Tamed (Corcoran Team: Bulletproof Bachelors Book 3) (10 page)

“I’ve spent my whole life trying to live up to Holt.” The words spilled out and there was no way to call them back.

Shane frowned. “What does that mean?”

“He’s always known what he wanted to do. He fights bad guys. He’s not afraid or unclear.” She loved Holt. He was a great big brother, but his greatness only served to highlight her flailing and years of uncertainty. “I’m the opposite. I bounced around colleges and jobs. I’ve never known what I wanted or how to get it. A path is so clear for other people, but not me.”

“Not for everyone.”

She noticed he didn’t exclude himself. She got that. The military had been an escape hatch for him. His marriage had been about hope, not love. He viewed himself as so complex, but she saw through it all. She’d spent so much time deciphering him and his actions that little surprised her now.

But she knew her life, her choices, weren’t as understandable to him. “The website was just one piece, and with it my life started falling into place.”

Shane stood up and walked over until he stopped in front of her. “These insecurities you have. No one else sees you this way.”

He refused to see the flaws, but she didn’t have that luxury. “Ask my parents.”

“They are of a different generation. They have whatever baggage they have.” His hands rubbed up and down her arms. “Forget all that.”

If only the looks of disappointment and constant reminders about all she’d failed to do with her life were that easy to ignore. But she tried to pretend. “Fine.”

“You are this amazing woman. Beautiful, smart and focused.” One hand went to her shoulder, then into her hair. “The idea that you can’t see all you are and all you have to offer makes me want to shake some sense into you.”

“I need you to see me as more than Holt’s little sister.” The sentence summed up her fears. That he would always look at her and see braces. See someone younger who followed him around with this crush instead of a woman who loved him for who he was, the scary parts as well as the good ones.

“It’s a rough habit to break, but believe me when I say that is not how I view you anymore. Not the only way.” His hand went to the base of her neck and pulled her in closer.

“I need you to see me as a woman.” Her head dropped back, cradled in his hand. “Living, breathing, feeling woman.”

He didn’t hesitate. “I do.”

Relief had her gulping in breath. “I should have handled the website better. Protected my privacy and weighed the risks. I know I rushed in.”

“You wanted to help.” His gaze searched her face. “That is not a bad thing.”

Every word he said, every touch, drove her feelings for him even deeper. She’d fought for acceptance her entire life. Her difficult parents had given up expecting things from her. Holt thought their overbearing nature was the worst, but their not even caring enough to fight about it ranked as the worst.

But Shane stood there, so open and loving, and told her she mattered. He accepted who she was, the uncertain parts and the focused ones. He didn’t judge. Unless the other night had been an aberration, he didn’t let any part of her past color how much he wanted her now. The words were freeing, and she grabbed on to them. Wrapped herself in that warm look he kept throwing her.

That only left one thing. “Any chance you’re going to kiss me again?”

The corner of his mouth kicked up. “All night.”

Her heart did a little twist. She felt the lightness and then excitement. They spun through her, wiping out every inch of darkness. “Really? I figured you’d do the that-was-fun-but-a-mistake thing.”

She worried he would. Before he’d seemed to be looking for excuses to run away. He brought up Holt and the baby-sister thing all the time. But he wasn’t using that excuse or any other now.

She was about to point out the change when he lowered his mouth to hers. His mouth touched hers, and a spike of heat hit her. Hands roamed her back, and lips covered hers. The kiss rolled on and her control faded. When he did that thing with his tongue, her knees buckled.

The touches lingered. Her body slid against his in excellent friction as she fought the urge to jump on top of him. Fought and only barely won.

When the blinding kiss threatened to go to her head and wipe out every sensible thought, she lifted her head. “Take me to bed.”

He treated her to a full smile this time. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Chapter Twelve

Frank paced around his apartment. That had been too close.

No one had told him to expect gunfire. He’d known something big was coming, something having to do with Makena and this new guy. He hadn’t expected to be stuck in the middle of it.

Whatever clock kept ticking out there, it seemed to be winding faster. The tension rose along with the stakes. He couldn’t handle any of it. He hadn’t signed up for this. Yeah, he’d made a mistake, and he’d paid for it. Well, he thought so. Others didn’t.

Ask his siblings or his friends, the few he still had. They all looked at him differently now. No one believed anything he said. Even when things did go well at the start of a new job, someone would find the website. They’d insist they’d stumbled over it, and another door would shut.

He deserved to feel bad about what he’d said. He didn’t deserve to lose every piece of his life. No one asked for the kind of pressure being applied now. Despite what Makena and her cohorts thought, no one deserved this type of scrutiny. It was time to move on and for his name to come down so his life could move forward.

He sat down on the barstool at his breakfast bar, then stood back up again. Unsure how much longer his legs would carry him, he dumped back on the cushion again.

A strange ticking noise filled the room. He glanced around, looking for the cause. He’d never heard it before and if he didn’t track it down, it would drive him nuts.

His foot slipped off the footrest on the stool, and the noise ceased. Didn’t wind down. It stopped. He glanced down and watched his leg. Realized it bounced up and down. His nerves were running on edge and the outward signs were tough to miss.

