Sweet Seduction

by Anthology

  Lauren stood up. “This conversation is over.”

  Sharon didn’t get up. “I’ve talked to a consultant who thinks you and Brad being pulled together by family tragedy, the loss of your mother, of course, would be a story that warms hearts. It would show love found in the midst of pain. It would talk to the public.”

  “Are you crazy? Is your consultant crazy? That’s practically incest.”

  Sharon waved that away. “You lived in the same household for a flutter of a moment and you are not blood related. It’s a fairy tale.”

  “Does my father know this?”

  “Of course not. He is too stressed. I told him I’d do everything. I’d clear the path to the oval office and find the money. All he has to do is focus on his political strategy.”

  “This ridiculous, insane conversation is over. I truly think you’ve finally proven to me you are not completely of this world, Sharon.”

  “Sit down, Lauren,” she said sharply. “We are not done. Not even close.”

  Lauren glanced at her watch. “I have a meeting with my boss in ten minutes. I need to freshen up and get going.” Grabbing her purse, Lauren waved toward the door. “I’ll walk you out on my way to the washroom.”

  Sharon drew in a breath, her eyes blazing fire. “Fine. I’ll talk to your father. Expect his call.” She turned and marched for the door.

  Lauren followed her to the door and watched her leave. “Queen Bitch,” Alice mumbled, standing up and fluffing her gray hair. “I’m going to the mail room. That new supervisor needs to ask me a question.”

  Lauren smiled weakly, aware of Alice’s crush. “Enjoy. I’m headed to my meeting.” She followed Alice to the hallway and then stopped in the bathroom, happy to find it empty. She paused at the mirror, her fingers trailing over her lips, her mind replaying Royce’s kiss, his words. I love you, Lauren.

  She was just told to stop fighting for what she cared about, for what she thought was right and wrong in this world. Last night, this morning, she’d almost done that with Royce. The one person, other than his brothers, who had told her to keep going, who believed in what she did, in who she was. He felt right. He felt worth the risk. And he already had her heart. There was no sense trying to protect it. “I love you, too,” she whispered, unable to deny the truth.

  Feeling remarkably better considering the threats, the bomb, and a stepmother who was probably mentally ill, she headed for the door when the fire alarm went off. Oh good grief, not again. These test runs the building did disrupted everything. She reached for the door and then frowned. It didn’t open. She tried again and it didn’t move. Dropping her purse to the ground she tugged with two hands. Nothing.

  Suddenly, the alarm became a part of a new nightmare. What if the building really was on fire? Oh, God, it was. There was a fire, and she was going to die. She grabbed her purse and scrambled for her phone, then hit auto-dial for Royce. No signal. She hit every auto-dial he’d put in her phone. Nothing. She was trapped in a burning building.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Royce had barely made it back to his building and sat down at his desk in the Walker office when Blake sauntered in, his long hair damp and slicked back, his stubble dark and unattended.

  “Nice shave,” Royce commented.

  “I showered. I changed. I’m staying here today. This is as good as it gets.” He sat down at one of the four steel desks in the office, directly across from Royce, leaned back in his chair, and kicked his boots up on the top.

  “Morning, angels,” Luke said, shoving through the door, his short hair neatly groomed, his face clean shaven.

  Blake glanced over his shoulder at him. “Oh, yes. Morning, angel. Kiss, kiss, and cheery sunshine happiness to you.” He grumbled something under his breath and then said, “I just heard from my ATF contact.”

  “And?” Royce and Luke asked at the same time, as Luke sat down on the edge of Blake’s desk.

  “You know from last night that the package had an amateur grade explosive device,” Blake said. “The interesting part though, is that it had a timer. It’s possible that it went off at the incorrect hour with a malfunction. But,” he sat up, “think about this. A package that went off in the middle of the night when everyone was asleep. A snake that wasn’t poisonous. And this bomb wasn’t directed at Lauren.”

