She nodded. “It was nice while the peacefulness lasted.” She had to admit that. There was so much craziness in the world, and in Arizona too. There was the serial rapist on the loose in Chandler. There had been several apartment shootings in Mesa. Areas of Phoenix were quickly becoming areas to avoid even in the daylight hours and now the Row had been hit. There just never seemed to be any place to go where a person could be safe without fear of the next major attack from some whack job lunatic. She hated that.
“Why are you doing this? Why are you working so cheap and upgrading my security for free?” People didn’t do anything for nothing at all—that’s not how the world worked. He had to want something.
He shrugged. “First, your security is archaic and something better will help me do my job better.”
Okay, he had a point there. “And second?”
“Second,” he looked her over, as if waiting for a reaction…or preparing himself for one. “A friend asked me to help out a friend.”
She felt her face heating with anger. “Thomas!” She growled. She told him to stay out of it.
“I don’t know your brother,” he said.
“Ah ha!” He knew who she was talking about when she said his name so she knew Thomas did have something to do with it, even if he hadn’t sent the guy himself. “Even if you don’t know him, you know of him because you knew he was my brother.”
He laughed. “Yeah, but I’ve never met him.”
“Let me guess, he asked one of the guys to send you here.”
“Nope,” he said. “And since you’ve already hired me, you can’t fire me.”
Yes she could—but she wouldn’t. No matter how his walking into her store came about, she needed him. “So how long will you be here? A day, a week? What is this?” Would he leave right after what the media had dubbed,” The Terror on the Row” ended?
“As long as you need me.”
She sighed and smiled. She was sure Thomas had something to do with this. She could be angry, but she would be a fool if she didn’t thank him for it. “Let me show you around.” Not that there was much to show, but he could at least take a look inside her little box of a security room.
“Aren’t you going to lock the door?” He asked when she walked past him and headed toward the room.
“I hadn’t planned on it,” she said. “This won’t take too long.” He grunted. She was just about to ask him why he had a problem with it when the front door swung open and Officer Craig Davis sauntered in.
“Is there a problem here?” Craig’s usually flirtatious smile was gone and right now he had a dead serious look on his face and his hand on his weapon.
“No,” she said quickly. “Craig this is my new security guy, Shane.” She had the feeling he might not want his last name tossed out there. Most of the military men she knew were generally fairly private and giving his full name to a cop who would probably go back and run a search on him wasn’t exactly in fashion with keeping things private. “Shane, Craig is an officer working out of the Sixth.” She had met Craig a year ago when he and another officer had gone down the Row talking with shop owners about safety and security. It was their routine community awareness walk, but he had been a new addition. Now she couldn’t seem to get rid of him. He hadn’t come in every day, but he had stopped in sporadically to say hello. Since the last robbery he was becoming a more frequent fixture. He had, in not so direct terms, asked her out. He had asked her if she had lunch. She had told him not yet and he had said he hadn’t either. “I’m on my way down to the Bistro,” he had said. She knew an almost invite when she heard one so she quickly said that she still had a lot of work to do, but she had lunch waiting for her upstairs when she had time for her break.
Craig was attractive. He had this caramelized brown skin, gorgeous hazel eyes and short cut black hair. He had a go-tee. She didn’t usually go for facial hair, but it looked really good on him. He was five-eight, athletically fit, but not overtly muscular, and honestly he filled out the uniform rather nicely. She just didn’t feel that connection, the attraction that he seemed to want her to feel. She wasn’t sure he would understand that. Honestly, she didn’t get it herself. He was a nice guy; he was cute and yet she felt nothing—nothing at all. At first she thought she was just still untrusting of men due to the last relationship fiasco. They say they’re not married, but a person never really could tell, and that line of thinking made her turn down every man who walked into her shop thinking they had a chance with her. But then she realized that she wasn’t still dealing with relationship issues. She really did want something stable and good. Being at Thomas’ wedding had reminded her just how much she wanted that connection with somebody too. She just hadn’t found the right somebody yet.
“I could have handled security for your store,” he said so seriously that it almost knocked her over.
“How? You work thirteen hour shifts; there’s no way you could take this on too.”
“I would have given it all up for you.”
She laughed and shook her head. “Then you’d be broke. Trust me; you’re better off where you are.” She needed to change the subject—fast. “So what are you doing down this way?”
“After the last incident down here our department got some pressure from the mayor to make our presence known. Guess the big guy finally got around to putting a couple officers on the watch as requested.” He nearly laughed as he shook his head. “Maybe he realized the mayor was going to call every single day until somebody did as he said.”
“Oh.” She nodded. “So you’ll be patrolling?”
“Yeah, I’ll be patrolling…and another unit as well,” he nodded. “We’re not full-time security here, but we’ll be through, keeping you all safe. And you know I’m going to look out for you, beautiful.”
