She had wished a thousand times since that day that she’d looked at the things the stalker left on her bed. At the moment, however, the only thing on her mind had been to call for help. Her brothers wouldn’t tell her what had been left behind, but it was obvious they’d taken it as warning that his threats were serious.
~ * ~
As one of two MPs pounded on the quarter’s door, the other stood patiently on the sidewalk. He was tall, fit and even wearing that ridiculous camouflage uniform, he was hot. She blinked rapidly. The feelings that bubbled to the surface were as unexpected as an earthquake, and less welcome. It didn’t matter how brutally sexy he was, he was off limits. All military men were, without exception. She’d grown up in a military family, lived by military rules and she wanted nothing more than to escape the only lifestyle she’d ever known. She didn’t want any part of the arrogance that usually went along with such men. She wanted an average Joe, no more and no less.
A young man walked onto the sidewalk where the MPs summoned him, and Mindy wondered how many hours he had watched her. He’d probably spent more time looking at her than any other man on the planet. He didn’t look like a stalker, at least by the dramatic movie description. He didn’t have wild, crazy eyes and he certainly didn’t appear mentally disturbed. She squirmed against the oddness of admitting to herself that he was handsome, or at least as handsome as a stalker could be. However, he had turned her life upside down and left her to deal with the turmoil.
Pete stepped toward the stalker and the MP blocked him as if he were a worthy opponent for the Navy SEAL. Mindy snorted at his attempted.
The tension escalated. The MP had a job to do, but she was sure Pete wasn’t about to back down. He had earned the title of Navy SEAL, and it wasn’t because he’d lagged behind in hand to hand combat training. He was as skilled at killing with his bare hands as most butchers were at extracting a steak from a fresh kill.
“Don’t do nothing stupid man,” the MP suggested.
“Stand down, I’ll handle it.”
Pete arched his head the slightest bit and squinted at the MP. “You can handle it when I’m finished.”
“Negative,” the MP stated with a solid jaw and eyes of cold steel. “Stand down.”
“Stand down, my ass.” Pete moved another step closer to the stalker. His body seemed to ripple with ferocity.
The MP put his hands on Pete. Big mistake. She sucked in a quick intake of breath as she thought about Pete going to jail for kicking the MP’s butt. She hadn’t meant for any of this to happen. It seemed only natural to call her brothers, but she was wondering if she might have been better off to have handled it on her own.
“I won’t tell you again,” the MP growled as he furrowed his brows in warning. “Stand down!”
Mindy held her breath and leaned forward in anxious anticipation of Pete’s reaction. Pete stepped back and Mindy had to admit she was impressed the MP managed to avoid Pete’s wrath. She studied the MP’s rigid stance as he glared at Pete, almost daring him to take another step. A smile teased her lips when Pete didn’t move.
~ * ~
As the second of the two MPs questioned the stalker, the first walked with the twins toward the truck where Mindy sat. She squirmed. She hadn’t expected a man in a uniform to ever light a fire in her, but this MP did.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” he asked as he looked at her with blue eyes that seemed foreign to a girl who came from six generations of brown eyes.
She nodded. “I’m okay.” He didn’t need to know about the sudden heat that engulfed her. He was none the wiser that her core was throbbing with a demand that left her fighting for breath.
“Is that the truck that was chasing you?” He pointed to the SUV to her right.
She forced herself to look away from those beautiful eyes. “Yes sir, that’s it.”
“I understand that you’ve had a stalker for the past few weeks,” he stated with understanding.
She wanted to touch the five o’clock shadow on his face as he talked. She wanted to feel the demanding touch of his hands against her skin. She wanted him alone in a big soft bed. His taut, muscled body assured her he could make all her sexual fantasies come true. Her thoughts drifted as her mind tried to rationalize her crazy thoughts. She had sworn off military men long ago. But her brothers were as hell bent on her marrying a military man as she was hell bent against it. For once in her life, she wanted to be normal, not having to deal with deployments and weeks of uncertainty during wartime. An average Joe, someone with a house in the suburbs and a job at the local factory. She would be fine without a man who knew more ways to kill than he knew how to love.