He put his foot back up on the rest, and the noise started all over again. The subconscious tapping made the far end of the footrest move up and down. Just a little, but enough to create the annoying sound. That was what his life had become, a series of random actions and weird noises.

He got up and started pacing again. He’d had two jobs today—give just enough information to get Makena worried about her safety and gather the requested information.

On cue his cell beeped. He reached for it on the counter and almost knocked it to the floor. The thing went sliding and he caught it just in time. Unlocked it and read the text. Didn’t take long.

The number?

The main part of his assignment. Deliver the number. Frank had memorized it just to be safe. Shane and Makena had driven in and he’d watched. Sat at the picnic table close enough to get a good look. Good thing he’d done it at the beginning and repeated it over and over in his mind to memorize, because once the shooting started he’d been useless.

But having it and handing it over without knowing what the faceless person on the other end of the phone intended to do with it were two different things. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again nothing had changed. The text question was right there, taunting him.

From memory, he typed the series of letters and numbers in and then turned the screen off again. Now he needed to forget the number.

Because there was no reason for him to know Shane’s license-plate number.

* * *

N
ONE
OF
THE
BACKGROUND
checks led to real information. Shane expected that of the men who lied about their military service. Many of them fabricated intricate stories, sometimes based on actual people’s lives. Borrowed details and inserted themselves inside. And went to great lengths to sell the tales. There were personal sites and photos. A mountain of false information to comb through.

Connor had given Makena credit just that morning for wanting to do the work. Unraveling the information and finding corroboration and evidence refuting the claims of service could be a full-time job. Maybe that explained why Tyler didn’t appear to hold any other positions or do any other work. It didn’t explain why the under-the-table background investigation on him didn’t check out. Some of the tales Tyler told appeared to be just that...fiction.

Tyler kept his life secret. He didn’t advertise his service record on the website or anywhere else that Connor and the team could find. He had medals, because Makena had seen them. She’d also seen paperwork regarding deployments and other relocations. Problem was, Connor couldn’t find the backup to support the stories or a way to replicate any of them. No witnesses. No government files. Nothing.

For a man who did a lot of finger-pointing, albeit behind a wall of security without his identity being known, he didn’t appear to possess a clean record of his own. On the surface, yes. Routine searches, even some more advanced ones, held up. But nothing about Corcoran could be considered routine, and Connor’s access to information he shouldn’t have, the internal security systems he shouldn’t even know about, tended to stun them all.

The problem for Tyler was that Corcoran had intel it shouldn’t have. That someone with something to hide would count on Corcoran not having. But the team did. It made lying to any team member tough, and it looked as if Tyler had done just that.

Standing in the middle of Tyler’s small first floor, Shane was tempted to ask a bunch of questions. At the very least, go searching through the stacks of papers around here for information. But Makena stood next to him and he didn’t sense she’d take either option very well.

Shane hadn’t filled her in on his newest concerns. Not yet. He worried she’d have a hard time keeping cover. Or that was the excuse he told himself. He really worried she’d blame him for putting a microscope to Tyler’s story. In the end he feared that if she had to pick sides, she’d go with Tyler.

“Are you okay?” Makena moved in next to him with her arm wrapped around his as she crowded against his side.

Not that he minded the closeness, because he didn’t. The smell of her shampoo. Her touch. The way she smiled up at him one minute and frowned at him the next. It all worked for him, and every single day his feelings grew deeper.

He pushed all that aside and focused on the problem in front of him. “Sure. Why?”

“You’re standing in the middle of the room not saying anything.” Amusement filled her voice.

He glanced around and didn’t see Tyler. Didn’t hear him, either. The small house stayed deadly quiet. “Where is your boss?”

“Upstairs...getting the information you wanted on Frank and Jeff.” This time she did frown. “What’s going on with you? You seem a million miles away.”

He’d clearly missed part of a conversation. The lag had her worrying and him wondering what he’d missed. Rather than try to catch up, he pivoted to the conversation he wanted to have. “What case were you working on when all this started?”

“None.”

The answer made no sense. He’d seen files and she’d been doing background work and fielding calls even now, over his objection, with all the danger bubbling up around her. “Are you afraid to leak confidential information to me?”

“Of course not.”

“Really?”

“I thought you meant new work.” She waved off the concern. “I have a few cases going on at the same time. Always do. One ended and I was about to look into another anonymous tip, add to the caseload.”

Sounded fairly routine. Since the interest in shutting her down had seemed to arise all of a sudden and switched to relentless mode, he thought there must be a new case that had someone nervous. Sounded like no, but he decided to double-check. “Which name is that?”

She blinked a few times. “What does that mean?”

This conversation needed help. One of them still lagged behind, and he feared it was him. “On the list you gave Connor.”

“I didn’t.” Before Shane could butt in, she rambled right over him. “I mean, the name would have been on Tyler’s list. He took over the investigation. Said I needed a break.”

Shane still wasn’t sure he’d heard an answer, and now he really wanted one. “Do you remember the name?”

“I have it written down.”

That was all he wanted. He didn’t need to tiptoe around the conversation or worry about tipping anyone off. “I want it when we go back to the house.”

