The Viper

by Velvet Vaughn

  “Quinn, guess what?”

  They both turned to see a young boy hurtling up the steps two at a time. He stopped suddenly when he spotted Annabelle. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were in a meeting.”

  “We’re just chatting. Annabelle, this is Kai Costa, superhero, future dog trainer and all-around good kid.”

  “Good? Try great!” He rolled his eyes and Annabelle laughed. He was adorable. “Are you a new agent?”

  “No, I’m utilizing the services, though.”

  “Kellan’s working on her case,” Quinn told him.

  His eyes lit up. “Kellan’s back? I have so much to tell him,” he said enthusiastically.

  “What did you want me to guess earlier?”

  “Oh yeah.” Kai grinned. “Dad had to run to town, and I went with him. We got gas for a dollar forty-nine.”

  “Wow, that’s a great price,” Quinn agreed.

  Kai sighed dramatically. “Yeah. Unfortunately, it was at the Taco Hut.”

  Annabelle and Quinn both burst out laughing. Kai looked pleased with himself. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Gabe turn to look up at them with a frown.

  “How long are you going to be here Annabelle?” Kai asked.

  “I’m not sure yet, a few weeks at the least.”

  “Dope!” Then Kai cackled like the Wicked Witch and rubbed his hands together. “I have a new audience.”

  “Should I be scared?” she asked Quinn, only half kidding.

  “Most definitely,” he answered, and Kai smiled broadly.

  “Charlie’s stall isn’t going to clean itself,” he reminded Kai.

  “On it. Laters!”

  #

  Phase One of Kellan’s plan to acclimate Annabelle to her new surroundings was complete and, he had to admit, a roaring success. They’d certainly christened her office properly. Sex on the desk. Damn, that was a risqué move and he was usually more of a straight arrow kind of guy. He hadn’t even locked the door.

  Thankfully the surrounding offices were currently vacant, but he didn’t think he’d have been able to stop even if they were occupied. Hell, he couldn’t have stopped if a bomb detonated a foot away. When he kissed her, the rest of the world disappeared. His entire focus narrowed down to Annabelle: her taste, her scent, the sexy way she reacted to him.

  He’d thought himself in love before. Had even considered proposing to Tess, a woman he’d dated seriously for six months. At first, she got off on his job as a cop. She loved the authority that came with his badge and bragged to her friends to behave or she’d have her boyfriend arrest them. After four months, they moved in together, but soon, the dangers of the profession took a toll on the relationship. When an officer from a different shift had been shot, Tess gave him an ultimatum: her or the job. When he refused to pick one over the other, she made the choice for him. She packed up and moved out without a goodbye. She’d been ridiculously easy to get over, so she’d done him a huge favor. To use a cop analogy, he’d dodged a bullet by not marrying her.

  The feelings that rolled around inside of him when he was with Annabelle were foreign. He was navigating uncharted territory, but he refused to put a label on it. It wasn’t just her beauty that drew him to her like a moth to a flame. He genuinely liked her. She was sweet and down to earth. The fact that she was running for her life but took the time to find the autographed jersey to send to Andre—which they’d done this morning before heading to the airport in Burbank—showcased her caring and generous nature. Lust was in the mix, as well. It was too early to fall in love, but he could see that happening the more time they spent together. Which brought him to Phase Two.

  “Hey, BeBe.”

  “Kellan!” She rolled over to him and he leaned down to hug her. “Welcome home. You’ve been missed.”

  “I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to stop by sooner.”

  “No worries. I’m glad you’re okay.” She shook a finger at him. “Don’t be getting shot again.”

  “I’ll try not to,” he said drolly. “I brought you something.”

  Her eyes lit with happiness. “A present? Gimme!”

  He handed her a gift bag and watched with amusement as she ripped at the wrapping he’d paid extra for like a kid at Christmas. She lifted out the snow globe with a look of wonder. This one featured the skyline of downtown LA inside the globe. The base was surrounded by Los Angeles landmarks.

