Fractured, page 24
I swallowed again, a bigger lump in my throat. It had been six months. Six long months.
“Nick.” I hesitated. “What are you doing here?”
He fixed his gaze on me and I met his head on. I wasn’t about to look away.
“Your cover is blown, Steele.” His voice was rough, almost harsh. “We need to get you out of here.”
“What?” My heart started to beat a little faster.
“Let’s go.” He grasped my upper arm and none-too-gently brought me to my feet.
I tried to jerk my arm from his hold, but he gripped me too tightly. “Knock it off, Donovan. I can walk by myself.”
He still didn’t let go. He leaned close and an ache pierced my chest as I caught his familiar masculine scent, a scent I had missed. I wanted to bury my face against his shirt and breathe deeply of it.
Damn it. I was distracted. I knew better than that, but his unexpected presence had thrown me completely off guard.
Gripping my small purse, I let him guide me toward the club entrance.
A huge man stepped in front of the door and stared at me. He had dark shoulder-length hair and a mustache and goatee. The corner of his mouth turned up in a half-smile, half-snarl.
My scalp prickled. Not good. So not good.
“This way.” Nick turned us around and we were headed for the bathrooms and back entrance when he made a quick right, around a corner, and straight into the kitchen.
My heels clicked on the tile as we hurried past servers, two cooks, big stoves, and shiny metal counters.
“Hey,” someone shouted. “Get out of here. You don’t belong in the kitchen.”
Ignoring the voice, Nick and I both glanced over our shoulders at the same time. We looked toward the doorway and saw that the big man had followed us.
And he had a gun pointed directly at me.
Chapter 2
Bullets are a girl’s best friend
* * *
I dropped at the same time Nick pushed me down just as I heard the retort of the gun. I heard the crash of glass and the screams of servers and cooks who’d been in the kitchen.
On my hands and knees I scrambled around a counter and two more bullets zinged by. Broken glass cut into my palms and knees. As I moved, I shoved my hand into my purse and pulled out a small Glock, flicked off the safety, and chambered a round. I took one second to press down on the center of the dragonfly pin to send a signal to HQ that I was in deep shit.
Nick was beside me and he already had his Glock in a two-fisted grip and was peering over the counter. He ducked as another shot ricocheted through the kitchen.
“It’s always an adventure around you, Steele,” Nick said. “Can’t stay out of trouble.”
“Screw you,” I muttered.
I looped the long strap of my purse around my neck and arm, cross body so that I wouldn’t drop it and lose valuable items. I had my back to the counter, and I listened. The screams had moved to the nightclub, but the kitchen was quiet.
Glass crunched beneath a boot and then silence. My pulse seemed to pound in my ears, adrenaline jacking me to the point where I could barely sit still. Cautiously I peered around the corner, my Glock ready.
The man was ready, too.
He aimed his gun at me, and I felt the bullet whiz by as I jerked out of the way. I looked at the back door that had a stack of boxes on the left side of the doorway. Twenty feet.
I met Nick’s eyes. “I’ll cover you,” he said.
It was so easy to slip back into working as a team. I nodded once and he held up his hand. At the same time, he gave me the signal to go, he rose and fired at the gunman.
In a crouch, I bolted toward the stack of boxes beside the door and hid behind them. A bullet hit the door, and buried itself in the wood. I peered and saw the gunman duck.
Where I was hiding, Nick could see me, but I didn’t think the gunman was able to. Nick was crouched down behind the counter and I gave him a nod. He bolted toward the door and the gunman rose again.
I took aim and fired. My bullet pierced his forehead and he dropped.
Nick rushed to me and we headed out the door when another man barreled into the kitchen and started shooting.
We made it out through the back door and into the night. Nick and I pressed our backs against the nightclub’s brick wall. Nick was closest to the door and he raised his gun as he peered around the door.
He fired two shots and whipped back around. “He’s down.”
And then we bolted for the parking lot. My car had been valet parked so I followed Nick without question to his black Explorer. He unlocked it and I climbed into the passenger seat while he made it to the driver’s side.
In the distance I heard sirens, likely the Recovery Enforcement Division. Once I’d sent a signal to RED, with their ultra-high-tech equipment, they would have rerouted all calls for the police and jammed all other signals coming out of the club. This was now RED’s mess to deal with.
A bullet struck the windshield, piercing and spider webbing the safety glass. I saw the gunman directly in front of us. I buzzed down the window at the same time Nick started the vehicle and tore out of the parking lot. I leaned out the window and shot the gunman in the chest.
I didn’t even see him go down as Nick peeled out of the lot and onto the street. We couldn’t take a chance on anyone getting another look at me in connection with the shootings, so we didn’t return to the scene as RED arrived. I’d have to have someone pick up the little red Mercedes I’d driven. We’d be debriefed tomorrow.
