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“WHAT DID THE man being arrested by a female police officer say after she informed him ‘anything you say can, and will be, used against you?’” Hawk Cullen asked, wearing a smug, inebriated look on his face.
Duke Falkner sipped his chilled beer, not offering an answer to the smartass joke from the group’s smartass joker. He could imagine the racy punch line about to follow.
“Go get laid already and quit wasting our time with your lame ass jokes.” Stone Patino swallowed the remnants of beer from his mug and then held up his glass to motion the bartender for a refill.
“I’m not opposed to that suggestion.” Hawk spun around on the stool, placed his elbows behind him on the bar as his hungry eyes scoured the women in the booths, the ladies swaying their asses on the dance floor, and the intoxicated, boisterous crowd wearing bachelorette sashes by the dart board. Duke’s eyes had lingered over there too, but for a completely different reason. The women’s aim at the dartboard had been heavy-handed when they first begun. Now, after downing a good handful of shots, their aim was looking plain dangerous. Someone was bound to be the victim of one of their wayward darts soon.
Stone tilted his head back, breaking Duke’s view and asked, “Where’re you staying?”
Deciding to take a last minute, unplanned vacation in the quaint tourist town of Willow Valley hadn’t left Duke with a wide variety of options when choosing a place to stay. Almost everywhere had been booked solid until halfway into fall, and even then, apparently this town was in high demand. On a fluke, after being unable to find a place, he’d stopped at Bucky’s Bar for a quick beer only to discover they rented rooms. He hadn’t jumped at first—it was on the main street, the rooms were small, and he wasn’t positive they didn’t rent by the hour— but the bitter malty taste of their locally brewed craft beer made him pull out his wallet to book a room above the joint. What the hell. He had no complaints.
Lying in his room at night and listening to the loud music beat until two in the morning—he wasn’t one to need more than a few hours of sleep—stirred memories of his old life—a life long before his devoted years working for the Blake family as their personal bodyguard. He’d first proven himself worthy working at Oscar Blake’s side, before the underground boxer had assigned him to his—at the time—teenage son and daughter.
The close to twenty-four-hour-a-day job had left him little to no personal time. Which had been the career he’d chosen, and the life he’d opted to live. The need to protect people had coursed through his blood as long as he could remember ... ever since the night he’d been too young, too small, and too naive to stop what had happened. He’d run. From that day forward, he’d never trusted another person, knowing the ones you let in were the ones who inflicted the utmost pain. He wouldn’t make that mistake twice. Now that the Blakes didn’t need his security, he felt his life pause while he sat in limbo waiting for his next step.
A step he couldn’t decide which direction to take. Did he take on another notable celebrity? Lord knew the second rumors had surfaced that his service was available, the calls had come in. Or a politician? Maybe go into government. He had options, and yet, he found himself sipping beer on vacation. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken a vacation, if ever.
Truthfully, drinking beer and partaking in small talk made him uneasy. Maybe it was because he didn’t know how to relax enough to vacation. His brain hadn’t turned off since he’d sat down. The giddy bachelorettes weren’t the only people catching his attention. He’d noted Miss Brown Eyes sitting in a booth by the front door—again for reasons on an entirely different scale than Hawk, whose top priority was getting into her pants.
Duke could sense her disinterest in hooking up, unlike the shady guy who’d approached her earlier. The guy she’d declined had been keeping tabs on her the rest of the night. Perhaps only Duke could spot how her rejection had riled him up, and how he’d refused to laugh and play pool with his friends without sending her menacing looks between shots ever since.
“Duke, you in there?” Stone asked.
He hadn’t forgotten the original question, that wasn’t how Duke was wired. Every detail grained into his head, stored, and stayed there until he needed to use it. “I’m staying in a room here.”
Hawk grunted and his joking banter—which some people might take offense to—followed. “Dude, there are some great bed and breakfasts in town that don’t have cockroaches.”
“You looking to get yourself banned from my place?” Buck, a hippie looking character with a long, grey ponytail and round glasses stopped in front of the guys holding a pitcher of gold liquid to fill Hawk’s empty glass. “Scaring away my customers will put me out of business.”
