by Janie Crouch
Steele held out his hands at shoulder height. “Actually, my name is Chris Martinez.”
Tanner didn’t lower his weapon. “Is that name supposed to mean something to me?”
“Perhaps if I say my full name is Christian, and that the love of my life named one of our children after me, it might ring a bell.”
Now he lowered his weapon. “You’re the twins’ father?”
“Yes. And I worked for the Organization before they had me killed. Or almost had me killed. It’s been a long recovery.”
It explained some of the man’s thinness. And so much else.
“I would love to answer all the three hundred questions burning in your eyes right now, but it will have to wait. I know where Jeter is.”
“How?” Tanner asked.
“I’m not nearly as good as Bree with computers, but I know my way around one enough to be able to hack food services and find out where private meals are being delivered.”
Tanner put his weapon back in the holster. “If you’re lying, I’m arresting your ass.”
Chris rolled his eyes. “I’ll be happy for you to arrest me if we’re still alive in a few hours.”
They made their way through the hordes of people crowding the convention center for the symposium, everyone just milling around.
“They’re all waiting for the big update coming in about five minutes,” Chris explained. “To be here when it goes live gives them bragging rights.”
“If they knew what it was really going to do, they wouldn’t be so thrilled. Bree has been working day and night to try to find a way to stop Jeter. I have no idea if she finished.”
They finally made it into any empty stairwell and started going down.
“If anybody can do it, it’s Bree,” Chris said. “Jeter has been obsessed with her for years, even when it seemed probable that she was dead. Melissa thought she was dead, too.”
Tanner shook his head. “You know, when you said I had three hundred questions for you, that was probably a little on the conservative side.”
“Get us out of this alive, and I promise I’ll answer all of them. As thanks for keeping my children safe.”
As they walked side by side down the hall, Tanner stuck out his hand to shake. “Deal.”
Chris shook then picked up speed. “This hallway isn’t used by anyone but security and food services. It leads from the main suite to the underground parking for bigwigs.”
“Okay.”
“The room is at the end of this hall. Our best bet is probably to try to come in an air duct from the next room or to impersonate hotel staff and get them to open—” Chris stopped to look at his phone when it beeped.
“Oh, my God.” The man couldn’t tear his eyes from the device.
“What?”
Chris shook his head. “That was the Communication for All update. She did it. Holy hell, did she do it.”
“Bree was successful?” Not that Tanner had had much doubt.
Chris was shaking his head in awe. “She just let the whole world know what the inner circle of Communication for All was up to in the most public way possible. Every single one of those bastards will be going down.”
That meant...
Tanner started running. If Jeter had Bree and knew she’d just told the world all his secrets, he would kill her for sure.
Tanner grabbed the fire extinguisher on the wall. He would use it to break down the door.
“Tanner, you don’t know what the situation is like in there. You may be way outgunned.”
“I don’t care.”
Chris pulled out a gun from the back waistband of his jeans. “Then let’s do this. I’ll go to the left.”
Tanner brought the edge of the extinguisher down on the doorknob, feeling it rip from the jamb, then kicked it as hard as he could. Chris ran into the room, gun raised, Tanner a half step behind him.
Jeter had a gun pointed at Bree but turned at the disturbance at the door. Bree didn’t waste any time. She dived at Jeter while he was distracted, Melissa jumping on top of him to help her cousin.
Chris made his own dive for the guard closest to the door, while Tanner turned and raised his weapon at Scott.
“Drop it, Scott. I don’t want to have to—”
Scott’s eyes narrowed, and he brought his weapon up and pointed it at Tanner.
Tanner pulled the trigger, the sound barreling through the room. Scott fell back against the wall then slid down it, eyes closed. Tanner kicked the gun away from his hand and turned.
Bree and Melissa had wrested the gun from Jeter, and Melissa was pointing it at him.
“Tanner?” Bree’s green eyes were huge. “Are you okay?”
He smiled at her. “Takes more than a chubby middle school kid to stop me. Are you okay?”
Melissa still had the gun pointing straight at Jeter’s head. “You deserve to die. For what you’ve done. What you were going to do.”
Tanner recognized that tone. The woman was going to kill Jeter.
“Mellie, no,” Bree said. “Don’t. Not like this.”
“He’s a monster. He killed Chris.”
“No, he didn’t, angel.” Chris moved from the guard he’d knocked unconscious. “And I’d very much like it if I didn’t have to come visit my wife in prison. We’ve got a lot of time to make up for.”
Melissa froze, looking like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Chris?”
She handed the gun to Bree and launched herself at him.
