DRAGON SECURITY: Volume 2: The Complete 6 Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  Were we protecting this land by putting an airstrip on it?

  “This is us,” Kirsten said when another jet, slightly smaller than the other, was in position on the narrow bit of asphalt in front of the runway.

  “Us?”

  “This is the ranch’s jet. We use it to get supplies, to fly family around the country, to do whatever we need done.”

  “Maybe this is why the ranch needs tourists.”

  “The tourists pay for this.”

  Kirsten led the way up the stairs, her pretty ass moving quite seductively under her slacks. I couldn’t help but watch, her ass like two perfectly formed peach halves. I always thought she had a perfect backside.

  She glanced back at me like she knew right where my thoughts were going.

  “We should touch down in Miami before noon, so I thought we’d arrange for you to meet Dallas and Jason for lunch.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Her eyes moved over my face for a long second and then she nodded, turning around to step inside the jet. I followed, my eyes taking a second to adjust. I’d been in two private jets before this. Dragon Security had a jet they used to occasionally move operatives from place to place.

  I once handled a case that required me to go up to Chicago for a few days to play bodyguard for a politician. I flew out in Dragon’s jet and flew home in the politician’s. And I have to say, it was quite an experience both times. I wasn’t quite sure what to think this time.

  This jet was not as luxurious as either of the ones I’d been in before. It was just a jet with a dozen seats that all faced forward like the small prop planes that were used by airlines as commuter jets. There was no leather, no televisions, none of the amenities that came with wealth and position. Just the basics.

  It fit Kirsten well.

  I settled in a chair across the aisle from her, stretching out my long legs under the seat in front of me and snuggling down against the pillowed headrest. I could feel her eyes on me and knew how annoyed she was. I had to bite back a smile.

  “You’re just going to go to sleep?”

  “I was up late last night, catching up with my folks.”

  Actually, I wasn’t. We talked for about an hour, but then Dad decided to call it a night since he’d have to be up before dawn to check the cattle. Mom followed him, somewhat reluctantly. Trevor didn’t show up until after I was in bed and he was gone before I woke.

  “What are you going to say to Dallas when you see her?”

  “I suppose I’ll play it by ear.”

  “Kevin, you can’t just walk into this situation blind. You might scare them off or make them go somewhere else to elope and we might not be able to find them in time!”

  “I won’t scare them off.” I peeked at her. “Besides, I doubt Dallas is that easily scared.”

  She grumbled under her breath, but she fell quiet after a few minutes. I relaxed, nearly asleep for real when, just ten minutes after take-off, my phone rang.

  I tugged the phone out of my pocket and sat up as I pressed it to my ear.

  “Hey, Waverly. How’s it going?”

  “Not bad,” she said in her somewhat singsong voice. I could almost picture her, the gorgeous computer expert back at Dragon’s offices in Houston, sitting behind her desk with her long pencil skirt and low cut blouse, a soft smile on her painted lips. “I ran that background check you’d asked for.”

  “What’d it show?”

  “Your boy, Jason Winston, has something of a colorful past. He was arrested multiple times, mostly for petty crimes—theft, assault, a couple of drug things—but nothing they could make stick. He’s been clean the last five years, but I found something fairly disturbing that I thought you’d like to know about.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A detective friend of mine up in Lubbock told me that they think this guy might have connections to El Hombre, this gang that’s known for dealing in illegal car parts, guns, some drugs, that sort of thing.”

  “Why do they think that?”

  “Because he’s been arrested with several known associates of the gang. And they have surveillance on these gangs, you know? They’ve seen him in places where he really shouldn’t be if he isn’t up to no good.”

  “Thanks, Waverly.”

  “Be careful with this one, Kevin.”

  “Is that orders?”

  “Comes directly from Hayden’s lips.”

  I smiled, wondering where those lips had been when he spoke those words. I saw the way she looked at him and the way he looked at her. Amelia had a thing for Hayden that the whole company knew about, but there was something more about those looks that it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to decipher.

  “Tell Hayden I’ll call for backup if I need it.”

  “Kevin—”

  “I’m fine, Mother, really.”

  She giggled softly. “All right, I get it. But do keep in touch and let us know how things are going. And, don’t forget, we’re expecting you back on Tuesday.”

  “I’ll be there with bells on.”

  I disconnected the call, catching Kirsten watching me. I held up the phone, showing her its darkened screen.

  “Work.”

  “You always talk to your boss that way?”

  “Wasn’t my boss. It was the computer guru letting me know what she’d found on a background check on Jason.”

  Kirsten sat up a little straighter, leaning toward me across the aisle. “She learn anything I hadn’t already told you?”

  I might have told her if she hadn’t seemed so eager. But I knew the moment I told her what I knew about Jason that she’d use it to strengthen her argument against the marriage. The jury was still out for me, so I decided to keep it to myself.

  “Nothing.”

  Disappointment danced across her pretty face. I knew that look didn’t always lead to the best of circumstances. She sat back in her chair, her arms crossed over her chest. I found myself wondering what the flight back would be like if we didn’t find a way to stop this wedding.

