Wicked Ties (Steele Security Series) (4 page)

Rebel picked up the story, “Thing is, he was hired by the
leader
of the Latino gang,
Tres Seises
.  They’re not someone a nice, pretty lady would normally mess with.” 

The three men turned and stared Chaise down.  The weight of their stares was palpable on her skin and made her involuntarily take a step backward.  Their size alone was intimidating, but being under all three of their hard, probing stares was enough to make her squirm.

“Well, Chaise?”  Bull spoke and turned to face her fully.  Her eyes searched his for any hint of empathy but found none. 

She felt the tears stinging the back of her eyes as she fought to keep her emotions under control.  She had been on one hell of an emotional roller coaster and she was so ready to get off
the damn ride. 

“I think it’s time for us to have that talk.  Right now,” Bull finished as he advanced on her.  Wrapping his enormous, thick fingers completely around her bicep, he easily steered her back
toward their “discussion room.”  Rebel and Shadow fell in step behind them and she suddenly felt something she’d never experienced before—complete claustrophobia.

With her eyes downcast to her feet, Chaise focused on putting one foot in front of the other.  One step at a time, she allowed Bull to guide her as she tried her best to block out the unwanted feelings.  Entering the room, he marched her to the chair she had vacated earlier and let go of her arm.  She instantly missed the warmth of his touch on her and the security of being linked to someone else it provided, even if only for a moment.  Even if he hadn’t intended for his grip to be considered a lifeline, that’s exactly how it had felt to her.

As Shadow started to close the door, Chaise exclaimed, “No, please, leave it open!”  Bull eyed her suspiciously again.  “I’m just feeling a little claustrophobic. Can you just leave the door open?”

Wordless glances exchanged, Shadow replied in an easy manner, “Sure thing,
sweetheart.” 

Bull watched Chaise’s heaving chest carefully as her breaths slowed slightly, showing that she was at least telling the truth about her incident.  Her respiration rate had been close to hyperventilation
, but he wasn’t convinced it was related to a sudden bout of claustrophobia.  From his viewpoint, it only came on when he said it was time to talk. 

Chaise took her seat and waited patiently as the men moved chairs around to make it easier for them to hold a conversation.  She looked to each of them nervously and didn’t even try to hide it.  They all knew she was scared and she had no reason to try to convince them otherwise.  She wanted them to know she was scared out of her mind so they would help her.

“Why would the
Tres Sieses
be interested in you?”  Bull asked with obvious scrutiny.  He didn’t waste any time, she had to give him that.  “That particular gang isn’t known for having people
followed
.  They’re known for making people
disappear
.”

Her hand immediately went to her mouth
as tears sprung to her eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks before she could stop them.  Quickly wiping them away, she pursed her lips and looked down, trying to quickly collect her wits so she could intelligently explain what was happening.  She knew from experience that hardened, ex-military men don’t appreciate emotionally unstable, babbling women.

Swallowing her tears and anxiety, her eyes found Bull’s and she asked with as much confidence as she could muster, “Do you mind if I just start at the beginning and explain?  Then if you still have questions, you can ask
them?”

Bull leaned back in his chair, crinkling his eyes as he slowly took in her posture.  “By all means.  Go right ahead then,” he replied
, but she detected at least a little disbelief in his voice.

“My nineteen
-year-old intern is missing! Suddenly and mysteriously.  It’s not like her and I know someone took her.  I’ve been looking for her and I’ve apparently gotten too close to someone who doesn’t like it,” Chaise blurted out hysterically before she could stop herself.  

“
–Okay, what is your intern’s name?” Bull calmly asked.

“Aura Perez.”

Bull looked at Shadow and Shadow quickly moved to click a few keys on the laptop while they continued talking.

“She’s nineteen, right?” Bull asked and Chaise nodded to confirm.  “That’s pretty
young—she’s probably just off having fun with friends, not taking her job seriously.  Maybe being an intern wasn’t her thing,” Bull suggested, shrugging his shoulders like it wasn’t as big of a deal as Chaise was making it out to be.

“No, she’s not like that.  This is completely unlike her and she’s been missing for several days now.  I know they got
her—somehow, somewhere. I have to find her before they do something terrible to her,” Chaise retorted, desperate to make them understand.

“Have you had some kind of run in with this gang that would draw attention to you and Aura?” Shadow asked.

Chaise began wringing her hands and looking around the room at each of the men.  “How long did you say Noah would be gone?”

Bull quickly answered, “I didn’t say.”

