Slow Heat (13 page)

“Bounty hunters? Why the hell would bounty hunters be involved in this mess?” Aiden demanded, his voice rising as he white-knuckled the steering wheel. “Did Uncle Larry miss a court date or something?”

“Apparently he did. Uncle Larry lied to me, Aiden. I don’t know why. And I’m starting to think he lied to me about a lot of things. But I can’t talk to him. He’s in jail and I’m on this list of people who can’t see him.” Maggie still found it incredibly hard to believe that her uncle would have conspired against her. Uncle Larry just wasn’t that conniving. Something told her he’d been set up, too. But without being able to talk to him, she couldn’t prove anything. “He was gone for a couple of weeks but not lost. At least I knew where he was. He was on vacation. Larry had only been back a day when the bounty hunters showed up at the club, arrested him, and took me in, too.”

“Where was he on vacation?”

“I don’t know.” She did find it interesting that the day he returned from his vacation, he was arrested. It was as if the bounty hunters knew where he’d been vacationing, and when he’d be back. She could ask Micah about that but she wasn’t sure he’d tell her.

“Make sure you tell Bob about all of that.”

Aiden was excited for her to see Bob Young, his lawyer friend. He’d gone over everything with her that Bob had said after Aiden talked to him on the phone. Bob was very willing to see her and anticipated that she had a strong lawsuit on her hands.

“I’m not sure I’m up to a lawsuit right now,” she said, and watched Aiden’s profile. He didn’t look at her. “I want answers about all of this first.”

“Bob is going to take care of all that, too. He would have to in order to confirm that there is a viable lawsuit. But if there is, little sis, you could walk away a very wealthy woman from this trauma that has been inflicted upon you.” I’m not for suing without cause, but Maggie, some detective really screwed up on the job when they tried arresting you.”

“Micah is looking into why I was suspected of money laundering.”

“Micah?” Aiden glanced at her as he turned into a large parking lot between two buildings. “Who is Micah?”

Her phone rang again. Maggie spotted Micah sitting on a large motorcycle, although it didn’t look too large with Micah straddling it. Her insides twisted into a huge, throbbing knot. “Hello?”

“You’re with your brother?”

She was staring right at Micah yet didn’t see his mouth move. His deep baritone created goose bumps that rushed over her body. It wasn’t fair how simply seeing him at a distance while being in the confines of her brother’s car still made her want him. “Yes, my brother.”

“What?” Aiden asked.

“I need you to come with me.”

“Right now?” she asked.

“Your appointment with Bob is in five minutes,” Aiden informed her.

“Tell him you’re going to be late,” Micah said, apparently having heard Aiden through the phone.

Aiden parked the car and Maggie hopped out. She stared over the hood of Aiden’s car at Micah, who must have been wearing an earpiece because he wasn’t holding a phone to his ear. He looked dangerously sexy straddling his motorcycle.

“Let’s go,” Micah stressed.

She was anxious to know what he’d learned. “Okay,” she said, but then hung up the phone before Micah started instructing her on what to say to her brother.

Aiden was around his car to her side before she could meet him halfway. He frowned at her phone in her hand.

“Was that this Micah character again? What’s going on, Maggie?” he demanded.

Aiden wasn’t going to just let her walk away with a simple
Can’t meet with the lawyer right now, but we’ll reschedule real soon.

“I told you what’s going on,” she said, staying calm. “Micah is investigating what happened. He is the bounty hunter who helped have me taken in by the police. It’s what he does.” Maggie hated how Aiden looked at her as she tried explaining. She needed him to understand. “It’s what bounty hunters do. I decided since he knew as much about what happened as I did, he was the best man to hire.”

Aiden looked at her a moment, his expression blank. He was digesting. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” he said under his breath.

Maggie hadn’t noticed Micah had moved from his bike until he suddenly appeared next to Aiden. She quit looking at her brother and focused on Micah. With a matter of positioning, Micah had placed himself between the two of them.

