Someone Like Her (5 page)

She could live with that. The
he thought her beautiful
part, anyway, but she was going to have to do something about the
off-limits
part of the equation, and she knew exactly where that one came from. Her brother was going to get a piece of her mind for putting his nose in her love life. When she got up the nerve to face him, that is.

They turned into the Bluebird Motel’s parking lot, and there was her Mustang, just where she’d left it. Maria breathed a sigh of relief. No one had messed with Sally.

“Follow me,” Jake said once they got her and Mouse moved to Sally. He’d even buckled her in as if she wasn’t capable of doing it herself. His fussing over her was kind of cute, actually. She started to ask him where they were going, but he was already walking back to the Challenger.

About three miles down the road, he turned into a fast-food chicken place, rolled down his window, and pointed at a parking place before getting in line for the drive-thru. Maria backed her car into the slot to wait for him. She glanced at her watch. No wonder she was hungry; it was going on three.

After he paid and was given three paper sacks, he pulled out and motioned for her to follow him again. Mouse had quieted down when she’d turned off the car, but as soon as she started it, he let her know his opinion in no uncertain terms.

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” she told him. “He stopped for food, so I’m sure we’re almost there, and I promise we’re not going to the vet.” Mouse apparently didn’t believe her.

Jake headed back in the direction of her apartment but then turned left a few blocks before it. They’d travelled about three miles when her phone rang. It was so unexpected that she shrieked and Mouse, obviously believing all the noise signified the end of the world, went into hyper-super-duper-I-can-be-louder-than-you mode.

Maria grabbed the cell off the passenger seat and looked at the ID. Jake. “What?”

“What the hell’s going on? Why are you yelling and why does your cat sound like he’s dying?”

She considered tossing the phone out the window. “I’m yelling because I feel like it, and my cat thinks he
is
dying. What do you want?”

“I wasn’t sure if you still had your phone or if it was in your purse.”

Couldn’t he have waited until they got to wherever they were going to ask her that? “I left it on the seat of my car when . . .” she trailed off, not wanting to talk about going to Fortunada’s house.

“Okay,” he said, his voice turning softer, kinder. “I’m going to pull over in a few minutes, and I want you to park in front of me. We won’t be stopped for long. I just want to make sure no one’s following us.”

“Where’re we going, Jake?”

“Almost there,” he said and hung up.

Why the mystery? And how did he know about this place? They were driving down a residential, tree-lined street, not a hotel or motel in sight. It was an older neighborhood but nicely maintained, the homes far apart and set well back from the road. When he pulled to the side of the road, she obediently stopped in front of him. She looked in her rearview mirror to see him doing the same as he watched the road behind them. Without doubt, he knew how to keep her safe and, right now, that was all that mattered.

Her phone rang again and, thinking it was Jake, she almost pushed the icon before she saw it was Logan. Crap. She stared at the ID until the ringing stopped, then checked her messages. Five from her brother, each one more demanding than the last. Double crap. If she didn’t call him back by five, he was headed her way, he’d said on the last one.

Jake waited ten minutes and, apparently satisfied they weren’t being followed, headed out again. He made a right turn, and halfway down the block, turned onto a long driveway and nosed up to the two-car garage, its door opening. He had a remote control for it? Was this his little hideaway where he brought women? All the way to Tallahassee? That didn’t make sense, but nothing else did either.

It didn’t escape her notice that it was only a few miles from her apartment. Her brother claimed the hair on the back of his neck stood up when something wasn’t right, and for the first time, she understood what he meant. She smelled something rotten, and there wasn’t a dead fish in sight.

CHAPTER FIVE

T
he boss didn’t want his sister to know about this place, so he now had one more reason to kill Jake. Jake closed the garage door, then helped Maria unload her car. Inside, she sat the cat’s carrier down and looked around. He could see the questions forming and tried to think of a plausible story.

“Jake, why do you have a garage door opener to this house?”

“Ah . . .”

She glared at him. “Don’t even think of trying to lie. What is this place for?”

Kincaid planned ahead for everything, so why hadn’t he thought of a cover story? “It’s like this,” he said, then closed his mouth. It was like what? Right now he thought he might prefer to be in Afghanistan, listening to sniper bullets whizz past his ears.

Okay, not really, but finding himself caught between brother and sister was almost as bad. One of them was going to fire him for going behind his back, and the other was looking up at him with dark, coffee-colored eyes he couldn’t bring himself to lie to.

He set the paper sacks of chicken on the kitchen counter and leaned back against it. “Your brother got a little paranoid after Dani was kidnapped, and you know how he plans ahead for any situation. He wanted a safe house close to you.” Jake shrugged. “If it was ever needed.” Along with Kincaid, both he and Jamie Turner had access to this place, just in case.

