“Good,” she whispered, kissing me again. But then she got up and straightened her clothes. “But, for now, you’d better get out. I have to be at work in a few hours.”

  I groaned, less willing now to leave her than I’d been the night before. But after a few more kisses I did as I was told, like the obedient boy I’ve always been.

  Was it that submissiveness that had gotten me into my current predicament? Was it submissiveness that would be my eventual downfall? I glanced back at the sliding glass doors of her apartment and wondered if maybe I was just falling deeper and deeper into a black hole that I’d never get out of. Was I pulling her into it with me? Or had she always been there, just waiting for me to find her?

  Was she more of a danger to me than the man who was using my business to launder money? Would she be the one to end my life as I knew it?

  A part of me kind of hoped so.

  Chapter 7

  Kai

  The cameras had been in place for two days and were working fine, but I pulled into Briar’s driveway with an excuse on the tip of my tongue that I was sure she would buy.

  “The camera over the back door isn’t giving us a clear picture,” I said with a small smile. “Sorry to bother you.”

  “Not a bother.” Briar moved out of the way, gesturing for me to come into her house. Molly, her five year old daughter, was sitting on the floor in the living room playing with a couple of dolls. She looked up and smiled brightly when she saw me.

  “Kai!”

  Molly ran toward me and I picked her up, swinging her high in the air before catching her in my arms and giving her a little hug.

  “Hello, my sweet girl!”

  “Did you bring me a candy?”

  “Oh, you should ask your mother if you can have a candy first.”

  “Can I, Mommy? Please?”

  Briar smiled. “Of course, darling.”

  I pulled a small piece of hard candy out of my pocket and gave it to her. She kissed my cheek, then squirmed to get down so that she could go share her treat with her dolls. I watched her go, more pleased than I should have been at the pleasure I’d brought this small, adorable child.

  “You spoil her,” Briar said.

  “Little girls are meant to be spoiled.”

  She nodded, glancing at her child. “I only wish I had the means to spoil her even more.” Briar walked toward the kitchen, gesturing for me to follow. “Instead, I find myself forced to explain to her why there’s a broken window in my bedroom and why her friend had to come and put cameras everywhere.”

  “I wish there was more I could do.”

  “The only thing anyone could do is go back in time and convince me not to marry Roman Pierce in the first place.”

  “If only I could.”

  She poured us both a cup of coffee and brought them to the table, sighing wearily as she took a seat beside me. “How could the sweet, charming man I met nearly six years ago have become such a monster?”

  “The potential is there in everyone, I suppose.”

  “I used to tell myself it was the head injury, and that as time passed, it would heal, and he would get better. But he never did.”

  “Being in the military has its own set of issues. Maybe it wasn’t just the head injury, but the combination of that and the things he saw over there.”

  “Yes, well, you were over there—much longer than him—and you’re not a monster.”

  “Every man goes into it with a different set of experiences and comes out of it with a different perspective.”

  She wrapped her hands around her mug and stared into the dark liquid, quiet for a long moment. I wanted to offer comfort, to reach over and touch her even if it was just an empty gesture with good intentions behind it. But I wasn’t sure my touch was something she would welcome at this point in our budding relationship, or in her current set of circumstances.

  “The cameras will keep him from bothering you anymore. Or, if they don’t scare him away, at least we’ll have video evidence to show to a judge.”

  “Too bad I can’t strap a camera on Molly each time I send her to his house. Maybe then the judge would see that he palms her off on his mother’s servants the moment they are alone together.”

  “I’m sure the judge will figure things out soon enough.”

  “Not soon enough for poor Molly. She cries every time I start to pack her bags for a weekend at her grandmother’s. I don’t even know what it is that frightens her so much!” Her eyes were big with anger and outrage. “It’s my job to protect her and I feel like the judge is forcing me to send her into the mouth of the lion two weekends a month!”

  “I know.”

  I touched her hand, resting mine on top of hers where it rested on the table. She didn’t pull away. I found that encouraging.

  “I just want all of this to be over,” she said softly. “I want to get on with my life and quit looking over my shoulder all the time. When will I be allowed to do that?”

  The truth was, as long as she shared a child with Roman, she’d never be able to stop looking over her shoulder. The judge might end the visitation order, might even give Briar full custody, but that wouldn’t end Roman’s biological connection to her child. The only thing that would allow Briar true freedom would be if Roman were to die, and I didn’t imagine that would happen any time soon.

  What could I say to make things better for her? What could I do to take the fear out of her eyes and replace it with the rare, spark of fun I’d seen only once or twice in the month I’d been allowed to get to know her? I was afraid there was nothing I could do or say and that was incredibly frustrating for me.

  “Something will happen,” I assured her. “Roman will make a mistake and the judge will have to see it your way.”

  She nodded. “If he doesn’t destroy everything I’ve tried to build here first.”

  I had to agree with that assessment. Briar was a nurse at the local hospital. She’d earned every penny she’d put into this house and the car she had parked in her garage. Roman was wealthy thanks to the trust fund his mother set up for him when he was an infant, but he’d managed to hide every penny of it the moment Briar left him, leaving her broke and struggling to feed their baby girl. It was an example of Briar’s strength that she was able to buy this house after just six months out on her own and to hold down a full-time job while Roman was stalking her, making threats every chance he got. It was admirable what she’d done.

