Slowly, numbly, she shrugged. “I knew you were dangerous and relentless in pursuing somebody.” But a killer? Her search for him had held a romantic element, and she knew it. This guy was all edge—no romance. “Am I in danger?” Her voice quivered, but she had to know.
“Yes.” He didn’t move. Didn’t even seem to breathe.
She blinked. Rapidly. “From you?”
His eyes darkened. “No. With you, the only thing I’m capable of breaking is your heart.”
Cold swam through her. The arrogance. “You think you broke my heart?”
His lip twisted. “I know I did.” His tone was low with what seemed like self-hatred. Dark and raw. “I’m sorry.”
Those words. She’d needed those words and hadn’t realized how badly. “Thank you,” she said, going on instinct. “Then how am I in danger?”
“I’m in danger, and anybody close to me is fair game for an enemy who will keep coming until I’m dead. Until everything I care about, everything I dream about, is taken away and I want death.” He looked back down at the computer, intensity pouring from him.
Whoa. Okay. Denver didn’t have one bit of hysteria in him. His words scared her, but curiosity still rose up. “Who’s after you?”
“Irrelevant. As soon as we get Talia back, you have to forget me. Now. Back to Richie.”
She could live forever, and she’d never forget him. Not for one second had she been able to pretend he didn’t exist. He still needed to explain more. She had a right to know everything. But he was correct. They had to find Talia. “I have files on everything.” She threw her pack at Denver, and he easily caught it before it smashed him in the face.
He didn’t so much as frown. “Thank you.”
She swallowed. They were in the same room. After a year of hurting for him, he was right here in solid form. More than solid. She hadn’t imagined his hard body or intense charisma. He owned every room he walked into with no effort. She’d never met anybody like him, and here he was. Her body tingled, her heart ached, and her mind spun. Yeah. Denver was definitely here. “What now?” she asked, her eyes gritty and her throat scratchy.
“I’ll do some research.” He pulled out a chair and sat down to start typing almost absently. “There’s one bedroom, and you can have it. The sheets are clean. None of my, ah, team slept here.”
Everything inside her stilled. “Are you kidding me?” How surprising that her voice stayed soft when every nerve in her body had just flared into full anger.
He paused and looked up from the screen, his brows drawing down. “No. It’s past midnight, and you should try to sleep. We might have to get on the road early.”
She blinked. Once and then twice. Heat flared down her throat to explode in her lungs. How could he be so calm? So clueless? “You’re not done explaining.” Her voice shook, but she’d forced the words out.
He lifted his head, and awareness smoothed out his expression. “I’m done. Period.”
Pain. Yep. Definite sharp knives ripped right on through her chest, and she had to fight to keep from blanching. “You said you cared about me.” Pride could screw itself. She wanted answers.
He rose to his feet, his gaze alert on her. “I did. I do.”
“Bullshit,” she snapped, having felt much tougher when he’d been sitting. “Why are you lying about that? Even if you have some dangerous enemy, you used me.” She wasn’t completely buying the left-for-your-own-safety crap.
“I did not use you.” He kept her gaze but leaned over and resumed typing.
Impressive. Now, wasn’t he talented. “Why did you scurry away under the darkness of night like a rat with its tail tucked between its legs?” He could’ve at least said good-bye.
His upper lip twitched, but he wasn’t stupid enough to grin. He abandoned the keyboard and straightened again to his full and rather impressive height. “That’s quite an image. Been working on that long?”
Yeah, and sometimes it had involved her sobbing into tissues. Okay. She’d keep that to herself. Maybe pride did matter after all. “Explain, Denver. You left without a word. Not even a note.”
“I left because it was over, Noni,” he said evenly.
Ouch. Fucking ouch and double ouch. Well. She’d asked. “Why did you just leave without a word?” Her mind never stopped. She had to solve every puzzle. It was why she worked with ingredients and lotions. Carefully set out recipes. There was always an answer. “If you cared for me, why was it over? The sex was good, and your big enemy, if that’s the truth, had no clue where you were.”