She walked to the door of the living room and after a quick peek, turned back to him. “So why didn’t he just let me live here?”

Now that was a dumb question. “Then it wouldn’t have been a safe house, would it? Plus, it’s too isolated. He was more comfortable knowing you were in an apartment complex with night security.”

Fire shimmered in her eyes, and the desire to bed all that heat hit him hard. He moved to the table and sat, hopefully before she noticed the bulge in his jeans. A low growl sounded from the carrier at his feet, and Jake glanced down. The inappropriately named feline was giving his crotch the evil eye.

He was losing it. Nothing some food, a good night’s sleep, and about two hundred miles between him and the temptation of Maria Kincaid wouldn’t cure. Maybe.

“Have you both come and stayed here while you spied on me?”

He jerked his gaze to hers. “No, of course not.”

Well, he hadn’t, but the boss had once when she was in the middle of breaking up with the uptight boyfriend. Kincaid wasn’t happy that the kid hadn’t believed Maria when she’d told him it was over. An overnight stay and a few words with the ex-boyfriend had taken care of the problem, but Jake wasn’t about to go there.

But it wasn’t spying, so he wasn’t lying, and, God help him, now he was rhyming. Any time he got near her, his brain short-circuited.

“Maria, bring those bags over here.” At her rebellious look, he belatedly added, “Please.”

She huffed an annoyed-sounding breath but did as he asked, plopping the sacks down in front of him. “What’d you get me?” she asked, taking a seat across from him.

“A chocolate shake, cheese fries, and wings. The kind where you need a fireman standing next to you before you can eat ’em.”

Her pleased-with-him grin went straight to his heart, causing it to do disturbing cartwheels in his chest. She wasn’t his, could never be, but the foolish thing refused to believe it. Turning his attention to the food, he chowed down on his grilled chicken breast, corn, and pinto beans while thoroughly enjoying watching her. No matter her troubles, she could eat with enthusiasm. Considering what and how much she ate, it was beyond him why she didn’t weigh a ton.

Jake stilled when she licked her fingers after cleaning the bone of her last wing. It was the way she went about it—her eyes closed as if she were in ecstasy as her tongue lapped each finger—that had him straining against his jeans.
Jesus.
He stood, knocking over his chair, and headed for another room. Didn’t matter which one as long as she wasn’t in it.

“Logan left a message giving me until five to call him.”

Well, that was as good as a bucket of ice water dumped over his head. Returning to the table, he picked up his chair and sat. He’d received similar messages from the boss. Kincaid’s antennae were definitely twitching. “Yeah, he’s left me several. Guess you’d better call him.”

The smile that appeared on her face was one a woman used on a man when she wanted something, and he was pretty sure he knew just what. Although, if she kept looking at him like that, he’d probably agree to anything, a fact he fully intended to keep to himself.

“No.”

Her eyes blinked. “No, what?”

“I’m not calling him first.” Her surprised expression said he’d guessed right. “I’ll listen to what you tell him so I don’t say anything I shouldn’t, but I won’t lie to him so give him the truth.”

“I don’t know where my phone is.”

Little liar. “No problem.” He slid his cell across the table.

She stared at it for a few seconds, then chuckled. “It was worth a try. You know this is going to result in me being locked up for the rest of my life and you being killed for aiding and abetting me.”

“I know.” And even knowing it, he would do it all over again if she asked.

Her hair fell over her face as she lowered her head and punched in her brother’s number. As he listened to her talk, Jake studied the woman who’d fascinated him for so long and tried to understand what it was about her that called to him so deeply.

Maybe it was just lust for a woman who was off-limits. It was the forbidden-fruit theory. That had to be it. If he could make love to her, he would get over it. Yeah, that was the problem, and one easily solved if she was agreeable, and he thought she was.

The big question, however, was whether he was willing to face the consequences. Kincaid really would kill him, at the very least fire him. It just might be worth it. Yet, this was Maria. He would be the lowest of men if he took her to bed. She deserved better than to be one of Romeo’s numerous conquests.

Jake stared at the phone Maria held out to him.

“Logan wants to talk to you,” she said, concern in her voice.

He thought he might rather handle a rattlesnake. Thankfully, she’d told Kincaid the truth about why she was at Fortunada’s. Jake took the phone and steeled himself, inhaling a big breath.

“Yo, boss.”

“Give me one good reason, Buchanan, why you didn’t tell me the
something
you had to take care of was my sister.”

So much for pleasantries. Not that Jake expected any, but the calmness in Kincaid’s voice was deceiving. That was the thing about the boss, why they’d nicknamed him “Iceman” when he was their SEAL commander. The calmer the man got, the deadlier he got, and right now Jake was lined up in the Iceman’s sights. Not a place anyone in their right mind wanted to be.

