Miami, Mistletoe & Murder (Red Stone Security #4) (12 page)
Self-consciously, Lizzy tugged at her dress as if she could somehow make it grow a couple inches longer. The bright turquoise halter-style dress and black cardigan sweater she wore were completely respectable, but as she walked down the stone driveway toward the front door, she could feel several sets of eyes on her. Considering Orlando Salas was rumored to be in the same business his father had been, she guessed that even though she couldn’t see them, he had plenty of scary looking security guys milling around. They were nothing more than thugs in suits and ties. She worked for one of the best security firms in the nation and the guys she worked with—they sure weren’t thugs. No, they were highly trained, mostly ex-military, and didn’t deal with scum like Salas. They protected uber wealthy clients and government dignitaries and everyone they worked for got a detailed military level background check—courtesy of her computer skills—and if it appeared they were into anything like drugs, Red Stone Security didn’t take them on. With how much money their company made, they could afford to be picky.
Before she could knock on the bright red door, it swung open and a man carrying an assault rifle looked her up and down.
A cold chill slithered through her, mainly because of the look on his face, rather than the gun. She’d known the guards here would be armed, but
yuck
, this guy made her feel like she was naked. Clutching her purse tighter against her side—as if that could somehow save her—she started to tell him why she was there, but he beat her to it.
With a lecherous grin on his face, he stepped back and allowed her to enter. “Your brother’s out back.” He pointed down the tile hallway. “Just follow until you reach the French doors.”
Fighting back the growing panic humming through her, she nodded and did just as he said. Yeah, maybe she should have called her boss and told him what she was doing but she didn’t want to drag anyone she knew into Benny’s problems. Then everyone would know how messed up her family really was. It was too embarrassing. She’d take care of it just like she always had.
Chin up
, she ordered herself.
As she neared the doors she could see her brother stretched out on an Adirondack chair. She yanked the door open and hurried to his still form. “Benny!”
When he didn’t stir, an icy fist clasped around her heart. He looked like a corpse. His normally bronze face was a grayish color. She touched his wrist and a sharp burst of relief popped inside her. At least his pulse was strong. But his face…tears blurred her vision for a moment. A garish purple bruise covered his left cheek and one of his eyes was swollen almost all the way shut. A light trail of blood had trickled from his nostril and dried on his upper lip. Had they broke his nose? Her throat tightened with raw grief. He’d sounded bad on the phone but she hadn’t expected
this
. She wanted to touch him, comfort him somehow, but was afraid she’d only hurt him more.
Her hand hovered over his pale face for a moment before she settled on brushing a lock of his dark hair away from his forehead. “What have you gotten yourself into,” she whispered.
“He’s going to be out for a little while.” She swiveled around at a familiar male voice and let her hand drop.
Monster.
The word echoed inside her but she bit it back. “Mr. Salas.” She tried to keep the disdain out of her voice as she faced the man who’d likely beaten her brother. Or at least watched while one of his men had. Somehow she managed to blink back the tears threatening to spill over.
“Please call me Orlando. You’re a very good sister to pick your brother up so quickly.” Standing about ten feet away from her, he leaned against the mini-bar with a glass tumbler in hand.
She narrowed her gaze. Anger battled with the fear blossoming inside her but she was still level-headed enough not to cower in front of him. A man like this probably craved the fear of others. “Did you do this to him?”
His shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. “Not personally. Benito owes me quite a bit of money and I intend to collect.”
“How much?”
“A hundred thousand.”
Lizzy swallowed but tried to school her shock. Benny had had problems with drugs in the past but he’d been clean for a while. Unfortunately, he’d found a new drug of choice. Gambling. If she had to guess, he owed Orlando the money because of bad bets. Or maybe he was back into drugs. She just didn’t know. And she hated what her brother did to himself. He had such a good heart but he couldn’t seem to keep it together.
Her parents had the money.
She
definitely didn’t. And it was unlikely her parents would fork over that kind of cash for the black sheep of the family. Unless she could convince them it was for her. Despite the terror splintering through her, she stood her ground. “So you tried to
beat
the money out of him?”
His dark gaze seemed to penetrate right through to her innermost thoughts. “He’s lucky he’s not dead. Out of respect for your family, I’m giving him one week to pay me back.”
“And if he doesn’t?” She hated that the question came out shaky, but she couldn’t help it. She was scared, even if she tried to hide it.
“I sincerely hope he has a life insurance policy.” He placed his glass on the bar and covered the short distance between them in seconds. Before she could react, he’d pressed her against one of the columns lining the outer edges of the lanai. His breath was hot on her cheek and his expensive cologne nearly smothered her as fear clawed at her insides. “I might be willing to bargain, however, Ms. Martinez. You are a beautiful woman. Six months as mine, and I’ll let your brother off.” His hips jerked forward and she pushed back the bile in her throat when she felt his erection against her hip.
Instinct overtook her fear as she shoved at his chest. “You’re disgusting.”
He was immovable. Grabbing her wrist, he pinned it above her head. When she swung out at him with her other hand, he snapped it up with the same precision. She tried to tug against him, but the man’s grip was like an iron shackle. Cold sweat blossomed across her forehead and spread the length of her body. She hadn’t told anyone where she was going, and Orlando Salas was total scum. If he raped her, he wouldn’t let her live to tell anyone. No, he’d likely dump her in the ocean. She racked her brain, trying to think of a way out of her situation when a loud shout and glass breaking inside caused him to let her go. But not before he backhanded her across the face and growled, “Stay here.”
The abrupt action surprised her more than it hurt. A dull throb spread across her cheek, but it was nothing compared to what would happen to her if she didn’t get out of there. As he started to reach for a gun tucked in the back of his pants, the double doors flew open and the last person she expected to see stormed through, with a SIG in hand.
