Chapter Twenty
Khakis
I woke suddenly when I felt Sam’s arms clamp around me, he rolled us, squeezing the breath out of me when he was on top then he rolled us again and we were in freefall.
I cried out my surprise into the dark.
In the split second it took us to fall, Sam twisted so somehow we landed with bone-jarring thud, me on him, Sam on his back. We stayed that way a millisecond before he rolled us toward the bed then he was knifing up as he growled, “Stay down.”
I did as I was told, heard a drawer open, scraping then Memphis yapped and kept doing it.
What was happening?
Memphis yapped again, quick successions, in a way I’d never heard her yap before.
A warning.
Fear slithered over every inch of my skin.
Then I heard Memphis growl under Sam’s rumbled order of, “Drop it on the bed.”
“Now –” A man’s voice started to say and hearing a stranger in the bedroom in the middle of the night, I quit breathing.
A gunshot blasted the air, loud and terrifying. My body jumped but Sam stayed still and I noted in shock he was the one who fired. Memphis yapped then I heard her claws on the wood floors and with my baby on the move, without thinking, I jerked into action.
Sam clipped, “Kia, stay the fuck down.”
I sucked in air, stopped moving and stayed down as I heard what sounded like Memphis attacking one of her chew toys but she wasn’t playing. She meant business.
“Drop it on the fucking bed,” Sam bit out.
“Get the dog off me,” the man said.
“Drop your fucking weapon on the fucking bed.”
Ohmigod. Ohmigod. Ohmigod!
What was happening?
I heard the soft fumf of something heavy falling on the bed.
“Now get this fuckin’ thing off me!” the man snapped.
“Memphis!” Sam called sharply, the noises Memphis was making stopped, I heard her claws clicking then I heard another soft fumf on the bed and I knew Memphis was moving toward Sam. “On your knees, hands up, palms to me, fingertips at your ears,” Sam ground out then came a barked, “Do it. Now!”
Oh God, oh God, oh God!
“Kia, up,” Sam rumbled.
Immediately I got up. Sam was reaching across the bed toward something at the same time he had his head back and his eyes and gun trained on the dark shadow of a man on his knees across the room.
“Get me some shorts,” Sam ordered.
I didn’t delay. Sam was standing there naked holding a man a gunpoint. I could see this would be uncomfortable.
I hurried across the room, opened a drawer, grabbed a pair of his shorts, left the drawer open and ran back to him. He handed me his gun and I took it without dropping it even though holding a recently fired therefore clearly loaded and deadly weapon freaked me way the fuck out.
“He moves, you even think he’s gonna move, shoot,” Sam instructed.
“Right,” I whispered and now it was me who was aiming my eyes and a gun at the man on his knees.
Sam took the shorts from me and in about two seconds he took the gun back from me.
I just stopped myself from heaving a sigh of relief.
“Turn on the light,” Sam demanded.
I turned on the light. Then I saw Memphis in reaching distance so I snagged her off the bed and cuddled her to my chest.
“Behind me, stay there.” Sam kept the commands coming and I kept doing as I was told.
Then I peered around him at a man with nice hair cut, khaki pants and a golf shirt. He was slim, fit and very alert.
And, lastly, I guessed he was my hit man.
“My next directive to my woman is dialin’ nine, one, one. You got two minutes to talk me outta that,” Sam told the man.
“We need a chat,” the man told Sam.
“I’m guessin’ that since you breached my security system and approached with your gun not at the ready, the fuckin’ safety on. Now you got a minute and a half for your chat. Don’t waste more,” Sam returned.
“I need assurances,” the man stated.
“Think your broker gave you those,” Sam retorted.
“Need them direct from you. I do not need Tanner Layne on my ass. Man’s bad enough but he comes with fuckin’ Ryker and he’s a pain in the ass. Now both ‘a them come with a man named Devin Glover who’s a serious fuckin’ pain in the ass. I want it direct from your lips, I stand down; you give the order for those assholes to stand down.”
“You already got that through your broker,” Sam told him, clearly losing patience.
“Yeah, well Layne, Ryker and Glover are pains in the ass but I’ve had the opportunity to look into Nightingale and I need to know him and his fuckin’ whack jobs in Denver won’t get a wild hair and go on a mission just for shits and giggles,” the man shot back.
“Don’t control Lee or his boys,” Sam stated. “My advice to you, now you’re on their radar, don’t do anything to piss them off. Further advice, you already done somethin’ that would piss them off, you disappear and do it really well.”
“Fuck!” the man exploded and I jumped then I pressed Memphis and I closer to Sam’s back.
Sam didn’t move.
The man started bitching.
“That cunt didn’t pay me to put up with this kind of fuckin’ headache.”
“You made a bad career choice. These are your consequences. Now do not stand there wastin’ my time. I’m givin’ you a good deal and you fuckin’ know it. As much as it shits me to allow it, a deal’s a deal and the deal is, you stand down, you walk outta here and breathe free. You got ten seconds to decide. At eleven, I’m incapacitating you and then you’re goin’ down another way.”
“I’ll stand down,” the man said immediately.
Sam sucked in an audible breath.
Then he was silent for three seconds (I counted).
Then he said with very scary, very quiet menace, a tone that, even knowing him and how he really was, sent chills up my spine, “Anything ever happens to her, ever, I will find you, I will hurt you and in the end you will beg me to kill you.”
I pressed closer to Sam.
The man held Sam’s eyes but, cold-blooded killer for hire in a golf shirt or not, his face had paled.
Then he nodded.
“Get out,” Sam ordered.
