In the Line of Fire: Hot Desert Heroes, Book 1 (18 page)

“Did he have keys to your rental house?” he asked.

Relieved that he wasn’t summarily dismissing her fears, she shook her head.

“Did you have that car when you were married?” At her nod he asked, “Did he have a set of keys to it?” When she shook her head, he murmured, “I s’pose he could’ve had a set made and not told you.”

“But why now, after three years? That’s what doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, he has another wife and…” She shook her head. “I just don’t get it.”

Beck brushed strands of hair away from her face, his look gentle. “Maybe he heard you were dating. Maybe his ego couldn’t handle you moving on with your life without him in it.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I can’t imagine that’s it. He wasn’t all that thrilled when I was in his life. So why would he want to be in mine? Besides, I have dated since the divorce. Just no one serious until you.”

His eyes darkened at her admission and he pressed a light kiss to the corner of her mouth. “First off, he’s a fucking moron. Second off, any man would want you in his life, baby, ’less he’s a fucking moron.”

Again with the sweet. She was so unused to that she didn’t know what to do with it, so she shoved it aside. “I just wanted you to know about it in case someone brought it up. Also to get your opinion about the keys.” Mentioning the keys reminded her about the locks, and she asked him, “Do you think I should get the locks on my car replaced?”

“Not just the locks,” he said, “but also the ignition switch. I’ll take care of it.” He paused and raised a brow. “Unless you want to.”

While she could easily call a locksmith to have her house locks replaced, which she’d done before, she didn’t have the first clue how to do that to a car. “You can do it,” she said with a magnanimous air.

“Be happy to.” He kissed her then. “You give me your ex’s number and I’ll have a word with him.”

She drew in a sharp breath. Beck and Frank having a word? She didn’t want her current boyfriend to go up the river for murdering her ex-husband because she knew, Frank being Frank, he’d test Beck until Beck decided to show him what a badass marine could do to jackasses like him. “Uh, no, Beck. There’s no need. Lily already kicked him out of Coffee & Confections for life. So you don’t have to—”

“I know I don’t have to, babe,” he drawled. “This is somethin’ as your man I need to do. Bastard doesn’t get to walk around town thinkin’ he can get in your face and you got no defense.”

She scowled. “How can you be sweet and badass at the same freaking time?” she demanded.

His lips twitched. She already knew what that meant. He was fighting back a smile. “You are so fucking cute when you’re mad,” he muttered.

“Well then, I guess you’d better get ready ’cause I’m about to be absofreakinglutely adorable.”

He laughed then. “You’re so full of shit.” He dropped his mouth to hers and a minute later she was in a much better, if dazed, frame of mind.

“Jus’ so you know,” she whispered, “that’s not always gonna work.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “You ready to sleep now that you’ve got that off your chest?”

She’d let him think he had this one. But that didn’t mean she had to give him Frank’s full name or any information about him at all. He’d find out in the morning she could be just as stubborn as he could.

He kissed her lips then turned to his back again, and she settled next to him. He linked their fingers together and bent his arm, holding their hands next to his heart.

She lay quiet, knowing the moment he fell asleep because his body relaxed, all that power at rest. Only then did she snuggle in, pressing a kiss to his broad pec before giving in to sleep herself.

Chapter Fifteen

The next morning Beck walked downstairs to the office with Delaney for the first time. It was a novel experience, going to work with the woman who lived with him, and he liked it. He could see himself living and working with her for the rest of his life.

But he didn’t hold out a lot of hope that would happen unless she learned how to handle her feelings about his job.

He left her at the front desk with a kiss and went back to his office. He’d asked her three times this morning for her ex-husband’s full name and phone number. And damned if she hadn’t held out and refused to give him the information, even when he went soft and sweet and called her baby. He’d noticed that held sway and he wasn’t above using all the weapons in his arsenal.

