TRIGGERED: A Romantic Suspense Bundle (5 Books)

by Evie Nichole

  Piper gave the strings of her bikini a final tug and looked up. “I hope there are still some seats left.”

  Harbour frowned as she followed her friend out of the changing room, “Wait, what?”

  Her attention was drawn away from the straps of her one piece when she noticed that just about every female worker at Gilded River had crammed herself into the lounge chairs along one wall. A few had entered the pool, but none of them were swimming.

  Piper waved to her from one of the far chairs and she slowly made her way over.

  “What is going on?”

  “He’s been at it for three hours,” someone behind her said.

  Just as she turned to the voice, someone else added, “The man is a machine.”

  She followed their gaze across the pool. A wall of glass separated the pool area from the gym and did nothing to hide Derek’s naked back. His muscles rippled as he lifted and lowered himself in a constant strum of chin-ups. His biceps bunched and swelled. Sweat glistened on his skin and beaded down the dip of his spine. A patch of black ink drew her attention to the skin between his shoulder blades. A thousand thin lines etched out the head of a wolf, forever frozen in a silent howl.

  “Since when does Derek like nature?”

  Someone hushed her. “He can have whatever he wants.”

  “Yeah, Harbour. Stop staring. You’ll draw his attention.”

  Harbour laughed. “That’s not one-way glass. He knows you all are here, and I’m pretty sure he knows that you’re watching him.”

  “We’re being subtle.”

  “You’re all wearing sunglasses indoors,” Harbour noted.

  “Harbour!”

  She spun around to see Derek glaring at her from the other side of the glass.

  “Why me?” she shouted back.

  His eyes narrowed, somehow displaying both anger and confusion at once, and he jerked his head towards the door. Grumbling to herself, Harbour rounded the pool and slipped into the gym area.

  “Okay, before you say anything, I feel like I should remind you that I’m the only fully licensed guide you have that knows all of the tours. And I have my own family business, so this isn’t even all of my day.”

  Derek crossed his arms over his chest, the motion drawing attention to the numerous muscles that he had expertly nurtured over the years.

  “Are you trying to prevent me from firing you, or telling me that you don’t care if I do?”

  “Yes.”

  He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. “Moving along. Does Nowhere have any other Olympic pools? Ones that aren’t so,” his eyes flicked to the glass, “crowded?”

  “Oh, well, I normally would hit up Thompson’s Lake, but that’s not for you. Um, I’d say -.”

  He lifted one hand. “Why wouldn’t the lake work for me?”

  “Don’t take it personally. It’s a hard swim. Wide and crazy cold. I can do it because I’m a swimmer. You’re not. I mean, look at you.”

  His eyebrows jumped up in question.

  “I didn’t mean that as an insult. That’s some mighty fine vanity muscle you have. But it’s not a swimmer’s body.”

  “Vanity muscle?”

  “You know, good for looking, not so good for doing.”

  A laugh lurched out of his throat, “Are you saying you’re a better swimmer than me? Really, Harbour?”

  Anger churned through her stomach, “Look, big guy.” She didn’t stop when his brow furrowed at the term. “I’m sure when you’re nice and comfortable, you’ve got some stamina. But I’m fast.”

  “I’m honestly confused whether you’re trash talking or flirting.”

  Heat flooded her cheeks. “I am obviously trash talking.”

  “That’s sad. On many levels. And for the record, I can outswim you.”

  “Dream on.”

  “Nice retort.” That familiar smirk crossed his face and Harbour balled her hands. “And if you’re so sure, how about a little bet?”

  “A bet?” she scoffed.

  “Afraid, Bates? Should have figured that one. Since you’re backing out you can give me a lift home.”

  “One, I’m not afraid of you. Two, I don’t need to back out because I would totally lay out your well-toned ass.”

  “Again, your wording is really confusing.”

  “I know. I hear it, but we’re ignoring it and moving onto point three. If you don’t have a car, just stay in your damn hotel.”

  “I hear a lot of talking, but don’t see much proof.”

  Harbour’s knuckles ached, but she shifted her weight.

  “You know what? Fine. We race. Here and now. And when I win, you reach into daddy’s pockets and pay up $50 bucks.”

  “I have my own money and let’s make it $200.”

  Her eyes darted to his shoulders. “I don’t have that much. But it doesn’t matter, because I won’t lose.”

  “Well, if you’re that confident, forget the money. When you lose you don’t have to pay me a cent. But you get a tattoo.”

  A smirk stretched Derek’s lips as he took a step closer. Harbour managed to keep still as he reached around her, but couldn’t help but jump when he swiped his fingers across the exposed skin of her lower back.

  “Here.”

  He looked so satisfied with himself that Harbour couldn’t keep from lifting her chin and blurting out, “Fine.”

  “Of my name.”

  “What?”

  “You get a tattoo of my name.” This time he didn’t move his hand away, but kept it as a solid weight against Harbour’s spine, fingers spread wide to cover as much space as possible. “Right here. Agreed?”

  “I’m not getting your name tattooed me.”

  “No, I’m just not insane.”

  “I understand.”

  “Shut up.”

