Killer Cuisine

by Velvet Vaughn

  Ronald led the group upstairs, reading names on the doors as he skipped down the hall. “Here I am and look, Kaitlyn, you’re right next door!” If she had to share a bathroom, she was glad it was with him and not one of the other guys. She’d spent too many years sharing with her brothers, who were forever leaving the seat up. How many times had she stumbled into the bathroom when she was younger and ended up practically falling in the toilet? She bet Ronald would remember to put the seat down. And she was really glad it wasn’t Joy.

  She carried her bags inside and marveled at the furnishings. It would be like staying in a luxury hotel. The bed was queen sized with a red silk comforter and lots of fluffy pillows. An elegant desk that looked like an antique was positioned beneath a window. She hesitated to set her computer on it but decided they wouldn’t have put it in the room if they didn’t want her to use it. She had a small sitting area with comfortable-looking chairs and she even had her own fireplace with a flat-screen TV mounted above the mantle. Not a bad place to spend a couple of weeks. The only thing that would make it better would be…

  A light rap sounded on her door. Before she could call out, it opened and Dan slipped inside as if she’d conjured him. Now the room was perfect.

  “What are you doing here?” she whispered. “We aren’t allowed visitors. And how did you get in?”

  He smiled that crooked smile that made her heart hitch every time. He rubbed his hands together and cackled wickedly. “I have my ways.”

  She rolled her eyes. She just bet he did. “Did you sneak in?”

  He hitched a shoulder, that charming smile lighting his face. “Of course.”

  Her mind travelled back to another time Dan broke into a building, but then she’d been his accomplice.

  Kait’s junior Homecoming dance had been everything she hoped it would be. She and Dan laughed and danced and glided across the floor. She loved her dress and felt like a princess. It was the most perfect night of her life. The only downer was that her big brother was chaperoning and he kept his eye trained on them like a hawk spotting his prey. Luke was an incredible sibling and she loved that he was so involved with her life. He’d always put her and her brothers first and he’d been both mother and father to them, trying to replace the ones they lost. He’d done an amazing job. He’d rarely missed any of their sporting events or activities. But on this night, she wished he’d stayed home, or gotten called into work. He was an outstanding cop—one of the youngest ever promoted to detective. She had no doubt he’d be running the station soon.

  Most of her friends had a crush on him. They even wanted to vote him homecoming king. Wouldn’t that be a hoot. Of course, he’d been homecoming king when he was in school. And prom king, and class president, and captain of the football team. Luke had his whole life ahead of him with a football scholarship and a real shot at the NFL. He’d given it all up the moment their parents’ plane went down with no survivors. He was and always would be her hero.

  Dan was respectful of her and kept the touching to a minimum. She wanted to drag him into the janitor’s closet and steal a kiss. She loved kissing him. He was so good at it. Fat chance of that happening with Detective Colton on the job.

  When the dance winded down, Dan excused himself and she followed his progress as he crossed the floor to Luke. She watched as the two men discussed something. Then they were walking towards her. She held her breath.

  “I’m going to take off now,” Luke told her. “Be careful. I love you.” He bent down to kiss her cheek. Kait stared at him in shock. “You’re going to let me go out?”

  He nodded slowly. “I trust you and I trust Dan.” He eyed Dan. “Don’t make me regret it, kid.”

  “I won’t.”

  Now here they were, pulling up to a hidden cottage in the woods. “Whose cabin is this?”

  “A friend of a friend,” Dan said.

  “Did he let you borrow it?”

  Dan grinned that lopsided grin at her. “Not exactly.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “What does that mean?”

  “Just that they aren’t using it so I figure we’ll just borrow it for a while. Sit on the deck and enjoy the view.”

  Excitement shot through her. She always knew her first time would be with Dan. She’d even purchased sexy lingerie in hopes that tonight would be the night.

