The people were the same. She greeted a few people and answered questions. A lot of them had most likely been involved in the search for her and Ezra.
A pub filled with law enforcement agents probably wasn’t a great hunting ground for crazy whatever-her-abductors had been. If they hadn’t had people working so quickly and diligently to find them, Shannon doubted they’d have been found alive. These people had each other’s’ backs.
A bit of the fear she’d been feeling fell away.
Her stomach growled. Her favorite food were those coconut onion rings. She’d been without them long enough.
They picked a table—one of the smaller ones near the back. She found herself practically snuggled up against his side. He had plenty of room. The ass. Ezra always had been an ass to her.
He was doing it on purpose. “Scoot over.”
“There’s a spill here.”
“Clean it up.” She handed him a napkin and he took it. His hand lingered.
He was doing it on purpose.
No doubt he’d be asking her to dance next.
They ordered, but it would take a while for it to arrive. She deliberately turned toward Kyra. She’d focus on her friend.
Ezra was not going to manipulate her into what he wanted.
HE KNEW she was getting honked off at him. Ezra bit back a laugh. Part of the fun with her was just doing what he could to trigger her.
Cam sent him a censoring look. Ezra shrugged.
No doubt the other man thought they were just going back to old habits.
And they were. In a way. But it was more than that.
By keeping her on edge with him, maybe she’d lose that slightly hunted look in her big eyes.
Cam stood up, pulling Kyra to her feet. No doubt they were going to go cuddle on the dance floor until the food was ready.
He grabbed Shannon’s hand.
No sense wasting an opportunity like this. “Come on. Unless you want to make a scene.”
“Just like the last time we danced, huh?”
He winced. He’d forgotten he’d pulled her to the dance floor that night, too. “Then let’s rewrite history. Fuck those assholes. Let’s finish that night the way it should have been. We would have argued. Then you would have come back inside. I probably would have followed you. That asswipe you were dancing with would have made me even angrier. So, I would have pestered you some more. Then someone would have interrupted. Protected you from the Big Bad Ezra. You would have snarked at me again. Or...you would have risen to the challenge and met me toe-to-toe on the dance floor. Where I would have forced myself not to act like a damned animal. You do something to me, Toliver. And you always have.”
SHANNON SHIVERED and let him lead her to the dance floor. Hypothetically, she understood what he was saying. But she was just a big wimp inside. Especially where he was concerned.
His hands wrapped around her waist. He was so much taller than she was that she’d have to press close just to dance with him.
Every nerve in her body went on alert. His hands held her closer than they had the last time. She forgot Smokey’s, Cam and Kyra, the people surrounding them. All she could focus on was the man holding her.
“Ez...”
“Hmmm?”
“What in the world are we doing to each other? You...you are going to ruin every plan I have.”
“I don’t know. But I’m willing to find out.”
The rest of the night passed in a blur.
Until he drove her home and walked her to her door, every inch the perfect gentleman.
He hadn’t even tried to kiss her.
Shannon didn’t know if that disappointed her or not. She slept with dreams of Ezra Jackson Hahn in her head.
FORTY-SIX
CHAS WAITED OUTSIDE Shannon’s apartment building throughout the night, like he had more than a dozen times before. He’d followed Ezra to her place after they’d left the bar, and he’d waited for the other man to walk her to the door.
It was the first time Ezra had been there.
Ezra hadn’t spent the night. But his former buddy had definitely wanted to.
Chas stayed exactly where he was.
Until a familiar woman headed toward the parking lot where her small economy SUV waited early the next morning.
He watched her.
Chas knew by Shannon’s actions that something was wrong. Body language rarely lied. She jerked open the car door and hopped out, then reached back in for her bag.
Every move she made told him exactly what she was feeling. She checked her watch, then took off toward the corner four blocks away.
Toward the bus stop.
Chas knew how to make himself appear normal. And why wouldn’t he be able to? He looked like just about every other nerd in his mid-thirties, complete with laptop case and black plastic glasses. That his laptop case held one of the most sophisticated rifles on the planet—paid for by the US Army—was something no one would ever be able see. He’d lined the box with a special material designed to blur metallic images even in security scans. It looked like a simple laptop, like all the rest that were out there.
No one gave him a second glance.
Hell, he was smaller than most of the women he passed on the street.
Not her, though.
Shannon took the empty spot on the bench and leaned forward, pulling in several deep breaths.
He was gentlemanly enough not to stare too closely at her chest. He was still a living, breathing man with all the right working parts—so he looked. He just didn’t ogle. He’d admit that, if asked. That she had a small chest didn’t matter much to him. He doubted it mattered much to Ezra, either. A woman was so much more than her parts, after all.
Up close, he could see what attracted Ezra to her. She had that sweet face that told a man the world was a wonderful place. Because she was naive enough to believe it was so. To think she could make it so.
Amelia had had a face like that.
