06 All Bark And No Bite

  “Are you kidding me? We need to write a book about this shit, no one would believe how this is all connected. Hell, even when we say this stuff out loud I'm astounded that we lived through this mess to begin with,” Bailey said.

  “Maybe we have a Guardian Angel?” Phoebe laughed. “It would at least explain how we keep getting out of this. When I was in the Security office, I could have sworn there was someone there protecting me. I can’t really even remember what happened.”

  “That's good, I remember every single detail.” Bailey shrugged.

  Chapter Three

  It all began with a simple plan. Find the information she needed and leave. It was that simple. However, someone should have told the Mob that. Bailey laughed as she drank her glass of wine and regaled the story of how she and her husbands met. It was funny and yet scary, but the group decided to take it as being funny. All of them wore huge bulls-eyes on their back for so long, none of them knew how to act like normal any more.

  “Can you imagine? I was living a nice, calm, little life. Granted I was lonely and wondering what the hell I was going to do with the rest of my life, but that's beside the point. When I heard the doors to the office open, I seriously could have peed my pants a little. But I got what I needed and then did the only thing I could, I ran.” Bailey laughed, and kept telling her story.

  “I swear when Noah appeared, he was like my Knight in Shining Armor.”

  Noah pulled out of the garage and took off for the day. He loved it when he played taxi driver. It entertained him to listen to others as they complained about their lives and offer them advice in the time it took him to get them to their destination.

  Noah was on the third fare of the day thinking he was going to stop for lunch when the back door of the cab flung open and a tiny, beautiful woman jumped in and dove for the floor. He had to lean over the seat to see what the hell she was doing and find out where she was going because he couldn’t see her.

  “Please, just drive. I have one-hundred dollars cash if you leave now and just head north,” she said before he could get a good look at her face.

  “Okay, are we playing a game or something?” he teased and pulled away from the curve.

  “Please, just drive,” the woman said, and Noah heard the fear for the first time and pressed on the gas, squealing the tires. Something was wrong with the woman and for some reason Noah felt he needed to help. Dallas was gonna be pissed, again.

  After they had been on the road for about ten minutes, Noah looked in his review mirror and said quietly, “Is there a reason a big dude and little old man would be following you? They are behind us waving for me to pull over.”

  “Shit, please, whatever you do, don’t pull over. I will pay you whatever you want,” she whispered.

  “Well, dare I ask why?” he said quietly.

  “They will kill me. Please, if you want, just pull over at a busy intersection, and I will jump out. Just give me a running chance here,” she said, crying.

  Dallas was gonna be really pissed, because now Noah was going to do exactly what Dallas would hate, he was going to help a stranger. Noah shook his head in disgust and thought, Fuck, and pushed the fare sign off. He took a deep breath and asked the question he wasn't sure he wanted the answer to. “Darlin’, you need to tell me what I'm risking life and limb for,” he drawled, trying to sound in control of the situation.

  “Just tell me when to jump,” she squeaked in a very endearing way.

  Noah smiled to himself and said, “No jumping from a moving car, sweetheart. Seriously, they are coming around the left side of the taxi, so stay down. You are small enough. It shouldn't be hard to hide.”

  Noah turned and smiled out the window at the elderly man who was glaring at him. Noah frowned when the bigger guy who was driving swung his Crown Victoria toward him. Seriously, this guy was pissing him off. What the hell did they want with the little woman in the back? Noah looked again and thought he saw the gleam of metal in the old man’s hand.

  “What the hell? These guys have guns,” he said more to himself than to her, but it caused the woman to scream.

  “What? Pull over, I can make a run for it, they can’t catch me in a crowd,” she said, popping her head up high enough that Noah was worried the other men would see it.

  “Down!” he growled to his erection that was growing quickly. First, save the damsel in distress, then you can think about fucking her, he thought. Holy shit, she was beautiful. She looked like a little pixie with red, curly hair and a heart-shaped face with big green eyes. Ohhh, we would make cute babies, he thought. WHAT? Where the hell had that come from? Car chasing them, focus Noah.

