Innocent Next Door (Military Men Book 1) (25 page)

“What kind of fool question is that?” Dillon demanded.

“Well, I don’t know about you,” Jake drawled, “but I’m kinda interested in the answer.”

Josh stirred beside her. “Yeah.”

“We’re almost there,” Louie said.

Jake groaned. “Aw, come on, mate. You can’t leave us hanging like that.”

“Don’t answer,” Dillon ordered. “Not with my baby sister in the car.”

“She’s not so little if she’s doing the horizontal tango with Nik,” Jake pointed out.

Both Josh and Dillon growled.

“That’s enough,” Summer said, placing a hand on each of them. “Louie, I’ll discuss scarves with you later. Do you have any books on the subject?”

Jake threw back his head and roared with laughter. “Man, I’m not sure whether to feel sorry for Nikolai or envy him.”

“You are not hooking up with Tarei,” Dillon snarled.

Silence, tense and brittle, fell again. Summer’s stomach hollowed out at the sudden chill inside the car.

Finally, Louie broke the silence. “Nik is our mate.” The threat was implicit in his words. Do or say anything against Nikolai and suffer the consequences.

“He got a man killed. A good man,” Dillon snarled. “Summer is staying away from him.”

“I’m—”

“That’s bullshit,” Jake said in a quiet voice that made Summer shiver. He never came across as dangerous because he was always joking around. “You don’t know what happened that day.”

And don’t judge
. No matter what Dillon and Josh said about Nikolai, she wouldn’t believe them. She knew him. He was gentle, and caring and loyal. And she loved him.

“I know enough,” Dillon said.

“A mate died that day because Tarei left him,” Josh snarled.

Jake scowled, and in that moment he looked like the dangerous hunter he was. “You weren’t there. Everything you know is secondhand.”

Summer suppressed a shiver at unleashed violence in his words.

“Tell us then, because we sure as hell aren’t letting our sister within calling range of him. He left his man to die. Teammates don’t do that.”

Summer straightened. “You can’t send me home to Eketahuna. I won’t go.”

When Nikolai was safe, they were going to talk. Then once she’d sorted things to her satisfaction, they would marry. But first, she was going to tell him how much she loved him.

In the front seat, Summer noticed Louie and Jake glancing at each other. After a few seconds, Louie spoke.

“Nik had the choice of saving a woman and her three kids or his man. He tried to do both and damn near killed himself. His leg is never gonna come right. Not one hundred percent.”

“Do you have proof of this,” Dillon demanded.

“Uncle Henry knows,” Summer said with instinctive certainty. “But it doesn’t matter. I trust Nikolai.”

Louie glanced in the rear-vision mirror. “A Williams with commonsense. Thank you, God.”

“Nikolai would give his left nut to save another life.” Jake turned to fix her brothers with a steely glare. “Only old women listen to gossip. If you want the truth, ask Nikolai instead of condemning him without trial.”

Summer laughed at Jake’s fervent words while she felt her brothers wince at mention of the male anatomy.

“Good. We’re all on the same page. Nikolai and I are a couple.”

“With an interesting sex life,” Jake added.

“I find it interesting,” she conceded. “I learn something new every time.”

“Summer, button it,” Dillon snapped.

“Boys, we’re here,” Louie interrupted.

The men snapped into predator mode, and the tension ratcheted sharply upward inside the car.

“What if this isn’t the right warehouse?” Summer asked.

Josh patted one jeans-clad knee, squeezing in gentle encouragement. “If it’s not the right one, we’ll keep trying.”

“It’s the right one,” Jake said. “Dan sounded confident.”

Louie slowed the car and drove past, then pulled up at the end of the street. “Anyone see life?”

A croak of protest leaked from Summer’s tight throat.

“Sorry. Poor word choice,” Louie said.

They climbed from the car, shutting the doors with careful thuds. The warehouse looked deserted, with broken windows high up on the graffiti-covered walls. Around the outside, scrubby bushes grew amongst knee-high grass.

“Summer, stay with me,” Dillon ordered. His expression told her he expected her to follow instructions to the letter. She jerked her head in compliance. At least he hadn’t suggested she wait in the car.

“She should wait in the car,” Josh said.

“No.” Dillon gave her a hard look. “She’ll worry. Summer’s better off with one of us.”