With a groan of frustration, I buzzed up the window then shoved my Glock into my purse. “How the hell did my cover get blown?”
“The snitch who fed you the information was caught by Hagstedt’s—Bachmann’s—men,” Nick said. “They tortured it out of him. I doubt it took long.”
“Damn.” I ground my teeth and sank back against the leather seat. “All of that work for not a damned thing.”
Nick said nothing and then our reality started creeping back in as the adrenaline rush slowly subsided. I looked at him. I couldn’t stop myself from tracing with my gaze the strong lines of his jaw, and every other feature I knew so well. I wanted to feel his stubble beneath the pads of my fingers, slip my hands into his soft hair then move my palms down until I felt the steel of his arms and chest. I wanted to rest my head on his chest and listen to his heartbeat.
It was crazy to be having these kinds of thoughts about him when we’d just been chased and shot at. But I’d never been able to help myself around him. Never.
And the truth was, I’d missed him.
He glanced from the street to me and I felt heat rush to every part of my body.
“What are you doing back in Boston?” I asked. “You’ve been gone for six months.”
“I have unfinished business here.” He looked from me to the road. “I have things to settle before I go back to Arizona.”
My heart squeezed. Some stupid part of me had hoped he was back in Boston to stay. I’d driven him away so what reason would he have to care one way or another about me?
I realized my short dress was almost up to my hips and I tugged it down. “How’s Kristen?”
A part of Nick softened, something intangible that I could sense and feel.
“Better.” He glanced at me. “Small town life in Bisbee has been healing. She’s not afraid to go out in public alone anymore and she’s gaining some of her confidence back.”
“That’s good.” I felt a measure of relief for Kristen. “How has her self-defense training gone?”
“She took to it like nothing I’ve ever seen before and she practices for hours every day.” The corner of his mouth almost turned up in a smile. “I think she could do some damage to any bastard who tried to hurt her.”
“I pray that she’ll never need to use her new skills,” I said.
Nick didn’t reply and I glanced out of the window and saw that we were almost to my apartment in Southie. I hadn’t been paying attention and didn’t realize we were so close.
My palms started to burn, and I realized that I had gotten some glass in them when I was on my hands and knees in the nightclub’s kitchen.
We reached the egg yolk-yellow trip—short for triple-decker—that housed my apartment. He parked and shut off the engine.
I don’t know what possessed me, but I said, “Do you want to come up? I have some Guinness in the fridge.”
He studied me for a long moment then gave a nod. A flutter in my belly told me that this wasn’t a good idea. But since when did I listen to my head with it came to Nick Donovan?
I climbed out of the black Explorer after glancing at the spider webbed window and realized for the first time just how close I’d come to being shot. Nick had saved my ass more than once tonight.
We walked side-by-side to the trip and I unlocked the door that opened into the hallway and shut the door behind me. We headed up the stairs to the second floor and I realized my hands were shaking a little as I stuck the key in the lock and turned it.
A sliver of embarrassment went through me at what a mess my apartment was and then I forced it away. I wasn’t normally embarrassed by my home and lack of perfect housekeeping. Take me as I am.
Nick, Mr. Neat Freak, had been to my place more times than I could count when we were together, and he’d never once said anything about the perpetual mess. He had always accepted me for me, one of the things I loved about him.
Love. That’s what had driven us apart.
Love was something I couldn’t feel again, and that wouldn’t be fair to him. He hadn’t seen it that way.
I turned on the light and he shut the door behind us. A package of pecan sandies rested on an end table while an empty pizza box was front and center on the coffee table. Next to it was a Guinness bottle. Clothes were scattered over a chair including my purple panties and matching bra that were draped over it. Hell, I hadn’t expected company tonight.
Tiny shivers skittered along my skin as he took my hands and I almost jerked them away, afraid of what might happen when he touched me. But he was looking at my hands. I glanced down and saw the blood and cuts on my palms. They burned and so did my knees.
“Damn, Steele.” His eyes met mine. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“It’s not as bad as it looks.” I tugged my hands away from his and turned to walk into my kitchen. Prickles ran up and down my spine as I felt his gaze on me. I went to the sink and started picking out the glass.
“Let me.” He moved me aside, stood in front of me, and took my hands again.
I wanted to argue but his touch did something to me. It melted me, making me want so much from him. At that moment I could hardly think straight from all of the desire and longing I had bottled up inside me over the past months.
Shouldn’t have asked him to come up, Lexi. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
He finished picking out the glass then rinsed my palms under the water. His touch was firm yet gentle. He released my hands then looked at my knees. I looked, too, almost bumping his head with mine.
“Sit.” He took me by the arm and pushed me down into a chair at my small kitchen table, then crouched in front of me. Not as many cuts were on my knees as had been on my palms.
