She led him to the bathroom first, but one look at the small space and he objected. His willpower was already being tested enough. She collected the Bactine and a washcloth and they went back to the kitchen.
"Take off your shirt," she told him as she ran water in the sink.
Without a word, he stripped off his outer layer, a worn plaid shirt one step from a rag. Underneath, all he wore was a ribbed undershirt. But hey—she'd asked.
She didn't say anything as she guided his forearm under the faucet. Her hair smelled like honey. Long strands of it fell forward, blocking the curve of her cheek, but he was pretty sure she was blushing. The air between them throbbed with energy. His arm stung under the stream of water, but he barely noticed.
He cleared his throat. "I think you should consider calling the police."
"No." She shook her head. "If I called anyone, it would be the FBI. They're aware of the Light Keepers. But I doubt it's necessary. He's just a kid whose brain has been filled with a lot of nonsense."
"Not to be the doomsayer in the room, but you don't really know what's going on. Joseph might have left that ball for Dragon, but maybe someone else did."
She pulled his arm from under the faucet and grabbed a paper towel to dry it with. He let her tend to him even though he'd gotten much more serious scrapes from dirt biking as a kid. Obviously it made her feel good to help him, so he allowed it.
"I don't think you're taking this seriously enough, Carolyn. Law enforcement needs to get on this, one way or another. Police or FBI, I don't care. Hell, I wouldn't mind calling my brother Will in."
She shook her head and pulled him away from the sink. He leaned against the island while she uncapped the bottle of Bactine. She squirted the antiseptic on the long scratches on his arm.
"We need to talk to Joseph again." Tobias ignored the sting of Bactine as he came to that decision.
"I will. As soon as I get back on campus, I'm going to look for him."
"How about if I do the dirty work? You probably have classes to teach. And he might talk to me more, since I'm a Tobias, not a pariah." He smiled, hoping his little rhyme might make her laugh. It didn't.
"This isn't your problem."
He gave a growl of frustration. "I nearly got my hand chewed off by your dog. I have a stake in this now." He stared at her bent head. Her lower lip was pulled between her teeth in an anxious expression.
"I just…okay, I'll say it. Joseph's behavior was weird. He ought to be avoiding me completely. It doesn't make sense. I guess I'm worried that something's different at the Light Keepers."
"Do you keep tabs on them?"
"No. I try to avoid all mention of them. Since you got here, that's not working out so well."
She finished with the Bactine and blotted a few drops that ran down his arm.
"Thanks," he told her, trying to block out the fragrance of her hair. "I did a little Internet search last night and saw an article about some changes. A farm stand shut down?"
"Really?" She frowned as she capped the bottle. "The farm stand's a mainstay. One of their few consistent contacts with the community. That's definitely not a good sign."
"So? Will you call the FBI?"
She looked up at him, and he got momentarily lost in those luminous blue-gray eyes. "I can't believe you're wasting your time on this," she said softly. "You didn't come here to get sucked into my problems."
"As a matter of fact, I did." He grinned at her. "They just turned out to be different problems than I expected."
She worried at the cap of the Bactine bottle with her thumb. "About that…" She hesitated, looking down at the dog who suddenly flopped onto her feet with a low groan. "I was thinking…maybe I can help with this situation with Aiden."
His eyebrows lifted. "How?"
"Well, if he has a crush on me, which I'm still not sure about, maybe I can help. Maybe I should do something that would make him see me differently. You know, disillusion him. Make him see I'm nothing special and that he's better off with someone his own age."
"You mean, break his heart?" He scowled so fiercely she winced.
"No no. It would be the opposite of that. I know how kids that age think—if you like a band they hate, they lose all respect for you. If we find the right flaws, he'll start seeing me in a different light and his crush will just go away naturally. Tell me something he absolutely detests. Whatever he dislikes the most, I'll pretend I love it. I have a teacher meeting with him tomorrow, so it could be a good opportunity. It might be a way to let him down easy, without coming out and saying, 'Kid, I'm a teacher, this is never happening.'"