Rebel gave Bull an odd look and answered Chaise’s question, “Two-week honeymoon on a tropical island.  There’s no way we can reach him without going there ourselves.  And I’m not ruining
Reaper’s
honeymoon.”

Chaise nodded in understanding, “Well, I can’t wait that long
, anyway.  It’s already been way
too
long.”  She took a deep, calming breath in and let it out before continuing.  “I work as a field human resources consultant.  Companies without full time human resources professionals will hire me as a consultant to make sure their employee files are in order, that the policies and procedures are being followed, and that payroll policies are maintained.  That sort of thing,” Chaise explained.

“Anyway, Aura is a college student and she was assigned to me as my intern.  I found some discrepancies between the employee paperwork and the payroll paperwork, so we started investigating them together. When we saw there were just too many
coincidences,
I told Aura to stop looking into the documentation.  Something was terribly wrong and we were being pulled into the middle of it.  I wanted to find out more on my own and leave her out of it.  I’m afraid it was too late, though,” she finished.

“What information did you find?”  Rebel asked, as Bull shifted his position to lean in closer.

Before she could answer, an explosion from outside rocked the building, sending all three men scrambling for cover.  Bull grabbed Chaise from the comfortable chair on his way to the floor, secured her in one spot, and then crawled to the windows to look out.

“There’s a car on fire in the parking lot,” Bull called to Shadow and Rebel.  “It’s the one Chaise and I rode in on the way over here.”

“Time to move, people,” Shadow commanded.  “They know where we are and they want her.  We need to get her to an unknown location.  I’ll have one of our other men meet the police here, but we need to split
now
.”

“Let’s split up, divide their attention,” Bull responded.  “I’m taking her south. 
Rebel, head west.  Shadow, head north.  We’ll rendezvous tomorrow at thirteen-hundred hours.”

The sound of gunfire erupted outside
, but Chaise appeared to be the only one concerned with it.  Bull relieved some of her fear when he simply stated, “Bulletproof glass.”  He led Chaise down the hall, through a doorway, and down the stairs into the underground garage. 

Once inside his truck, Bull slowly pulled forward to exit from a side entrance.  When he was satisfied that the exit was clear, he pulled onto the street, weaved in and out of traffic
, and circled several city blocks to ditch any possible tail, before heading toward the southbound interstate ramp.

Chaise watched Bull as he navigated his
full-size truck expertly through the downtown Miami streets.  His eyes constantly searched and assessed possible threats.  He was definitely in his element and Chaise thought she caught brief glimpses of what he must have been like when he was in the military.  With Noah.

“Did you do this kind of thing in the military?”  Chaise asked, unable to hold her curiosity any longer.

Bull glanced at her over his shoulder before responding.  “Not exactly the same thing.  We learned to do most everything and anything.  And we were good at it.”

Chaise knew he wasn’t being conceited.  His tone was humble and the thoughtful look on his face conveyed his nostalgia without saying a word.

“You miss it, don’t you?” she asked, trying to pry information out of the man who seemed intent on only giving single syllable answers.

“I do
sometimes—I miss parts of it, anyway,” he answered.  “The best thing about the military is here with me, though—my brothers and Brianna.”

Chaise smiled at his reference of his ‘
brothers and Brianna
.’  “You love her, don’t you?” the words poured out before she could stop them.

Bull’s face took a serious look as he answered, “She’s
earned
her place as my sister.  Just like the others
earned
their place as my brothers.  I love her like a sister—nothing more.”

“I didn’t mean to offend you
. I wasn’t implying you’d betray Noah like that.  You just always include her when you do talk about them, so it’s pretty obvious that she holds a special place in your heart,” Chaise explained humbly.  Bull was protecting her and the last thing she wanted to do was offend him or appear unappreciative of his actions.

Bull shifted uncomfortably in his seat and took a moment before he responded.  “Trust and honor are very important to me. 
Sunny—uh, that’s Brianna’s nickname—well, it’s a long story, but I misjudged her and turned my back on her once.  I won’t ever do that again.”

“Well, she’s lucky to have someone like you in her corner.  And while I’m at it, I’m lucky to have you in mine, too.  Saying
‘thank you’
seems grossly negligent, but I really don’t know how else to say it.  Thank you, Colton, sincerely, for helping me, saving me,” Chaise fought back the emotions that were threatening to take over her voice. 

