In the Line of Fire: Hot Desert Heroes, Book 1

by Jett Munroe

  West glowered at him. “I’m not fucking moving to Phoenix. I’ll stay away from Delaney. She’s not worth all this shit anyway.”

  Beck let that pass, but barely. He had to take a couple of deep breaths to keep from letting his fist slip onto the bastard’s face. “Got your word on that? Or do I need to have a little chat with your wife?”

  The other man clenched his jaw so tight a muscle jerked near his ear, but he gritted out, “You have my word.”

  “Not sure that means much, now that I think on it.” Beck let that sink in then said, “Keep your promise, you won’t see me again. Don’t, Miranda becomes an even unhappier woman than I suspect she already is.” Turning, he sauntered back to his SUV and climbed behind the wheel.

  * * * * *

  As soon as he walked through the door to REG, Delaney shot to her feet and rounded the reception desk. “You told him to move to Phoenix?”

  He’d been feeling pleased with himself for solving this problem for her, but that was crushed by the disbelief and anger that flared at her words. “You have got to be fucking me. I warned him off you and he called?” He twisted on his heel and started to head right back out the door.

  “Beck, no!” Delaney ran after him and grabbed his arm. “Get back in here.”

  He allowed her to turn him, but she couldn’t budge him from that spot. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t go right back up there and impress upon him the seriousness of my suggestion.”

  “He understands it was serious. Whatever you threatened him with, he took it to heart. He’s going to stay away from me.” When he relaxed his stance, she drew him toward her desk. “He just thought I should know the type of man I’d tied myself to. One who would, you know, defend me against scumbag ex-husbands by fair means or foul.” Her eyes went tender. “Thank you for that.” Her voice was as soft as the look in her eyes.

  He couldn’t stand firm against that. But he apparently should have been clearer with Franklin West. Tipping his head down, he spoke softly a few inches from her delectable mouth. “Still think I should drive home the consequences of him breathin’ your air and impress upon him further that, even though I didn’t say it, that includes the fucking telephone.”

  She stroked a hand over his shoulder and curled it over his biceps. “You’ve done enough, Beck. He’ll leave me alone now.” She paused then said, “I asked him if he had a set of keys to my car.”

  “What’d he say?”

  “He told me he didn’t, and I believe him. He was too upset by your altercation and didn’t even pause when he told me no. I don’t think he was lying to me.”

  “Wouldn’t matter if he did, babe,” he said. “We’re gonna get your locks changed, remember?”

  She rolled her lips in, eyes hitting his shoulder. “Oh, right,” she whispered.

  As much as he wished she would lose that shyness with him, he had to admit it was adorable. He dipped his head and gave her a light kiss on the lips. “We have a meeting in the conference room at ten still?” he asked her.

  She blinked and slowly pulled away. “Oh, um…yeah. The others are already in there.” She took a few steps away. “Do you need me?”

  “I’ll always need you, baby. But you don’t have to be in the meeting.”

  Her eyes went unfocused slightly; then she shook her head. “That’s sweet. But don’t call me baby when we’re at work.”

  He frowned. “Why not?”

  “Because it’s not professional.”

  “It’s just us,” he reminded her, looking pointedly around the empty office.

  “But if you get in the habit of it, you might slip up.”

  “I’m still gonna call you baby when we’re not at work,” he said. “So I could slip up anyway.”

  “Oh, right.” With a grimace she gave a shrug. “What can I say? I’m a dork.”

  “You’re my dork, baby, and I think it’s cute.” He pressed his lips to her temple. “See you later. We’ll have lunch together, yeah?”

  She nodded.

  He smiled at her then went into the conference room. Ty, Gabe, Rafe, and Quincy were already there. Quincy glanced at the wall clock. “Nice of you to join us.”

  “Was takin’ care of something for Laney.” Beck sat down and booted up the laptop someone, probably Ty, had set out for him. He heard the phone in the outer office ring but ignored it to say, “We were going to talk about the potential cybersecurity job, right?”