He nodded slowly. The thought of crushing Aiden's dreams didn't feel good, but maybe she was right and this would be a way to treat him kindly rather than rejecting him.
"Let me think about it. But first, make that call to the feds. If they want to see you, I'm coming with."
"You don't have to."
"I'm coming. I'm a witness. Besides, I'm a little nervous about leaving you alone. Dragon needs to recover, so I'm appointing myself your new guard dog."
Smiling, she pushed against his chest. Fire flew straight to his groin from that one touch. "Haven't you figured out that I'm my own guard dog?"
He put his hand over hers, pressing it lightly against his chest. Her eyelids flickered, and her lips parted slightly. He noticed she had a mark on her upper cheekbone, a crescent scar, and wondered if she'd acquired it while being "her own guard dog."
"I did pick up on that, yes. How about this—call it a gesture of thanks for me nearly sacrificing my right hand to your dog's molars."
Cocking her head, she opened her hand wide, her fingers splaying across his pectorals. God, if she had any idea how hard he was right now. "You're playing the dog rescue card?"
"I'm playing the dog rescue card. And the door painting card. Whatever other cards I might have up my sleeve." The hot gravel of desire roughened his voice. She heard it too; he could tell perfectly well from the way the fluttering pulse in her throat sped up.
She nodded, swallowed, then nodded again. Cleared her throat. "Fine. I'll make the call right away." But still she didn't move, as if she were trapped in the same force field that kept him from looking away from her.
He bent his head closer, aching to kiss her. Or even just touch his lips to her hair. He wanted to revel in her fresh honey fragrance, find out if her skin was as soft as it looked.
But just then his phone buzzed, making them both jump. When he saw the call came from Aiden, horrible guilt shot through him. What was he doing, messing around with the woman Aiden was crushing on? That wasn't right, whether she returned the crush or not.
He stepped away from Carolyn and answered. "Hey, bro. What's up?"
"Where are you? Are you still in town?"
"Uh, yeah. You bet."
"'You bet?' When do ever say 'you bet'? You sound so funny. Where are you?"
"I'm…uh…" He couldn't tell Aiden he was with Carolyn. But he hated to deceive him. "I got into it with a dog."
"Shit. Are you okay?"
Deflection successful, Tobias gave a quick rundown of his wounds, then made plans to meet Aiden for a game of racquetball later on. Good reminder, he told himself savagely. No more coming onto Carolyn.
When he hung up, Carolyn was just wrapping up her phone call with the FBI. "They're going to call me back after they've located someone familiar with the Light Keepers. I know they're on a watch list, so it should be soon." Her tone shifted. "But listen, Tobias…"
He threw up a hand to forestall her. "Don't worry. I won't try to kiss you. I won't make any moves whatsoever. I'm sorry about that, I think the Bactine went to my head."
Startled, she opened her mouth, then closed it again. Maybe she wasn't talking about his near faux pas. Didn't matter. He still had to avoid her, no matter what.
"But I intend to finish this damn door, and I'm going to stick around town until you talk to the Feds. I'm pretty sure I can do that without trying to kiss
you again." He tried to make a joke out of it, but his smile felt a little lopsided. "Deal?"
"Okay, sure. And if you think of anything that will change Aiden's view of me, let me know."
"Got it." That could be a challenge, he thought. So far he didn't see any fatal flaws in Carolyn Moore, except for sticking her head in the sand about her wacko former group members. If she didn't find Joseph he'd track the kid down himself.
WHEN CAROLYN GOT TO CAMPUS, her first stop was the registrar's office. To her shock, she learned that Joseph Brown had dropped out of school that very morning.
Wow. This was getting more and more intense. He must have gone back to the Light Keepers before finishing his degree. But why? She remembered that strange thing he'd said—It doesn't matter anymore. It's over. Had he been called back to the compound? She wished she had more information to share with the FBI. She felt kind of silly calling them, but Tobias had forced her hand.
She fired off a text to Tobias letting him know that Joseph had left the campus.
