Carlisle couldn’t speak due to his fractured jaw, but the look he sent Haley was filled with venom. Stepping up to him, she stated quietly, “You don’t scare me anymore, Tim. Only a weak man needs to skulk around in the dark. You never did have the balls to hold on to me.”
“Well done,” Ian told her when Gary escorted Tim out after asking him to call Brody and fill him in.
“Except I lied. He did scare me, a lot.”
“Only a fool wouldn’t be afraid when confronted with a madman, Haley, and you’ve proven you’re not a fool. Where’s your kitchen. We need to get some ice on that cheek.” While she wrapped ice in a towel, Ian called Brody and filled him in, noting the edge to his tone didn’t let up at learning they had caught their stalker. “We can question him in the morning about Piper’s disappearance, but I’m guessing we have two separate cases here.”
“Yeah, I think so too, which means we’re back to square one on the mystery surrounding those missing days and the condition we found her in. But for tonight, I think I’ll settle another matter with Piper that is long overdue. Later.”
Ian hung up the phone thinking he’d take his time getting back to the cabin tonight. In the mood he was in, he sure as hell didn’t need to see or even hear those two going at it. “Here, sit down and let me do that.” Ian stood next to her as she sat at the small kitchen table, took the ice pack and held it against her cheek, his hand automatically stroking her hair when she winced. A comfortable silence settled between them and he took a moment to look around her small, homey apartment. Like Piper’s cabin, the kitchen, eating area and living room were all open and he could see Haley’s little touches everywhere. There were a lot of seashell knickknacks, a sofa and chair in soft blue with beach scenic pillows in the corners. If Gary hadn’t mentioned that Carlisle was imprisoned in Florida, deducing she was from there also, he would have guessed she had lived near a beach at one time.
“I think that’ll help,” Haley said, feeling suddenly tired. Curling up in bed with a book even though it was still early sounded good to her, but being alone didn’t. She had passed a huge hurdle in admitting she wanted sex again, and she wanted her first time in six years to be with Ian, just not tonight. Tonight, she just needed to know she wasn’t alone. She knew she could ask Piper, but that meant going to her place because she was sure, after Brody’s possessive behavior all day, that he wasn’t going to let her go anywhere, including here, without him. But she wanted her place tonight, wanted to be in the home she had made for herself after fleeing Florida in shame. A home she had felt safe in until tonight. Before she lost her nerve, she tentatively asked, “Ian?”
“What do you need, Haley?” Ian tossed the ice in the sink and draped the damp towel over a rack before turning back to her and seeing the indecision on her face and a touch of uncertainty in her blue eyes. “Are you hurting? Do you want to go to the hospital?”
“God, no! I hate hospitals. It’s just, well, I hate to ask this of you, but I was wondering…”
“For God’s sake, Haley, just ask! You know damn good and well I won’t refuse you.”
Haley almost smiled at his frustrated outburst and look. There’s the man she had come to know this week, the one who said it like it is and you were either on board with him or you weren’t. She liked that about him, a lot. At least with him, she knew where she stood.
“Would you stay here tonight?” she blurted out then quickly amended, “I mean just to sleep. Not, you know, for sex or anything. At least not tonight.” She didn’t want him thinking she didn’t want sex with him at all.
Ian took a moment while he willed his little head to cooperate with his big head. Even if she had been willing, he couldn’t, in good conscience, fuck a woman who had just been bruised and traumatized. And if that didn’t sound like a page right out of Brody’s book, he didn’t know what would. Still, as much as he’d thought about fucking Haley, he knew before she had emphasized it that sex was off the table. He had taken if off before it ever got there and didn’t have any intentions of putting it on. Wrong woman, wrong place, definitely wrong time and those reasonings would have to suffice despite their obvious mutual attraction.
“Go get comfortable in your bed and I’ll sit with you until you fall asleep then I’ll bunk on your couch. I’m going downstairs to secure the front door to your shop that I busted. Do you know how Carlisle got in here?”
“My fault,” she admitted. “I always leave my bedroom window open so I can make a quick exit in case of a fire. All he had to do was park in the back, stand on his car and he could’ve reached the sill. I know, I’m an idiot, but I thought I was safe, especially from him.”
“You are now, but lock it anyway.” Ian went downstairs, mentally preparing himself for a long night.
