TheFugitivesSexyBrother (19 page)

“Um, thanks.”

“Is he lecturing you?” Javier said. “He likes to do that.”

“You’ve never complained before,” Fernando returned.

“I’m a changed man.” Javier waggled his eyebrows suggestively
in Emily’s direction. This time she could not help but laugh.

Fernando gestured at Emily with both hands. “You see what I
mean.”

Before Emily could say anything else, Javier slapped his
palm down on the desk. “We can talk about romantic compatibility later too.
News flash. The person who took Carolina did absolutely nothing to obscure his
IP address. And he posted to the message board from a smart phone.”

“Which means?” Fernando laced his fingers together and
looked attentive. It seemed like a bit of an act, so Emily hid a smile.

“Which means that not only have I got the bastard’s IP
address, it’s easy to cross-reference for name and current location, assuming
he’s not laying down a purposeful red herring.”

Fernando frowned. “If he wasn’t smart enough to hide his
information from you, then—”

“He could be pretending that he can’t hide his information
from me,” Javier explained. Fernando opened his mouth to respond, but Emily cut
that conversation off too.

“What name have you got? Maybe it’ll tell us something, and
then we can spend all the time we want speculating about whether whoever it is
revealed himself because he’s an idiot or because he’s engaged in a complex
ploy to trap one or more of us.”

Javier smiled and gave Emily a little bow. “Just a minute,
friends.” He pulled up his incredible phone-tracing app. The screen changed
several times in response to his input and clicks. Then Javier snatched his
hands away from the keyboard and gaped at the screen. “Idiot!”

“Someone you know?” Emily cocked her head.

Javier swiveled the desk chair to face Emily and Fernando.
“It’s the
original
idiot. Her ex. And the other bounty hunter I told you
about, Fernando. Matthew Lodi.”

Emily paled. “Kidnapping? Threatening to kill an innocent
woman? That’s impossible.”

“Do you think someone would lay a complex red herring to pin
this on him?”

Emily shook her head. “That just seems too crazy.”

Javier nodded triumphantly. “Most of the time, you really
have to go with the simplest explanation. Which in this case is that your ex is
an idiot who deserves to be completely humiliated.”

“More than humiliated,” Fernando said darkly.

Emily took a deep breath. “Let me say this now so no one
gets confused. I wanted to help you before we knew who this was. Now that we
know it’s Matthew, I want to see him get what he deserves as much as anyone
else. But we rescue Carolina Mendes, and we don’t kill anyone. Understood? Or I
call Guy Nolf right now, and either of you can try to stop me.”

Emily put on her fiercest expression. Tension stretched in
the room.

After a moment, Fernando nodded. “Carolina’s the priority. I
won’t do anything to jeopardize that.”

He offered his hand. Emily shook.

Through the front window of Guy’s Bail Bonds, Neva saw her
former boss sitting at her former desk, squinting as he peered at a computer
screen. His hands seemed too big for the mouse or the keyboard. In fact, his
whole body didn’t look right behind that desk. She should be there, where she
belonged.

Tears threatened to start again when she thought of all she
had lost. In the days since she’d been fired, Neva had been able to think of
little else. She took a deep breath and drew herself up as tall as she could.
She had no right to ask for anything to be returned to her. She’d wronged Guy,
and Emily for that matter, too much to expect forgiveness. Still, that didn’t
free her from needing to make right what she could.

Neva patted at her outfit, hoping she’d set the right tone
with it. Of course, she never wanted to look ugly in front of Guy, but she also
hadn’t wanted him to think she was trying to look sexy in hopes of seducing him
into giving her back her job. She wore all black, not too tight but certainly
not baggy, shapely but not low-cut, and closed-toed shoes with a lower heel
than normal. She’d even subdued her hoop earrings, going for a smaller diameter
than usual.

She opened the door to Guy’s Bail Bonds and swept inside.
Guy looked up when the door swished over its metal frame. He saw Neva and,
without saying anything, let his head sink into his hands. He rubbed his
temples with his thumbs.

“Guy,” Neva said quickly. “Please. I’m not here to cause a
problem. There’s something important I need to tell you, and I really want you
to listen to me, and then I’ll go. You deserve to know this. Please.”

He sighed. “Come here, sit down and make it quick.” She
eagerly obeyed, pulling up the chair Emily had used many times when visiting.
He fixed her with a baleful stare from his deep brown eyes. “For some reason,
I’m trusting your judgment right now. Don’t make me regret that.”

“Of course not.” Neva cleared her throat. “I’m afraid this
is about Matthew Lodi.”

Guy growled a little. “I could die happy if I never heard
that name again.”

“This needs to be dealt with. Believe me, I wouldn’t be here
if I could avoid it.” Neva stared at her hands. She’d painted her nails a
pearlescent shade instead of one of the eye-catching colors she normally
preferred. “You know I did freelance skiptracing for Emily sometimes.
Before…the incident last time, she came and left a lead for me to investigate.
When I cleaned out my desk, her note was gone. You know Matthew was going
through my desk that day. I think he must have taken it.”

