“It’s all right with me if it’s all right with Mom,” she said, squeezing them tightly.
“You feel all right, Mom?” Harlan asked, that question layered with so many potential answers.
“Better now,” she answered, kissing the crowns of her granddaughter’s heads. “I’ll have the maid bring up some pajamas for them and pop some corn.”
“Use the intercom if you need me,” Harlan said, crossing the room and kissing her daughters goodnight. “Be good for Grandma.”
“Night, Mommy,” the sang in unison.
She closed the door behind her and let out an exasperated breath as she leaned against the wall in the hallway.
“Everything’s fine,” Dallas said, trying to reassure her. “He wasn’t hired by Emmitt but everything else he said about his cousin was true. He’s just an idiot. Apparently you’ve chased so many security details away Emmitt is running out of good options.”
“So he rehired you?” Harlan asked, her whole body still quaking with anxiety. The threat had been quelled, but more danger felt just a heartbeat away. Made worse by the knowledge that her daughters knew far more than she thought they did about their abduction.
“I hadn’t told him why I had to quit,” Dallas assured her. “I blamed it on a scheduling thing, and I told him my schedule cleared up.”
“Didn’t he want to know why you were here tonight?” Harlan asked, imaging how Emmitt would be trying to unravel everything until he uncovered the truth.
“I told him I was dropping off the coat you left in my car after your terrible date last night.” Dallas’s eyes were shifty now, and she could imagine why.
“You didn’t tell him it was Benny from down the street, did you?” she asked, praying that wasn’t the case.
“I was trying to deflect suspicion from what might have happened between us.” He smirked apologetically. “He got a good laugh out of it.”
“So you’re going to be on my security detail again. Even after we broke the cardinal rule of bodyguards by fooling around?”
“Just until he can find someone more competent than the fence jumper,” Dallas said, checking his watch and then staring at her for a long moment. “I saw your face,” he said, leaning on the wall next to her. “You are worried.”
“The alarm gets triggered some times.” She shrugged. “It’s very sensitive.”
“But it gets turned off right away,” Dallas pressed. “It didn’t this time.”
“I can take care of myself,” Harlan proclaimed, clearing her throat, forcing herself to believe it.
“You’re worried,” he repeated and left it hanging there between them.
“It’s the girls. The thought of what could have happened that night.” She shook her head as though she were being silly. “All this time, I didn’t think they knew. We played it off so cool like there was never anything to worry about that night. The guy, Marc, he put on a movie, treated the girls very nice. Acted like they were just there for a visit. But tonight, they told me they knew. I thought I had been so slick that night. I thought they’d been completely in the dark.” There was still pain in her heart, a pierced feeling that she was certain would never subside.
She crumpled forward, her face in her hands as the tears came. “I didn’t want them knowing the world was like this. Not yet. I thought there would be more time before they knew that bad things can happen to good people. I want them to feel safe. But I can’t make them feel that way; I’m the one who allowed us to be taken in the first place.”
“No,” Dallas said, pulling her into his arms, her ear falling against his heartbeat. His words reverberated in his chest as he reassured her. “I read all the details on that night. You did everything right. You complied. You kept them safe with a very dangerous group of men.”
“I want to be able to do this on my own,” she said, wrapping her arms around him. “I want to prove to them, and to myself, that we really are all right. I can do it without Rylie, without my brothers trying to force all this protection on us. But tonight, when that alarm went off, when you came up with that guy on the lawn, I realized I couldn’t. I’ll fail. They’ll pay for my failure. I can’t have that. I need help.”
“Help isn’t a curse,” Dallas whispered into her hair. “It’s not a failure to bring in the big guns to protect your children. It’s brave to know you would put your life into complete disarray and upend everything to make sure your daughters have what they need.”
“For how long?” Harlan asked, feeling defeated. “How long do things have to be this way?”
“I don’t know,” Dallas admitted. “You’ll know when the time is right. And until then, I’ll be here.”