Jeter ignored them and looked at Bree. “You’re making a mistake. We’re two of the greatest technological minds of this century. Together we would be unstoppable. Think about it.”
“The only thing I need to think about concerning you is that neither I nor any of my loved ones will ever be hurt by you again. And that’s more than enough for me.” She turned to Tanner. “Captain, will you please read Mr. Jeter his rights?”
Tanner cupped her cheek. “It would be my pleasure.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Bree had always liked her apartment in Kansas City before. But now that she was back here, she realized how lifeless it really was.
There were no gorgeous Colorado Rockies out her window. No horses, no pregnant dogs.
There were definitely no infant twins needing constant attention and care.
Melissa and Chris had gone to California to be near his family. A family who—just like Melissa—were thrilled to discover he was alive. Melissa had invited Bree to come with them, but she’d said no.
They had a lot of lost time to make up for. A lot of memories they needed to create, just the four of them, as the sweetest nuclear family.
Bree understood that, even if it did feel a little like someone was using her heart as a pincushion. One tiny little pain after another. None of them enough to really wound her, but taken all together...agonizing.
She was free now. The Organization as it had existed was no more. After all the information came out and everyone started turning on everyone else, no one had any doubt that Jeter and all his cronies would be spending the rest of their lives in prison, although at least Ronnie Kitchens had survived.
The future of Communication for All, the actual charity, was uncertain. But maybe under the right leadership it could become great again.
Bree, or Bethany Malone, if she wanted to call herself that, was free.
No one was chasing her. Hell, she could even open a social media account if she wanted to. Make friends. Talk to other people without having to worry about being hunted.
She didn’t know how to do any of those things.
So she was eating cereal at her kitchen table alone. Just like she’d started. Her spoon was halfway up to her mouth when a knock came at her door.
She didn’t run for a bug-out bag this time, although she
still was a little uneasy. Nobody here in the city even talked to each other. Why would someone be knocking on her door?
She looked through the peephole then fell back against the door with a thud.
Tanner.
She opened the door. “Hi.”
Oh, dear. He was wearing his cowboy hat. She took in the dark hair and stark jaw that needed a shave even though it was only lunchtime. Those broad shoulders and trim waist. It had only been three weeks since she’d seen him, but she couldn’t stop staring.
Finally, she met his eyes. Those soft brown eyes. “Hey there,” he whispered.
“Hi.” She couldn’t stop her smile. She stepped back so he could come in. “What are you doing here?”
He held up a small cooler. “I brought us both a slice of Mrs. A’s lemon pie.”
She felt her eyes grow big. “Really?”
“Yep.”
She led him into the kitchen, tossing the cereal bowl in the sink and pulling out two plates. This time it was Bree who gobbled the pie down, rather than Tanner. She was already almost finished when she realized he’d barely eaten half.
“What’s wrong?”
“I want to eat it slowly. This might be the last time I get any of Mrs. Andrews’s pie.”
“Why? Are you leaving Risk Peak?” She couldn’t imagine Tanner living anywhere else.
He nodded solemnly. “Maybe. It depends.”
“On what?”
He took another small bite of his pie. “On you.”
“Me?”
“Mr. and Mrs. A said I can’t ever have another slice of their pie unless I talk you into coming back to Risk Peak.”
She smiled and swatted at him. “No, they didn’t.”
He grabbed her hand and brought it up to his lips. “Oh, they did. They miss the twins, but they miss you, too. They sent me here with that pie and told me to make sure you understood how much they—how much all the people of Risk Peak—want you to return. They said you could have your job back, but...” He trailed off.
She stiffened. “But what?”
He shrugged. “You’re a genius. I told them it’s beneath you to work at a job like that when you could get any job you wanted to with computers. And...” He faded off again.
She raised an eyebrow. “Have we switched bodies or something? Since when do you have trouble getting words out instead of me?”
He gave her a half grin. “I know Risk Peak isn’t for everyone. It’s small. You live in a big city. But I want to get to know you. Know you now when you’re not an overwhelmed single mom on the run. I want to get to know the real Bree, or Bethany, or Susan. I don’t care what you call yourself as long as I can be near you.”
Her eyes got big. “Oh.”
“If that has to be in Denver or even here, I’m willing to do that. I can put in for a job on the force here.” He looked around her place, trying not to grimace. “I can make it work.”
What he meant was he would make it work.
For her.
To be near where she was.
When she didn’t want to be here at all. She wanted to be in Risk Peak.
“But there’s no pie here. Or mountains. Or horses.”
