked away.

  “Yes, just like that.”

  “Stop teasing me.” She knew what she looked like.

  “Maybe in an hour. Or three.” He scooped her up and carried her back to the bedroom.

  * * *

  Shane came awake from a deep sleep in the span of a single heartbeat. Alert, aware of a threat, he listened for the source without moving a muscle.

  Stumps growled low. The dog was close. Beside the bed or under it?

  Shane surreptitiously reached out for Danica to warn her to keep her still and found the sheets where she’d been were already cool. It was the only fact that mattered. Someone had taken Danica. If she’d left willingly, Stumps wouldn’t be growling.

  He slid out of the bed to the floor.

  “Hold it, hotshot,” a low voice threatened. “One more move and I kill her.”

  “Danica?” The only answer was a shift in the darkness near the bedroom door. “Let her go,” Shane demanded.

  The lights came on and Shane held up a hand against the glare. When he could see Danica, his heart stuttered in his chest. A man in black, bigger than Shane, wore a mask over his face and held Danica tight against his chest. A hunting knife gleamed at her throat.

  Shane shut down his emotions and his mind switched to the cold tactics of survival.

  “Let her go,” he repeated.

  A tremor rippled through Danica. Her eyes rounded as she met his gaze. He knew what she’d heard. Yes, the cold, calculating Colton was back, but it was the only way he knew to save her.

  The masked man gave her a shake, the knife pressing into the tender skin under her chin.

  Behind him, Stumps let loose another low growl, and this time a strange sound caught between a yowl and cry joined in. Her cat, Shane realized, hiding under the bed from the sound of it. Perfect. He could use all the help he could get here.

  The man jerked back another step and Danica’s toes came off the floor. She was completely at the man’s mercy. One slip and the knife would end her, whether or not that was the goal.

  “What do you want with her?” Shane asked. Questions often interrupted a violent thought pattern as the brain automatically tried to provide answers.

  “Loose ends,” the man replied. “Where’s the kid?”

  “She doesn’t know.”

  The man gave Danica a shake and Shane’s heart kicked, certain injury was imminent. “You do.”

  “I don’t,” Shane said. “I swear that information is above my pay grade.”

  “We’ll play it your way,” the man said. “Thought she meant something to you.” The man started backward once more. The dog and cat growled in a threatening chorus. Danica reached out and grabbed the doorjamb, fingers digging in.

  “Wait!” Shane lurched forward, only getting as far as the end of the bed, before Danica’s pained cry stopped him short. “She means everything,” he declared. “What do you want?” he asked, watching the small trickle of Danica’s blood well up over the knife edge.

  “Where is the kid?”

  “Let her go and I’ll tell you,” Shane promised.

  From here, he could close the distance and use the doorway as choke point as soon as he had a distraction. Prison had taught him how to use anything in a fight, refining skills he’d first practiced in his old neighborhood.

  “Tell me and I’ll let her go,” the man countered.

  “Don’t—” Danica’s attempt to speak was cut short by her captor. Her fingers twitched and flexed into the hem of the T-shirt she wore.

  It was all the distraction Shane needed. He gave Stumps the bark signal and lunged forward as the dog turned into a whirling dervish.

  The raucous noise from Stumps set off Oscar. Scared and mad, the massive cat bolted from the bed like an arrow from a bow.

  Shane ducked low, hoping the man’s instincts would draw the knife down and away, leaving Danica room to escape.

  Shane heard a shrill scream as his shoulder connected with the big man’s knees, knocking him into the door frame. Then they were through to the hallway, just Shane, the man and the knife.

  With Danica out of danger, Shane used the small space and his long reach to full advantage. He wrapped up the man’s legs as he tried to scramble away, rolling him toward the wal
l.

  Light from the bedroom skated over the knife, giving Shane the split-second warning he needed to evade. With the knife buried to the hilt in the wall, he overpowered the intruder and pinned him to the floor.

  “Danica?”

  “I’m fine.”

  Thank God. “There are cuffs—” He had to stop as the man tried to squirm free. “Cuffs—”

  “Foyer table. I know.” She tiptoed around the men on the hallway floor and returned quickly.