  He opened her door and held his hand out for her. He’d ditched his tie and jacket. The top two buttons of his shirt were undone and Kait wanted to press her lips there. As she stepped out, thunder boomed. When lightning flashed close, she screamed. Dan gripped her hand and they made a mad dash for the cabin just as the clouds opened and the rain poured down. Kait was squealing and laughing and finally they were standing under the small awning.

  “Do you have a key?”

  Dan reached in his pocket and pulled out a thin piece of metal.

  “You’re going to break in?” This was a side of him she didn’t know. Yes, he was a bad boy, but in a raise a ruckus, lock up your daughter kind of way. She didn’t realize he had felonious tendencies.

  “So, um, do you do this often? Break and enter, I mean.”

  “I told you, we’re just borrowing the cabin.” He wagged his eyebrows and then bent to the lock. He wiggled and jiggled it and soon, the lock clicked and he pushed the door open. “Tah dah.” The cabin was rustic and sparsely furnished. Wood was stacked by a fireplace so he hurried over and started a fire. She moved closer to the warmth. The rain had soaked her and now she felt chilled. As soon as he stood, she pressed against him. He groaned and kissed her, his hands cupping her head.

  When he kissed a path to her neck she said, “I want tonight, us, together.” She couldn’t bring herself to say the words.

  Dan stopped and ran his hands down her arms to hold her hands. “I want that too, Kait. But not tonight. We can’t.”

  She pulled her hands free and wrapped them around his neck, pressing her body against his. Oh, he wanted, her, there was no mistaking that. “Yes, we can.” She stood on her tiptoes and licked his neck.

  He groaned and pulled her away. “I promised your brother and I respect him too much to break that promise.”

  Kait attacked his belt buckle. “Luke doesn’t ever have to know.”

  “God, Kait, you’re killing me. Stop.” He stilled her fingers. “Let me just hold you. Come-on.” He tugged her hand and opened the sliding glass door leading to a covered deck overlooking the lake. He padded over to a cushioned lounger and pulled her down. He wrapped his arms around her and she melted against him.

  “I thought we would just hold each other tonight.”

  And they had. They’d talked and kissed and Dan had even rounded second base. But he kept his promise to Luke and hadn’t made love to her that night. Something had nagged at her ever since. “What did you say to my brother?”

  Dan’s brows lifted. “Uh, you’re going to have to be a bit more specific here, Kait. I tend to converse with your brother pretty much on a daily basis.”

  “Homecoming. Junior year when he chaperoned the dance. What did you say to him so that he let us leave together?”

  “Good grief, that was like twenty years ago. You expect me to remember a conversation that far back?”

  She slugged him on the arm. “It was only nine years.”

  He shook his head. “After twenty-some years of that, my arm is nothing but scar tissue now.”

  She did hit him a lot, didn’t she? He just drove her to violence sometimes. But she’d never been one bit concerned he’d punch her back. “What did you say to Luke?”

  A flush of red crept into his cheeks. Dan blushing? Interesting. “I don’t know, something about respecting you and promising not to take advantage of you.”

  “You wouldn’t have been taking advantage of me you big doof. I propositioned you.”

  His smile was wicked and he wagged his brows. “I remember.”

  She rolled her eyes. “What did you say, exactly?”

  “I told him that I
cared for you and would never do anything to hurt you and that he could trust me.”

  She sniffed and turned away. “Guess you broke that promise.”

  Dan grabbed her arm and spun her back around. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You’ve hurt me plenty.”

  “I would never harm you, Kaitlyn.” His voice was strong. “You know that.”

  “I know you wouldn’t hurt me physically.”

  He released her arm. “Ah, so you mean mentally. Well, that’s a two-way street, babe, and you’re motoring side by side in the next lane.”

  “What does that even mean?”

  He shrugged.

  “Alisha Milner.”

  His lips firmed. “I told you nothing happened.”

  She held up her fingers to count. “Monica Bellas, Carla Perkins, Sherilyn Martin, Darlene Shaw, Denise Owen—”

  He covered her hand. “Stop.”

