The Ties That Bind

by Liliana Hart

  But when he met Miguel’s eyes, they were mocking and full of hatred. A hatred that had no possibility of being extinguished.

  “Ah, young love,” Miguel said, his smile becoming crueler. “This is on your head, Cade MacKenzie.”

  Cade threw his body toward Carmen, but he was too late. The shot from Miguel’s gun echoed in his ears along with his screams, and Carmen’s hand went limp in his, her blood splattered across his face and chest. Blood he knew he’d never be clean of.

  Chaos reigned around them as the warehouse went black and the shouts of soldiers and agents swarming through the building started to penetrate the haze of shock and anger. He kept waiting for Miguel to finish what he’d started and put a bullet through his brain, but it never happened. Those that held him captive ran for cover, so only he and Carmen lay in the middle of the warehouse floor, flashes of gunfire and smoke building around them.

  He pulled himself closer to her body and gathered her in his arms, his mind numb with grief, and he snarled as hands tried to jerk him away from what was his.

  “Dammit, Cade, look at me.”

  The voice in his ear was familiar, and he didn’t fight as night vision goggles were placed over his eyes. His brother, Declan, came into focus.

  “I can’t—,” he tried to say, holding Carmen closer.

  “We’ll get her out, Cade. We’ll do right by her,” Dec said, taking her from his arms into his own. “But we need to get you out right now. The del Fuego cartel will be gunning for you.”

  Cade nodded and let his brother lead him out of hell, but he heard the voice that called to him over the chaos.

  “You’ll never be safe, Cade MacKenzie,” Miguel screamed. “You’ll never know peace as long as I’m still breathing. I’ll take everything and more that you’ve taken from me.”

  Cade couldn’t imagine what more the man could hope to take from him. His future had been the dead woman in his brother’s arms.

  Chapter One

  Present Day

  Neighbors were a pain in the ass.

  Especially neighbors who made as much noise as possible at the crack of dawn. Did no one have consideration for their fellow man anymore? She wasn’t asking for much, dammit. Just a little common courtesy.

  Bayleigh Scott rolled toward her nightstand to look at the old fashioned alarm clock with the giant hands and noticed it was just shy of 6am. She groaned and pulled the pillow over her head, trying desperately to block out the grinding noise from what sounded like a fleet of semis outside her window. She’d closed her shop at ten the night before but hadn’t gotten home until after one because she’d been doing inventory. Not even five full hours of sleep. And she had to be back to open at ten since her assistant was out sick.

  When the pillow failed to have the effect she was looking for, she tossed it across the room and felt the slow flush of anger work through her body.

  “Who the hell do these people think they are?” she muttered, throwing back the covers and stomping to the bay window in her bedroom.

  She could only see the back deck of the house next door from her window, and she scowled as she noted the ferns already hanging from baskets on the porch, the dimmed sconces attached to the posts giving her a good view in the darkness.

  “Making yourself right at home, aren’t you?”

  She let the curtain drop and stomped through the house, tripping over the edge of the rug and bumping her shin against the table she had at the end of the couch. The coffeepot beckoned, so she punched the button to start her morning caffeine as she made her way to the kitchen window. She had the perfect view of the neighbor’s front yard.

  Bayleigh winced as the screech of the truck lift going up and down assaulted her ears. It wasn’t like the noise would bother anyone else. Most of her neighbors turned their hearing aids off after eight o’clock and didn’t turn them back on until the sun rose. There was no way her new neighbors were another little retired couple like everyone else on the street. They were probably party animals or reprobates. Maybe both.

  Powerful lights were set up so they could unload the truck that was backed into the driveway, but all she could see was the shadows of men as they unloaded the furniture. They didn’t even need that stupid lift. They were just being lazy. There was no reason for the truck to be on at all.

  Muttered curses propelled her out the front door before common sense could take hold. She never did well on little sleep and no caffeine. It wasn’t her fault. She liked to think of it as a medical condition. She’d just explain politely about the noise, and surely they would take care of things from there. It was the decent thing to do.

  The cool October air slapped against her skin, reminding her she was only wearing the cotton boxers and tank top she’d slept in. Chills raced across her skin and she tripped over the hose that ran across her sidewalk. She’d forgotten to roll it back up after watering her flowerbeds the previous morning.

  She paused for a moment, wondering if she’d made a mistake when she felt three sets of eyes look in her direction. The sudden stillness of the night was unnerving. She couldn’t see the two men in the shadows clearly, but she got a heck of a glimpse of the man standing closest to her. The Devil in disguise. The sudden urge to cross herself had her squeezing her fingers into tight fists. She wasn’t even Catholic for Pete’s sake.

  His scowl was black and menacing and he narrowed his eyes at her in warning, automatically putting her back up. She wasn’t going to be intimidated by the likes of him. At least not by much.

  Bayleigh straightened her shoulders and marched across the tiny patch of grass that separated the two houses. She climbed into the cab of the big white truck, the cracked seats scratchy against the backs of her legs, and turned off the ignition before taking the key. She jumped out of the truck and watched warily as the three men gathered close, their arms crossed over their bare chests and various looks of surprise pasted on their faces. Maybe Satan was having a convention, because surely all three of these men were fallen angels of the worst kind, or hardened criminals at best.

