I’d made that mistake once. Never again.
My current client, however…he would be touched, all right. And I’d take great satisfaction in doing the touching. And breaking. Two days since I’d seen Abby, two days—because this latest contract had been a major fuckup.
“Tell me about this meeting,” I barked, still seething as I turned the corner at Holmes and Sanderson and headed farther into downtown.
“Abby’s lawyer, Lance Heinz, called,” Eli told me. “Seems the forensic accountant was able to uncover some more accounts linked to her father. In order to retrieve the money, they need some signatures and shit. Remi knows the details.”
I could hear the shrug in my youngest brother’s voice, ratcheting up my tension. Remi was with Abby, not me. I knew he’d protect her with his life, but I didn’t want him to. I didn’t want any of them in danger. I needed to be at her side, not fucking walking down the sidewalk like I was taking a Sunday stroll. Not that anyone around me could call it strolling. More like a bull chasing down a matador.
Which totally worked for me.
Even without the delay, it made sense for Remi to be with her for the meeting at First Bank and Trust. He was a genius when it came to accounting. Not that anyone there would realize it. To the outside world we were her bodyguards. No one knew our true faces—I’d gone to great lengths to keep it that way—so we could safely travel with her, keep her protected, on the rare occasions she had to deal with anything concerning her father.
“Have you got the camera feeds live?” I asked.
Eli’s snort drilled into my ear. “Are you really asking me that?”
Yes, because I was a micromanaging bastard. Knowing that didn’t stop me from doing it. “Are they?”
“Of course they fucking are. I’ve got two screens with every traffic camera in a five-block radius. I’ve tapped into private security feeds, including at the business across the street from the parking garage you demanded Remi use. Nice scowl, by the way. I can also tell you that Remi and Abby are two blocks up on your left, approaching the cross street a block ahead of the light at Sanderson and First Street. Better get a move on, bro.”
The intersection where the bank was located was three blocks north of my current location. I broke into a slow jog, my brain automatically scanning, assessing, countering. Traffic, pedestrians, cameras. The crisp fall breeze pushed people along the street, so no one lingered. No hint of a threat arose. Perfect.
The phone in my pocket vibrated against my hip—a text, not a call. I reached for it, glancing at the display. Remi.
Crossing street now.
My nerves went tight. Only two blocks away. I picked up speed as the intersection where Remi would be escorting Abby came into view. There, on the opposite side of the road. The bright red dress coat Abby wore stood out like a beacon, a stark contrast to her auburn hair.
I cursed under my breath. Apparently not low enough, because an older woman passing me skittered to the side at my vicious “fuck.” I ignored her recoil and kept going.
Abby and Remi were the only ones at the crosswalk. I knew when the walk light flipped on; they stepped into the street in front of the rows of stopped cars. My brother’s tall, heavy frame dwarfed Abby as he took her arm, staying on the side of oncoming traffic. Everything seemed normal, nothing to worry about. So why did my every instinct scream at me to get them both out of sight?
The loud whine of a motorcycle engine hit my ears.
I glanced back. A sleek black Yamaha shot through the stopped cars, straddling the line as it zoomed forward. I had just enough time to notice the driver—black leather, black helmet, tinted visor that gave nothing away—before he passed me.
Headed straight for the crosswalk. At full speed.
“Abby!”
Remi’s head jerked around at my shout. Realization struck, widening his eyes. He grabbed Abby around the waist and ran for the sidewalk—just as the rider drew a gun.
Time stopped. I could see the glint of the sun on the metal barrel. See the leather-gloved finger on the trigger. Remi’s eyes went wild, and he launched himself toward the thick, ancient oak waiting next to the street, the only thing that could possibly protect them against a bullet at point-blank range. He and Abby flew through the air as the gun came up.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” My hand went to my chest, to the holster beneath my suit jacket, as I sprinted toward them. I’d never make it in time. My heart knew that and roared with impotent rage.