Bull gave a single nod as his response.  He wasn’t accustomed to taking compliments.  He was used to taking orders and seeing that his duty was performed to the best of his abilities.  His commanding officers didn’t say the words
‘thank you’
for a job well done and they sure didn’t show emotions when they told him he did a good job. He thought maybe he should lighten up on her since she looked like she was about to lose her composure.

Chaise wasn’t normally such a crier, but the sudden dump of adrenaline was starting to wane and her emotions were on a crazy roller coaster.  Everything that she had experienced up until
that point was weighing on her as the severity of her situation started to sink in. 

Chaise’s coping mechanisms were being greatly tested.  Aura was missing, a notorious gang was having her tailed, someone blew up the car she and Bull had been in, and then someone started shooting at the building.  She was no military expert, but
it was all a little too much to be considered a coincidence.

She chuckled under her breath at the absurdity of that thought. 
A coincidence?
 

“What’s so funny over there?”  Bull asked with an amused smirk.

“Well, Bull, it’s pretty simple.  It’s either laugh or cry.  And since I absolutely hate crying, I figured I had better start laughing really damn soon,” she replied with a hint of witty sarcasm in her tone.

Bull let out a full belly laugh at her statement.  Chaise was suddenly captivated at how his smile transformed his whole face.  There was a light in his eyes that was normally masked, his white teeth shone against the stark contrast of his tan skin and his dark chin stubble, and the deep, masculine rumble of his laugh was hypnotizing.  Having only seen his serious side, she was curious just how many people had been blessed with his rich, deep laugh that reverberated through her very core.

She felt herself smile a genuine smile for the first time in weeks--since the whole sordid mess started and she found herself in such a precarious predicament.  Bull looked at her for a second or two longer, with this full-on smile still in place, before turning his eyes back to the road.

“Well, Chaise, I have to admit I’m glad to hear that.  If I was a betting man, I would’ve put money on the tears,” he replied with a smidgen of teasing and playfulness in his voice. 

Chaise hoped she was beginning to see the real Colton Lanier, the one she knew he kept hidden from most everyone.  That part of himself that he kept reserved for only those whom he trusted.  That thought left her with a sorrow she couldn’t quite shake. 

She had only met him a few hours before, but in that short time, he had helped her more than most people had in her entire adult life.  But the part that was weighing most heavily on her was that she knew she wasn’t being fair or completely honest with him.

“I guess it’s a good thing you’re not a betting man, then.  Unless, of course, you’d actually made that bet with
me
,” she playfully jabbed back at him.

His amused chuckle rippled through Chaise and his eyes lingered on hers again before turning back to the road.  She noticed, with more than a little satisfaction, that his smile lingered just a bit longer
that time.  She hated to be the one to remove that smile from his gorgeous face, but with the interruptions they’d already encountered, she felt a dire need to finish as much of the story as she could.

“So, Colton, where are we going?” Chaise asked while turning sideways in her seat.  She put her back against the door, the seatbelt strap under her arm
, and pulled her knee up in the seat to get more comfortable.

Bull glanced over to answer her and was hit with a sudden and severe craving for Chaise.  The way she was sitting was unintentionally provocative and every cell in his body automatically gravitated
toward her.  Her question purred from her lips, inadvertently sounding alluring and sexy.  Bull shifted in his seat and cleared his throat, taking a moment to gather his faculties before responding.

He had only met
the woman and the attraction he felt toward her bordered on insane—for him.  While he enjoyed the sight of a beautiful woman, and had enjoyed his share of one or two nights with them, he couldn’t remember ever feeling an intense pull to anyone else.  Bull fought to keep his mind on the job and not on her as a person.

“We have a couple of
choices—a safe house in Key Largo or we can go to my place for now.  The house in Key Largo is rarely used so I doubt there are many supplies left for us.  But it could be a good place for us to regroup,” Bull stated confidently.

“We’re, what, about an hour from Key Largo?” Chaise asked.

“Yeah, around there.  Is there somewhere else you need to be?” Bull asked, somewhat playfully, still trying to keep the tension light.

“Well, I need to check my schedule,” Chaise retorted with a laugh.  Then she suddenly remembered, “
Oh—um, can we go by my apartment first?  I really need to get some clothes and other things together.”

Bull checked the rearview and side mirrors and then changed lanes as he checked for any signs that they were being followed.  When he was certain they were in the clear, he asked for her address and made his way to her South Beach condominium.  Bull circled the block before turning into the condo where
he was stopped by the armed guard on duty. 

The guard cautiously approached the truck as Bull rolled his window down.