Second Nature (When Seconds Count) (12 page)

“
Dammit!” He didn’t know why, but he needed to see what was in those folders. He pushed the laptop away and carded his fingers through his hair. None of the preliminary trial reports mentioned anything about branding, at least not that he could see. Was it possible the media were just talking out their asses?
Most likely.

Grant picked up his sat phone and dialed Diver again. Where there was a lock
ed door, there was always another way in.

“I’m not going back to sleep
tonight, am I?” Diver growled.

“
Not justifying that with an answer, D. You should know better.” Grant rattled off the server number and folder location he needed access to. Again he could hear Diver’s fingers flying over his computer’s keyboard and wondered if he slept with the damn thing on the pillow next to him.

“No can do, boss. That’s a Federal evidence site and it’s locked up tighter than
my girlfriend’s skinny jeans.”

Grant stood and paced to the kitche
n. “So are you telling me you haven’t fucked your girlfriend? What’s the problem?”

“I’ll work on it, but I’m not promising anything on this one. They’re victim profiles
, so you’re probably dealing with pictures of minors. That’s why even we can’t access them. Your best option is probably going to be filing a request for waiver, but you and I both know you won’t get in that way.”

“Dammit!”
What good was having SCI clearance if he couldn’t use it when he needed it? “Do what you can and I’ll look for another way in.” He sat back down in front of the laptop and clicked the files closed. “And Diver?”

“Yeah, boss?”

“Go back to bed.” He heard the tail end of Diver’s colorful response as he disconnected the call and dialed another number. The man could be quite creative for such an early hour.

When the familiar recorded voice came over the line, Grant entered his seven digit SCIP key and asked for a patch through
to a secure line. If there was anyone who had or could gain access to those files, it would be Daniel Gregory.

“Gregory.”

Grant laughed as his friend’s curt voice rang in his ear. “Still the company man, I see. I thought you had retired.” He chuckled again when he heard Daniel’s struggle for words to respond. “I’ve stuck with Grant Kendal for a while. You were right. I kind of liked him too.”

“Jesus, for a minute there I thought you were gonna make me guess.” Grant smiled. He didn’t know what it was about the old man, but he’d always liked and respected him from the first day he’d met him. He had given up on his father a long time ago, but if he could hand pick another one it would be Daniel.

“By that country twang I gather you decided to stay on with Miss Morganti and her new clan?”
He was glad Daniel had found some level of peace, practically adopting Gabby after the loss of his daughter. He chuckled. It still felt strange not to call her Claira, the name she had used while she was still in hiding from Lucien Moretti. He had often wondered if Daniel would stay in Montana with her and his spook friend Cade. He shook his head. He in no way could picture the suit and tie wearing former United States Marshal from Washington D.C. out riding a horse and driving cattle.

“Shit,” Daniel huffed. “Is it that bad? You wouldn’t believe some of the things I hear around here.”

Grant laughed again when another picture of Daniel in a Stetson passed through his already overloaded brain. “How is she doing?”

“Gabby? Well,
she’s officially a McLendon now, and I have three outrageously overprotective son-in-laws who spoil her rotten, which is nothing less than she deserves.” Grant shook his head. He would never judge, especially after all they’d been through, but he couldn’t imagine himself sharing a wife with two other men. He simply wasn’t built that way. A sudden and unfamiliar rush of possessiveness had him peering out the window to check on Thalia. “And I’m about eight months away from being an honorary, overall wearin’ grandpa.”

“
Stop!” Grant held out his hand as if he could force the image away. “Just stop, please. I’m going to have to eat a bullet to get rid of the ridiculous picture you’re about to paint.” Grant grabbed up a pencil, nervously tapping it on the desk. Now that he had Daniel on the phone he wasn’t sure how to go about asking him for what he needed, or if he should. He had been through enough and it seemed at least some of the lifelessness that plagued him since his daughter’s disappearance had lifted from his spirit.

“I know better than to ask questions, Grant.”
A little relief washed over him when he heard the seriousness return to his friend’s voice. “You wouldn’t be calling if it wasn’t important. I told you then I owed you one. The offer still stands.”

