Under Control (4 page)

If he hadn’t been holding a spatula, he would have shoved his fingers through his hair in frustration.

“How do you like your eggs?”

She peered at his plate. “I’ll have what you’re having.”

“Five egg whites?”

Her laugh was pure music and burrowed deep into his psyche. Whatever spice she’d brought to last night’s sex had gone to his head as well as his balls. Maybe he wasn’t the best person to protect her, after all.

“I’ll take two please.”

Grimly, Gabriel cracked an egg into the pan. Joey asked if she’d slept well, which caused Gabriel to inhale wrong and sputter.

“I slept pretty well, considering.” Jayla crossed the kitchen and reached for a mug on a shelf near Joey. He didn’t move away, just stared at her with amusement around his eyes. It didn’t seem they were going to escape breakfast without discussing what had happened last night.

“I hope your bed was…comfortable,” Joey teased.

Gabriel turned from the eggs. “All right, let’s get this out in the open. You heard us, we heard you. All parties were satisfied. Now it’s time to move on to the light of day and the problems at hand.”

Jayla sucked in a gasp at his initial words, her cheeks reddening painfully. “I-I—”

He waved the spatula. “It doesn’t matter, sweetheart. We need to talk about what’s going to happen when we open those blinds, turn on the TV, and face the day.”

Abandoning her mission of getting coffee, she leaned against the counter, shoulders slumped and her face bone white. He hated that she’d gone from blushing to frightened in a nanosecond, and that protective instinct spilled into his veins once more.

“Gabriel’s a blunt talker, and you’ll find he’s mostly a bear in the mornings.” Joey pitched his voice low as if speaking to a spooked animal and set her mug under the machine.

“I’m not a bear,” he practically growled.

Jayla raised her brows and Joey’s lips quirked at the corner. They exchanged a look.

Dammit, now they were banding together against him. But the pair standing so close to each other looked like the most delicious breakfast a man could dream of.

His cock stirred, and he spun back to flip the eggs. Seconds later he carried two plates to the counter and motioned for her to sit. Comfortable in his normal habitat behind a counter, Joey stood sipping his coffee.

“You aren’t joining us?” Jayla asked.

“He doesn’t eat in the mornings,” Gabriel said.

“I’m a bartender and I normally start my day around noon. I didn’t work last night because of the trouble at East Street.”

She reddened again, and Gabriel set aside his fork. “In this house, you’re innocent, Jayla. But out there,” he pointed to the window overlooking the street of their quiet residential section, “you’re going to be blasted by the media.”

Staring at her plate, she said, “I don’t want to make a mess of your lives by being here. I’ll go.”

“Like hell.” Gabriel stayed her with a hand on her arm. If he had to restrain her with some of the items from their sex toy collection, he would. Her eyes flared, and he saw the smart, independent woman she was beneath the layer of fear and dramatic circumstances that had brought her into his and Joey’s lives.

Unable to stop himself, he smoothed his thumb over her smooth skin. So silky. He wanted to explore her entire body and see if it was all as soft.
Or slippery.

A groan boiled in his chest, but he didn’t release it. The morning was rife with a burning tension. After the crazy night of orgasms so freeing he wouldn’t soon forget them, who could expect anything less? But he had to make her comfortable enough to stay here with them, because she wasn’t safe out in the world. Her ex knew where to find her—she’d said so.

“I’d like you to stay with us until we’re certain you’re safe.”

“I can handle myself.” She made no move to get up and leave, which heartened Gabriel. Joey reached across the counter and rested his big hand over her twisting ones. They shared a long stare.

“Let us help you, sweetie,” Joey said.

“I suppose you’re going to say this happens all the time. You bring women with batshit-crazy exes home.” She gave a sniffly laugh.

A caretaker at heart, Joey reached for a napkin and passed it to her in case she needed to have a cry. But she straightened her shoulders. Just as Gabriel thought—she wasn’t going to play the weak woman. She was made of tougher stuff.

Still, Joey would coddle her through, and Gabriel depended on it. Just as he did for himself. He exchanged a look with his lover, glad they were united in helping Jayla. He couldn’t think of any other option right now, and the idea of sending her out on her own made him want to break shit.