  “Please, I don’t want you to get hurt. I just needed a ride. I need to get out and get away from here. Do you know if there is a flight leaving for Alaska anytime soon? I think I could hide there from them,” she said again with the tears flowing down her cheeks. “I have never done anything but go to work and go home. Now here I am being chased by a crazy mobster, in the cab of a surfer dude, and thinking of moving to the Arctic, all for doing my job. I was just trying to get the numbers to add up. Seriously, is that so bad, thinking one-plus-one should equal two not forty-five million? Now what? I get to move to the wetlands of the Arctic. I have never even had an orgasm. Shit, I never will. I am going to die a cold, wet, dead fish with no orgasm, no fun, and no love. That is just pathetic, why couldn’t I just have some hot sex and not care about my job like the rest of the world? Defective, that’s what I am, defective,” she rambled on and on.

  Noah’s mouth fell open, listening to the cute, little sprite in his back seat. He was driving seventy-five miles an hour down the road, laughing at the cute redhead with Grumpy and Lumpy following them with guns. How had his day spiraled so completely out of control? Was she really talking about orgasms when he was worried about being shot?

  He looked around trying to figure out where he was going to lose these dip shits. He was traveling north and soon they would hit the mousetrap. It was a strip of highway, which they referred to in Denver as a maze of exits and entrances onto the main thoroughfare. He had about ten minutes and he could effectively lose them. What was he going to do with her though? He looked back to the seat in the rearview mirror and smiled again. She was stretched out on the back seat still mumbling to herself again about something to do with sex, which gave him a better view of her body, and oh my God, what a body it was! She was no more than five feet tall because she fit in the back seat stretched from one end to the other just fine. She had a thin, narrow waist, curvy hips, and the most luscious set of breasts he had ever seen, all in this cute, perfect package. It was as if she was made for Dallas and him.

  Noah thought for a minute, picked up his cell phone, and called in reinforcements. That was the good thing about having an abundance of disposable income at your fingertips—you could make miracles happen in short periods of time. He called the security company they had used for many years and asked for the head of the personal protection detail. It only took moments for the deep voice to come across the line.

  “Dude, what are you calling for now? I told you I would be over tomorrow for the game. I'm bringing the brew!” Steve said laughing on the phone. “Besides, the Broncos are on a role. They can’t lose, so get to the ATM before you get home.”

  “Steve, I got a problem,” Noah said in a strained voice. He looked out the window again, and now he knew they had guns because they were pointing them at him. “I got two guys following the cab with guns pointed at me and my passenger. License plate is ‘POPS.’ I'm coming up on the mousetrap, where do I go?”

  Noah pushed the speakerphone because he knew he was going to need both hands in a few minutes. Steve was barking to someone in the background, trying to find where there were close operatives. Noah and Dallas were his best clients and after what had happened three years ago, they were also his friends.

  “Okay, man, here we go. You will see a black, four—door, 4 Runner pull up next to you in the
next few minutes. It's Jolly and Mike, let them pull ahead of you and follow them. There will be another 4 Runner on the other side of the Crown Vic. They will take care of those guys, just follow Jolly, I will call Dal and have him meet you here,” Steve said to Noah.

  “Honey, I need you to stop talking for a minute, okay?” Noah said to his passenger.

  “Huh, did you say jump in a minute?” she squeaked.

  Two things happened at the same time. The men in the Crown Vic lost their patience, and the girl sat up. The results were almost catastrophic. The old man fired at Noah and missed, instead firing into the back window. Bailey sat up at the same time with her hand on the passenger door ready to jump, when the window exploded into the back seat.

  “Fuck!” Steve and Noah yelled at the same time because they both knew what the noise was. Noah swerved and jerked the car away from the Crown Vic, who refused to leave them and followed, almost sideswiping a few cars in the process.