My woman. Mine.
Too far.
Between one heartbeat and the next, Remi and Abby hit the ground and rolled, Remi twisting their bodies behind the massive trunk of the tree.
The ping of silenced gunshots—one, two, three—reached my ears a second later. The motorcycle accelerated through the intersection, barely missing a hit from an oncoming semi.
And then it was gone.
I rushed to Abby’s side.
“What the fuck?” Remi yelled.
I grasped the lapels of Abby’s coat with shaking hands, cursing my own weakness but unable to stop the reaction, and pulled her to sitting. “Late model bike, no plates, no distinguishing marks, driver unknown,” I told him, keeping my voice low. Maybe we could get something on the traffic cameras, but I didn’t think so. Our man was a professional.
The job I could do. It was handling my woman that was killing me. She was breathing fast and shallow, her eyes dilated with fear. Tremors racked her slender body. “Abby?”
She grabbed on to my coat just as hard as I had her. “I’m okay.”
A quick survey showed no visible cuts or bruises, though I knew the latter would show up eventually. She buried her head against me and shook.
A crowd had started to gather. “Let’s go.”
“But Remi—”
Abby turned to my brother, but he was already up and flanking her. He knew exactly what I did—we had to get her out of here, now. This had been a setup.
“Let’s go,” I repeated, half carrying and half dragging her through the people circling us. “Now.” She could fall apart later. Right now, safety came before feelings.
Abby knew the tone I used. She was no longer the girl I’d been able to frighten into compliance, but she was smart; she knew when to obey. Her feet stumbled but caught up to my pace, and she held her tongue as Remi and I hurried her down the block, away from the bank.
“Car?” I asked Remi.
“I’ll get it.” He jerked his chin down the block toward the garage on the other side of the street.
“Eli?” I barked.
My earpiece crackled back to life. “I’ve got him covered.” He’d watch Remi’s back from surrounding cameras.
Remi already had his keys out. “Let’s go, little brother,” he told Eli.
I knew one of them would text me where to meet. In the meantime I wanted Abby out of sight. We hurried down the block, then took a left on the cross street where Remi took a right. A coffee shop waited just ahead. As we stepped inside, I scanned the line, tables, staff. Nothing set my warning buzzers off. I hustled Abby across the room and into a bathroom at the back, making sure to lock the door behind me.
“What are we—”
My mouth on hers ate up the rest of her words. Noise galloped in my ears, drowning out everything but the agony of knowing I’d almost lost her. Lost this. She opened to me just like I needed her to, let me claim her. It wasn’t until the taste of salt registered on my tongue that I was able to leash the savage intensity driving me and pull back.
“Shh.” I eased away, my fingers automatically wiping at the tears running down her ghost-white cheeks. “You’re okay. Everything’s okay, little bird.”
She laughed, a sickly little sound that ended in a hiccup. “Just reaction. I’ll stop soon, I promise.”
I hated tears. They were a distraction, a weakness, sometimes a weapon. But I’d learned enough with Abby to know she sometimes had to let it out. She got from tears what I got from sex or a fight�
��a release.
I hugged her closer, burying her face in my neck, trying hard to ignore the blood pooling in my groin. With Abby in the same room, much less against me, the reaction was a given; with the adrenaline roaring through my system, it was raging-caveman aggressive. I needed to fuck her, reassure us both that we were alive, that she was safe.
Abby didn’t need to deal with that shit right now. Later…
Slowly the shudders in her body quieted. I gave her a minute more, then leaned my upper body back so I could look into her eyes. “Okay.”
She sucked in a massive breath. “Okay.”
I shucked my coat. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Abby removed her coat and blouse at my urging. While she splashed cold water over her face, I took off my button-down. It would be big on her, but what mattered was the color, not the fit. After drying her face, I buttoned her into it.