“I’m going to the station and speak with Chief about what’s happening. I plan to keep your name cleared, and I won’t tell them where to find you. You hang out with Joey today, okay?”

Joey waggled his brows. “I play a mean video game.”

She laughed. The sound wasn’t the tinkling music Gabriel had heard before, but it was a start. “Okay. I don’t have anywhere to be today anyway. Thank you. Both of you.” She looked between them, and damn if Joey didn’t seem as smitten as Gabriel felt.
Shit, we’re both up the river without a paddle.

Playing house with this woman might be as dangerous as sending her into the streets.

»»•««

Jayla slipped into a pair of comfy sweats and T-shirt that Joey had loaned her. She insisted she was fine in her clothes from yesterday, but she had to admit it felt good to be clean, even if the sweats were massive and hung on her.

Her hair was freshly washed. Without product, it would air-dry into a frizzy bush, but there was no help for it. She wasn’t trying to impress anybody, right?

When she thought of how she’d acted last night, she wanted a hole to open in the floor and to be sucked in. What had come over her? She rarely touched herself—self-pleasure bored her. She preferred to wait for the next man in her life to satisfy her urges.

But listening to the men go at it in the next room had ripped the control out of her hands.

Or put it
into
her hands, rather.

After calling her boss and answering as few questions as possible about the events she was involved in, Jayla was given vacation leave for another week. It didn’t give her much time to recover from this mess—or uncover information about it. But she’d make do.

She carefully draped her damp towel over a wooden chair in the guest room and padded out into the living room. Joey was at a sleek glass desk at the opposite end of the room, his back to her as he worked on a laptop.

From behind, he was eye-catching. Broad shoulders, back layered with muscle. His warm brown hair was longer in the back than Gabriel’s. Both men looked as if they neglected regular haircuts. She twitched her fingers into fists as she approached, trying to make noise so as not to startle him.

He glanced around. “Oh hey. Feel better?”

“Yes.”

“Drinks and snacks in the kitchen if you want something. I’m just finishing up this spreadsheet.”

“Thanks, I’m fine.” She could settle on the leather sofa far away from him, but it felt rude to ignore him. Besides, she wanted to know more about him, Gabriel, and their relationship.

Joey turned to face her fully. Her breath exited her lungs in a rush. The way he looked at her…no way was he immune to women. His gaze roved over her face, neck, breasts, and lingered on her hips. Her skin prickled at the promising spark in his gaze.

She wet her lower lip, and he jerked his attention to her tongue, tracking the movement. “W-what are you working on?” she asked to push attention from herself. Even if he was attracted to her, so what? He was in a good and loving relationship—she could tell by the way he and Gabriel looked at each other.

And the way they sounded when they came.

He smiled as if he knew her train of thought perfectly. Damn, was she so transparent? She hoped some of her years as an insurance investigator had hardened her enough to keep her every emotion off her face, but maybe not. After all, her guard had fallen the minute Gabriel had thrown her to the floor and saved her life.

“Pull up a chair.” He waved at a small dining set a few feet away. “I’ll show you my side job.”

She retrieved a chair and placed it as close as she dared to Joey’s. When she sat, the heat of his body scorched hers. The sweats seemed impossibly thin, and she was commando. To keep from doing something else out of character, she focused on the screen.

“What am I looking at?” she asked.

He scrolled over a list of outrageous titles and a few more columns of numbers. “By night I’m a bartender. By day I have an online sex toy business.”

She blinked. Names like
Wet Willy
and
Big Red
suddenly had meaning. Her face blazed with another of her rare blushes. But since coming into this house, she seemed to be in a constant state of arousal or having a hot flash. She had to get out of here as soon as soon as possible, even if that meant facing crap from the world. Or worse from Blaine.

“Wow, you have a large stock,” she said. “Where do you keep it all?” She glanced around at their very uncluttered space.

“It’s all in a warehouse in Baton Rouge. All I have to do is click an item and the warehouse packages it and ships it to the buyer.” He looked like a kid showing off his candy stash, and she couldn’t help but smile.