And it was pointed directly at Orlando.
“Are you okay, Elizabeth?” Porter Caldwell, her unlikely savior, asked in his typical clipped tone.
“I’m fine.” At the moment, all that mattered was getting out of there alive. She wasn’t exactly sure what Porter was doing there or even how he’d gotten past Orlando’s guards. She wasn’t going to balk at a chance to escape, even if her rescuer was her sort-of-ex/almost-lover. Even though they’d dated for a month and gotten pretty physical, they’d never actually had sex so she didn’t think that qualified him as an old lover.
“Do you know who I am?” Orlando spat, but Lizzy noticed he didn’t continue reaching for his gun. He wasn’t that stupid.
Porter’s pale blue gaze narrowed with deadly precision. “More importantly, do you know who
I
am?” Without waiting for a response, he strode toward Orlando and slammed the gun across his head with a vicious blow.
With a short-lived cry of surprise, Orlando crumpled onto the mosaic tile. Lizzy had expected more of a response from the man but maybe without his security to back him up he wasn’t so tough after all.
Porter grabbed Lizzy’s wrist and started tugging her toward the open doors. “We have maybe sixty seconds to get out of here before the rest of his guards realize what’s going on. I don’t know what the hell you’re doing here, but—”
She yanked hard against his grasp. “My brother!”
He paused to stare at her, his gaze unreadable. “What?”
She nodded at Benny. “We need to get him out of here too.”
His head cocked slightly to the side as if seeing the crumpled heap that was her brother for the first time. Mr. Tall, dark and annoyed muttered something under his breath before tucking his gun away. Then he lifted her brother onto his shoulder as if he weighed nothing. Benny was almost six feet tall but Porter was taller and much broader. And all muscle. “Follow me,” he grunted.
Clutching her purse to her side, she hurried after Porter. “What are you doing here?” she whispered.
“Saving your pretty little butt. Ask your questions later. We need to get the hell out of here.” His shoes were silent against the tile while her heels clacked noisily. If she didn’t think it would slow her down she’d take them off and run in her bare feet. When they reached the open foyer, she spotted two guards unconscious and face down on the tile. Broken shards of what had once been a vase littered around one of the men.
Fear skittered along her exposed skin. “I don’t understand—”
“Your car. Now,” he barked as he jerked the front door open. He didn’t even glance behind him as he strode outside.
Not bothering to pull the front door shut behind her, she started to slide into the passenger side of her car while Porter dumped Benny in the back. Before she’d even shut her door, Porter kicked the car into drive and sped off.
“What…what are you doing here?” She hated that her voice shook but she couldn’t control it. She was grateful he’d shown up but she hated that he’d seen her and her brother in this kind of situation. Keeping her family life private was too important. And Porter had already made it clear what he thought of her brother. She didn’t like giving him more ammunition against Benny.
“Don’t you know what kind of man Orlando Salas is?” he ground out. It wasn’t so much a question as a statement of disgust.
As he sped down the stone driveway, she glanced behind them to see two men running out the front door, guns in hand. At least they didn’t open fire on them. Thankfully the iron gate was still open as Porter tore through the opening. “How’d you get past his security? And where’s your car? And why are you even here?”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t ask that first question,” he muttered and chose to ignore her other two questions completely.
She bit back a retort and tried to take a few steadying breaths. Porter might drive her crazy with his bossy attitude, but Lizzy worked for Red Stone Security, which was owned by his father. And his brother Harrison was her boss. Not that she had any fear Harrison would fire her if she got into it with Porter, but still, she liked to pick her battles wisely. As the peacemaker of her family she was used to stopping fights, not starting them.
She glanced over her shoulder again and was relieved to see that no one was following them. Turning to Porter, she said, “Explain how you knew I was at Orlando Salas’s house.” She figured she probably should have asked nicely, not demanded an answer, but right now she felt as if her insides were actually shaking.
He shot her a sharp glance that put her on edge, but at the same time made something annoyingly feminine inside her flare to life. Without even trying the man exuded a raw sexuality that made her abdomen clench with need each time she saw him. Or thought about him. Lately that was too often.
“I put a GPS tracker in your car a couple weeks ago,” he said quietly.
It took a moment for his words to register. She shook her head, sure she’d misheard. “
What?
”
He shrugged and made another left turn. “It was the only way I knew to keep you safe.”
“Safe? What… Do you realize how crazy this sounds? You put a
tracker
in my car!” The tiny voice in the back of her head told her to shut up and be grateful he had considering what had just happened.
His sharp features never changed as he pulled up behind an SUV parked by the curb. He fished out a set of keys and handed them to her. “I want you to drive my vehicle and I’ll follow you back to your place.”
She sputtered and stared at his outstretched hand.
“Lizzy, please. I’ll answer all your questions once we get out of here.”
His use of her nickname took her off guard. He rarely called her Lizzy. The first time had been right before he’d pushed her up against a wall and kissed her until she was breathless and panting for more. They’d dated for roughly a month after that kiss and since their very brief relationship ended, she’d been nothing but ‘Elizabeth’ to him.
She mentally shook herself. Now wasn’t the time to argue with him. The part of her that wanted to get as far away from Orlando Salas’s house as possible knew that. She snatched the keys from his hand and hurried to his SUV. She might have a lot of questions for Porter, but more than anything she was simply grateful for his presence. If not for him, she’d probably be dead right now. Or worse. After what had just happened, energy hummed through her and she could actually feel her adrenaline high starting to crash. If he hadn’t shown up when he had…Lizzy shivered and a cold sweat blossomed across her forehead. She couldn’t think about that right now.