“Family conference over?” Louie demanded. When Dillon gave a curt nod, he said, “Jake and I will go right. You and Josh go left.” Nikolai’s two friends slithered along the side of the warehouse and disappeared around the corner with the stealth of a pair of cats.

A white car pulled up farther down the street, followed by a police car.

“Do we wait for them?” Summer whispered.

“Nah,” Josh said. “Let’s go.”

“Where are the doors? How do we get in?”

“Summer, shut up.” Dillon squeezed her shoulder in silent comfort. “Don’t worry. We’ll find him.”

Summer followed, right on Dillon’s heels. They skirted the long grass and discarded litter, running low and keeping close to the rundown building.

“Keep up, Summer. Don’t fall behind.”

She grimaced at Dillon’s broad back. Fine for him to say when he had long, ground-eating legs. She hastened her pace, breaking out into a trot. Her foot hit a hole and her ankle rolled.

“Shit.”

Up ahead, Dillon and Josh froze. As one, they turned to her with their warrior faces in neutral. It took them a split second to analyze the situation, then their expressions turned from neutral to brotherly disgust.

Josh rolled his eyes and whispered in a low voice she had to strain to hear. “I don’t know why we didn’t stroll up to the front door and knock. We might as well—considering the noise you’re making.”

“You’re as bad as Nikolai,” she snapped.

“Keep it down,” Dillon murmured, his eyes assessing the area ahead and behind.

“Well, if you’d let me in on your little games and gave me some practice, I wouldn’t blunder around like an elephant in ballet shoes. And thank you for asking, my ankle is fine.”

Josh grinned. “Sis, you do have a way with words.”

“If you two are finished, we need to move. Before the cops get here.”

Josh and Summer sobered and fell in behind Dillon. When they reached the next corner of the warehouse, Dillon slowed and cautiously checked round the corner.

“Clear. Summer, watch where you put your feet, and if there’s any gunfire, drop to the ground and crawl back in the direction we’ve come.”

Mention of guns brought home the reality. Dare and his men meant business. They were all in danger. Tension tightened her belly in a vice-like grip.

They crept around the corner. At the far end of the warehouse, figures appeared. She froze until she identified them. Jake and Louie.

Jake signaled with his hands. A foreign language to her, but Josh and Dillon seemed to understand.

As one, they moved along the rear of the warehouse to the open door.

Silly of them to leave the small, rear door open
, Summer thought as Louie peered inside. Perhaps they felt safe because the huge roller door at the front of the warehouse was secured.

Louie signaled, then moved back. He did another series of hand signals to Josh and Dillon.

Summer tugged on Josh’s arm and stood on tiptoes to whisper in his ear. “What’s going on?”

“Tarei knows we’re here. He’s going to distract them.”

Summer’s stomach hollowed out again. The perfect way to lose weight—live your life in fear. “How?”

Josh shook his head and squeezed her upper arm in silent encouragement.

Summer heard a loud crash inside the warehouse. It reverberated through her body, pushing fear along every nerve ending.

“Stay here,” Dillon ordered.

Summer opened her mouth to argue.

Jake stopped her with a look. “Nikolai will worry. He needs to concentrate.”

Summer’s breath eased out and she nodded, albeit unwillingly. “I’ll wait right here.”

“Stay flat against the wall.” Jake’s face held approval.

Another crash sounded, followed by cursing. Her brothers and Nikolai’s friends slipped through the door.

For a few moments, she stayed against the wall just as they’d told her, but the crashes and thumps coming from inside the warehouse became louder. She crept to the door and peered inside. A hand snapped out and grabbed her shirt.

“Knew you couldn’t resist poking your nose in,” a familiar voice growled.

“Nikolai!” Summer flew through the door into his arms and hugged him tight. Then she stood at arm’s length to survey the damage. She made a tsking sound and traced the swollen area around his cheekbone. “You’re going to have a black eye.”

“Yeah.” Nikolai grabbed her and hugged her tight as though he couldn’t believe she was safe. He buried his face in her hair, and his chest rose and fell.

“Hands up. Against the wall.” The harsh voice grabbed their unwilling attention.

“It’s the cops,” Nikolai murmured against her ear. “Follow their instructions. They’re not sure who the bad guys are yet.”

Summer glanced toward the door. The rigid stance of the cop in the doorway backed up his words. She raised her hands as did Nikolai. His brown eyes bore silent encouragement and a trace of concern.