  Noah finally saw Jolly in the rearview mirror and breathed a sigh of relief because he was no longer alone. The 4 Runner pulled in between the taxi and the Crown Vic, putting Jolly next to the old man who screamed when he saw the giant.

  Jolly was named after the Jolly Green Giant on the cans of veggies. He was huge, scary, and Noah loved him right about now.

  Noah finally had a chance to look in the back of the taxi as Steve was screaming into the phone for him to leave Jolly and drive to the security office. All he could see was the little woman covered in blood.

  “Steve, have Dallas meet me at the hospital and send Jolly over when he's done. We need protection for a friend, and she has been shot,” he said grimly.

  “Shit, who was it, man?” Steve whispered into the phone. Steve knew all of his friends because Dallas made sure the man, at one time or another, did a background check on anyone Noah came into contact with for more than twenty-four hours.

  “Crap, I don’t know. I didn’t ask!” Noah said and looked at the woman again. There was something about her and he knew she was going to be the one. When Dallas saw her, he would think so, too.

  “Dude, you’re killing me here. Dallas is gonna shit kitties,” Stevie muttered and hung up.

  Noah was fairly certain they were safe, for the time being. He needed to get her to the hospital.

  Bailey sat back and laughed while the other women looked behind them when Dallas and Noah walked into the room. Dallas narrowed his eyes and smiled at his wife indulgently. She was due to deliver any day, and the men were freaking out. They had a doctor on standby and Bailey was about ready to pull her hair out.

  “You know, I am not the first woman in the world to ever give birth,” she teased her husbands who glared at her.

  “Why, are you feeling something?” Dallas asked briskly and looked at Noah. “Maybe we should call the doctor.”

  Noah pulled out his phone and Bailey yelled, “Touch that phone and you will be sleeping in the spare room for a fucking month.”

  “Hey, you are gonna be a mommy. I thought we talked about this, no more cussing,” Dallas chided and tried to soothe her.

  “Listen, mister, you will too if you don’t stop hovering. I'm fine. The due date is not for another week or so, we are going to be fine. Everything is in place. Now, get the hell out of here and let me have time with the girls before I kill you,” Bailey snapped.

  The women laughed as the men rolled their eyes and walked out of the room. They all wanted to take notes on how she handled them.

  “I don’t know how you do it. Drew and Rex are overbearing even when I'm not pregnant. I can’t imagine living like that for nine months,” Jazz drawled.

  “Well, I think I can give you pointers on that one. The only thing they are truly scared of is sleeping in another room.” Bailey mused. “So that's what I threaten them with, no snuggle time and they back off.”

  Lily snorted and then looked around the room, all of them were in relationships, and although she was technically in one also, with her men, she knew they would be pissed after Christmas when she did what she had to do. A decision had to be made. She struggled with it for a long while, should I or shouldn’t I, but when everyone sat in this room with her earlier, and she saw the love and the bonds being formed, it wasn't too hard of an answer to get. She would protect these people with her life. It was something she knew she would do.

  Now the remaining question was—would she be a virgin when she did it. Lily looked as her men entered the room and smiled at her. She could feel the warmness in her heart begin to flood through her. She loved them. They showed an amazing amount of patience with her. She was not going to lose that. Lily smiled back. It was gonna be tough, but she trusted in the love and knew when she did something amazingly stupid and dangerous they would forgive her. Be pissed yes, possibly not talk to her yes, but in the end, their love would hold them together. At least, she hoped so.

  “Hey, we have a few leads. Do you mind if we order in some pizza and wings, maybe Chinese, what do you think?” Bear said, bent down, and kissed her head. Lily sighed and leaned into his embrace as Trent sat on the other side of her.

  “How about pizza, order a bunch for the guys, too. It's cold out there,” Lily said softly.

  “Thanks,” Trent said and kissed her, too.

  Lily smiled and looked back at her friends. “So where were we?”