“Well I should hope you’ll be looking out for all of us.” She really wasn’t sure she liked how his conversational tactics had changed. He had always been subtle with his pursuit, which is why she had always been subtle with her rejection, but if he pushed any harder she was going to have to shut him down McGregor style. She didn’t want to have to do that. She had too many issues to deal with right now and aligning herself on a cop’s bad side wasn’t something she needed to add to all the rest of the chaos.
“I will be. But you have to be more afraid than Petrof down at the Bistro, or Gary at the art shop. You’re a woman,” he said as if she didn’t know that already. Well thank you, Sherlock, for the reminder. “What happened to that woman down at Shatrel’s Spice of Life could happen to you.”
“God forbid,” she said sharply. She didn’t even want to think about anything happening to her. She also couldn’t understand why he would relegate Shatrel to “that woman” status. Maybe it was a cop thing. Maybe everybody was simplified down to just a case number for them.
“It could. You’re here, alone, and you live above the store. What if he breaks in and comes up there to hurt you?”
“Well then I guess the world should feel sorry for him because my brothers would hunt the bastard down and rip his beating heart out of his chest.”
“I’m just saying,” he stepped closer to her. She wouldn’t be intimidated, not by the bastard robbing the Row, and not by the man in uniform before her. “You’re here all alone at night. Something bad could happen to you.”
“That’s what she has me for,” Shane interrupted Craig’s intimidation tactics. “And I can assure you anybody who tries to get to her won’t be getting out of here unless it’s in a body bag.”
His uninhibited admission had knocked Alyssa off balance. He had just, and in front of a cop, said he’d kill the man—well, he hadn’t said it in those exact words, but she hadn’t missed the meaning and she was sure Craig hadn’t either. Shane was like her brothers; maybe worse, she couldn’t tell yet. Good Lord, who had she just hired?
“Yeah,” she nodded and pointed to Shane, “what he said.” She could fight. Gavin had taught her some moves, and she had picked up a
few from Thomas. She might not be an expert, but she wouldn’t go down like some deer caught in headlights either. “Anyway, Craig, I have to show Shane around and get him acquainted with the store. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”
He looked her over, one long languid visual inspection that spent far too much time focused on her breasts. She was wearing her aqua blue satin button down blouse with a pair of white slacks that hugged her curves in all the right places. Right now she wished she were wearing full body armor because with just one look the man was practically undressing her where she stood. She cleared her throat, yet he still hadn’t bothered to move.
“In other words,” Shane’s voice was gravely serious. “It’s time for you to go,” he stated with no room for argument. Craig looked at him once, something in his eyes told Alyssa that he was trying to assess just whether or not he could take the man beside her in a fight or not. She didn’t know what he had decided on the matter; she just knew that he stiffened his shoulders before giving her one more offsetting look.
“I’ll be seeing you,” he said to her. His voice was deep and laced with something, she wasn’t sure what, but it was something. He didn’t have that same friendly, confident tone. He seemed determined, maybe even a little angry; she didn’t know which because she barely knew the man. She waited until he was out the door before she turned to Shane and smiled.
“Okay, let’s get on with what we need to do.”
“Is he somebody to you, Alyssa?”
“Craig? No,” she shook her head wondering why he cared. He was security, and he was only there as a favor to whoever had asked him to come and apply for the job. “Not that it should matter to you. Now let’s get on with familiarizing you with the store, shall we;” she stepped around him when he showed no signs of moving out of her way. She walked over to the security room door before turning around and realizing he wasn’t right behind her. “Are you coming?” She heard the hint of annoyance in her own tone and she couldn’t figure out why it was there. He had asked a simple question. Why had it bothered her so much?
“This,” she pushed open the door to her security room, “is where you’ll work. I know it’s not much, but we can get a more comfortable chair in here for you, and um…well…” she looked around trying to figure out what would be the best thing to put in the room with him. The only thing she had factored in when she embarked on this journey to find security for her store was the more comfortable chair aspect, maybe a small desk to replace the one that had come with the building when she bought it; otherwise, there wasn’t much she could think of that a security guard would need.
“I’ll fix it up to my specifications,” he said as if rescuing her from the task of trying to figure out what to do with the room. She had at least painted the room. The color was a soft, yet calming blue. She had once heard that blue was peace inspiring and she thought a security room should be just that. If she had gone for the Stark Raving Mad Red color the sales clerk tried to get her to buy she had envisioned the guard would probably go stark raving mad and shoot up her store. No, blue was a sense of peaceful, calming tranquility to give whoever was stuck in that room all day a little slice of beauty and, with hopes, patience.
“I can add a mini fridge,” she said. “That way you can bring sodas or food and eat in here if you get hungry. Just please clean up behind yourself.” She wasn’t a maid and she didn’t have time to play one.