“I think you might draw more attention than me with that look,” she said, eyeing my bare chest, the expanse of tattoos marking my body. And fuck if that look didn’t have my cock tighter than a drum. She’d always been fascinated by my ink.
“No doubt.” I shrugged back into my sport coat. Buttoned, only a vee of skin at the collar showed. Abby’s coat I turned inside out before holding it for her to slide on. “Want the shirt?”
She glanced at her blouse, bunched in my fist. Another shudder shook her. “No.”
I tossed it in the trash can just as my phone buzzed in my pocket.
“Remi’s ready. Let’s go.”
Chapter Three
“I’m not going into hiding and that’s final!” Abby shouted. “I didn’t build a whole new life so some stranger can waltz in and steal it away from me.”
“It would just be until we figure out what’s going on,” Eli said, much more mildly than I could at the moment. All my fury at almost having my woman killed in front of me had found a new target at her refusal to lay low. If my teeth hadn’t been clenched so hard I thought a few of them would crack any minute, I’d definitely say something I’d regret later.
Like I kidnapped you once. Don’t make me do it again.
Yeah, that would go over like a bullet to the gut. A nice, slow, agonizingly painful death.
The stubborn set to Abby’s jaw didn’t soften. “No.”
The need to force her hitched my step as I paced across the room. A warehouse, not unlike the one I’d first brought her to over a year ago. I had a string of safe houses in and around the city, but this was our new base of operations. It was probably good that the floor and walls of this one were cement, or I’d be punching my way through them right about now.
Leaving Abby’s refusal for later, I turned my attention to this afternoon’s attack. “What have we got so far?” I asked Remi.
He glanced up from the bank of computers where both my brothers sat. “Definitely a professional. I traced the bike through traffic cameras as far as I could, but it disappeared about four miles down the road.”
So the driver knew where cameras could track him. Too much knowledge for someone without resources—or a backup team. This had been planned in advance.
“What about the accounts?”
Eli swiveled his computer chair to face me. “Nothing yet. I’m not sure if it’s the accountant or the lawyer, but I’ll find out.”
Someone had set Abby up; it was just a matter of tracking down who. “Or it was neither and they were set up too.”
Eli grunted. “Exactly. I’m working on hacking as we speak. If there’s anything in their e-mails or bank accounts, I’ll uncover it. It’ll just take a little time.”
Time we didn’t have, not if Abby was the target. One second was too long to let that shit stand.
“Remi, see what you can dig up, either online or on the streets. If someone is moving into our territory, they can’t do it silently. Someone will know. These guys have to have been brought in from the outside. No one here is organized enough for this, much less has the balls to cross us. Not after—”
Remi’s gaze cut to Abby, and I shut my mouth. She didn’t need another reminder of her bastard of a father.
“The question is,” Eli said, ignoring the byplay, “who brought them in. And why now? Why Abby?”
“We’ll find out,” Remi said.
Now that both men knew where to concentrate, I turned to my woman. I could see her shoulders tighten, knew she was prepared to fight. The thought excited me as much as it angered me, the sick, volatile mix swirling in my gut. I stalked toward her.
“Levi—”
Not with an audience. Grasping her arm, I kept walking. Abby tried to resist, but we were in the bedroom with the door closed before I let her go.
She glared up at me, the fire in her eyes fanning the flames in my body. “You can’t force me to stay here.”
One eyebrow went up. Abby swallowed hard, and God help me, but satisfaction made my cock swell even more.
“Look at you.” She scoffed despite not being able to meet my eyes. “You act like a peacock, puffing up to intimidate his mate, but I’m not a bird, no matter what you call me. I’m a woman with a life. A life that matters, Levi.”
“I never said it didn’t.”
“No, you just act like it.”
Because I had to. There was no use arguing over it.
“I’ve… I just started classes. I—” She drew her bottom lip in, nibbling on it. “I’m getting somewhere, can’t you see that? Don’t derail me now.”
