Bull (Red, Hot, & Blue) (2 page)

His gaze strayed back to the guy, who probably weighed one-twenty-five soaking wet. Bull outweighed him by a good hundred pounds of solid muscle. The look on the guy’s skinny face proved the asshole realized he was outmatched. He would have been shaking in his boots, if he’d been wearing any.

Bull shook his head. “What the hell are you doing, Lana?”

She turned on the tears and grabbed at his hand, still hiding under the water. He didn’t know why she was hiding. He’d seen her naked, and apparently so had scrawny boy. “Bull, I don’t know. I just get so lonely and you’re away all the time.”

He frowned at her pitiful excuse. “I’ve barely been away at all for the past month.” Shaking his head, he realized it just didn’t fucking matter. “Forget it.”

Bull turned and flung the sliding door that led into her house so hard it crashed along the metal frame, not breaking but sounding close to it.

“What are you going to do?” She called from behind him, sounding a little frantic but not enough to haul her naked, cheating ass out of the water.

Worried, was she? And she’d never even seen him really angry. “I’m getting my stuff.”

That’s exactly what he did. He flung open drawers until he found his army T-shirt and sweatpants. Cabinet doors crashed open as he got his bottle of Wild Turkey—he’d need that when he got home. He pulled open the entertainment center and grabbed his DVDs. On the way out the front door, he noticed stick boy’s tiny sneakers by the door. Bull kicked at them with his size thirteens. What were these? An eight? Nine, maybe?

He let out a snort, picked up the sneakers and walked out Lana’s door for the last time. Cradling his own stuff under one arm, he dropped the guy’s running shoes down the sewer in the street and hoped they’d been really expensive. He walked the rest of the way to his truck whistling.

Chapter Two

Marly Spencer’s fingers struck an errant harp string. The sound of the dissonant note filled her apartment. She blew out a breath of frustration. Why did mistakes always sound so much louder than the rest of the piece of music? One of life’s great mysteries, she guessed.

The other mystery of the day—and the day was still young yet—was what was she going to do about her gig tonight? Songs she knew like the back of her hand were coming out sounding like musical torture.

Marly ran her hands over her face. She had to get a grip on herself and stop being so distracted. She needed to focus. Easier said than done. She sighed and splayed her fingers across the strings one more time just as the phone rang. The way she’d been playing today, it was a welcome interruption.

“Hello?”

“Hi. It’s me.” The sound of his voice had her heart thudding.

It was him, all right. John. She should have realized that when the caller ID read private number. John was reason number one she was so distracted. She’d probably never be hired to play anywhere ever again after she messed up tonight’s event. She didn’t need this call right now.

“I know it’s you. What do you want? We discussed everything last night.”

“I love you and I want you back.”

How could he sound so sweet? So sincere? It almost made her want to believe him. Almost. After all this time, she knew better.

She stood firm, even as her stomach clenched. “No.”

“Baby, come on. Let’s at least talk about it.”

“There’s nothing to talk about. Look. I have to go. I have a gig tonight.”

“Oh? Where?”

He honestly didn’t remember. She could tell by the tone in his voice. This was typical behavior on his part. Anything that didn’t concern him or his family was just white noise. Below his notice. That was one of the things that had made her decide to end it.

They were broken up now, so there was no reason to get angry over his inattentiveness and self-absorption any longer.

“You know where.” She sighed. “You and your contacts got me the job.”

“Ah, yes. I remember now. Good. I’ll see you there then.”

“No, you won’t—”

“Of course I will, Marly. You said you’re playing, and I’ll be attending, so I’ll see you.”

“I know you’re on the guest list, but you need to stay away from me tonight. I’m there to work.” It was unfortunate he had to be there at all, but it was unavoidable. His father was the senator and this was a political event.

“Fine, I’ll stay away while you’re playing. I recommended you and it wouldn’t behoove either one of us if you didn’t perform well. However, afterward, we
will
discuss this.”

He always tried to order her around. That was yet another cause for the breakup, although not her main motivation. Oh, no. There was something far bigger and more unforgiveable than his bossy nature and forgetfulness—the steady string of other women he was constantly photographed with by the press.

“No, John. We’re done. There’s nothing more to talk about.”

He was silent for a moment, and she knew him well enough to know he was getting angry. “We’ll discuss this tonight, Marly.”

She shook her head. He didn’t listen to her at all. He never had, and she’d always let him get away with it.

“I’ve really got to go, John. Goodbye.” She hung up the phone and watched her hand shake.

Dammit, she was such a sissy. Under no circumstances would she take him back. There was no doubt she didn’t want to, but what if she did anyway?

Why did the thought of being alone scare her so much that she’d settled for whatever little John had been willing to give her all these years? If only she didn’t have this job tonight. If he showed up with sweet talk and promises, she was afraid she might do something crazy in a moment of weakness and take him back. Being that close to him was going to be the hardest thing she’d done, right up there with finally having the guts to end it last night.

Marly took a deep breath and hated she could hear it shake. She couldn’t worry about him now. She had to work the kinks out of her repertoire and get her dress out for tonight. If she was going to play badly, she had better at least look good doing it.

Bull crawled into the team meeting at zero-eight-hundred the following morning feeling and looking, he was pretty sure, like absolute shit. Of all the things he’d wanted and needed the night before, he’d gotten his hot shower, but as for the hot and sweaty sex and good night’s sleep? After what he’d discovered on his trip to Lana’s, neither the sex nor the sleep had been in the cards for him.

