It was the best news, actually. Aaron appreciated Royal more with every assignment.
Risa yawned and Aaron closed his eyes on the hope sleep might finally come. Her husky voice had him opening them again.
“Tell me about their marriage.”
Aaron turned the alarm clock to face him. The bright green numbers showed a time that couldn’t possibly be right…could it?
The hours had flipped by and his eyes still stayed open. It was like some sick cosmic joke. “Now?”
“Talking will help you sleep.”
Aaron had no idea how that was possible, but he was enjoying the intimacy, so he didn’t argue. “They got married at nineteen. He told me once he would have married her right out of high school but he worried people would think they
had
to get married.”
Risa’s shoulders shook on a new round of laughter. “That would be terrible, I guess.”
“Apparently it was pretty normal for where he grew up and he wanted to act a different way.” Aaron scooted down on the bed to fit his body closer against hers. “He went into the army, got out and threw in with me. For the most part, he seems satisfied with the life he picked.”
“You sound skeptical.”
“It works for him. Wife and kids aren’t really my thing.” Aaron said the last words as part of an automatic loop. He’d repeated the refrain so many times that it now came out without any thought.
“You’re antimarriage?”
Talk about a conversation he never wanted to have again. “My dad would probably like grandkids but I tried the marriage thing once and only got as far as the engagement. She left.”
Risa scoffed. “So?”
He froze. “What do you mean, so?”
“One woman broke your heart and now you swear you’ll never love again?” She snorted.
She couldn’t make her view clearer than that. “You’re making a lot of noises all of a sudden.”
“Sounds to me like a bad country music song.”
He almost laughed at her choice of words. “I think I expected more sympathy.”
She lifted her head and stared him down. Her eyes penetrated the darkness and bored right into him. “My boyfriend took all my money and more than a little of my pride. He ruined my credit. By the time his butt hit the skids, I was in huge financial trouble.”
Whatever amusement he felt fled. The idea of Risa with some loser made him ready to punch someone. “This is the guy who lied?”
“Yes, and you don’t see me writing off the entire male population in response. After all, I think we learned tonight that life is too short and too risky to waste on thinking negatively all the time.”
Aaron ignored the lecture and went to the topic most on his mind. “Where is this guy?”
“Long gone and he’s judgment-proof, so don’t bother.”
She glanced at the window and held there as if mesmerized by the snow blowing under the streetlights.
Aaron had other things on his mind. “I can still track him down and hit him.”
“Just that you offered is enough.” She rubbed her palm over his chest, then kissed the area she’d caressed. “And, really, I’d rather you just admit that not all women are disposable.”
“I know I never said that.”
“You sure?”
“I’m not an idiot, first of all. But I don’t believe it, either. You’re not interchangeable or whatever word you used.” He searched his mind for any woman he’d switch with her, and every cell inside him rebelled at the idea. He couldn’t even go there.
“But you like to keep things light.”
The warning light flashed. Nothing good waited in the direction of that conversation. “How did we get on this subject?”
“What would you rather talk about?” She lifted herself up higher off his body, then suddenly stilled. “Was that a knock? Now?”
He was moving before she finished the question. He flipped the covers off him and started for the door.
“You should put on some pants.”
He stopped in midstride and changed direction. “Good idea. Easier to hide the gun.”
“That’s totally not what I meant.”
He turned and pointed at her. “In the bathroom and do not come out. Take the phone with you in case you need to call 911.”
“It could be something else.”
“I doubt it.”
Chapter Seventeen
As soon as Aaron left the room, Risa jumped off the bed. She scanned the room and then went to the credenza under the window. Opening the top drawer, then the second, she rummaged through the stacks of folded clothes and found exactly what she needed.
Grabbing her underwear from the chair, she slid them on. Next came the pair of his boxers she borrowed. The makeshift shorts slipped when she walked, so she rolled the waist to make them tighter. A sweatshirt from the floor that fell to her knees and the gun he had tucked in the nightstand while she watched completed the outfit.