“You mean until the next guy gets here and takes your job? Emmitt will work fast to replace you.”
“I don’t have to work for you to protect you,” Dallas explained, holding her even tighter.
She smiled, finding the irony in all of this. “For a one-night stand, this is lasting a long time.”
Chapter 10
“So how exactly does this work?” Harlan asked from the study doorway. She’d changed into some tight yoga pants and a T-shirt that hung off one of her shoulders. Her smooth skin drew his eye immediately, thoughts of nibbling it clouding his mind long enough to keep him from answering her question. “Do you just stay awake twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week until nothing on this planet is remotely scary?”
“No,” he replied, breaking his stare on her body. “I’m waiting for the changing of the guard out front in about half an hour. Then I’ll check in to make sure they are aware of what happened earlier. Once I feel confident that the alarm is functioning and set correctly, I’ll get a bit of sleep down here.”
“A man with a plan,” she teased, sweeping her long hair over one shoulder.
“You should get some sleep,” he said, in spite of the fact that if she walked out of the room, he’d miss the way her delicate hand was touching her neck. Whether she knew it or not, she was creating a road map of where he’d like to run his lips.
“I don’t sleep,” she sighed, flopping into a chair and pulling her legs up like a child, curling in on herself.
“Really? Ever? You are part robot?”
“I have a condition,” she explained, her thumb now running across her bottom lip.
“Oh,” he faltered, feeling bad for missing that on the briefing he’d read about Harlan having any kind of health issue.
“Yes, it’s called motherhood. The symptoms are being awoken in the middle of the night and informed that one child’s sock has fallen off. It’s bathroom breaks at midnight that turn into deep philosophical questions about angels. When I do finally get to close my eyes, the sleep is so light I can hear every creak of the floor, every whimper of a nightmare, the first cough of a cold starting. You’ve been trained for years to be on high alert, to be ready . . . well, me too. I’ve traded sound sleep for motherhood, and I can’t say I regret it.”
“Tonight you can sleep well,” he promised, pushing one of the heavy drapes aside and looking out the window. “If there’s a noise, I’ll hear it first.”
“I thought maybe we could talk more about the case. I’ve been thinking if Larry is the only witness against him, and he led the police to the body, and Tim is innocent, then Larry must be somehow involved.”
“Not tonight, Harlan,” Dallas objected, moving behind her in the chair and placing a hand on her bare shoulder where her large T-shirt kept sliding down. “You don’t need one more distraction, one more thing weighing on you.”
“The distraction is welcomed,” she argued. “I think if we found out more about the victim and tried to link Larry to him we could come up with something. It wasn’t random, right?”
“Harlan,” Dallas protested. “You take care of your daughters. You take care of your mother. You hold out hope for your father when no one else does. Had I known you specialized in solving everyone else’s problems, I wouldn’t have pulled you into this. It
wasn’t fair.” His hand squeezed down on her shoulder as he rubbed his thumb into the muscle. A low moan escaped her lips while her neck rolled toward the pressure he was pushing into her skin. “Someone should take care of you.”
“Yeah,” she panted, groaning as his free hand came down on her other shoulder and started to knead even deeper. “I can’t remember the last time I had a back rub.” She swept her hair away from her back and leaned forward, exposing more to rub. Every swirl of his thumb caused a new breathy moan to rise up from her.
He was rock hard now, the smell of her hair wafting toward him and creating such desire that his other senses dulled, overpowered. “Lie down,” he ordered, pulling her up and leading her to the couch in the corner. “They won’t switch at the gate for a few more minutes. Let me make you feel good.”
“The kids,” Harlan protested weakly, a shiver running up her spine. But her objection didn’t stop her from lying down on the couch and pulling her shirt up so he could get his hands on her bare back.
An inch from her spine on either side he ran his thumbs up with deep pressure. He’d been trained to use restraint, to understand what willpower was, but in that moment not kissing the silky skin of her back took every ounce of his control. He was a man dying in the desert, and she was a waterfall ready to rain down and save his life.