“Ma’am?” he questioned, lifting his clipboard in attempt to get her attention.
The uncontrollable laughter of her brothers brought her back. Their high five couldn’t have been any more obvious if they had told the MP why they were celebrating. Her face burned, but it still wasn’t as hot as the fire that ignited in her loins. She looked hard at the twins, daring them to utter a single word.
“I’m sorry, yes.” She sat straighter in the seat and met the MP’s gaze. “Phone calls, one break in, flowers, pictures that my brothers won’t let me see…and now this.”
His blue eyes searched her as if he were feeding off her energy. She couldn’t control the sudden wetness rushing to her core any more than she could the wind. She held his stare, not knowing if she was comfortable with him seeing what she already knew was in her eyes. He was confident, enough so that he’d backed down Pete and she’d never thought that could happen. He seemed unbothered that she’d seen hungry lust in his eyes, but then she was certain that a man like him could have any woman he wanted.
“Yeah, man, she was certain it wasn’t a boyfriend because she says nobody will ask her out because of us.” Pat interjected and tossed her a wink. She folded her arms against her chest.
Her face couldn’t have gotten any redder had it been on fire. That statement had been intended to prove a point to her brothers, not something for them to use against her. She’d even gone so far as to say that she was like the gold in Ft. Knox, because men might want her but they weren’t
brave enough to try and get her.
The MP lowered his gaze and sucked in a quick audible nasal breath, fighting a smile as he realized her brothers’ intent. “No offense, but I can’t imagine that I’d ever let a brother stop me if I wanted to ask a girl out.” His gaze met Pat’s.
“See, Mindy, we rest our case.” Pat nodded as he slapped his right hand onto the MP’s shoulder. “This is the kind of man that you need.”
She rolled her eyes, unsure if it was good or bad that the MP had made it known that her brothers wouldn’t stop him. Of course, he hadn’t asked, and for that she was thankful. The last thing she needed was to complicate her life with a man like him. But, wow, he was hot and she couldn’t help imagining the fire that would burn if he touched his tongue to her clit.
“Pictures?” the MP quizzed. “It seems we’ve deviated from the subject.”
Pete nodded and stepped away, asking the MP to follow. She’d probably never see the pictures that had been left on her bed. If only she’d taken time to pull them from beneath the covers. But she was too terrified to do anything but call for help. It wasn’t everyday that she came home to find her window broken, her bed covers turned down and a single rose on her pillow. Of course, the twins had spotted the photos. The MP nodded and asked that the photos be brought to him as soon as possible.
“You also mentioned phone calls. Phone calls to where?” the MP asked, his eyes searching her.
“Work and home,” she explained, squirming from the heat of his wandering eyes. “I work in the medical field and I live with my brothers.”
“This has had our routine so screwed up the past few weeks that I was going nuts,” Pete chimed in. “We’ve switched bedrooms so many times that I forget which one is mine. I swear I’m ready to hire her a date so we can get a break.”
The MP tried to hide the grin on his face, but he was unsuccessful, and soon his perfect pearl-white teeth began to show. He shot a quick wink her way and stood silent while waiting for the brotherly reply.
“Ouch, that bites.” Pat admitted, stepping forward to meet his little sister’s gaze. “At least it hasn’t been six...”
She gasped. That had also been a conversation she’d had with them while trying to figure out why she was being stalked. Since moving in with them six years ago, every man who had come to the apartment to pick her up for a date had left as scared as a pursued rabbit. Her brothers had probably threatened them within an inch of their lives. Pat had commented with a laugh that he didn’t believe she was a virgin. She’d replied that her life had been normal up until the point she’d moved in with her self-assigned keepers. From that, the twins had drawn the conclusion that she had been six years without sex.