But she’d stayed strong, even going so far as to shake her finger in his face, like a schoolmarm to a recalcitrant student, while she insisted her ex wasn’t worth him expending energy on.

He dropped into the leather executive’s chair behind his desk and booted up his computer. Within fifteen minutes into his search, he knew her ex-husband’s name was Franklin Dewayne West and he knew what Franklin Dewayne West looked like, where he lived, where he worked—and that the company had a Phoenix office with job openings—what his position was, and how much he had in his joint bank account. Beck also knew of other accounts held at banks in only West’s name, accounts that his current wife probably knew nothing about. A search of West’s Facebook page led Beck to one of his female “friends” who, to Beck’s thinking, had left enough innuendo-laden comments on several of West’s posts that he knew they were intimately involved. If those two weren’t having an affair, he’d take down his business license and retire.

In another half hour he had all he needed. Just as he stood, his cell phone rang. Recognizing the number, he drew a breath and answered with a terse “Townsend”.

“Beck?” Marisol Everhard’s voice chirped in his ear. “How are you, babe?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Oh, don’t be that way. You saved my life.” When she spoke again her voice had turned sultry. “We have a connection, you and I.”

“Yeah, we do,” he agreed. “The connection of agency and client.”

“No, silly.” She trilled a laugh.

He winced and pulled the phone away from his ear for a moment.

“We could be good together,” she said. “I’m in town and thought we could hook up.”

He blew out a breath. “Listen, Ms. Everhard—”

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Mari?” Her voice was so sweet he got cavities through the phone line.

“Ms. Everhard,” he said in a firm voice, “you should find another agency for your additional protection detail. REG is no longer in the business.”

There was silence and he would swear he could hear her pouting. Finally she said, “Well, that’s okay. It wouldn’t look good if I hooked up with one of my bodyguards, right?”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

“I’m going to be blunt, then, since you don’t seem to be hearing me. I am not interested in dating you.”

“Who said anything about dating? I just want sex. I’m sure once you—”

“I will never be interested in having sex with you, Ms. Everhard. I’m already with someone.”

Her intake of breath was sharply drawn. “And you led me on?”

He looked to the ceiling. “Ms. Everhard,” he said on a sigh, “I have never given you any indication I was interested. Now, if that’s all you called about, I have work to do.”

“Fine. Bastard,” she muttered.

The beep in his ear signaled the end of the call so he put his phone back in his pocket and headed out to the front. Dismissing the call from his mind, he told Delaney, “I should be back in a couple of hours.”

“Where’re you off to?” She glanced at the computer screen and said, “I don’t show you have a meeting scheduled with anyone.”

“Just somethin’ I gotta take care of.”

She rolled her lips between her teeth and stared at him with narrowed eyes. Then she said softly, “You just can’t let it go, can you?” She shook her head. “Do I need to have a bail bondsman on standby?” Her eyes got round. “You probably already do, don’t you?”

He grinned. “We don’t, but I won’t escalate things. I guarantee, though, your ex-husband will have a much clearer picture of the role he has in your life. Which is to say, it’s a part played completely offstage.”

“Oh. Okay.” She didn’t look entirely convinced he meant what he said about not escalating the conversation into a more physical type of confrontation. “I really don’t think this is necessary.”

“I do.” No man who was any kind of a man let someone bully his woman. He leaned down and gave Delaney a quick kiss before heading out.

Not quite thirty minutes later he had reached West’s place of work and was leaning against the driver’s side of the SUV, which he’d parked in the shade of a mesquite tree while he waited for West to show up. From what Beck had gleaned in his quick-and-dirty search at the office, West was supposed to be at work by 9:00 a.m. But here it was, nearly nine thirty, and he hadn’t managed to drag his ass in yet. Probably told the wife he had an early morning meeting then met up with his Facebook friend at a nearby hotel for some morning nookie.

