TRIGGERED: A Romantic Suspense Bundle (5 Books)

by Evie Nichole

  At lunch, he told me to head down to the cafeteria to find food, but I wasn’t hungry. I just wanted to get through my work, but he wouldn’t have it. “Fine. I’ll go down with you. If you don’t take a break, I’m going to feel like you’re my office slave. You need food.”

  I wanted to talk to him more, so I didn’t argue. “Okay. But if this cafeteria doesn’t have some kind of dessert, I’m holding you accountable. That’s all I want. I’m craving sweets.”

  He looked down at my flat stomach with the saddest look I’d ever seen. “Are you pregnant?”

  I would’ve laughed if he didn’t look so sad. “No. I just have an underutilized sweet tooth. Are you okay, Brent?”

  He shook his head and forced a smile. “Yeah. Sorry.”

  I could tell he didn’t want to delve into it, so I let it go. “Come on, then. Let’s get some food and then get back up here. I’m completely done with one cabinet and only have eighty to go. No one can ever say this girl doesn’t make progress.”

  He actually laughed and led me down to the cafeteria with a comforting hand on my shoulder blades. “I’ve never come down here to eat. I don’t even know if they have your sweets.”

  I looked up at him and crossed my arms over my chest. I felt comfortable with him, comfortable being myself. “Brent. If they don’t have sweets, I will instantly become the worst lunch date. I’m talking green and hairy, with rippling muscles.”

  He rolled his eyes at me and pushed me forward. “Just get in there and see for yourself, little hulk.”

  Bo spotted us as he was coming out with a bottle of water and a wrap. His eyes went wide as he spotted Brent. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

  “You’re going to catch flies in that thing if you don’t close it.” Brent reached out and shut Bo’s mouth for him.

  I laughed. “Did you see if they have sweets?”

  Bo just looked back and forth between us and then nodded to himself. “I was planning on eating alone in my office, but this is going to be much better. There are plenty of sweets. There’s an entire candy section.”

  Hearing all I needed to hear, I went ahead of them, in search of the candy. Even at my poorest, I’d snuck a dollar or two for candy whenever I had money. I found my candy station and filled the bags they had with as much as I felt comfortable getting without standing out even more. In my sundress, I was definitely the most underdressed person in even the cafeteria, and I felt eyes on me.

  Brent joined me with a couple of bottles of water and matching wraps to the one Bo had. “That’s a lot of candy.”

  I looked down at the bags in my hands and frowned. “Shit. It makes me look like a five-year-old, doesn’t it? I came to work in a sundress and now people are watching me grab candy like it’s the last loaf of bread before an ice storm.”

  He laughed, drawing even more eyes our way. “Don’t stress it. Come on. Bo grabbed a table for us.”

  I followed him and tried to smile at the people we passed, but they were all just staring at us like they’d seen saner things in the local mental institution. I touched Brent’s arm. “Why are they looking at us like that? I feel a little bit we’re on an episode of X-Files.”

  He reached back and rested his hand on my shoulder, comfortingly. “It’s okay. They’re just not used to seeing me down here. I usually keep to myself.”

  I could see something that looked similar to self-consciousness creep into his eyes, so I wanted to take his mind off of it. “Nah, I’m pretty sure it’s my candy.”

  I raised my voice and jiggled my bags higher in the air. “Come on, people! So, what if I grabbed a couple of near garbage bags full of candy? That doesn’t make me any less human.”

  Brent laughed and motioned for me to have a seat in front of Bo. He sat down beside me and handed me what he thought was my lunch. I had other plans, though. The wrap looked fine, but I had candy.

  “So, Jack assigned you to work with Brent this morning?”

  I shook my head at Bo as I shoved a handful of gummy bears into my mouth. “I just found him and decided I liked him better. That’s how jobs work, right?”

  “So, you like my big brother better than me?” Jack’s deep voice came from behind me and I nearly choked on my mouthful of candy.

  Brent patted me on the back and looked like he was trying to bite back a grin. “You okay, Raelyn?”

