LINKED (The Bening Files Book 1)

by Rachel Trautmiller

  He edged around the table and stood in front of her with a beer in each hand. “No, hello? I guess I deserve that.” An enticing smile appeared on his lips.

  A familiar smile. Her stomach did a back flip.

  She had to be dreaming. Jordan Bening couldn’t be right in front of her. Had he always been so tall? His eyes so blue and in perfect contrast with his blond hair? Sculpted arms and legs filled out a charcoal gray suit. The top button on the black dress shirt he wore beneath his jacket was open, revealing a hint of a silver chain.

  His smile grew. Oh, boy. She was staring at him.

  McKenna swallowed hard. A thousand greetings rolled through her head, but her tongue refused to work. Was there an appropriate salutation for this situation? Hey, how are you? Where in the world have you been?

  “Wow. McKenna Moore’s speechless. That’s got to be a first.” He set the drinks on the table, his arm brushing hers as he did. A tingling sensation followed in his wake. Heat crept into her face.

  She had to get it together. Now. “In your dreams, Jordan,” she finally managed. She stood, then threw her arms around him. He was solid, warm, and smelled like spicy aftershave as he returned the embrace. Her stomach did another flip. “This is a nice surprise.”

  “Were you expecting someone else?” He took the seat next to her.

  “The appropriate word is dreading.”

  “What?”

  She waved the discussion away. “Long story.”

  “It’s either work or family. Your family’s not much for drama, so I’m going to go with work. Am I close?”

  McKenna turned her glass on the table. If she gave the truthful answer, she’d have to bare the whole Rupert debacle. If she said family, he’d ask for details he probably believed he had a right to. After all, their families had been close before his mother’s murder…her uncle’s incarceration.

  Not going there.

  “I admit it. I’m a work-aholic robot.”

  Jordan chuckled. “Takes one to know one, right?”

  Before McKenna could respond, Amanda rushed back up to their table and glanced at Jordan. “Hey, Jordan, long time, no see. I’m sorry, McKenna. I’ve got to go.”

  “Everything okay?”

  “It’s work related.” Amanda held up a hand. “Don’t ask.”

  “Aren’t you a little out of your jurisdiction?”

  The other woman arched one of her brows. “I’ll explain what I can, later.”

  “Can I help?”

  “Everything’s covered. Thanks.” Amanda hugged her. “Enjoy the rest of your birthday, McKenna.” She turned away and disappeared through the crowd.

  McKenna hesitated. She could call SAC Robinson and see if he could ascertain the details of her friend’s hasty departure and make sure there wasn’t something she could do. Jordan watched as she reached for her purse, then dug inside for her phone.

  She stopped. No. She needed to get a grip on her life. She’d sit here and enjoy this moment. Enjoy catching up with Jordan. Doing that would mean Rupert had not gotten the best of her.

  “It’s killing you, isn’t it?”

  “What?”

  Jordan chuckled. “What’s your line of work?”

  What would Jordan say if she told him the truth? That she never left home without her gun and badge. He’d ruffle her hair, tease her, and make her feel ten years younger than him instead of two.

  No, thank you. She sat back and took a sip of her drink. “Nothing spectacular. You?”

  “What everyone does.” Jordan turned his drink on the table. “Eat, sleep, and work.”

  “Of course, you probably don’t do it in that order.”

  He gave an agreeable nod. “How are your parents?”

  “They’re doing well. Mom and Dad retired last year. My brother, Alex took over their practice.” They would like to see you. If she said that, she’d also have to admit they might want answers about that day ten years ago, because she wanted answers. There was a time and place for everything. This was neither.

  As if Jordan sensed her thoughts, he redirected the conversation toward their childhood. Four hours later, they still hadn’t run out of things to talk about.

  “Remember when Alex and Noah dared me to race them around the block?” McKenna glanced at the colorful beverages their server placed in front of them. Was this two or three? Had to be two. Three at most. She took a sip.

  “How could I forget?” Jordan draped an arm around the back of the chairs they’d scooted together. His breath tickled her ear as he lean in closer. “You smashed my Charger into the back of the garage.”

