Falling for Her

by Sandra Owens

  There was only one question Jamie wanted an answer to, however. Who was the man in the passenger seat? The way the guy was looking over the Sea Ray, like he was searching for something, made Jamie uneasy. More like he’s looking for someone, Saint, and just who might that be? Willing Sugar to stay out of sight, he slipped the gun from his back and held it down by his leg.

  “Roger, can I help you with something?” he called.

  The other man said something to Roger that Jamie couldn’t hear over the noise of the engines. Growing more suspicious by the minute, Jamie slid his finger over the trigger.

  “You out here alone?” Roger yelled.

  Jamie glanced around his boat as if checking to see if anyone else was with him. “Appears so. What puzzles me though is why that’s any of your business.”

  A seemingly tense conversation ensued between the two men, and Jamie took the opportunity to give the Sea Ray a little more power, putting more distance between him and the Marauder. He didn’t want trouble, would avoid it if at all possible, but his gut said trouble was brewing.

  So far, he hadn’t seen any weapons in evidence, but he didn’t doubt the men were armed. Considering Roger was a drug dealer, Jamie had to assume the man carried at all times, and considering the shaved head and all the tattoos visible on the other man—especially because of the inked teardrop just below his left eye—Jamie wouldn’t be surprised if he was an ex-con. Was that the man who had hurt Sugar? If so, Jamie itched to put a bullet right between his eyes. Yet, he just couldn’t picture her with the dude. If not him, then was he a hired gun? Someone sent to find her and bring her back to whomever she had escaped from? That was more likely, he decided.

  “He wants the woman,” Roger said.

  Now there was a surprise. If he had the slightest chance of outrunning them, he would push the throttle to full power and take off that minute. But there was no way he could leave the high-powered cigarette boat behind. His best chance was to outsmart them, and if that didn’t work, he’d have to shoot them. That would end up being a hot mess.

  “I thought we just established I’m alone. Can’t deny I wish I had a woman, but sorry, can’t help you with something I don’t have.”

  The second man stood and brought up a 9mm, aiming it Jamie. “I want the woman, asshole.”

  “Can’t have her, asshole.” As he spoke, knowing any words would have the effect of delaying the man’s reaction as he listened, Jamie brought up his Glock, aimed, and fired. Being a crack shot, he hit his target, and the 9mm was jerked out of the man’s hand and went flying into the water.

  “Fuck,” the dude cried out as he shook his hand.

  Jamie didn’t doubt that had hurt, but the man should consider it his lucky day he was still breathing. The mood Jamie was in at that point, he’d just as soon have followed through on his first thought and put the bullet between the man’s eyes.

  “Yeah, that hurt, didn’t it? Next time, there won’t be any pain because you won’t be alive to feel it. Before you go back to whatever hole you crawled out of, I want you to tell the man you’re working for that no one takes what’s mine.”

  That probably hadn’t been the smartest thing to say as it would be a challenge to Sugar’s nameless man. His buttons had been pushed, though, and putting a claim on Sugar had popped out of his mouth before he’d thought better of it.

  Pointing his weapon at Roger, Jamie said, “You have exactly three seconds to disappear.” He didn’t doubt Roger would take off, but what was to keep them from coming back? Then an idea occurred to him, and he lowered his weapon and fired three times, making a three-inch hole in the boat’s hull just below the waterline.

  “What the hell, man?” Roger screamed.

  “I estimate you have just enough time to make it back to the dock before that pricey boat sinks. You should probably get going.”

  The inked man leveled a stare full of hatred at Jamie. “You haven’t seen the last of me,” he spat.

  “Then you’re a dead man,” Jamie said just before Roger gave the cigarette boat full throttle, causing the Marauder to practically rocket out of the water with the grace of a soaring killer whale.

  Until the boat disappeared around the cove, Jamie didn’t move, nor did he put away his gun. What kind of trouble was Sugar in? He turned to the closed door of the Sea Ray’s cabin. There hadn’t been the slightest squeak from her since he’d tossed her onto the bunk. Time to get some answers.

