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“Tell me more about Cao.” Derek issued the order as he walked beside her in the snow.
“What’s to tell? He’s my companion.”
She shoved her hands deeper into the thick jacket she wore, grateful for its protection against the biting air that whipped around them as they strode through the woods. She had awakened in his arms that morning and she would never admit aloud how wonderful it felt. He held her as if she was his world.
A perfect memory for my fantasy life.
Cutting her gaze to her left, she observed the man beside her. Loose jeans, black boots, and a black leather jacket that was playing hell on her libido. Thick black strands of his hair fell forward over his face—almost, but not quite hiding those intense dark blue eyes. About two days’ worth growth on his jaw and all she wanted to do was touch.
Instead, she dug her nails into her palm. She may be romantic, she may be fanciful, but she wasn’t an idiot. And while yesterday after she admitted what she truly wanted, he told her she had him, today was a new day she wasn’t holding onto that statement like it was gospel no matter how much she wanted it to be.
“Is he protection trained?”
It never occurred to her to lie to him about it, this man knew everything about her.
“Yes, he is.”
“That’s smart. Have a dog with you that most people would be unassuming about. The decision.”
At his praise, she nearly preened. Forcing it under control, she gave a small smile in thanks. Didn’t matter what her insides were doing or the happy dance she personally wished to do. They walked in silence for a while until his phone rang, disrupting the peace surrounding them.
“Derek. You sure? Okay, Wild, I’ll be right there.” He ended the call and shoved back into his pocket.
“Time to go?”
“For me, yes. I have to go meet my brother at the office, we have a new client coming in.” He stepped close and drew her near, his black gloves gripping the excess of her coat. “Then I’m coming back here to you, and we will work on finishing our discussion.”
Head tipped back to maintain eye connection, she shrugged. “Didn’t we do that yesterday?”
“There’s so much for us to discuss, babe. We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface.”
Her insides clenched and she grew slick between her thighs. Why was she indulging in this? This was going too end poorly for her. Not with the physical, but with the talking.
“I suppose we should head back.”
Derek nodded, his gaze never leaving hers. Instead of backing away he tugged with the hand that held her jacket until she was flush to him. Then he kissed her. It wasn’t long that she felt it all the way through her, down to her toes.
“I suppose we should,” he agreed.
He held her hand on the way back, the silence between them again not an issue for her. At the house he opened the door and allowed her to enter first. After another kiss, he left her there, slipping through to the garage. She watched him from the window as he backed out in his big vehicle and headed off to the road.
From there she took several slow, deep breaths and realized she was alone in his house. After shedding the warm outer layers, she headed for the kitchen to fix food for Cao. As he ate, she made herself a cup of tea and a piece of toast. She didn’t leave the kitchen til she cleaned up after herself and her dog. Only then did she make her way back to living room where she curled up at the end of the couch.
She didn’t want to watch any television so she left that off. Instead, after she finished her tea, she got up and began to explore. Not to be nosy, as in she wasn’t going through drawers, just that she was walking around looking at the stuff on the walls to give her more insight into the man who given her back her life.
He didn’t have much, there weren’t awards and accolades around. There was one picture over the mantel of the fireplace that drew her attention. She pushed up on her toes take a better look at and gasped when she realized what she saw.
It was his family. Mom and Dad as well as his brothers. Obviously taken a while ago, they were much younger, but it said so much that that was the only picture out.
She walked down the hall to the room he’d given her to stay in and went to a bag, pulling out some clean clothes. With one more quick check on Cao, she made her way to the bathroom to get cleaned up.
Standing beneath the pulsing sprays of the shower head, she dipped her head and allowed the water to work itself out on her muscles. She was tense. And it didn’t make much sense.
Feeling much better when she finished, she left the steamy room and made her way back to the living room.
The dog was where he had been when she left, and aside from an eye-opening and a thump of his tail, he didn’t give her any other indication he was going anywhere. She moved by him with a smile, continuing back to the kitchen to make herself another cup of tea.
Pleased when she found more mint, she quickly made herself another cup, hoping it would be enough to stave off the headache was coming. She wanted to go back to bed curl up in the dark to alleviate the pain from her eyes, but she knew she had to stay awake. At some point in her life she was going to have to learn how to deal with having this issue, may as well start now. No job would be okay with her just up and leaving because her eyes hurt. And as she on her own wasn’t rich and had no plans of moving in with her parents, coping seem like the smartest choice of the moment.
At a triple beeping, she moved to the living room and spied a delivery truck coming up the drive. Her heart sank slightly, because she had hoped it would’ve been Derek coming back.