  She sighed, pulling her hand from mine as she stole a glance at me. “Sorry. I don’t mean to unload on you every time you come over.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I don’t mind.”

  “I know and that’s what makes you such a good man.” She blushed a little with those words. “But I don’t want to sit around and be a sad sack.” She got up and went to the counter, bringing back a plate of cookies. “Molly helped me bake them last night, so they’re a little heavier on the salt than I would normally do, but they’re surprisingly good.”

  “Thank you.”

  I took a couple, popping one into my mouth whole. After a bite, I nearly choked, catching myself barely in time. She laughed, a spark coming into her eyes that made it worthwhile. I managed to swallow the cookie, setting the others I’d chosen back on the plate.

  “Remind me to take it a small bite at a time if I ever accept a cookie from you again.”

  Her laughter only grew, causing Molly to come into the room to see what was happening. I scooped her up and sat her on my shoulder. “Come help me with the camera, huh, kid?”

  “Okay!”

  I handed her a screwdriver and stepped through the back door, pointing out the camera to her. “See if you can tell what’s making the picture blurry, will you?”

  Molly adopted a very serious expression as I moved her close to the camera. She studied it, moving her head around in something of a comical set of gestures. Finally, she leaned close and wiped the lens with her sleeve. I bit back laughter as I watched.

  “I think that’s good.”

  “Yeah?” I slipped the screwdriver out of her hand and moved closer to the thing, tightening a few screws that didn’t really need tightening. “Maybe that’ll help, too. You think?”

  “Oh, yeah. That’ll help a lot!”

  I nodded. “Now we should check.”

  Briar was watching from just inside the back door, her dark eyes smoldering in the dim light. She was thoughtful, almost as if she was trying to decide this was a good situation for her daughter or not. I carried the child back to the living room and set her on the floor, taking a seat on the couch to show her the camera feed that broadcast to my cellphone. Molly moved close, standing between my legs as I moved through the different cameras to the one we’d just fixed.

  “There it is!” Molly cried.

  “That’s it. And it’s working just fine.”

  “We fixed it.”

  “We did.”

  She giggled, taking the phone to scroll through the other feeds. “There’s us! We’re on TV, Mommy!”

  “We sure are, baby.”

  Briar was still standing by the door, that dark look still in her eyes as she studied something just above the child’s head. I slipped the phone from Molly’s hands and whispered in her ear. A second later, she ran across the room and threw her arms around her mother’s waist.

  “Love you, Mommy!”

  Briar melted, falling to her knees to give Molly a hard hug. “I love you, too,” she said, tears making her voice a little rough. Molly let her hold her for a long minute, then she pulled away and ran up the stairs, waving to me with a huge grin as she went.

  “I told her if she went to bed without a fuss, I’d bring her two candies next time,” I confessed as Briar stared after her vanishing child.

  “That’s the trick, is it?”

  “Apparently.” I stood, shoving my hands in my jeans pockets to keep from reaching for her. “I’ll get out of your way, and quit interrupting your routine.”

  “You’re not interrupting anything. She really likes it when you come around.” She came toward me, blushing slightly as she looked up at me. “I like it when you come around. I mean…you did kind of save my butt once, and you saved my sister-in-law’s life, not to mention introducing her to Maclean.”

  “They seem good together.”

  She smiled. “They are. He makes her happy.”

  “Everyone deserves a little happiness.”

  “Yeah.” Her eyes fell to the floor as she stood there awkwardly. “I, uh, I really appreciate everything you’ve done for us. You’ve done more than I could have asked for.”

  “That’s what friends do, right?”

  She looked up at me, her pretty eyes even darker than before, the gold specks almost completely invisible. “Is that what we are? Friends?”

  My heart did a funny staccato, this little voice in the back of my head screaming that this was the moment I’d waited more than five years for. I lifted my hand, wanting to touch her, to caress her cheek, but I couldn’t quite make myself do it.

  “Mommy! I’m ready for my bath!”

  I glanced at the stairs, a naked Molly ducking out of sight the moment I did. I laughed, unable to help myself. Briar laughed, too.

  “I guess I better go.”

  “The princess is calling.”

  She touched my arm, gripping it for an instant. “Thank you, Kai. I really do appreciate everything you’ve done.”

  “Anytime.”

  She squeezed my arm, and then walked away, calling out to Molly as she rushed up the stairs. I returned to the back door, made sure it was locked before letting myself out the front door, checking it as well before walking to my car. I found myself wondering what that touch had meant, what that look was. Was she asking me if I wanted to be more than a friend? Or was she trying to tell me that she wasn’t interested, that she would never be interested?