  They were muscled and bare-chested, and their jeans hung low on narrowed hips. It was obvious they were related, and her gaze passed over them all quickly. But she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the one in the center—the one who’d made her lose her common sense with just one scowl. There was something in his eyes that had her taking a step back before she remembered she was standing in the middle of a safe neighborhood. She wouldn’t be intimidated on her own property. She looked down and took a quick step back so she was actually on her own property, and crossed her arms over her chest, daring him to say anything.

  The Devil’s dark hair was longer than she liked on a man, almost to his shoulders, and his eyes were as black as coal. Probably because he’d been hauling it in hell before he’d decided to move to Fort Worth, Texas. A short beard covered his face and a wicked looking tattoo swirled over his shoulder and part of the way down his arm. His chest was scarred, and she couldn’t even begin to imagine what had happened to him to cause such marks. Her gaze lowered, following the black smattering of hair that disappeared beneath his jeans, and all rational thought left her head as she noticed the sizable bulge behind his zipper.

  “You’ve got some mighty friendly neighbors, Cade,” the man next to the Devil said, his smirk evident in the slow drawl of his voice. “She can’t take her eyes off you.”

  Bayleigh felt heat flush her cheeks, and she brought her eyes back up to meet his. The keys bit into the palms of her hand reminding her she had them, so she tossed them to the walking hard-on a little harder than was probably necessary. He snapped them out of the air and glared in her direction, and the urge to turn tail and run was prevalent in her mind, but instead she turned around and calmly and put one foot in front of the other.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  She knew it was him that spoke without having to turn around. His voice slid across her skin like rough velvet, and she shivered at
the demand in it. Not that she expected the Devil to be an easy man or be without a modicum of power, but she liked to think she had enough self-control to ignore the dangerous seduction of his voice and keep walking.

  She eyed the distance to her front door and looked back in his direction. He’d taken a couple of steps forward, and there was no way to get away from him if he came after her. He narrowed his eyes as if he could read her mind, and shook his head slowly, warning her not to try it, so she swallowed her fear and turned around to face him.

  She was an idiot. Running would have been the smart thing to do if the look on his face was anything to go by. She could have made it. Maybe.

  “Most of us sleep here in the middle of the night,” she finally said with more bravado than she felt. Never let them see you’re afraid. Her father had repeated the mantra constantly during her childhood. “I figured since it was your first day in the neighborhood, you might want to start out on the right foot.”

  “You thought wrong,” he said. “And this is far from the middle of the night. The sun’s already coming up. Maybe you’re just lazy.”

  Bayleigh’s eyes narrowed at the insult. She’d never been accused of being lazy a day in her life. But while her father’s advice rattled around in her brain, something her mother always told her came to mind, just as it had every time she’d moved from school to school and had to deal with the inevitable “new kid” bullying.

  Kill them with kindness.

  So she smiled as sweetly as possible and said the only thing she could think of to strike terror into his heart.

  “You know, there are a lot of elderly people that live on this street.”

  “So?” he growled. “And then there’s you. Let me guess. You’re single?”

  “I’ve been engaged,” she said, narrowing her eyes.

  “I can see that worked out well for you. I take it he couldn’t manage to bring himself to the altar?”

  “Something like that,” she said softly, the old feelings of not quite being good enough surfacing before she could tramp them back down.

  “Look, I’m sorry,” he said. “That was out of line. I promise I’ll leave everyone on the whole damned street alone if they’ll leave me alone.”

  Bayleigh felt the beginnings of a headache forming at the back of her skull. Between the lack of sleep and the one-two punch her new neighbor had just delivered, reminding her of her former fiancé and the myriad of inadequacies she hadn’t realized she’d had until she’d met him, she decided she wasn’t in the mood to be nice after all.

  “Oh, no. No need to apologize. If anything it’s my fault for getting in at one this morning after working a fourteen hour day,” she said sarcastically. “It was inconsiderate of me to expect you to move in after the sun came up. Tell you what I’ll do to make it up to you.”

  She smiled—a smile that her brothers would recognize as trouble. Her new neighbor must have recognized it too, because his eyes narrowed to black slits and the muscles in his arms bulged as he crossed them in silent warning.

  “You don’t really mean that about having everyone leave you alone,” she said sweetly. “You seem like such a friendly and outgoing guy. I’ll make sure to mention how great you are to everyone over the next couple of days. Before you know it, the whole street will be knocking on your door and introducing themselves. It won’t be a month before you’re hosting the neighborhood barbecue. You’ll also be picking up prescriptions, mowing lawns, and eating macaroni salad with every meal so you won’t hurt their feelings.” She batted her eyelashes at him as he seemed to pale before her eyes. “Welcome to the neighborhood.”

  Laughter followed her into the house and she slammed and locked the door behind her. She knew it hadn’t been him laughing. Dollars to donuts a smile had never cracked that face. The Devil didn’t smile. It would pay to remember that. And so what if she’d been slightly attracted to him. Bad boys were supposed to be attractive to the opposite sex. It was a hormonal rule. But then he’d had to go and open his mouth.

