Scandal Never Sleeps (26 page)

“Don’t let her leave,” Gabriel eked out as he hunched over.

“If Dax tries to stop me, I’ll give him the same treatment,” Everly shot back, then sent Spencer a warning glance.

Dax frowned. “Come on, Parker. Be reasonable.”

Roman held a hand out as though placating the lion he found in his midst. “Let’s talk this out. There are things you don’t know, Everly. You really are in danger.”

“As your friend there so recently found out, I can handle myself.” Besides throwing a mean right hook, she had a permit to carry concealed. She hadn’t carried since Maddox’s funeral, but as soon as she got out of here, she would grab her Beretta and defend herself if necessary.

“Come upstairs and listen to what Gabe has to say. If you still want to leave after hearing him out, I’ll escort you out of the building undetected and get you where you need to go,” Roman vowed.

“She can’t leave,” Gabriel argued, still clutching his sore stomach.

They were giving her a choice, but she couldn’t allow Gabriel
another chance to deceive her. Roman and Connor both lied for a living. Dax maybe not as much, but to navigate military politics, he’d probably told a fib or two. And Gabriel . . . Don’t get her started. The whole lot of them were excellent at getting exactly what they wanted. She was too straightforward to play this game. She said exactly what she meant. There was no way she could play games with these men and expect to come out on top.

“I’ll take my chances alone.” She turned to leave.

At some point, Connor had worked his way behind her and now blocked the exit.

“Get out of my way.” She was done being intimidated. And honestly, Connor was leaner than Gabriel. If she could incapacitate him, she doubted Connor would be any harder to take down.

“Connor, don’t hurt her.” Gabriel held up a hand, his face and voice projecting calm, as if he placated a wild animal.

Connor’s face was perfectly bland. “So you want me to let her go?”

She really didn’t like the look on his face. Instinct told her to take a step back, but she had already proven that she had terrible instincts. “Get out of my way. I’m not staying here. If you want to detain me, you’ll have a fight.”

His smile wasn’t pretty. “It won’t be much of a fight.”

A prickle of fear snaked up her spine.

“My father was a cop. He taught me how to defend myself.” Adrenaline pumped through her system. She had to stay confident. After all, she sparred regularly with the Crawford building’s guards. They’d learned very quickly that if they went easy on her, she handed them their asses. After she’d taken out a couple of the big ones, they’d treated her like an equal.

“He didn’t teach you how to fight me.”

“Connor, buddy. Be gentle.” Gabriel sounded downright worried.

She was done playing. Hell, she was done altogether. Most men just talked a good game, and she was no longer in the mood to chat.

Everly pivoted to walk around Connor. When he reached for her arm, she would twist it out of his grasp, then she’d either go for his solar plexus or aim a little lower and make him wish he hadn’t been born a man.

Unfortunately, Connor didn’t reach for her arm. Before she could even take another breath, he hooked his arm around her neck and braced his free hand against her temple. She tried to figure out what he was doing, but that didn’t give her a spare second to fight.

“I think you need a time out,” Connor rumbled. “Nighty-night.”

Damn it. He meant to perform a sleeper choke hold. Everly squirmed and fought, but he was too strong, holding her immobile as he pressed on her jugular, stopping the flow of blood to her brain. Her vision blurred. The folder slid from her hand, all her dirty secrets on the floor for everyone to see.

“Let her go!” Gabriel dashed in front of her, concern swimming all over his face.

“She’s all yours, buddy.”

Gabriel caught her in his strong, secure arms. Then the world blinked out.

•   •   •

Y
ou nearly fucking killed her. You didn’t have to do that,” Gabe gritted out as he settled Everly onto the sofa.

She looked so pale as she lay there unmoving. Jesus, maybe he should call a doctor. Then kill his friend.

“She’s fine.” Connor waved him off. “Do you know how often I use that move? I haven’t killed anyone yet.”

“Yes, you’re an expert because the analysis you do is so deadly,” Gabe shot back. He was tired of Connor pretending he sat behind a desk all day.

Connor shrugged, obviously unwilling to explain further. “Danger is everywhere these days. And she really was going to walk out. Do
you know what the press would have done with her? They could help her fuck you seven ways from Sunday if she chose to play the woman scorned. All she’d need is one national interview where she implies that you killed Mad in a jealous fit, and you’d find yourself indicted by a grand jury and being held without bail.”