“So will the food inspection if they ever catch you buck-naked cooking in the kitchen.” Hawk held his glass out for a refill. “See what I did there? Buck, buck naked.” Laughter roared out of him.
Buck ignored him with a shrug and grin, leaning forward, but keeping the pitcher of beer out of Hawk’s reach. “The key word there is ‘if’ and most people who crash in my rooms aren’t awake early enough to join me and the wife for breakfast.”
Hawk jiggled his glass. “Fill me up.”
Buck glanced at his pitcher, and puckered his lips to one side of his wrinkled mouth. “I think I see a cockroach floating in this one.”
When Buck walked out of hearing distance, leaving Hawk’s glass empty, Hawk reached over the counter and put his glass under the tap to fill it himself.
“Does he really cook naked?” Duke asked. He hoped, at the very least, the old man wore an apron because burning the downstairs area would hurt like a bitch.
“Every morning.” Hawk brought the frosty gold liquid to his mouth and gulped a mouthful before stopping to whistle at a tall, black-haired beauty as she sauntered by.
The young girl, looking to be in her mid-twenties, and enjoying his attention, flashed him a red-lipstick smile over her shoulder.
“Damn, I want to be between those long legs.” Hawk made a noise deep in his chest that sounded a lot like a growl.
Truthfully, Duke wouldn’t mind being between her legs either, or any woman for that mattered. It had been longer than he would admit, but every time he even looked at a woman with the intention of anything more than a casual hello, he stirred up memories of the one woman he wanted. The one he couldn’t have. The one he left behind because he hadn’t trusted himself around her.
“I see you eyeing her up.” Hawk slapped Duke’s shoulder. He cringed at the contact, fisting his hands to keep from flipping Hawk off the stool and flat onto his back against the floor. “I’ll let you have her. After your week with this guy”—he lifted his thumb in Stone’s direction—“You deserve it.”
He was referring to the week of preparation for the underground fights where Stone had pummeled his opponent’s only weeks ago and nearly gotten them all killed, Hawk included.
Duke had learned a lot about Stone and Hawk during that time. He was confident that Stone would efficiently watch over Bowie Blake—whom Stone was now engaged to—relieving Duke’s overworked mind from worry. And Hawk was a woman lover of all kinds ... except the relationship type.
“You saw her first man, go for it.” Duke raised his glass to salute him.
Hawk set his beer on the bar and smoothed his hands over his shirt, straightening the material. “Don’t mind if I do.”
Sliding from the stool, Hawk snatched two mugs brimming with beer—his and one belonging to Stone—and walked across the room to where the black-haired beauty wearing a skin-tight dress the same dark grey color as her eyes, watched his every move. She accepted the glass, rewarding Hawk with a flirtatious kiss on his cheek. Subtlety clearly wasn’t her strong suit.
“What did I miss?” Dax Colyn stepped into Duke’s view before sliding into Hawk’s empty chair. He raised his hand to the bartender for a drink.
“Hawk’s latest catch.” Stone nodded in their friend’s direction. After having a couple of drinking sessions with these men, Duke recognized Hawk’s hand motions as he elaborated a story about the demands of his firefighter day job. Apparently, he used that card regularly to pick up tourists and an average of nine out of ten times he snagged the woman. Tonight didn’t appear to be the exception.
At least one of them was getting laid. Of course, Dax and Stone had their women to go home to, so it seemed Duke was the only one heading to an empty bed. He did a casual look at Miss Brown Eyes and was disappointed when he realized he was the one lacking interest. He glanced at sketchy guy and once again found him sending a snarl in her direction. Duke was tempted to just cross the room and have a word with him, or maybe his fist would have a word with his face.
“You have that look,” Stone said.
Duke sipped his beer, ignoring him.
“You’re not working. Relax. Drink your beer, faster, enjoy the freedom of not having to keep your eyes on someone.”
“Six men have walked up to her table in forty-five minutes. Three were so persistent, she threatened to call security. One group Buck called off.” Duke didn’t mention the sketchy guy still giving her malicious looks. Some men chose not to comprehend the word “no” and Duke had no problem demonstrating the consequences.
“See, that’s not vacationing, man, it’s working without getting paid.” Stone slapped his shoulder one last time before spinning to face the bar and his drink.
