Fierce Defender: Book 2, Hard to Handle trilogy
FIERCE DEFENDER
Book 2 in the
Hard to Handle
Series
Janine Kane
Fierce Defender
Copyright 2014 by Janine Kane
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Five: Witness Protection
Chapter Seven: The Disappearance
Chapter Fourteen: Growing Closer
Chapter Fifteen: Someone to Talk To
Chapter Sixteen: A Fierce Love
Greed
Brownsville, Texas
Saturday Morning
The old man stood watching the dragon. It was about ten feet long and had to be pushing at least 250-years-old. It stared at him through the cage, and he knew that, if it had half a chance, it would grab him by his feet and tear him to pieces. That made him smile. The Komodo dragon exhibit had always been a favorite of his. He identified with the beast. They were a lot alike—practically invincible.
The only two animals that a Komodo dragon had to fear were humans and other dragons. Humans weren’t that bothersome. The dragon could tear one apart with his teeth while at the same time poisoning it with the bacteria that lived inside its mouth. If he was crossed by anyone, the old man wouldn’t use his teeth, but the end result would be the same. No, humans weren’t the problem. It was the other dragons that you never wanted to turn your back on.
Summoned from his hometown of Matamoros, Mexico, the old man was here at the zoo today to meet with another type of dragon. Vincent. He had wanted to say no. In his heyday, no man would have ever had the nerve to summon him anywhere, not even Vincent. Once dubbed “The Cocaine King,” the old man had been a formidable foe to anyone who dared cross him. He had demanded loyalty and respect, and if people liked the idea of taking their next breath, they gave it to him.
Like the Komodo dragon, he had very little to fear. Neither the Mexican Federal Police nor the authorities in the U.S. had ever been able to touch him. He was seventy-years-old and had no criminal record. He had paid people good money to make sure of it. At a very young age, he had found out that if you had enough money, you could buy anything. The problem with youngsters like Vincent, however, was that they got greedy and wanted to buy everything. He had done his best to teach Vincent better than that when the boy had been younger, but to no avail.
Gilberto Fidel Sanchez was not a greedy man. He had earned over a billion dollars in the past fifty years, yet he was content with the home that he and his wife had bought two years after they had married in Matamoros. New cars were not on his list of priorities; he only purchased one every two years. He had a small boat for fishing, and he liked to dress nice, but a lavish spender he was not. He hadn’t even given his boy much to start his own business with, just enough to buy his first shipment. The boy had taken it from there.
The only weakness that Gilberto would have to admit to when he met his maker was his fetish for blow jobs given by young red-haired women. Gilberto, or Gil as his friends and family referred to him, loved his wife. Unfortunately, she had decided around the age of sixty that she was too old to suck cock. Gil had never heard of such a thing, especially because he too had been sixty, and he still had the need to feel a soft pair of lips wrapped around his shaft every so often. His wife had been sympathetic, but she had also stood her ground.
“If you want a blow job, you’ve got plenty of money. Pay for it.”
Gil had been shocked. He had never cheated on his wife. They had been married for forty years by that time, and although he’d had plenty of opportunity, he had never even considered it. He had even suggested to his son that he never marry, because he had known that the boy would not have been monogamous. Funny how a man could take a life without batting an eyelash, yet the thought of infidelity made him cringe. He had told his wife that he wasn’t the kind of man that paid for sex, and he stood firm with that until…
One day he had gone into a massage parlor in downtown Brownsville. The middle-aged, overly made-up woman behind the counter had asked him if he wanted to pay a little extra for an “upgrade.” Gil had been having some trouble with his right shoulder at the time. It was an old gunshot wound that had healed but turned into arthritis or bursitis or some kind of “itis.” Whatever it was, it was fucking killing him, so he had agreed.
He found out later, as he watched with wide eyes while the red-haired girl giving him the massage wrapped her hand around his dick and stroked him until he was hard enough for her to take his aging cock in her mouth and suck it, that “upgrade” meant blow job. He returned to the parlor to re-visit the girl, “Julia,” whenever he was in town. Redheads weren’t that easy to come by in Mexico, unless you paid a whore, and the idea of that disgusted him.
He pulled himself out of his thoughts and back to the present. Looking at his watch, he counted the minutes that Vincent had kept him waiting. He was pissed. It showed a lack of respect, and if there was one thing that Gil demanded, it was respect from everyone he did business with, no matter to whom they may be related.
Gil had a mind to leave and let the greedy little bastard come to his front door and grovel for what it was he needed. If it weren’t for the urgings of his wife, he would have never come today. He moved away from the Komodo dragon exhibit. Just as he reached the exit door for the Herpetarium and Aquatic wing, he heard a familiar voice behind him call out:
“Papa!”
He turned to see his son, Vincent, coming towards him. Gil wondered how the boy was going to take it when he turned down the request that he already knew his son was here to make.