She did understand, though, he did have a job to do and couldn’t be around her twenty-four-seven just because that was the safest for her. Or what she most wished for. Fingers curved tight about the mug, and she watched the driver slow before the steps to the house and park.
Avery didn’t feel right about getting the package for him; however, this was something he needed and she had no problem accepting it and bringing it inside, especially given the current temperature. So she walked toward the door.
Cao lifted his head and she waved him back with a hand gesture, content she was capable of doing this on her own. Opening it, she watched the thin man jog up the steps and give her a smile from beneath the ball cap he wore.
“Good morning. I have a package here for Derek Wilder.”
“I can take that for him.”
“Wonderful. I just need your signature right here and I’ll be on my way.”
She set down the tea mug on the end table, opened the screen door, then reached for the signature pad and scrawled her signature. Exchanging pad for box, she gave the man a smile and went back inside.
“Have a nice day,” he hollered as he jogged back down the stairs to his truck.
She put the box down the moment she realized she still had his pen. Yanking the door back open, she hollered for him and hurried down to the vehicle.
He slid open the door that kept the heat in, and in that second Avery knew just how bad of an idea that had been. And how fucked she was. There wasn’t even time for her to scream before he punched her in the jaw, sending her into a world of darkness.
αβ
Derek rubbed the back of his neck and paced before the office window, his unease skyrocketing as each second he wasn’t with Avery ticked by. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he exhaled heavily and spun on his heels to stare at his brother.
“We finished yet, Wild?”
“Yeah, we’re done here. Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?” Derek posed the question even as he headed for the office door.
Derek’s brother chuckled. “It’s just an expression, Derek. Doesn’t mean I’m following home to watch you get all dirty and disgusting with that sweet young thing.”
While his body may have been on board with the comment he ensured that nothing showed on his face. No sense in giving his brother more ammunition than he already had.
“I’m not the man whore you were, Wild. I have standards, morals, you know, those things that Marines don’t have.” Derek didn’t need to turn around to know his brother was flipping him off.
“Sticks and stones, my brother. Sticks and stones.”
The cold bit into them and he hurried to his vehicle the moment the office was locked. They hadn’t been open for a full day today; in fact, only he and Wild had come in to meet a client. Otherwise, they were considered closed.
After saying goodbye to his brother, Derek headed for home. His agitation hadn’t decreased, quite the opposite in fact, and he asked his vehicle for more speed. The second he turned in the driveway he knew it had gone to shit.
“Call Wild,” he issued the order as he downshifted.
“Didn’t I just leave your mangy ass?”
“Avery’s gone, get everyone over here.”
“What the fuck, man? Are you sure about this?”
He slowed his vehicle as he took in the scene, including the dog who broke through a window and was outside with blood dripping down his leg. “Absolutely. Her dog busted through a window to the outside, that wouldn’t be happening if she was inside and okay.”
Rage within him was fanned and grew until it raged like an uncontrollable wildfire.
“Derek. Don’t do anything until I get there. I mean it.”
Derek jumped out, Glock in hand, and moved to the door. The closed door. Cao looked at him, lifted his lips to show off white teeth before turning his attention back down the driveway. In his gut, Derek knew she wasn’t on his property anymore and it was killing him. She was no longer safe because he had ignored the signs.
He'd ignored his gut feeling that there was still something wrong. He’d just left her at his house because he’d been foolishly arrogant she would be safe there. And now, now, his woman was in trouble for his failure.
Moving by the dog, he skimmed his gaze over him, knowing full well he had to fix him up. But, first things first, he had to get inside and see what information he could find on what occurred here during his absence.
Entering slowly, he proceeded with his gun ready and cleared his entire house. No sign of her. Aside from the broken window, the only signs of there being any problem was the fact she wasn’t there. A mug with cold tea sat by the door and beneath that was a box addressed to him.
Gun shoved back into his waistband, he strode back out to stand on the porch. The amount of blood on the snow bothered him and he called for the dog.
Cao looked over her shoulder at him but didn’t approach. At least not until Wild’s truck roared into the drive, snow spitting out from beneath the oversized tires until he squealed to a stop, ass end fishtailing.
By the time his brother hopped out, Cao stacked beside him, stance protective. Wild had his shotgun in hand as he hit the snow.
“What the fuck, man?” He gestured around with his free hand. “Broken glass, blood. What is going on? Rhodi and Adam are five minutes out.”
“Come on, I have to get the bleeding stopped on her dog.”
Wild shook his head. “Hell no, man, I ain’t going near that thing.”
“Take off your motherfucking girl panties, Marine, get over here and help me fix her dog.” He shoved his Glock into his waistband and bent at the knees to pick up Cao. Grunting as he got back up, he carried the dog in and set them down in the kitchen.