  “Two days before she starts jury selection,” Royce commented.

  “Right,” Luke said. “She hasn’t scared off yet, so the pressure increases.”

  “This doesn’t mean she’s not in danger,” Blake said. “This could be some sadistic bastard who wants to torment her before he kills her.”

  Royce shot him a glowering look. “Thanks for the ice water in the face.”

  “Anytime, bro,” Blake said.

  “Could be a sick obsession with her,” Luke said. “This guy-”

  “Or woman,” Royce inserted. “It could be a woman.”

  “Either way,” Luke said, going back to his prior thought. “He filmed her. He followed her. He watched her.”

  Royce pushed to his feet and walked to the glass door of the small office, the only window to the street, staring out at the people passing by without seeing them. The clear way this person was stalking Lauren was eating him alive. “And we have nothing but a long list of suspects,” Royce murmured, half to himself, before turning. “We need an end game, damn it. We need it now.”

  “We know he, or she, is after Lauren,” Blake said. “Make her bait. Set her up in the open in a way that doesn’t seem planned and bring him to her.”

  “Oh, what the fuck, Blake?” Royce said, stepping toward him, anger curling inside him ready to explode.

  Blake jumped to his feet and met Royce toe-to-toe. “End this, Royce. End it before this SOB ends it for her and us.”

  Luke stepped between them, hands on both of their chest. “Enough. This does us no good.”

  “Damn it, Blake,” Royce said, ignoring Luke. “This isn’t the woman you love or you wouldn’t say shit like that.”

  ”No,” Blake hissed as if burned. “The woman I loved is dead. I don’t want Lauren to join her.”

  Royce felt the slap of those words, the instant deflation of his temper. He scrubbed his face and turned back to the glass door, pressing his hands to the surface, feeling more helpless than he’d felt in his entire FBI career.

  “Let’s just eliminate suspects,” Luke suggested. “Sheridan’s brother is in Germany. He’s not our guy unless he contracted a professional.”

  “Which means he could still be our guy,” Blake said, the chair creaking with his weight. “The one who can call off a contract to kill Lauren, if one exists. Anyone could have contracted a professional. That means the list is too damn long to do this. We aren’t going to get answers quick enough. Gamble on the trial. It’s about this week, about what is current and what is now.”

  “Sheridan’s execution,” Luke started.

  “Has been minutes from happening several times before now,” Blake argued, “and nothing happened. This is about this trial.”

  “He’s right,” Royce said, turning around, his gaze touching Blake’s. “You’re right. It’s about the trial. Everything else is a diversion.”

  “The trial could be the diversion,” Luke countered. “I don’t think being short sighted is the answer here.”

  “Who has the most to lose or gain from this trial or the diversion it might cause?” Blake asked. “The top three names that come to your mind, Royce.”

  “The brother,” Royce said. “He hates her. If I had to gamble, I’d put his name in all three spots.”

  “I put a man on him after you visited him,” Luke said. ”We have nothing to say he’s the one. Nothing.”

  “It’s him,” Royce said. “And he knows he’s being watched. You can count on it.” He glanced at Luke. “Did we get his military record?”

  “I’ve tried,” he said. “It’s being guarded tightly which tells me he’s a very bad dude, or he’s so damn good that
he’s involved with some deep government shit.”

  “Or both,” Royce said.

  Luke’s cell phone rang and he answered it, then snapped it shut. “Lauren’s building is being evacuated. People are pouring out of it.”

  “Lauren?”

  “The crush of people is too intense,” Luke said. “Our guys are working with the building security and the police to locate her.”

  Royce was pushing open the glass door before Luke ever finished the sentence, not about to risk New York traffic delays to get to Lauren. He dialed her phone, cursing himself for trusting someone else to protect her.

  “I’m coming with you,” Blake said following on his heels. “If it’s a bomb again, I want to be there.”

  Royce cursed and shoved his phone back to his belt. “Her phone went straight to voice mail.” He cut to the left and down the subway stairs.