“The sex was fuckin’ amazing.” His eyes darkened to a midnight blue. “We don’t have to do this now.”
“Chicken,” she snapped.
He nodded. “Definitely.”
Oh, he wasn’t going to be cute. Nothing he could say or do would make her see him as cute tonight. No way. “Explain.” She put her hands on her hips.
He sighed. “The why of it really doesn’t matter. The end result does.”
“You’re wrong. The why matters a whole lot, Denver.” Nothing in her would give him an inch on this. “I deserve the truth. One night you’re there, with me, and then you’re just gone, with no warning.”
“Not true,” he said gently. “I told you the job was temporary and then I’d have to leave.”
Yeah, but she’d thought things had changed after they’d made love. And that’s what it had been. The real kind. At the very least, she’d expected a good-bye, although a small part of her had thought they’d started something that would last. That they would figure it out together. “Then why not say good-bye?”
“I thought it’d be easier if you hated me.” His deep blue eyes held nothing but earnest light. “And I couldn’t say good-bye.”
“You’re a coward,” she whispered. She’d suspected that was the truth. Was there more?
“Sure. If that helps you, believe it. But if I had tried to say good-bye, I wouldn’t have been able to leave. Or I would’ve done something really stupid and tried to take you with me, and then you’d be in danger.” He glanced around the dismal room. “Though you clearly ended up in danger anyway.” He drew out the chair to sit again. “Done talking.” Sweat dotted his brow, and a vein bulged in his neck.
Just a few words from him wasn’t enough. She didn’t care that he was done. “Too bad. I am not finished talking.” Maybe if she had forced him to talk to her before, he wouldn’t have just left her alone and with so many questions.
His head jerked back, and he focused again on her, his eyebrows drawing up.
Yeah. She’d never challenged him, had she? No, she’d been so perfectly understanding and accepting of his unwillingness to talk much because it just wasn’t him. Or rather, he wasn’t comfortable talking a lot. Instead, she’d acted like a housewife from the fifties and let him have his way. She’d wanted him to feel accepted and comfortable around her, and she’d tamped down her inclination to get to the bottom of things. Mistake. Definitely a mistake. “I see I have your attention.”
“You do.” There was a low warning in his tone. A dangerous glint in his eye.
Man, she’d missed out on this. Just how much of Denver did she not know? Oh, she’d thought she knew him physically. Even emotionally. But maybe not. Maybe in her unwillingness to push him, she’d missed out of the real man beneath the surface. Was that how he’d been able to leave so easily? “We both seem to have put our best foot forward when we dated.”
“Meaning?” he asked silkily.
A shiver ticked down her back, and she ignored it. “You were sweet, I was patient, and we both wanted to make a good impression.”
He slowly nodded. “Makes sense. We were just starting to date.”
“Right.” Her chin lowered, as did the intensity of her tone. “Now we’re not dating. We’re not in love, we’re not sleeping together, and I don’t give two fucks if you don’t like to talk.”
He didn’t blink, but his gaze changed. Had his pupils narrowed? “Watch it.”
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“No.” Her chest filled, and she faced him squarely. “I don’t care if you like me. I certainly don’t like you. But you’re a private dick, a good one, and I’m hiring you.” The flare in his eyes at her emphasis on dick sped up her heartbeat, but she didn’t back down. She had to regain some control here and stay in a position of strength. “If I ask questions, then you answer them. Think of yourself as a really smart trained dolphin. Bark on command, buddy.” Her mouth just wouldn’t stop.
His head tilted just slightly to the side. “What are you doing?”
“I’m telling you how it’s going to be.” Her voice went breathy on the last because he started moving toward her. She stiffened. He kept coming. Straight at her. “Wh-what are you doing?” she stammered, taking several unwilling steps backward.
He kept moving inexorably toward her over the ugly shag carpet, taking his time, keeping her in his sights like any hunter stalking prey. Her stomach fluttered, and her hands clenched. She stumbled backward, instinct taking over. There wasn’t time to turn and run. His long stride easily caught up to her lurching one.