“I’m fine,” she whispered. “Whupped Dare’s hide and kicked him in the balls.”

Nikolai’s bark of laughter drew a frown from the cop who’d issued the instructions. “You two. Shut it.”

Behind them, her brothers, Jake and Louie had overpowered Dare’s cohorts. All four men stood to attention, their warrior’s faces in evidence. Nikolai had his warrior’s face on too. Summer stared at him, unable to look away. Dangerous. Hard. Then one brown eye closed in a wink. It was so uncharacteristic her mouth gaped in astonishment.

Nikolai glanced at the cops then moved his hand from the wall. He traced the outline of her smiling mouth, his eyes dark and intent. Her pulse skipped in an excited blip.

The cops entered the room cautiously—six of them—and fanned out. The last one through the door jerked his head at Jake in a gesture of greeting.

“Bro. You’ve done our work for us.” His wide grin told Summer his temperament was similar to Jake’s—easygoing and fun.

“’Bout time you guys got here. Hey, love birds. Cut that out,” Jake drawled.

Summer jerked her gaze from Nikolai’s, and tried to control the burst of heat to her cheeks as she glanced around the cavernous warehouse.

Two of Dare’s gang lay on the floor, looking worse for wear. One groaned and attempted to crawl away until a policeman fastened handcuffs around his wrists and stood him up. The third man leaned against a wooden packing case, blood dripping from his face onto the concrete floor.

Jake and his brother went into a huddle. Jake nodded and the pair walked over to her and Nikolai.

“Thanks to your information we’ve stopped a large shipment of new designer drugs coming into the country. The customs agents didn’t spot them because Dare and overseas partners have developed a way of affixing the drugs to the back of stickers. Owner of the super yacht said he designed kids’ sticker books and had boxes of samples on board. No one thought anything of it until we intercepted the message and looked closer.”

“Wow,” Summer said. “But who planted the drugs in Uncle Henry’s house? And ran me off the road? I don’t think that was Dare. He wouldn’t have wanted to point our minds in the direction of drugs. And when he found out, he acted strange.”

“Martin is in a territory struggle with the Ngataki family. We think Josiah Ngataki was trying to make trouble for Martin, and Ngataki thought you were important to him. You got caught in the middle,” Jake’s brother said.

“He mentioned someone called Ngataki.”

Nikolai curled his arm around her waist. “Can we go?”

“We need them for questioning,” one of the cops said.

Her brother, Dillon, interceded. “Can you question them tomorrow? They’ve been through a fair bit today. We can answer most of your immediate questions. If they promise to drop into the Auckland Central station tomorrow, could you let them go home?”

“Dillon,” Josh muttered, a look of amazement on his face. “I thought we’d agreed.”

“I’ve changed my mind. Summer is old enough to make her own decisions. We got into the habit of watching out for her when she was sick as a kid. It’s time we stopped.”

Josh’s brows drew together. His head shook as he looked from her to Nikolai. “I don’t think Mum—”

“We’re not telling Mum,” Dillon said.

“No, I am,” Summer said.

While she dreaded telling her parents, particularly her mother, that she intended staying in Auckland, adults took responsibility. If she balked at telling her parents about Nikolai, then what hope was there for their future?

Chapter Nineteen

“Will you marry me?”

Summer’s blunt question echoed in the huge warehouse. The cops discussing whether they could go without giving a statement stopped to stare.

Jake tipped him a wink. Louie chuckled while Summer’s brothers started to rumble like waking volcanoes.

Nikolai swallowed. It did nothing to disperse the lump of tension lodged in his throat. He ran his hand across her cheek and tucked a blue strand of hair behind her ear, the familiar action relaxing him. “Are you pregnant?”

The rumbling from her brothers grew louder, but he ignored them to focus on Summer.

His lover. And now—his wife-to-be.

A month ago, the thought would have scared him spitless. But today a surge of anticipation throbbed through him.

“Well?” Dillon demanded. “Are you pregnant?” His disapproval bled in to his expression, making him appear tough and mean.

“None of your business,” she inserted smoothly into the pulsing silence left while her brother scowled at Nikolai. “In other words, butt out.”

A laugh sounded from one of the policeman, abruptly cut off when Dillon’s attention focused on him.