“Your brother? Good lord, how many brothers do you have?” Olivia looked in awe between them.
Meg slumped back in her seat. “Way too many,” she said glumly. “And then some.” She glanced at Liam. “Way too many overprotective men.”
Olivia looked from him to the others in the car and then back to Meg. “I would think in your line of work that might not be such a bad thing.”
Meg snorted loudly. “You say that now but just wait.”
Olivia frowned and sank back into her seat.
It was clear to Reed that Olivia wasn’t going to play quietly by his rules.
***
When they pulled up in front of the library, the damage was evident even through the front window. Or what should have been a window. The men that had invaded her sanctuary had been thorough with their destruction. Olivia closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. One month on the job, and she had somehow managed to ruin it all. Not that it was really her fault, but she was certain her new boss wouldn’t feel the same.
A few officers walked about the scene in a slow, methodical fashion. They filtered out quietly while Meg, Cage and the others waited.
Olivia turned to Reed confused.
“They’ll keep an eye out and find out our plans,” he said with confidence.
She nodded, not really sure what that meant, but let it go.
At the door, she could see the contents of her purse lying scattered about the room. It was clear that the men had not only gone through it but cared little about any cash or credit cards. She picked up the tattered ends of her purse and clutched it in her hands.
“Check for your ID,” Reed said.
Olivia rummaged through the cards with little hope of finding it. When she reached the last piece her hands shook, and her stomach bottomed out. They knew where she lived. Bile rose in her stomach as she pictured Ben coming home only to be gunned down.
Reed placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. She looked up to his warm eyes.
“Ben will be fine,” he said. “He’s smart enough to set all this up. He’s smart enough to stay away.”
A grim line formed on his mouth. Olivia wondered what Ben had set up.
“Well, what the hell have you gotten into now?” One of the police officers came to stand beside Reed.
He jerked his hand off of Olivia with such force that she nearly fell over from the lack of support. She stared openly at the police officer. Much like the others, it was apparent that this must be Kace. With a larger frame like Reed, he shared much of the same traits. Tall, muscled, with brown hair. Kace seemed in total control of the situation and himself.
“Wasn’t me this time,” Reed said, raising his hands in defense.
“Tell Mom that,” Kace said with narrowed eyes. “First Meg and now this. She’s going to blow a damned fuse.”
“Let me worry about that,” Reed said through gritted teeth.
“Oh I plan on it.” Kace turned to Olivia. “So how did you get mixed up in all this?”
Olivia furrowed her brow in thought. “Well it seems I’m mixed up in more than one way here.”
She proceeded to tell the officer about her new position, the day, her brother and their escape. Despite her brother’s position in the whole affair, she felt it would be safe to mention his link. Not only because it was the truth, but she worried that whoever had caused this mess would be looking for him. Better he be picked up by the police alive than found later riddled with bullets.
“Listen,” Kace said and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’ll need to stay at a friend’s for a few days until this blows over.”
“She’s staying with me,” Reed cut in.
Olivia turned to face him. Through her whole story he had remained quiet, listening to her tell their experience from her perspective. This was not what she expected.
“Oh, well I’m sure I can stay with my friend Irene.” She smiled nicely at Reed, hoping he would get the point.
“No, you will stay with me,” Reed stated again.
Olivia balled up her fisted and counted in her head. It had been a long time since someone even tried to tell her what to do. He certainly wasn’t the man to do it.
“No, really, Irene would be happy to have me,” she tried again.
Reed leaned in close to her. The smell of his soap clung to his skin and made her feel slightly weak.
“I don’t think you get it. This,” his big arm stretched around to indicate the room, “is only a fraction of what these people can do. Not only are you in serious danger, but your brother is as well. If you want any chance at saving him, you’ll stick with me and wait for him to contact you.”
Olivia sucked in a breath and took in what was being said. Her only chance for saving Ben was this man, and he scared the crap out of her. Lovely.
Reed turned to his brother in irritation. What he was going to tell Olivia Kace couldn’t hear. It was one thing to use his brother as a resource but another to put him on the wrong side of the law.
“Give us a minute.”
Kace nodded in understanding and walked the parameter around them.
“Listen, you need to be vague on your official report to the police,” he said.
“Vague?” Olivia’s doe eyes were drawing him in once again. This girl was about as far from trouble as you could get.
“If you finger any of the shooters, you’ll be top of their list. One thing the Russian mob doesn’t like is loose ends.” Reed leaned in closer as he spoke.
“Russian mob?” Olivia whispered on shaky breath.
Reed nodded. “I’m not sure what part they play in this, but if they are involved, things just got serious.”
He could see the worry working its way through her. There was no way her brother would come through this unscathed. Heck, the way things were going, he couldn’t be sure that she would make it through this safely.
“Just follow my lead,” he said. With his hands planted firmly on her shoulders, he could feel the tremble of uncertainty slide through her. Despite this, she nodded her understanding and notched her chin up. He had to give it to her. The girl had spunk.
When he called Kace back over, he steered the line of questioning in the direction he saw best. Slyly, he helped her address the shooters and kept description as low as he could. He knew it would be enough to keep the police off of her without calling attention to the mob.