“This is a great setup. How do you market?”

Oh God, he talked with his hands. The big knuckles spattered with light brown hair drew her attention, and pretty soon she was aching to feel his hands on her. Need spread with every word the man spoke. His tenor resonated through her as much as Gabriel’s, and she was burning with need after only a few minutes alone with Joey.

“What do you do?” His question made her blink, and she slowly realized she’d tuned out and had been fantasizing about him doing very bad things to her—and Gabriel—with those sex toys on his spreadsheet.

“Uh, I’m in the insurance field.”

“Really? Doing what?”

“Investigating frauds. I’ve seen just about everything. It’s not pretty.”

“I bet you have.”

She didn’t want to talk about her boring old job. “So how long have you and Gabriel been together?”

“Six months. We met at the station.” He flashed her a sidelong look that said there was definitely more to the story.

“You’re a cute couple.”

“Damn straight. I knew he was meant for me the minute I set eyes on him.”

At the sound of the key in the lock, they both spun toward the door. Gabriel’s big shoulder appeared first, followed by the rest of the delicious man.

Joey launched to his feet, which sent adrenaline racing through her system for the umpteenth time in the past two days. Her head seemed to swim. What was wrong with her?

Your life was never endangered before,
a voice in the back of her mind said loud and clear.

“You’re bleeding.” Joey’s grim tone snapped the focus off herself. She raked her gaze over Gabriel, and sure enough, his knuckles were bleeding and it looked as if his earlobe had been torn ragged. “What the fuck happened to you?” Joey stormed toward his lover.

Gabriel pressed his lips together. “Got into a brawl with a cameraman.”

Joey reached for his ear. “Stubborn ass, I’m sure you started it.”

Gabriel jerked away, and the hint of a smile teased the corner of his lips. Jayla couldn’t look away from them. God, they were like watching a male strip show. Both of them built and gorgeous.

But the best part was how much they cared about each other—and others too. If they weren’t good men, they would have left her alone to deal with her problems with her ex. After all, she’d almost taken Gabriel’s life in that blast.

While Joey and Gabriel went off in search of a first-aid kit, she stared into space, her mind firing on all cylinders for the first time since it happened. Outside the firehouse, she’d overheard some men saying the chemicals in the package were used to start the fires around the city too. No wonder the FBI had been asking her questions about the pool company Blaine worked for. He knew chemicals.

He’d often talked about his work as a swimming pool expert. He’d come home with stories of how people were stupid enough to mix certain chemicals and they’d have trouble on their hands. Sometimes all they had to do was set them next to each other and an explosion would occur.

Blaine had access to these substances on a daily basis. And if he really was the arsonist, he was responsible for millions of dollars in property loss, not to mention loss of lives.

Her throat thickened as disgust rose up inside her. She’d disclosed Blaine’s full name to the authorities. That meant he’d be in their custody by now, right?

Voices drifted to her from the bathroom. Snippets of conversation reached her.

“Can’t push her out.”

“Not safe for—”

Without realizing it, she’d stood and backed toward the front door. Being here wasn’t right. How easy it would be to let these guys take control of her life and give her shelter. But she was causing mayhem between them, and her silly problems took a back seat to their relationship.

Tiptoeing down the hall, she grabbed her grubby clothes from the guest room and slipped on her shoes. The toe of one shoe had a hole from Gabriel’s big body dragging her to the concrete.

She had to talk to the police and make sure Blaine had been arrested. If he hadn’t, he’d soon know from all the news stories that she was alive. She was certain she could find him, and counted on him being too distracted to be looking for her.

She slipped out the front door, her clothes bundled against her chest, and took off down the street.

∙•∙

The minute Joey stepped out of the bathroom where he and Gabriel had been attempting to have a hushed argument, he knew Jayla was gone. His chest expanded with the heat of a thousand fires.

“Dammit, she’s gone. I knew she’d think we were arguing about her.” Joey stormed to the door and looked down the street, but there was no sign of her.

“I’ve got the keys. Get in the truck. We’re looking for her,” Gabriel said from behind him. In a minute they were on the road.