He didn’t know any other way than to just come out straight with it. “I need access to
the victim profile documents in Hector Morganti’s evidence file. SCI clearance is apparently not enough and I can’t get
need-to-know
access for what I’m not
officially
working on.”

Grant could hear the air being sucked out of Daniel’s lungs. He stayed quiet and gave his friend a moment to absorb the mental blow. “You found something?”

Grant shook his head and tossed the pencil across the room. “No, not on Natalie.
” Dammit, the last thing he wanted to do was give him some sense of false hope. This had nothing to do with Daniel except his need for access to the information. “I can’t really talk about it. It’s probably nothing, but you know how annoying hunches can be.”

Daniel blew out a breath and Grant could almost picture him running his meaty hand over his dark gray flat top. “Yeah, I do. I have copies of everything that’s stored in evidence. I’ll send you whatever you need.”

Thalia closed the door behind her and turned to see Grant jump from his seat and slam his hand down on top of a laptop
she’d never seen before, awkwardly attempting to hide it from her view.
What is up with him?

He’d been acting strange since
the moment he’d opened his eyes and rocked the hell out of her world. Then he wouldn’t let her return the favor? Yeah, she could safely throw that experience into the awkward category. No one had ever made her feel so much at one single moment in time. There were no words to describe the intensity that flowed from his body into hers. He had literally worshiped her with his mouth. It was too much.

The man was taking nice to a whole new level
and it was freaking her out.
What was all of that talk about healing his soul?
She shook her head and carried the basket of fruit to the kitchen sink, leaving him to finish his call.

She’d spent the last hour and
a half stretching out her sore muscles, muscles she’d forgotten she had, and trying to peel her pride from the bottom of her boot. She had fucking cried in front of him. Twice! She never cried. Stab her, shoot at her, kill her parents? No tears. Throw a hot man with a smart, talented mouth and a broad shoulder to cry on in front of her and suddenly she was an emotional train wreck.

She
’d also had another nightmare. She hoped like hell he hadn’t noticed. They were getting worse, and more intense. Usually she couldn’t remember them, but lately there had been small, terrifying details that seemed to etch their way through the usual fog that clouded her memory of them.

Memories from the nightmares she’d had the night before were
filled with images of scorpions and maggots, the feeling of being suffocated as they filled her mouth and nose and the muffled sounds of her screams as they crawled into her ears. Her skin crawled and her fingers balled into fists as she pushed the images away.
Please let him not have heard my screams.
If he had heard her at least he hadn’t made her talk about them. Maybe that was why he was acting so strange.

She liked Grant a lot. Okay,
like
was a bit weak. More like one look into those lethal eyes and her ovaries imploded from overexertion
.
“Dammit!” Thalia hissed through her clenched teeth as she chased the dozen or so loquats that had rolled from her basket onto the floor.

She couldn’t afford to get caught up in whatever this was between them.
No distractions. She’d promised Issa she would finish this. She didn’t care what he’d been involved in. She owed him everything, and he deserved better than dying the way he did.

Grant had a good point about waiting a few days before calling Jauhar. She was in no shape to deal with him anyway. That plan
, however, didn’t solve how she was supposed to gain his confidence to secure another face to face meeting with him. For the life of her she couldn’t come up with anything else that might work. She was losing her focus and that had to stop.

She couldn’t depend
on Grant to come up with a way to get to Jauhar. She couldn’t count on anyone but herself. “Uhhh!” she groaned, picking up each fruit, washing and then setting them on the counter with a little more force than was necessary. If she had to say the words
you’re right
to that man one more time she would gag. Dammit, but he was right. She couldn’t give up control of this. Not even to him.

“There’s probably a food processor in one of these cabinets
you know. It’s a lot easier than beating them against the counter.” Thalia jumped, splashing water down her shirt and knocking half of the cleaned fruit to the floor.