Just as they were finishing up, a shrill cry rang through the air.
“Oh, Olivia, I’m so glad you’re all right,” a thin, middle-aged women said as she wrapped her arm around Olivia.
“Trudy, I’m so sorry,” Olivia started.
Reed could see the tears pooled in her eyes. From her story, he gathered that this job had been hard to get and having something like this happen while still new wasn’t helping her troubles.
“Oh shush!” the older woman said. “You didn’t cause this.”
“But my brother—”
“Isn’t you.” Trudy walked the floor, picking up pieces of Olivia’s purse. “We can’t pick our relatives, no matter how much we might want to.”
“I’ll come in first thing tomorrow to help sort through things.”
Reed frowned at her. There was no way in hell he was letting her come in tomorrow.
Trudy waved her hand at them. “This is going to take time for the insurance to sort out. Take a week’s vacation, and we’ll talk more later.”
Reed watched as Olivia worried her bottom lip. It was so incredibly erotic, and yet she didn’t even seem to know. It made him think of other more pleasurable things those lips could be doing. His cock hardened at the thought, and he cursed his line of thinking. This was no time to let his dick take the lead. Last time he did that, it hadn’t ended well for anyone.
He moved to the side with his brother, so they could go over information but watched her closely from the corner of his eye.
“Listen,” Kace said. “This is all I could find about her.” Reed flipped through the
file shoved in his hands. “She seems pretty clean, but the rest of her family has been in and out of trouble.”
“What about the father?” Reed stared at mug shots of her mother and brother.
“Nothing on record. Doesn’t seem like he was ever in the picture. The mother is something else. Used to try and use the kids for all sorts of stuff. We know there are some sealed juvenile documents, but there’s no way we’re getting our hands on those without something concrete.” Reed took in his brother’s hard stare.
“We don’t need that.” He glanced over at Olivia. “Yet.”
“You know she’s not Niki.” Reed’s head whipped around at his brother’s comment. No one spoke about Niki, but he guessed Kace was outside those rules. Considering what he had to do to fix things, he certainly had the right to say something. “Niki wasn’t just connected. She was living the life. You were just too blind to see it.”
Reed tensed at the memories. Niki. The single person that was always floating around the back of his mind. He had been blind when it came to her. Instead of seeing what was there, his judgment was clouded by lust, and he saw what he wanted to see, a beautiful woman caught up in something too big for her. It wasn’t until it was too late that she revealed her true colors to him. His eldest brother, Ryder, had tried to warn him, but there was no stopping Reed at that point.
He exhaled slowly, trying to calm himself. It had been his fault Ryder got hurt, and Niki was dead. This time he was going to keep his eyes open and hands to himself.
“Doesn’t matter,” Reed said. “She isn’t going to be around long.”
Kace hitched an eye brow up at him and shot him a pensive look. “Didn’t really sound that way when you were demanding she stay with you.”
Reed felt the file bend as his fingers tightened.
“What the hell else was I supposed to do?” he whispered harshly.
Kace leaned in. “Let her go to her friend’s,” he said quietly.
“She’s the only lead we’ve got with her brother.” Reed shook his head. “No, we need her, or we lose this client.”
“From what I hear, you shouldn’t be worried about losing this one.”
Reed stepped back in surprise. He knew his client walked on the side of trouble from time to time, but it was unusual for Kace to weigh in. He made a note to look into his client a little more closely. Just because there wasn’t obvious trouble didn’t mean it wasn’t lurking below the surface.
Olivia eyed Reed as she chatted with Trudy about the incident. She watched as the mood grew dark and wondered what would cause the hollow, haunted look rooted in his eyes. Despite everything, she still found him wildly attractive, with his woodsy scent and the powerful way he commanded people. She wondered if he would be that way in other aspects of his life. Particularly in the bedroom.
“I don’t blame you for looking, honey,” Trudy said near her hear. “He certainly is one fine hunk of man meat.”
Olivia nearly fell over at Trudy’s comment.
“Is he your boyfriend, honey?”
Her mouth fell open. Someone like her didn’t end up with a hot man like him. She shook her head.
“No. He’s more like my warden.”
“Hey, whatever floats your boat.” Trudy winked at her.
“You ready?” A big hand fell on her shoulder and clamped down. She swiveled slightly to look back at Reed. “We’ll stop by your apartment on the way to my office.”
Olivia shivered at the thought of her apartment. Those creeps had her address, no telling what they were up to. He squeezed her shoulder tenderly.
“It will be fine.”
She looked into his eyes and knew that regardless of the danger, she would be fine. Reed wasn’t the kind of man to say one thing and mean another. Nodding, she turned back to Trudy.
“Keep me posted on the progress.”
“You too,” Trudy said with another sly wink.
Reed watched as Olivia said goodbye to her boss. He had felt their eyes on him as they talked and wondered what she thought of him.
He shook his head. Not that it mattered. This was about getting the job done. He looked down at the file in his hand. It was good to know exactly what he was getting into. There wasn’t a chance he would be going into this blind. Not again.
