Chapter Three

Weeks later

 

Wolfram, Langley and Knight offices—also known as WLK Security—occupied the entire top floor in a coveted uptown location in Manhattan. They used the exclusive workout facilities for training. More often than not, Walker headed up the drills, but today he sat in a lineup of meetings with high-profile clients. Since he didn’t have patience for the business side of the firm, his partners often scheduled everything on the same day.

Never in a good mood after a marathon session of consulting, he left the conference area. After passing his notes to his assistant, Walker stepped into his office. The nondescript room appeared stark, with minimal furniture.

“What do you think happened to those two?”

Walker glanced over his shoulder at his top recruiter and silent partner, Tank. The man’s bulk seemed to take up the width of any space with walls.

“Those chick lawyers.” His trainer jerked his thumb at the television screen on the wall before he grabbed the remote off his desk to turn up the sound.

“Set to appeal to the United Nations Council concerning human trafficking, Attorneys Cruz and Marcille went missing before their scheduled speech…”

A picture of Ashe and her partner graced the screen. The beauty he’d saved weeks ago gazed away, while her partner appeared to challenge the camera with her presence.

“I bet the hot, sexy one offed the other hot, sexy one in some kind of lesbian murder suicide,” Tank offered.

Walker signaled for him to turn the set off. “No more Tinder for you. It’s rotting your brain.”

“Big butts and a smile… That’s where it’s at.” Tank pulled out his phone and flashed his cell in his direction. A carousel of women in various degrees of undress went across his screen.

“Trust me when I say I’m losing hope for you,” Walker noted.

“Get in line.” The big man chuckled. “Are you done adulting for the day?”

“Yep,” Walker told him.

“We’re hitting the climbing wall in a minute, then the pub.”

“Can’t. Got to check on my grandparents’ property. It acquired damage in the storm last week,” he lied. He’d kept his distance from the beauty too long. Walker honestly didn’t know what to do with her, but he refused to let J8 get their paws on her. He just wanted to be surer what was going on first.

“The one on the Cape?”

“Yeah, I’m thinking of selling it,” he admitted, close to the truth but not quite. Walker had inherited the place a while back and had never taken the time to clean it out. It made no sense to leave it empty.

“I may have a guy who’s interested. Let me know?”

Walker packed his bag with a few essentials and turned the light off in his office, with no plans to stay in the Cape for long. “You’ll be the first person I call.”

“Really?”

“No,” he told the giant, while he made a beeline to the elevators. “You would be the absolute last.” Walker got into the cab and pressed the lobby button.

“No faith… I like that. It leaves me room to impress you.”

As the doors shut, he laughed at Tank’s sunny optimism.

 

* * * *

 

The flight didn’t last long enough for a decent nap. Walker grabbed a car service to the beach house and worked on the outline for WLK Security’s latest project. They had been hired to provide protection in Dubai for some royal kid’s celebration and the schematics were a beast to figure out.

Immersed in his work, it didn’t register that the driver had stopped the car. He glanced up at his grandparents’ three-story cottage. Although it was still in pretty good shape, the place needed a little work. If he decided to sell, the wood stunner wouldn’t take long to unload.

As he stepped onto the wraparound porch to unlock the door, he promised himself to make this visit a quick in and out. J8 wanted Ashe released into their custody. If the agency didn’t have a history of turning and burning their targets, he would have given her up willingly a few weeks back.

Walker reached for the ancient lock and opened the front door to the blue-colored wood home. A full-on assault of rich tomato sauce intermingling with the ocean breeze smacked him in the face.

It had been closed off for the better part of a decade, so Walker hadn’t stepped into it since his teen years. Before Ashe’s arrival, sheets had covered the furniture. He took in the bright tones of blue and cream that warmed the house.

Following the sound of voices toward the patio, he noted the changes she’d made to the cottage since he’d stashed her there. Once furnished in thick fabrics and dark tones, the light and airy ambience enhanced the feel-good energy of his old summer haunt.

The sound of Ashe’s laughter drew him into the kitchen, where pots boiled and bubbled on top of the stove. His stomach rumbled from the heady aroma, but the sight of Ashe shook him to his core. Walker hadn’t felt this type of attraction to a woman in years.

Clad in a bikini and a skimpy cover-up, she stood outside the French doors. Wild, reddish-brown curls streamed down her back. He’d suggested she change her appearance, but he’d had no idea Ashe would resemble something out of a 1950s B-movie.

The absolute best genre ever!

“Are you looking to replace that flooring upstairs?” Nosey neighbor Tom’s nasally tone snapped him back to reality. “Dan, two streets over, is a whiz with carpentry.”

Ashe raked stray leaves from the pool with the cleaning pole. “Not sure. I’ll have to check with—” She stopped mid-sentence. “Speaking of the devil.”

Walker stepped out of the house, and she greeted him with a smile.

“Walker!” Tom scrambled to get up from the lounge chair. His nosey-ass neighbor had built his deck above eye-level of the fence, a fact that hadn’t gone unnoticed by his grandparents. “What’s it been…ten years?”

He waved for the old man to take a seat before he fell over. “I haven’t been able to get out this way much,” he admitted. Without his grandparents around, he’d felt no need to visit.

“Military, right? Then what? Private work for the government?”

Walker didn’t answer. He could tell the man didn’t know anything.

“Your fiancée here has been quite the hit around the neighborhood.”

“How so?” he asked, intrigued about Ashe’s title, among other things. She’d remodeled his grandparents’ home, cooked and flirted with his lusty neighbor. Apparently, the gorgeous attorney had been bored.

“What am I going on about? You two haven’t had a proper greeting. Go on and give your fella a smooch hello.”

“We’re fine. We don’t need to—” Walker began.

Ashe’s soft lips cut off his next word. Against good common sense but not his will, he put his hands around her waist and deepened their kiss.

A warm ball of lust spread through his body. Revved up, he wanted more, but she pulled out of his grip with a wink. “I’ve got dinner going. We’ll catch you later,” Ashe said to Tom.

“Oh, okay. Yeah, I’ve got a new Jeopardy to watch anyway,” Tom muttered.

Walker grabbed her hand and led her into the house.

With a sexy laugh, she hurried to close the double doors. “Sorry about that. The snitch would have ratted us out to the whole neighborhood by the time the ten o’clock news hit the air.”

Walker bit back a smile. “So, we’re engaged now…”

“Almost a day after you dropped me off, Tom popped by. I get the impression he’s the self-appointed neighborhood watch.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve been back here. Good cover,” he admitted.

“Yeah, I figured a messy breakup would be an easy explanation when I leave.” She picked up a spoon and took the top off one of the pots. “Any word on that?”

A safari print cover-up almost hid her fabulous body. Distracted by the bikini underneath, he tried not to stare. He thought he saw something on her back but couldn’t be positive, past the glittery tiger emblem sewn in. Perhaps if she took off the rest of her clothes, he could see it better. “On what?”

She glanced over her shoulder with an upraised eyebrow accompanied by a knowing smile. “My case.”

“Oh.” He didn’t tell Ashe that J8 had demanded for her to be released into their custody—a request he’d rudely denied until he’d done some digging himself. The life she’d once known would be over. Walker hated to see Ashe lose everything she’d worked so hard for. “Very little,” he admitted.

She turned down her full lips before she went back to the simmering pots. “Are you hungry?” she asked.

A quick in and out to the Cape had turned into something else. The minute he’d laid eyes on the beautiful attorney, his plans had changed on the spot.

“Sure.” Walker pulled the chair away from the chef’s island, attempting to bat aside any indecent thoughts about her. “I could eat.”