Sins of the Past (17 page)

“Don’t open this door or come out no matter what you hear. If anyone opens this door other than me or Cole, shoot. Don’t stop until the clip is empty.” He pulled her to him and kissed her before letting her go. “Stay.”

Lorna watched the closet door close, leaving her standing in the dark alone, bristling at Jacob’s last command. “I’m not a fucking dog,” she mumbled to herself. She strained to hear what was going on, but all she heard was her own harsh breathing in the small space. She was tempted to reach up and pull the string hanging from the bare bulb so that she wasn’t standing in the dark, but she resisted, wondering if someone would be able to see the light shining through the edges of the door.

She managed to stay in the closet a full five minutes until she had all of the silence and
what
if
scenarios she could take. Pulling her gun out of the holster, Lorna flicked the safety off. There was no way she could stand there while Jacob and Cole were out there in danger. She knew they were trained for situations like this, but there was no way she could just do nothing. She was used to taking care of herself. Jacob and Cole were just going to have to learn that fact. They couldn’t leave her behind and she was not going to behave like a good little woman while the big bad man killed the spider for her.

Easing the door open, Lorna peeped around the edge and sighed in relief when she saw her bedroom was empty. Quietly making her way over to the open bedroom door, she pressed her back against the wall and prayed she wasn’t making a mistake by leaving her hiding place.

* * * *

Cole followed Jacob as they silently made their way toward the back of the house. His body moved on autopilot because his mind was still back with Lorna. He saw the gleam in her eyes before Jacob had shut the closet door and knew they were going to have a lot of groveling to do when all of this was over. Cole would do whatever it took as long as it meant he would end up with Lorna naked in bed.
Scratch that.
Not completely naked, he thought. He wouldn’t mind seeing her in nothing but that thigh holster and gun. She could also keep the boots on with those wicked blades tucked in them.

The sight of his woman gearing up like she was about to go on a mission was the sexiest thing he had ever seen. It made Cole understand why there were no women SEALs. It wasn’t because he thought they were weak. Some of the strongest people he knew were women, including Lorna. It was because the men would have never gotten any missions completed with permanent hard-ons.

As it was now, they were about to go up against one of the world’s most dangerous men. The man had already ended Jacob’s career, and all Cole could think about was how hot Lorna would look with camouflaged face paint as she hovered above him riding his cock. Cole grinned. It seemed he had his very own G.I. Jane.

“Stop thinking with your dick and get your head in the game,” Jacob said into his ear.

Cole nodded. He didn’t like the fact that Lorna was in danger. They needed to end the threat as fast as possible. Using hand signals, Cole motioned that he was going to check outside while Jacob covered him from the broken window. Once they made sure the kitchen was clear, Cole headed toward the back door avoiding the broken glass on the floor. The hair on the back of Cole’s neck stood on end when he stared down at the glass. His instincts were going crazy, warning him that something wasn’t right.

From the look on Jacob’s face, he felt the same. Cole looked at the broken window. He knew no one had come in that way. Because of the way the house was made, the intruder would have had to pass them to get out of the kitchen. What Cole couldn’t understand was why someone would break the window and make so much noise. Whoever it was had to have known someone would come running.

“Shit.” Jacob cursed at the same time the realization hit Cole.

The broken window was nothing more than a distraction. Before they could turn and head back toward the bedroom, the sound of Lorna squealing and then a gunshot made Cole feel like his heart dropped into his stomach. They both raced back to the hallway and skidded to a stop at the sight before them. “What the hell?” Cole yelled as he watched Lorna fighting none other than Julio Valente as curse words flew out of her mouth. If he hadn’t know who Valente was or what the man was capable of, Cole would have been impressed at the way Lorna handled herself against him. Her martial art training was obvious from the way she moved and threw her kicks and punches. She landed quite a few on Valente and was able to move before he retaliated. The man was moving a little slow and Cole could see there was blood soaking the front of his shirt near his shoulder. Lorna must have managed to shoot him.

It seemed like they had been standing there forever watching Lorna fight, when in reality, it was only a few seconds. That was a few too many in Cole’s opinion. He moved in along with Jacob to take control of the situation. Unfortunately, their movements must have distracted Lorna because she looked over at them. The second she took her attention away from the fight, Valente attacked. Cole knew he wasn’t going to get to her in time as he watched Valente’s fist connect with her face. Instead of crumbling like he expected her to, Lorna let out a roar that would have put any man to shame before plunging one of her knives into Valente’s chest. She had moved so fast, he hadn’t even seen her go for the weapon.

Cole knew his mouth was hanging open when he saw Lorna put her boot against Valente’s stomach to brace herself as she pulled the knife back out of his chest, but his brain wouldn’t function enough to close it. In a short amount of time, the tiny woman had managed to do what he and Jacob and a whole team of highly trained SEALs had failed to do. She had made it look so easy when she took out Valente. Seeing her in combat was hot as hell. He couldn’t blame his erection on adrenaline.

“What?” Lorna asked when she lifted her head up. She was leaning over with her palms resting against her knees as she panted. The only thing either of them could do was stare at her in shock.

“I’d like for you to explain why you came out of the closet when I specifically told you to stay.”

Cole winced at Jacob’s tone when he questioned Lorna. He was just as pissed off at Lorna for putting herself in harm’s way, but Cole knew when to keep his mouth shut. Judging by the death glare coming from Lorna, it was one of those times. Obviously Jacob was clueless because he continued.

“Do you know the danger you just put yourself in? Do you have any idea who that man was or what he was capable of?”

By the time Jacob was done, he was yelling and Cole had a feeling things were not going to end well if the man continued. “Jacob, check the perimeter to make sure none of his men are out there while I check the house.” Jacob glared at Lorna before he turned and headed toward the back door.