  “It plays music,” she said in glee. She cranked the knob and I Love LA by Randy Newman started playing. “I love it. Thank you so much.” She reached up an arm to hug him. “I know just the place for this.” She backed her wheelchair up and zipped around to the glass display case that Luke and Logan had built for this very purpose in her office. BeBe loved snow globes. All the agents brought them back for her from their various trips when possible. She placed his between the ones Mason and Sawyer purchased. They’d shopped together so that they didn’t duplicate designs.

  “Thank you again, Kellan.”

  “Thank you for taking care of the office for Annabelle. You knocked that one out of the park.” How she had arranged everything in a few short days was nothing short of miraculous. That’s why they all teased her about being part witch.

  “She liked it?”

  He chuckled. “Are you kidding, she may move in there instead of my place.”

  BeBe looked pleased. “I’m glad.”

  “The space is perfect. Hopefully, she can get her graphic design business off the ground.” Hint. Hint. If you wanted something done, you went straight to BeBe.

  “I have no doubt she will.”

  #

  Knock, knock.

  “Come in.” Annabelle hadn’t had a chance to catch her breath all day. If she didn’t know better, she’d think Kellan set her office up inside Grand Central Station.

  Kai Costa stuck his head inside the door. “Hi, Annabelle.”

  “Hi, Kai. Come on in.”

  He opened the door wider. “I’m not alone. I brought my squad.”

  Annabelle smiled. “Your squad?”

  “Yeah, you know, my crew, my posse, my homies.”

  An adorable band of kids filed in and she smiled at them, wishing she had some candy or something to give them, though their parents probably wouldn’t appreciate the kids leaving her office on a sugar high.

  “Allow me to make introductions,” Kai said formally.

  She hid a smile. “By all means.”

  “This is Tiffany and her twin Sean. They’re Luke and Layla’s kids.”

  “Technically, Layla is our sister, but she and Luke adopted us so now she’s our mom,” Tiffany pointed out. Annabelle remembered the story. It’d been major headlines when Layla Brooks returned from the dead.

  Kai moved down the line. “This is RJ. He’s Carter and Maggie’s nephew. He’s living with them for a while.” Ethan had told her about RJ’s mom—Carter’s sister—and her drug problems. She’d undergone an intensive rehabilitation program and was on the road to recovery. She was hoping to regain custody of her son soon.

  “This is my stepsister, Gracie. She idolizes me,” Kai boasted. Gracie rolled her eyes but didn’t disagree. “This is Zoe Duquesne, Harlow’s sister. She’s visiting for a couple of days.” Zoe waved enthusiastically and she waved back.

  “And last but certainly not least—”

  A beautiful little girl with the bluest eyes and long black ringlets climbed on Annabelle’s lap. “Hi. My name is Belle, too.”

  “It is?”

  The girl nodded, raven curls dancing along her face. “Uh huh. Well, Bella. Isabella. Sometimes they call me Izzy.” She pointed at the group, her button nose wrinkling. “I don’t like it. I’m not an Izzy.”

  “Yes you are, Izzy,” Kai teased.

  She pursed her pink bow lips. “Am not. I like it when my Daddy calls me Bella. Do you like to be called Belle?”

  She did when it was Kellan calling her by that nickname. “I do.”

  “As I was saying,”
Kai continued, “That moppet is Logan and Jade’s daughter, Isabella.”

  “Hey, I’m not a moppet.” She turned to Annabelle. “What’s a moppet?”

  She smiled and took liberties with the definition. “A moppet is a beautiful young girl.”

  “Am I a moppet?” Gracie asked.

  “More like a Muppet,” Kai joked and then ruffled her hair. “I tease.”

  “It’s nice to meet all of you. I’m glad you stopped by.”

  “We’re actually here on business,” Kai said.

  She raised a brow. “Oh, you are?”

  “Yeah, we want you to design avatars for us.”

  #

  Kellan headed to Annabelle’s office to escort her back to their place. Their place. It sounded so…homey. He scoffed at himself. Right. She hadn’t even spent the night there, yet and already he was moving her in permanently. It was too early for any declarations or commitments. Still, it didn’t stop him from picturing them designing a house together on the plot of land he’d purchased. Maybe he’d show her the plans he’d been looking at and ask her opinions.

