“Shocker.”
“I’m actually quite likeable.”
“Says who?”
“My dog.”
Campbell laughed.
She didn’t.
He covered it with a cough.
“Everybody knows that was fake. You know that, right?”
“See.” Campbell shook his head, leaning forward onto his elbows to shake a finger at her. “You say you’re likeable but the first chance for you to let me off the hook you call me on it.”
“Just because I don’t perpetuate the myth ‘your shit don’t stink’ doesn’t mean I’m not nice.”
“That’s not a myth.”
“Says who?”
“My dog.”
The corners of her mouth twitched as if she wanted to smile. But her eye twitched too. Kinda looked as if good and evil were fighting over a bone.
Wish it was my bone.
No!
He leaned back again, needing a bit more space between his bone and her full lips. Focus… “Okay. So someone doesn’t like you. Can’t say I don’t empathize—”
“Hardee har har.”
“But…I still don’t see why that necessitates a protection detail.”
“Dislike has…escalated.” She looked around as if to see who was listening.
“Escalated how?”
“Emails mostly.”
“Mostly. Come on, girlie, help me out here. You’re going to have to trust me.”
Raising an eyebrow made her look like Clay. She moved the neck of her shirt over the curve of her shoulder, exposing a big patch of scratched skin on her upper arm.
“What happened?” He automatically reached to touch it, and she wrenched her shirt back up as if he were going to burn her.
“Someone tried to hit me a couple days ago.”
“Hit how? Hand, shopping cart, turkey leg?”
“They tried to run me over on the sidewalk.”
“This is New York, sweetie. Lots of—”
“Don’t call me sweetie or girlie or honey love or any of the other stupid pet names you call your hookups. And I know what happened. I was there. All three times.”
He held his hands up, trying to process the last words. “I’m not saying it isn’t possible. All I’m saying are the odds of that happening are long.”
“Hi, folks. Can I get you anything else? Dessert?”
Natalie stood, yanking on her gloves and scarf. “No, we’re quite done.”
The poor waitress looked flustered at best. “Here’s the bill then. Thanks for coming.” She rushed off like he normally did after a sex date.
Campbell pulled his wallet out to grab cash, while Natalie shoved her arms through the sleeves of her coat. “Hey. Why are you rushing out? We have to talk about this. Get a game plan.”
“By talk you mean you tell me why I’m wrong and I fall all over myself in thanks? I think I’ll pass.”
“Hey, wait. Natalie. Wait!”
She stormed out in a huff. Campbell planted his hands on his hips and hung his head.
People stared. Now he was the ass who upset a chick. Girl? Woman? Gah. He turned to a table full of guys who were eyeing him. “Stay bachelors forever.” He tossed money on the table, grabbed his coat, and put it on as he sauntered out.
She stood on the street between a couple parked cars, hailing a cab. Glaring at him as he approached, she raised her arm higher in the air.
“Come on. Be reasonable.”
She gave him the stink eye again.
The squeal of tires and the rev of an engine on a somewhat quiet street didn’t belong. He’d heard it before and the short hairs on the back of his neck knew what those sounds meant.
As he reached for her, she narrowed her eyes and lifted a foot to step farther into traffic. Then she must have heard it. The car. Aiming for her. She stumbled and pure panic transformed her face just as a vehicle sideswiped the car next to her.
Campbell snatched her out of the way, rearing backward as the car veered right where she’d been standing. He tripped over the curve, falling with her on top of him to cushion her body. She screamed as he held her close and tucked her face into the crook of his neck. The fucker plowed into the next vehicle, smashing out the lights.
He rolled to the side, protecting her as glass exploded all around them.
The car just kept going, shoving the second vehicle out of the way into another car then peeled out to get away. A hit-and-run. But if Clay hadn’t been there, it would have been a homicide investigation. Calling Detective Wyatt wasn’t high on his list of fun things to do on a Friday night, but it looked as if it was just moved to the top.
They both lay there, huffing. Her breath on his throat dumped a totally different kind of adrenaline into his system.
“You okay?”
A shiver ran up her body and he tightened his hold on her. Her weight on him was nice. Odd for him to cough that up at a time of crisis. But…whatever.
It took a few seconds but she finally offered an, “I think so. Probably.” She took a deep breath. And another. “You?”
“All good. Hard head.”
“Now do you believe me?”
“Yes.” He didn’t laugh. Didn’t joke. He palmed her cheek to make sure she knew how serious he was.
She licked her lips and he kissed her. Don’t know where it came from. It just happened. It was good, too. Softest lips he’d probably ever kissed. Remove probably. He palmed the back of her head to deepen the kiss and she reared back.
“Good.”
Good what? His brain fought to remember what they were talking about, not having a clue what question he’d asked.
Then she kneed him in the balls.
