Sweet Seduction Shadow (15 page)

"Put it away," Nick instructed and the gun toting man immediately complied. No hesitation, simply followed the instruction without thought. Very military, very not drug world style.

He reached forward and opened my door instead. I kept my eyes on him while I climbed down. He was of Asian descent and had piercing almost black eyes. I didn't trust him.

"Leave off!" I heard Nick exclaim over the other side of the car. "I'm not a bloody invalid. We'll deal with it inside."

"I guess negotiations broke down," the pack wielding guy said, falling into stride next to Nick. They'd both started heading towards a lift, but I took my time, making sure the gun toting Asian dude didn't change his mind. I wished I'd grabbed Nick's gun from the car. It was probably empty by now, but this guy wouldn't necessarily know.

"There was never going to be any negotiations. Declan was not for sale."

"He shoot you?" the pack guy, who had amazing salt and pepper hair, asked.

"Yeah. Wasn't a hard shot," Nick admitted. "All we had going for us was the pitch black, and then the fucking door finally opened and bathed us in a spotlight."

"I guess Eric's timing wasn't the best," the Asian guy said as we got into the lift.

Nick shook his head. "What took him so long, anyway?"

Both black clad guys looked a little uncomfortable, shifting on their feet and looking anywhere but at Nick and I.

"Well?" Nick asked, just as the doors opened up into a reception area.

I forgot about being interested in their answer when we exited the lift and came face to face with a grandma holding a shotgun, barrel pointed towards us.

"Stand down, Carmel," Nick said. "I've had enough fucking bullets for one day."

"How'd you get yourself hit, Nick? A fucking newbie mistake," Carmel said, ruining the grandma look she had going on, but matching the menace of the shotgun.

"Long story. Save it for the next work social, yeah?" Nick's words were not soft in any way, he was clearly at the end of his patience. The shotgun toting grandma picked up on the vibe and just nodded once, as she returned the gun to its slot beneath her desk with fast and efficient moves.

Salt and Pepper entered a code into a door to the side and we all traipsed across the threshold, then walked down a hallway coming to rest at another key code locked door. I noticed this one had several cameras above it and across from it, all of which were swivelling and taking each one of us in.

Nick pounded on the door and shouted, "Eric, open the god-damned door!"

The door clicked and Nick stormed in. I don't know what I expected. A simpering Eric, a profoundly apologetic Eric, a defiant and indignant Eric. All of the above.

I didn't, however, expect to come face to face with a squadron of black clad men. Three stood over by a wall of security screens, similar to Declan's bunker set-up, but more plentiful, more impressive in size and quantity. Two more stood to one side, arms folded, scowls in place as they took in Nick's injury, and me bracketed by the Asian and the Medic.

And Ben. Who stood alone against the other wall. One look at him and I knew he was irate. I hadn't been in his presence on many occasions or for long, but in that short span of time I'd gotten to know my shadow man. His face was set in hard lines, gone was the impassivity he usually wore. A muscle jumped along his firm jawline, his eyebrows were down covering granite dark eyes. His lips, those beautiful lips that were so soft to touch, were set in a thin line; a slash across his mocha skin that seemed a sin.

Electricity charged the air, but it wasn't all his. Nick and the other black-clad men contributed a fair share of the emotional quagmire that sucked all air from the room. I wanted to be anywhere else but here. I wanted Ben to acknowledge me, to make me feel safe. I wanted a lot of things, but it seemed I was on my own.

From a gun fight, to a stand off. I sincerely believed I'd never been in any situation that made me feel so small.

I kept my eyes on Ben, willing him to look at me. Willing him to be the man I knew he could be. But his eyes were all for Nick, he didn't even spare me a glance. A part of me understood what he was doing, I'd done it for so long now, that it wasn't hard to see the signs. He was protecting himself, hiding in plain sight.

Tiredness swamped me and I started to sway on my feet. I needed Ben to walk out of his shadows. I needed him to lean on, to be the giant I knew that he was.