Jake glanced at Maria. She stared back with sympathy. Kincaid wasn’t going to like his answer, but it was the truth. “Because she wouldn’t tell me where she was unless I promised not to tell you, and she wouldn’t tell me what was going on until I got here. Would you have preferred I refused to help her, left her to handle this on her own?”

There was a long pause. “My preference,
Romeo
, would be for you to be nowhere near Maria, but what’s done is done. Put her in the car and bring her home. Now. Tonight.”

Christ, he was really starting to hate his SEAL nickname. He held out his cell. “He wants you to come home.”

She took the phone. “I’m not coming home, Logan. I have to deal with the classes I missed today, find someone who has notes I can borrow, and I have exams tomorrow I can’t miss. Then there’s—”

When she held the phone away from her ear, Jake could hear the heat in Kincaid’s voice. Apparently, where his sister was concerned, the Iceman wasn’t so calm.

“Are you finished with your tirade?” she asked, putting the cell back to her ear. “Guess not.” She listened some more. “I’m not leaving school and that’s final. Look, I know you’re worried, but I’m at your safe house. Which you neglected to tell me about, but I’ll grill you about that another time. If you want Jake to go back, fine, but he’s doing a great job of protecting me, so I’m asking you to let him stay. Please, Logan. Wouldn’t you feel better knowing I had a bodyguard?”

She winked at Jake. She’d always been able to wrap her brother around her little finger. Too bad he didn’t have that ability with Kincaid. Jake’s gaze skimmed over Maria, over the black hair curling around her face and falling halfway down her back, the exotic eyes as dark as rich coffee, and the full lips he’d kissed for the first time.

Had that been only a few hours ago? He wanted to kiss her again. Longer, slower, taking his time to taste her sweet spiciness. He would wrap her hair around his fist and hold her close. He would . . .

Hell. He was becoming aroused again just thinking about kissing her. And other things. Living in her pocket and keeping his hands off her was going to be the very devil. He shifted on the hard kitchen chair and subtly reached down to adjust his jeans.

“You’re mine for as long as I need you,” Maria said cheerfully as she handed back his phone.

Even though he definitely should, he had absolutely no problem with that. “From your conversation, I guess you need to study for exams tomorrow. I’ll leave you to it.” If he didn’t get away from her immediately, he might forget she was off-limits.

“Oh, I might have stretched the truth a little there, and I can get class notes from my friend Gina. What do you want to do tonight?”

Lay you down on a bed I know this house must have somewhere. Strip you naked and explore every part of you, lick every single inch of you. Then bury myself so deep inside you, you’ll never want any man but me.

He managed a glare. It seemed the right thing to do. “You lied? Dammit, Maria. Apparently, you couldn’t care less that your brother’s gonna crucify me before all this is over.”

“Pffft,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Pffft?
Would that be on his headstone?
Pffft. Here lies Jake Buchanan. He got stupid and fell for the wrong girl, and then her brother murdered him.

The cat let out a plaintive meow. Jake knew exactly how the furry bastard felt.

Maria jumped up and came to the carrier, opening the door. She hugged Mouse, burying her nose in his fur. “Poor baby. You’ve had such a horrible day. Let’s go check out the house and find a room you like.”

Jake scowled at Maria’s back as she walked out of the kitchen. His day hadn’t been a bed of roses. He crushed the food wrappings, stuffed them back into the bag, and went looking for a trash can.

Maria adjusted the ball cap Jake had bought her, along with a pair of sunglasses to disguise her features. She kept her eyes on the girls with brown hair. There were so many of them. Why couldn’t her girl have been a redhead, or even better, have bright pink or purple hair?

“Anything?”

She sighed in frustration. “No.”

He wasn’t happy about sitting outside a high school and watching the students file in while she tried to find the girl who’d run away from Fortunada’s house. They couldn’t even be sure it was the right school, only that it was the closest one to where she’d last seen the girl. Maria had to find her, though; had to make sure she was okay. She also needed to know why the girl had been there. Had she been lured to the house for despicable reasons?

She had witnessed firsthand the life of a whore. If the girl was headed down that path, or being led in that direction, then someone needed to step in and do something about it. If it meant keeping a girl from ending up like Lovey Dovey, Maria wouldn’t stop until she found her.

“Well, we gave it a try,” Jake said when the last students hurried inside, the doors closing behind them. He started the car.

“School lets out at three thirty, so we need to be back a little before then.”

His eyes squeezed shut. “I just knew you were going to say that.”

She waited for him to open his eyes and then gave him a big smile. “And I knew you’d understand. Thank you.”

He opened his mouth, closed it, shook his head, then made a laugh-snort sound. “I’m doomed,” he said mysteriously.

“Poor Jake.” She patted his hand. “I need to check in at school, let my professors know I’ll miss a few classes. After that, can we stop at a grocery store?”