  Ty nodded. “It’s with a company one of our former commanders started when he got out of the military. It’s a lucrative contract. I mean, lucrative as in several millions of dollars’ worth of lucre.”

  “Rafe? You think we can handle it?”

  He nodded. “I looked over the contract last night. There are some tweaks I’d make to it, fewer loopholes for them to find so it’s more in our favor, and the changes aren’t any that I don’t think they’d agree to.” He started to say more but the door swung wide and Delaney stood in the opening, her face pale, and even from where he sat, he could see her fingers trembling.

  He shot to his feet. “Baby, what is it?” he asked as he hurried over to her.

  Her gaze came up to his face. “My mechanic just called.”

  Damn it. He’d meant to call the guy first thing this morning, but he’d gotten distracted by having to go deal with her ex and then there’d been no time. “And?”

  “H-he s-said one of the brake lines w-was cut.”

  That brought the other men out of their chairs.

  Beck pulled her into his arms as the guys gathered around. “Looks like I will need to have another come-to-Jesus meeting with your ex,” he muttered darkly.

  She shook her head, her cheek rubbing against his chest. “No, Beck. If Frank’s the one who did it, let the police handle him.”

  He looked up and caught Gabe’s eye. “On it,” the other man said.

  “You’ll find his full name and home and workplace addresses written on a pad on my desk.” Beck watched as Gabe walked out of the room, then closed his eyes and rested his temple against the top of Delaney’s head. She trembled against him and he wrapped her up in his arms tighter, feeling so fucking helpless he wanted to howl. “You want to go upstairs for a bit?” he asked her softly.

  Again she shook her head. With a deep breath she straightened and pulled out of his arms. “I was shocked by what he said, that’s all. But I’ll be all right.” She gave a tremulous smile.

  “Backbone,” he murmured and grinned at her frown.

  “You say that like it’s bad.”

  “Baby, I never did any such thing. I think it’s—”

  “Don’t you dare say it’s cute.” She scowled and looked around at the others in the room. “If you all think it’s cute and cuddly when a woman stands up for herself or when she gets mad, well, it’s no wonder you’re still single.”

  Ty and Rafe laughed while Quincy winked. “Sorry, darlin’. Can’t say the man is wrong.”

  She huffed a sigh and looked at the ceiling. “Why didn’t I realize what it was going to be like to be surrounded by so much testosterone? Why?”

  “Babe.”

  Her gaze came back to Beck. “Don’t call me that in the office,” she hissed with a darted glance at the others. Cheeks glowing pink, she muttered, “I’m going back to work.”

  Gabe came into the room just after she left and closed the door behind him. “The police will want to talk to Laney before they send someone out to speak with Frank West,” he said. “But talk to him they will. It’s good to have friends on the force. They’ll exert a little more pressure than they might have ordinarily.”

  Beck had to trust Delaney when she said she was all right. So with reluctance he returned to his chair. As he rolled it up to the table he said, “All right then, let’s get back to work.” He waited ’til the other men had once again t
aken their seats before he went on, “Rafe, you were saying?”

  Rafe opened his mouth. There was a knock at the door; then it opened and there once again stood Delaney. Rafe closed his mouth and looked at Beck with the beginnings of irritation.

  Beck had no trouble reading that look. It was clearly an is-your-girlfriend-going-to-be-needy-and-cause-trouble-at-work? look. He narrowed his eyes at Rafe before turning toward Delaney. “What is it?”

  “I’m sorry to bother you again, but you have a visitor.” Her fists were clenched at her sides, her body held stiffly. “It’s Marisol Everhard.”

  Oh, for fuck’s sake. Hadn’t he gotten through to her over the phone? “She doesn’t have an appointment,” he said.

  “No, she doesn’t. I know that because I asked and she admitted she doesn’t.” Her gaze heated and not in the good way. “But she said that Beck Townsend and she were close, and she used air quotes when she said this, and that she was sure he’d see her. And she used air quotes then too, as if the word see…” and here Delaney brought up her hands and crooked her fingers into an air quote of her own, “…meant something else entirely.”