  Tears threatened to fall as she recalled his words. He’d been exactly right. She’d been engaged for over a year, and Paul hadn’t been able to go through with the actual wedding. He’d liked her well enough as a friend, but she was too outspoken for a corporate attorney’s wife. Her body was too curvy. Her language not lady-like enough. And how could she expect Paul to spend his life with a woman who didn’t respond to him in bed?

  It’s not that she couldn’t have orgasms. She had great orgasms with her vibrator. It was just that sometimes it took her longer to get there than her lovers had thought was reasonable. She’d just be warming up, and all of a sudden, they’d twitch and groan and it would all be over. The last date she’d been on was three years ago, and she hadn’t even bothered to move it into the physical stage. The thought of disappointing anyone else had been more than enough to keep her celibate.

  Paul had been a bastard. She knew that now. But at the time he’d chipped away at her self-esteem until she’d barely recognized the person she’d become. She barely ate, trying to slim down the curves he found so distasteful. She barely spoke, knowing if she didn’t talk then nothing would come out of her mouth that would embarrass Paul. And she faked her orgasms just so he would think she was putting a little effort into their lovemaking.

  She knew Paul had been a controlling prick by the time their wedding date had come around, and she thanked God every day that he hadn’t shown up to the church that day. He’d saved her a hell of a lot of grief in the long run, but he’d damaged part of her, and she was still working like hell to get back to the person she really was. To not let those old doubts sneak up on her.

  Bayleigh wiped away the tears that had managed to escape and padded back into the bedroom. It didn’t matter what her new neighbor thought. No one had ever said the Devil was nice.

  Now if she could avoid him for the rest of her life, he’d make the perfect neighbor.

  “Oh, baby,” Shane, Cade’s youngest brother, said, still laughing at Cade’s expense. “I think I’m in love. Are you sure you don’t need a roommate?”

  “Shut up and let’s get the rest of this stuff inside.”

  Cade hefted his flat screen TV off the truck and headed inside, ignoring his brothers’ laughter. He should have known they wouldn’t be able to drop it. They were like pit bulls the moment they sensed weakness.

  The urge to go next door and apologize for his behavior was a heavy weight on his chest. He’d hurt her, and there’d been no need for it. When he’d mentioned being left at the altar, her face had paled and her blue eyes had lost the sparkle he’d found perversely arousing when she’d been arguing with him. It was as if the life had all but been sucked out of her. Hell, he’d actually enjoyed watching her in action. It wasn’t often he ran across a man who had the courage to argue with him, much less a woman.

  Cade scowled as he overheard the conversation from the other room.

  “She’d never go for you, Shane,” Declan said. “You’re the runt of the litter.” Cade thought it ironic since Shane was every bit as large as his two older brothers. “A woman with a body like that could only appreciate a real man.”

  And boy did she have a body, Cade thought, irritated his brothers had noticed. She was his neighbor, dammit. Didn’t that mean he had some kind of claim? He shook his head in disbelief. His brothers were turning him into an idiot. He wasn’t about to claim any woman.

  He headed back to the truck for another load, but they followed him with their incessant chatter, as if they were women instead of warriors. It didn’t matter she had the kind of body that had always been his weakness. He liked curves. No, he loved curves. And she had assets that would fill his hands nicely—breasts that were luscious and full and an ass that would look spectacular bent across his lap as he spanked the rounded globes until they glowed red.

  Dammit. He’d be coming in his jeans if he kept up that avenue of thought. The distraction of a sexy neighbor wasn’t what he needed at th
e moment, and she wouldn’t be an easy woman to get involved with. She’d have expectations, and she wouldn’t hesitate to give her opinion if he did something stupid. That is, if his first impression of her was correct—and his first impressions were always correct. The best thing he could do was stay far away, despite the erection that hadn’t disappeared since she’d twitched those curves across the scrawny patch of grass between their houses.

  “You know, when I was checking the security around the house last night I noticed you could see right into her bedroom from the back deck,” Shane said, shaking his head in mock sympathy at Declan. “It’ll be totally wasted on Iceman here. But I can certainly appreciate attributes like that on a woman. And did you see all of that hair? It’s enough to make a man want to beg.”

  “Fifty bucks says she’s not a real blonde,” Declan said.

  “Oh, you’re on, brother. I’m sure if I stand on the deck long enough I’ll be able to tell you one way or the other.”

  “What the hell is wrong with you two?” Cade bit out. “You’re reducing yourselves to becoming peeping Toms? Just go to the nearest bar and pick up the first blonde you see. You’ll be asking for a headache messing with the one next door. I can already tell she’s going to be a pain in the ass.”

  “Not if you become a pain in hers first,” Shane said, wiggling his eyebrows.

  Cade’s brothers were well aware of the kind of sexual appetite he had. He was the kind of man who demanded everything from his lovers. His thought had always been that there should never be anything sexual between a couple that was considered too dirty or taboo, and he stayed far away from women that didn’t know the score going into an affair. There was no way in hell his neighbor wouldn’t run away in horror at the things he wanted to do to her.

  “And she does have a fine ass,” Shane added.