He nodded at Shannon, then deliberately turned away slightly. Just an upwardly mobile businessman on his way downtown to put in his eight hours. No doubt three-quarters of the dozen people surrounding him wouldn’t even remember him being there. The rest wouldn’t be able to describe his face.
She had barely even looked up at him.
He made a point of following closely behind her when she climbed onto the bus, cutting off a few men who’d been practically on her heels. Chas took the seat directly behind hers, then made a point of looking at her through the specialty glasses that were designed to allow for surveillance without directionality.
Another handy tool paid for by the US Government. It had been so easy to just walk away with all the tools he needed. Too much bureaucracy and too little intelligence made stealing from the army far too easy for a smart man to do.
He always had considered himself a smart man.
Chas watched Shannon over the next forty minutes, until the bus pulled up to the PAVAD block. He stayed in his seat and watched as she stood and hurried off the bus after thanking the driver with a sweet smile.
Chas made a point of noting the street signs. He would be back. He’d wait. Follow her home.
He had nothing better to do but wait.
FORTY-SEVEN
MAX FAR PREFERRED local cases, and fortunately, Team Five got more local cases than some of the other teams. He wasn’t certain why, but as the sole parent to a diabolical daughter, he wasn’t complaining. The more time he could spend with Emery, the better.
With his team leader out on maternity leave, they were a man—cough, woman—short.
When the call came up that a team was needed to work with Allan Knight on a local branch of a trafficking ring—he hated those damn bastards—he was more than willing to take it.
Knight met him in conference room C3, his small team of four agents with him. Max looked at his own team. Maria and Lucas were all he had at the moment. Team Five was the smallest team, with just him, Al, Jac, Maria, and Luca
s.
Jac had taken some personal time last week. She was supposed to be back today. He needed her on this.
And maybe she would finally stop giving him the cold shoulder when they weren’t working an actual case.
She still hadn’t trusted him since Arkansas.
He missed his best friend.
Knight’s second-in-command greeted him with a smile. She was an older woman, close to mandatory retirement age, with the classic middle-aged spread. She had always been a nice woman, and she’d given his daughter M&Ms once. Emery was now a fan for life. “Well, look what the cat dragged in. Hello, Agent Jones. Where’s your evil twin?”
He smiled. “Jac’s going to be back in the morning. She had some personal business with her sister. How are you, Jaynice?”
She had big brown eyes and a slightly homely face. But she was one of his favorites of the local field office. Always ready to help the newer agents however she could. “Great. I’m going to need your addresses, yours and Jac’s, for the wedding invites.”
Max laughed. She’d been dating her current boyfriend for six months or so. “So it’s official?”
“Popped the question three weeks ago.”
He congratulated her, then went in search of Allan Knight.
They had a lot of ground to cover. Might as well get started.
FORTY-EIGHT
CHAS KNEW WHAT he was doing was just begging for trouble. Instead of watching the woman he was supposed to be targeting, the instant he’d seen Shannon Toliver, he was on her heels like a love-sick pup. He didn’t truly mind.
He’d learned a lot about her over the past weeks.
First, she wasn’t involved with Ezra.
All she seemed to do was go to work and hang out with those friends of hers.
And she was so pretty. The eyes were her best feature. Big and expressive.
He’d followed her for weeks. Until those days turned into a few weeks. His camera loved her, as well.
It had started out with him following her because of Ezra. But Chas didn’t think it was that way now. The second time, maybe. But after the third night of catching the bus at the same time as she did, something had changed.
Maybe it had something to do with the punks who had motioned toward her like they were going to cause trouble for her that third night. She wasn’t any bigger than a twelve-year-old. It would be far too easy for someone to really hurt her.
He’d parked his ass on the roof of the building across the road from hers that night. Just to make certain those asshole punks from the bus didn’t show up and give her a hard time.
She was an agent; he’d seen the weapon and holster on her side. It didn’t fit her. Not at all.
It was like giving a Yorkie a Doberman collar, in his opinion. How much damage could a woman as small as she was do?
Chas was back on that roof now.
Apparently, Shannon had the day off.
He thought about it for a moment as he spread his yard chair out on the roof and pulled his breakfast out of the bag.
He wasn’t as big as those assholes he’d trained with. Ezra had almost a full twelve inches on him. But Chas could do some serious damage without blinking. Maybe she was the same way, but he didn’t think so.
Not her.
He trained his scope on her window. She liked it open, apparently. She should know how dangerous that was for a single woman in a city like this. Yes, it was a decent enough neighborhood, but someone could still target her so easily.
He had.
He meant her no harm, but it didn’t change the fact that he could so easily do just that to her.
It was her first day off since he’d met her. He was interested to see how she spent it.
She’d changed into short denim shorts and a Mickey Mouse T-shirt. Mouse ears rested perfectly on her small breasts. Chas smiled when she wiggled and danced for a moment, sending those breasts wiggling. No bra. She’d taken off her bra. Or had on a very thin one beneath that top.