  He rapped on her open door. “Hey Belle, you ready to go?”

  In lieu of an answer, she shot out of her chair and launched herself at him. He caught her in the air and staggered back a step, concentrating on not whimpering when she impacted both his bruised chest and tender exit wound. When he felt wetness against his neck, the pain was instantly forgotten. Every protective instinct he possessed fired to alert. “Annabelle, babe, what’s wrong?”

  He felt her shake her head and cling tighter, not able to speak. Concern quickly turned to fury. Did someone say or do something to upset her? If so, he’d be having a little mano a mano with the perp, whoever he or she was. Nobody got away with making his woman cry. He closed the door with his foot and carried her to the suede sofa, easing down with her in his lap. His fingers glided down her soft hair. “Talk to me, honey. What’s wrong?”

  She pulled back and sniffed, tears sparkling in her crystal blue eyes. “Nothing’s wrong.”

  He caught a tear with his thumb. “Then why are you crying? You’re breaking my heart.”

  “These are happy tears. I can’t believe you did all this for me.”

  “The office? It was nothing.” Especially since BeBe did most of the work. He’d just given her ideas. Plus, the rooms were sitting empty. The bosses had planned for expansion when they drew up blueprints for the building. He had no doubt they would be filled soon. It just made sense for Annabelle to use one while she was here.

  She reached behind him and grabbed a tissue from a box on a side table. “Not just the office. The computer with the programs I lost when Robbie destroyed my laptop.”

  That had been all Peter’s doing. Kellan told him what she needed, and Peter filled in the rest, insisting he knew the kind of programs Annabelle would want to use. Apparently, he’d been right.

  “Not to mention the new phone that does practically everything but wash and dry my clothes.”

  That was all Tyler. The phones were like mini pocket robots, doing just about anything you could think a phone capable of, some things you didn’t expect and some that were just flat-out freaky. Yet they were completely untraceable. Hell, the kid could probably come up with a laundry app to wash and dry clothes if he applied himself.

  “Then I had a steady stream of people stopping by to request that I either redesign their websites or create new ones.”

  Once again, BeBe deserved all the credit. He’d just put a bug in her ear and she’d run with it. “Who stopped by?”

  “First was BeBe Davis—I love her by the way. She wanted me to create a website for her wheelchair basketball league. She had all kinds of creative ideas and I was psyched to get started but as soon as she left, your bosses dropped in with their wives. Both Jade Bradley and Layla Colton want me to redesign their personal websites. Can you believe that? An Academy Award-winning actress and a Grammy winner. I mean, that’s the big leagues.”

  “That’s awesome—”

  She held up a hand to silence him. “They hadn’t even left before Kendall Demarchis, Olivia Mylonas and Taylor Costa showed up. I’m redoing the website for TKO Productions. Then Taylor asked if I’d redesign her personal author website as well. Next came Hillary Steele, wanting me to freshen up her husband Reed’s web presence.”

  Wow, he had no idea this many of his coworkers would step up. Damn, he was getting chills.

  “Next was Melody Colton, wanting a complete redesign of her rather new Harmony! website.”

  “I had no idea—”

  “I’m not done,” she interrupted. “Kaitlyn Bradley bopped in to ask if I’d design her a celebrity chef website.” He opened his mouth to speak, but that hand came up to quiet him again, so he snapped it closed. “Next were Harlow and Cassidy. Harlow wants me to create a website to display her artwork, while Cassidy wants me to design her web presence from the ground up for her new dance academy. We’re talking logos and brochures, everything. And finally, Kai Costa and his squad came in wanting me to make them individual avatars.”

  There was so much about that sentence that he didn’t understand, starting with Kai having a squad—what was he, a cheerleader?—and ending with avatars. But damn, his head was spinning. “Honey, that’s great.” And would keep her busy for the next millennium. Or two.

