Mia combed fingers through her hair in a nervous gesture he found oddly endearing. “You should tell a person when she looks scary.”
He shrugged, pretending all was well. No need to get her riled up. Glancing in a mirror would do that without any help from him. “Luke’s seen worse.”
“Do I really look that bad?” she asked Luke.
“Honestly? You don’t look good.”
“Luke!” Claire Hathaway pushed her husband out of the way and motioned her visitors inside.
Dark hair and sexy as hell. Holden had liked Claire on sight and not just for that curvy body, though that was bonus. She was the one woman capable of handling a man like Luke. She had stormed back into his life after a broken engagement and taken over. He was still a perfect shot and tough as hell, but Claire grounded him. Gave him focus and a sense of purpose.
But it hadn’t come easy. Luke and Claire shared a complicated history. She’d been subjected to more than her share of gossip, still was, but her love for Luke had never been in question. At least not by Holden. He noticed it right off. It took Luke a bit longer to wake up and see it.
They all stepped inside the cozy craftsman-style home and stopped in the entryway at the bottom of the stairs. To the right was a formal dining room that was doing double duty as an office. On the left, a family room. A fire burned in the fireplace and two puffy couches faced each other in front of it.
Because Luke kept glancing at Mia with a frown of concern that grew more severe with each peek, Holden skipped to the introductions. “Luke and Claire Hathaway, this is Mia Landers.”
Claire’s smile faltered as she looked at Mia. “What did Holden do to you?”
Mia leaned closer to Holden. “Saved my life.”
“Twice,” he said. Her protective shift pleased him to a ridiculous degree. He cleared his throat to keep from letting it show. “For the record.”
“Show-off,” Luke mumbled under his breath, then threw his wife a “what did I say?” look when she stared him down. “We got the alarm code. Adam, Caleb and Zach are on the way to see if they can help.”
“Who are they?” Mia asked.
Luke maneuvered the group to the couches in the family room as Claire slipped into the kitchen at the back of the house. “We all work together.”
“Holden said he was unemployed.”
Claire retuned with a tray filled with mugs and a coffeepot. “Technically, he’s not wrong.”
Luke waited until Claire set the items on the table before pouring Mia a cup of black coffee and handing it to her. “What happened?”
Holden took that one. “My house exploded.”
Mia closed her eyes as she took a sip of the steaming liquid. “And I killed Representative Walters.”
Luke dropped his cup but pulled off an impressive deep-knee bend to grab it before it crashed against the polished hardwood floor. “Excuse me?”
Claire hadn’t stopped watching Mia. “Is that blood on your shirt?”
Mia didn’t bother to look down. “And mud and who knows what else. I’m trying not to think about it.”
Holden winced at the list. “The blood’s not hers.”
“Yeah, Holden, that makes it better.” Claire took the mug out of Mia’s hands. “We should get you cleaned up.”
Mia didn’t move. “Why do you look familiar?”
Holden figured Mia had dealt with enough this evening. Hearing about Claire’s past would only wind them all up again. “Now isn’t the best time for that.”
Claire waved off the concern. “It’s okay.”
“What?” Mia asked as she looked around at the other faces in the room.
“You probably saw my photo all over the news as Claire Samson.”
“I hate that last name.” Luke rubbed his shoulder as he said it.
“No arguments here.” Holden could still remember the scene. Luke on the ground bleeding and Claire being dragged away to prison for a murder she didn’t commit. The road from there to their happy-ever-after had not been an easy one.
“I was accused of killing my ex-husband, Phil.”
Mia visibly inhaled. “Oh.”
“Sound familiar?” Holden asked even though he knew the answer. Everyone knew the story. Phil was dead and his brother, Steve, was in prison awaiting trial on a host of fraud and securities charges in addition to those for murder and attempted murder. The fallout took down the Recovery Project, a previously top-secret organization, and its leader.
Mia faced Luke, then her gaze skipped to Holden. “You’re part of the group the Congressman is holding the hearings about.”
“He didn’t like that we were out there operating undercover and he didn’t know about us or have control over our funding.” Luke ticked off their supposed sins on his fingers.
Holden saw a bigger hole. “How do you know about the Recovery Project? Our existence is need-to-know only and the hearings are supposed to be hush-hush.”
“Everyone in the office knows. The Congressman is determined to make sure none of you work in law enforcement again.” Mia winced. “Sorry.”
The sentiment wasn’t a surprise, but it still ticked off Holden. Walters had all but promised to destroy Rod Lehman. Walters had been too close with the Samson brothers to not exact revenge. Same clubs, same schools, same old-moneyed backgrounds.
“Guess that confirms our fear that the Project will never get back on track,” Holden said.
“And that’s enough for Mia.” Claire clapped to get everyone’s attention. “Whatever you need to talk about can wait ten minutes while she gets a shower.”
“I’m fine.” Mia’s halfhearted attempt to call Claire off didn’t work, which was inevitable because Claire wasn’t one to be put off.
She wrapped an arm around Mia’s slim shoulders and guided her toward the stairs. The entire time she glared at Holden. “We’ll talk about this later.”