She slipped her cell next to the gun in the elastic band of her panties and slipped into the hall to check on Aaron. A light by the television cast a soft glow on the room. She could hear the pounding of a fist from the hall and the incessant chime of the bell.
Whoever this was didn’t honor the idea of nighttime privacy. He also didn’t understand that making a lot of noise in a condo complex guaranteed numerous calls to the police.
Right now nothing much was happening. Aaron stood to the side of the front door wearing nothing more than a pair of jeans.
“What do you want?” His muffled voice traveled down the hallway to her. “Whatever it is can wait until tomorrow.”
Control oozed off him and anger edged his voice. Whatever he saw had him steadying his stance and tensing his shoulders. She knew from experience that could not be good.
She couldn’t hear what the visitor said, but it must have satisfied Aaron because he unlocked the door. The knob twisted next.
When she saw a guy walk in—a guy she recalled from the incident at Elan—she figured he was one of Aaron’s men. She missed that Aaron hadn’t lowered his weapon until she got halfway down the hall toward them. By then it was too late to turn around and pretend she wasn’t there.
The guy was thirty-something with dark hair. He shared the same lethal look as Aaron but had the benefit of being fully clothed. If the puffed-out chest was any indication, the visitor also wore a protective vest. Aaron didn’t even wear a shirt.
As if sensing her presence behind him, the guy turned and nodded in her direction. “Ma’am.”
Aaron barely spared her a glance, but his furious expression said everything she needed to know. This guy, whoever he was, was not a friend.
“Go back in the bedroom.” Aaron motioned as he spoke.
The guy held up a hand. “Wait a second. This impacts her, too. She was at the conference center.”
She ran through every memory of the past day, trying to recall one of him. Nothing came to her.
The end of the night was a haze of emergency responders and explosion debris. A parade of people passed by her, some from the Elan Conference Center and others from Craft and medical services. After a few seconds all the faces except those of Royal and Aaron blended together.
She gave up and asked what she wanted to know. “Who are you?”
Aaron pressed his hand against the door and flipped it shut. With his gun up, he walked the other man deeper into the living room. “This is Max. He works for Palmer, the Craft head of security.”
The name tickled a memory free. “Someone said you were dead.”
“Apparently not.”
Aaron shifted until he stood in front of Max. “Why are you here?”
Max smiled as he nodded at Aaron’s gun. “Are you going to lower that?”
“No.”
The smile disappeared as fast as it came. Max increased his stance, balancing his feet apart and keeping his hands at his sides. “I have some information you need for the investigation.”
“Bring it to my office tomorrow. This is unacceptable.”
“It’s an emergency.”
“I think we’ve had enough of those for one evening.”
Something in Aaron’s tone had Risa backing up. She stopped when her bare calves hit the chair by the sliding glass door. She wished she’d put on pants and a bra. Her current outfit made her feel even more vulnerable than the hulking intruder.
“Tell me what is so important that you need to be here at this hour.” The question was casual, but the way Aaron handled the gun was anything but.
Max reached beneath his vest. “Could we—”
Aaron snapped. “Do not move.”
“You’re not very appreciative.”
“I’m trying to figure out how you know where I live.”
Max shrugged. “Craft had Palmer do a check. I looked in the file. It was pretty simple.”
“How enterprising of you.”
While the men postured, she slipped her leg on the chair’s armrest and balanced there. The gun at the small of her back itched and the cell migrated past the elastic band of her underwear.
After a moment of tense silence, Max exhaled. “The person behind this—the kidnap attempt, the threats and the bombing—is Brandon.”
To Risa’s memory the kid was one of the most seriously injured in the blast. If he was the attacker he wasn’t very competent. Aaron had made that argument to her just a few hours ago.
And he didn’t look any more impressed with the supposed big revelation now. “Tell the police.”
“No one will believe me.”
“Why should I?”
“I’m here to help.” Max shook his head before making another grab at his vest. “Let me show you—”
Aaron closed in. “I said, don’t move.”
Max screwed up his lips in a frown. “Then we’ll do this the hard way.”