  It wasn’t something I was looking forward to.

  Kirsten pretty much let me be the rest of the flight. But the moment we landed, she was up in the aisle, holding on to the back of my seat while the plane taxied to the runway.

  “Patience, young grasshopper,” I said in a cartoonish voice I used to adopt when we were kids.

  She glared at me, clearly annoyed.

  “You’re meeting them at their hotel in half an hour. We need to go.”

  “You’ve already set it up?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “What does that mean, not exactly?”

  “It means that I know where she is, I know she has reservations for lunch at twelve thirty. It means that I intend to get you there on time.”

  “Kirsten,” I said, climbing to my feet just as the plane made a sharp turn, causing her to fall back against my chest. I slid my arm around her waist, tugging her hard against me as she regained her feet. She smelled like roses, reminding me of those long summer nights of whispering secrets to each other. A pleasant memory, until I recalled how she used those secrets against me in high school.

  I pushed her away, taking an unkind bit of satisfaction from the surprise that flashed through her eyes.

  She stood a little taller and straightened her blouse, forced to grab at the backs of the seats as the plane came to a stop.

  “We should go.”

  Like a good puppy dog, I followed her off the plane and to the car she had waiting on the tarmac. And like that good puppy dog, I climbed in behind her, brushing my hand against her hip. She glanced at me, but quickly looked away.

  “I thought the ranch was struggling.”

  “The ranch is struggling, but our family money is still intact.”

  I settled back against the leather seats of the rented car and watched the driver climb behind the wheel. I’d traveled the world quite extensively with the Marines, but I’d never been to Miami. It wasn’t like
we spent a lot of time training in tropical locations. I stared out the window, fascinated by the palm trees and the difference in the bright sunshine—there was something fundamentally different about the sunshine in the desert and the sunshine on the beach.

  “We’ll drop you at the hotel and I’ll wait down the street.”

  “Why don’t you just come along? She’ll know you were behind me being here.”

  “I want you to meet Jason without me there.”

  That surprised me a little. I studied her face, looking for the empathy that statement implied, and then realized what she was doing. She was expecting a confrontation and she didn’t want to be a part of it. She’d never liked direct confrontation.

  “You know I might come to a different conclusion than you.”

  “He has a criminal record.”

  “Doesn’t mean that he’s not the right guy for Dallas.” I straightened up, watching as the driver expertly navigated the busy streets. “And even if I do agree with you, it doesn’t mean there’s going to be a big confrontation. Dallas is an adult. She has the right to make her own choices.”

  “Then why the hell are you here?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and slammed back against the leather seat, acting like the child she once was. I knew if I looked at her, I would see that child in her expression. But I didn’t look. I was done going down memory lane with her.

  “After lunch, I intend to go back to the ranch to spend the weekend with my folks.”

  “You won’t even stick around to see how things play out?”

  There was utter disbelief in her voice. I shook my head, refusing to play her game.

  “Kevin?”

  She touched my arm and my nerves instantly remember the way her touch had felt once upon a time. But that was long ago.

  The car pulled to the curb just then, the driver alighting to let me out.

  “I’ll be waiting,” she called after me.

  I didn’t acknowledge her. I walked into the hotel, brushing past a blonde woman in a skin-tight blouse trying to get through the front doors. I turned, more because of the rudeness of her movement than for the graceful turn of those incredible hips. She didn’t even seem to notice me.

  Dallas caught sight of me before I saw her. She rushed across the lobby, her arms outstretched.

  “Kevin!” she cried, nearly jumping into my arms.

  I pulled her close, amazed at how grownup my little companion had somehow gotten. Was I really gone that long? She looked more like her daddy than Kirsten did, her face rounder and far cheerier. She was both laughing and crying when she looked up at me.

  “I knew she’d pull something, but I never imagined she’d convince you to come down here!”

  I brushed a tear from her face. “Look at you! You sent me pictures, but there’s something about seeing it in person!”

  She stepped back and did a little shimmy, showing off her slender hips and her slight shoulders. “What do you think? Did I grow up all right?”

  I groaned, my head and my libido struggling with the idea that the little girl who used to follow me around everywhere I went had become a gorgeous young woman. Damn, she was beautiful! But there was still this innocence about her that brought out more of the protective side of my nature than the other, baser, side.

  “Come here, kid,” I said, wrapping my arm around her neck and pulling her to my side as I began to make my way toward the back of the room, away from the gawking eyes that had begun to take an interest in our little reunion. “Where’s the fiancé?”

  “Upstairs. He’ll be down in a few minutes.”

  “Tell me about him.”

  She groaned, her hazel eyes darkening a little. “I’m sure that Kirsten has told you that he has a criminal record. But that was years ago, and he’s cleaned up since then. He grew up on the wrong side of town, you know? Don’t we owe him a little consideration for that fact?”

  “Forget all that. Tell me about him.”

  She smiled, this dreaminess coming into her expression. She tilted her head back, her eyes moving up to the ceiling as though she could see him floating there like some sort of guardian angel.