“Some hot water in a bowl with some cloth,” he barked the order to his brother.
Cao stood there bleeding onto the tile floor, not laying down, not relaxing his guard. When Wild handed over the items he’d requested, Derek crouched beside him and touched his head.
“I know this is gonna suck, boy. But I have to get this glass out of you. Once that’s done we go find your mama.”
He angled his large head so they were eye to eye. Derek may not have a lot of experience with dogs, but this one he got. Cao would put up with whatever he had to do to make sure he was okay for when they went after Avery. He sat on the floor and leaned in close, getting to work on the wounds, making sure they were clean and glass free.
Even when his brothers arrived, Cao didn’t move. The dog was marble until he completed his task. Dropping the last bit of glass in the second bowl, Derek glanced up to see his siblings there. He rinsed out the rag then put it back up to Cao’s wound.
“There’s a box by the door that wasn’t there when I left. My guess whoever took her came disguised as a delivery person. Check the box to see what you can find.”
“On it.” Adam walked away.
“Anything else happen that we don’t know about, Derek?”
He blew the breath out of the corner of his mouth while he removed the rag from Cao’s chest. “Like what, Rhodi? We came back from dinner last night, talked and fell asleep on the couch. She woke me from a nightmare, we went to my bed and fell back asleep. I was going to make breakfast when Wild called about the client we had to meet. All I did was tell her I was going there and then coming back, and we were going to talk.”
“She was okay with this? Nothing struck you as odd about her behavior?”
He shook his head, non-verbally responding to Wild. Scratching Cao behind the ears, he pushed to his feet. “I don’t think you need any stitches, boy, you’ll be fine.” He knew the dog could take some but didn’t feel it necessary, and quite honestly didn’t trust himself or the dog with a needle. They weren’t friends that way. At the sink, he dumped the bloody water down the drain and washed out the bowl, leaving the one with the glass particles seated on the counter.
Whirling back, he faced his brothers. “I forgot. She called her father last night.”
Adam walked in with the box, already opened, and set it on the counter. His expression told more than any amount of silence would. Whatever resided within those cardboard barriers wasn’t good.
Derek didn’t even ask his brother to tell him what it was, just moved over there and peered inside.
That rage rose again, free to fly and pour in every direction. Encouraged on by the winds. And this did. His world turned an ugly shade of red, and his fingers clenched and flexed while he struggled not to punch the counter.
“We need to be rational about this,” Rhodi said.
“If you say anything like that again, you’ll not make it home to your wife and kids.” The words ripped up deep from his gut. “I’m not being rational, this is a doll looking like her in pieces. Someone has her and I swear to fucking God, they will pay for daring to lay a hand on her.”
Rhodi licked his lips and gave a small shake of his head. “I don’t mean we don’t find her, but we—”
“Do you remember when it took the both of them to pull me off of you?”
Rhodi paled and Derek never lowered his gaze. A few years ago, Rhodi had come into his home spoiling for a fight, Derek had obliged him. Ever since he’d left the SEALs there’d been a darkness in him that didn’t take much to claim hold of him and push everything else away, surrounding him in a veil of wanting to kill. Egging him on to be violent.
“Say anything like that again and they won’t be able to get to me in time. Avery is my woman and I will kill to protect her. Without fail. Without hesitation. Make no mistake about this.”
“And that includes me?”
There was a low beating in the back of his head that wouldn’t be silenced. In fact, it was growing louder.
“If you get in my way, yes.”
Wild stepped between them. “Knock this off. We all know that’s not what Rhodi was intending to have come across as the meaning for his comment. But we do have to do this right. Rhodi and Adam, go and follow up on the call she made to her father. Something had to happen there for them to know where she was. She’d been off the grid until then.”
Adam grunted and gestured for Rhodi to head for the door. “And you two?”
“We’ll be finding out who dropped this off and go from there.” Wild’s calm tone helped to rein in the beast that had dug in his spurs and was riding him like a bucking bronc.
The moment his brothers were gone, Wild gripped one of his arms and shook him. “You need to put this anger in the fucking corner.” There wasn’t any forgiveness in his tone.
He snarled but Wild didn’t blink, nor did he back away. In fact, he stared then punched him in the face without any warning.
“Fuck, that hurt.” He stumbled back, pinching his nose once more to stop the bleeding.
“Suck it up, SEAL. You need to find your game face here. All this anger is narrowing your line of vision. She’s out there, somewhere, waiting on you to get her. So rein it in and get ready.”
Sharing a glance with Cao, he did just that.