And then the wall was at her back.
Nowhere to go. She held her hands up to ward him off, and he stepped in, gracefully flattening his palms against the paneling on either side of her head. Caging her. The heat of his body rushed over her as if in a physical touch, and her body sprang wide awake. Her nipples hardened. Her breath quickened.
She curled her fingers into her palms, her hands still up but not touching him. Not yet.
The look in his eyes stole every thought from her head. Lust and anger. Need and determination. Pride and warning. “Trained dolphin?” he asked slowly. Clearly. Softly.
She swallowed. All right. That might’ve been a bit much. “Denver.”
He wasn’t touching her, but he was all around her. His warmth and his strength. She was at his mercy, and instead of feeling frightened or even angry, she felt alive with an edge of sharp awareness. Who was this man? The Denver she’d known had been sweet and gentle. She’d just pushed this guy—on purpose—way past sweet. “Back off,” she hissed.
“Make me,” he rumbled.
Tingles blew through her abdomen to slam right to her core. She inhaled the scent of him—male and forest, wild and untamable. Like something she could lick and taste but never quite define. That was Denver. Her knees wobbled. If she put her hands on him, if she tried to fight him, what would he do? She truly didn’t know. But her body—her entire damn body—clenched with anticipation. Any fear she’d felt disappeared, and a very welcome anger tried to shove through her haze of scary arousal. “Last chance,” she snapped.
He smiled then, giving him a feral look.
A tremble shook her. She uncurled her fingers and pushed his chest as hard as she could.
He didn’t move. Not only didn’t he move, he didn’t resist. Fully relaxed, caging her in place, he didn’t need to do a thing to defend himself from her. The hard plane of his chest mocked her palms. Her temper flew, and she aimed her knee up.
He easily stepped into her, forcing her leg down. “You already tried that. Remember?”
God, she had. Never in her life had she tried to knee a guy in the nuts, and now she’d attempted it twice in a matter of hours. Both times she’d failed. “What do you want?” she gasped.
His eyes deepened. All of those blue flecks commingled into something dark. “Baby, if I answered that, I really would scare you.” His heated breath brushed her face.
Oh, she wanted to know. What did that mean? What did he really want? Her chest started to rise and fall quickly, giving away her state of mind, but she couldn’t stop it. There was too much, he was too much. Anger filled her, finally pushing away the intrigue. “We agreed we didn’t know each other, so whatever you have in mind would probably bore me.” Why in the hell had she said that? Her mouth seemed to want to push Denver as far as possible.
Even half out of it, she knew pushing him was a bad idea.
“Bore you?” he whispered.
The threat in that tone forced a whimper from her. She barely bit it down, so it came out as a sigh instead. “Enough of this.” Her voice shook.
“Oh, baby. You started this.” He leaned in, his lips nuzzling her earlobe. “I’d hate to bring you to my nice safe house and bore you.”
Her breath caught. Panic rippled through her on the heels of a desire so sharp it hurt. “Stop playing.”
His hand slid across the paneling with a rough sound and then tangled in her hair. He drew back her head so she met his gaze directly above her. “Listen good.”
She gulped.
“I understand you’re mad, and you have a right.” His firm hold tightened, sending sparks of erotic pain across her scalp. “But enough for tonight. You have a choice. Think before you answer.”
She couldn’t look away from the heat in his eyes. Her mouth dried up. He was so close, she couldn’t move her hands from his chest. Every inch of her was caught by him. Unable to move. The hard line of his erection dug into her stomach, and she could feel him pulse with need.
“We can continue this, and I can show you exactly why it was better I left. Or you can nicely turn and go get some sleep while I work.” He slowly released her and took a very small step back. “I’m done right now, Noni. It’s your call.”