  Once he had the man’s hands secure, he hauled him up against the wall. He walked to the bedroom and got his gun, handing the weapon to Danica. “Shoot him if he moves.”

  “Tiny here doesn’t have the guts to pull a trigger,” the man said.

  Shane glared at him, almost smiling when Danica flicked off the safety and pointed the barrel at the man’s crotch. “You’re wrong.” He called Stumps over to stand guard with Danica.

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “Cord for his feet,” Shane said without looking at her. If he did, he’d break and he didn’t trust this guy not to pull a Houdini move to escape. “He’s evaded everyone and their K9 trackers. I’m not taking any chances.”

  He returned with the electrical cord he’d pulled from his bedside alarm clock. He kneeled, bound the man’s feet, hauled him out to the living room and left him trussed up on the floor.

  Danica followed, along with Stumps and Oscar.

  He turned to her and his control snapped when he saw the blood on her throat and the neckline of the T-shirt.

  Carefully, he turned her chin so he could see the damage. The wound was barely more than a scratch, and a waterfall of gratitude and relief cascaded over him. “You’re okay?” He couldn’t put more than a whisper into the words.

  “Alive and unharmed.” She smiled. “Thanks to you.” She wrapped her arms around his waist.

  They were barely dressed and he needed to get some answers out of this guy, not the least of which was how he’d bypassed his security system.

  “Go get dressed while I call this in.”

  Her hand slid across his bare waist. “Better wait until you’re dressed, too.”

  “Right.” He didn’t care if anyone caught him in only his briefs. “You first.” He wanted Danica to be comfortable as much as he wanted a few minutes alone with this jerk on his floor.

  He crouched in front of the man who’d invaded his home and held Danica hostage. The woman he valued above his own life. Nothing like a violent intruder to put priorities into perspective. “How did you bypass my security system?”

  “The hacks are as easy as a Google search.”

  Shane knew better, but it was a narrow suspect pool for who was directing this guy. “Why?”

  The man had the grace not to pretend he didn’t understand the question. “Loose ends are bad for business. The kid talked or he wouldn’t be hiding now. I’ll find the safe house and I’ll—”

  “You’ll be twiddling your thumbs in lockup,” Shane corrected him. “Tell me how the Larsons hired you.”

  “Don’t know anyone by that name.”

  Danica returned looking fresher than she should in cropped yoga pants and a matching tank top, her feet bare and a pair of his jeans in her hands. “Figured you wouldn’t want to leave me alone with him again.”

  He could tell by the sharp glint in her gaze she would happily have found a reason to pull the trigger if she needed to. He understood the sentiment.

  “Remind me to give Oscar fresh tuna,” she said, staring at the intruder.

  “Huh?”

  She pointed to the man’s face and he laughed. Oscar, in his panic over the barking stunt, had somehow managed to rake the side of the man’s head. His ear and the scalp above it were bleeding. He might even need stitches.

  “Cat scratches are nasty,” Danica said as breezily as if she was discussing a summer day at the beach. “You probably want to take care of that.”

  The man swore. “You’ll never see your mutts again, you bitch.”

  With a kick to the man’s knee, Shane put an end to destructive conversation. He asked a few more questions while they waited for the police to haul the man away. Unfortunately, they didn’t get anything useful out of him.

  “Now what?” Danica asked when they were alone again.

  Shane gave Stumps a big reward, Oscar too, wishing he had a good answer. She’d been victimized in his home, a place where she should have felt safe. “Would you feel safer at your condo?”

  She shook her head. “Not really. I imagine he went there first, unless he knew I was already here.”

  Neither he nor Vincent had made any attempt to keep it secret that she was at his place after the morning’s shooting. “What a day,” he said, rubbing a hand over his hair.

  “I recall a few high points.” Her body chose that moment to start quaking from the adrenaline surge.

  He opened his arms and she walked into him, resting her cheek against his chest. “You were amazing.”

  Did she know what she was saying? How would she ever forgive him for letting her down? “I was terrified,” he admitted.

  “It didn’t show,” she assured him. “I could tell you were working out the solution.”

  “Thanks for trusting me.”

  “With my life.” She burrowed deeper into his embrace. “Let’s check the locks and go back to bed,” she said.