“Connor is right. He had to stop her,” Roman seconded.

Dax grinned down at him. “Well, I’m glad Connor was there because after what she did to you, Gabe, I think I’ll avoid pissing her off. That was one mean move she pulled. You’re lucky she didn’t try to take your balls.”

“The day is still young,” Gabe replied with mock enthusiasm.

But once the silence fell, a thousand thoughts crowded his head. If Connor hadn’t stopped her, she would have gone. Would she have ever given him a chance to explain? Had he really touched her for the last time? Everything inside him rebelled at that thought. He’d never been denied much in his life, especially a woman. Gabe hated to think that his luck had run out when it finally counted.

Swallowing, he knelt beside her and brushed a lock of reddish-blond hair from her face. Despite her pert nose and stubborn chin, she looked so fragile. Gabe knew that appearances could be deceiving. Her anger certainly hadn’t been a delicate thing.

“How long until she’s conscious?” he asked Connor.

“She’ll be awake and fighting you in a couple of minutes. Be prepared.”

Roman paced, raking a hand through his hair. “That doesn’t give us much time to decide our next move. How the hell are we going to keep her here?”

“Lock her up.” Connor pointed to the floor above them. “The third bedroom is small. The window is sealed shut so she can’t do anything stupid. There’s one way in and one way out, and it happens to lock solely from the outside.”

Gabe stared at him. “Do I even want to know why?”

“No. You do not.”

Dax shook his head. “We can’t lock her up.”

“Sure I can,” Connor replied.

“We are not going to put her into some sort of prison.” Gabe wouldn’t give Everly another reason to hate him. “I’ll talk to her when she wakes up, make her see reason. She has to understand that I requested that report before I knew who she was. And what I said to Sara upset Everly, but she’ll calm down once I explain my logic.”

Everly’s eyes fluttered open. “Wha . . . what happened?”

Maybe whatever Connor had done to her had induced short-term memory loss. Gabe sat on the edge of the sofa beside her and cupped her cheek. “Hey, baby. How are you feeling?”

She sat up and shoved his hand away, then surged to her feet. He moved in to balance her in case she hadn’t quite recovered. She let him hold her arms in a steadying grip for a moment, but the minute she seemed stable, she jerked away.

“Everly, please let me help you.”

She shook her head, her strawberry waves brushing her shoulders decisively. “You’ve ‘helped’ me enough, Bond. Now I’m feeling like a walking, talking bitch on wheels. I think the police would be interested to know that your friend almost killed me.”

Gabe winced. Obviously, the short-term amnesia had been wishful thinking. She remembered everything.

“Why doesn’t anyone have faith in me?” Connor asked no one in particular.

“I have faith that you’re an asshole,” Everly muttered. She strode to the other side of the room with a pissed-off glare that nearly dropped him.

“How’s your head? Your vision?” Gabe asked, easing closer. “Do you need a doctor?”

She held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t pretend you give a shit. I read enough of that report to know you don’t. Now someone said
something about a back way out of this place. A friend is coming to pick me up.”

“Scott?” Roman asked. “He called while we were in the elevator. I told him you no longer needed a ride.”

Her expression iced over even more. “And my day is complete. Are you sure you all went to Creighton Academy and not Douchebag prep school? I’ll take my phone back and find a cab.”

“Will you please listen to me?” The desperation icing Gabe’s veins surprised him. The thought of Everly walking out of his life made him physically sick. In that moment, he wished he’d somehow managed to keep his heart untouched . . . but no such luck.

“Well, you boys have given me no choice.” Her gaze zipped over to Connor. “Are you former military? My father could do that move. He learned it when he became a SEAL.”

“Something like that,” he replied with a bland smile. “We’ll leave the two of you alone. Come on, Roman. We should be able to contact the PI by now.”

“The PI who told you how to damage my dead father’s reputation? You need more out of him?” She looked from Roman to Dax—seemingly at everyone but Gabe.

“Not that one. When we got Mad’s lockbox open, we found an investigator’s card inside,” Dax explained. “We suspect Mad hired him. Since Mad’s gone now, we’re hoping that this PI will divulge what he was hired to investigate.”