  “Alex and Noah just stood there like angels. Pretended nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The look on my dad’s face.” McKenna shook her head. “I thought I was dead.”

  “You? I got the lecture of my life for being in the passenger’s seat.”

  “No doubt the first in a long line.” In a playful gesture, she jabbed her elbow into his ribs. Their eyes locked. The smile faded from his face. Her heartbeat increased. What would his lips feel like against hers? She bit her lower lip. Whoa. Maybe she’d had more alcohol than she realized.

  “Mever Nind. I mean, never mind.” She jumped up, waved the thought and discussion away. “It was great to see you, Jordan. We should do this again sometime.” She rubbed her head, hoping to still the circular motion beginning before her eyes. Yeah, she’d had way more than three drinks. “Except let’s skip the alcohol.”

  Jordan pulled out his wallet and left money on the table. “Let me walk you to your room.”

  “Sure.” A hiccup escaped. She glanced at the crowd that separated them from the exit. It looked like a brightly colored maze. She reached for Jordan’s arm, but missed and stumbled into him instead.

  He righted her and guided them toward the exit, his warm hands firmly on either side of her waist, steering them in the right direction.

  “This is a side of you I haven’t seen.” His breath tickled her ear again and floated like a soft caress across her neck.

  McKenna grinned and shouted, “What side?”

  “You, Miss perfect, goodie-two-shoes, drunk.”

  “I am not.” Laughter erupted from her mouth and she tried to spin around.

  He wouldn’t let her. “Focus on getting out of here, Slick.”

  “This is your fault. I planned to spend my birthday, well, not like this.”

  “Had that bad of a time, huh?” Jordan fumbled with the club’s door handle, then managed to push it open. A steady line of people entering through the club’s other entrance greeted them.

  She squinted against the bright casino lights and the blinking slot machines. “This is the most fun I’ve had since...” He’d disappeared. She gulped. “My room’s somewhere in here.” She pointed to the surroundings of Caesar’s Palace. “Room 1562, 6215, 2165? Can’t remember.” Oh, boy.

  “No more for you.” He smiled and steered them around the blackjack tables. A woman screeched as they passed and grabbed a large stack of chips from the center of the table.

  A group of men with military haircuts bumped into her as they passed. McKenna shook her head. The group kept on walking, talking and laughing with one another. One guy raised his drink and saluted another with it.

  Jordan grabbed her arm. “Feeling okay?”

  “Great.” Jordan’s profile blurred. Okay, maybe not so great. Her stomach lurched. Saliva gathered in her mouth. She dropped down onto a nearby bench. Then put her head in her hands and dropped it between her knees.

  “Whoa.” Jordan sat down next to her and rubbed her back, his warm hand the only steady thing in her dizzy world. “You going to make it? The front desk will know your room number. Come on, I’ll get you settled.”

  She held up a hand, took a deep breath. She just needed a minute and she meant to tell him. “How many girlfriends do you have back home, Jordan?” She clenched her eyes shut. “Forget I asked.” She didn’t even know where home was for him anymore.
r />   “I’m gone. A lot. I work for the F—”

  “They follow you everywhere, I’m sure.” She frowned. At nineteen, women had either loved him or despised him, but the latter were rare.

  “What about you? Is Mr. Right waiting for you back home?”

  “Mr. Right?” She sat up and instantly regretted the action. She clutched the front of Jordan’s suit, hoping to stop the spinning motion. When her vision started to clear, she released her hold. “If my last boyfriend was any indication, there is no Mr. Right.”

  “What’s the matter, Slick? He break your heart?” Jordan’s teasing voice didn’t match the fierce blaze behind his eyes. Or the goofy grin stuck on his mouth.

  “Yeah, can’t you tell? I’m torn up.”

  “Let me guess. Mr. Right—or Mr. Not-So-Right wanted you to do something you didn’t want to. You told him off. He got mad and called you names.”