“
Sonofabitch!
” She should have known Mr. Lightning Reflexes would catch the damn fruit she’d flung at his head. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

“I wasn’t sneaking.”
Shit!
She wanted to kiss and then slap the sarcastic, mocking smirk off his perfectly curved lips. In that order.

Inste
ad she left the sink and began picking up the once clean fruit. “No? Is that why you slammed the computer closed when I walked in? Because you weren’t sneaking?” With the hem of her shirt pulled up to carry the fruit in, she swiveled her hips. “What were you looking at? Another porn stash?”

Shit, shit, shit.
She didn’t know why she was pushing his buttons. What he did was really none of her business anyway. Judging by the voracious look in his eyes, it was a really, really stupid idea to push him if she planned to gain back any of that control she needed.

“I was wondering when you were going to bring that up.” She took a step back as he took on
e towards her. “Let me guess. Winston?” She was caught like a deer on a dark winding road by the white hot heat swirling in his eyes. She couldn’t look away or even blink. A few more steps and she’d have no place to go. “I figured as much.” His hand reached out and he pulled the hem of her shirt from her grip, the small round fruits tumbling back to the floor at their feet. “That damn monkey followed me everywhere.” Her back pressed against the unforgiving surface of the wall behind her as his hands snaked under her shirt and cupped her sides, his thumbs teasing the tender undersides of her breasts as he stared at her lips. “The only thing I need to make me hard as a rock is you, Thalia.”

A breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding whooshed from her lungs as his lips devoured hers, a tiny, sho
rt moan revealing the ache in her chest as her tongue slid against his. One of his hands slid from her waist, over her hip and tunneled under her shorts, clenching her ass and pulling her against the hard bulge in his jeans.

“
Mmm. You taste like loquat.”

And he tasted like man. Pure, hot, sexy man.
Thalia squeezed her eyes shut to keep them from rolling to the back of her head.
Sexy, distracting, controlling man
. Damn, she was doing it again. Letting him pull her away from what was important. “Um, we need to stop.”
Weak! That was so weak.
She pushed at his chest, but he wasn’t budging, pinning her between his thick, hard body and the wall behind her.

“I know
.” He nibbled on her lower lip, tracing the little bite with his tongue, and sending a sharp ache ricocheting through her womb. “I just wanted something sweet before we talked.” He gave her lip a gentle tug, then one more brief kiss before he let her go and backed away, leaving her nearly breathless and melting against the wall. He walked to the island bar and pulled out a chair. “Have a seat. I’ll get us something to drink.”

“Talk?”
She had a few other thoughts rattling around in her head, but apparently she was only capable of producing them one word at a time.

“Yeah, you know.” Grant took out a couple of glasses and filled them with ice. “
Jauhar, Hamisi, the thumb drive.” The glasses full of water, he stopped and stared at her from across the room. “Earth to Thalia? Do you still want to make those plans today? Because I can think of a few other things I’d rather do, you being at the top of that list.”

Her focus snapped from his wet lips to the playful look in his eyes. He knew exactly what he was doing to her. She
didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. There was no way she was going to win this game with him. He cupped the bottom of the water glasses in one hand and grabbed her hand with his other, pulling her past the bar stool and out of the kitchen. “I thought we were going to sit at the bar?”

“I changed my mind.” When they
reached the small living room, Grant set the glasses down on the coffee table and took a seat on one side of the small leather sofa, pulling her down to sit next to him. Before she could slide back and get comfortable, he reached down and carefully positioned her legs over his lap and pulled off her shoes. She cautiously relaxed against the armrest as he began masterfully massaging the arch of her foot. “Now, why were you beating the hell out of the poor, harmless fruit?”

Because I can’t beat the hell out of you.
Thalia released a frustrated breath and ran her fingers through her hair, resting her head in her hand as she propped her elbow on the armrest. “I’d rather talk about Jauhar.”

“I see.” Grant’s hands paused
as he watched her, those eagle eyes of his focused in on her expressions. “So it’s not Jauhar who has you all worked up now.”