  Tears filled my eyes and I coughed until the gummy candy pieces were dislodged from my throat. “Oh, my god. Are you trying to kill me?”

  Jack looked pissed. He looked more than pissed. He was glaring at me like I’d kicked his puppy. “No, but Snake is. You want to focus on that instead of my brother?”

  Brent stood up and patted Jack on the shoulder. “How about you not make a scene here?”

  Jack turned his glare to his brother. “And how about you not hijack the workers I hire?”

  I started laughing before I could help myself. They all three looked at me as if I was crazy. Maybe I was. I just knew whatever cock-off Jack was attempting was ridiculous. “Did you need something, Jack?”

  “You’re supposed to be out, buying clothes.”

  I shrugged. “I forgot.”

  Brent looked down at me and winked. A mischievous look sparkled in his eyes, and I knew he was about to act like the quintessential older brother. “Jack, don’t worry about it. I’ll take her. I have to run an errand in town, so it’s not a big deal.”

  I wasn’t kidding when I said I liked Brent better than Jack. Brent wasn’t possibly married and sticking his tongue down my throat. “That’s great! Thanks, Brent.”

  Jack looked like he wanted to argue, but instead, he rolled his lips into his mouth and nodded. After a beat, he turned to Brent. “Charge the clothes to the company account. She needs food for the guest house, too.”

  “Got it.”

  When Jack looked back at me, his gaze was intense. “After shopping, swing by my office. We need to talk.”

  I didn’t reply because I had no intention of going by his office. His office was ground zero, and I wasn’t trying to face that again.

  After a few more tense seconds, he turned and left. My body relaxed and I sank back into my chair. “Jesus. That was tense. Is he always like that?”

  Bo snorted. “He’s usually the happier brother. You’ve got him all pissed off.”

  I scoffed. “I didn’t do anything!”

  “You don’t actually call me the unhappy brother, do you?” Brent raised an eyebrow at Bo.

  Bo had the decency to at least look ashamed. “Of course, not. So, when are you leaving?”

  I rolled my eyes and looked at Brent. “You don’t have to take me if you’re busy. I can just stop at a Wal-Mart on the way back to the house.”

  “I’ll take you. Plus, after the little bit that Jack told me about Snake, I’m not sure it’s safe for you to be alone in public.”

  That little reminder brought me back down to earth. I sighed and nodded. “You’re right. Who knows if he’s found me yet.”

  *

  Brent took me to a couple of different stores and then to a grocery store. He ran me to Jack’s guesthouse and we unloaded the groceries before going to run his errand. He just met a guy on Beale Street, at a BBQ joint, for some information. Brent was definitely more old school than his brother. Down to the way he got his information, I was willing to bet.

  I was waiting outside when I heard a grunt and then the sound of flesh on flesh coming from an alley beside the place. I crept around and saw Brent punch a large man in his stomach. My mouth fell open as the man tried to hit him back and then Brent ducked and punched him, hard, in the jaw. The man went down and groaned.

  Brent just straightened his suit and used his fingers to comb his hair back into place. He bent down and said something to the guy that I couldn’t hear. Then, he looked up and spotted me. Instead of looking busted, he just shrugged and slowly walked over to me. “That didn’t go according to plan, but I got my point across.”

  I no
dded. “Who is he?”

  “An asshole who was harassing one of our clients. I offered him what he wanted to leave her alone, but he made more demands. So, I made some of my own.”

  I looked up at him and he was actually grinning. “You like that part, huh?”

  He shrugged again, but I couldn’t help notice that he seemed less bottled up than before. “We do what we have to do.”

  “So, Jack does it, too?”

  Brent’s eyebrows went up. “You’re curious about Jack, huh?”

  I cut my eyes at him and then faced forward. “Not at all. Are we headed back to the office, now?”

  “Uh huh.”

  Chapter 9

  I went back to Brent’s office when we returned and got busy working again. I liked him a lot. He was comforting, for some strange reason. I felt like there was something a little sad, and a little dark, about him, but I had plenty of both things myself. We worked in a comfortable silence, not bothering each other until we had to.

