Authors: Shayla Black
Good advice, but she kept reliving that terrible moment. One minute she’d been sitting on the porch talking to Luc, the next, her father’s house had exploded with him inside. The fire had been everywhere, she realized in retrospect. That fact hadn’t really occurred to her when she’d run in and found him unconscious, about to be consumed by encroaching flames. Upon finding the doorknob too hot to 240
handle, she’d saved time by simply knocking his chair through the glass door to the backyard and dragging him out.
The firemen who’d responded to the emergency had told her that her dad would never have survived if she hadn’t thought fast and saved him from the growing inferno. But he was injured pretty badly. What if she hadn’t done enough to save him?
Kimber glanced at a long row of empty chairs in the waiting room perched on brownish indoor/outdoor carpet and surrounded by dusty silk plants. No, she couldn’t sit, couldn’t stop moving. Couldn’t stop worrying.
Damn, what had caused that explosion?
Behind her, the automatic doors whooshed open. Absently, she turned.
Shayla Black Decadent Luc charged in. Looking harried and worried, he scanned the room and sighed with relief when his frantic gaze landed on her. Crushingly glad to see him, tears stung her eyes as he darted toward her, then enveloped her in warm, strong arms.
With her chin tucked against his shoulder, she inhaled, breathing in comfort, feeling a blessed moment of joy. Then she opened her eyes.
Deke!
He stood behind Luc, blue eyes so dark with concern, their expression damn near resembled panic. His stare delved into her, needing reassurance that she was alive yet offering support all at once. Her stare collided with his, and Kimber felt the impact reverberate inside her, tightening around her stomach and squeezing until she could hardly breathe.
He’d come. He’d put everything between them aside and come to her. Tears spilled over, onto sooty cheeks. Watching her, Deke grimaced as the tears fell, as if 241
seeing her upset was physically painful. She reached out a hand to him. He grabbed it in a fierce grip, then he used it to pull her out of Luc’s embrace and into his.
She crashed against his iron-solid chest, and he hooked a strong arm around her waist. They stood close, body to body. The comforting beats of his heart melted her, and she threw her arms around him, until not even the tiniest bit of air came between them. His solid strength enveloped her, just like his scent, earth and rain and all male.
“Kitten,” he muttered into her hair in a concern-rough voice that rasped across her senses.
Lifting her chin, Luc caught her gaze and diverted her attention from his cousin.
“Are you okay?”
Deke stepped back and watched her face with undivided attention.
Shayla Black Decadent She nodded. “I’m fine. My dad—”
Kimber couldn’t finish the sentence without falling apart. A fresh batch of tears splashed onto her cheeks, scalding and painful. A sob wrenched up from her gut.
She tried to be strong. Tried hard. But the reality of this situation made her dissolve into tears. Deke enveloped her against the warm breadth of his chest again. Luc stroked her hair and whispered assurances.
“Shh.” Both men soothed her, and she didn’t know exactly who spoke. But it didn’t matter. With them here, she finally began to believe things might be all right.
“I’m so glad you came. Thank you.”
“We wouldn’t be anywhere else,” Luc murmured, then kissed the top of her head.
Deke dragged her to a chair and sat her on his lap. Luc sat beside him. They both 242
looked at her with such tenderness. Joy lightened her burden for a moment, and her heart twisted with something bittersweet. More tears tracked down her face, and Luc wiped them away with his thumb. Deke’s arms tightened around her.
“What happened?” he prompted.
The interrogation. She knew how these military men operated. They wanted answers, needed to assess the situation. Then they’d act accordingly. She wouldn’t get any more emotional responses out of him until he knew what he was dealing with and if everyone was safe. She had to get her head together and answer him.
Kimber drew in a shaky breath. “I don’t know. A-an explosion of some sort…” She hedged, but she wanted answers, damn it! What had happened? And where the hell were the doctors with the news about her father’s condition?
Shayla Black Decadent With a soft palm rubbing up and down her back, Deke soothed her. “After Luc heard the explosion on the phone and you didn’t answer anymore, we hauled ass to your dad’s house. One of the firefighters on the scene was an old army buddy of mine. He said you went into the house and got your dad out?” She nodded.
“Oh my God,” Luc muttered. “The place had to have been engulfed in flames.”