Thalia yanked her feet from his grasp and pushed
up from the sofa, pacing to the other side of the room. “It’s everything. You, me, Jauhar. You say I can’t give up control to anyone, but that’s exactly what I’m doing! This plan of yours won’t work, Grant. It buys me time, but it doesn’t get me a second chance with Jauhar. How am I supposed to get him to meet with me face to face after this?”

“You don’t get
a second chance with a man like Jauhar.” Thalia took a step back as Grant stood and stalked toward her. “Have you ever dealt with Jauhar? Do you know what he is?”

Her head shook as she watched his cautious approach. “He’s a killer. I know that, but
—”

“I’m
a killer, Thalia. You’ve killed two people since I’ve known you. I know they weren’t your first.” He stalked her as he spoke, the lethality in his voice playing havoc with her resolve. Her body hummed with anticipation as his hands slowly came up and framed her face. She was powerless against his touch. “Jauhar is a capitalist, fossa. Not a suit in a high-rise raking in millions, running a legitimate business. He capitalizes on depravity. He preys on the innocent to fulfill the desires of the wicked. Drugs, weapons, sex…child slavery. He does it all without a soul and there’s a reason he’s at the top of that game.” His eyes roamed her face, studying her carefully before they narrowed into an almost painful expression. “There is a stark difference between dangerous and evil, Thalia. I won’t let that kind of wickedness touch you again.”

“Please don’t.” She turned her head away when he leaned in to kiss her. “Don’t say things like that
.”

“Why not?
It’s the truth.” His breath rushed hot against her cheek and she fought against the urge to turn back to him.

“It’s not true.”
Her chest tightened, but not in panic. She swallowed against the ache in her throat and twisted from his grip, thankful he let her go. Turning away from him, her arms hugged her stomach in a lame attempt to keep the sob that was building in her throat from spilling out. “This is all that’s left of my life, Grant. I know I’m going to die doing this. I know this and…and you can’t take that away from me.” Her body betrayed her will and leaned back into his embrace as his strong arms folded around her, holding her gently against his chest. “You can’t keep making me want…more.”

It wasn’t a lie.
Jauhar would never touch her. She would have more than this. She may not have it with him, but he would be damned if he would let her throw it away on Jauhar. She was wrong. He would take this away from her, but he could see that now was not the time to convince her to let him.

He turned her in his arms
and dipped his head to see her face. “I don’t make promises I can’t keep, fossa. I will keep you safe. Hey.” He tilted her chin when she tried to look away, forcing her to look at him. “I’m not taking this away from you, not yet, but you’re in way over your head and it’s time you stop fighting me on this. We’ve got one shot at Jauhar. That’s it. No second chances, no room for error. We screw this up and he’ll go so far underground it will be years before he comes up for air, and you’ll be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life.”

“Why?” Her shoulders slumped as her head fell against his chest. “Why are
you helping me?”

He gathered her back into his arms, his lips caressing her hair. “Because I know about wanting more, fossa
.” He kissed her forehead, her temple, trailing his lips down her cheek before nipping seductively at her chin. “Every day I’m with you I want more than I know I can have.”

Intense, slow-
burning heat filled his veins as she opened her mouth and his tongue slid against hers. This kiss was different than any they’d shared before. There was no urgency or frantic grappling, just a raw need to touch her, to taste her and know she was his. At least for now. The rest of the world melted away with her faint whimper of surrender and he scooped her into his arms.

Incapable of
depriving his mouth the pleasure of her taste, he stumbled his way to the bedroom, setting her on her feet next to the bed. His fingers trailed over her soft skin, along the sides of her neck, over her shoulders and down her arms until he felt the hem of her t-shirt at her waist. He released her lips only long enough to pull the material over her head, letting it fall to the floor at their feet as he cupped her face between his palms and captured them again, her taste so sweet and now as familiar as his own. Never in his life had he been so consumed by a woman. The need to feel her, to taste her on his lips and wrap himself in her scent incinerated every thought, every instinct he possessed until all that was left of him was an elemental flame; a staggering carnal hunger that burned deep in his bones for her. Only for her.