Guy snorted. “With your permission, it sounded like.”

Neva winced. “I can’t say I never betrayed Emily on
Matthew’s account. Or you. But that would have been too far across the line. I
would never have given him permission to do that to her. I know all about how
he used to steal her jobs.”

Guy’s head snapped up. “Steal her jobs?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Emily never told you? I totally
thought she had.”

“Why don’t you tell me? Now.”

“For a while, I’d give her the list of jobs like you asked
me to, then Matthew would bring in half the quarries. He told me she’d been
getting overwhelmed and had asked him to cover her. They were dating and she
was new, so I figured it made sense.” Neva swallowed. “Then one day, Emily came
in and wanted to know who else I was giving that list to. The way I understood
it, you’d been giving her the low-end jobs that pretty much no one else wanted
to do. A lot of work for not too much reward.”

“To be fair, she asked me to start her that way. She wanted
to be confident she could complete jobs before she’d take them on. I tried to
talk her into taking more challenging stuff, but she preferred to avoid
competing with other bounty hunters.”

Neva blew out a breath and folded her arms across her chest.
“Makes sense when you think how much competition she was getting from her own
damn boyfriend, over jobs that were supposedly so far beneath him.”

“What did you tell her when she asked about it?”

“I told her Matthew had been bringing the guys in. She said
they’d never had a deal like what he described. Worse than that, every time he
brought someone in, it was always right before she’d been planning to go get
the guy. After she’d done all the legwork, followed all the leads and tracked
the quarry down.”

“Son of a bitch,” Guy breathed.

“Yeah.” Neva nodded, pushing out her upper lip with her
tongue.

“You didn’t think this was worth bringing to my attention?”

“Emily begged me not to. She said she had to deal with it
herself. She broke up with him. I assumed it was dealt with.”

“Matthew Lodi’s been increasingly unreliable. I can’t
understand what happened to him. At one point, he seemed to have the skills of
a reputable bounty hunter.”

Neva cleared her throat delicately. “He does seem to have a
way of…burning bridges. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s lost contacts over the
years.”

Guy nodded, studying Neva. Even this restrained intimacy set
her body on fire, especially now that she had a bit of real experience to match
to her many fantasies. “Why did you do it, Neva? Knowing everything you did
about him? Why did you let him get to you?”

She looked away, shielding her face with her hands to hide
the tears that immediately started. “I thought you weren’t going to ask me
about this. It didn’t seem like you cared about what I had to say.”

“I spoke too harshly. I was shocked and angry. Maybe you can
imagine how it felt to come out and see his hands on you, just after I told you
I couldn’t handle that. It made everything you’d said seem like a lie.”

Neva shook her head, almost too angry with herself to speak.
“I’m sorry. So sorry, Guy. I wish I could tell you how much. I guess I’m just
too stupid to know better.”

He touched her then. His big hand peeled hers gently away
from her face. “Neva. Could you practically run this office for me if you were
stupid? You don’t have a stupid bone in your body.”

She smiled weakly.

“If that’s true, then I can’t explain it. I just…he would
talk to me a certain way and something would come over me. I’d think about how
I couldn’t have you, how I couldn’t think of anyone who wanted me. He could
make me feel good, when he wanted to, but mostly he made me feel like he was
the best a girl like me would be able to get.”

“A girl like you?” Guy’s gravelly rumble became a dull roar.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Neva shrugged and gestured at herself. “A little too heavy.
A little too old. A little too horny. I don’t ever seem to react quite the way
people want me to.”

“Please stop talking that way about yourself, Neva. I don’t
think I can stand to listen to that anymore.” Guy stood and walked around to
her side of the desk. He pulled her up out of her chair and gathered her
against his body. “I’m starting to get an idea of what he was doing to you, and
it makes me want to kill him even more.”

Guy tipped her head back so he could look her in the eye.
“You are beautiful, Neva. One little word isn’t really enough to express how
much. You’re generous and incredibly confident and so smart it scares me. All
these years, when I should have been saying that to you, I was worried about
how pathetic it would be, coming from me. I thought you would laugh at an old
man who thought he had a chance with you. Or worse, sue your creepy boss for
making a pass. And now I hear about a loser who made you feel like no one would
want you. And for that matter, who made one of my most promising bounty hunters
question her ability to handle competition. I bet Emily would handle
competition just fine if it didn’t involve someone stealing from her.”

At Emily’s name, Neva stiffened. She’d been melting so
completely into Guy’s arms and basking in his kind words that she’d forgotten
the purpose that had brought her here. Guy released her the moment her posture
changed. “Unless you
do
think it’s pathetic for me to talk to you that
way,” he said.

“No!” Neva cried. “Guy, it’s so wonderful to hear you say
things like that. I can’t believe you even would, after what happened the last
time. I just…I’m worried about Matthew having taken Emily’s lead.”