Nothing like having two women angry with him. “Don’t blame me.”
The comment fell flat because Claire already had Mia on the bottom step. “You’re probably a size smaller than me, but we can find some sweats that will work.”
“I don’t think—”
Claire called over her shoulder to the men. “We’ll be right back.”
Luke held his blank look until the women’s legs disappeared at the top of the stairs, then his venom unleashed. “Walters is dead?”
“Mia seems to think so.” Holden started to sit down and then thought better of it. Caked with mud, he fit in at his home. Not here. If he messed up the couch, Claire might strangle him.
“Why?”
“Mia says she ran him over with her car.” When Luke tried to say something, Holden cut him off. “I can explain the whole thing, including a few dead guys we’ll need to handle.”
“We?”
“But I need a favor first.”
Luke dropped onto his couch and nodded to the one across from him for Holden to do the same. “Name it.”
That’s one of the things Holden admired about Luke. He didn’t fluster. You handed him a problem and he resolved it. He slid right into leadership mode and took over.
“Do a background check on Mia,” Holden said, knowing the idea would rile Luke. He had a soft spot for the ladies, especially petite, pretty ones like Mia.
“Not without an explanation.”
Holden balanced on the very edge of the sofa. “She says she works for Walters, but I haven’t heard of her.”
“Not unusual if she’s a worker bee.”
“She’s got this story about how Walters had her drive out to the woods near my place before he went nuts and then attacked her.”
Luke’s eyebrows snapped together. “What the hell?”
“Exactly.”
“Walters is a lot of things, but a rapist?”
Rape. Holden’s brain traveled back to Rod’s condo and that man’s hand on Mia’s breast. The helpless anguish on her face. The disgust that churned in his gut as his mind j
umped right to murderous rage. Letting the attacker touch her for even two seconds had chipped away at Holden’s humanity. Forget getting the guy off of her, Holden had wanted him dead.
“We might need a doctor.” Claire’s voice broke into the darkness swirling around him. The shaky thread to her tone had both men standing.
Holden knew worry when he saw it. “Is Mia okay?”
“She’s crashing on me.” Claire glanced back at the staircase, then lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m assuming her energy just ran out, but her eyes are glassy. Like she has a concussion or something.”
Holden feared that might be the case. That or shock. If she truly was a Capitol Hill worker, then having men drop dead at her feet and getting pawed by some creature would not be a regular occurrence.
“Did she hit her head?” Claire asked.
“Probably. I mean, she drove her car through my front door.”
Luke and Claire just stared, mouths open and wearing identical what-the-hell frowns. Neither said a word.
“What?” Holden asked.
“You left out that piece of information earlier. It’s kind of important.” Luke didn’t try to hide his exasperation until he turned to Claire and his voice lowered to a more reasonable decibel. “Caleb should be here any minute.”
“In the meantime, she needs help in the bathroom.” Claire’s tone suggested she expected Holden to take over and now.
“Why are you looking at me?” he asked.
“I thought she might be more comfortable undressing with you than a complete stranger.”
Mia. Naked. No, that was never going to work. She needed medical care, not him drooling over her. “I’ve known her for three hours.”
“So?”
Holden was wondering if Claire meant to drive him insane. “Not sexually.”
“Oh.” Then Claire’s face changed. “Ohhhhh.”
“I’ve never seen her without clothes, haven’t even kissed her yet.” Holden tried to snatch the last word back but it was too late. It was out there, just bumping around.
And Luke noticed. He covered his mouth with his hand even though it did nothing to hide his smile. “Apparently you’re slipping.”
Claire rolled her eyes at both of them. “Fine. You stay here. I’ll handle this.”
It took another fifteen minutes for everyone to show up. Looking around Luke’s dining-room table, Holden felt nothing but gratitude. He had sent up a virtual flare and they all came running.
Adam Wright sat down, opened his ever-present laptop and started typing before anyone said a word. Caleb Mattern stood there with his medical bag, shifting from foot to foot, clearly wanting to get upstairs to his patient. And Zach Bachman, Zach being Zach and a demolitions expert, smelled like sulfur. Holden had enough problems so he didn’t ask.
Ever since the congressional hearings started, they’d scattered to their realms of privacy and seen each other less frequently. It wasn’t until they met again that Holden realized how much he missed the daily interaction. Finding missing people meant they didn’t hang out in the office much, but they did confer. Not working meant not having that intellectual stimulation, but that dry spell was over now.
Holden ran through the Mia scenario with the team. Luke fired questions about the car, the men who stormed the house and the two Holden killed. The others just listened.
Then the conversation stopped. Holden sat with his back to the entry, so he wasn’t exactly sure what happened until he smelled flowers and heard the shuffle of feet. No question Mia had joined them.
He turned around, intending to make a comment but the joke, whatever it was, died on his lips. She wore a slim gray T-shirt and sloppy black sweats that stopped at her knees. The outfit should have said comfort. To Holden it said smoking hot. Clean with shiny blond hair and rosy cheeks, she hardly resembled the woman who dragged him to safety through an underground tunnel while wearing a proper business suit. This Mia looked soft and pretty and a bit too irresistible for his liking.