  I’d almost finished another cabinet when Jack strolled into the office. He looked at me, bent over the bottom drawer, and something flared in his eyes.

  “You were supposed to come by my office.”

  I nodded. “I got busy. Did you want to talk about Snake?”

  He hesitated and I could tell he wanted to talk about that kiss, which reassured my decision to stay away from his office. “Sure.”

  “Go ahead. I just want to finish this drawer.”

  “I’m going to call the chief. I remember him from my days in the DEA. He was a stand-up guy. I just want to see how high the dirty goes.”

  I straightened and gripped my hands together. “What if he is dirty? Snake will know I’m here. He’ll come here to get me. I don’t want to be gotten, Jack. I don’t want you to do that. I…just want to hide.”

  “You can’t hide forever, Red. We have to take him down so you can have a normal life.”

  I shook my head, still unsure. “It just seems like a big chance. It’s my life we’re putting on the line.”

  “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  Brent stood up and tugged at the bottom of my hair. “He’s right, Raelyn. We’re not going to do something that could put you in danger and then throw you out to the wolves. We’ll keep you safe.”

  I blew out a big breath. “Okay. What happens afterward?”

  Jack looked at Brent with annoyance written all over his face, but he shrugged it off. “If it seems like the chief isn’t dirty, we’ll have him directly file a report, and then he’ll put out an APB for Snake. After they find him, they’ll charge him with assaulting you. It won’t get him a lot of time, but it’ll get him away from you long enough for us to figure out a bigger plan.”

  My stomach clenched. “That means court, right? It’ll be his word against mine. There’s no telling what will happen in court. I’m a stripper, Jack. I’ve watched a few episodes of Law and Order. I know how that works.”

  Brent tilted his head. “You’re a stripper?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Yes.”

  Jack sighed. “She was. She’s not anymore.”

  “Jack, we talked about that. If that’s what I want to do, I’ll do it.”

  “Well, that explains a lot.”

  Jack and I both turned to look at Brent. I was the first to get words out. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  He laughed. “I saw you looking at those glass stilettos in that shoe store.”

  My cheeks went red and I hit him in the arm. “I was just looking at them, jerk.”

  He ruffled my hair, like he was my big brother, and went back to his desk. “Sure, you were.”

  I purposefully walked over to his desk and pushed a whole stack of old newspapers into the trashcan. “Play nice. You’re at my mercy, here.”

  Jack seemed frustrated that the conversation had gotten away from him. “This is just the first step, Red. We have to follow the laws and do what we can.”

  I grunted. “That sucks. He’s going to come here, Jack. There’s nothing stopping him from getting me. I’ve just been ignoring it because there was that thing with…”

  My face went bright red as I realized what I was about to say. I was going to say I’d been ignoring the situation with Snake because of all the sexual tension with Jack. God, that would’ve been awkward. I cleared my throat. “I mean, I was just ignoring it. I can’t get too comfortable, though. It’s just the way it works. I get away and then he finds me. I spend a few more years under his thumb, slowly dying, and then he goes to jail. I run. Then, he finds me. It’s the dance we do.”

  I’d worked myself into a panic. I moved to the window behind Brent’s desk and pressed my head to the cool glass. “If I go to court, he’ll have the gang grab me. He doesn’t usually, because he hates the idea of them touching what’s his, but if it’s to stop me from testifying against him, he’d throw me to them.”

  A large hand cupped the back of my neck and I knew it was Jack immediately. Waves of goosebumps broke out all over my body and I had to bite my lip to keep from sighing.

  “I told you we’d keep you safe, and we’re going to. We’ll start slow. I’ll contact the chief and go from there. Okay?” When I didn’t respond, he turned me around to face him and held my shoulders. “There’s an alarm system on the guest house, and I’m close by. Brent is just down the street. Bo is just a little bit farther away. That alarm goes off and a ton of our personal security guys are coming to you. You’re safe here.”

  I blinked up at him. “I didn’t know how to turn the alarm system on last night.”