  I kept going back and forth, not sure which it was, until the car suddenly lurched forward. I glanced up at the rearview mirror just in time to see a dark sedan coming in for another bounce off my rear bumper.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  I jerked the wheel to the right, skidding along the side of the road, kicking up gravel and dust. The sedan backed off, slowing enough to make me feel safe getting back up on the lane, but close enough to make it clear that the driver was not done with me. At the next intersection, I took a hard left and headed downtown, hoping that if I went somewhere populated, the guy would back off. I was only partially right.

  I tore into the parking lot of Jonah’s, a local bar, and slammed on the brakes, sliding several feet before the big Skylark stopped. I jumped out of the car and watched as the sedan pulled in behind me. Its driver exited just as quickly. I’d guessed as much.

  Roman Pierce.

  “Why were you at my wife’s house, Gabriel?” he demanded, coming at me with his chest out and his fists clenched.

  “Why were you? You told by the cops to keep your distance.”

  “I didn’t break that damn window!”

  “Bullshit!” I was tired of being polite, especially after I’d just spent the last hour listening to Briar’s fears of this man. “Everyone knows you’re the only one in town who’d have reason to terrorize her. And we all know you’re not afraid to make a victim of a woman!”

  “You don’t know shit about me!”

  “I know you beat the shit out of her. I’ve seen the evidence.”

  “What evidence?” Roman seemed to hesitate. But then he stepped into me, his fists still clenched, his chest still puffed up. “You don’t know shit about me! If she told you that, then she was lying.”

  “Pictures don’t lie!”

  “Pictures?” He scoffed, spitting onto the dirt at my feet. “If there were pictures, she would have shown them to the judge and gotten my visitation yanked. That slut deserved everything she got and more...”

  I swung and my punch hit him just below his jaw, forcing him back against his car, but he recovered quickly, coming at me with all the vitriol a drunk wife beater could manage. I ducked to escape a blow to the side of the head, but didn’t move quickly enough to miss the swing that connected with my shoulder. I threw another punch, into his stomach ,that knocked the wind out of his lungs. He doubled over to catch his breath; I raised my good knee and smashed his nose with a satisfying crack.

  By this time, we’d attracted the attention of the bar’s customers. A half dozen people had come out to watch, a few calling encouragement to Roman. Listening to them, Roman began to struggle to pull himself to a standing position.

  “Stay down,” I warned him.

  His face was covered in blood from his broken nose. He mumbled something, but I couldn’t understand what he said. I walked over and pulled his head up by gripping his hair.

  “Stay the fuck away from her house, you understand me? I will know if you go within a hundred yards of her. If you do, no one can stop me from what I’ll do to you.”

  “Fuck you!”

  I let go of him, pushing him back down into the dirt. “Oh,” I said, turning to glance at him one last time, “I will be sending you a bill for the damage to my car.”

  I drove off, ignoring the jeers and cheers from the gathered crowd.

  I was done with this. Roman Pierce had it coming.

  Chapter 8

  Paxton

  Kai had made me a little paranoid.

  I was sitting in a booth next to the windows so that I could see the street. I sat with my back to the room so that I could watch the door. I was so busy worrying about who might be watching me; who might be trying to hurt me, that I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on right in front of me.

  “You okay?”

  Toby pushed his shoulder into mine, moving close so that his breath tickled the side of my neck.

  “She’s fine,” Carl, one of the other sales guys said. “She’s just missing the boss man.”

  “Mind your own business!” I said, tossing a couple of French fries at him from the basket in the middle of the table we’d been sharing.

  “Come on! Everyone knows now,” Amanda, sitting beside him, insisted. “She picked up one of the fries that had landed on the table in front of her and popped it into her mouth. “You can’t really keep secrets in a place this small.”

  “It’s no one’s business but his and mine.”

  “Maybe. But that’s not going to stop the gossip.” Amanda’s eyes sparkled with curiosity. “What’s it like, anyway? Is he as good looking with his clothes off as with them on?”

  “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen him naked.” I blushed, brushing the hair from my forehead. “But he’s a hell of a kisser!”

  I giggled at the shock on Toby’s animated face. “I thought you didn’t kiss and tell!” he exclaimed.

  “Even I can only take so much. You guys keep asking and asking and asking…”

  “What’s he like? Really?” Amanda wanted to know. “Is he as nice in private as he is in the office?”

  “A true southern gentleman,” I admitted. “He asks every time he wants to kiss me.”

  “Really?” She sighed, clutching a hand to her chest. “He is perfect!”

  I shook my head. “I wouldn’t call him perfect, but he’s about as close as I’ll ever get.”

  The sad thing was I really believed that. Despite the fact that he was possibly helping this group that was trying to destroy everything I had fought for in Afghanistan, Ayden was kind and gentle and better than any man I’d ever known. I kept telling myself it was an act that he was pretending with me just as much as I was pretending with him. But it was easy to fall for the act when he was looking at me with those big, blue eyes, telling me how beautiful he thought I was, how much he wanted to be with me, and mixing it all up with his southern charm. How was I supposed to resist that?

  Toby patted my thigh lightly. “If he’s so perfect, why do you look like your best friend just died?”

  I lay my head on his shoulder and sighed. “Because every time something good happens to me, I do something to screw it up. I’m kind of sitting here waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know?”

 

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