Under His Protection (7 page)

“Yes.”

There was a long pause as they both stared at each other, their hunger a palpable pulse of energy and damn it, he wanted to kiss her again. Deep down he knew that it wouldn’t take much to get her into bed tonight. Not because he thought she was the type of woman to have one-night stands, but because she wanted him as much as he did her. But he didn’t push because he didn’t want to do things the way he always had. Julieta was different.

She moved away from the door almost reluctantly, and he grasped the handle with a shaking hand.
Shaking.
That never happened. With his current job and his time with the Rangers, precision was everything. He never lost control. He couldn’t afford to if he wanted to stay alive and keep his men alive. Not to mention the people he guarded depended on him to keep a level head in all situations. He’d be shitty at his job if he didn’t.

So the actual tremor in his hand took him off guard. It was slight and he didn’t think Julieta even noticed but he did.

As soon as she shut the door behind him, he heard the lock slide into place. But he didn’t move.

“I want to hear you set the alarm.” He thought he heard her laugh, then a few seconds later he heard a beep as the system armed.

“Done,” she called out and yes, that was definite humor in her voice.

He was glad that even with the crap she was dealing with, she was comfortable enough to relax around him now. Smiling to himself, he headed back to his SUV after doing a visual sweep of the street and a scan of her backyard. Later he wanted to install security lights for her but figured bringing it up now would be too much like ordering her around. From the short time he’d known her, he figured that might push her buttons the wrong way.

And he was all about infiltrating her defenses subtly, because the most primal part of him knew that things between them were never going to be casual, that once they crossed that line, he wouldn’t be able to walk away from her. He wasn’t even sure how he knew that, but he’d always trusted his instincts and he wasn’t about to start ignoring them now.

Once in the SUV, he didn’t bother turning it on as he pulled out his cell phone. Lizzy had called as he’d suspected. He immediately called her back.

She picked up on the second ring. “Hey, Ivan.”

“Hey, any news?” He didn’t bother with small talk. It was late enough and Lizzy had a family he doubted she wanted to be kept from.

“I scanned that video a couple dozen times and pulled everyone’s face from across the street except one. A man. He’s wearing sunglasses and a hat and the angles just never worked right because he was leaving the scene. Even if it wasn’t intentional, stuff like that messes with my recognition software. I pulled everyone’s names and some info on the majority of them, mostly from social media. People share way too much—just saying.”

He allowed himself a brief smile. “Anything stand out?”

“I’ve already sent you the file of what I collected, but no. Most of the people either live in the surrounding neighborhood or work at one of the shops. Not everyone though. I know the cops have info on the phone numbers she was texted from but I’m still trying to find out more about those numbers too. Nothing yet, but I’ll let you know what I find out.”

Ivan rubbed the back of his neck as some of the tension eased from him. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. “Can you look into a guy named River Aguilar? He used to work for Julieta, but she let him go about two months ago.”

“Yeah, I remember him.”

“Listen…I know this isn’t official Red Stone business so whatever the cost for your time, bill
me
, okay? Julieta doesn’t need to know.” He didn’t want Julieta dealing with anything extra and if he could take some of the burden from her, he wanted to. It was foreign feeling so protective but at the same time, protecting her felt impossibly right.

“Ivan, Jules is my friend. One of my oldest, best friends. I’m not charging anyone
anything
for this. I already gave Porter, Grant and Harrison a brief rundown of what’s going on so they know I’m using company resources and none of them care. Jules is like family to me.”

Which meant she’d be family to Porter, Lizzy’s husband, and the rest of the Caldwell family by extension.

“I don’t care how long it takes, we’re going to figure out what’s going on and help her,” Lizzy continued, her voice heated.

Ivan grinned even though she couldn’t see him. He’d only known her a few months, but the woman was loyal, something he could appreciate. “Good. And thank you.”

She snorted. “Since we’re on the subject of Jules, let me be clear, you hurt her, I’ll hurt you.”

He jerked against the seat in surprise. “Lizzy—”

“Look, we haven’t known each other long and I’m not judging, but I’ve heard from Mina that you like the ladies. And I’ve seen the way you look at Jules when you think no one is watching. Jules deserves—”

“Lizzy! I’m not going to hurt Julieta. I
couldn’t.
Give me some fucking credit,” he muttered.

“Fair enough, but you’ve been warned.” Her voice was light, but he knew she wasn’t kidding.

Once they disconnected, Ivan leaned back in his seat but didn’t let his guard down. He didn’t know if he would stay the entire night, but his sixth sense told him he shouldn’t leave her alone tonight. Realistically he knew he couldn’t watch her 24/7, but things between them had just changed and he couldn’t let anything happen to Julieta. Even if there hadn’t been a spark between them, he’d want to protect her.

An hour later he was glad he’d listened to his gut. A motorcycle cruised down the street, stopping three houses down where the male driver parked. But he didn’t go inside, instead making his way down the sidewalk straight for Julieta’s house. The man walked with purpose. It was almost ten o’clock, way too late for a visitor and she’d said she wasn’t seeing anyone.

Ivan watched as the man paused at the corner of her yard and looked at the SUV, but with his tint job, no one could see inside. The guy didn’t come over though, just headed to the side of Julieta’s house, his helmet tucked under his arm.

Ivan’s senses sharpened and he withdrew his SIG. If someone thought they could come after her on his watch, they were about to discover what real pain meant. Moving quietly, he slid from his vehicle. He’d long ago disabled his dome light so it didn’t come on.

Instead of shutting the door fully, he pushed it so that it almost closed, but didn’t connect to the frame. He didn’t want any telltale noises to signal that he’d gotten out.

The relative darkness gave him cover as he hurried across the yard, weapon gripped tight in his hand, but with the street lights and other house lights on in many homes along the street, he couldn’t blend into the shadows as well as he’d have preferred.