  McKenna blinked. “If you tell me my place is behind a stove with ten children clinging to my legs, I swear I’ll throw up all over you.”

  “Wow. The whole package, huh? Domestication, kids, big house, big yard.”

  “You forgot the ‘no job under any circumstances’ part.” McKenna stood, but couldn’t get her feet to work properly. Jordan caught up to her, grabbed her arm before she could trip.

  “I keep telling myself I made the right decision. If I can’t give up my job to raise the kid he has and the nine others he wants, I must not love him. I’m this horrible robot person.”

  “Slick.”

  McKenna halted their progress. “It’s not like I keep the fact that I love my job a secret. And who proposes with their kid in tow? I had to say no in front of a six-year-old.”

  He grabbed her face in his hands. For a minute, it looked like he might kiss her. “Tell me you punched him?”

  “No.” I walked away. “How many.” She hiccupped. That was annoying. “How many drinks did you have?”

  Jordan dropped his hands and stepped away. “Too many on a night like tonight.”

  McKenna couldn’t help smiling. “You always get me into trouble. I’ve missed that.” She looked beyond him. The palace chapel stood before her, lights illuminating the entrance. “I’ve always wanted to go inside one of these places.”

  “What?” Jordan looked at the chapel.

  She riffled through her purse. If she could find her camera, they could take a picture together inside.

  “McKenna?” His voice sounded hoarse. “What are you doing?”

  “Nothing.” She looked up. Those blue eyes, so open, trapped hers. She stepped closer to him, forgetting what she’d needed from her purse. A hint of his cologne drifted in her direction. It invited her to move even closer and bury her face in his neck, but her legs remained glued to the ground a few steps from him.

  A smile traced his lips. She couldn’t resist the urge to follow it with her thumb. “You have a very handsome smile.” Had she ever noticed that before? “No wonder all the neighbor girls were after you.”

  “What neighbor girls?”

  “They used to drive me nuts. Always following you. Batting their eyelashes.”

  He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were jealous.”

  “Did you ever see me batting my eyelashes?”

  “No. Thank God.” He pulled her into the circle of his arms, a place she could honestly say she’d never been in more than a platonic manner. It was nice. Safe. Her lips tingled as he inched closer. She shouldn’t kiss Jordan. Plenty of friendships had ended because of things like this. Not that she’d ever experienced that firsthand.

  Jordan’s breath whispered across her lips and her hands flexed on his chest. If she moved two centimeters closer, she’d feel that smile against hers. What could it hurt?

  “Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have me kiss you, McKenna?”

  The way he dipped his head closer to hers made what would’ve seemed like an egotistical comment seductive. Before she could answer, his mouth covered hers in a kiss that erased every other kiss she could remember and sent bolts of electricity all the way to her toes. If someone had told her that kissing Jordan compared to running barefoot in the pouring rain after a day in the scorching sun, she would have done it years ago.

  “Wait a minute.” She pulled away from him. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

  “Why not?”

  She pursed her lips together for a moment. There was a reason, one she couldn’t grasp. “You kissed me and I…”

  “Liked it?”

  “Yes. I mean, no. I haven’t seen you in a long time.” Wasn’t there some sort of unspoken rule between friends? An invisible line of some sort? McKenna stared into his dark blue eyes. Maybe a rule like that didn’t exist between the two of them. She hoped so because she wanted—she wanted him to kiss her again.

  “McKenna,” he whispered. “You’re thinking too much. It’s just a kiss.” He didn’t give her time to answer but crushed his mouth against hers. She couldn’t have argued if she wanted to.

  Just a kiss.

  CHAPTER THREE

  All McKenna wanted was a few more minutes of sleep before her first forced mini-vacation ended.

  She pulled the downy covers over her head, then snuggled closer to the warmth at her back. She’d dreamt something about Jordan and the casino. Or the chapel.

  Jordan?

  She rolled to her back. An arm circled her waist and tugged her against bare flesh. A man’s warm, bare flesh. She held her breath, sat up slowly. A vicious throb started inside her skull. Her mouth tasted like moldy cotton balls dipped in bad sour cream.

