Silver Shield Security Box Set

by Dee Bridgnorth

  She had stared at his mouth, remembering all the things he’d done to her with that mouth. He was wrong about her being scared. So wrong. She’d wanted nothing more than to tackle him to the ground and feel him buried to the hilt inside of her. But one of them needed to apply the brakes and since it didn’t look like he was going to be the one, she’d had to man up.

  Nico had closed the gap between them then. They were not touching, but they were close enough for her to feel the heat from his body. Her legs began to tremble. She hated the effect he had on her. It made her feel so powerless.

  “You are too scared that this thing between us might be more than the fling you want it to be.”

  “I call bullshit!” She’d become pissed then.

  “Call what you damn well like, but you, Tamika White, are a goddamn coward. And you know what? I have no use for anyone who is not willing to take a risk on me.”

  She’d felt as though he’d slapped her in the face. She was so mad, she wanted to wrap her hands around his neck.

  “Take a risk on you?” she’d sneered. “Why the hell would I want to do that? We had sex, Nico. That was all it was. I don’t even know you.”

  “Then get to know me, Tamika,” he’d said hoarsely. “Come on. We have great chemistry and we like each other, sort of. Take a chance on us.”

  She had looked into his eyes, seen how earnest he was and her knees had melted. Her knees were not the only part of her anatomy that melted, she had felt her panties getting damp. The man was so hot and affected her on so many levels. She really did like him and she’d had such a good time with him. But she did not do relationships or affairs. She could not bear to go through the sort of soul-destroying pain she’d gone through years ago. No.

  “Look, I’ve just been through a long dry spell and I’ll always be grateful to you for pulling me out of that fog. I just want to get this work done, retrieve your plans and go back to my life.”

  He’d stared at her in shock then. “You’re grateful,” he’d repeated slowly.

  “I truly am.”

  “Fuck you!” he’d yelled suddenly, just before walking away. But not before she’d seen the flash of hurt in his eyes.

  She’d leaned back against the door to her room, which was where he’d cornered her and shut her surprisingly hot eyes. She couldn’t believe that had just happened.

  She stared at him now. He had ignored her from then out, slipping on a pair of dark sunglasses over his eyes so that she’d had no idea what he’d been thinking. They’d left in the chopper and headed to Tampa, where they’d boarded the private jet that Silver Shield Security used when they needed to get around with their firearms. He had not said a single word to her, which had further enraged her. How dare he ignore her like this?

  She knew she was being contrary. But she was conflicted. She could not stop thinking about the night they’d had. It had been the best sex of her life. But she did not want to get emotionally involved with him and she didn’t know how to keep sleeping with him without that happening. This way was better.

  “If you’re going to eat him with your eyes, why don’t you go over there and do it?”

  “What?” Tamika sent a sharp glance to Rusty, who was seated beside her. He had his head down, focused on something on his tablet.

  “You’re looking at him as though he’s a bottle of cold water, and you are the desert.”

  “How does that even make sense to you?” she asked in disgust.

  “It does,” he replied with a shrug.

  She shook her head and looked back out the window.

  “Wanna talk about it?”

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” she snapped.

  “Sure. That’s why you both look miserable.”

  She turned her head to look at him. “I’m not miserable!”

  “Um hmm.” He didn’t even bother looking up from his tablet. Tamika felt insulted.

  “Seriously, I’m not.”

  With a sigh, he turned off his tablet and gave her his full attention. “You need to talk to him, sort out this tension between you two. I’m serious. You can’t afford to let it affect your work.”

  “That was uncalled for,” she said, stung.

  Tamika was humiliated. Rusty thought she was not enough of a professional to get her job done? Well, she would show him. She was so a professional and she did not to prove that to anyone, least of all Rusty, or that pig-headed bozo seated across from them.

  “Was it really?”

  “You know I never let anything interfere with a job.”

  “Yeah, but I’ve never seen you this enthralled with a man before.

  “Enthralled…” she choked on the word.

  Enthralled? Like hell!

  She would go out there and do her job the best damn way possible, the way she always did regardless of who was watching. She was not going to let anything or anyone cloud her focus.

  She shifted her glance to Nico and caught him staring at her. His expression was cold and after a few seconds, he looked away, dismissing her.

  She couldn’t explain why, but his casual dismissal of her hurt a lot. She missed laughing with him and trading insults. She’d only just met him, but somehow, inexplicably, he’d grown on her. She’d felt a connection between them. And the sex…heavens, the sex. She shifted uncomfortably just thinking about it. Her breasts became heavy and she ached to have them in his hands. Well, that was over now. She’d wielded the knife herself, which had severed the connection. Lord knew she could not afford that sort of complication in her life. She had enough to deal with as it was.

  She turned her attention back to the clouds outside.

  “I’m serious, girl, fix this,” Rusty said.

  Tamika shrugged. “There’s nothing to fix. I ended things.”

  She felt Rusty’s gaze on her and after ignoring him for a couple of minutes turned to him and snapped, “What?”

  “This is the first time you’ve been with someone since Kyle died.”