Duke’s awareness to detail, situations, people, and surroundings were no longer just a job, it was a part of him. Stone understood. He calculated people in the same way whenever he stepped into a boxing ring. Awareness to detail helped him survive, just like it’d saved the lives Duke vowed to protect.
“Maybe you should go say hi,” Hawk said.
She was way too young for Duke.
He lifted the cool glass to graze his lips before saying, “Maybe I’ll finish my drink and call it an early night.”
“Boo!” Both men groaned.
“Bullshit, you’re both here to appease me when you really want to be at home with your women.”
The men grumbled responses, but never once disagreed with his statement.
When Miss Brown Eyes began to pack her books in a bag, Duke caught sketchy guy’s awareness. His gut told him there was going to be trouble.
Duke swallowed the remainder of his beer as she slung the bag over her shoulder and left a bill on the table before heading toward the exit.
“I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“Boo, we were just about to do a round of pool.” Stone pointed at a table emptying. “How about one round?”
His peripheral vision accounted for every step sketchy guy took and Duke saw him make his way directly to where the Miss Brown Eyes had just exited.
Duke slammed his hands down on Dax and Stone’s shoulders and squeezed. “Thanks, guys, but another night.” He turned around to find sketchy guy nowhere in sight, but he knew exactly where he’d disappeared.
Duke’s leather loafers tapped against the hardwood floor as he strode across the room and pushed open the bar door to step out into the warm evening. His eyes needed time to adjust from the dim lit bar to the brightly lit Main Street. Old fashioned street lights lined the road while strings of lights draped through the trees along the boardwalk. The window shop displays made Main Street bright and cheerful for this late hour.
He looked right and left, all his senses on high alert, taking in sounds, smells, and sight. People still lingered in the street, but when he dug deep down in his senses, he heard the scraping sound of sketchy guy’s cowboy boots to his right.
His head twisted, but the man was out of sight. Duke briskly walked down the road and made a sharp turn at an alleyway between Mrs. Calvert’s Bakery and a soap shop.
The sound of a woman’s low voice and a deep man’s voice made him speed up his pace. At the back of the alleyway he heard a thud before he saw the young girl fall against a wall and sketchy guy move in closer.
That son of a bitch.
Rage poured through Duke. His job was to protect and the couple beers he’d downed at the bar had obviously made him sloppy and slow. No one on his watch had ever been hurt.
Not that she was on his watch, but he’d be damned if sketchy guy walked away from this.
He grabbed the back of sketchy guy’s shirt and spun him around. “You want to fight?”
He held his hands up. “Hey man, there’s no need for viol—”
Duke’s fist met his face with a cracking sound, sending the guy stumbling back against the wall and grasping his broken nose. “What the hell?”
Duke ignored his muffled question and was already dialing 911 on his cell phone. “Stay put.” He pointed at the assaulter.
When dispatch rang in his ear, he gave the location and a quick run-down of the situation before hanging up.
“Hey man, you called the cops.” Sketchy guy started to stand and Duke took one step toward him, pointing his finger with a warning look on his face. The guy sat back down against the wall.
He glanced over his shoulder at the young girl holding her cheek. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I-I think so. Thank you.”
He nodded, not needing a thank you. He’d never protect enough people to make up for the three people he hadn’t protected.
His cell phone vibrated and a private number popped up on the screen. “Hello?”
“Duke?” He recognized Celeste Ellis’s voice immediately. It had been over ten years since he’d talked to her, not that he’d ever talked to her much then either, but he never forgot a voice or face. With only one person connecting him with Celeste, nasty thoughts clouded his mind. For that brief moment, everything around him ceased to exist. He didn’t hear the cars revving their vehicles or the laughter from by-passers. He didn’t smell barbeque wafting from the businesses or the warm beachy smell of downtown.
For that brief moment the bleeding nose loser behind him and the scared woman who’d crept to his side were so far from his mind he should be ashamed, but there was no room when the one woman who’d managed to slink around every wall he’d ever built up inside him could be in trouble, or worse, dead.
“Is Sage hurt?” he asked. It had been years since he’d said her name out loud and thinking of her stirred feelings inside him.
“No, but she’s in danger. We’re both in danger. I need your help.”