He rapped on the dark window to the SUV. Meg rolled down the window to the passenger side.
“Put this on my desk at the office,” he said, pushing the file into her hands.
Meg stared at it suspiciously.
“Why can’t you do it?”
“I’m taking Olivia back to her place,” he said.
“You can’t do that!” Meg shouted at him. “She’s a sitting duck there.”
“I’m not,” he said, steel in his voice creeping in. “She’s going to stay with me until this blows over.”
The car fell into silence. He knew this would mean something to them. It shouldn’t, but it would.
“Just put the files on my desk.” He pushed away from the car. “We’ll meet you there when we’re finished.”
Chapter Four
Olivia stared in stunned silence at her once cute apartment. It hadn’t seemed like they were gone long enough for this level of destruction and mess to be possible, and yet it was. The break-in looked less like they were searching for something and more that they were out to destroy. And that’s exactly what they did. All the cushions in her couch were slashed, pictures broken, dishes shattered on the floor. What they couldn’t shatter, they crumpled or ripped. Nothing was left untouched.
She walked slowly through the house after Reed. Once at the bedroom, her eyes landed on the bed. Like the rest of the house, it was also torn and abused. “We need to make this quick,” Reed called from the hall.
“They tore up most of my clothes.”
“Just grab what you can. I’m sure Meg has something you can borrow.” Reed seemed to be assessing the damage to the room as he talked.
She went through drawers and hangers. They thugs had an odd sense of humor. Her daily wear was toast. Only a few items she’s dared to wear out to the club survived. She shoved in the few dresses and hyper-sexual undergarments. They might not be ideal, but it was better than nothing.
They quickly made their way out of the apartment. In a last ditch effort, Olivia tacked up a note for her brother.
“Do you think he’ll find it?” she asked Reed.
“I think if your brother is smart, he’ll be long gone.” He turned without another word and walked down the stairs to the car.
“What the hell has my brother gotten involved in?” she asked.
Reed shook his head. “Let’s get somewhere safe, and we can go over things.”
Olivia nodded.
She hadn’t really thought much about it, but Ben could have taken off. Part of her hoped he did for his own safety, but the other part hoped he cared enough to make sure she was fine. She knew that despite how distant he might seem at times, he did love her. If either of them lacked the ability to show affection, it was their mother’s fault.
Olivia clenched her fist as she made her way down the stairs and slid into the car after Reed. The reaction her mother could still spark in her amazed Olivia. She chewed her lip as she thought of her mother. It wasn’t really a trip she wanted to make, but she could always go to her. Not that she would want to help but with enough incentive, Olivia was sure she would. Pain speared her stomach as she thought it over. Knowing her mother, she’s make Olivia eat a big slice of humble pie before helping and then bail at the last second. Olivia twisted in her seat to look at Reed. He didn’t look like the kind to bail. In fact, he didn’t look like he’d bailed on anything his entire life.
She sighed as the pulled away. For now she was going to trust in Reed. Her mother would be her last resort. She chuckled bitterly. She always was her last resort.
Her pocket chimed loudly in the silence of the car. She smiled sheepishly at Reed. Irene’s name flashed at the top of her phone.
>
“Sorry, I really need to take this,” she said to Reed.
He nodded his understand, eyes never wavering from the road.
“Hey,” she said into the phone.
“Where the hell are you?” Irene’s impatient voice echoed in her ears.
“Well I’ve—”
“We were supposed to meet up an hour ago,” Irene’s sweet voice wobbled as she spoke. “Then I turn on news only to see your library torn to hell. What happened?”
Irene was someone who only cursed when mad or upset. Olivia knew Irene was genuinely concerned.
“Oh, I’m so sorry you found out that way.” Olivia watched out the window as the building went by. “I was going to call but things have just been.” Olivia watched helplessly as a pair of headlights careened toward them. She brought her hands up to block her face and threw herself into Reed. “Watch out!”
The impact crumpled the side of the car. Grinding metal and shattering glass sounded all around them. Reed wrapped her tight against him. She could feel the moment he passed out, when he slumped heavily against her side. As the made contact with the sidewalk, Olivia was pitched forward and cracked her head against the dash. Her head throbbed, and the world around narrowed to a tunnel.
Movement caught her eye outside the window and a face came into view.
“Ben’s sister and Reed Allen. Looks like I got a two for one deal.” Neil clapped his hands and grinned wickedly at her.
***
His grinning face was the last thing she could remember when she came to. Noises around filtered in but more as background than anything. The pungent smell of oil filled the air and flooded her senses. She gagged as the vile smell hit her stomach.
Opening her eyes, she saw cans of gasoline surrounding her. A shiver rolled down her spine as she processed what was happening. She sat a bit away from Reed, who was bound in a corner. Neil and two men had worked him over a time or two. There were cuts and bruises all over his body, but he was still sitting upright, with a hard gleam fixed on the two men.
“Not very smart, Neil,” she heard Reed say. “Teaming up with the Russians.”
Reed (Allen Securities) Page 3