  He reached for the handle and opened the cabin door. “The man who almost drowned you, is he looking for you?” The anger raging inside him died at seeing her curled into a ball with the pillow pulled over her head. She gave no sign that she heard him. He sat on the edge of the bunk and leaned over her.

  “Sugar?” Lifting the pillow, he peered down at her face. “Sweetheart, you’re safe.”

  She blinked up at him, and he’d never seen such fear in anyone’s eyes before. Jamie brushed her hair away from her face. “The man who hurt you, does he have tattoos?”

  “What? No, I don’t know anyone like that.” Her gaze darted to the doorway. “Are they gone? I heard gunshots.”

  “Who would they be, Sugar? You need to tell me what’s going on, or I can’t help you.” Her reaction to his question puzzled him. The eyes he thought beautiful blanked, and he got the feeling she had just shut down all her emotions. The second her gaze shifted away from him and she stared at the wall in front of her face, he knew she wasn’t going to tell him.

  So be it. She clearly didn’t trust him enough to confide in him. He’d wanted to make a full day of her first time on his boat. In the small fridge was a platter filled with a variety of cheeses and fruit. Assorted crackers and chocolate chip cookies he’d made himself were tucked away in a cabinet along with a bottle of wine. All intended to be enjoyed while tied up at the dock at sunset.

  Change of plans. She was in no condition for a romantic evening. Leaving her on the bunk, he went topside. He started the engines, pressed the throttle down, and headed back to the marina. As the boat skimmed over the water, he thought about the woman below and all he knew about her.

  From the first, he’d jumped to conclusions about Sugar Darling that he was learning were so off base that he’d not even been in the right ballpark when sizing her up. Her tough exterior hid a vulnerable and somewhat naïve woman, one who apparently needed a protector. He was the wrong man for the job. The people he loved ended up dead.

  Is that why you choose the women you do, Saint? Ones you’ll never fall in love with even though you claim that’s what you want?

  Did a part of him believe he’d find a way to kill the next person he loved? It was a disturbing insight—if that’s what it was.

  What if Sugar was the one? Even though she was a conundrum with her combination of soft and hard, courage and fearfulness, and innocence and brashness, he liked her. Who was he kidding? He’d passed like when he’d held her in his arms and given her the first orgasm of her life.

  Still, she had baggage he didn’t want to open, and he didn’t have it in him to be what she needed. He’d been doing just fine in his search for a wife before Sugar had blown into his life like a whirling dust devil. Okay, not entirely true, but maybe he hadn’t been putting enough effort into it, and that he could change.

  Having a disruptive, mini tornado—with the potential to turn his life into chaos—for a wife didn’t bear consideration. The woman he married would have a calm temperament like his mother, would bake double-chocolate chip cookies for him and their kids, and wouldn’t call to his base emotions.

  As he slowed in the no-wake zone, his tormentor poked her head out. “Do I need to do anything to help you land?”

  “Dock. We don’t land, we dock.” She flinched at the harshness in his voice, and he sighed. Granted it was because of her his head was spinning like a kid’s top, but that was no reason to snap at her.

>   “Okay, what should I do?”

  She really did have beautiful eyes, and they were looking everywhere but at him. “I think you should stay out of sight until I get things put away and we can leave.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said before disappearing back into the cabin.

  So was he.

  Normally, he washed down the Sea Ray after taking her out, but all that mattered now was getting Sugar home and hopefully finding the adage out of sight, out of mind to be true.

  “That’s a cool name for a boat,” she said as he hurried her up the dock toward his car.

  He followed her gaze to see a fifty-something-foot yacht named Therapy. “Uh-huh. Come on, let’s go.” So they were going to pretend their afternoon hadn’t been interrupted by gunfire.

  “Why doesn’t your boat have a name?”