Her eyebrow lifted. “Or we could just ask Tyler.”

For whatever reason, Shane knew that was the wrong answer. “No.”

Footsteps thudded on the stairs. The box appeared first, a good-size one that covered most of Tyler’s body. He peeked around it as he walked into the room. “This is all yours. Everything I have on the men uncovered since Makena started working with me, including information on Frank and Jeff.”

He dropped the box with a thud. Makena immediately went to it and started paging through the files. Shane took a break from the mental analysis for just a second and watched her. As she scanned every page, looked inside and touched each one, excitement lit her gaze. The work touched off something inside her.

He hated to hear her talk about herself as if her life hadn’t amounted to anything or lacked some level of excitement, since neither point was correct. She had people who loved her. She held down a job and made a difference through her work on the site. She gave back by ensuring that only those who deserved to be were called heroes.

He admired everything about her. That drive she thought didn’t exist, her compassion and charm. She looked like that and acted with integrity. He’d fought off his feelings for so long, pushed them back and hid behind a crappy marriage that never should have happened. He’d found excuse after excuse. Even made bets with the team and insisted anything other than sex was off the table.

He wanted all of it to be true. He hated the idea of being sucked in and having someone depend on him, only to leave her as he walked into danger. That was who he was, and that wouldn’t change. It made relationships impossible. Apparently it didn’t make falling in love impossible, because he had fallen. With her.

It couldn’t happen and the odds made it impossible, but there it was. He loved her. Maybe he always had. He sat down hard on the kitchen table.

She rushed to his side. “Shane? All the color just left your face. Are you okay?”

No, he was very far from okay. “Sure.”

“I don’t—”

Time to dodge the question and get some answers. Shane looked at Tyler. “Who do you think is behind all this?”

“Jeff.” Tyler shook his head as he grabbed the back of one of the other chairs. “You said he showed up while you guys were eating in that diner. He was at the park just now. I don’t even know what to say about this loop with the other men that he told you about. That’s news to me, but the lengths they’ll go to sound pretty scary.”

Clearly Makena had been busy filling her boss in. Shane understood why she thought that was okay, but he had a strange feeling it wasn’t. Something about the guy didn’t sit right.

Shane wasn’t alone. No one on the team thought this was a straightforward case. Their collective experience and wisdom pointed to more than one person. Last thing Shane wanted was an entire group of liars with gun habits to battle, but the theory made sense.

Connor hadn’t reached out to Holt to fill him in, but Shane knew their time was running out. That meant his time in bed with Makena likely was running out as well. If this couldn’t go anywhere, they had to be realistic. Having fun when it was just them was one thing. They could keep that private. Rubbing Holt’s nose in it once he got back did not sit well with Shane.

“What chatter are you picking up now?” Shane asked.

Tyler’s grip tightened on the chair. “Chatter?”

“Reports about new cases.” Makena smiled. “I think he’s kind of asking how the work gets to us.”

Shane did love her smarts. Tyler’s blank stare was not a favorite. “You get leads all the time, right?”

“Yes.”

“Are those drying up? Where is the business right now?” Shane knew most of this information from Tyler’s financial records. The same ones that showed a sizable inheritance, which allowed him to spend his life chasing the liars on his site.

The questions weren’t about scaring Tyler. Shane needed to assess the guy’s truthfulness. Would he embellish or underplay? Would he even admit to knowing anything? Shane could get the information he needed or run into a wall that raised a red flag. For whatever reason, he sensed one of those outcomes was on the near horizon.

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this line of questions.” The chair creaked as Tyler released the back and walked into the kitchen.

“He’s asking for the case.” Makena turned around in her chair. “This is all about the attacks. He’s not going to steal your bank-account information.”

“That’s just the thing.” Tyler walked back into the room with a water bottle in his hand. “We’re assuming this is about you and this website, but from what I’ve seen of Shane I’m thinking he has some contacts that might be a problem for you.”

Blame shifting. Shane knew that was rarely a good sign. “I need to rule everything out.”

“I understand, but my financial life is not part of this.” Tyler twisted the lid off the bottle with a loud crack. “These men are not adding to my bottom line. I don’t get paid by the number of people we expose.”

Tyler seemed determined to make that line of questioning into a dead end. Shane decided to let him. But now the team could rip this guy’s life apart and Shane would not feel one ounce of guilt over it.

“Of course.” He stood up and grabbed the box. “We should head out. It’s been a rough few days.”

Tyler almost looked relieved to know they were leaving. “No kidding.”

Shane waited until the last minute to drop one more bomb. “Are you still staying here, or should we get in touch with you somewhere else?”

“No, here is fine.” Tyler’s smile didn’t reach his eyes.

And that really didn’t make sense. The guy had sensitive information stored at his house. No one was supposed to know who he was, and he was desperate to maintain that anonymity. Yet when someone broke in, he didn’t ask for help. He didn’t pull up stakes or, at the very least, move the boxes somewhere else.

For a guy who supposedly felt as if he were in the firing line, he didn’t act like it. He didn’t show much emotion at all except maybe panic.