But it looked like I'd have to handle this on my own. At least for now. It didn't matter, I'm a survivor. I could do this.

One last look at Ben's staunch and irate façade, and I prepared to face the ASI Inquisition.

Come on, Ben. Step out of those shadows for me.

"Status," Nick barked, breaking the silence and shattering the stand off. He slumped down into a chair and finally allowed the Medic to tend to his shoulder wound. Blood ran in rivulets down his naked arm. The sleeve of his black T-shirt looked shiny in the overhead lights; coated in copious amounts of viscous liquid.

A black haired guy over by the screens was the one to answer, all the rest of the room remained on high alert, bodies poised to pounce, or pull a gun from a holster, it was hard to tell. Eyes darting around the room, taking in Ben, still irate, washing over me with barely contained wariness. It was a hostile environment and again I had no easy access to escape. The door behind us had closed and locked, and I didn't need to try it to know it was only opened by the dark haired man at the security screens and nowhere else.

"King's disappeared. A nice little move that caught me unawares," the guy announced without apology. "He's not at any of the known locations we have, but then we always knew Declan King had places off the map. He's gone to ground to heal that wound you inflicted, but there's certainly activity out there. The underground is abuzz."

"Anything we can use?" Nick asked, wincing as the Medic cut his sleeve away, the blood making the movement pull at the wound.

"Not a damn thing," he replied, clicking through screens at an impressive speed.

"What about our guys?" Nick asked. "Where's Eva?"

A woman's voice sounded over my shoulder at the door.

"I'm here, cowboy."

I turned to look at her and got the surprise of my life. A genuine cowgirl complete with boots and hat and a chambray shirt stood just inside the room. I hadn't even heard the door click open or seen the dark haired security guy make a move to unlock it. But that wasn't what made my jaw drop, the fact that she was so out of place in amongst the commando attitudes of the men thick in the room, was what did. She looked cute; long auburn hair in a thick braid down her back, slim waist, cream coloured perfect skin. Bright, big, chocolate brown eyes staring at Nick with not just a little anger.

"I'm all right, angel. Just a flesh wound," Nick said to placate her, then ruined it by swearing blue murder when the Medic dug a little deep with his tweezers. "Christ, Brook, do you have to dig to fucking China in there?"

"Just doing my job, boss," Brook, the Medic, replied steadily.

"Flesh wound, huh?" Eva said, interrupting whatever smart answer Nick had on his tongue. "Same shoulder too, I see," she added. "You must be a glutton for punishment, Nicholas."

At that Nick smiled. It was big and open and entirely all for her alone. The guys in the room averted their gazes, looking anywhere but at the two of them. But I couldn’t take my eyes off the woman who obviously held this hard man's heart in the palm of her hands.

"Angel," he finally said, still smiling. "Come here."

She rolled her eyes attractively and promptly crossed the room to come to stand between his spread thighs. He reached forward with his good arm and wrapped it around her waist and then rested his head on her stomach, closing his eyes. It was a such an intimate move, so personal and private, and showed a side of the man you wouldn't know existed at all.

My eyes flicked up for some reason and landed on Ben. He was watching me, watching them. That impassive mask was back. I held his gaze for several seconds, then when Nick spoke, used the distraction to break the connection. Ben needed to emerge from his shadows on his own. I was not going to send pleading eyes to him. This was something Ben had to
want
to do for himself.

"Where's Katie at, Eric?" Nick asked, still with his head resting on Eva's stomach. She had one hand stroking through his short hair, the other delicately placed on his good shoulder, fingers kneading.

"At home alone. Closest operative is Jason. I was waiting for the all clear to send him in, he's standing nearby down the street, keeping eyeballs on her front gate."

"Fuck," Nick muttered. "No one else?"

"Nah, Adam's at Sweet Seduction, waiting for Dominic to arrive."

"OK, keep Adam there, make sure he remains until Dom is armed, and even then make him convince Dom he should stay if the shop remains open." Eric, the security guy nodded, clicking out a series of messages on a keyboard in lightning speed. Nick kept talking. "Give Jason the go-ahead, but phone Katie first. She's likely to put a bullet in his head if he knocks on her door unannounced."