  “Just never got around to it.” That wasn’t true, but he wasn’t about to tell her he planned to name the Sea Ray after his wife, whoever she might be. It was bad luck to change the name of a boat, so he’d not picked a temporary one. He headed up the dock, keeping an eye out for Roger and his friend. The Marauder wasn’t in sight, and Jamie hoped it was sitting on the bottom of the gulf. He slowed his strides when he realized Sugar was jogging to keep up with him.

  “You should name it. Something cool, maybe Saint’s Pleasure.”

  “It’s a she, and no, I’ll come up with a name for her when I’m ready.” Stop talking, Sugar, just stop. He didn’t want to listen to that musical southern voice of hers; he didn’t want to feel her body heat as she walked next to him; and he didn’t want the scent of her in his nose.

  “Is that the bathroom?” she asked, pointing to a building off to the side.

  “Yeah, you need to use it?”

  She nodded and without waiting, veered off. He trailed after her, refusing to let her out of his sight. Just because he hadn’t spied Roger and friend didn’t mean they weren’t around. As he waited outside the building, Roger came around the corner and when he saw Jamie, he froze. Then he gave a slight shake of his head before backing up.

  Jamie had already palmed his weapon. “If you take another step, I will shoot you. Don’t think I won’t.”

  Roger stilled and put his hands up, palms facing out. “Look, man, I don’t know what that was all about. The dude gave me a thousand bucks to follow you. It’s gonna take every bit of that to fix my boat.” He narrowed his eyes. “Hell, man. Since you put the hole in it, you should pay to fix it.”

  Jamie snorted. “Not happening. That’s the kind of thing you should expect when you play with the bad guys. You saying you don’t know his name or what he wanted?”

  “No. You could say he ain’t a sharing kind of man.”

  That was likely true. “I’m gonna give you some valuable advice, Roger. He comes around again, it would be in your interest to refuse any request he might make. Second, you get any thought in your head to come after me or the woman, you’ll regret it. Trust me, I’m badder than I look.”

  The drug dealer nodded his head as if he were one of those bobbing-head dolls some people put in their cars. “Look, man, I don’t want no trouble. I ain’t never seen shooting like that. Not many coulda done that. I got things going on I don’t wanna mess up, you get me?”

  That the man’s drug deals were his priority eased Jamie’s mind about having to keep an eye out for Roger. “I get you, and I’ll take you at your word unless you prove I shouldn’t. We good?”

  Roger began to nod again, then his gaze slid past Jamie’s shoulder, and his eyes widened. Jamie knew before he turned what he’d see. “You give him one of your guns?”

  “No, man,” Roger said, vigorously shaking his head.

  Jamie spun and took off after the man dragging Sugar toward the parking lot. He dismissed shooting at a moving target, afraid he’d hit her. Nor did he want anyone to call the cops. The man was his, and he wasn’t in the mood to share.

  Although she was gagged, Sugar screamed through the cloth while fighting like a furious tigress as she tried to kick the man in the groin with the heel of her foot.

  Good girl, sweetheart. Slow him down. As Jamie closed the distance between them, he saw the moment she realized he was coming for her. The panic in her eyes slowly receded as she locked her gaze onto his. She knew he would save her. Even as he put on a burst of speed, his heart, his brain, his body surrendered to Sugar Darling. She was his, and any man who thought otherwise would live to regret it.

  If the man had a second gun, he would have used it by then, so Jamie leapt through the air without fearing he would be shot. The front of his body hit her first, and he wrapped his arms around both her and the man, forcing them to land on top of the bastard who had dared to touch her.

  Once they rolled to a stop with him straddling her, and her lying over the man’s chest, Jamie pressed his hand hard over the man’s face, pushing the back of his head into the pavement. Then he turned his focus onto Sugar and winked. It wasn’t what he wanted to do. He wanted to kiss the fear right out of her eyes, but there was still a man needing a lesson before he could tell Sugar Darling—a woman he’d never thought to want in his life—that he had changed his mind. He removed the gag.

