Claim & Protect

by Rhenna Morgan

  Beckett motioned Trevor through the door with a jerk of his chin. “No one you’re gonna like. Everyone else here?”

  Well, fuck. And it’d been a damned good day so far too, even if he’d had to sneak out of Natalie’s apartment at the ass crack of dawn before her kid could bust in her room and find him wrapped up tight with his momma. Trevor took the black carpeted stairs two at a time. “Just got here, but I saw Zeke’s ride out front and Jace and Axel’s out back.”

  Sure enough, Axel’s gruff voice sounded from the conference room that bridged his and Jace’s private offices. The second Trevor stepped into view, whatever story he’d been sharing with Jace and Zeke died on his tongue. He sat up taller in his chair at one end of the table, eyes rooted on Trevor while Beckett, Knox, and Danny filtered in behind him.

  Definitely not good. “Starting to get the feeling I’m the only brother who doesn’t know what’s got us all in one room.”

  “That was my call,” Axel said. “Couldn’t risk you goin’ off half-cocked before we had a plan.”

  “Half-cocked about what?”

  Knox slid into one of the oversized leather chairs on the far side of the twelve-foot conference table and braced his elbows on top of it. “We’ve got a problem.”

  Sensing he was about ten seconds from needing to pace, Trevor kept his feet and wrapped his hands around the back of one chair. “I gathered that looking at Beckett’s face. You wanna get to the point?”

  “I got a contact early this morning from a skip tracer friend of mine. She’s good. New to this area, but good. She got a lead on a guy willing to pay big money for a deep dive into your background. And by deep dive, I mean the client’s after dirt.”

  That no-good bullying son of a bitch. No wonder Axel had waited to tell him until he’d gotten here. “Wyatt Jordan.”

  “Yep,” Knox said.

  At the opposite end of the table, Jace anchored one boot-shod foot on his knee. “She take the gig?”

  “Not yet. She stalled and told him she’d think about it, then ran it past me. Frankly, we’re damned lucky she gave us the courtesy. I only know her through online contacts, but she’s got a rep for being thorough.”

  “You got a way you think we should play it?” Axel said.

  “I think we want to keep control,” Knox said. “Offer to double Wyatt’s payment in exchange for feeding him what we want him to know.”

  Danny slouched lower in his chair beside Zeke and splayed his knees wide. “Yeah, but will she play along? Who’s to say she won’t play both sides?”

  Knox grinned. “She can’t play both sides if I get dirt on her. Trust me, if we go this route, I’ll find what we need to keep her neutralized.”

  It was a smart move. Anyone with a mind to digging into brotherhood business was worth knowing more about, but right now Trevor needed something more immediate. Namely something that kept Natalie’s ex out of their hair and left Natalie the fuck alone. “So what do we do about Wyatt?”

  “I say we keep moving forward with our plan,” Axel said. “Draw the bawbag out. If he’s a past buyer, odds are good he’ll want in again. When he does, we’ll set him up to take a fall and get him out of everyone’s hair once and for all. Trevor’s woman included.”

  “So long as we don’t expose Trevor in the process.” Zeke focused on Trevor. “If he’s digging like it sounds he is, you need to keep your tracks covered. Hell, we need to keep Doc Stinson covered. If this shit blows back on him, a lot of sick people are gonna lose options they wouldn’t have otherwise.”

  “I’ll get a tail on him,” Beckett said. “See if we can’t get a bead on his mobile while we’re at it. I wanna track this middleman down, too. Any chance he’d spill info to his clients?”

  “Not sure what he’d spill,” Trevor said. “I’m a ghost to him as much as he is to me. All he knows is the product’s flown in.”

  “If he’s shared that info to his clients, the leap for Wyatt to tie things to your business isn’t a huge one. Only a handful of full-service charter companies in Dallas.”

  Knox huffed out a haggard breath and dragged one hand through his hair. “I’ll dig deeper and look for ties between his bank accounts and your earlier hauls.”

  “What about the latest run?” Danny sat up taller in his chair and looked dead-on at Trevor. “You get a date set?”