Normally I wouldn’t let a man tell me what to do in any way. But something about Nick tonight had me obeying and doing whatever he wanted me to do. I wanted to reach out and touch his soft dark hair, run my fingers through the strands as he paid attention to my knees. He removed what little glass there was and wiped the cuts with a clean dishcloth.
When he had finished and tossed all of the glass shards, he came back to me. I could only watch him, my heart in my throat. He took me by my wrist and brought me to my feet.
“I missed you, Lexi.” His voice was rough. He didn’t call me Steele like he normally did. In the past he’d only used Lexi when we were intimate.
“Nick—” I started to tell him to stop when he jerked me toward him and brought his mouth down hard on mine.
The moment he kissed me all coherent thought took flight. I couldn’t get enough of him. Couldn’t get enough of the taste of him, the feel of his hands on me, his warm masculine scent. My mind felt like it was spinning, and I knew I’d lost complete control. Hell, I’d lost control the moment I saw him tonight.
His hands felt familiar and warm as he moved them from my shoulders to my waist and the curve of my hips. He brought me tight to him and I felt his hard length pressed against my belly. His desire clearly matched my own.
I slid my arms around his neck, kissing him with all the pent-up passion that had been building inside me for so long. I hadn’t even realized the power of it until that moment.
My breathing grew heavier, my nipples tight against the soft material of my dress. I moved my hands from around his neck as he kissed me and spread my palms over his chest before easing them down to the button of his jeans.
He caught my hands in his as he broke the kiss, keeping me from going any further.
“We have to stop.” He searched my gaze as confusion swept through me. “Unless you’re willing to give me your heart, I can’t do this, Lexi.”
I stared at him. “You know I can’t do that.”
“Can’t and won’t are two different things.” His jaw tightened. He took me by my shoulders. “I thought that giving you some time and space might help you realize that we have more going on between us than just sex.”
I looked away from him. “I’m damaged goods, Nick. I’m broken inside.”
He caught my face in his hands. “You are not, and it’s time you got that through your thick head.”
I wanted so much to believe him, but I didn’t. I couldn’t.
I’d been an assassin. I’d killed people I didn’t know and didn’t have any idea if they’d been good or bad. It hadn’t been my choice, but I had done what I was ordered to do. Because I had to.
“Why are you here?” I asked as he moved his hands away from my face. “You didn’t come back for me.”
His eyes darkened. “Hagstedt. Or Bachmann. Whatever the hell he’s called now.”
I gave a slow nod. Bachmann was the reason why I couldn’t sleep at night. It used to be the horrors of my past. Now it was because of the horrors that Bachmann put innocent victims through every day of their lives. When I’d finally come face to face with him, I hadn’t been able to take him down.
Nick took a step away from me, putting cool distance between us. “I’ll see you Monday at HQ.”
“Are you working for RED again?” I asked as he turned away.
“I never stopped.” He looked over his shoulder as he grasped the doorknob. “See you Monday.” He opened the door and paused, as if he was going to say something else. But then he walked out and shut the door firmly behind him.
Also by Cheyenne McCray
(in reading order)
* * *
~Romantic Suspense~
* * *
“Recovery Enforcement Division” Series
Ruthless
Fractured
Vendetta
* * *
“Deadly Intent” Series
Hidden Prey
No Mercy
Taking Fire
Point Blank
* * *
Single Title
Chosen Prey
* * *
~Contemporary Cowboys~
* * *
“King Creek Cowboy” Series
The McLeods
Country Heat
Country Thunder
Country Storm
* * *
“Riding Tall 2” Series
The McBrides Too
Amazed by You
Loved by You
Midnight With You
Wild for You
Sold on You
* * *
“Riding Tall” Series
The McBrides
Branded For You
Roping Your Heart
Fencing You In
Tying You Down
Playing With You
Crazy For You
Hot For You
Made For You
Held By You
Belong To You
* * *
“Rough and Ready” Series
The Camerons
Silk and Spurs
Lace and Lassos
Champagne and Chaps
Satin and Saddles
Roses and Rodeo (with Creed McBride)
Lingerie and Lariats
Lipstick and Leather
* * *
“Armed and Dangerous” Series
Zack
Luke
Clay
Kade
Alex (novella)
* * *
Save by purchasing Boxed Sets
* * *
Riding Tall the First Boxed Set
Includes
Branded for You
Roping Your Heart
Fencing You In
* * *
Riding Tall the Second Boxed Set
Includes
Tying You Down
Playing with You
Crazy for You
* * *
Riding Tall the Third Boxed Set
Includes
Hot for You
Made for You
Held by You
Belong to You
* * *
Rough and Ready Boxed Set One
Includes
Silk and Spurs
Lace and Lassos
Champagne and Chaps