  He laughed and brushed his thumb over my cheek. “I’ll teach you how to use it tonight.”

  I felt my body reacting to him, and I moved away from him to try to stop it. He was a taken man. It wasn’t right to even toy with the idea of him. I moved closer to Brent and started straightening his desk. “Okay.”

  Brent grunted. “Don’t take this out on my desk. Go back over to your file cabinets.”

  I stopped midway to the trashcan with an arm full of old coffee cups. “Are you really tied to these?”

  He frowned. “Maybe.”

  I dropped them into the can and went back to grab more. “I don’t know how you can think in here with all of this trash surrounding you.”

  “I was thinking in here just fine until you found your way in.”

  I reached across his desk and patted his cheek. “Don’t be so cross. You’ll thank me when I’m done.”

  Jack watched silently for a minute as I carted more trash away. Then he walked over to the doorway and grinned at his brother. “I think this is the best place for Red to work for a few days. She’s doing good work and annoying the hell out of you. I don’t know how I could get more bang for my buck.”

  I looked up at the word ‘bang’ and made the mistake of meeting Jack’s gaze. It was the wrong thing to do. I felt a shock go down to my core at the heated way he was looking at me and stumbled over a stack of notebooks. Cursing like a sailor, I grabbed the top notebook and waved it at Brent. “A Word document wouldn’t trip me, Brent!”

  He looked at his brother and frowned. “What did I ever do to you?”

  I threw one of the balled up sheets of paper at him. “Don’t pretend as if you don’t like having some company in here.”

  It continued on like that after Jack left, only I was much more comfortable. Brent was easy to be around. I could forget that I was being hunted by a psycho and pretend that I was just some secretary, or something, cleaning up her boss’ office.

  By the end of the workday, I’d gotten through several of the cabinets and cleaned up the obvious trash from Brent’s office. He’d grumbled constantly, but I thought he was working a little faster with less trash clogging up his desk.

  He offered to take me home just seconds before Jack came in and made the same offer. Without blinking, Brent stated that it was a good idea because Jack lived on the same property and was going straight there. />
  I glared at him and when Jack wasn’t looking, he winked at me.

  I cast a sweet smile at Jack and clasped my hands together. “I’ll be right out. I just have to go over one last thing with Brent here.”

  Jack narrowed his eyes at me, but turned to leave, anyway.

  As soon as he was outside, I angrily whispered at Brent. “What are you doing?”

  He just smiled at me. “Something’s happening there, and I’m interested in how it will play out.”

  I shook my head and moved toward the door. “You’ll pay for that.”

  I met Jack in the hall, standing near the elevator, and forced a smile. “Thanks for the lift home.”

  He nodded, but didn’t say anything.

  Bo chose that moment to come out of his office and join us at the elevator. He raised an eyebrow at Jack and then grinned at me. “How was your first day, Raelyn?”

  I patted the bag I was carrying that was full of candy from the cafeteria. “Pretty good.”

  We all rode down to the ground floor together. It would’ve been awkward if it’d been just Jack and me, but with Bo there, I was struggling not to burst into a fit of giggles. He kept cutting me looks when Jack wasn’t looking and it was all I could do to remain calm. The adrenaline rush that came with meeting new people and making new friends had been with me all day, and even late in the day, I couldn’t kick it.

  Being around the security office had also given me a feeling of safety that I’d never been able to experience before. It gave me a childlike sense of happiness that I knew wouldn’t last, but I was fully enjoying while I could still feel it.

  Bo cut his eyes to me one last time and actually made a silly face at Jack’s back. I snorted and then burst out into a deep belly laugh that shocked both men, judging by the looks on their faces.

  After he recovered, Jack smacked Bo in the arm. “I can see you, asshole. Grow up.”

  I couldn’t contain my laughter. I held my side as I laughed until it hurt. Even after the elevator doors opened, I laughed. It was the relief I needed. When Jack started laughing along, I felt like maybe things wouldn’t be so incredibly awkward between Jack and me anymore. A girl could hope.