Chapter Twelve
Brody snapped his phone shut, the relief he felt at hearing about Haley’s ex from Ian at odds with the battle he had been waging with both Piper and himself ever since he met her. Watching her with Cole, flirting, dancing and laughing in an attempt to take back control of her life, had his cock pressing painfully against his zipper and his good intentions being shoved aside in his need to take control of her. She was wearing a two piece swimsuit under a sundress, a swimsuit that had still been wet from swimming in the lake when she had slipped the dress back on. Now that bright green fabric clung damply to her breasts and ass, drawing his and several other male eyes to those softly rounded, swaying body parts and he had spent the better part of the last thirty minutes trying to refrain from pulling her away from Cole, tossing her over his shoulder and carting her off.
He knew he would have to leave soon. The stalker had been caught, and even though he had been after Haley instead of Piper, those missing two days were still unaccounted for.
Unfortunately, as worried as he was over that, it wasn’t enough to justify them putting off going to Atlantic City to back up Carlos. If she was taken to draw out Sandoval, then the plan backfired because they were the ones to come to her rescue, not Sandoval. As it stood now, the evidence he and Ian had managed to get against her adopted father was all circumstantial, enough to charge him with but not enough to ensure a conviction. However, they weren’t above fudging that evidence in order to coerce Sandoval into testifying against Pasquino, even knowing that would keep the contract the drug lord had put on his former bookkeeper active.
Despite knowing all that, Brody found himself caving in to his body’s demands and saying to hell with his good intentions. He had felt a fondness as well as a lustful tug towards Piper when he knew her as an overweight, shy college kid, only to discover that fondness had grown stronger despite the years that separated them and that the tug had turned into a hard yank this past week. A yank he was tired of struggling against. She had taunted him too far tonight, she could damn well suffer the consequences, even if that meant the consequences were him doing his job successfully by ruining Charles’s life in order to put away a very bad man.
Piper glared up at Brody when he took hold of her hand and pulled her away from Cole. For the past hour she had tried putting all her concentration and efforts into simply having fun with Cole, enjoying his easy going persona and fantasizing about getting naked with his well- muscled body again. Her body responded to him like it always did, with anticipation warming her blood and softening her pussy. Her breasts swelled as she rubbed against his chest, her nipples taut peaks she knew he felt by the grin he gave her accompanied with a brief ass squeeze. Unfortunately, she had taken that moment to glance at Brody’s thunderous face, and that was all it took for her arousal to go from tepid to boiling. She had been more aware of the man she was trying to do without than she had been of the one she was trying to replace him with despite enjoying the familiar feel of Cole’s body moving sensuously against hers. She refused to give in to her body’s betrayal, however, and risk being rejected yet again by Brody.
“What do you want? As you can see, I’m not in any danger.” Piper had explained the targeted harassments she had experienced in the past few days to Cole, but she omitted those two missing days and the state she was in when Brody and Ian had arrived. As open as they were with each other, she wasn’t comfortable sharing that with him, and even though she knew he suspected there was more between her and the agents that she wasn’t telling, he didn’t say anything. They cared about each other, but they weren’t exclusive despite the fact Cole was the only man she had been with in the last five years until Brody showed up.
“Something’s come up,” Brody stated evenly, not adding that the something was his cock. “You need to leave with me. Now.”
Letting go of Cole, she faced him squarely, her heart in her throat as she asked, “Is it Haley? Is she all right? What’s happened?”
“She’s fine, now, but we need to go.” Turning to Cole he extended his free hand, apologizing as since
rely as possible considering he wasn’t sorry in the least. “Sorry. Maybe you two can hook up later when we’ve got this situation under control.”
“Let me know if I can help.” Cole bent down and kissed Piper, long and deep, giving his competition something to think about. It was obvious these two had issues to work out that included more than whoever seemed to be after Piper. He cared enough about her to want to stick around and make sure she was safe as well as make sure this man was who she wanted. If so, he wouldn’t stand in the way, but he would miss their satisfying, uncomplicated get-togethers. “I’ll check in with you tomorrow, hon.”
Piper tried pulling her hand from Brody’s iron grip but he refused to let her go as he led her through the park and back to his car. “What do you mean ‘she’s fine now’? What happened? And, damn it, let me go!”
“I’ll explain on the way back to your place. Get in.” Holding the door for her, he tried reining in his lust and his temper, but wasn’t having much luck. That kiss Cole had leveled on her was a blatant red flag, one that had him more determined than ever to give her exactly what she had been asking for.