  “I want to go home,” she said, then turned her face away.

  That was all she had to say after everything that had happened? “Fine.” He pulled her up and handed her his car keys. “Here. Lock yourself in while I take care of some things.”

  With a foot pressed hard against the man’s chest and his weapon aimed at his head, Jamie made a quick phone call to K2 and had a brief conversation with the boss. After hanging up, he jerked the man up, and at the point of the gun, prodded him to the back of his car, and then pushed him back against the trunk.

  “You even sneeze, I’ll pull the trigger,” he said.

  For the fifteen minutes it took Kincaid and Jake to arrive, Jamie kept his gun pointed at his prisoner. The questions he asked were met with stony silence. He knew how to get the man to talk, but Sugar was in the car, and she’d had enough trauma for one day. Kincaid and Jake arrived and hauled off the man.

  Jamie slid into the driver’s seat and started the car. “Tell me everything.”

  It was a command Sugar would not obey. Jamie could have been killed out there on the water because of her. That she could not live with. She would return to Rodney first.

  “There’s nothing to tell,” she answered, keeping her gaze on the passing scenery. If she looked at him, she would see his disappointment in her. He wanted her to trust him, and she did. If she told him, though, he would go after her husband. She could live with knowing she was hurting Jamie by her silence if it meant keeping him alive.

  A battle raged in Sugar’s head between herself and Hannah. When the other boat had come at them, soon followed by gunshots, the chance that she would be taken back to Rodney had paralyzed her. In her despair, Hannah had taken over, curling herself into a ball with the pillow over her head. Helpless. So damn helpless.

  Even now, Hannah begged . . . for what, Sugar no longer knew. But Sugar was supposed to be fearless, willing to fight for the new life she had created for herself. Run or stay and fight? Because there was no doubt Rodney had found her.

  She glanced at the man driving the car. He’d been stonily quiet since she’d refused to answer his question. She had so many regrets where he was concerned.

  They turned into her complex, and he pulled up next to her car. “Go inside and pack enough to get you through the next few days,” he said as he stared straight ahead.

  “I’m staying here.” There was no way she was going home with him. If Rodney somehow found her with another man . . . she didn’t even want to consider the consequences. What she wouldn’t tell Jamie was that she had no intention of staying in her condo knowing Rodney was close. She would check into a motel while she decided what to do.

 
; He looked at her then, his eyes hard and determined. “No. You’re not. If I have to tie you up and take you where you’ll be safe, I will. You’re staying with Jake and Maria. It’s already been taken care of, and Maria’s expecting you.”

  Funny that she was hurt he didn’t want her with him when that wasn’t what she wanted either.

  After dropping Sugar off at Maria’s, Jamie headed straight for K2. He wanted in on the interrogation. He found Kincaid and Jake in the back warehouse area that they used to set up mock houses, or sometimes small villages, when they had an upcoming mission. Kincaid believed in being prepared in every way possible, and they would re-create the interior of a house or village if they could get that kind of information from an informant, then spend days practicing as if it were the real deal.

  In the far back was an area that had two windowless cells for the rare occasion they needed to interrogate someone. Knowing that was where he would find them, he crossed the warehouse floor.

  Jake met him outside the cell door. “Figured I’d see you here. You take Sugar to my house?”

  “Yeah. Foolish woman wanted to stay at her place. Told her I’d tie her up if I had to.” He glanced at the closed door. “Learn anything?”

  “Name’s Jax Harrison. Served time for armed robbery. Got out four months ago, and obviously didn’t waste any time getting involved with the wrong crowd. He doesn’t know anything. Says a dude approached him in a bar, offered him three thousand bucks to do a job.”

  “Not even a name?” Jamie wanted to get his hands on the man inside the cell, even knowing he’d get nothing more out of him after Kincaid had been at him.

  “No, but here’s the interesting thing. The man knew our guy. Knew his name and that he’d recently been released. Threatened to send him back behind bars. Said he had the power to do it.”