  “Not yet. I need overseas passengers and there’s no one on the books. If I go without bodies on board, I won’t have the right alibi.”

  “It can’t just be anyone on board,” Zeke said. “Not for this trip. You already put the word out product’s coming, right?”

  “Yeah, about a month ago.”

  Zeke narrowed his eyes. “Now Wyatt’s getting nosy and driving Levi past the same airfield your planes are stored at. You gotta assume that means he’s looking for a way to set you up. Best way to counter that is with clients on board with serious clout. Hard to dig too deep if the questions being asked build a political shit storm.”

  Trevor scoffed and straightened from where he’d leaned his elbows into the chair back. “Clout’s not gonna cover things if the DEA’s waiting when I touch down.”

  “That’s nothing. We just offload the product before you land.” Beckett turned his attention to Jace. “You’ve got connections through your investments and the charity groups. Any heavy hitters who might need a trip for the holidays? Maybe someone we could snag with an incentive and an interim stop on the East Coast?”

  Jace frowned and scratched his chin. “I’ll dig around. Viv’s gotten tight with Evelyn Frank, and Evelyn’s tied to everyone. If any socialites are planning overseas vacations, she’d know about it.”

  “What about your inside gal?” Zeke said. “Gia game for helping us get in with the good doctor?”

  Beckett’s chuckle was coated with pure deviant pleasure. “She’s all over it. Said she’s got a few government contacts she can leverage if he bites and we want to stage a sting to take him down. Wouldn’t have a single tie to us if we work through her.”

  Jace sat up on the edge of his chair and tucked a fresh toothpick in his mouth. “So, Gia’s in, Knox handles his skip tracer, and I get Viv scrounging for passengers with big bank accounts and heavy stroke. Sounds like we’ve got a solid plan, assuming everyone’s on board.”

  Axel was the first to speak, his voice on par with a growl. “The bloody bastard sealed his fate the second he started nosin’ in our business. I vote we take him down.”

  “Agreed,” Jace fired back.

  Danny and Beckett answered at the same time.

  “Yep.”

  “Me too.”

  Knox grinned in a way that said he couldn’t wait to get back to his computer and dig in. “It’s a no-brainer in my book.”

  “You know I’m in,” Zeke said. “Gets a double win for us. Wyatt out of our hair and Natalie something tangible to sue for full custody.”

  Yeah, it did. And seeing how frazzled she was this morning, keeping her chin up even though she struggled with the fact that her kid was headed to that asshole for another week, only made him twice as eager for leverage.

  Jace nailed Trevor with a pointed stare, the intensity behind his dark eyes shaking loose another chunk of the resistance he’d fought so hard to keep in place. “Think it’s down to you, brother. We’ve got your back, but it’s your ass hangin’ in the wind, so you make the call.”

  It was more than just his ass. It was Natalie’s, Levi’s, and their whole damned future. He might not be worthy of happily ever afters with a woman like Natalie, but she was his right now, and he’d be damned if he didn’t take the chance to make her life better while he had it. “I say we take the bastard down.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Stomach weighted with yet another sinful meal, Natalie swallowed the last of her burg
er, nudged her red plastic tray out of the way, and propped her elbows on the Formica tabletop. One thing about Trevor and Levi, they could eat. A lot. As in her ass was going to be bigger than the metroplex if she kept trying to keep up with them.

  Just outside the restaurant’s front window, Levi stood motionless beside the big yellow slide, his head down and eyes focused on his newest “toy.” Normally, a playground meant a requisite thirty minutes of Levi giving every piece of equipment a thorough workup, but today he’d spent most of the time fiddling with the overpriced cell phone Wyatt had sent him home with that morning.

  She frowned and snagged a fry off Trevor’s tray. “He won’t put the stupid thing down.”

  Trevor moved her abandoned tray out of the way and slid his between them so she’d have easier access to the double order of fries he’d yet to make a dent in. “You put rules around it when you’re with him, he’ll figure it out. Plus, the upside to a kid his age is they’ve got the attention span of a gnat. Get him busy with something else and he’ll move on.”