  “He’s so handsome,” she said on a sigh. “And he’s polite. He opens doors for me and brings me flowers every time we go out. And he has the same taste in music as me, which you know is super important! And he just … he treats me like a queen, Kevin.”

  “I’m sure he does.”

  “Just wait until you see him,” she said, touching my arm. “He’ll charm the pants right off of you.”

  “I doubt that, but we’ll see.”

  She laughed. “Mom and Dad think he’s great. We Skyped half a dozen times, and they couldn’t be happier for us. But Kirsten …” Her expression changed when she mentioned her sister. “She thinks I can’t make a decision for myself.”

  “She’s just worried about you.”

  “Yeah, well, if she ruins this for me, I’ll never forgive her.”

  “That’s a little harsh.”

  Her eyebrows rose as she looked up at me. “Have you forgiven her for telling the whole school you wet your bed until you were nine?”

  I might have blushed if I wasn’t a soldier, trained to keep my emotions under control. There was nothing to say to that, really. Kirsten had told everyone in little whispers about my childhood issues, something only she and my mother were aware of. It was a medical condition, but she didn’t bother to explain that. And when I told her—granted, we were only eight at the time—she promised she’d never breathe a word of it to anyone. I couldn’t help but think it wasn’t a coincidence that she spread that little nugget of information just three days after Janelle and I made our relationship public.

  That was when things really ended between Kirsten and me. Before that, I’d had this little flame of hope that we would be able to find our way back to each other somehow. But she extinguished it that day and started a war that didn’t end until my graduation.

  In fact, I was pretty sure it was still going on. We just hadn’t had a chance to throw any real volleys at each other.

  Dallas ran her hand over my arm, a knowing smile on her pretty face. And then a tall man, brown-haired, with a bit of scruff on his jaw, came sauntering over.

  “Babe?”

  Dallas turned and giggled as she moved up against his chest, accepting a sweet peck on her cheek before his curiosity brought his gaze up to me.

  “Who’s this?”

  “This is Kevin!”

  Dallas said it with so much enthusiasm, it was as if she expected her fiancé to recognize the name. And he did seem to. His smile widened and he moved slightly around her to hold out his hand to me.

  “Jason Winston.”

  “Kevin McKinsey.”

  He inclined his head. “Dallas has told me lots of stories about you, friend. I feel like I already know you.”

  It was my turn to regard someone with raised eyebrows. Dallas giggled.

  “He’s afraid I’ve told you some of the bad stories. But I haven’t.” She reached over and touched my arm again. “There are so many good stories that I couldn’t think of anything distasteful.”

  I started to ask what she meant by that, but Jason gestured toward the restaurant. “We have a reservation for lunch. Why don’t you join us?”

  “I don’t want to intrude.”

  “That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it?” Dallas asked a little slyly. “You’re here to check him out for Kirsten. And to try to talk us out of the wedding.”

  She always was a smart kid.

  “Come on.” Dallas grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the restaurant, holding me on one side and Jason on the other. “Look at me, my two favorite guys in the whole world.”

  We settled at a table in the center of the restaurant and ordered a bottle of wine. Dallas encouraged me to order a steak—assuming, as my mother had, that I hadn’t been eating well on my own—and made a joke of how she ordered the biggest st
eak out of the three of us. I watched the way she stole glances at Jason, the way he stole glances at her. I wasn’t an expert at these things, but it seemed pretty obvious to me that they were two kids deeply in love with each other.

  Hell, I wouldn’t mind having a woman look at me that way.

  “So, you met in the hospital,” I said once the orders were taken and the wine had arrived.

  Jason chuckled a little, but Dallas just beamed.

  “He was in a minor car accident. I helped prepare him for stitches on his head and did his discharge paperwork.”

  “And it was love at first sight,” Jason said.

  Dallas giggled. “He asked for my number and called me less than an hour later. We ended up going out to coffee that night and we haven’t been apart since.”

  “Not even for work?”

  “Well, there is that.”

  “What do you do for a living, Jason?” I asked, feeling like I sounded just like my father.

  “I’m a car salesman in Lubbock.”

  “But he’s not sleazy like all those other salesman Daddy always complained about,” Dallas quickly inserted. “He’s actually a pretty nice guy. I think people buy cars from him because they’d feel bad if they didn’t.”

  Jason sat back, running his hand over the top of his head with this funny little smile, clearly embarrassed by her compliments. But, again, the look in his eye when he studied her was so affectionate that I almost felt intrusive just by seeing it.

  The steaks arrived and we cut in, still talking about little things—what it’s like to sell cars, the night life in a college town like Lubbock, the latest movies—but I didn’t really pay much attention to the content of the conversation.

  I was more interested in Jason’s attitude toward the waitress, the bartender who brought another bottle of wine. His attitude toward a table three down from us where a child became overwrought and had to be removed from the dining room. Those little things could tell a person volumes about another’s morals and personality. And, despite what Waverly had told me on the phone, I found myself drawn in. I liked Jason.

  But that didn’t stop me from interrogating him when Dallas got up to use the restroom.

  “You have a criminal record.”