  Bailey laughed and said, “It's Calli's turn to tell her amazingly, crazy story. But first let me say a few things here, ladies. I feel like I am truly blessed to have found you. I know that we are all meeting under stressful circumstances, but I really am excited about this whole crazy new family we have.”

  Her friends smiled back at her, and Bailey felt the baby kick. She wasn't lying when she said she was happy about having these people in her life. When she was on her own trying to get the information to take Digrossi down, she never felt so alone. In a matter of a year, her life and her circle of friends had grown so much she never wanted to go back to those old days of eating a TV dinner by herself in front of the television watching old re-runs.

  Even with the whole finger incident, things were still better, she thought, and then smiled. Maybe for the sake of dinner she would leave that whole story out.

  Chapter Four

  Calli laughed at her best friend, looked around the room at her new ones, and smiled. “My tale is really Bailey’s fault. I mean, I was content on just being in the background of her crazy life. I knew Dallas and Noah long before I knew Bailey. Since you know I'm a designer, I used to be Dallas and Noah’s tailor, if you will. So when they called and told me about Bailey, I, of course, rushed over with clothes. We hit it off and so I was sucked in.”

  Bailey yelled at her, “Not true, she knew the guys before I did, bitch.”

  “Fine, believe what you want. Anyway, Jolly and Steve worked for Noah and Dallas, we kinda all just hung out together. I was a bit of a chicken shit, I admit it, I mean, two men, really? What the hell would the neighbors think? Then it all came crashing down around me when I got the phone call. Like I said though, it was all Bailey's fault,” Calli teased.

  Calli was fun and boisterous. Lily loved her from the moment she met her. She also had a 'take no shit' attitude that Lily sorely needed. She wondered if she could get lessons.

  Jazz smiled at her childhood best friend and wondered what was going through her head. She had known Lily when they were small, and Jazz was the only one who had been able to tell when something was going on with her friend, and something was definitely going on. Ever since the mail came a week ago, Lily had been acting weird. They always went to the box and got it together, but that day Lily and one of the guards were coming back from shopping in a nearby town for a few things they missed in their delivery.

  They had to switch up their shopping, so no one could trace them. So far, Junior hadn't been able to find the place, but everyone assumed that sooner or later he would be smart enough to look right where he should have the whole time. Most of their supplies c
ame from the Internet. They ordered in bulk. However, they couldn’t really order milk, eggs, etc., so one of them had to go to the store. Lily knew where all the stores were in the surrounding cities, and so she just alternated.

  When Lily arrived back to the Big House, they had all been waiting to help unload. Lily had been extremely pale and even though no one else paid attention, Jazz noticed when she stuck the large envelope in her purse when she got out of the truck. The men were too busy getting the bags, and when Jazz casually asked about the mail, Lily had smiled and handed her everything but the large, brown envelope.

  Something was up and so far, her friend hid it well. But Jazz could see the stress lines on her face. She was about ready to open her mouth when the conversation that had swirled around her finally sank in.

  “It was not!” Bailey laughed.

  “Yes it was, they told me on the damn phone that Jolly got shot,” Calli yelled and then laughed when Bailey stuck out her tongue. “See, all your fault.”

  “Whatever, your life would be boring if someone wasn’t fucking shooting at us!” Bailey said, and her men yelled at her again.

  “Language!” Noah yelled.

  “You totally need to teach your men etiquette on telling people bad news. They suck!” Calli sputtered.

  Jolly smiled grimly and turned to get the heck out of the office quickly. He figured Trent was going to try to intercept Bailey and wanted to draw his attention away from Bailey and Steve and onto him and the decoy. He pulled the female agent out of the door with him and walked quickly to the elevators. He at least was able to breathe a sigh of relief when Steve stepped out of the elevator they were waiting for. They nodded to each other but didn't stop to talk. Jolly would not feel better until Bailey was safe in the loft with Dallas and Noah.