  He stared at her, steady and calm and utterly smug.

  “You know what? Bring it on.” Harbour poked at his chest for emphasis, “Wow, you’re built. Forget I said that last bit.”

  “So this is happening now?”

  They both turned to see that they were the sole focus of all the women beyond the room. Derek snapped his hand away. Tension clenched his shoulders, his eyes narrowed, and within a second he looked ready for a fight.

  “Have you been listening to us?” Harbour asked.

  Piper was the one to answer. “That glass isn’t all that thick. And you left the door open. So, should we be preparing for a bet?”

  “Yes,” Harbour said quickly, desperate for any kind of distraction. “It’s my beer and pizza night and I could use that $200.”

  Derek’s eyes slid to her. “How much pizza and beer do you eat?”

  “Stop paying so much attention to my words.”

  Derek followed her out of the room like a dense shadow, always a step behind but never bumping into her. Harbour didn’t turn to face him until they were at the end of the pool. Determined to keep from freezing up again, she met his eyes.

  “Four laps and then you give me my money? Or would you like your humiliation to be shorter?”

  “Agreed.” Derek smirked and he toed out of his shoes and socks, “Your trash talking’s getting better.”

  “I feel like I’m getting into the groove.”

  Grace, a redhead who had worked in the restaurant for two years, came up beside them and smiled warmly at Derek.

  “Do you need to get changed? Maybe into something thinner and white?”

  Derek practically growled, his jaw clenched so tightly that Harbour could almost hear his teeth cracking. Grace sank back and Derek returned his attention to Harbour. All traces of humor had left him, leaving his face as a collection of sharp angles and shadows. Still, he lifted one hand to gesture her closer to the rim.

  “Four laps.” He tried to lighten his tone, but it was still a snarl.

  “Fine. Piper, count us down.”

  Harbour jumped in place, twisted her torso, and lowered into a starting position. Derek ducked down nex
t to her, eyes focused on the water. She should have warmed up first. This might hurt later. Piper’s voice echoed off the walls and Harbour twitched to get moving.

  They lurched forward in unison and sank into the depths of the heated water. Harbour’s normal routine was to swim laps in the town harbor. The tide and chill forced her to push herself if she didn’t want to get dragged out to sea. Pools were easy.

  But no matter how fast she went, Derek was still a few strokes behind. They ate up the distance and bounced off the walls. Water rushed past her ears and played off of her skin. Her lungs ached, her shoulders screamed, and she still couldn’t increase the distance between them.

  The thought of actually having to follow through on the ridiculous wager made panic spark within her stomach. What had she been thinking? Was she drunk? It was the only reasonable explanation for why, after all these years, she would regress back to such childhood stupidity.

  The water churned around them and she lost sight of where Derek was. The panic turned from a spark into a fire and she hurled herself towards the wall. Smooth tiles brushed her fingertips and she thrust her head up, glancing around to try and catch sight of him. Derek was right next to her, chest heaving and face flushed. Well, at least she had made him work for it.

  Their makeshift audience screamed and cheered, but since they generally paid more attention to Derek, it was hard to tell what the results were.

  “Who won?” The words burst from Harbour as images of tattoos played in her mind.

  Derek braced his hands on the side of the pool and drew himself out in a single fluid motion.

  “You did. Barely.”

  A hoot of victory erupted from her as she thrust her hands into the air and sank beneath the surface. She almost choked on a gasp as hands locked onto her wrists and pulled her from the water. She knew she was slight, but it had never occurred to her how tiny she was when compared to Derek. Not until he lifted her like she weighed next to nothing. But she was too lost in victory and relief to think about it now, and pushed the thought away.

  With her feet back on the tiles and everyone still laughing around her. it just seemed natural to break into a dance. Harbour squirmed and bobbed. For his part, Derek stood in place, arms crossed over his chest, and face contorting as he tried not smile.

  “Are you having a seizure?”

  “It’s a victory dance,” she said. “The dance of the victorious.” She spun in a tight circle and then decided to stop before self-realization caught up with her.

  “I’m going to have a shower.”

  “Hey,” she called out to Derek’s retreating back. “Where’s my money?”

  He didn’t break his stride, but looked over his shoulder. “I don’t have it on me.”

  “What? Cheat —”

  “I have cash at my house.” His last words came to her before he ducked out of sight. “I’ll give it to you when you drop me off.”

  “Damn right you will,” she taunted. “Wait. I never agreed to give you a lift. Derek!”

  How did he keep doing that?

  Chapter Three

  When Harbour headed out to her old pickup truck and found his bags already stacked in the flatbed, it was hard to believe that Derek hadn’t planned to lose the bet. She scrambled up into the back of her trunk and tried to get them out. The bags stayed rooted to the spot. What on earth had he packed?

  “The bellhop was supposed to secure those.”

  She looked up from his possibly lead-lined suitcase to see Derek crossing the parking lot. His hair was still damp from the pool and he was, once again, clad in a way-too-expensive leather jacket. That couldn’t be the same one from high school, could it? There was no way that one would still fit. Had he bought a replica?

  Derek noticed her expression and inched his eyebrows up. Had he always talked that much with his eyebrows or was this a new thing?