New Beginnings
Sutherland Springs, Texas
Later Saturday Morning
Zack came home from the gym that morning pumped up with adrenaline and motivated by a new idea. The first person he wanted to tell was Eva, his girlfriend. Wandering out to the garden, he found her kneeling on her gardening pad and working the fresh soil with her hands. Knowing she hadn’t notice him arrive, he stopped a few feet away. He loved watching her when she didn’t know he was there.
She had her silky auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail at the nape of her neck. A stray piece had fallen across her eyes. She looked strangely sexy to him as she tucked it behind her ear, smearing a small patch of mud across the side of her face as she did. It wasn’t too surprising, however, that it turned him on. Zack found practically everything she did sexy. Since he met her, he felt like he was constantly walking around with a divining rod in his pants.
Eva looked up and saw him watching her. “Hey, you,” she said with a smile. “How was the gym?”
He grinned at her and said, “How about I make us a late breakfast, and I’ll tell you about it while we eat.”
She raised an eyebrow, wondering what had gotten him so enthusiastic. However, he knew she wasn’t going to turn down him cooking a meal for her. Wiping her hands on her jeans, she accepted. “Okay, I’ll get cleaned up while you cook.”
He went over to help her up, pulling her not only to her feet but into his arms. He locked his lips on hers and kissed her breath away. When he finally let her go, she murmured, “Wow. What was that for?”
“Just because I love you,” he said with another grin.
She put a dirty hand on the side of his face and said, “I love you too, Zack. Oh, now you’re going to need to wash your face, though.”
“How about I just jump in the shower with you?” he offered as they walked up to the door.
“Oh no, Mister. You had plenty of that before you left for the gym this morning. You promised me breakfast. Now get cooking!”
Zack laughed. “Tiring of me already?”
“Never,” she declared. “But the warmness I feel between my legs doesn’t fix the fact that I’m starving, and if you get in the shower with me, it will be hours before I get to eat. Food first, fun later,” she told him.
“Okay, you win,” he said, slapping her on the butt as she walked away. “How do you want your eggs?”
“On my plate by the time I get out of the shower,” she answered with her back to him as she went down the hall.
“Your bossiness just turns me on more,” he yelled after her.
Zack went into the kitchen and began breakfast with a smile on his face. His life was good, mostly thanks to Eva, and it would only get better from here on out.
***
“A personal trainer?” Eva asked with a frown as she buttered her toast.
Zack looked confused. “Yes, I’ve been thinking about finding work, you knew that. I can’t just sit around and let you support me forever. I thought you’d be as excited for me as I am.”
Eva rolled her eyes. Zack could sit back forever and support himself off the dividends his money in the bank drew. The only reason she kept working at the bakery was because of the love she had for her boss, and for the feeling of self-satisfaction that came with earning her own way.
“I just never heard you mention wanting to do that before,” she said. Eva was torn between feelings of guilt for not being more supportive and feelings of jealousy over all the women that she knew would flock to the gym just for the opportunity to be trained by Zack.
He shrugged and took a sip of his coffee. “I never really had, until today. When I walked into the gym, I couldn’t miss the big flier that Sandy was putting up in the window. The gym is recruiting for trainers. I did a lot of P.T. training in the military. I enjoyed it.”
“You know this wouldn’t be exactly like that, right?” Eva warned. “I mean, in the gym you’re going to be training middle-aged men and women who suddenly got up off the couch one day and realized how badly they’ve let themselves go.”
Zack looked at her suspiciously. “What precisely do you have against this idea?”
Eva tried to look innocent as she said, “I don’t have anything against the idea,” while simultaneously picturing all the groupies that hung out at his MMA matches, rubbing their sweaty, spandex-clad bodies on him.
“Eva?” Zack said with that look he got when he knew she wasn’t telling him everything.
She got up from her chair and went over to his. Sitting herself down on his lap, she put her arms around his neck and said, “Does it make me a horrible person that the first thing I thought of was you putting your hands on other women?”
Zack threw his head back and laughed. “Oh my God, Eva. Is that what you’re worried about?”
She shrugged. “I wouldn’t say worried…”
Zack wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her tight against him. “This is the only body that I’ll ever touch like this. Does that help?”
“A little,” she said, kissing his lips. “Maybe you should show me how else you won’t ever touch anyone else.”
He grinned. Whispering in a husky voice, he said, “Well, for starters, I’ll never do this,” before nuzzling her neck.
She stretched her head to the side, allowing him easier access. “Mm hmm…” she said with her eyes closed. “What else?”
He slid his rough hands underneath the skimpy tank top she had put on after her shower and cupped her breasts over the light, summer bra she wore. As he flicked his thumbs across her nipples, he said, “I’ll definitely never do this.”
Then he pulled his right hand out and slipped her shirt up and over her head before he reached around behind her and unclasped the bra. Lowering his head to her chest, he added, “And I promise not to do this…” just before his tongue met one of her nipples.
All Eva could do at that point was moan and squirm on Zack’s lap. As he pulled loose the ties that cinched her Capris at the waist and slipped his hand down inside, brushing softly against her wetness, he said, “And I swear, I’ll never do this.”