“Patrick Gregory Austin, if you finish that sentence, so help me God I’ll jerk a knot in your ass the size of Texas,” she sat erect, her face glowing and her fists clinched in defense.
Pete winked at her and turned his attention to the MP. “How long have you been in the Marines?”
“Five years with the Marines, and ten years in the Navy; two as a Seabee and eight with the SEALS,” he replied, his chest puffing with pride.
She took a slow, deep breath and fought the feeling building within her. Not only was the MP a military man, but he was the worst kind. He was a Marine—cocky, arrogant, and fearless—like Pat. And a former SEAL, like Pete—oversexed, boastful and full of pride. She’d lived with those two elements for years and couldn’t image the kind of man that would evolve from a combination of the two.
“I’m with the SEALS now. I’ve been doing BUD’s training for the past three years,” Pete said, his own chest puffing out as he reached a friendly hand toward the MP.
“I noticed your shirt. It brought back a lot of memories.”
Pete’s hand engaged with the MPs, and something inside her knew that the guy had to be special for Pete to set aside his pride and warm up to him. She’d never seen anyone, even their dad, back Pete into a corner that he didn’t come out fighting. She smirked, wondering if Pete thought that the MP might be able to bring him down a few notches. If that was the case, then she was looking at the only man of his kind on earth.
“Excuse me, Pete, I’m sorry to interrupt your reunion, but could we please finish this so I can go home?” she said, exhaling a deep breath. She was getting far too worked up over the hot hunk of sex in front of her and she needed to get away.
The MP gazed back at her, his blue eyes telling her things words could not. His lips puckered the slightest bit as his eyes trailed onto her cleavage and, dumbstruck, her heart almost jumped out of her chest. It was as uncharacteristic of her to be intrigued by a warrior as it would be for a millionaire to weed a garden.
“I’m sorry about that.” A coy expression teased the MP’s face. “I have some good news and some bad news.”
“Let’s have it.” Mindy sighed, her core throbbing so hard that she wondered if he could feel the vibrations.
“I don’t have enough to hold him. But if you‘ll give me your phone numbers I’ll get with NCIS about obtaining his phone records. It’s possible that we can tie him to you that way.”
She nodded with a smile. She had hoped for something a bit more reassuring, but it didn’t seem likely. This wasn’t television and the good guys didn’t always win. It was her fear, however, that one of her brothers would end up in prison after beating the life out of her stalker.
“You’re letting him go?” Pat shouted, stepping forward. “He’s stalking my sister and you’re going to let him walk?”
The MP shrugged. “It isn’t that I don’t want to take him in. It’s just that I have no evidence.”
“Let me guess, we need to call you after he kidnaps her?” Pete’s face twisted as it grew red and tight.
“That’s just the way the law works. I don’t make the laws, I just enforce them.” He nodded at Mindy. “Right now
it’s his word against hers.”
“You may let the bastard go, but after you leave, he won’t be bothering anybody else’s sister,” Pete growled and turned his head toward Sanback with a confirming nod.
“You can’t do that.” The MP’s face darkened and his stance tensed.
“The hell I can’t,” Pete bit back. “According to you, as long as you don’t see it, it’ll be his word against mine.”
Mindy’s eyes darted as she followed the conversation. The feeling of dread that crept through her body reminded her of the feeling that consumed her moments before she was at the correcting end of her father’s belt. It seemed that even the palm trees suffered from the tension. The wind was suddenly still and the air that usually smelled of the salty Pacific, was filled with the scent of testosterone.
Pat walked toward Sanback. “I don’t really give a fuck if he sees me or not. If he isn’t going to put an end to this shit, then I’ll handle it my damn self.”
The MP trotted toward Pat, his hand going for his gun. “Negative, stop right there.”
Mindy sat erect, her eyes wide, every muscle in her body stretched to the snapping point. The MP was pushing his luck. He’d be lucky to come out of the impending chaos without a broken nose. The only person in the world with a shorter fuse than Pete was Pat.