Harlan shuddered and drew in a sharp breath as he reached the base of her back, her ass rising up, begging to be grabbed and slapped.
“Some people say oysters are aphrodisiacs,” Harlan purred. “But a back rub is far more potent than anything I’ve ever eaten.”
“Maybe I should stop,” Dallas offered, his voice layered with disappointment at the idea of having to stop touching her body.
“Probably,” she said, reluctantly sitting up and settling her shirt back in place. “You’re on guard duty. And I’m on mom duty. It’s a bad idea for us to do anything again.” Fixing her eyes on his face, she straightened the collar of his shirt and patted it down. Her lips lingered just inches from his, begging to be kissed.
His watch chimed and a shock of reality shot through his body as he realized his responsibilities were calling him. “We need to figure out whether or not we’re going to break the rules. I’ll need to know.”
“Why? You don’t like spontaneity?” she asked, nibbling on her lip coyly.
“I do,” he said, raising a brow at her. “But if the answer is no, I can’t rub your back. I can’t brush your hair off your shoulder or even stand too close.” He stood and drew in a deep breath, cramming his hands into his pockets as though they needed to be contained if he had any chance at all of following the rules. “Hell, I won’t even be able to look at you too long.”
“Let’s just agree that tonight isn’t the right night, but I’m not ready to say never. I’d hate to have to live in a world where you can’t stand too close to me.”
“I’m going to go check on the guards switching out now,” Dallas said, unable to ignore her chest rising and falling with rapid breaths. He could see her excited nipples poking against the thin cotton of the large T-shirt. It would only take one second, like the snap of a twig, to have everything inside him break open. He’d prop her up on the desk, tear away whatever she wore under those tight yoga pants and bury himself deep inside her. But tonight was not the night. “You’re killing me though, just so you know.”
“I’m going to run a bath,” she whispered as he forced himself out of the study. “I’m going to run a hot soapy bath, pour myself some wine, and soak. I’ll have the water so hot my skin will tingle and turn pink from the heat. The bathroom gets full of steam, you can just barely see a few inches in front of you. I’m going to soak in there. Alone. Just me and the hot, hot water.”
“Fuck,” Dallas said, speeding back toward her, barely catching her lips curling into a smile before grabbing her tightly in his arms and lifting her onto the desk. “Fuck, you are killing me,” he breathed into her ear as her hands clutched his back. Pushing her hard nipples against his chest, she arched to him, grinding against his firmness and losing her breath.
“Just think how amazing it’ll be. Think about the right night,” she said into his ear, licking his lobe and then pulling it between her teeth. “Just think of what we’ll do to each other. Think of how bad we’ll want, no, need it by then.”
“You are a dangerous woman,” he moaned in a husky voice. He pulled away, putting her back down on her feet. “Go take that bath. And maybe when you’re in that steam and you’re thinking of me—” Dallas was cut short by his ringing phone, which sent Harlan jumping, holding him tighter for a minute.
“Good night, Dallas,” she sighed, rubbing against him as she slid by and headed out the study door.
“Fuck,” he groaned as he watched her tight ass prance away. “What the hell did I get myself into?”
Chapter 11
Tim was great at plastering on a fake smile and pretending his life wasn’t in shambles. Every time he was escorted into the visiting room and placed in a seat across from Dallas, he tried to play it off, but it always faded.
“You didn’t have to come today. I’m fine about the ruling. Melissa has been explaining everything to me. We have more options.” Tim’s voice was shaking enough to give him away.
“I know we do,” Dallas said, resting his elbows on the cold metal table between them. The rest of the room was empty other than the two-way glass likely monitored by at least one guard. “She’s working hard for you, and I am too. I’ve got some fresh eyes looking at the case; I’m hoping that will help.”
