Kiss of a Stranger (Lost Coast Harbor #1) (3 page)

Maddie inhaled. It was the one thing Oliver could say that she wouldn’t argue with, and he knew it. He wrapped one arm around her shoulder and gave it a squeeze, dropping a quick kiss on her temple.

Gabe watched every movement.

“It’ll be a while till you’re in charge of loading cargo,” Oliver warned Gabe, the only indication he hadn’t taken complete leave of his senses. “Come on. Let me show you around a bit.” He stepped outside and waited for the other man.

Gabe lingered for a second too long, still watching her.

“Don’t leave tonight before you fill out the paperwork.” Maddie aimed for civil, but even she could hear the throb of anger in her words.

Gabe’s eyes raked her from her tightly pulled hair to her boring shoes. She didn’t know what he saw, but it was enough to draw another small smile.

“I’ll be here for a while…Maddie.”

He followed Oliver out the door, leaving Maddie standing in the middle of an empty office, counting to ten over and over again.

Something was wrong with him. For years, he’d imagined being exactly where he was right now. Standing before Oliver Hastings while surrounded by a bunch of machines capable of crushing the asshole’s skull.

And all he could think about was a slim brunette who’d looked at him like he was edible—but hadn’t decided if he was chocolate or brussels sprouts.

One day, and already he felt lost. The outside world was too much. Too confusing. He constantly felt overloaded with new information. New sensations.

All he needed to do was cozy up to that lovely office manager, the one with access to Hastings’ secrets. He’d spent all of high school charming whatever girl he’d wanted. He hadn’t changed that much.

Except when Maddie glared at him in disgust, he knew that was a lie. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t a criminal. The time in prison had warped him, made him more like the men he’d known inside than the innocent people in town.

Hell, he didn’t even have game anymore. That devilish smile he used to flash to such effect was now a tight, small thing. When she looked at him, he’d struggled to speak in complete sentence. His seventeen-year-old self would hide his face in shame.

Gabe forced his attention back to Oliver. After all, Maddie was just a small cog in the Hastings machine. This man was the reason he’d traveled to Lost Coast. The reason he’d spent almost six years of his life in San Quentin. No matter how poorly things had gone with Maddie, the plan was still in place.

It’s not like it would be a chore to seduce her. He’d spent half their conversation imagining his hands undoing the buttons of her white blouse.

He’d been thrown when Oliver recognized his name, and even more so when he’d been offered the job. It only meant he had to be cautious. The CEO of Hastings Enterprises wouldn’t be an idiot. Oliver Hastings would know that the man he’d set up six years ago hadn’t shown up out of the blue because he needed a job.

Any smart businessman would eliminate such a threat right away.

But Gabe was ready for him. He might have been an idiot once, but that was a lifetime ago.

Gabe watched Oliver talk, barely listening to the man’s cheerful instructions. Every time Oliver spoke, he heard another voice whispering the words Gabe had relived every night for six years. The sentence Agent Glover muttered to his partner while he slapped cuffs on Gabe’s wrists.

Think we got a chance of finally pinning this on Hastings?

They hadn’t, of course. Gabe took the fall, and Hastings’ halo wasn’t even tarnished. It didn’t matter that Gabe had picked up the truck at a Hastings shipping depot, or that he was supposed to deliver it to the very docks he stood on now. All that mattered was he’d been stopped while driving a truck full of guns, and there wasn’t a shred of evidence to tie the shipment to the man standing before him.

Back then, Gabe had no information to trade. He’d been a poor kid, only a few years out of juvie. There was no point bothering with the charade of a trial. Any fool knew what a jury would say. Rough kid with the last name Reyes, brought up in a poor Oakland neighborhood and caught red-handed with a bunch of guns. He took the plea and got six years instead of twenty. Those years were gone forever, taken by a man who’d probably never given him a second thought.

That man needed to pay for what he’d stolen.

Oliver continued to stroll the dock, oblivious to Gabe’s tumultuous thoughts. He pointed at a bunch of grizzled old-timers. “You’ve got any questions, those are the ones to ask. Harold and Vince have been here since I was in diapers. They probably know more about the docks than I do.” Oliver laughed without embarrassment.