  Her mouth quivered. “When I quit my job in Seattle, I knew I wanted to open my own company someday. I hoped to entice a few of my former clients to jump ship and take a chance with me.” More quivering. “N-now I d-don’t have to do that. My clients will include award-winning celebrities, a best-selling author, reality television personalities, not to mention successful companies. I-I’m completely…overwhelmed.” Then she was crying again and hugging him tightly.

  Damn. Overwhelmed? That didn’t sound good. “Are these happy tears?”

  “Y-yes. Definitely tears of happiness.”

  His eyes closed in relief. Thank goodness. For a second there, he feared he’d pushed too hard. He still wished she’d stop. Tears, no matter the reason, made him uncomfortable. But knowing he’d helped make her happy was worth the unease.

  He never dreamed so many of his friends would request her services. Though he’d love for Annabelle to work on the company website, they had a department that took care of their online presence. Besides, she’d have so much work to do, she wouldn’t have time.

  Suddenly, she sprung from his lap, her bony knee making contact with an area not designed for sharp blows and his eyes crossed. His whimper went unnoticed.

  “Oh my gosh, Kellan, I have so much to do! I don’t even have a name for my company.”

  She started pacing, completely oblivious to the fact that he was now the one crying. Not really, but he felt like it. His poor manhood had been abused.

  “I need to incorporate, probably an LLC, that’s a Limited Liability Corporation, and I’ll need to design a logo.” She threw up her arms. “Heck, I need my own website.”

  He gingerly stood and tried to surreptitiously adjust himself. He didn’t want anything upsetting her when she was this excited. “Luke’s sister-in-law Rachel is a photographer. She can probably take pictures you can use for designs.”

  She blinked owl eyes at him, tears gathering again. “You have to stop. I can’t take much more.”

  Damn, he wanted to make her this happy every day for the rest of their lives. Jolting from the random thought, he shook his head. “You don’t have to do everything at once. Take your time, get settled here first.”

  “But I want to! Kellan, I’ve never met a more wonderful group of people. I just got here and already they’ve made me feel like one of them. They’re taking me shopping tomorrow and then out to lunch.”

  Screw it, he was done pretending. If it were up to him, she’d be staying long after the will cleared, and she was free to leave.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Kellan opened the door to his apartment and followed Annabelle inside
. It was the first time she was seeing where she’d be staying. After they arrived this morning, he took her on a tour of the compound and then showed her to her new workspace. Her day had been packed from there. He’d finally managed to drag her away from her office when, unbeknownst to him, his bosses had arranged a welcome party for her, complete with tons of pizza and beer. Every agent not on assignment and their families were present to greet her. He’d watched her interact with his friends and it was as if she’d been a part of their lives forever.

  Several times during the evening, he’d hear her laugh and turn to watch her. Mason Rossi and Sawyer Oldham, the two men he’d spent the last few weeks with working side by side, noticed. They’d sandwiched him and grilled him like a hamburger patty, coercing him into admitting his feelings.

  “That was fast,” Mason remarked. “You haven’t known her long.”

  “You knew Cassidy was the one when she almost plowed you over on the sidewalk.”

  Mason smiled unabashedly. “Yeah, I did.”

  Sawyer was sniggering but stopped when Kellan turned to him. “And you—the story I heard was something about Harlow in a red bikini and you following her around like a puppy starved for attention.”

  Sawyer stood straighter. “Hey, I wasn’t following her around. Her sister had been kidnapped, for hell’s sake. I was doing my job.”

  “I don’t hear you denying falling for her the moment you met her.”

  Sawyer slapped him on the back. “Got me there.”

  Annabelle laughed and they all watched her smiling at something Kai was saying to her. Judging from his animated arms, it was quite a story.

  “Is she out of danger?” Sawyer asked, all joking aside.

  “Not until her stepbrother is caught.” And they didn’t know the intentions of the man called The Viper, either. He could pull a Bixby and decide to use Annabelle to get back at Robbie.

  While she’d been filling her calendar with jobs, he’d met with his bosses to figure out how to track the two men down. They also conference-called their lawyers to put them on the will situation in California, see if there were steps that could be taken to speed the process along.