"What's up with those two?" the Asian man asked, shaking his head as though in disbelief about something.

"Stuffed if I know," Brook the medic answered and was about to say something else when Nick interrupted with a barked, "Enough! We've got more important things to be concentrating on."

Everyone stood up straighter waiting for Nick's next orders. At that point Brook finished wrapping his arm and moved away, tidying up his gear on the floor. Nick shifted Eva so she sat across his lap, his good arm wrapped around her waist holding her tight, his bad one resting forlornly over her thighs. I felt an ache set up home in my heart at the comfortable sight of them. I wanted what they had. My eyes flicked up to Ben, but he was watching the room again.

"So," Nick said, addressing the entire crowd gathered. "I think we can safely say our relationship with Declan King has just taken a nose dive."

Tension escalated at his seemingly easily spoken words. I'd been right, Nick had just started a war with Auckland's drug lord, over me. At that thought I noticed all eyes had shifted to my face. All eyes except Ben's. His were still scanning the crowd, taking each of their hard stares in. Cataloguing every single one.

"Make sure your loved ones are safe. Send out the messages." That last sentence was aimed at Eric, who looked as shocked as the rest of the room.

"This is really happening," Brook said softly from his position down on the floor by his bag.

"Was it worth it?" the Asian guy suddenly asked. "You've worked so damned hard to get King to back off and accept our place in this city. And now it's all been shot to hell over her." There was no doubt who he was referring to, the tone of his voice dipping to a growl on the word
her
made it abundantly clear who he meant. I tried not to squirm where I stood.

"Koki, this was something we always knew could happen. Our roles and King's roles were never aligned. We stand on different sides of a vast divide," Nick said evenly.

"Different sides of the same divide she stands on," Koki shot back.

That squirming feeling became an itch between my shoulder blades. I'd not known what lay in store when I blithely jumped in the front passenger seat of Nick's car. I did know that it wasn't going to be a bed of roses, but part of me had truly begun to believe that Nick, and therefore his team at ASI, would not be handing me over to Roan. But from Koki's words, I was beginning to doubt that hope. He clearly saw me as standing on the side that Declan King stood on, that Roan McLaren stood on. I'd hoped they'd see I was not one of them, just someone caught up in their crossfire, but maybe I'd been wrong to hope at all.

I thought it might be a good time to join the conversation. Until now, I'd been silent, swaying slightly on exhausted feet, numb inside, but prickling with fear on the outside. I opened my mouth to interject, but Nick got there first.

"If we stood by and did nothing, what would that say?" he asked, eyes still locked on Koki.

"We choose our battles. You've said that in the past," Koki pointed out. "I just don't understand what made you choose to get involved in this. Pierce has already put enough doubt on the situation to create caution, yet for this woman you've thrown caution to the wind."

Strained silence met the end of his speech. Half of which made no sense at all, but I got the general gist of it. They all believed I was not worth the risk that Nick had just taken. And now the risk had backfired and they were at war because of me. It was something they, or at least Koki, could not accept. I didn't blame him, but I wasn't going to take his - or their - crap either.

"I'm sorry to have ruined your perfect world," I said, angrily. "I didn't ask for you to rescue me," - several stunned and irate looking sets of eyes met mine, I hurried on - "but I am incredibly grateful. I know what men like that Declan are like. I've been running from one for five years."

The atmosphere shifted. Some of the men literally moved their heads backward as though I'd slapped them, but Koki just grunted an incredulous sound out between his lips.

"You expect us to believe that shit? You're a trojan horse, you've pulled the wool over their eyes, " he indicated both Nick and Ben, "but I see you for what you are." His words were spat with venom. I took a step back unintentionally at the strength with which they were hurled. "And now you're here and we're at war. So congratulations, you've succeeded where others have failed for years. You've dragged us into a battle that will destroy not only us but our families too."