“I have an idea,” Guy said. “Wait here.”

He retreated to the back room and came back a moment later
holding a business card. He flicked it absentmindedly, staring at the name
printed on the front of the card. “Cliff James,” he said. “He’s been coming by
the office looking for Matthew.”

“The repo man.”

Guy looked up at Neva in surprise, then shook his head with
a smile. “See what I told you? Scary smart. Nothing escapes you in this
office.” He set the card down on the desk. “After you leave, I’ll call Matthew
and set up a meeting to discuss possible jobs. No way in hell I’ll actually
give him any jobs, but I know we’re going to have a very long conversation in the
back room. I’ll let Cliff know when he can expect the Lotus to be in our
general vicinity.”

“Matthew’s already had a couple of run-ins with that guy.
Would he really drive the Lotus here?”

“Honestly, Neva? I think he would. I used to be a bounty
hunter myself, remember? It’s always important to recognize when the quarry is
the kind who doesn’t know when to stop.” He stepped close to her again. “There
are plenty of signs this clown has no idea when to back off.” Possessive hands
found her hips. Neva shivered.

She tilted her head back, hoping he would kiss her. Guy held
off. Neva held her breath, afraid to push her luck. They stood still for an
unbearably long time. “Do you need to call Matthew?” Neva asked finally.

“Not until after you leave.”

She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry even as the space
between her legs moistened. “When do I leave?”

“After we finish what we started. Assuming you still want
it.”

Neva flung herself into his kiss. He stopped her before she
could lose herself.

“I don’t want this to be because you believe you can’t get
anything better,” Guy said.

“You’re the best in the world to me.”

He touched the side of her face. “See, that’s where I wonder
about your intelligence.” One side of his mouth quirked up into a grin. “But
I’m not going to argue with it too much.” His gaze intensified. The way his
eyes snatched up the sight of her, she couldn’t wait for his hands to do the
same. “I know a good thing when I see it.”

Neva relaxed against him, and this time he did take her
mouth. She moaned helplessly, unable to believe her fate had turned around
again. A second chance with Guy. No matter what happened, she would not screw
this up.

Guy released her and went to lock the front door, then
picked her up and took her to the back room. He set her down on the shabby
couch in the only corner free of filing cabinets. “I ought to take you home and
get you in my bed,” he said. “I’m just afraid I wouldn’t make it that far.”

Neva shook her head firmly. “I don’t want to wait.”

He opened his wallet and took out a condom. “Good. I want
you to strip for me, Neva.”

She cringed a little inside. Harsh light blazed from the
fluorescent bulbs installed in the ceiling. She could not imagine she would
look good doing this.

Seeing her hesitation, Guy raised an eyebrow. “Do you not
want to please me, Neva? I think I remember you telling me you wanted me to own
you. Is that not true anymore?”

She let out a long, desperate exhale. “Guy, I want that more
than anything.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

If she told him she worried he wouldn’t find her beautiful,
he might think she was just trying to get another declaration out of him. Neva
stood slowly. Avoiding his eyes, she reached for the hem of her shirt.

“No,” Guy said softly. “Look me in the eye and be proud. I’m
not shaming you, Neva. I’m celebrating you. You’re about to show me the most
beautiful thing I could ever hope to see. You’re giving me a gift, even if I’m
demanding it.”

His words flowed into her heated by years of desire and
admiration. Neva stood straighter, as if they lifted her. With him, she could
really believe he meant it, that it wasn’t just flattery to get her to do what
he wanted. She had a hard time imagining anything he might want that she
wouldn’t be willing to do for him, right there as she stood. He didn’t need to
work to convince her of anything. She hoped he knew that.

Neva squared her shoulders and lifted off her shirt. Her
full breasts bounced in her newly revealed lacy black bra. She tried to stay
strong but couldn’t resist sucking in her stomach and trying to cover her
stomach with her hands.

“Neva.” Guy crossed the room to her. He took her hands
gently in his and moved them aside. “You’re breathtaking. I want to see all of
you. Please don’t hide yourself.”

She looked up at his fervent expression, horrified to find
tears in her eyes again. He must think she cried constantly. He caught a tear
with a thumb, then kissed the spot where it had been. “Don’t forget. This is an
amazing thing you’re doing for me. You’re my goddess right now.”

Neva nodded as resolve rose in her chest. She unbuttoned her
pants but stopped herself from wiggling her hips out then letting them fall to
the floor. Instead, she turned so he could see the back of her and leaned
forward with exquisite patience. A wave of insecurity forced her to check Guy’s
expression over her shoulder, but his rapt gaze told her all she needed to
know. She gathered her courage and moved on, slipping her pants off over her
matching black lace panties with a slow movement that also became a
self-caress. She inched them off past her ass, down her thighs and to her
knees. When they reached that low, she stepped out, one leg at a time, climbing
onto the couch as she did. She knelt there, ass facing Guy, panting as if she’d
just run a marathon.