I wasn’t the one responsible. The man, woman, group, whoever it was who’d targeted her—they were the ones to blame. That didn’t stop the guilt that rose as I stared into her pleading hazel eyes.
And this was the problem with us, right here. The only consideration should be her safety, not her feelings. Hurting her felt like stabbing myself, but I was used to pain—I hardened my heart and plowed on. “Anywhere you would go, routines, patterns, anything that could be tracked online is a way to find you. To hurt you.”
“Then my school, my home, my car—all those records lead right back to me. I can’t avoid them and still have a life.”
“No, you can’t.” That’s exactly why I lived the way I did. Why my brothers had no life, as she so succinctly put it. Because it was dangerous.
After her father’s death last year, I’d left Abby alone, thinking it was better for her to have her freedom. She was just getting started when the hunger became too much, when I couldn’t breathe another second without her, and I’d shown up on her doorstep, dragging her right back into my world like the selfish bastard that I was. I’d regretted that for the last three months.
But after today, after seeing her targeted and knowing there was no way for her to protect herself? I’d get down on my knees and thank God for making me a fucking asshole if I believed in him anymore. I hadn’t been able to protect my parents, but my brothers and Abby? I’d do it or die trying. Even if she hated my guts for a little while.
“I won’t give up everything I’ve worked so hard for because some dickhead has decided to target me for whatever reason,” Abby said.
Frustration turned her creamy skin a pale pink that made me want to run my tongue over it, see if she was as hot as she looked—and tasted as good. I let the need spark in my own eyes, throwing Abby off her game.
Her gaze dropped to my shoulder, but she didn’t give up. “Why can’t you just protect me at my place?”
“Because I have a job too, and I can’t be on top of you twenty-four-seven.”
She squirmed, and I knew my words had sent her mind in other directions besides leaving. Good. A solid hour in bed would help work out the frustration coiling me as tight as a drum.
Abby wasn’t that easily swayed, though. Stubborn to a fault, she strode for the door. “I’m not staying, Levi. That’s final.”
I stepped into her path, blocking the door, and folded my arms over my chest.
“Move,” she barked.
My blank stare answered for me, and A
bby’s color heightened even more. She was pissed; I got that. But I wasn’t letting her leave. If she needed to take out her frustration, scream, yell, hit me…whatever. I could take it. But I wasn’t budging from this spot.
But she didn’t strike out. She threw her head back, fists white with tension, her angry growl ripping through the air, but it didn’t rock the warehouse. And when she lowered her head and met my eyes again, it wasn’t only anger in them. The surface roiled with it, but underneath, there was something else, something that set me on alert. A bomb was coming my way, and I braced for it the only way I knew how.
By tightening down even further.
“I can’t…” She squeezed her eyes shut. Blinked them open. “I can’t do this anymore, Levi.”
My breath caught in my throat, choking me. “What the hell are you talking about?” Because no fucking way did she mean what I thought she meant.
“This.” Her anger filtered away as she waved a hand between us. That something under the surface shot to the top—grief. “It hurts too much.”
I was giving her everything I had to give. That shouldn’t hurt. It should be enough. I should be enough.
“I can’t keep getting drawn into your world, Levi. The uncertainty. The instability. I can’t live without a life, without something that belongs to me.”
“I belong to you.” As much as I could belong to anyone. I’d given up fighting that after staying away from her for a year and nearly going insane.
She blinked, and a tear rolled down her heated cheek. “Do you?” She gave that little laugh/hiccup sound that had nothing to do with amusement. “You can’t even sleep with me. You fuck me and you wait till I’m asleep—if I’m lucky—and then you’re gone. You’re a ghost that visits when you want sex and hides from me when you don’t. I can’t live like this anymore. I need all of you.”
“All of me isn’t available to give, Abby.” The words might seem ugly, brutal even, but they were the truth. And that was the only thing I could give her. The only thing I was fully capable of giving.
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