Once Ivan reached the corner of her two-story stucco house, he peered around it.

The man had set his helmet on the small stone entryway outside Julieta’s kitchen door. He was bent over the handle, jiggling it.

Weapon out, Ivan rounded the corner. “Put your hands in the air where I can see them,” he demanded.

The man froze for a second before his head snapped up. In the dark Ivan couldn’t see his face well, but a small light came on next to the kitchen door, illuminating him perfectly.

A younger man with dark hair and dark eyes stared at him in pure shock. Then his gaze landed on Ivan’s weapon and his eyes widened even farther.

“Hands up!” he ordered again.

The man started to lift them and some of Ivan’s tension lessened. Until he heard the sound of the door unlocking.

Julieta.

Chapter 6

As the door swung open, the sharpest sense of fear slammed into Ivan’s chest. On instinct borne out of the need to protect Julieta, he strode forward, closing the distance between him and the unknown man. From what he could see the guy didn’t have a weapon but that didn’t mean anything.

And Julieta was about to walk right outside to be faced with her possible stalker. It didn’t matter that the guy didn’t have any visible weapons, hands could be effective and deadly and there was no way Ivan was letting this guy touch her.

“Julieta, don’t open the door!” he shouted as it opened a few inches.

The door stopped moving. “Ivan?”

“There’s a man out here I caught trying to break into your—”

“I’m her brother, I wasn’t breaking in!”

The door flew open and Julieta’s eyes widened as she saw the weapon in Ivan’s hand, but she held up a hand and stepped in front of the other man protectively.

Ivan immediately dropped his arm, pointing his weapon down.

“This is my younger brother, Sandro,” she said softly.

Ivan holstered his weapon and kept his gaze on her. “I saw a man on a motorcycle park a few houses down then head over here. It looked as if he was trying to break in.” He wasn’t going to apologize for wanting to protect her. He couldn’t even force the words out.

“I have a key and who the hell are you? And why are pulling a fucking gun on me?” her brother demanded, trying to step around Julieta, but she held up an arm to block him.

Ivan ignored him and Julieta did the same. “You stayed here to…watch my house didn’t you?” Her expression softened even more and he realized she wasn’t pissed he’d drawn a weapon on her brother.

He nodded. “Yeah. Needed to know you were safe.”

She gave him the sweetest smile, but it froze in a rigid line when her brother stepped up beside her, his body vibrating with tension.

“Safe from what? What the hell is going on?” Sandro’s voice raised with each word.

Sighing, Julieta tilted her head toward the open door. “Ivan, you want to come in with us?”

He nodded and waited as she practically shoved her brother inside. The guy looked close in age to Julieta and it was clear the man didn’t want to go first, that he wanted to protect his sister, which was commendable. But it was also clear Julieta didn’t care as she pushed him forward. Ivan did a visual sweep of the side of her house and next door neighbor’s yard and home before following them in. He shut and locked the door then turned to find her brother standing with his hands on his hips next to the stove, all his attention pinned on Ivan.

The man opened his mouth to speak but Julieta held up a hand. Without her heels on, she looked adorable. Wearing skimpy black shorts he thought were called yoga shorts and a formfitting T-shirt with her store’s logo on it, she was more beautiful than he’d ever seen her. Because he knew this was what she looked like right before she went to bed. Ivan bit back a groan at the thought that brought to mind. If she was going to bed with him, she wouldn’t be wearing anything.

“Ivan, this is Sandro, my youngest brother. He lives three houses down and texted me to let me know he was stopping by after work. You’d already left and I didn’t know you were staying or I would have let you know. Sandro, this is Ivan, my…friend.”

Ivan raised an eyebrow, but nodded politely at the man who still seemed to be fuming.

His lips were pulled into a thin line as he looked at Ivan. “I would say it’s nice to meet you, but you just pulled a gun on me. Somebody better explain what the hell is going on.”

“Your sister has a stalker.” When Julieta cringed, Ivan lifted his shoulders. It was clear she was close to her family and they needed to know. The more people who were aware of the situation, the better.

All her brother’s focus instantly turned to her and he started talking to her in rapid fire Spanish until she let out an annoyed sound and cut him off with her hand. Ivan loved when she did that. “English for our guest. And
sit
.” She pointed to the nearby kitchen table and gave her brother a hard stare. “If you sit and calm down I’ll make you my special hot chocolate.”

To Ivan’s surprise her brother muttered under his breath but moved to sit at the rectangular table. It was higher off the ground, more like a cocktail table, with high-backed bar style chairs and seated four.

“You too,” Julieta said, and Ivan realized she was talking to him.

He blinked, taken off guard by her bossy tone until she gave him a cheeky grin.

“If you sit I’ll give you some hot chocolate too,” she murmured before turning her back on them and pulling milk out of the dark wood-paneled, likely custom-made refrigerator.

“It’s worth it, man,” her brother grumbled good-naturedly as Ivan sat across from him. “So, a stalker and this is the first I’m hearing about it?”

“We don’t know if it’s a stalker.” Julieta’s voice was strained as she pulled a bag of chocolates from one of the cabinets.

He could hear the lie in her voice and had no doubt her brother could too. Ivan cleared his throat and she shot him a glare over her shoulder.

“Fine, it’s definitely a stalker.” Next she pulled a pan out but refused to look at her brother or Ivan. It was clear she wanted to keep busy. “I’ve received some sexually suggestive texts and someone vandalized my store today.” Her brother cursed but she continued without missing a beat. “I’ve talked to the police and Lizzy is helping me out and you know how good she is. It’s under control. I was going to tell the family but wanted to do it at once so I didn’t have to explain everything ten different times.”

“When did you receive the first text?” Sandro asked.