“Why don’t you go play cops and robbers?” Pat stopped and whirled around. The MP nearly slammed into him. They stood nose to nose. “I’ll take care of the bad guy for you.”
The MP furrowed his brow and pointed a determined finger into Pat’s chest. “You listen to me, Marine, this is my watch. Stand down. I realize you’re worried about your sister, but we don’t have enough on him to hold him right now.”
Pat looked down at the finger on his chest and Mindy held her breath. She considered getting out of the truck and attempting to save the MP, but Pat was doing exactly what she’d hoped and expected. She didn’t want the stalker dead, but she wanted him to understand that continuing to pursue her would find him face down in the dirt.
“I’m not interested in holding him,” Pat replied,
looking straight into the MP’s eyes. “I’m leaning more favorably toward killing him.”
Mindy glanced at Sanback. He didn’t seem intimidated by Pat’s viciousness. She shuddered at his obvious lack of fear.
The MP shoved himself between Sanback and Pat. “Don’t push your luck, Gunny. You seem like a good guy, don’t make me show you who’s boss.”
Pat threw back his head and chuckled then locked eyes with the MP. “Boss?”
“Stand down!” the MP warned in a deep voice that demanded respect. “Last warning. I’m sure you can beat the hell out of him in nothing flat. But I’m not a pushover, and you will lose.”
Mindy gasped. Not only had this guy backed down one of the twins, he’d actually backed them both down. She studied him, looking for his cape. He had to have some sort of superhuman powers.
“Give me your word that you’ll take care of this,” Pat demanded. “First Priority.”
“I’ll handle it,” the MP said, his tone no less intimidating.
The altercation was over and the MP had two wins to his credit. Two wins that she wouldn’t have counted on even if the twins had gone up against Walker, Texas Ranger himself.
“Are there any more questions?” Mindy asked as the MP and the twins made their way back to her. Her nerves couldn’t take much more of this. This was precisely the reason that she hated the military life, it was all about who was the biggest bad-ass of them all. Her insides felt like jelly, and i
t was evident in her shaking hands. This world was too violent, and she couldn’t wait to get back outside the gate. It was true enough that the MP looked delicious, but somewhere there was a man who was just as hot who didn’t belong to the government.
“I need your numbers. The ones he called, of course,” the MP said. “If I need anything else, I’ll call you.”
“You do that, man. Call her if you need anything.” Pete slapped the MP on the back. “Call her if you get bored and need—”
“Pete!” she exclaimed, grabbing his arm hard enough to leave marks. “Let’s go home!”
Mindy handed the MP a business card from her purse. Intrigue swept over his face when he looked down at it. What he was thinking? She hoped he was thinking about what a good ride she would be. But military men, even one as sexy as this one, were off limits. Too bad.
“I didn’t get your name there, Gunny.” Pat snagged the door handle and pulled himself into the truck.
“Newhope,” he replied. “Shane Newhope.”
Pete dropped his face and fought the gentle shake of his shoulders as he waited for Pat's sharp-tongued wit .
“Damn, man, you are new hope.” He wrapped his arm around Mindy and gave her a quick squeeze. “New hope that my sister—”
A sharp elbow into his ribs ended his sentence. She spoke softly through gritted teeth, “Shut your mouth.”
The MP tilted his head back and chuckled while throwing them a careless wave. The sound of his laughter was as glorious as the sound of the ocean crashing in majestic waves against a rocky shore. His smile was bright and confident. Mindy found herself hoping that someday she could look into his sparkling eyes and read his soul. No, she had to keep reminding herself that he was strictly off limits.
Pete backed from his parking space and looked to Gunny Newhope then back toward Mindy. “You can have him, Mindy. I’m telling you, I know that look.”
Could she really have a man like Shane Newhope? Of course, he was off limits by her own rules, but it didn’t stop her from admiring the view and the fantasies his looks created. “If he’s like most Marines, anyone with a crotch can have him.” Mindy rolled her eyes.
Hell Bent Page 2