Gabe perked up at that. Those were the kind of men who knew all the dirt. They both watched him, more curious than wary, and he nodded in their direction. There would be time to make friends later.

“Vince will teach you the ropes tomorrow, once your paperwork’s in order. I’m only here for a couple hours a day. Afternoons I’m in town, so Vince and Maddie are pretty much in charge.” Oliver said. “Mainly, it’s muscles and forklifts. We move cargo up and down the coast to the smaller ports, the ones that can’t be serviced by the big ships. Sometimes we move timber to the cities. Even more important, we bring stuff back here. You may have noticed we’re a bit off the beaten path.”

He fought to keep a smile pasted on his face while Oliver chatted. He shouldn’t be surprised that the man was so confident and friendly. Gabe had done his research. There was plenty of info about the whole Hastings family online. He’d known what Oliver looked like long before he walked into the office, and he knew he was the star of his family—the high school valedictorian who went on to get straight As at Stanford, who could fill several trophy cases with all his academic and sports achievements. Success found Oliver at every turn. He’d practically been handed the keys to the family business the day he earned his MBA from Harvard.

When he studied the pictures on one of the prison’s ancient computers, he assumed the sunny smile Oliver flashed in all his photos hid dark reserves, and in reality, malice would glint in the man’s green eyes.

Except Oliver was exactly how he looked in the photos. The light-hearted golden boy the universe loved too much to ever kick in the teeth.

It only made Gabe hate him more.

“That’s it. Start tomorrow,” Oliver said. He held out his hand.

Gabe stared at it for a second too long, then he clasped the man’s hand. They were about the same height, their grips equally strong, and he resisted the urge to squeeze the man’s bones till they turned to dust. The guy would probably notice. Plus, Gabe wasn’t sure he could hurt Oliver with strength.

Good thing he wasn’t planning on using brute force. Gabe had a few brains, and he’d use them all to prove Hastings was the one behind the guns.

Maybe, after he cleared his name, he could figure out a way to leave the past six years behind him. To stop feeling like an ex-con who lost his entire future on a dark two-lane road.

Oliver’s hand was still wrapped around his when the other man yanked him forward. Gabe stumbled into him with a curse, and the momentum forced them backwards several steps. Oliver gripped his arms, and together they fought to remain standing.

Gabe saw red. He pulled back his arm, fingers already curling as he imagined smashing his fist into Hastings’ face. The man’s perfect bone structure would be much improved by a broken jaw.

A deafening crack drew his attention to the lamppost behind him. The solid metal shuddered. A broken crate lay on the dock, its contents spilled at Gabe’s feet.

The contents of a crate that had just swung across the dock—through the empty space where Gabe had stood moments before.

Gabe pushed Oliver away and sprinted for the crane. Crates didn’t just fling themselves through the air.

No one stood at the controls.

He spun around. It was early, but the workers had already clocked in. Their heads swiveled between the shattered crate and the unmanned crane, jaws slack with surprise.

Harold was the first to come to his senses. His voice was hoarse but still managed to reach everyone on the dock. “We all right?”

Oliver stepped forward, his eyes sharp as he scanned the dock. “What happened?”

Gabe forced himself to remain calm. Industrial accidents happened all the time. And it was hard to accuse Oliver of trying to off him, since Oliver was the reason his skull hadn’t shattered along with the crate.

“Nothing over here,” Gabe responded.

No one looked satisfied with that answer.

“Are you okay?” Maddie raced through the office door in a panic. She rushed to Oliver’s side and turned him to face her. “Are you hurt?”

Gabe ground his teeth so hard he was surprised Maddie didn’t notice. He told himself it was because Maddie’s loyalty to the other man would only make his job harder.

But he struggled to tear his eyes from her hands wrapped around Oliver’s shoulders.

He forced himself to look away long enough to scan the faces of every worker. Not a single guilty expression among them. Gabe cursed. There wouldn’t be any answers that day. He studied them again, this time committing their faces to memory. Any—or all—of them could know what sort of things shipped in and out of Lost Coast Harbor.