  “We have three men there,” Blake told him, keeping pace. “She’s okay.”

  “I should never have left her with someone else,” he said, piling into the crush of people inside a car.

  The next six minutes in the tunnel were hell for Royce. The car stopped and he burst out of the door and jumped the exit gates, Blake by his side. It was a block to the building and the instant Royce brought the fire trucks and police cars into view, he cursed and picked up speed, heading for the yellow tape and the gaggle of officials.

  “I’m going in in case she’s still up there,” Royce shouted, his gut telling him she was in there, that she needed him.

  “I’ll deal with the Stroboscope,” Blake called, “and I’ll call you if I find her down here.”

  Royce targeted an entry point without officials and ducked the tape, wondering where the hell his other three men were. Someone shouted at him, but he didn’t stop. He climbed the stairs to the building, burst through the glass doors, and instantly spotted Kyle.

  Kyle, who knew how to work his connections, headed towards him immediately. “It was a bomb threat,” he said. “A special team is already working the building.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Daniel got positive confirmation from a cop that she was outside but when he got to the place he was told he could find her, she wasn’t there. He can’t find anyone who even saw her. Daniel and Rick are searching the crowd. I was about to hit the stairs to go up to look for her. The elevators are shut down.”

  Royce started to walk backwards, towards the stairwell. “Call Blake. He’s outside. Tell him what’s going on.” He turned and started running, yanking open the heavy steel door and charging upward. Every step was torture, another obstacle to getting to Lauren.

  Ten floors later, he pulled the Glock from his ankle holster and eased the door open. Nothing. No one in sight and there was complete silence. His cell phone vibrated and he looked at the caller ID and answered. “Tell me you found her, Blake.”

  “No, get in and get her out. This guy has proven he knows explosive devices. Don’t fuck around, Royce.”

  Royce hung up and shouted, “Lauren!” To hell with caution. Blake was right. If there really was a bomb, time was everything. He was halfway to her office when he paused, hearing a muffled pounding noise.

  “Lauren!”

  More pounding. He ran toward the noise, and then, thank God, he was at the bathroom door and heard the sweet sound of her voice. “Royce! I’m in here! Help. Please, help me.”

  “I’m here, baby. I’m here.”

  “Oh God, thank you. The door is stuck and my phone won’t work, and-”

  “But you’re okay?” he asked, his gaze catching on the wooden doorstop jammed in the door.

  “Yes. Yes. Now that you’re here.”

  He yanked out the wedge and tossed it, pulling open the door. Lauren fell into his arms and clung to him as if he was her lifeline. Wrapping his arms around her, he hugged her, saying a silent thank you and kissing her. “Let’s get out of here.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her with him, his gun still at his side.

  “What’s happening?” she asked from behind him. “What’s going on?”

  “Bomb threat,” he said, pulling open the door again and inspecting the path before pushing her in ahead of him. “In other words, run, don’t walk down.” He followed her, ready for a strike from behind.

  ***

  Luke was standing inside the yellow line, talking to an official when he saw Julie shoving through the crowd, desperately trying to get to him. “Luke! Luke!”

  “I’ll be back,” he said to the cop, heading to the tape to meet her, the pale pink of her fall jacket flaring behind her.

  “Tell me she’s okay,” she pleaded, grabbing his arm. The touch sent that familiar punch to his gut that he’d always felt when she touched him, magnified by about ten because he knew Lauren was all she had, because he knew how scared she was.

  “Royce went in after her,” he said. “She’ll be okay.”

  “Oh, God. So she really is still inside? They said there might be a bomb. Please tell me she isn’t in there with a bomb.”

  “They just located it on the roof,” he said. “A team’s already tearing it down.”

  “But it’s still live and she’s still in there?” Her hand tightened on his arm. “Please tell me they already disarmed it.”

  “She’ll be fine,” he said, praying that was true, on edge himself about Royce getting the hell out himself. “He’ll get her out, if she’s even in there. If you want to help, search the crowd.”