“I’d like to see the contents of that box. As long as I’m here, I intend to examine the evidence I nearly died to find. At the moment, I’m still temporarily in charge of Crawford’s security.” She flipped a stubborn hazel stare Gabe’s way. “Any chance you’ll send me on my merry way to the unemployment line?”

“None.” Gabe spoke the word like a vow.

“So, given Mulford’s absence and your stubbornness, figuring out who killed the boss falls under my purview. So why don’t you show me what you’ve uncovered.”

“Baby, let’s talk first about what you saw in that report and overheard me tell Sara. I didn’t—”

“It no longer matters. I’m only here for the case. Who’s the PI?”

She was going to be mulish obviously, and he worried that could be permanent. “Give me five minutes. After that, I won’t say another word on the subject. We’ll focus on the case. I’ll show you everything we’ve found. Please.”

She sat again, crossing her arms over her chest. “It won’t work. I’m done playing the fool for you.”

Clearly, talking to her was going to take longer than five minutes. Even if he had five days, Gabe wasn’t sure he could find the right words to rekindle the adoration he’d seen on her face last night.

He cast a troubled glance at Roman, Dax, and Connor. They nodded, then filed into the dining room. Gabe was alone with her and he wasn’t sure what to say. What the hell was he going to do if he couldn’t make her believe him?

He sat on the sofa beside her, attempting to respect her space. “My parents are both gone, and I’m the only family Sara has now.”

She held a hand up. “I’m going to stop you there, Bond. Let me guess what happened. Your sister saw the press concerning us and flipped out because now you’re sleeping with the woman who took her baby daddy away.”

“I wouldn’t put it that way, but she wasn’t pleased.”

“She was angry because like everyone else in the world she thinks I’m a money-hungry whore out to find myself a sugar daddy. Stop.” She put a hand up when he tried to talk. “You thought the same thing in the beginning. Hell, you might still think it.”

“I don’t. I don’t think you were after Mad’s money.”

She huffed a little, a dissatisfied sound. “I suppose I should be glad you now only think I was sleeping with him for pleasure. Let me talk, Bond, and you’ll get your turn. I get why you said what you said to Sara. It was harsh, but you had to come up with some way to explain my presence.”

“Yes,” he said quickly. “That’s exactly what I was trying to do. I was trying to calm her down. I don’t want her to lose the baby because she gets overly emotional.”

“Somehow I think she’s stronger than that, but I’ll leave that to you. I’m not upset about what you said to Sara. I’m pissed as hell about that report. You had a private investigator dig up dirt on my life. On my family. How am I supposed to forgive you for that?”

At least he had a way to explain this. “I ordered that report the morning I took over as CEO of Crawford. I didn’t know you were Everly Parker. I found out Mad had been having an . . .”
Shit
. This kept coming between them. “I learned the rumors about Mad having an affair with one of his VPs. I was angry and I worried that this woman would potentially come after a part of his fortune or start talking to the press and putting more pressure on Sara.”

She chuckled but there was no humor behind it. “So you decided to destroy me before I could do any of that.”

“I made the decision to gather some ammunition in case a woman I didn’t know came after my family. Once I knew who you were, I would never have used it against you.”

She shook her head. “I don’t believe you. You would use it if you had to. You would do anything to protect your sister and your friends, including sleep with the enemy. Just like they would risk going to jail to spare you the potential of me saying something to the press. At the end of the day, blood is thicker than water, isn’t it?”

He’d stepped into a minefield. “I did not sleep with you to keep you close.”

“So the sex was an added bonus?”

He had to force down his frustration. She was deliberately misunderstanding him. “No. It was attraction and chemistry, and you felt it, too.”

She jerked her gaze away, stubbornly staring at the wall in front of her. “Yes, but that doesn’t make us compatible. Even if you never used that report, you’re the type of man who gathers ammunition on your
enemies in case you might need it. You’re the type of man who threatened to kill his best friend.”

What the hell was he supposed to say to that? “I wouldn’t have done it.”

Her gaze was blank as she looked at him. “The same way you wouldn’t have used the report. You say all the right things, Gabriel. Can you be honest with me for two seconds?”