  He wasn’t about to argue with that suggestion. They found the intruder had come through the back door, which made sense, but however he’d bypassed the alarm, the lock pick he used had barely left a scratch. “New locks tomorrow,” he said, verifying that the door closed properly.

  Though convinced the house was secure, with a patrol unit from the RRPD parked out front, neither one of them seemed eager to go back to the bedroom. “You sure about staying here?”

  She squeezed his hand between both of hers. “My self-confidence took a beating the night Nico was stolen,” she admitted.

  “That’s natural.”

  “Leave it to you to understand.” She smiled. “As independent and capable as I feel most days, I realize it’s okay to have limits, too. To ask for help.”

  He kissed her head. “You’ll be able to sleep after all this?”

  “As long as you’re beside me,” she replied.

  Shane couldn’t believe her strength or her unceasing faith in him. “Count on it.”

  * * *

  Danica was so grateful for Shane’s easy compassion and though she didn’t understand it, she was delighted to feel more like her capable self rather than diminished by Shane’s solid presence.

  “I don’t understand how he got by Stumps to begin with,” Shane said. “I’m a light sleeper these days.”

  Assuming sleeping light was one more lingering effect of life behind bars, she smoothed a hand up and down his arm. “I was on the way to the kitchen for water. I heard the break-in and when your alarm didn’t sound, I sent Stumps to you.”

  Shane stared at her. “You know he could have given a verbal alert.”

  She appreciated the blend of heat and worry in his blue eyes. “Stealth worked out,” she replied. She’d been so afraid the intruder would shoot Stumps if he’d barked. She couldn’t bear to deal Shane one more loss.

  “Aw, man.” He hugged her close. “You thought he’d kill Stumps.”

  She nodded against his bare chest. She wanted to tell him she admired his ruthless fighting skills, but she didn’t want to offend him or bring up more bad memories.

  They headed down the hallway, passing the hole where the knife had landed. In the bedroom, the rumpled covers mocked her and terror tried to creep in. The intruder could have killed her outright. So much could have gone wrong and yet together she and Shane had been victorious.

  She’d hang on to that. Breathing deep
ly, she inhaled the pure comfort and security of his masculine scent as she stretched out beside Shane’s tough body in the bed. Being close to him gave her a sense of confidence she hadn’t entrusted to others in years. Putting confidence in others had come naturally until her grandfather had let her down in stunning fashion by mishandling Shane’s case.

  Life had a way of coming full circle, she thought, drowsing within Shane’s embrace. After nearly a decade of burdensome guilt, she could finally look at Shane and feel only affection and love. It was a beautiful new awareness.

  How much could change in a day? Everything.

  She’d known it when her grandfather’s sterling reputation was suddenly tarnished. She’d faced the shock on the day her brother had been killed.

  “You asleep?” Shane’s voice rumbled softly through the darkness.

  “Not really,” she murmured.

  “Change your mind?”

  “Not about you,” she replied. Her palm rested over his chest and she felt the sigh flow through him, relaxing all those wonderful muscles. It made her smile. “What are you thinking?”

  He sighed again, his arm banding around her and then easing. “You make me feel like the luckiest man in the world.”

  A profound statement from him. Before she could sort out how to reply, he was snoring softly. What a bizarre, exhausting day. She couldn’t think of a more apropos start to a relationship with a man like Shane Colton.

  CHAPTER 16

  The morning after the home invasion, Shane and Stumps drove Danica to work at the training center. She’d kissed him goodbye, wished him a good day, and promised to meet him for lunch. It was so normal he almost didn’t know what to do with himself.

  He and Stumps went straight to the police station to catch up with the intruder’s interrogation. The man claimed he’d been working alone and then invoked his right to an attorney. It would be interesting who showed up to defend him. At least the police had the statements from Shane and Danica about his talk of the dog thefts and his violent interest in Tyler. The kid had been brought in long enough to identify the intruder in a lineup, but the man refused to flip on whoever had hired him.

  Still, having the thug in custody meant fingerprints and evidence they could work with and build on. It wasn’t open and shut on the dog thefts, but it sure would be on the home invasion. Though slow, it was forward progress.