Chapter Two
Natalie
“I’m really sorry. Like…really sorry.” Sitting at the conference room table at C&C headquarters, Natalie stared at the man who’d just saved her. And then she’d racked him.
On the sidewalk.
After he’d kissed her.
“Fuck, I’m still nauseous.” He sat in a chair across from her and she’d already apologized several times on the taxi ride.
“I thought I was squishing you.”
“So you decided I didn’t need family jewels?”
Crossing her arms on the table, she placed her forehead on top of them. “No. It was an accident. I swear it. I was just getting up and was too twitchy. Misjudged our distance apart.”
“By a mile.”
“Oh good gracious.” She lifted her head and took a drink from a glass of ice water she’d grabbed before she collapsed in her seat. “You really are whining a lot about one little tap.”
“Says the woman with no nuts.”
“Says Captain Obvious.”
Campbell grinned and her insides wanted to melt. So she drank more water to freeze that stuff out. She didn’t have the time or emotional reserves needed to deal with feelings for the Casanova smirking at her across the table.
He’d called Detective Wyatt, a buddy of his from their time in the Marines. Wyatt had sent a uniformed officer to the scene to make a report. Thankfully they’d gotten to leave before he had to notify the owners of the two damaged vehicles. Telling strangers they’d had a hit-and-run with no ability to find the asshat who’d wrecked their rides didn’t sound like a good time.
Wyatt was going to follow up with them as soon as he was free from another case so all they could do now was sit tight and wait for him. Alone. With the man she wanted and couldn’t risk being distracted by staring at her. With that smile she dreamt about.
“Penny for your scowl,” Campbell offered.
Natalie glared and to his credit he finally got serious.
“Was this like the other attacks?”
“Yes and no.”
Closing her eyes reminded her a little too much of feeling defeated so she opened them again and stared him right in the baby blues. “Two of the other times were in the middle of the day with other people around. They could have been targets as well.”
“But you already knew it had something to do with you.” It wasn’t a question, which she really appreciated. Feeling patronized at the moment would push her far past the edge of cordial.
She nodded. “The emails had been escalating, threats getting harsher. More direct. Then they stopped for a while. Thought I was good, you know. Creepo moved on.”
“Do you have any idea who would want to hurt you?”
“Isn’t that the five-million-dollar question?” Another drink to wet her throat so she could speak with him staring at her. So focused. So sexy. She shook her head, reminding herself exactly why she didn’t want to get sexually involved with the Adonis within grabbing distance. “One thing I’ve noticed, whoever is sending the emails is using my standard email I use at work. The one on my business cards.”
“Why is that noteworthy?”
“I only use that email with people I interact with at the clinic. I have a private one everyone else uses.”
“Well, we need to get on that immediately. We can pull server records and IP info from each of the emails and—”
“It’s already been done.”
“Ruh ruh?”
“Scooby Doo? Really?”
“I see your education has already begun, young grasshopper.”
She didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry or fall apart completely. She decided on option D, which was act as if everything was fine. Fake it ’til you make it at its finest. “Detective Wyatt already knows what’s happening. I’ve been forwarding things to him. They can’t track anything. The guy, girl, whatever is using some type of rerouting service for his IP info. One will show Iceland, another Fiji. The last one was Peru.”
Campbell seemed to ponder something for a minute and then pegged her with those eyes of his, and it took everything she had to keep from looking away.
“How long has this been going on?”
“Which part of it?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Emails. Attempted hit-and-runs. Somebody littering on your front walk. All of it.”
Natalie lost the fight of keeping eye contact, which she’d kick herself for later. Much later. As in when they were a few hundred blocks apart. “Several months.”
He moved slowly, leaning across the table, and she froze. Not having a clue what he was about to do dumped adrenaline in her system so fast she had to tamp down the fight-or-flight reaction racing through her veins. The brush of his fingertips on her chin made her clench her teeth together while the rest of her body tried to go limp.
Lifting her chin, he forced her to look at him again. “How many is several?”
Getting into an argument with him really didn’t suit her mood, but she decided to go ahead and rip off as many bandages as she could in one sitting. “Fourteen months.” Standing to get away from his—everything—reeked of being a coward but she just couldn’t take being so close to him, especially not with the taste of his mouth still on her lips when she licked them.
“You’re fucking kidding me.”
She rolled her eyes at him over her shoulder then proceeded to the window so she could look down at the street below. “Wish I was.”
“Over a year? And you’re just now getting to telling me about it?”
“Yes?” Wasn’t supposed to come out a question but her body wasn’t exactly reacting normally around him. She took a deep breath and tried to get her girly bits to calm the fuck down.
“And we’ve known each other for how long?”
“No clue,” she retorted and crossed her arms. Keeping him out or holding herself together, she wasn’t sure which. Both maybe?