  “Laney, it doesn’t mean something else,” Beck said. “I’ve already told her I’m not interested.” He blew out a breath. This was just what he did not need right now. Delaney was already uncertain of their relationship, and now Mari rolled in pulling her shit? No, he did not need this. “I’ll talk to her,” he muttered and left the room.

  Delaney trailed after him. As soon as Beck reached the lobby, the pop and rock star ran up to him and threw her arms around his neck. She pulled his head down and laid a big kiss on his lips.

  Delaney clenched her jaw and took a seat behind her desk as calmly as she could, because all she really wanted to do was wrench the other woman out of Beck’s arms and then yank every single freaking strand of hair from her head.

  Beck finally pushed the woman away with an expletive that made Delaney’s eyebrows shoot up, and she’d heard him cuss. A lot. “Ms. Everhard, stop it,” he snarled. “I don’t know how else to get it through to you, but I’m not interested.”

  “Oh, come on, lover, you don’t have to pretend in front of the hired help.” She slid her arms around his neck again.

  He put her aside so forcefully that she tottered on her stilettos. He wasn’t mean enough, though, to not keep his hands around her biceps until he was certain she was steady. Then he let go of her and said, “Unless you have business here, Ms. Everhard, you should go.”

  Her face hardened, taking it from pretty to something not so pretty. “And if I want to hire you again as my personal bodyguard?”

  He shook his head. “I told you, when you called, we’re out of the personal-security business. You proved right now with this stunt that you wouldn’t want me to keep my mind on business. And if you pull that with me, I have to wonder if you’d pull it with one of the other guys. So the answer is no. REG is no longer available for bodyguard services for you.”

  She pressed her lips together. “If you think I won’t tell people not to use your services, you are wrong.”

  He shrugged. “If that’s the best you got, go ahead. Personal security isn’t our most lucrative income stream. Won’t take a huge hit if we stop doing it altogether.” His eyes turned flinty. “You think to dig into our reputation any other way, though, well, you’d better rethink that strategy.”

  She paled. She stared at him then lifted her chin, equilibrium restored. “I wouldn’t waste my time.” She glared at Delaney as if all of this was her fault. “I hope he’s dynamite in bed, sweetheart, ’cause he’s a bastard.” She turned on a spiked heel and stomped out the door.

  Delaney watched her go, amazed by the amount of flounce the other woman could get on such high heels. “Wow. That’s impressive.” She looked at Beck. “Did you tell her you and I are together?”

  “Hell no. Apparently she thinks I’ll sleep with whatever woman is nearby. I won’t,” he added with warning in his tone, as if he was afraid she might also believe it.

  She bit her lip to hold back a smile. When Beck just stood there staring at her, she said, “What?”

  “We okay?”

  She frowned. “Why wouldn’t we be? Just because some rich and famous ho put her hands on you uninvited?” When he looked startled, she asked, “Did you think I wouldn’t be able to see she was coming on to you and you didn’t like it? Plus, I do remember what you said to me when you and I got started.”

  He moved toward her, close enough she could feel the heat from his large frame.

  The clearing of a throat brought them apart. He turned and she leaned to one side to see Quincy standing there. When he saw he had their attention, he drawled, “Now that y’all have kissed and made up, maybe we can get some work done around here? I mean, I’m all for workplace nookie, as much as the next fella, but a boy’s gotta earn his paycheck too.”

  “Does it hurt?” she asked him.

  He frowned and cocked his head to one side. “Does what hurt?”

  “Being that full of crap.”

  His mouth quirked while the rest of the guys, who were apparently hiding around the corner, burst out laughing. They came into the lobby and Gabe pounded Quincy on one shoulder.

  “I guess she’s got your number, bud,” Beck said.

  As the men headed back into the conference room, Delaney smiled and settled behind her desk again. Gabe had given her a contract to review so she could become familiar with the types of documents she’d be seeing on a routine basis. It was time to do her homework.