When she finally closed the blinds, a sharp rush of disappointment went through him.
He hadn’t seen that kind of simple joy in life in a long, long time.
FORTY-NINE
SHANNON’S TEAM WAS due some serious downtime and she had never been happier. She still had half a dozen boxes of belongings that Cam had packed for her from her former apartment that she wanted to get put into their rightful places. And then she had plans for the rest of the afternoon.
But first, she had to buy a special little girl a birthday present. Miriam wanted a pool party, complete with her aunts and uncles around.
Since Ken had only the one sister, and Leina’s brother was in a secured nursing facility, that meant Shannon, Mia, Kyra, Cam, and Evan.
Shannon suspected the kid had figured out that the more adults at her party, the more presents she was going to get.
She didn’t mind. Miriam and Leah and Noah—the children of Leina’s brother, which she was now raising—hadn’t had many opportunities for birthday presents and parties.
Cam and Kyra swung by to get her. Mostly because they were still hovering after what had happened to her—she was the only single woman in their group, and the baby, to boot. They were all starting to be ridiculously protective—but under the pretense that parking at Ken and Leina’s was going to be tight.
It was partially true, but...she still wasn’t fooled about their true motive.
They were worried.
She’d have to stop giving them things to worry about.
Cam knocked on her door himself. He grinned when she opened it. “Love the mouse.”
Shannon groaned, seeing what the man was wearing. Where he had found a Hawaiian shirt with dancing pineapples wearing sunglasses, she’d never know. Especially considering that it was fluorescent orange. “Do you glow in the dark, Lake?”
“Yep. I wear this so Kyra can see me at night. She hates it when I go invisible.” He bowed slightly. The orange shirt clashed horribly with the hot-pink-and-neon-yellow swim trunks he wore.
Sometimes Cam tried to outdo himself for insanity. And everyone else in an eighty-mile radius. “I bet.”
“You got anything big and heavy I can carry? I need to look all strong and buff for the little woman. Help a friend out, Toliver.”
She pointed to the bags by the door. “That’s it, I’m afraid. And the balloons.”
“Can’t ever have enough balloons.”
FIFTY
THERE WAS A woman waiting in the blond bum’s truck. Rich, dark hair and pale skin. Pretty in an understated way.
Chas studied her through the lens he’d had trained on Shannon’s front porch. The woman was open and exposed, even in the truck. It would be simple to just squeeze the trigger. He calculated wind, distance, human movement.
He could do it.
It would take only a moment.
Good thing he held his camera and not his rifle at the moment.
Chas had never been one to take unnecessary risks.
No doubt he could take the sleek brunette out, then her boyfriend, within two minutes, maximum. Then the asshole would learn not to leave her alone like that again.
It would be hard to miss a target as large as the guy presented. And definitely not with that hideous outfit on.
The only thing stopping him was the way Shannon was laughing. Her unrestrained joy kept his finger off the shutter.
She liked the guy.
And she was carrying pink and purple balloons, obviously intended for a child.
There was no way he could do anything to hurt her now.
Not today.
Just not today.
His breath caught when she turned and looked in his direction.
Had she seen him? Did she know he was watching? Did she recognize him?
He’d taken a real risk on the bus last night, sitting in the seat directly next to hers.
She’d smelled of honeysuckle and long summer nights. Beautiful. Tempting.
He’d sat next to her and trembled. Wished.
Imagined.
He shook off the ridiculous question. There was no way she could. He was too far away. Practically invisible.
FIFTY-ONE
EZRA LIKED KIDS. He always had. And to know that there were people out there that preyed on them had always pissed him off. He liked the kids that belonged to the people he cared about most of all. His teammate Leina’s three were special in a lot of ways. He’d had a hand in saving them from a damned madman more than a year ago, and he’d gotten to watch as they and their aunt—and her new husband—formed a family.
He hadn’t started out intending to work in a division of CHILDs—the branch of PAVAD that dealt with child-related cases—but that was where he’d ended up. It was where he’d fit. At first, he’d doubted if he was going to stay with REY beyond the six months he’d originally been assigned. Why would a division designed to help runaways and abducted kids need a trained sharpshooter?
It technically didn’t, but he’d found he had a talent for finding where these kids would go. And he’d found where he belonged.
That meant marching his ass to Leina’s for a birthday party.
He smiled to himself as he drove his truck through the upscale neighborhood to the large home Leina shared with her former pro-football quarterback husband. Ken Chalmers had once played for the NFL, then had gone to law school and joined the FBI. But his football career had been profitable. Very much so.
Ezra had no doubt that someone else he wanted to see would be there besides Leina and her three kids.
And he didn’t mean his partner Cam or Cam’s fiancée.
No doubt Shannon was already on her way over there.
He’d kept himself from going over to her apartment when his team had returned from Albany the night before. Just to see her.
No doubt she’d have chased him off with a broom if he had.
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