  “Those are just the ones I know their names. What about Busty Brunette Barbie or Black Haired Busty Barbie or—”

  Dan’s lips covered hers, firm and warm and delicious. Perfect. She smiled. Goading him had definite benefits. When his tongue licked the seam of her lips, she opened automatically for him. He tasted so good. Her arms wound around his neck, holding on for dear life. He kissed her slow and long and deep and hot. She wanted to keep on kissing him and never stop. She almost whimpered when he pulled back and touched his forehead to hers.

  “What was that for?” She ran a thumb along his lip. He nipped at it.

  “To shut you up.”

  “Didn’t work, hotshot.”

  “Maybe I should try again—”

  “Knock, knock.”

  They broke apart like kids caught with their hands in a cookie jar as the door to the bathroom rattled.

  “Kaitlyn?”

  “Who’s that?” he whispered harshly.

  “Ronald,” she said.

  “You’re sharing a bathroom with a man?” Dan’s eyes were mere slits.

  “Yoohoodles, Kaitlyn, are you in there?”

  Realization dawned on Dan’s handsome face. “The gay guy.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “The politically correct term is homosexual.”

  “No, it’s not”

  “It isn’t?”

  He shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  She slugged him again.

  He shook his head. “Scar tissue.”

  “I’m coming, Ronald,” she called out. “Are you going to hide or something?”

  “I’m going to take off so you can get ready. Knock ‘em dead today.” He kissed her and she whimpered, not wanting him to leave. But when she opened her eyes, he was gone. With a sigh, she padded over to let Ronald inside.

  #

  Dan jogged down the stairs, looking for Mason Rossi. He’d explained the situation to the ex-Marine and he agreed to let Dan stay on premises, with Kendall’s okay as the executive producer. He had no doubt she’d approve. She wanted Kaitlyn safe, too.

  Damn. Kait was breaking his heart. When she listed all of the ways he’d hurt her, he felt like the world’s biggest jerk. Yes, there had been other women, lots of them, but none had ever touched his heart like she had. He was quite sure no one ever would.

  His brother pointed out on more than one occasion that the women he tended to hook up with all looked like her. He couldn’t deny it. He had a type and that type was pretty much Kaitlyn.

  He could have told her that she’d hurt him, too. When he found out she was living with a man in France it was all he could do to stop himself from jumping on a plane and bashing the guy in the face. François. What the hell kind of name was that, anyway? And they were still thick as thieves, judging from all of the pictures, most of them with their arms wrapped around each other like octopuses. Octopi? Whatever. He looked nothing like Dan so apparently she didn’t have a type, or if she did, it wasn’t him.

  He wiped a hand down his face. He’d lied to her earlier. He’d told her brother that he loved her and planned to marry her one day and he would show her the respect she deserved. Luke had nodded like he knew and then told Dan that he trusted him and hoped that when Kaitlyn decided to marry, it was to him. They’d come to an understanding. Both would do anything to protect her.

  He found Mason in the great room watching a baseball game on the giant television. He dropped down into a chair.

  “What’s the score?”

  “Cubs up by two.”

  “You sure you don’t mind if I crash here?”

  “Dude, this place is a freaking mansion. There are bedrooms to spare. The one down that hall is as nice as the one Abby and I are sharing.” He grumbled something under his breath that sounded like “maybe” but Dan wasn’t sure if he meant the room wasn’t as nice or he and Abby were sharing one. “Make yourself at home. Besides, it’ll be good to have a guy around to talk sports and not spices.”

  Dan chuckled and reached out his hand to bump fists. He knew Mason from Aiden Hill, a fellow agent. Aiden and Mason were both former Force Recon Marines, total badasses. Maybe not as tough as SEALS, but then, he was biased. Mason had been seriously injured on his last mission and was recovering and rehabilitating. Aiden had recommended him to Logan and Luke, and he hoped to secure a job with COBRA Securities. His wife was already going through Dante Costa’s intense training program, but Dan didn’t think it was going well. He overheard Dante criticize her for not training hard enough and not being a team player. If she didn’t pass Dante’s tests, she wouldn’t be hired. And if she was struggling just a couple weeks in, chances are, she wouldn’t make the cut.