Beck had to wait another ten minutes before he saw the bastard drive into the parking lot in a late model, black BMW and park it under a ramada in a spot reserved for management. Beck pushed away from his SUV and strolled toward West, reaching the other man by the time he’d gotten out of his car with his briefcase. The car beeped, signifying he’d locked it, and he started walking toward the building but had to stop when he realized Beck blocked his way.

Wariness replaced the self-satisfied look that had sat smugly on West’s face. “Can I help you?”

“I’m hopin’ I can help you, Mr. West,” Beck answered.

West’s head tilted slightly to one side. “Do I know you?”

Beck shook his head. “We have a mutual acquaintance.” He paused a beat then said, “Delaney Murphy.”

The wariness grew. “And how do you know my ex-wife?”

“I’m her man.” Pride filled Beck at the claim. He was damned lucky to have a woman like Delaney in his life, and he knew it. And he had a feeling the prick in front of him hadn’t realized how much of a good thing he’d screwed up when he was married, but did now and was kicking himself for it.

West gave him a dismissive glance. “I don’t think we have anything to say to each other.” He started to walk around Beck.

Beck moved into his path again. “We do. You let me say what I came to say, we can be done and you can go in to work not much later than you already are.”

“I was at a meeting,” came the tight response. “Not that it’s any of your business.”

Beck shrugged. “You’re right. It isn’t any of my business. Just like your ‘meeting’ that was really you fucking your coworker…” he jerked his chin toward the compact car just pulling into a parking spot, the driver a pretty blonde, “…isn’t any of my business, either.” West opened his mouth but Beck forestalled him. “And just like your numerous banking accounts that I’m sure your wife, Miranda, knows nothing about also aren’t any of my business.” Satisfaction flooded him as West’s face paled. Finally he was getting through to the asshole. “You stay out of Laney’s life and I forget about all these things that aren’t any of my business.”

“And if I don’t?” West blustered.

Beck cocked an eyebrow. “Then ‘not my business’ becomes your wife’s business.” He stared down at West. “You have no need to be where Laney lives, works, hangs out, or breathes, so you stay away.”

A muscle flexed in West’s jaw. “This is about that fucking coffee shop, isn’t it? I’d hardly call Midtown her side of town. It’s central, and she lives on the east side.”

“
Lived
,” Beck stressed. “She lived on the east side. Now she lives downtown.”

The other man looked startled. “Since when?”

“Since none of
your
business.” Beck folded his arms across his chest. “We have an understanding?”

“This is blackmail.”

“If you wanna call it that.” Beck let his arms fall to his sides and leaned forward, just a hair, but it was enough to make the other man back up a couple of steps. “The only thing I want is for my woman to breathe easy, and she won’t do it if you’re there reminding her of times that were not so good for her.”

The prick had the balls to draw himself up, offense written in the downward lines by his thin lips. What the fuck had Delaney seen in this guy? Beck was a man and didn’t look at other guys with the thought of whether they were handsome or not—no problems with those who did, to each his own—but this loser, who might be a good-looking man if he lost the attitude, thought he was all that. But he just was not.

“You make it sound like all our years together were bad.”

Both of Beck’s brows shot up. “You make it sound like you think some of ’em were good.” He shook his head. “Don’t know what planet you’ve been living on, bud, but when you constantly put your woman down and that goes on throughout your marriage and then you take your hand to her… Man, what part of any of that translates to good in your little pea-sized brain?” Just thinking of Delaney taking the back of this bastard’s hand had rage coursing through Beck’s body, and he clenched his fists at his sides.

West seemed not to notice that Beck’s mood had eased away from congenial, of sorts, because he glared at him. “You can’t tell me where I can and cannot go. This is my town too.”

“No, it isn’t. It’s my town. You go where I say you can go.”

“Or?”

Beck scowled. “Bud, I already laid out the consequences for you. You don’t care your wife finds out about your stash of cash and your fuck buddy, you go right on hassling Laney.”

“Fine,” West bit out, clearly not eager for his secrets to come out.