“I had to do it.”
“I know.” Deke’s gravel voice softened, caressed her. “We’re just glad you made it out in one piece. How’s your dad?”
“He-he’s in surgery. They haven’t said anything yet. I don’t know…”
“When did you last eat?” Luc asked.
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Who could recall? God, the thought of food revolted her.
“I’m not hungry.”
Luc frowned. “Soda? Coffee?”
Kimber just shook her head. Not now. She couldn’t take anything on her tumbling, topsy-turvy stomach.
Deke grabbed her face in his hands, snagging her attention again. “Where are your brothers?”
Frowning, she swallowed. Damn, her throat hurt. Inhaling smoke had turned her insides raw, like she’d been drinking turpentine. Her lungs ached, but her pain was minor compared to what her dad was suffering. The doctors had already treated and released her.
Shayla Black Decadent
“I don’t know. I think Hunter is out of the country on some assignment. Logan…
He called to ask questions about my engagement a few days ago, but never said where he was.”
Arms tensing, Deke’s grip around her tightened. “Have you called Logan since the explosion?”
No.
She’d thought about it. But her father’s life had depended on every tick of the clock. Then once she’d gotten him to safety, the fire department arrived. Then the police. Questions— lots of them—as they stabilized her dad for the ambulance ride.
She’d gone along, holding his hand, hoping he knew that, even though they weren’t geographically close, he was still her parent, her only parent, and she loved him dearly. Then at the hospital, forms and questions, then the waiting began, tense moments of brittle fear splintering her composure…
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“Kitten?” Deke prompted.
“I don’t know where my phone is. Destroyed, I guess. I don’t know…”
“Okay. I’ll call Logan. Just relax for me.” He kissed her forehead, then stood and set her in Luc’s lap as if she was more valuable than hundred-year-old china.
Kimber watched as Deke flipped open his phone and spun away. For a long moment, Luc did nothing but hold her, and she basked in his warmth and caring, even as anxiety tore at her insides. How much longer would the doctors be? She needed news about her father now. Sooner than now, or she’d go insane.
God,
what
if… No.
She wouldn’t think the worst. Refused to think it.
“We’re so relieved you’re all right,” Luc murmured against her cheek, interrupting her inner turmoil. “My heart stopped when that explosion occurred. I knew you had to be right in the middle of it.”
Shayla Black Decadent
“I don’t understand… I have no idea what happened.” Deke returned then and sat in the chair beside them again.
“Logan will be here in fifteen minutes. He’ll also get in touch with Hunter.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, good. Thank God. Logan and dad are so close…” With gentle fingers, Luc wiped away new tears she wasn’t even aware had fallen.
“I know, sweetheart.”
“Kimber.” Large hands enveloped hers, warm and strong. Deke.
She blinked, stared, drinking in the sight of him, the solid safety he brought.
“I need you to focus,” he demanded. “The fire department told us that explosion was no accident. It wasn’t a gas leak or anything natural.” 245
Not natural?
“What are you saying? It was deliberate?”
“Very deliberate. It was a bomb.”
Kimber’s jaw dropped. A thousand thoughts screamed through her head, but she couldn’t settle on one long enough to speak the words.
A bomb?
It made no sense?
Who? Why? When? What did the asshole who set it want?
You mean besides everyone in the house to die?
an acerbic voice in her head whispered.
“When you first visited our place, you mentioned that someone had been after your dad,” Deke prompted.
Stunned mute, she nodded.
“Know why?”
Shayla Black Decadent She frowned, trying to recall. “Not exactly. Just that some psycho my dad helped thwart and put away was bitter about missing his daughter growing up.”
“Had he threatened you?”
Hesitating, she paused to think. “Dad told me that this wacko mentioned me. Dad thought the guy would hurt me to hurt him.”
Luc and Deke exchanged a glance full of gravity and instant agreement.
“Once Logan gets here,” Deke began, “you have to go with us.”
“G-go?
“Away from here. Someplace this twisted asshole who probably blew up your dad’s place won’t suspect. Someplace remote and safe.” 246
Kimber heard his logic, but… “My dad. He needs me here. I can’t just leave.”
“Logan will stay here, keep us posted on his progress, but until we know who and what we’re dealing with—”
“He’s my dad. I have to know if he’s going to make it. I have to talk to the doctors.