  “I have,” she said, swiping at a long lock of blond hair covering her face, her hand shaking. “I tried. I’ve looked. No one has seen her.” She inhaled and let it out. “I don’t... I can’t lose her.”

  The vulnerability in her gave him another kick to the gut. He knew better than anyone, besides maybe Lauren, that Julie hid everything behind sex, sin, and a façade of cool, all of which were gone now.

  “Hey,” he said, bending under the tape to stand closer to her. “You won’t.” He reached up and slid the wayward hair in her eyes behind her ear. “You won’t lose her.”

  They stared at each other, the past between them, the passion, the connection, and yes, even the bad goodbye, sizzling into awareness.

  Her perfect pink lips parted, then, “Luke, I... we...”

  A loud commotion erupted and they both turned to the building to find Royce and Lauren running toward them. Julie took a step closer to the tape, but then stopped and blinked up at Luke. Then, to his surprise, she pushed to her toes, and pressed her lips to his. “Thank you,” she whispered and then ducked under the tape to run after Lauren.

  Luke watched her embrace Lauren, savoring her taste on his lips, her scent on his skin while he did. And he knew right then that the wall he’d just seen come down had to fall again, and this time for good... and for him.

  ***

  Hours later, when the bomb was disabled and she’d answered a million and one questions from law enforcement, Lauren walked into Royce’s apartment, exhausted as the rush of adrenaline slid away. Royce tossed his keys on a small table by the door and Lauren kicked off her heels, heading for the couch where she collapsed, thankful that her offices were closed the next day. Thankful that the trial would finally be ramping up for jury selection soon, and she could get this behind her.

  Royce shoved the coffee table away and went down on his knees in front of her. “We have to talk, Lauren.”

  “Not the talk thing again,” she said, sitting up to rest her hands on his chest. “It’s never good and I can’t deal with any more bad right now.”

  “Plead the case.”

  “What?” she asked, trying to scoot away from him. “No. You said you supported what I do and why I do it.” She tried to scoot away from him.

  He closed his hands on her hips and held her. “I do, but there is a time when everyone in law enforcement makes a decision, for the safety of everyone involved. This is one of those times.”

  “This is going to go public,” she said. “Too many people know what i
s going on after today. That means the public will know a plea is caving to intimidation. What message does that send about our system? And it invites copycats. I’ll be a target and make other people targets.”

  “You already are a target and other people are targets as well. Plead, Lauren. Put her away for life and make the concessions to do it. Then let’s go away for a vacation. Rome, England, anywhere you want to go, and let Luke and Blake catch this guy.”

  “I can’t believe you’re asking me to do this. I thought…”

  He kissed her, his fingers resting on her cheek. “I love you, Lauren. I’m just trying to protect you and everyone around you.”

  She softened instantly at the sincerity, the torment, in his voice and pressed her lips to his. “I love you, too.”

  He pulled back to search her face. “Then do this for me. I support you, baby. I believe in what you do, I do. But this is about safety.”

  “What if it isn’t even about this case? We have clippings from other cases and the links to Sheridan.”

  “Then it’s not this case and we’ve ruled it out. We have nothing at this point but a gamble, but we have to take it, Lauren.”

  “I need to think, Royce. I need to-”

  He kissed her. “Think. That’s better than ‘no’.” He slid his fingers under her hair to her neck. “Tell me you love me again.”

  She softened, smiled. “I love you.”

  He covered her mouth with his, as if he was trying to absorb the words, as if he cherished them. Lauren relaxed into the kiss, lost in him, letting herself forget everything but him undressing her, touching her, kissing her. When she finally straddled him, when he was buried deep inside her, and their eyes connected, she realized that her big, grizzly alpha had a soft side he saved just for her. And somehow, for just this little bleep of time, it made everything okay, and no man had ever done that for her before now, before Royce.

  ***