She could tell that she had every single bit of his attention. “No, those things aren’t here. But there are computer jobs here. And you deserve the chance to live the way you want to, Bree.”
“Please call me Susan.”
He laughed. That sexy, confident chuckle that did things to her insides she couldn’t even begin to explain. But then he grabbed both her hands.
“You’re a beautiful, intelligent woman who hasn’t been given the opportunity to explore the details about herself because she’s had to live in hiding.”
“I want that, too. But I think I would like to try it in Risk Peak. I have no interest in working with computers right now. I might never want to again.”
He shrugged. “And if so, that’s okay. And I won’t lie. The thought of having you in Risk Peak...everything about that feels right to me.”
“You’ll say whatever you have to in order to get your lemon pie privileges reinstated.”
Before she could let out a squeal, she was picked up by the waist and deposited on his lap. “I’ll say whatever I have to to get my you privileges reinstated.”
She relaxed into him. She wanted that, too. “I’m new at this. I’ll have to figure things out at my own pace.”
“As slow as you need. For as long as you need.” His lips brushed against hers with the promise of everything that could be between them.
Lips that held the promise of home.
* * *
Look for the next book in USA TODAY bestselling
author Janie Crouch’s new miniseries,
The Risk Series: A Bree and Tanner Thriller,
when Security Risk goes on sale in August 2019!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Wyoming Cowboy Bodyguard by Nicole Helm.
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Wyoming Cowboy Bodyguard
by Nicole Helm
Chapter One
Tom was dead. She’d been ushered away from his lifeless body and open, empty brown eyes thirty minutes ago and still, that was all she saw. Tom sprawled on the floor, limbs at an unnatural angle, eyes open and unseeing.
Blood.
She was in the back of a police cruiser, moving through Austin at a steady clip. Daisy Delaney. America’s favorite country bad girl. Until she’d filed for divorce from country’s golden child, Jordan Jones. Now everyone hated her, and someone wanted her dead.
But they’d killed Tom first.
She wanted to close her eyes, but she was afraid the vision of Tom would only intensify if she did. So she focused on the world out the window. Pearly dawn. Green suburban lawns.
She was holding it together. Even though Tom’s lifeless eyes haunted her. And all that blood. The smell of it. She was queasy and desperately wanted to cry, but she was holding on. Gotta save face, Daisy girl. No matter what. Never let them see they got to you.
It didn’t matter the name her mother had given her was Lucy Cooper. Daddy had always used her stage name—the name he’d given her. Daisy Delaney, after his dearly departed grandmother, who’d given him his first guitar.
She’d relished that once upon a time, no matter how much her mother and brother had disapproved. Today, for the first time in her life, she wondered where she might be if s
he hadn’t followed in her famous father’s footsteps.
She couldn’t change the past so she held it together. Didn’t let anyone see she was devastated, shaken or scared.
Until the car pulled up in front of her brother’s house. He was standing outside. She’d expected to see him in his Texas Rangers uniform of pressed khakis, a button-up shirt and that shiny star she knew he took such pride in.
Instead, he was in sweats, a baby cradled in his arms.
“You shouldn’t have brought me here,” she whispered to the police officer as he shifted into Park.
“Ranger Cooper asked me to, ma’am.”
She let out a breath. Asked. While her brother was a Texas Ranger and this man was Austin PD, Daisy was under no illusions her brother hadn’t interfered enough to make sure it was an order, not a request.
When the officer opened the door for her, she managed a smile and a thank-you. The officer shook hands with Vaughn, then gave her a sympathetic look. “We’ll have more questions for you, Ms. Delaney, but the ones you answered at the scene will do for now.”
She smiled thinly. “Thank you. And if there’s any break in the case—”
“We’ll let you and your brother know.”
The officer nodded and left. Daisy turned to Vaughn.
“You shouldn’t have brought me here,” she said, peeking into the bundle of blankets. She brushed her fingers over her niece’s cheek. “It isn’t safe having me around you guys.”
“Safety’s my middle name,” Vaughn said, and there wasn’t an ounce of concern or fear in his voice, but she could feel it nonetheless. Her straitlaced brother had never understood her need to follow their father’s spotlight, but he’d always been her protector. “You didn’t tell me you’d come back to Austin.”
She’d thought she could keep it from him. Keep him and Nat from worrying when they had this gorgeous little family they were building.
Daisy had been stupid and foolish to think she’d be able to keep anything from Vaughn. She couldn’t afford to be stupid and foolish anymore. Though she’d lived in fear for almost a year now, she’d believed it would remain a nonviolent threat. Her stalker had never hurt her or anyone she’d been connected to.