  She stiffened at the mention of her late husband. She did not want to think or talk about him. But this was Rusty; he’d seen her at her worst and had helped her back on her feet. So she glanced at him.

  “So?”

  “Why him?”

  Why Nico? It was a question she’d asked herself several times. Her gaze slid to the man sitting across from them and her stomach kicked. He had slipped on his sunglasses and was reading something on his tablet. As though he felt her eyes on him, he went still. She quickly averted her eyes. She had no answer for why she’d felt such an instant connection to this man right from the first time she’d seen him from across the room. Something about him drew her like a moth to a flame. And it scared the shit out of her.

  “I don’t know.” She said with a sigh.

  “Exactly.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You need to find out what it is about him that draws you, and you can’t do that with you here and him all the way over there.”

  “Gee, thanks, Dr. Phil,” she said with heavy sarcasm.

  His lips twitched with amusement, and then he got serious. “For the first time in years you are more alive than I’ve ever seen you, and you just want to throw that away?”

  She gaped at him. “What is it with you? First you warn me off and now you’re practically throwing me at him? You need to make up your mind, man.”

  He shrugged and turned on his tablet.

  “What? You’re just going to ignore me now?”

  “No,” he replied without looking up.

  “So? Why have you suddenly changed your mind about him?”

  He looked up with a mischievous grin. “Have I told you how much I like this new talkative self of yours?”

  She shot him a dirty look. She’d always been a talker. As a child she’d talked nonstop, driving her grandmother crazy with her chatter. She hadn’t even cared if anyone was listening, she’d just loved talking. Which was probably why she’d shut down after the trag
edy in her life. She’d stopped talking. It was the one thing about her that had exasperated Kyle, yet he’d loved it when she talked and each time she went quiet, he would get worried. He’d teased her constantly about being a chatterbox.

  “It’s the sea breeze,” she muttered.

  “Yeah, keep telling yourself that, girlfriend,” he said with a chuckle.

  Tamika sighed. Rusty was as annoying as any brother she could have. But she also loved him like one and knew he looked out for her. She valued his opinion because he had unusual insight into people. He had a way of seeing right to the heart of the matter, cutting past all the bullshit. Probably because he spent a lot of time observing people.

  “What are you trying to tell me, Rus?” She was the only one who got away with calling him that.

  “He’s good for you, babe. Don’t mess this up.”

  She flicked a glance towards Nico again. She could almost feel the coldness radiating from him. She sighed and looked away.

  “I think it’s already too late for that.”

  Rusty laughed. “Boy, you sure do have a lot to learn about men,” he said with a sad shake of his head.

  “What?”

  “The man can’t take his eyes off you. You should have seen the way he was looking at you before he put those things on, like he wanted to devour you.”

  “Devour…look, it doesn’t matter, okay? I’m not going down that route again.”

  Rusty looked at her then and she hated the pity she saw in his eyes. She hated pity more than she hated anything and it was the one thing she would not take from her best friend. Then to her surprise, Rusty’s look turned mischievous. He leaned close to her ears and made a clucking sound.

  Tamika gasped in shock. Did he just cluck at her? She drew back to stare at him. Rusty held her eyes and then very deliberately, made the clucking sound again. Oh, she was going to kill him! She reached out and smacked him upside his head.

  “Ow! You are one mean bitch,” he groused.

  “Better remember that,” she shot back.

  He shook his head and went back to his tablet, muttering something about sex-deprived females. Tamika rolled her eyes and decided to ignore him. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through the Silver Shield app that Rusty had designed for their operations. It had everything from instant messaging to status updates on their open cases. Keeping up with what everyone else was doing kept her busy till they touched ground at Seattle Tacoma International Airport.

  They got their stuff and were done with all the official stuff at the airport, they strode out.

  “I have a vehicle waiting for us and my assistant has us booked at the Four Seasons Hotel,” Nico said brusquely.

  “Sure,” Rusty said.

  Tamika remained silent. It was not unusual for a client to take care of the logistics, and where there was no threat to life, they insisted on it. She clutched her duffel bag. Emily had retrieved it from her hotel room in Tampa and had been waiting with it. She was grateful to have her stuff back. She still wished she’d brought her firearm with her from Chicago, but she was willing to make do with the one she’d taken off Nico as well as the Glock she’d picked from the ones Emily had placed before her.

  A smartly dressed man in a grey suit approached them. “Welcome, Mr. Ortega. This way, please.” He led them to a black limousine.

  Inside the limo, Tamika found herself seated beside Nico, while Rusty sat across from them. She looked out the window, but didn’t see much. Nico still had not said a word to her. It should not bother her so much, but it did. And she could not explain why.

  She shifted on her seat and her arm brushed against his. An involuntary shiver went through her body at the feel of his skin. She went still then tried as discreetly as possible to move closer to the door, creating some distance between them. She felt his eyes on her and turned to look at him.

  “Are you okay?” Nico asked.

  “W-what?” The question had taken her by surprise. She had not expected him to address her directly.

  “If you’re cold, I can up the temperature.”

  “It’s fine.”

  He narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips, like he wanted to say something more. Then he shrugged and turned away.