He stepped completely into the small room, making it feel smaller. He wasn’t an overtly tall man. He wasn’t a guy who physically demanded all the space in the room, but somehow this man was definitely demanding space in this room. She felt crowded, not by his body, but by the man himself. It was as if he walked into the place and he owned it, completely possessing it, controlling it in a way that told anybody in his way to quickly get out of it. That was one of the things she first noticed when he walked into her store. When the door swung open and he walked in she felt the heat of his stare before she even looked up to see him. She had been putting a piece back in the case after giving a customer a closer inspection of the delicate necklace. When she did look up she wished she hadn’t. He was just standing there, taking over the space in the store like he owned it to his core. His low cut hair accented a strong jaw line making it look even stronger. His broad shoulders and narrow waist made her want to strip off that black tailored suit jacket, that powder blue tie and shirt and get to know that sexy body with an up close and personal hands-on inspection. The second he opened his mouth and said, “I’m here about the job,” she kicked the naughty thoughts from her mind. Stripping him and getting to know him better was no longer an option.
He had big hands; she noticed that, too, when he handed her his CV. He didn’t just sit it on the counter and slide it to her like everybody else had done. He made sure he put that high-grade piece of paper in her hand. He made sure she had to look at it, not just pick it up off the counter and add it to the pile of resumes behind the cash register. He stood there, waiting, watching her and every second seemed like torture because she could barely concentrate on what she was doing. He smelled so good, like the desert after a spring rain mixed with a hint of spice. She resisted the instinct to close her eyes and inhale the scent of the walking fantasy in front of her.
“As you can see,” he had said. “I have extensive experience in keeping people, and property, safe.” His voice was low, like a nice alto singer or the bass clef G-string of a cello and she wondered just how smooth that voice would sound in the bedroom. She had mentally kicked herself, telling herself to let it go. It had been too long since she had a serious relationship and that had to be the problem—at least that’s what she told herself anyway. Once she put her mind back on business at hand and actually managed to concentrate on the paper in front of her she saw a man who was qualified, more than qualified for the position he was applying for. She wanted to hire him; he was professional, well put together, respectful and confident. His skills were top notch according to the paper in her hand. She wanted to hire him, but she knew she couldn’t afford him. Maybe what impressed her most was that he didn’t back down. He wanted the job and he went after it. Of course now she knew his reason behind wanting the job. She was just a favor for a friend. Why did that bother her so much?
Well, it had all worked out anyway. He was going to be working for her, which was both good and bad. She was glad she had the best of the best for the security at her store, but not so glad that the sexy man nearly boxing her in the room was now officially off limits.
“So,” she cleared the husky tone from her throat. “This is where you’ll be, and of course you’ve seen the store. That’s all there is to it.”
“There’s a backdoor;” he stated, not asked.
“Yes, um…okay, let me lock the front and we’ll go.” She locked up the front door and flipped the Be Right Back sign to the facing out position. “Come with me,” she went to a door just down from the cash register. “Through here,” she pulled open the door and he followed her. “There’s no dress code really,” she said. “So you can wear whatever you want, just please don’t come in here with your pants hanging down around your thighs,” she shook her head to shake the image from her mind. “Not that you look like the kind of guy who would go for that sloppy, I forgot my belt and my pants are three sizes too big, look.” He was quick to assure her she didn’t need to worry about that look on his body at all. “Down this hall, that door back there is the backdoor for the store.” When they reached the door, she watched him survey the lock as he looked up at the miniature light bulb lighting the hallway. He shook his head. Great, he wasn’t happy with that either. She knew the light wasn’t perfect. It had a tendency to give off that Hollywood horror flick feel, but short of getting an electrician in to rewire the place there was nothing she could do about it.
“This is all you have?”
She sighed an exasperated sigh. “Yeah, that’s all I have,” she nearly snapped. She watched him take a small file from his b
ack pocket and fiddle with the lock for all of two seconds before it easily gave way. He opened the door, looked at her and then closed it back, turning the lock back to close. Yes, she saw the problem now, but that didn’t mean she was going to tell him that. If he kept pointing out everything that was wrong with her store she was going to need a mountain of paper for the list.
“And that’s your place up there,” once again he stated, not asked.
“Yes, that’s the door to my place.” She turned. “Are you ready to go back out front now?”
“No,” he said simply before walking up the stairs without her. If he jimmied the lock to her door she was going to flip the little light bulb he didn’t seem to like to the off position and leave him to find his way out of there on his own.
He looked back down at her before performing the same action on her house door that he had on the backdoor. It gave way and he pushed the door open. “Not even a squeak,” he said. “And this is a flat so there’s nowhere for you to run.”
“The bathroom,” she said without thinking.
Betrayal of the Dove (Men of Action) Page 2