Micah only stared at her for a moment. During that moment, it was as if they were alone. His eyes were so dark. Maggie found herself drowning in them, being drawn into a spiral of intense emotions that stole her breath.
Complicated
didn’t even begin to explain this man. Maggie swore she saw more demons swirling in his eyes than she’d ever seen in another person.

When he looked away from her, Maggie damn near lost her balance. Her insides quickened and her pulse began racing. What the hell was it that this man did to her every time they were close to each other?

“I’m Micah Jones.” He was introducing himself to her brother. “And you are?”

Maggie chewed her lower lip as she watched Aiden clench his teeth together, which always caused a tiny muscle to twitch in his jawbone. It was a dead-on giveaway that he was pissed as hell. Aiden might try sending Micah flying. She wasn’t going to find out who would win that round.

“Aiden,” she said hurriedly, moving around Micah to stand between the two of them. “This is the bounty hunter I told you about who has agreed to help find out why they accused me of money laundering.” She lowered her voice almost to a whisper since they were outside. “Micah, this is my brother, Aiden O’Malley.”

Testosterone spiked to dangerous levels as the two men sized each other up. There were no handshakes, no displays of chivalry. Aiden could be the perfect gentleman in the right circles. Maggie couldn’t picture Micah ever entering those circles. He would be the man in the shadows, watching while not saying a word. She imagined him being able to nail a bad guy before the guy ever knew anyone was on to his tricks. At the same time, Maggie saw that Aiden didn’t view Micah as the kind of man worthy of a handshake, or being in those circles that would merit such manners. That bothered her. But why would it matter if Aiden liked Micah? All that mattered was that Micah proved her innocence.

“What do you want with my sister?” Aiden asked, his voice noticeably lower than it had been when she was talking to him alone a minute ago.

“Aiden,” she snapped under her breath and shot him a warning look. Turning to Micah, she started to speak, but he cut her off.

“For right now,” Micah began, his voice as low as Aiden’s had been, “just a couple minutes of her time. She’ll be right back.”

Micah didn’t wait for Aiden to tell him to go to hell. She wasn’t sure why Aiden had obviously not liked Micah. He might simply be playing possessive older brother. Or it could be that he had picked up on the dark demons Maggie had sensed in Micah. Whatever it was, she knew Aiden would give her an earful later.

Micah took her by the arm and started toward his bike.

Where are we going?” Maggie demanded, but when she tried twisting out of his grip, he tightened it until she felt the pinch against her skin.

Micah didn’t say anything until they’d reached his bike. Then he spun her around so she faced him. Maggie slapped her hand against his chest to balance herself. At the same time that he released her, she caught him searching their surroundings. She tugged her dress, straightening it and glanced around as well. When she looked back up at him, his attention was on her, or rather her body.

The anger that had quickly flared to life inside her over being manhandled subsided in a rush. With one look into his eyes, at his dark hair falling in waves over his forehead and strong lines and angles outlining his serious expression, desire swelled inside her. She was throbbing between her legs. The smooth flesh there grow damp from a distracting need for him. Knowing it was mutual made it even worse.

“What do you want?” she said, almost snarling. It was annoying as hell not being able to control her physical attraction to him.

The second she asked, Maggie regretted it. She saw a change in those unreadable eyes. It was as if she looked into a mirror image of the need ransacking her body.

“The same thing you do,” Micah growled.

And damn it. It was most definitely the sexiest, lowest growl she’d ever heard from a man.

Maggie didn’t have time to back up, press her hand against him to resist, or in any way react. Micah wrapped his arms around her, pulled her against his body, and practically bent her over backward as he kissed her.

One hand pressed against her lower back. His long fingers stretched over her spine. His palm was just above her ass. He kept her positioned, pressed firmly against his virile body, while his other hand moved to the back of her head.

She would have thought that that first kiss would be as rough and demanding as his actions and behavior leading up to it were. Instead, his lips were soft, warm, and so incredibly enticing. Their mouths fused together, opening for each other mutually, and moved in a perfect rhythm. None of that first-time-kiss awkwardness was there.