  Chapter Sixteen

  A week later Delaney had her car back and Morgan was gone, headed to Rome for her next modeling assignment. Delaney missed her like crazy but because she and Beck were still getting to know each other she didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on it.

  After another few weeks she’d settled into her job to a point where it seemed like she’d worked there for years. She was comfortable around the guys, now that she’d gotten to know them, though she did have her moments of dorkiness that made her blush and made them laugh. The last incident had left her with a big splotch of shrimp sauce in the middle of her forehead and a vow from the men that no one would speak of it ever again. Ever.

  Of course she wasn’t nearly as embarrassed by it as she maybe should have been, and it was gratifying to see them working so hard to keep her from lapsing back into being so painfully bashful around them. Quincy told her the shy thing worked for her but he’d like her to feel that she could be free to be herself around them. Beck had frowned at that and later, when she asked him about it, he’d cut her off and told her it wasn’t a big deal.

  One afternoon she had some questions on several invoices, and Gabe or Ty answered her questions readily. The ones she had to refer to Beck, he was evasive, as if he didn’t want her to know anything about his job, at all. Which made her wonder why he’d even talked her into working there. She’d understood going into it that there would still be things she wouldn’t be told. She wasn’t stupid, she realized with confidentiality clauses in contracts there were jobs she wouldn’t get details on. But when those weren’t in place, she didn’t understand why he wouldn’t tell her anything.

  She was still trying to get used to him having secrets. Those about the job she could deal with. Those he kept about himself she wasn’t so sure.

  Now she stared down at a file for their latest client, a government contractor, and geared herself up to try to get some information from him. She walked back to his office and knocked on the open door to get his attention. He looked up from the computer and smiled. “Hey, babe.”

  She frowned. “You really shouldn’t call me that in the office.”

  “Not gonna fly,” he said. “Gabe calls you sweetheart and Quince calls you darlin’.” His face darkened briefly. “Not that I’m crazy about it.”

  “Gabe is like a br
other to me, you know that. And Quincy…” she shook her head, “…he’s an overgrown boy. Half the time I don’t even take him seriously.”

  “I know. That’s the only reason I haven’t had a word with him.”

  “Oh, you mean had a word like you did with Frank?”

  “It worked, didn’t it?” He leaned back in his chair, the leather creaking as he shifted his weight. “He took my advice and moved to Phoenix, though I think the visit from the police and their suspicion that he carried his ill will toward you so far as to cut your brake line helped.”

  “But he didn’t do it. The police told me he wasn’t even in town that day.” She bit her lip. There was still that worry that whoever had tampered with her car would do it again, and she’d found a lot of excuses not to drive her car. Living and working in the same building was a particular bonus right now. “Do you think we’ll ever know who did?”

  “Probably not. But we changed the locks and the ignition switch, so if someone did steal your keys, they don’t work anymore. You shouldn’t worry.” She could tell from his tone, though, that he was worried. Worried enough that when she did drive, he or one of the other guys would go out and check her car, and even showed her where to look to make sure the brake lines were secure. She felt as safe as she probably ever would until the memory of that wild drive down the mountain had a chance to fade.

  He dipped his chin toward the file in her hand. “Did you need me for something?”

  “Oh yeah.” She held up the folder. “This is for the new job.” Which did not have a confidentiality clause written into the contract. “I’m adding them to the database but I don’t know if I should classify them as government or military. Or should I put them under both?”

  “Just put ’em in both places.”

  “What will you be doing?” This was something that only Beck was going to be involved in, and she was curious about what exactly he did. She knew Ty had been a reconnoiter specialist in the marines and was now a licensed fugitive retrieval expert—that sounded so much grander than calling him a bounty hunter. Rafe was their information technology and cyberspace expert. Gabe had been a sniper in his active duty life, and finding that out had shocked the crap out of her. Quincy was a pilot, able to fly just about anything that motored through the air. But she still didn’t have a handle on Beck’s specialty, and she wanted to know.