His reflection in the glass as he approached her reminded her how attractive he was. As if she needed a refresher. He stood behind her, close enough she could feel his body heat, but not close enough she could feel if he was hard or not. His eyes, they haunted her dreams but this time she couldn’t look away. No way. Not when she saw something close to hurt in them.
“It’s been longer than fourteen months.”
“Your point being, Campbell?”
“My point is why the fuck is this the first time we’re hearing about this?”
“And earlier today you were soooo willing to believe me that something was happening?”
“That’s beside the point.”
She whirled around and faced him down. “I call bullshit.”
“You needed help. You needed protection. You needed—”
“I needed to do exactly what I did. I kept everything. I made police reports. I kept in contact with Detective Wyatt when anything new happened.”
“And you had other resources at your disposal to keep you safe.”
“Safe,” she scoffed. “What a fairytale.” Voicing that made her sound bitter, more bitter than she was. Or at least more bitter than she wanted to be. Changing the subject sounded like an excellent idea. “And you and Clay were both occupied at the time. And when it started I thought it was just some nut job asshole that didn’t like what I was doing with the clinic.” She shrugged. “It happens.”
“Occupied or not you should have—”
“When everything started you were both protecting a very pregnant Angela who needed all of your attention. Her threat was real and terrifying.”
“You almost getting run down, what is it? Four times now? You don’t think that’s real?”
Her shoulder and arm still hurt from the last attempt. “It’s real all right. No matter how much I want it to disappear.” She stepped around him to get another drink of water.
“I’m…uhh…sorry.”
With the glass halfway to her mouth her hand froze. “Did you just apologize to me?”
“I did, and before you have a stroke let me finish. I’m sorry I gave you shit earlier. You didn’t deserve that. And I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”
Setting her drink on the table, she pivoted around to face him again. Sincerity. Who knew it would make him even more good-looking? “Wow,” slipped out before she could stop it.
“Didn’t think I had it in me, did you?”
If that’s what he thought she was commenting on, fine by her. Last thing she needed to complicate this situation even more was him knowing she wanted him. “No I didn’t. I wonder if hell just froze over.”
“Hey. I can be charming.”
“Being charming is not something you’re lacking.” Giving him shit was much easier than taking his comfort. She craved it, but being shaken and freaked out again made it harder to resist. Oh so ready not to be talking about her anymore, she asked a question. “Is Campbell your first name or last?”
“We weren’t talking about me.”
“Well we are now. First or last?”
“First.”
“What’s your last name?”
“How about you just call me Campbell?”
“Like Madonna? Or Cher?” Rolling her eyes settled her much more than she expected it to. It kept him at a distance, something she needed to keep her shit together.
He clenched his jaw so tight she could see it from across the room. “Campbell Newbury.”
It was a good name. Strong. And no hint of familial guilt that threatened to choke her every time she had to say her name. “Aren’t you going to ask me mine?”
“I’ve read your file.”
Silence shaken with a side of panic. “What file?”
> “Last year when I was protecting Angela.”
“Wait. Why the hell do I have a file anyways?” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.
“Anyone Angela had contact with had a file put together. I’m the one who did most of the background info while Clay was originally protecting her.”
It made sense with what they did for a living, but she’d had her fair share of being in the spotlight, under constant scrutiny from everyone.
“And?”
He shrugged, seemingly unaffected by her family name. “And what? We all have family history.”
“So you know who I am? Who I used to be?”
“What? A Grant? One of the billionaire families in NYC?”
“Yes.” She sounded scared, as if she actually cared about his opinion. Which she didn’t. At all.
He stepped up to her and shrugged again, brushing a piece of hair off her cheek. “You make your destiny, not your parents. Or your grandparents. You call the shots as soon as you decide to take the reins. Looks like you took them. Oorah.”
She couldn’t need anyone, especially not a player like him. Needing his understanding or his praise was not something she was willing to hand over.
Hell to the no.
Staring at her as if he were completely engrossed in her, he asked, “Are you close with anyone in your family?”
“How does that have anything to do with someone trying to make me a street pancake?”
“It doesn’t,” he admitted. “I’m just trying to line up your puzzle pieces.”
“Why would you want to do that?”
“Indulge me.”
She rolled her eyes again and crossed her arms. “No. I’m not.”
“Siblings?”
“Not a one.”
“Close cousins maybe?”
“Closest I have is thirteen years older than I am. A guy, who happens to reside in Italy half the year and then he goes to the Alps for the ski season.”
“Not much in common I’m guessing.”
“No.” That was it. He asked a question and she answered it. Barely.
He studied her again. “Don’t most girls love yammering on about themselves?”
Ultimate Surrender: The Surrender Series, Book 2 Page 2