Oliver strode the dock, and the genial man Gabe had just met was nowhere in sight. The man’s eyes were intent as he studied the equipment and measured the distance between the crane and its target. Maddie watched him, still more worried than Gabe was comfortable with.

At last Oliver sighed, having reached the same conclusion Gabe already had. “It’s not clear what happened. Vince, get Josh down here to look at the equipment. Until he gives the all-clear, you’re hauling by hand.”

A few groans greeted that announcement, but they were in the minority. On the whole, the men appeared to respect the man who delivered it and trust his judgment.

Men might do all kinds of things for a guy they respected.

Proclamation delivered, Oliver returned to his office and the men got to work.

Gabe was left on the dock with nothing to do. Adrenaline coursed through him, a rush of energy with no place to spend it.

Giving the dock one last inspection, his gaze locked with Maddie’s. Staring into her enormous eyes, blue and green like the ocean behind him, set him buzzing almost as much as the attack. Energy shot through his body and went straight to his dick. He’d heard that near-death experiences made a man horny as hell. That was an understatement. An image flashed through his mind. Maddie pressed up against the building, legs wrapped tight around his waist while he pounded into her slick heat, sweet gasps in his ear as he pushed her over the edge.

He wrenched his thoughts back before his jeans grew too uncomfortable. Six years without a woman was too damn long.

It was time to change that.

Chapter Three

M
addie forced herself to stand still as Gabe stalked toward her. His eyes were predatory, but that didn’t mean she needed to be his prey.

He stopped a foot from her. Too close. She had to tilt her head up to meet his eyes, and she knew he’d done it on purpose. He wanted her unsettled.

“Ready to do the paperwork?” His voice was low and deep. It sounded like paperwork was a euphemism for something she definitely wanted to try.

Maddie gave herself a mental slap. Gabe wasn’t just another tattooed wanna-be bad boy. He was a convicted felon. She wouldn’t make the same mistakes again.

Her body, however, hadn’t gotten the memo. Even now, heat pooled in places that had remained decidedly lukewarm for years.

With great effort, she broke eye contact and returned to the office. It was just a bit of paperwork. She did this for every new hire.

She kept herself busy for a minute, pulling the correct documents from the four-drawer filing cabinet and creating a new folder for Gabe. She laid them across her desk.

“Application and W-9. Fill out, date, and sign.” Maddie pointed to the relevant sections. She slid her eyes toward Oliver’s closed door, wishing he’d left it open.

Gabe’s finger followed hers across the documents. Not quite touching, but one small twitch would place her finger against his.

His mouth tightened. “I don’t have an address.”

“It doesn’t need to be your home address. A motel or friend’s house is fine for now.”

For the first time, Gabe almost looked uncertain.

“Just write down where you slept last night.” Her words grew clipped in her frustration. Once again, her hair began to loosen. She grabbed another pin from the desk and shoved it into her bun, holding it in place.

The fingers on Gabe’s left hand dug into his palm. When he saw her notice, he forced the hand open, resting it flat against his leg. “Lost Coast Harbor has benches, you know.”

She blinked, forgetting in her surprise to avoid his gaze—but for once Gabe averted his eyes. “You’re homeless?”

His casual shrug looked forced. “No one hands you first, last, and deposit when you’re released.”

Maddie studied the blank paperwork, considering. Whatever he’d done, no one should spend nights exposed to the bitter cold of Lost Coast in January. He’d have had better accommodations in prison.

She weighed her options. The temperature was supposed to drop even further tonight. Anyone caught out in it might not wake up with all their fingers and toes still working. She needed to find him a place to stay, unless she wanted to offer him one herself.

Besides, if he didn’t have enough money for a motel room, how would he make it to his first payday?

“Wait here.” She strode to Oliver’s door and knocked, barely waiting for his muffled response before she opened it. “Gabe needs an advance.”

He didn’t expect that. “I thought we didn’t trust him,” he reminded her, making liberal use of the word “we.”

“We don’t. He still needs food and shelter.”

Oliver’s brow furrowed for a second, trying to grasp the concept of needing something so basic, then he nodded. “Of course. Give him what you can from the petty cash, then call Jared for an apartment.”

Maddie returned to her desk before either of them could change their mind.