"Enough!" Nick shouted.

"What the fuck, Koki?" someone else said.

"Way outta line, mate," Brook added.

"Not cool," Eric said under his breath.

Ben was silent.

"Can't you fucking see what's happening here?" Koki shouted back, taking a step towards me, but still facing the rest of the room. His right arm was outstretched, pointed at my chest, only a mere foot away from reaching me. "Has nothing Pierce said registered with any of you?" He was so worked up spittle was flying out of his mouth. "I have a sister who could get caught up in this mess. She's sixteen fucking years old. Life's barely begun. She's innocent. Fuck it! I can't believe you accept this shit so easily when the fall-out could be so massive."

I had to hand it to the guy. He had a definite way of delivering a speech. I believed he was genuinely distraught at what had transpired, worried beyond reason for the safety of his sibling. Even I almost believed the argument he made. There was no way I'd want innocent people to die because of me. That's why I'd not made friends over the years. Collateral damage was not something I accepted.

But I was innocent in all of this. And he was trashing me. Nick was doing his best to defend, whilst still remaining neutral. But my reputation was being shot to hell anyway. I could see the other's registering Koki's words, picturing their own loved ones caught in the bloody crossfire. Dead or injured or worse. And there is worse, I've seen the threat of it in Roan McLaren's eyes. Hell, I've witnessed some of it with my own eyes.

"I'm sorry," I murmured, the words barely audible, but several people sucked in air. "I'm really very sorry. I don't know what to say. I just... I just want you to know, I...I...I'm not one of them. I'm not..." my voice trailed off as tears pooled in my eyes. I was just so tired of this shit.

I noticed Eva get off Nick's lap, I thought for a second she was going to approach me, but I took a step back, ending up in a corner of the room, my back to two walls, my front curved over as my arms wrapped around my waist. I'd never felt so alone before in my life. I'd never felt so dirty, being associated with the scum that is Roan and his like. I hated my past. I hated my present. Right now, I couldn't see a future at all.

I was numb.

"You think..." Koki started to say, taking a step towards me. It wasn't menacing as such, but my confidence was so shattered that I gasped and a single tear spilled out onto my cheek. I felt the hot trickle of it as it began to track down my face.

But Koki didn't get a chance to finish whatever he was going to say, because suddenly Ben was in front of him, standing with his back to me, and his chest and clenched fists to the room.

"Back the fuck off!" he said in a low, dark voice that was beyond his normal gravel-rough. "Abi's untouchable from here on in. Understood?"

Silence for a brief moment, then Brook asked, because Koki looked like he was going to be sick right then and couldn't get a sound out for fear of up-chucking, "Are you saying she's yours?"

"Fuck yes!" Ben bit out through clenched teeth. He didn't even hesitate.
Yes!

More silence that seemed to stretch to infinity.

"I'll be fucking damned," someone said, but I couldn't tell who, my eyes were all for the back of Ben's head. He was doing it. He'd taken that step into the light. He'd taken that step towards me. "He's crawled out of his shadow," the spokesperson added. I blinked back more tears.

"Ben," Koki finally found his voice enough to roughly choke out. "I..."

"Save it!" Ben cut him off. "You've been an absolute fuckwit and right at this moment I want to tear your fuckin' head off. So back the fuck up now,
e hoa
." The
e hoa
, Māori for "mate", was added as a sarcastic attachment to Ben's statement. It wasn't lost on Koki, who now looked in shock, but did as Ben asked and retreated to the other side of the room.

Ben's shoulders were rigid, his back bunched, fists still held clenched at his sides. But once Koki had made it to the other side of the room and no one else said another word, Ben took a step backwards - towards me. His body was now within reaching distance. Without another thought I lifted my hand and pressed it into the bunched muscles across his shoulders. He let a shuddering breath out on contact that I felt right through to my heart. It was almost pained, but laced in a deep seated sense of relief. As though he'd been unsure if I'd accept his gallantry. As though he'd never stood up to this group of men before, over someone important to himself.