“Same fresh eyes you had sitting next to you at the hearing?” Tim’s mouth rose into that familiar crooked smile he’d been flashing since they were kids. “She’s beautiful. Who is she?”
“Right now she’s a client,” Dallas explained. “Remember the guy I told you about, Emmitt Kalling? He helped me out of a jam years ago, and he knew if he needed a favor I’d be willing. His sister, Harlan, had some trouble, and she needs a protection detail. They’ve got the house covered well, her mother’s place too, but I’m keeping her close for now.”
“How close?” Tim chuckled, his mop of dark hair bouncing a bit. “I thought you were always playing by the rules. Never fraternize with someone you’re supposed to protect.”
“It’s not like that,” Dallas lied, and it was clear Tim wasn’t falling for it.
“I’ve known you a long time man. I can see it in your eyes,” he said. “There’s a reason for those rules, but I’m happy to see you looking something other than half dead. You’ve cleaned up that messy beard, you look like you’ve gotten more than an hour’s worth of sleep. This girl must be good for you.”
“Forget about that.” Dallas waved him off. “I want to talk about the case. I’ve got copies of the case files, and I’m starting from scratch. I didn’t know enough about appeals. I thought that idiot of a lawyer you had the first time would be reason enough for a new trial. I had no idea how rare it is to win an appeal on those grounds. We need something else. New evidence. Or even better—catch the actual killer. I need to know more about Larry. I need to understand how he might have been involved with the victim. Can you tell me anything else?”
“I wish you’d live your life, Dallas.” Tim sighed, leaning back in the rigid metal chair. “I want to get out of here. I want to be exonerated, but how much more time can you dedicate to something that doesn’t seem likely?”
“Every minute of every damn day if I have to,” Dallas reiterated, slapping his hand down on the metal table. “You’re innocent, and I’m going to make sure you get out of here.”
“Why?” Tim asked, a bite of anger in his voice. “What is it that keeps you showing up? What twisted broken shit within keeps you coming back here all the time?” Tim’s gunmetal-gray eyes snapped shut as he slammed his palm to his forehead. “Why, Dallas . . . why are you here?”
“Because you shouldn’t be,” Dallas answered simply. “It’s not guilt about our past. It’s not
some cross I have to bear. The reason doesn’t matter. I’m not going anywhere until we walk out of here together. That’s happening. So cut the bullshit and work with me.” They had a brotherly relationship that included all the relentless fighting in spite of unwavering loyalty.
“I don’t know why Larry testified against me, but I don’t think he killed Angus. He’s not that kind of person.” Tim bit nervously at his thumbnail as Dallas pressed on.
“What kind of person is he then? Because he told a very elaborate story about how you confessed everything about a murder to him. Right down to where the body was buried. Is that a coincidence? How are you justifying that?”
“I can’t answer that,” Tim shrugged, beginning to look defensive. “I’ve thought a lot about it. If I knew that answer, I’d be the first to tell you.”
“How can we keep going ’round and ’round on the same thing?” Dallas asked, knowing they’d avoided so much of this conversation for too long. Tim had held fast to his story but never offered any guesses into why Larry would incriminate him. The few times Dallas had pressed, Tim would only stick to his same story, never trying to guess Larry’s reasoning. That was who he was as a person, but Dallas was sure prison would force him to do whatever he had to do to get out.
“What if he knew who actually committed the murder? Larry is the kind of guy who wants to feel big and important. He was always getting in over his head. He’d exaggerate everything. His stories were laughable half the time. If he was in with the wrong crowd and one of them murdered Angus, he’d never turn on them for fear of retribution. But pinning it on me, that would solve plenty of his problems.”
“That’s a good theory,” Dallas agreed, nodding his head in support. Encouraging Tim at this point was the only angle he had. “So if he was afraid of them, maybe even in debt to them in some way, he could have thought you were an easy target. You went home most afternoons, you lived alone. Pinning it on you would kill a few birds with one stone.”
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