Apparently he wasn’t alone because Caleb practically fell out of his chair when she crossed the threshold. Adam even stopped typing. Zach did a double take, which was about as much interest as he ever showed in anything.
Claire walked into the room with her head down and almost slammed into Mia. She glanced around the room, looking less happy the longer she went. “What’s wrong with you all?”
Holden knew the answer to that one. “A case of male idiocy.”
“You guys have seen a woman before, right?” Claire put her hand on Mia’s back and shifted until she stood slightly in front of her.
Luke’s eyebrow lifted. “You’re one.”
“They don’t think of me as a woman.”
Adam snorted, then scooted his chair back when Luke swung an arm in his direction.
Holden decided to take over. It was either that or tick Claire off further, and no smart man would pick that option. He did a quick round of introductions, then pulled out a chair for Mia.
“I’m not sure you should be out of bed,” Caleb said.
“My head hurts if I’m sitting up or lying down, so I figured I’d say hello.” Mia pointed at Holden’s coffee mug. “May I?”
She didn’t wait for permission and he didn’t stop her. He was too busy looming over her and watching for signs of trauma. If she passed out he’d have his answer, but he hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Her color seemed too bright and her eyes more watery than focused.
“The pain thing kind of proves my point.” Caleb shot her a smile that had her smiling right back.
Holden tightened his grip on the back of the chair. “That’s enough of that.”
Mia turned around and looked up at him. “What’s wrong?”
“Interesting,” Luke said at the same time.
Holden refused to acknowledge the wave of jealousy that smacked him. He wasn’t about to let his buddies do it either.
He dropped down in the chair next to hers. “Nothing.”
“I’m sorry I dragged all of you into my mess.” Mia glanced around the table, then reached out her hand to cover Holden’s. “Especially you. When I think about your house…”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
She squeezed his fingers. “And then I made you go down that staircase when you couldn’t breathe.”
Holden felt a thud against his rib cage. “Mia—”
“Why couldn’t you breathe?” Adam asked.
“The claustrophobia.” She spit out the answer before Holden could stop her.
He closed his eyes, hoping no one heard. When he opened them again he knew—no such luck. They were all looking at him.
Luke tapped on the table to get Mia’s attention. “What?”
“The small spaces…” She stopped gesturing with her hands. “Wait, you all didn’t know?”
Holden blew out a shaky breath. “They do now.”
“Since when have you had this issue?” Caleb asked.
Zach was the one who answered. “Doesn’t matter. Let’s move on.”
Holden appreciated the assist. Zach knew exactly what happened and when. He was there. He lived it, or part of it. Somehow he moved past it. Holden hadn’t figured out how to do the same.
The sadness on Mia’s face deepened. “My point is that I brought all of this danger to you. Me and my boss.”
“About that.” Holden refused to talk about the demons that taunted him, but he needed to come clean about this. “It wasn’t exactly your fault that you ended up at my house.”
“I drove through it.”
“Well, that was all you. Thanks again, but I’m talking about the circumstances that put you in the woods near my house.”
Mia eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
Holden leaned forward on his elbow and tried to block out the unwanted audience. “It was me.”
“What was?”
“I hacked into Walters’s computer.”
Luke slammed his hand against the table.
“Damn it, Holden.”
“Why?” Mia glanced around the table as if looking for support or an explanation. “I don’t get it.”
“Your boss is—or was—investigating our team and the work we used to do.”
Adam stopped tapping on his computer keys. “Why didn’t you ask me to do it?”
“Adam.” Luke’s warning rang through the otherwise-quiet room.
“I’m the security expert.” Adam pointed at his laptop as if to prove his point.
Mia tightened her hand, bringing Holden’s attention back to her. “I still don’t understand.”
He glanced down, letting the guilt fill him. He deserved the hollow feeling in his stomach. He knew that. “I used what I thought was an empty user file and bounced the signal, thinking Walters or his people wouldn’t be able to track it down.”
Shock registered on Mia’s mouth right before she pulled her hand away from him. “You set me up?”
“Not on purpose.”
The exhaustion tugging at her mouth disappeared in a flash. Her cheeks blushed bright pink. “The Congressman was convinced I was working with someone.”
“He figured out I was in. He just didn’t know that I got there without any help.”
She stood up fast enough to knock over her chair and had to grab on to the edge of the table to keep from falling. “He attacked me, Holden.”
He reached out to steady her, but she shrugged his hand away. He tried not to let the dismissal bug him. “I know.”
“I had to mow the man down with my car to keep him from killing me.”
“That’s enough.” Caleb got up, sparing Holden only a second’s glare before facing Mia. “Now isn’t the time for this.”
“Of course it is,” she insisted.
“You have plenty of stress without this conversation. I want to check your head and see what we’re dealing with here. See, I’m the medical and science guy around here.”
“Good idea. Let’s make sure she’s okay.” Holden tried to get out of his seat.
Claire shoved him back down with much more force than was necessary. “You stay. Seems you have some explaining to do.”
Guns and the Girl Next Door Page 5