I can’t…just leave. Logan has all the sensitivity of a doorknob, and Dad will need me.”
Deke’s face twisted into grim lines. “He might want you here, but he’d want you safe and alive more. You’re distraught and not thinking straight. That makes you easy prey if this sick bastard wants to kill you. I’m not letting that happen.” She sagged against Luc. Was it possible she was as much a target of this wacko’s terrible plot as her dad? It made so little sense. In all the years her father had been in this business, they’d never had a serious brush with a vengeful criminal. Lots of threats, a few minor incidents. But nothing like this.
Shayla Black Decadent But as Dad frequently said, there was always a first.
If her father, who knew how to protect himself and others against nut jobs and stalkers, was on an operating room table fighting to survive, did she stand a chance if this guy came after her? No, but could she just leave her dad in what might be the last moments of his life?
“But—”
“No buts.” Deke looked as if he’d reached the end of his patience. He thrust his fingers into her hair and used his leverage to make her meet his stare. “I’m taking you away from here. Period. It’s not a fucking negotiation. You won’t argue, wheedle, or sweet talk your way out of this.”
Rebellion rose up inside her hot and eager, jumpy to get a word in. Logic tamped it down. The explosion had been a bomb. Someone had been threatening her 247
father. If this psycho planted the bomb, he was sophisticated and he’d done it when people were home. Which meant he was likely watching the house. And he’d known she was there.
Hell, he’d probably consider killing her a bonus. Or maybe it was his goal. And her dad would never want her to put herself in danger.
Kimber sighed, long and ragged. “Okay.”
Luc wrapped his arms around her and laid his cheek against her back. Deke tensed, fingers pulling at her hair, then he cursed and laid a harsh, possessive kiss on her mouth.
At that moment, the hospital’s double doors opened. Kimber saw Logan prowl inside, scan the room. When he spotted them, he stopped. She broke away from Deke’s embrace and jumped up from Luc’s lap. But Logan had seen. Fury didn’t come close to describing the expression that flashed in his eyes.
Shayla Black Decadent Swallowing, he approached her and grabbed her arm, dragging her away from Deke and Luc. “Any word about Dad?” Every word was tight and clipped. Damn. He was restraining himself and his wild temper.
Big-time.
But he wouldn’t for long.
Kimber refused to flinch. She wasn’t a child, and he wouldn’t treat her like one anymore. “Nothing. We’re still waiting.”
“How long has he been in surgery?”
She shrugged. Time had been meaningless since the explosion. “Over an hour, I guess.”
“Deke tells me a bomb exploded at the house?”
“According to the fire department, yes.”
“And you pulled Dad out?”
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Would it please him or piss him off? This answer could go either way, and Logan was unpredictable at best.
“I did.” Her stare challenged him to give her crap about it.
“Brave. Stupid,” Logan pointed out as he dragged her into a brotherly embrace,
“but damn brave. Good going, little sister.”
“I had to. You would have done the same.”
Logan knew he couldn’t argue that point, so he didn’t try.
“Has a doctor looked at you yet?”
“I’m fine. I had two stitches in my arm and three in my leg. Just scratches…”
“I’m glad you weren’t seriously hurt.”
Shayla Black Decadent He glanced at Deke and Luc sitting a few feet away and nodded. Controlled.
Restrained. Deceptive. Logan could be a bad son of a bitch when he wanted.
“So,” he went on. “Necessities aside… What the fuck are you doing with these two?”
As Logan’s tone exploded with anger, Deke rose and came to stand behind her.
Kimber felt his big body envelop her back and give off heat. With a glance over her shoulder, she saw him meet her brother’s enraged gaze. In silent reply, Deke wrapped an arm around her waist. Hell, he might as well have branded her as his like a calf. Logan’s eyes flared again.
A pair of nurses passed in the nearby hall, obviously in the midst of a shift change, and paused to stare at the tableau taking place.
Great. An audience.
Before things could erupt, she held up her hands to ward off 249
Logan. “This isn’t the time or place to do this.”
“They weren’t just comforting you, little sister.” He glanced up at Deke. “You want to tell her about the way you fuck women, or should I?” If they hadn’t had the nurses’ undivided attention before, they surely had it now.