  “Three weeks of sitting around here might drive me batshit,” Mason said. “Thank goodness there’s a pool and fully-stocked gym so I can continue rehab.”

  “You armed?”

  Mason gave him a droll look. “Always. There’s a gun safe in the study and I’ve got a few weapons stashed in there, just in case. A couple of M16’s, Glocks, Ka-Bars, a Colt 9mm, Mk 141 and two or three bricks of C-4.”

  “Expecting trouble, are you?” Cause, call him crazy, but tactical knives, a sub-machine gun, flash bangs and plastic explosives seemed a bit excessive for a group of hash-slingers.

  Mason shrugged. “Celer, Silens, Mortalis.”

  Swift, silent, deadly, the Force Recon motto. In other words, be prepared for anything. “I get it.”

  “Here’s the combination in case you need to access the arsenal.” He gave Dan the numbers.

  “What about security?”

  “Air tight and state-of-the-art. Cameras on all entries, windows and doors wired with multiple layers of protection. Electrified ten-foot fence surrounding the property. The studio didn’t even need to beef it up, it was all in place.” He gave Dan the code for the alarm. “It’ll be set from ten at night until six in the morning.”

  “I have a favor to ask you.”

  “Shoot.”

  “I have to take off tomorrow for a couple of days.”

  “The US Ninja Warrior tryouts.”

  “You heard?”

  “Yeah. I’d love to give it a shot.” He patted his leg. “Maybe next year.”

  “Since I won’t be here, can you keep an eye on Kaitlyn?” He gave him a brief rundown of what had happened.”

  “Damn, someone actually tried to run her down?”

  “Yeah. It was dumb luck I was there or they might’ve succeeded.”

  “I’ll watch over her while you’re gone.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

  Both Dan and Mason’s cells vibrated. Dan pulled his out and checked the message. It was a group text from Kendall okaying his stay at the house. He knew it wouldn’t be a problem but he was relieved to have it officially cleared.

  He pocketed the cell and stood. “I need to go pack a few things.” And say goodbye to Bella for three weeks. His heart lurched. He’d been away for a few days on jobs but never that long from his niece. Maybe he’d try to slip away to see her as ofte
n as he could. He needed Bella’s hugs as much as he needed air to breathe.

  “Hold up for a second,” Mason said, getting to his feet. He winced when he put weight on his injured leg but he worked hard at masking a limp. If Dan didn’t know it’d been practically reconstructed, he’d never know. Mason padded to a drawer in the kitchen. “Here’s a set of keys to the house and a remote for the gate.”

  “Thanks, man. Can I pick up anything for you?”

  “I’m all set.”

  “I’ll be back before you leave for the studio.” With a wave, Dan jogged to his Escalade and drove to the compound. His first stop was his brother’s office. He waved at Logan’s secretary as she chatted on the phone and walked inside, closing the door behind him.

  Logan was standing in front of his desk glancing over a file. He lifted a brow. “Ever heard of knocking?”

  “Sure, I’ve heard of it.”

  “Smartass. Everything okay?”

  He plopped down in one of the comfortable chairs in the seating area with a sigh. “No.”

  Logan tossed the file down and took the seat across from him. “What’s up?”

  “I need to run something by you.”

  “Sure.”

  Dan scrubbed a hand down his face. He really hated keeping Luke out of the loop. “I have a case. A woman is being harassed and a possible attempt was made on her life.”

  Logan’s eyes widened. “Damn. Sounds like she needs protection.”

  Dan nodded. “It’ll be twenty-four seven for about three weeks.”

  “As long as you need. You don’t need to clear it with me. Pro bono?”

  “How did you know?”

  “You, a woman in distress…well, that’s pretty much it.”

  Dan flipped him off.

  “Now, what aren’t you telling me?”

  Logan was so damn perceptive. “It’s Kaitlyn.”

  Logan jumped to his feet. “What? Kaitlyn’s life is in jeopardy?”