  Something on her finger caught a glimpse of light. A ring. Not the ring that normally resided there.

  Where was she? This was not her room.

  Her heart started a frantic beat against her chest. Blurred vision offered a distorted view of her companion. She blinked, but nothing changed. Her jaw dropped. Jordan slept beside her.

  No. This was a dream. Not reality.

  He rolled to his side, away from her. The comforter fell to his hips. Naked looking hips. She averted her eyes to the flat screen T.V. on the far wall.

  This couldn’t be right. They’d just had a couple of drinks. He’d walked her to the chapel.

  Panic bubbled in her throat. This wasn’t her. This was last on her to do list. She’d dated a handful of men. Never been lifetime commitment-serious with any of them. Now she was married. She snapped her eyes shut.

  Just a kiss.

  McKenna had married Jordan. And slept with him. Her stomach swirled like the tilt-a-whirl at the fair. Never in her life, had she done something so unplanned. Have to get out of here. She opened her eyes. The throbbing in her head continued, as if an evil cyborg jumped on her brain tissue. Vague memories of the prior evening flitted in and out of her consciousness.

  Elvis in his white suit and dark glasses. The champagne, and then here. Her head increased its death wish on her body. She couldn’t remember saying “I do.” Okay, breathe. Maybe she’d just slept next to him. She lifted the covers. Nope. No way to explain their nakedness that way. McKenna ran her fingers through her hair. She pinched herself. No such luck. This wasn’t a nightmare. She looked to Jordan’s left hand. A solid gold band circled the third finger.

  A scream bubbled at the base of her throat. She swallowed it, then inched the covers back and slipped from the bed. What had she done? All her life she’d worked toward goals, but marriage wasn’t one of them. This kind of thing happened in movies, not to her.

  No. No. No.

  Okay, focus. First things first. She needed her clothes. Now. Had Eve felt like this after the forbidden fruit, completely naked and embarrassed? She tiptoed toward where her dress and undergarments lay on the floor and began dressing. The last thing she wanted to do was wake up Jordan. Who knew what he would say or do.

  McKenna tugged on her dress, grabbed her shoe, then looked around for its pair. No way she�
�d be like Cinderella and leave evidence behind. On her hands and knees, she looked beneath the bed.

  A cell phone vibrated on the nightstand near her head. The sound reverberated inside her skull and made her want to curl into a ball. Hers? His?

  Jordan didn’t move.

  Hers. She grabbed it from the stand and powered it down, but not before she recognized the caller. Mom and Dad.

  Perfect. Hey, Mom, Dad, guess what? Yeah, that’d go over well. They expected her to get married in a real church with all her friends and family. Not a chapel with Elvis and cheap champagne.

  The sound of rustling sheets caught her attention. He couldn’t wake up. Not yet. She froze beside the bed.

  Jordan grabbed something from under his pillow, his upper torso shooting up from under the covers. The unmistakable click of a locked and loaded gun made her peek farther over the top of the bed.

  Jordan barely had his eyes open. But he had the gun dead centered on her. He rubbed an eye with the palm of his hand. “McKenna?” He lowered the gun. “What are you doing? You scared me half to death.” He took in their surroundings, her rumpled hair and clothing.

  “You’re the one pointing a gun at me.” This was worse than failing to climb the rope and finish the obstacle course in front of everyone your first day of boot camp. She willed her body to move, but it wouldn’t listen.

  He tucked the gun away. “Sorry. It’s habit.”

  She took a deep breath, her heart slowing by small increments. “Habit?”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  She got control of her body, stood and inched away. Jordan didn’t attempt to leave the bed. Instead, he sat there with an aggravated look on his face, tinged with a mild amount of disgust. When she turned away, she could feel his eyes on her as if he’d thrown darts into her back.

  She checked the hallway leading to the bathroom and back and then around the table. That shoe had to be under the bed. She glared at it as if it were the source of all her problems when it was the man in the bed. McKenna had to find that shoe if she wanted to leave with what dignity she had left.