Fearless. HelenKay Dimon
could communicate between the sheets. Real life was the problem.
“The ribs are from my last job.” And Davis doubted they’d heal anytime soon.
“You got jostled.”
He slipped his hand over hers, trapping it against his stomach. The dull ache caused by the touch was totally worth it. “Jostled?”
This time it looked as if she wanted to roll her eyes. She refrained but likely not by much. “Davis, don’t do that thing where you grab on to words I say and then repeat them back to me in order to ignore or stall a tough discussion.”
Most important to Davis, she didn’t pull away. Not even when he slid his fingers through hers. “You know me too well.”
“Exactly.”
“Then you know what I’m going to say next.” He pulled her in a little closer and her eyes sparkled with that compelling shade of light brown. “I need to call my team and we need to get out of here.”
Her shoulders stiffened. “Police.”
“Not until my people—”
“You have ‘people’ now?”
“—check for identification and scan records to see what hole out of my past the guy crawled up and out of.” She glanced down at their joined hands and he thought he saw a smile tug at the corner of her mouth, though what she could possibly find amusing about the situation was beyond him.
“You’ve never referred to the team at the DIA that way before.”
“I’m not working there now.”
The smile vanished as fast it had come. “What?”
He understood the tension that suddenly appeared around her mouth and eyes. His job had been a huge wedge between them. Truth was his current position was much more dangerous than the old one, and she’d made it clear the old one had scared her to death. “I’ll explain that later, but the ‘people’ I plan to call first is Pax. He’s my brother and, like you, he could be a target, too.”
“You think the attack is about you?”
“What else could it be?” With the Corcoran Team, a private group contracted out to government agencies and private companies to assist in high-priority but under-the-radar kidnap rescue missions, the bad guys were very bad.
Davis and his team worked off the grid, taking on the missions others couldn’t do within legal parameters. That slapped a bull’s-eye on their backs, and it looked as if someone had come looking for payback.
The only question was why they’d included Lara in the plan. Knowing who the attacker was and whom he worked for might answer that question. Until then, Davis was not letting her out of his sight, no matter how much she argued. And he was pretty sure she’d fight the protection.
“You’re forgetting the guy who killed the lieutenant commander didn’t even know I was in the house,” she said, acting as if the out-of-context comment explained everything.
But the news crashed through Davis’s mental walls. He’d just come up with a plan, and then she threw this new information at him. Kind of an important piece, too. “Go back. Someone was killed?”
“I mentioned that.”
“Uh, no. That’s a fact I’d remember.”
“I’m not going to argue about who knew what when.” Her hand left his stomach and she started pacing. When she got close to the body, she came scurrying right back to Davis’s side. “For a second I forgot there was a dead guy on the floor. What does that say about me?”
The conversation threatened to veer off course again, so he brought it back. “You were talking about the murder of a naval officer?”
“Let’s just say that’s the second time today I fought a guy off with a lamp.”
The information nearly stopped Davis’s heart. The idea of her injured and scared tore through him with the force of a hurricane, leaving behind a hollow emptiness in his gut. He could go a lifetime without seeing the look he had seen on her face a few minutes ago. But this went beyond fear. She’d been forced to defend herself, and that unleashed a fury inside him that had his head thumping.
He needed details. “Lara—”
“We’ll come back to that when we discuss your new job.” She put a hand under his chin and let her thumb brush over his lips, which stopped what he was going to say. “And, yes, I will follow you out of here. You’re the expert.”
Not sure of her game, he closed one eye and looked her over. “That’s good to hear. A little surprising, but the right answer.”
“I learned some things once you left…” That thumb made one more pass before her hand dropped. “And don’t gloat. It’s not attractive.”
Words backed up in his throat. He had no idea what to say. In his head, the answer was clear—get her out of there now. The rest of his body had a different idea. “I’ll call Pax and the rest of the team to deal with this guy and start investigating.”
“Only you would use the word deal, like a dead man is a broken mug or something. He’s a person, and being this close to him is creeping me out. Like, my insides are shaking so hard I might throw up.”
That possibility didn’t scare Davis, but he trod carefully with his answer because they’d had this argument before and he’d lost—big. “He tried to kill you. Once he crossed that line, I didn’t care who or what he was.”
When she continued to stare at him, he steered the conversation back where he needed it. “I need the phone.”
She slipped away from him only long enough to grab it off the far table—then she was back at his side. “Here.”
His hand slid around her waist to rest on the sexy dip of her lower back. “It’s going to be fine.”
“You should do one more thing before the cavalry comes.”
He doubted anything mattered all that much except getting somewhere out of sight. “We’ll be long gone by the time they arrive. That’s the point.”
“Well, before we go, you might want to put on some clothes.” Her gaze traveled to his lap. “You’re naked.”
The words registered in his brain and he jumped up. A visual sweep down his body confirmed her comment…and the amusement in her voice. “What the…? When did the towel come off?”
“Very early in the battle.”
“I didn’t even notice.”
“Impressive, by the way. I had no idea you knew how to bare-body fight.” This time the back of her hand pressed against her mouth to stop what looked like a smile.
He had no problem with her looking all she wanted, so he played along. “I’ve told you before that my talents are endless.”
Her gaze took another bounce down and up, then she smiled. “I can see that.”
Chapter Three
Less than ten minutes later, they slipped through the kitchen and out the back door. Lara watched as Davis caught the screen before it could slam shut. Always thinking and rarely unprepared. That was how she thought about him, and her mind wandered there often.
They hurried across the porch, the boards creaking under her sensible pumps. His sneakers didn’t make a noise. It was as if he placed each step with precision, including his run down the four steps to the muddy square of a backyard.
Her gaze focused on his butt. Not a bad focal point and certainly less scary than looking up into the eyes of another attacker. Two were enough for one day. Davis also made the staring easy. He had put on jeans and a T-shirt and carried a bag Lara wanted to