The glass door to the balcony behind her shattered. One minute it was there and the next the glass fell to the floor and the freezing winter wind blew in. Lost in the surreal moment, frozen to her spot, she didn’t move.
A second man jumped into the room and came right for her. Held a gun and had huge hands. They reached for her, heading straight for her head.
“Risa, move!”
She ducked and spun, trying to get out of the second guy’s line of attack. She’d almost made it when he grabbed her sweatshirt. Bunching it in his fist, he choked her as he pulled her back.
She fell against the guy’s side as his meaty hand clamped down on her neck. Glancing up, she saw Aaron had barely moved. He stood in the same place with his gun aimed at Max’s head.
Max sat still, not even trying to run or reach for a gun. “That was fun.”
The light hit the sweat across Aaron’s shoulders. “Let her go or I kill Max,” he said to the gunman holding her.
“That’s not going to happen.”
Aaron closed the distance between him and Max. “I don’t miss at this range.”
“Let me tell you what’s going to happen,” Max said.
“You are going to lower the weapon and leave. We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow.”
“I don’t see that happening.” Max crossed his legs, looking every bit as content as a guy finishing a big meal at an expensive restaurant. If the weapon in his face scared him, he did a heck of a job hiding it.
Risa was having a harder time. Being under the gun again had her insides shaking hard.
Aaron shot the second attacker another look. “Lower the gun.”
Max talked over him. “You and your girlfriend are going to die in a home invasion. Something brutal and quick, though not as quick as you might like. We just need to keep the screaming to a minimum, but there are ways to do that.”
“That will be a bit suspect after everything we’ve already been through tonight, don’t you think?” Aaron returned.
Max acted as if he was weighing the choices. “Did I forget to mention you’ll be blamed for the bombing? Yes, see, you had a falling-out with Lowell and found out he planned to fire you, which he is about to do.”
“And you’ll make the evidence trace back to me.”
Risa’s heart slammed against her rib cage. It knocked so hard she couldn’t believe they couldn’t hear the thumping.
She swallowed hard and forced her mind to focus. The plan sounded like nonsense to her. Aaron had a gun and Max just sat there.
When Aaron didn’t make a move, Max continued. “In your fury, you came up with a plan to destroy Lowell and Craft Industries, but it backfired. Then one of the men you hired to help you turned on you and killed you both.”
Aaron shook his head. “There are so many flaws with that plan. No police officer will accept it. Most high school crime clubs could reason that one through.”
Max shrugged. “We’ll fix it later.”
She saw heat flare in Aaron’s eyes when he heard the “we” in Max’s remark. She guessed it was a slip that meant something.
“Sorry, ma’am, but your poor taste in men is to blame for your death.” Max’s gaze took a trip over her body. “If it’s any consolation, we waited until you two were done in the bedroom to make a play.”
Her stomach rolled as bile rushed up her throat. She would have doubled over and thrown up if the guy behind her hadn’t held her in place.
Something so personal, so private, and these disgusting creatures had watched. She wanted to jump in the shower and scrub until a layer of skin peeled off.
Max looked up at Aaron. “Nice moves, by the way.”
“You didn’t see anything.”
“True, but you two are very noisy.”
The rolling and pitching didn’t stop. Knowing they might not have seen the intimacy that meant so much to her did not make the horror of the situation any less potent.
“Now, it’s time.” Max put his hands on the armrests as if he was going to stand.
Aaron was on him in a second. “Did you miss the fact that I’m holding a gun?”
Max shot out of the chair. The diving tackle hit Aaron in the stomach and sent him flying back and into the wall. A punch to the jaw followed, then one to the gut. Aaron took it all as Max pulled a gun out of his jacket.
When Aaron bent over, Risa feared the exhaustion and injuries had piled up to take him out of the fight early. Max’s smile turned feral when he lifted his arm to slam his gun down on Aaron’s head.
At the last second Aaron shifted and then rammed a knee into Max’s stomach that had him coughing. A whack with the gun across the jaw knocked him sideways and Aaron took advantage by nailing Max with a flexed kick to the kneecap.