  Tamika was confused. He’d shown concern for her comfort, which was something she totally had not expected. She knew he was still pissed at her, but he cared, and that confused the hell out of her. She had no idea what to make of Nico Ortega. She wrapped her arms around her body and stared out the window at the passing landscape. She just wanted to wrap this up and be back in Chicago, where she belonged.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nico walked into his hotel room, flung the keycard on the table and walked straight to the bar. He poured himself a double scotch neat and took a large gulp. He felt the fiery liquid burn on its way down. He took two more large gulps until the glass was empty. Then he poured some more.

  Holding the glass of golden liquid, he walked into the bedroom, shrugging off his jacket in the process. He dropped the jacket on the king-sized bed, taking a sip from the glass. He was angry, frustrated and generally in a foul mood. And there was only one person responsible for that.

  He curled his lips as he thought about her. The woman was driving him insane. He couldn’t believe that she’d given him the brush off. He, Nico Ortega. It was untenable. He was usually the one who ended things with women. They didn’t end things with him, particularly when he was not yet done with them.

  He still could not imagine how she could be so hot and passionate in his bed, then turn around and coldly walk away from all that the very next day. What a coldhearted bitch. And he still wanted her with an intensity that was bordering on desperation.

  He ran a hand over his head and sat down heavily on the bed. Sitting next to her on the ride from the airport had been a new form of torture. By the time they got to the hotel, he’d been hard. And she had not been immune either. He had seen the pebbled points of her nipples pushing against the fabric of the t-shirt she’d worn, tucked into a pair of blue jeans. Yet she had not so much as acknowledged the attraction between them.

  And she’d had the nerve to ignore him throughout the trip down. To be fair, he hadn’t given her any reason to talk to him, he’d still been so mad at her. But he was not yet ready to accept defeat. He took another sip from his glass as he thought about ways to get Tamika back in his bed.

  Just then his cellphone rang.

  “Yeah, hello?”

  “It’s Rusty. I need to come over so we can discuss our strategy.”

  “Sure.” He’d given Rusty his room number earlier so that he knew how to locate him if there was an emergency.

  A few minutes later, there was a knock on his door. He walked from the bedroom to the living room and up to the door. Pulling back the door, he stepped back to let the Silver Shield operator in. Nico looked behind Rusty, but there was no one there.

  “Tamika did not come with me,” he said, lifting up an eyebrow.

  Nico didn’t even try to pretend that he had not been looking for the woman. Instead he took a step back, giving the other man room to enter into the suite then shut the door.

  “So what’s up?” Nico asked, leading the way to the living room. “Drink?” He gestured towards the mini-bar.

  “I’m good, thanks.” Rusty settled down on one of the armchairs, and Nico joined him. “So we have located Chicha and we are positive the plans are still on her.”

  Nico sat up, placing his glass on the coffee table. “You’re sure?” He could not wait to get the plans in his hands.

  “Yeah. But, there’s going to be an exchange tonight.”

  “What?”

  “She’s selling it off and the exchange will be made tonight,” Rusty said. Then seeing the unasked question on Nico’s face he went on, “We managed to gain access to her phone as well as the phone records.”

  Nico stood up and began to pace. If those plans got into the wrong hands or into the hands of a
ny of their competition, they would be ruined. After working so hard, how could their success now be hinged on just a single plan? They had other resorts that were doing well, but this one was set to be their biggest yet. If anything went wrong, their backers would pull out and they would be left with a shitload of crap.

  “We need to get those plans back.”

  “You do have backed up copies, right, why is this one so important?”

  “It’s not the plan so much as where it ends up.” He ran a hand over his face. “There’s a lot at stake.”

  And it was all his fault. He hadn’t wanted to take Chicha home. She’d been bugging him for days, but he’d gotten to that stage where he had suddenly become bored with meaningless sex. He’d been searching for something more. Yet he had ignored his instincts and gone ahead and brought her home, jeopardizing not only himself, but his siblings as well.

  “We’ll get your plans.”

  The quiet assurance in Rusty’s voice settled Nico. He could not afford to lose it now. And he knew that he had done the right thing by hiring the Silver Shield folks.

  “Thank you,” he said quietly, going back to take the seat he’d just recently vacated. “So what’s the plan?”

  “The exchange is to take place at a nightclub downtown.”

  “So we intercept it,” he concluded.

  Rusty nodded. “Yeah, that’s the plan.”

  “If everything goes according to plan, this should be all over by tonight?”

  “Yep.”

  Nico stared at the wall in front of him, his thoughts confused. He would be glad if everything got wrapped up as soon as possible, it meant that the threat of bankruptcy hanging over their heads would be gone. That was a good thing. However, it also meant he might not see Tamika again. Once it was over, she would go back to wherever it was that she came from, and she would make sure he could not find her. That was depressing as hell. He should just let her go. She had made it clear that she wanted nothing to do with him, and he should respect that. Except, he had seen the way she’d shivered when his arm had mistakenly brushed hers. Her reaction to him was something she could not hide. They were so damn good together, why would she want to throw that away?