He wanted her. That much she knew. If she pushed him, they’d be in bed again for the night. A part of her—the physical, lonely, needy part—wanted to grab and kiss him. But the smart part of her—the one that had learned self-preservation at way too young of an age—urged her to get away from him. He’d given her the choice. She’d barely survived her heart breaking from the nice and easygoing Denver. This guy? This guy would eat her up, consume her, and take everything she had.
For good measure, she shoved him again.
This time he took several steps away.
Not trusting herself to speak, she slid to the side, turned, and headed toward the bedroom with her head up high.
And her body aching with a pain so real it nearly brought her to her knees.
Chapter
4
Denver sat typing commands into the PC, his dick still trying to punch through his jeans. Noni had left the room over an hour before, and the idea of her in the big bed wouldn’t leave his mind. He’d done the right thing in letting her go, when all he’d wanted to do was kiss her, and hard. Maybe for hours.
He was off balance and out of control—two things he never was. He’d tried to control himself, and when that didn’t work, he’d tried to control Noni. He’d failed miserably, but if he let her get to him, they’d both end up dead.
He wanted a drink. Bad.
Yeah, he’d lost himself in a bottle for a little while getting over her, and now he could almost taste the first sip. But no more. He had a job to do—two, actually. Drinking would just get in the way.
The search for Talia had to take precedence over his other mission, the one to hunt down his past. But the past was also coming after him. Quickly. The laptop to his right dinged, and he pressed a button to accept a video chat. “Why are you up so late?” he asked his older brother grumpily.
Ryker shoved his black hair away from his face. His eyes were bloodshot, and a shadow covered his angled jaw. “Update me. Are you safe?”
“Yes. I’m just on the computers working on this case,” Denver said, eyeing the searches running on the other two monitors. “What’s up, Ry?”
Ryker’s bluish green eyes narrowed. “Seriously? Spill.”
Denver sighed. “Can we be gossipy old women later? I have work to do.”
Ryker growled low. “I see. All right. Heath and I will be there in about fifteen hours. We’ll have to drive because I don’t want to go through airport security. Just hang tight.” As a threat, it was absolute. If Ryker made up his mind about something, it was a done deal.
“Knock it off,” Denver said wearily, hiding the fact that he wished his brothers could be there. He needed them.
“You’re in place and have to stay there.”
“Then fucking talk,” Ryker said, scrubbing a hand across his eyes.
Why did everyone want him to talk all of a sudden? He really wasn’t that interesting of a guy. “Fine. I have Noni, and we’re at the safe house in Snowville.”
Ryker leaned back, his eyebrows drawing down. “I thought you found her in Greenville.”
“I did. Then a couple of gangbangers threw Molotov cocktails into her motel room, and we’re here at the Snowville safe house now.” He leaned over to the far keyboard to punch in a series of commands.
Ryker paused. “Gangbangers?”
Denver nodded. “Yeah. Apparently Noni is hunting for a gang member who stole a baby. The Kingdom Boys is the name of the gang.” Man. When he put the words together like that, the whole thing sounded crazy. A quick look at his brother confirmed that fact.
Ryker’s chin lowered. “Um. A baby?”
“Yeah.”
Quiet. Then more quiet. “Your baby?”
Denver blinked. “Oh. No. The kid was Noni’s foster sister’s, who died from an overdose. So Noni is going after the baby.” The idea of Denver having a kid was crazy. He could barely keep himself alive right now.
“Okay,” Ryker said slowly. “What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”
“I don’t know yet,” Denver said, watching search results listing on the second monitor. “I’m researching the gang now, and I’ll have an update by morning. If nothing else, we have to get that baby back.”
“I think we’d better head your way.”
Denver settled. He owed his brothers—more than he’d ever be able to repay. They’d saved his life, and they’d endangered theirs the second they’d killed Ned. “I wish you could be here,” he said honestly. Lying to Ryker wasn’t an option.
“Then we’re there.” Ryker made to stand up.
Denver swallowed. Yeah. That was family. His chest warmed. “But I need you to stay in South Dakota.”
Ryker paused. “Den? What’s going on?”