I'm going to see if I can snag him before he leaves town, he answered. Talk later.
Talk later…she liked the sound of that. This feeling of being in cahoots with Tobias somehow—she liked that too.
But she wound up talking to the FBI alone because they showed up at her office later that day.
The lead agent introduced herself as Special Agent Maia Turner. With her tidy helmet of hair and gleaming dark skin, she looked terrifyingly competent. The other agent, Tom Jackson, was an older man with sharp blue eyes that darted around her office as if looking for evidence that she was making the whole thing up.
She related the whole tale, which required delving back to when her family had first moved to the Light Keepers compound, as well as explaining the recent incidents, from the letters to the vandalism.
"So you're saying you think something has escalated, but you don't know why?" Agent Foster scribbled notes at a rapid pace.
"Right. I haven't been there in ten years. But Joseph Brown's behavior set off some alarm bells.
"Can we talk to him?" Agent Jackson asked.
"Well, no, I just found out that he dropped out of school. Which is also a big red flag. But he was at my house last night, so he probably hasn't gone far. I'm sure he has roommates and friends who might lead you to him. Tobias—my, uh friend who was with me last night—he's trying to find him before he leaves town."
The two of them exchanged a glance. "So what we have so far is an act of vandalism, some anonymous vaguely threatening letters, and a dog choking on a ball," Agent Foster said skeptically.
Carolyn felt heat rise in her face. If only Tobias was here. She didn't like this two-against-one dynamic. A witness, someone to back her up, would feel pretty good right about now. "Look, I just think someone should find out if anything unusual is happening there. Don't you have a local branch office in Northern California? Just send someone over there to scope it out."
"Good idea," Agent Turner said dryly. "I hear they're very open to uninvited visitors. Especially when they look like me."
Carolyn's face flamed even brighter. The Light Keepers took pride in their "pure" bloodlines. "You're a federal agent. They're not stupid. But obviously anyone who goes out there should be careful. They're big into weapons and they know their rights down to the letter."
Agent Jackson cleared his throat. "Can you contact the group yourself? Did you keep in touch with anyone there, family or friends?"
She shook her head. "No, once you're out, you're out. No exceptions or wiggle room. That's one way they keep people in the group. No one wants to lose their family. Believe me, my father wouldn't take a call from me, and neither would anyone else there."
Agent Turner made a note in her book, then snapped it shut. "Okay, I think we're good for now. We'll send this information along. If anything else happens, give us a call." The agent handed over her card, which Carolyn pocketed. "I suggest you take your own advice and be careful," she added. The two agents got to their feet.
"I will. Luckily, I have an amazing guard dog." As the agents took off, Carolyn smiled faintly, thinking of both the guard dog and the guard dog's guardian angel—Tobias.
Those moments in her kitchen were the hottest that she'd experienced in years—and they hadn't even done anything. Everything about him spoke to her on a primal level. The quiet smolder of his deep blue eyes, the smooth bulge of his chest muscles, the intensity with which he looked at her, the way he hadn't hesitated to do what it took to save Dragon.
And he'd almost kissed her. His lips had been millimeters from hers when his phone rang. Now the moment was past, and it was too late for kisses. He'd promised not to try again, and she could guess why. Obviously he was attracted to her. But as long as Aiden had this misbegotten crush, nothing would happen between her and Tobias. That was clear. No wonder he hadn't mentioned dinner or a rematch again.
Which was fine. Tobias was absurdly attractive to her, and it worried her. His strength, his military background, his intense maleness—that was exactly what the men at the Light Keepers Brigade revered most. Behind their vague religious preachings, they were kind of…bullies. They wanted their women to be subsidiaries, not equals. Some women wanted that too, so the Light Keepers was the perfect place for them.
But not Carolyn. She wanted to be in charge of her own life. What if this attraction was some kind of weird throwback to her youth? If that was the case, it was going nowhere. Because no matter how sexy Tobias was, her hard-won independence was too important to risk. She would not allow some rugged shoulders and six-pack abs to drag her backwards.