  Well, that was true. Keeping up with Levi was a challenge on even her best days. If she taught him decent habits with the device right out of the gate, maybe he wouldn’t end up nose-to-screen twenty-four/seven like some other kids she saw. Although, having a phone on hand also meant she’d have a harder time monitoring conversations between Levi and Wyatt. “It just feels like the phone’s a ploy. A trick to get Levi’s attention on top of Wyatt’s father of the year impersonation.”

  “Is it working?”

  Horrible as it probably was, Natalie had to fight back a triumphant smile. “Not really. He grumbled less when I dropped him off last weekend, but he was still reserved. Plus, I’d barely put my car in park this morning before he shot out of the front door with his backpack slung over his shoulder.” Her thoughts drifted back to the years living with Wyatt. “Even when he was little, he avoided Wyatt. Unless we were fighting, then he’d get creative with ways to get me away. I lost count of how many times he faked an injury to get me away from one of Wyatt’s lectures.”

  “So, there you go. He’s not buying it.”

  “Trevor, it’s a top-of-the-line smartphone.”

  “And you’re a top-of-the-line mom. No comparison.” Trevor snagged a fry and dragged it through the mound of ketchup. “Seriously, darlin’. You’re not giving Levi or your relationship with him enough credit. No way he’d choose fancy gadgets or any other scheme Wyatt comes up with over you.”

  Maybe. Maybe not. Once upon a time she’d thought she was pretty smart and look where she’d ended up.

  Trevor wiped his fingers on a paper napkin and wadded it up in one hand. “You’re forgetting the upside, too.”

  She froze with her hand halfway to the mound of French fries and cocked one eyebrow in silent question.

  “Wyatt can call Levi whenever he wants now. No going through you, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “So turnabout is fair play. Now you can call Levi whenever you want. If you get antsy on drop-off night, then call him. If Levi avoids his dad as much as you think he does, Wyatt will never know.” He grinned, snagged her loosely clasped fist off the table and kissed her knuckles. “It works both ways.”

  True. Although, with Wyatt’s improved attitude and Trevor’s creative diversion techniques while Levi was away from home, she’d been a lot less antsy on her weeks alone. “I suppose.”

  He stood and picked up their trays. “Don’t let it get to you. You spend your days worrying, then Wyatt wins. Now, you ready to go pick out a tree?”

  Absolutely. Though it was taking every ounce of mental fortitude not to read too much into the highly domesticated act. Guys like Trevor weren’t supposed to like spending Saturday afternoons with a kid in tow, let alone shopping for a Christmas tree. The fact that he’d been the one to insist on today’s agenda had left her teetering on the edge of varied, imaginative fairy-tale endings.

  Across the street, the Christmas tree lot was bustling with customers eager to pick out their holiday centerpiece. Mini-lights were zigzagged above the trees on display and a weathered wooden shack sat off to one side where a line of people waited to buy hot chocolate. The way they all stomped around with their hands stuffed in their pockets, you’d have thought it was near freezing out, but the temperature had barely dipped below fifty degrees. For a Texan, that first cold snap was a bear.

  Ushering her out the door to the playground with a possessive hand splayed low on her back, Trevor whistled for Levi. “Let’s go, bud.”

  Not bothering to put the phone away, Levi hustled to them as fast his boots could carry him without breaking into a full jog. “This is gonna be cool! We’ve never had a real tree before.”

  Trevor crouched in front of Levi and put them eye to eye. “It’ll be cool, ’cause picking out a real tree is a treat, but it ain’t gonna be special if your nose is in that phone the whole time we do it.”

  Levi frowned big enough the insides of his eyebrows formed a sharp V and his bottom lip bordered on a pout. “Everyone’s got phones. They’re fun.”

  “They can be,” Trevor said, clearly not as impacted by Levi’s boo-boo lip as she was. “But life’s fun, too. There’s a time and a place for phones, but when you’re out with your mom and me isn’t one of ‘em.”

  “Except for pictures,” Levi added. “Those are okay, right? So you can look at ’em later.”