That in itself prevented Maggie from thinking. The pure spontaneity along with how perfectly his mouth moved with hers, stole her ability to resist. Micah was large, muscular, dangerous looking, and he behaved just how he looked like he would. So his kiss should have been punishing, demanding, mind-blowing, and almost bruising. Yet it was none of those. Micah kissed her the way a desperately missed lover would kiss upon returning to the only woman he’d ever cared about.

Chapter Five

There were police sitting across the street. Two other cops in street clothing had just entered the building where Maggie was headed for her meeting with the lawyer. They were on her ass hard and from what Micah had dug up so far, it just didn’t jibe. LAPD had followed him here. Already he was on their radar. Micah prayed he wasn’t making the biggest mistake of his life.

It took every ounce of restraint he’d ever had to muster up in his life to keep his mind focused and not give in to the passion threatening to rip him apart from kissing Maggie. The pain in not getting a raging hard-on equaled how much it would have hurt if he had. He wanted her more than his next breath.

“What?” she whispered, blinking a few times. Maggie’s face was flushed, her lips moist and parted, and she panted as both of her hands remained flat against his chest. “What?” she repeated. “Why did you do that?”

Because I wanted to. Because I’ve been thinking about kissing you all day.
“It was necessary,” he said instead, looking down at her as she searched his face for understanding.

Micah barely took a second to scan the parking lot and two adjoining streets beyond it. Maggie’s brother remained standing by his car, his arms crossed and looking pissed as hell. Micah didn’t have a sister. But if he did, he’d want her kept as far away from a monster like him as he could get her.

The car parked down the street, almost out of sight, still had two cops sitting in it. Micah wouldn’t be surprised if they had specially designed audio equipment so they could pick up on anything Micah and Maggie said to each other.

The two plainclothes cops who’d entered the building after watching Maggie and her brother park hadn’t come back outside. They were waiting, ready to confirm who it was she would go see inside. Maggie going to a lawyer would confirm the police’s suspicions that she had something to hide. There was another reason why his protector’s instincts were off the charts. He wasn’t sure yet that it was just the cops following her.

Micah knew this game all too well. If anyone else was watching Maggie, they would be less willing to risk a success-hungry defense lawyer getting them off scot-free than contacting Mulligan’s Stew. Micah had assassinated guilty people whose crimes needed punishment, yet they hadn’t been punished. Then there were times when the judicial process moved too slowly, and compiling evidence too difficult. Those who wanted criminals gone were often willing to go to extremes to make it happen, such as hiring him.

Anyone who tried hurting Maggie would learn quick and fast how unprofessional they actually were as hit men.

“It was necessary?” she repeated, sounding confused. The dazed look was gone. She took her hands off his chest and ran them down the hot little outfit she was wearing. “Why was it necessary?”

“You trust me, right?” he asked, whispering.

“I think so,” she said slowly.

“That’s all I can ask.” He knew she trusted him as a bounty hunter, a professional who would do his job. Maggie was still focused on their kiss. She answered his question and told him she thought she could trust him as a man.

Micah desperately wanted to kiss her again. His brain told him it was a bad idea. He would hurt her. Inevitably she would want what he could never give her. Stability, love, compassion, commitment—those weren’t words Micah had grown up hearing. They weren’t part of the training he received, starting at an early age before he even knew that he was receiving it. A beautiful woman like Maggie deserved the world, not a trained killer like him.

His body didn’t want to listen to his brain. Already he was planning, plotting their next kiss. It wouldn’t stop at a kiss, either. He could fuck Maggie. She would let him. Her need for him was not only written all over her face, it emanated from every pore in her body. And Goddamn, he wanted her more than he’d ever wanted another woman. Yet another warning sign that he should wash his hands of her and get under the radar again.

If the cops ran a trace on him, and they probably already had, his clean and rather vague history as Micah Jones might raise suspicion. He hadn’t planned on anyone doing a deep investigation on him when he created his new identity. There would have been no reason, if he’d stuck with his plan to not be noticed.

“You absolutely cannot go see that lawyer.” Micah kept whispering. “Go over to your brother now, give him a hug, and whisper in his ear that you’ll call him in a few minutes and explain why you had to leave. Make sure to tell him you’ll be calling from a number he won’t know.”