10
This trip to Evergreen was opening Tobias’s eyes to so many things. At the top of the list—the fact that he didn't know his own little brother very well.
It wasn't surprising, since he'd spent so much of Aiden's childhood overseas. Every time he came home on leave, he’d had to get to know the kid all over again, because he'd be into different things by then. The Minecraft phase would be over and he'd be into skateboards, for instance. Never once had he managed to bring back a present that suited whatever Aiden's current passion was.
In fact, this visit to Evergreen was his first chance to spend extended time alone with his little brother. So maybe he had Carolyn to thank for that. And for all the questions he was sneaking in during their racquetball match. Cleverly disguised, of course.
"So what happened with Daisy?" Daisy was Aiden's longtime girlfriend back in Jupiter Point.
Aiden whacked the ball into the corner. "Nothing happened. We just decided that we should take a break. I'm in college, she's starting a business. It's a good time to see what else is out there."
Huh. That didn't give much information. He raced for the ball and slammed it back. The court echoed with the sound of their squeaky shoes and the impact of the ball. "I always thought you two were great together. Very compatible. Same likes, dislikes, that sort of thing."
Aiden executed a cross court slam, then shrugged. "I guess. We both like to have fun. Hang out at the beach. Hike."
"Exactly. And you both hate…" He cast around for an example. "Smoking."
Tobias had picked up a cigarette habit during his first stint in Afghanistan. Aiden had freaked out when he'd first seen Tobias smoking. That was the end of that.
"That's true, I never had to shame Daisy into quitting." Aiden grinned at him as he lunged for a shot.
"You didn't shame me. You went online and found a comprehensive list of reasons to quit. And you threatened to disown me as your big brother."
"I was hardcore."
"Yup. When you don't like something, you really don't like it. Such as…" He pretended to be out of breath so he couldn't finish the sentence.
"Tattoos," Aiden said promptly. "I'm like the only student here who doesn't have one. I think they're pretentious."
"There you go. Tattoos. Funny thing, half my team had tattoos but I was never tempted." He missed the next ball, signaled for a break and we
nt to mop his face with a gym towel. Cigarettes and tattoos. Would that be enough for Carolyn to work with? "So what about the girls here in college? Anything stand out about them? Good or bad?"
"They're nice, I guess." Aiden twirled his racket in the air and caught it. "I haven't paid that much attention. I kind of got…well, anyway. They're always doing Snapchat and Instagram and I'm not that into social media. Everyone stares at their phone all the time, it's boring. But there's a girl in my dorm who doesn't have a phone, so I asked her out. This was at the beginning of school, before…" He coughed to avoid finishing that sentence. "It turned out she was super religious and wasn't allowed to have a phone or go out with boys. She tried really hard to convert me. Prayers, pamphlets, bible verses. She had a thing about angels. It was total overkill."
"Ah." Tobias filed that tidbit away, though he didn't know how it would be useful.
Aiden tapped his racket against the toe of his shoe. "So are you giving up, old man? You'd rather talk than try to keep up with me, is that it?"
"You kidding? I've been idling, bro. Keeping it in second gear. You ready to rock?"
"Bring it."
And they switched to the more traditional Knight brother approach, in which they basically tried to beat the crap out of each other.
Afterwards, they grabbed lunch at the Caf and Tobias managed to pry a few more pieces of information out of Aiden. But more importantly, he realized what a great kid he'd turned out to be. He disliked bullies, hated cruelty of all sorts, and, biggest shocker of all, was already thinking about the big family he wanted to have someday.
"Being the youngest sucks," he told Tobias wistfully as he popped French fries into his mouth. "We had this big fun family, and then everyone either grew up or left. It was just me and Will after that. I want like, ten kids when I grow up. I might even adopt a few. Oh, and a dog. Will never let us get a dog because he worked so much. I want a nice big dog. Maybe two."
Tobias cocked his head at his brother. "You have this all planned out, don't you?"
Coming In Hot (Jupiter Point Book 6) Page 7