  “Yep, pictures are good. You keep your phone in your back pocket until we’re done and I’ll take a shot of you next to the one we pick out before they bag it up.” Trevor held out his hand to Levi. “Deal?”

  Levi shoved his phone in his back pocket as fast as he could and clasped his little hand against Trevor’s. “Deal!”

  A quick jaunt across the street later they were surrounded by everything from balsams to Frasers, the sharp, fresh scent of evergreen eradicating any trace of the city outside their Christmassy bubble. “I had no idea this many people still did real trees.”

  “At the Raines household it’s real or nothing.” Trevor wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her in tight, ambling slowly behind Levi while he studied every tree one at a time. “From the weekend after Thanksgiving to the day after New Year’s our whole house smelled like this. And it wasn’t just the tree either. Bonnie got fresh garlands for the mantels and wreaths, too.”

  “She sounds nice.”

  Trevor stopped, cupped the back of her neck, and smiled down at her with a touch of melancholy. “She’d have liked you.” For a second, an emotion she couldn’t quite identify moved across his face. Pensiveness maybe, but with an unsettled edge. “She’d have liked you a lot.”

  She ducked her head, too knocked off-kilter by the solemn statement to hold his gaze. In that moment, it could have been twenty below zero and she’d have been toasty enough to dance around naked, the smoldering warmth of his words enough to fight back the deepest chill.

  Levi’s voice rang out from behind her. “What about this one!”

  Twisting, Natalie found him standing next to a tree barely taller than him and missing a huge chunk of limbs on the right side.

  Trevor paused in front of it, scratched his chin with his knuckles and braced the other on his hip. “You know, if you were gonna tackle that one on your own, it’d be a pretty good choice, but at my place the ceilings are kind of high. How about we look for one a little taller? Say, something about a foot taller than me.”

  Levi’s eyes got huge, a mix of wonder and purpose firing behind his hazel gaze. “Bigger.” He spun on his heel, scanned the rest of the lot and took off in that determined stride she loved. “I see some.”

  “Smooth,” Natalie said. “I don’t know whether to appreciate your charm, or worry you’ll teach my kid all your tricks to use on me later. He’s already a handful now. Can you imagine the hijinks I’ll have to deal with
when he’s a teenager?”

  “If he stays out of half the things I did, you’ll be home free.”

  He wrapped one arm around her shoulder and her own slid easy around his waist. In fact, everything was easy with Trevor. Walking side-by-side. Talking. Putzing around in the kitchen. Sex.

  No, scratch that. Sex with Trevor wasn’t easy. Natural maybe, but not easy. More like cataclysmic and addictive with an extra punch of dirty thrown in for fun.

  “Natalie?” Wyatt’s voice resonated from somewhere behind them, the same tight and oh-so-polished delivery he used on clients and those he wanted to impress.

  Unlike her, Trevor didn’t so much as flinch, only squeezed her shoulder in encouragement before he let her go and turned with her to face her ex.

  “Dad?” Levi marched around Natalie and craned his head up at her, the expression on his face one of utter confusion and a pinch of disappointment. “Is he helping us pick out a tree?”

  Trevor moved in tight behind her and braced both hands on her shoulders. Not just a proprietorial move, but an outright challenge.

  As ashamed as she was to admit it, she absolutely loved it. “I don’t know what he’s doing, sweetheart.” Though whatever it was couldn’t possibly end up good. Wyatt seeing her out with Trevor was one thing, but seeing their son happy and out on the town with any kind of competition would only spur her ex’s creative backlash. “Maybe your dad’s changing things up at home this year, too.”

  Wyatt’s expression blanked and he scanned the trees around them as though he’d forgotten where he was or why he was here. As quick as the dumbfounded look had come, it disappeared, replaced with his smooth clinical smile. “Oh, no. Not for the house. You know I find it more efficient to have the florists handle the décor.” He tucked his hands in his high-dollar chinos and zeroed in on Levi. “I was just picking up some wreaths for your grandmother’s house. She likes the natural ones and said she wouldn’t have time to drive over.”

  Levi frowned and inched closer to Natalie.