He made his way to the coffee pot and poured himself a steaming mug full. The commander was a coffee addict. So much so he’d had an industrial-sized coffee maker put in the meeting room. He also instructed each member of the team to bring in a mug. A
real
mug. Bull was just a newbie to the team when the commander told him drinking coffee out of a paper cup—or even worse, Styrofoam—was sacrilege, and he wouldn’t put up with any one of his own committing that sin.

The way he felt this morning, Bull would gladly kiss the commander just for the steady supply of coffee alone. Although a little bourbon in his mug would be even better.

Christ. How could Lana’s cheating make him feel so damn bad? He hadn’t even fallen in love with her yet. Maybe it was that the revelation had hit him on the same night he’d blown the training exercise and let down his team. These guys he did love, even when they annoyed him. He’d kill or die for any one of them. Maybe that was what made him feel so crappy—letting down the team—and he didn’t care that much about Lana’s straying.

That thought made him feel a little better. At least he wasn’t turning into some soft, pansy-ass who couldn’t deal with a little adversity from a female.

“You look like you had an eventful night.” Matt glanced at Bull while pouring himself a cup of coffee.

He wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone about last night, especially not Matt, king of the comments. Even the man’s mug had a smart-assed comment written on it.
The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your action.

Bull usually found the saying funny. Not today.

Matt eyed Bull more closely. “I mean, I’m not surprised you look like you didn’t sleep at all, but I would have thought you’d look a little happier after being
up
with Lana all night. No pun intended.”

Bull picked up his mug. “Do yourself a favor, Matt. Take my advice and leave me alone today.”

The low tone of warning in Bull’s voice wiped the smile off Matt’s face. His brows drew low. “You need to talk?”

“No. I need to drink this coffee, get the fuck out of this meeting room and go shoot something.”

Matt pursed his lips and nodded. “Okay then. Good plan.”

Jimmy came out of the inner office, followed closely by their commander, Hank Miller. Show time. The assembled team took their seats.

The commander walked to the coffee maker and glanced over his shoulder as he refilled his cup. “All right, boys and girls. Before we go over the events of last night’s practice exercise, I have an actual assignment to hand out. It’s a cakewalk, so I’m putting it out there on a voluntary basis. The gig is solo, no team backup.”

Bull raised his hand. “I volunteer.”

“You don’t even know what it is yet.” Trey turned to frown at Bull.

What the assignment was didn’t matter. That he would be busy and away from his team so he wouldn’t have to answer questions about his foul mood did.

Bull looked up and found the commander watching him. “It doesn’t matter what it is, sir. I’ll take it.”

“Okay then. It’s yours.” The commander put his mug down on the table and shuffled through the papers in his hand. He walked to the white board on the wall and grabbed a marker. “Let’s go over yesterday.”

Bull watched him, and when it was obvious no more information was forthcoming, he interrupted. “Um, excuse me, sir. Aren’t you going to tell me what my assignment is?”

He turned, graying brow raised. “You said it didn’t matter.”

Bull heard Jack snicker at the other end of the table. He did his best to ignore it. “Yes, sir.”

“Don’t you worry your head, Bull. I’ll tell you where to be and when before tonight. Now, back to the exercise. Somebody hit the lights. Matt, bring up the course layout from yesterday.”

The man was the commander for a reason. Besides the free-flowing coffee to keep the troops happy, he’d just effectively taught Bull a valuable lesson. Never volunteer until you’re told what the assignment involves. He stifled a sigh and did his best to concentrate on the review of yesterday’s debacle. No matter what Jimmy had said last night at the bar, Bull still took full responsibility for the loss. He deserved whatever this unspecified assignment turned out to be, no matter how bad.

Bull tried to remember that a little later in the morning when he sat opposite the commander in the office and wondered if he’d made a big mistake.

“Excuse me, sir?” He hoped he’d heard wrong.

“I asked if you own a tuxedo,” the commander repeated himself. His grin didn’t bode well.

“No, sir. Just my dress uniform.”

“That won’t do for this. I’ll get you a tuxedo.” His gaze swept the expanse of Bull’s frame hanging off the office chair. “I hope the big and tall shop rents them.” He picked up a pencil and scribbled something on a pad of paper.

“I’m afraid to ask this, but why do I need a tuxedo?”

The grin widened. “You’re going to a party, Bull.”

“A party?” Bull groaned. “Do I have to pretend to be a waiter again?”

The last party they’d worked undercover together as a team had entailed them all playing wait staff at a fancy black-tie event for a bunch of rich snobs. Bull was good at many things, but serving hors d’oeuvres off tiny and very slippery silver trays wasn’t one of them.

“Nope, this time you get to be a guest. That make it sound any more appealing?” the commander asked.

He raised an eyebrow. Hmm. Maybe this mission wouldn’t be too bad after all. Good food, served to him by someone else this time. Pretty women, hopefully in low-cut dresses. Bull remembered Jimmy had met his girlfriend Lia during the now infamous wait-staff assignment. Bull wasn’t looking for a girlfriend, especially not in light of recent events, but he wouldn’t mind a pretty little thing as a distraction for the night.

This assignment might be exactly what he needed. He couldn’t suppress a smile. “Yes, sir. It sounds good. What are the particulars?”

The commander went on to cover the unverified internet threat against a number of high-profile events across the country, one being tonight’s party for some political big wigs.

“Homeland Security isn’t taking the threat seriously?” Bull asked. That was obvious since he was going in alone with no team backup.

“Not serious enough to devote manpower to it. They consider this right up there with that guy who announced on the internet he’d put dirty bombs in those seven football stadiums. You know the one. This threat has no more validity than that one did in the eyes of the higher ups.”

Bull remembered. When they’d found the guy, he’d been some nerd living in his parents’ basement who got his thrills by scaring a bunch of innocent people.

“Then why am I going in at all?” Bull frowned.