“What’s his problem?” Lorna asked.

Cole didn’t bother to answer as he finally got his feet to work and moved over to her. The first thing he did was lift her face. The side of her face from her forehead down to her cheek was already swelling and turning purple. By morning, he had a feeling the whole side of her face would be black. “You’re lucky he didn’t break your jaw,” he said as he gently pressed his fingers to her cheek.

“Don’t you start in on me, too. Just tell me who I just killed and if I’m going to jail for the rest of my life for murder.”

Cole shook his head as he pulled Lorna against his chest. She curled against him without hesitation, letting him know she wasn’t as calm and collected as she was trying to show. Cole could feel the tremors wracking her body. “No, baby, you won’t be going to jail.” All he had to do was make a phone call and the body would disappear. “Trust me, the man was scum and won’t be missed. As far as I’m concerned, you just did the world a favor and made a lot of young girls a little safer.”

Cole knew Lorna’s adrenaline was crashing when her body started shaking harder. The fact that she had just killed someone was probably sinking in as well. Lifting her in his arms, Cole carried Lorna back to her bedroom and sat her on the bed. By the time he removed the gun holster from her thigh and pulled the knife she was still holding from her grip, Jacob walked into the room.

“It’s all clear outside and I already called for a cleanup team to retrieve the body,” Jacob said as he headed straight over to Lorna.

Cole watched as Jacob knelt in front of her and lifted her face.

After inspecting her jaw, Jacob gently kissed it before kissing her lips. “You scared the life out of me. Don’t ever do that to us again,” he whispered against her lips. Cole couldn’t help but agree.

“How do you think I felt when you shoved me in the closet and told me to stay like I was some sort of dog? I can take care of myself, and I’ll do it again if I have to. I think I already proved that,” she said stubbornly as she pointing toward the hallway.

Wanting to take Lorna’s mind off the dead body in the hallway, he asked, “Where did you learn to fight like that anyway?”

Lorna laughed. “Uncle John. He paid for my karate classes when I grew boobs. With my mom trailing so many strange men in and out of the house, he felt I needed to be able to defend myself just in case. He personally taught me how to shoot and use my knives properly.”

Cole watched the color come back in Lorna’s face as she talked about the man who raised her as his daughter and silently thanked the man. Cole couldn’t even bear to think of what could have happened to the woman he loved if she hadn’t had the training.

Sitting down next to Lorna, Cole wrapped his arm around her. Jacob followed and did the same on the other side. Cole wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed with her, but he knew that wasn’t possible at the moment. The house was soon going to be crawling with people and there were going to be questions that needed to be answered. Cole sighed as the three of them sat in comfortable silence. He replayed his fantasy of Lorna riding him with camouflage paint on. He wondered if she was into role-play. He could definitely play the bad guy allowing her to take him down before she had her wicked way with him.

“Stop thinking with your dick,” Jacob said as he cuffed Cole on the back of the head.

Cole only grinned wider. He couldn’t wait to get everything taken care of so he could convince his little warrior to star in his fantasy.

Lorna woke up in bed snuggled between her two men and lazily stretched her naked body. They had been great the night before when it finally hit her that she had actually killed someone. She winced thinking of the breakdown when it came. It wasn’t pretty with the tears and snot included, but her men held her through the entire thing even though they had to be pretty grossed out. She had been grossed out and it had been her own bodily fluids. If she hadn’t known her men loved her, she would have realized it at that moment. If the ugly crying face, complete with one black eye that was swollen shut, didn’t scare them off, then it was definitely love.

Once the guys explained what was going on and who exactly Julio Valente was, Lorna felt a lot better about what she had done. She thought of the many women and young girls the man had tortured and was glad she had been the one to rid the world of the man. In her opinion, it was poetic justice that a man used to brutalizing young girls was taken out by a woman.

“Are you okay?” Jacob asked.

“I will be,” Lorna rasped. Her throat was raw from sobbing all night.

“Next time maybe you’ll stay when I tell you to.”

“Next time?” Lorna sat up and glared at Jacob. “Do you have any more men after you that I should know about?”

Cole opened his eyes next to her. “Baby, as many missions as we’ve gone on, we have enemies all over the world. We made it a point to stay invisible so we wouldn’t bring the danger home, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.”

“It’s one of the things we need to discuss,” Jacob told her. “Even though Valente came to personally take me out, we don’t have any way of knowing if he told anyone else my location. We basically need to disappear and we want to take you with us.”

Lorna knew Jacob hadn’t asked a question, but he and Cole were still eagerly waiting for an answer. She thought of the town she grew up in. Hadn’t she already started to think it was time to move on? With Uncle John gone, there was nothing holding her there. The only thing the town had to offer her was hostility and insults. She knew she had been just going through the motions since Uncle John had died. She hadn’t truly started living until her two men had come to town and swept her off her feet. Could she watch them leave town and leave her behind?
Hell no.
The answer came easily to Lorna.

“Can I have a pool?”

Cole laughed. “You can have anything you want as long as you agree to come with us.”

Lorna tapped a finger on her chin like she was still deciding. “Of course I’m coming with you. You guys are stuck with me.”

“Good answer,” Jacob said as he leaned over and kissed her. “Either way, you were coming with us, though. If the answer would have been no, we would have just kidnapped you in your sleep.”

“Just because you’re a big bad marine doesn’t mean you get to boss me around. I won’t be putting up with your macho bullshit.” Lorna fought to hold back her grin as she purposely got his branch of the military wrong.

Jacob growled and rolled Lorna under him. “It’s big bad SEAL, and when it comes to your safety, you’ll follow our every command or there will be hell to pay.”