Beck decided to push his advantage. “As a matter of fact,” he drawled, “I think maybe you should request a transfer to the Phoenix office. They have an opening you’d be qualified for.”

“I don’t want to live in Phoenix,” came the somewhat bewildered response. “Anyway, how do you know there’s an opening?”

“I’m good at what I do.” He locked gazes with West. “You ever have a reason to come downtown?”

“My wife likes to eat at the Hotel Congress and a couple of other restaurants downtown,” he said, even more bewildered. “And we both like to go to the Fox Theatre. We’re probably downtown a few times a month.”

“You get that Laney now lives downtown?” Beck waited for that to sink in.

West’s face darkened. “How the hell am I supposed to tell my wife we can’t go downtown anymore?”

“She can go downtown as often as she wants to,” Beck responded immediately. “I’m talkin’ ’bout you, bud.” He folded his arms again. “I don’t want you so much as breathin’ Laney’s air. You don’t think you can come up with an excuse, then maybe Phoenix doesn’t look so bad, right? They have restaurants and theaters up there too. Lots of night life.”

West glowered at him. “I’m not fucking moving to Phoenix. I’ll stay away from Delaney. She’s not worth all this shit anyway.”

Beck let that pass, but barely. He had to take a couple of deep breaths to keep from letting his fist slip onto the bastard’s face. “Got your word on that? Or do I need to have a little chat with your wife?”

The other man clenched his jaw so tight a muscle jerked near his ear, but he gritted out, “You have my word.”

“Not sure that means much, now that I think on it.” Beck let that sink in then said, “Keep your promise, you won’t see me again. Don’t, Miranda becomes an even unhappier woman than I suspect she already is.” Turning, he sauntered back to his SUV and climbed behind the wheel.

* * * * *

As soon as he walked through the door to REG, Delaney shot to her feet and rounded the reception desk. “You told him to move to
Phoenix
?”

He’d been feeling pleased with himself for solving this problem for her, but that was crushed by the disbelief and anger that flared at her words. “You have got to be fucking me. I warned him off you and he
called
?” He twisted on his heel and started to head right back out the door.

“Beck, no!” Delaney ran after him and grabbed his arm. “Get back in here.”

He allowed her to turn him, but she couldn’t budge him from that spot. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t go right back up there and impress upon him the seriousness of my suggestion.”

“He understands it was serious. Whatever you threatened him with, he took it to heart. He’s going to stay away from me.” When he relaxed his stance, she drew him toward her desk. “He just thought I should know the type of man I’d tied myself to. One who would, you know, defend me against scumbag ex-husbands by fair means or foul.” Her eyes went tender. “Thank you for that.” Her voice was as soft as the look in her eyes.

He couldn’t stand firm against that. But he apparently should have been clearer with Franklin West. Tipping his head down, he spoke softly a few inches from her delectable mouth. “Still think I should drive home the consequences of him breathin’ your air and impress upon him further that, even though I didn’t say it, that includes the fucking telephone.”

She stroked a hand over his shoulder and curled it over his biceps. “You’ve done enough, Beck. He’ll leave me alone now.” She paused then said, “I asked him if he had a set of keys to my car.”

“What’d he say?”

“He told me he didn’t, and I believe him. He was too upset by your altercation and didn’t even pause when he told me no. I don’t think he was lying to me.”

“Wouldn’t matter if he did, babe,” he said. “We’re gonna get your locks changed, remember?”

She rolled her lips in, eyes hitting his shoulder. “Oh, right,” she whispered.

As much as he wished she would lose that shyness with him, he had to admit it was adorable. He dipped his head and gave her a light kiss on the lips. “We have a meeting in the conference room at ten still?” he asked her.

She blinked and slowly pulled away. “Oh, um…yeah. The others are already in there.” She took a few steps away. “Do you need me?”

“I’ll always need you, baby. But you don’t have to be in the meeting.”