  “You do realize that setting up an elaborate prank just to pay $200 for a lift home is the act of a man in serious need of psychiatric care?”

  “You ditched me. What did you expect me to do?” He glanced around the empty lot like he expected someone to suddenly leap from the bushes. When they didn’t, he turned back to Harbour with a smile. “And for the record, this is a victory dance.”

  He busted into a flurry of motion. Frozen in shock, she watched as he danced around in front of her.

  “Take note of the hips,” he said with an embarrassing amount of thrusting. “It’s all in the hips.”

  He added swirl and Harbour couldn’t keep in the fit of giggles anymore.

  “That is a victory dance, Bates. Learn it.”

  Her laughter cut off when she heard the passenger door slam shut. Grabbing the rim of the truck, she swung her torso down to look through the window. Derek clicked his seatbelt into place, glanced at her, and began to work on his phone. She tapped on the glass and he cranked the window down half an inch.

  “The windows are hand-operated. How old is your truck?”

  “It’s a classic,” she defended before she could stifle the urge. “Get out of my truck.”

  “I told you, the money’s at my place,” he said as he went back to his phone.

  “I don’t care. Pay me tomorrow.”

  He didn’t respond and she lightly smacked her hand against the glass again.

  “Derek, I will dedicate my life to genetically engineering a panda-hawk hybrid that I will send to destroy all of your offspring.”

  He jolted, blinked, and turned to her. “Okay.”

  Grumbling under her breath, Harbour crawled over his bags and slipped through the open driver’s side window. Her mood only got worse as she struggled to pull the car keys from her jeans’ pocket. Derek watched her the entire time, eyebrows still raised and thumbs poised over the buttons of his cell phone. Finally, she yanked the keys free and started the thunderous engine.

  “You’re going to be a horrible father to your future hypothetical children. Or current ones.”

  “I think they’ll find the hybrid both cute and impractical.” He shifted his eyes back to his phone. “And I don’t have any kids.”

  The sun was setting as Harbour pulled the truck out of the lodge parking lot and onto the town’s main road. For the first time in months, the street wasn’t lined with crowds of people looking at the few tourist trap shops that Nowhere had to offer. The locals were once again the majority and Harbour exchanged polite waves with them as she passed, although a few of them didn’t notice her when they spotted Derek in the passenger seat.

  With only the last rays of light to compete with, the evening chill thickened quickly. It whipped through the open window and left Harbour shivering. A part of her really hoped that Derek would be uncomfortable with the drop in temperature, but he only leaned back in his seat and continued to work off of his phone, pointedly ignoring all the people who were trying to capture his attention.

  The Quintana’s home was a monstrosity of a cabin that had more rooms than the lodge. It was perched high on the hills that overlooked the town and a team of gardeners kept the elements from taking hold. While it was visible from the town, the winding road made the trip a good twenty minutes.

  Harbour drummed her fingers against the large steering wheel and turned to him. “So why didn’t you just call Phil or Ron for a lift?”

  His head snapped up. “They’re still here?”

  “Why wouldn’t they be?”

  He huffed a laugh. “Seriously?”

  “What? Nowhere is great. We have whales, good people, and the most beautiful scenery in the world. Case in point.” She swept a hand out to indicate the forest of evergreens they had just entered.

  Ahead of them was a lake so clear and calm that it acted like a mirror, reflecting the majestic snow-capped mountains that rose up along the horizon. The road wove around it before being swallowed once again by towering pines.

  “You really do love this place,” Derek said.

  She rolled her eyes. “What isn’t there
to love?”

  “The cinema doubles as a bingo hall; winter makes it impossible to go anywhere; and the only place to buy clothes is at the grocery store.”

  Harbour snorted and her truck growled as they began to climb. The sun released its last rays in blinding streaks across the sky before sinking behind the mountain range. Night rushed to fill the space left behind and soon the only thing visible consisted of the area touched by the car’s high beams.

  “Bears, wolves, more open space than you could ever need.” She glanced quickly at him and added, “But seriously. Ron and Phil. You didn’t even try to call them? You guys were inseparable back in high school.”

  “Actually, we kind of drifted apart about a month before I left. I never did understand why.” His voice drifted as Derek flicked his eyes down to his phone. “There’s hole in the floor.”

  “I know.”

  “Why is there a hole in the floor?”

  “Rust.”

  “So why haven’t you gotten a new car?”

  “Because I love this one and it still runs perfectly.”

  He looked at Harbour for a moment before a small smile curled his lips. It didn’t take very long for his attention to get a little unnerving.

  It was nearly impossible to keep from squirming, “Isn’t there something else you could be looking at?”

  “Probably, but you’re starting to blush and that just amuses me.”

  She glared at him just in time to see a patch of white streak past the window. Derek hadn’t been prepared for her to slam on the brakes and the jolt lurched him forward and into the dashboard.

  “Roll down your window.”

  Rubbing his forehead, he leaned back. “Was that necessary?”

  “Window.”

  Derek turned his attention to the darkness gathering just beyond the truck.

  “Is this where you kill me and dump my body in the woods?”