He nodded again.
Then he asked, “Can I have my gun?”
Sam didn’t speak and I wasn’t in a position to see his face but whatever look he gave the man, it worked. Instantly, the man got to his feet, turned and moved quickly out the door.
Sam turned and looked down at me.
“Grab the phone. Foot of the bed, on your ass on the floor. Dial nine, one, one but do not hit go. You hear anything, feel anything you don’t like, you hit go. Yeah?”
I nodded, moved to the phone and grabbed it. Then I moved to the foot of the bed and dropped to my ass on the floor. Then I hit the buttons and cuddled Memphis to me.
Sam took me in then took off.
I sat there listening hard and breathing harder.
Memphis stayed still, close and silent.
It took seven years then Sam came back.
He came direct to me, dropped both guns to the bed, bent down and pulled me up by my wrist. Then he stalked to his nightstand, tagged his cell, flipped it open, hit some buttons and put it to his ear. I turned his landline off.
Seconds later, he growled into the phone, “Yeah, I fuckin’ know what time it is but what you don’t know is I got a fuckin’ bullet hole in the floor of my bedroom because Kia and I just got paid a visit by her hit man and he didn’t take me seriously, tried to turn the safety off on his gun and I had to make a point. Now, Cal, what I wanna know is, how the fuck did he breach your security?”
Okay, I’d seen Sam annoyed, pissed and downright angry. Even really downright angry.
But it was safe to say he was right now enraged.
I cuddled Memphis closer.
“Yeah, that’d be good, you come in person to check it out,” Sam kept growling then continued growling when he stated, “Yeah, he said he’d stand down. And I feel good about it because he knows I missed on purpose but still tore a hole through his fuckin’ khaki fuckin’ pants in the dark with my warning shot. I still wanna know how he breached your goddamned system. I have two men on dayshift, no nightshift ‘cause it’s supposed to be impenetrable. I thought we were unsafe, Aziz or Deaver would have neutralized him and my woman would not be shakin’ like a fuckin’ leaf right about now.”
He’d torn a hole through that man’s khaki’s with his warning shot?
Uh.
Wow.
Obviously they didn’t mess around in Ranger school.
“Yeah,” Sam’s voice was now quieter and a whole lot less ticked off, “I know you got three girls under your roof and you get me. I also want my question answered, Cal.” He listened, sucked in breath through his nose then, “Right.” Then clearly the unknown Cal broke through because his lips twitched and he muttered, “Yeah, khakis.” Then a pause before he went on muttering with a, “Fuck me.”
Then he chuckled.
I wasn’t finding one, single thing amusing.
He must have caught my vibe because his eyes cut to me then he said into his phone, “Kia’s about to have a shit fit or a breakdown. I gotta be available for either one. Let me know your plans.” A pause then, “Right, later.”
Then he flipped his phone shut.
The instant he did, I remarked, “I find it immensely disturbing that a hit man wears a golf shirt.”
Sam’s lips twitched then he ordered gently, “Baby, come here.”
“But I think it’s good to know that Memphis won’t be friendly to unwelcome intruders.”
“Kia, honey, come here.”
“And we must make a mental note to patch that bullet hole in your floor before your Mom gets here,” I informed him.
Sam gave up on his order and told me quietly, “He wasn’t here to hurt you. I hired the best. He was running scared. He wanted assurances.”
“I got that.”
“Now he’s got his assurances and you’re good.”
“What does he mean by Lee and his whack jobs?” I asked.
Sam hesitated, studying me. Then, carefully, he answered, “Lee owns a private investigations agency but he dips his toe in a lotta shit. His crew has a variety of skills. They are known to be very good at what they do and not to fuck around. You’re smart; you don’t get on their bad side. He wasn’t smart. He took a job to kill an innocent woman. That was strike one. And that job he took was to kill a woman who’d been abused. That was strike two. For Lee and his crew, you don’t get a strike two.”
Great.
In normal circumstances, I would find that admirable.
Now, not so much.
“Will they step in, piss him off and make him forget about his promise to stand down?”
Understanding hit Sam’s face and he kept talking quietly when he replied, “They step in, he won’t get the chance to forget his promise.”
“You’re sure of that?” I pushed.
“Sure as I’m standin’ here.”
“You were sure that Cal guy’s security system was impenetrable too.”
It was a mean thing to say but, in my defense, I was freaking out. A hit man in a golf shirt made it to Sam’s bedroom.
Sam was clearly done with distance and I knew this because he moved to me and when he got close enough to lunge, he did so, grabbing my hand, pulling me around the bed and into his arms.
Then he tipped his chin down and told me, “That bitch didn’t hock a bunch of shit. She hocked a bunch of heirlooms. She also didn’t take out a small second mortgage, she took out one on all the equity they had in their place, which was a lot.” His arms gave me a squeeze. “What I’m sayin’ is, I paid for the best to cover you. She found the best she could find to do his job. I was aware this man was a man to take seriously. That guy was a ghost so we had no idea of his skills. We only knew he had them considering his price tag. Now we know one of his skills. He came up here, safety on, knowin’ who I was and that I also have skills. He was wavin’ the white flag. I felt like bein’ safe and in any uncertain situation, you gain the upper hand. That’s why I took him to his knees. He gets me. He understands what I can do. He didn’t come here to harm you. He came here to make sure his headaches were done. He’s cautious and he’s thorough. Neither are a surprise but both are a pain in the ass. But it no longer matters. He’s history. That said, I got some calls to make for peace of mind and I need to make them now. You okay for ten minutes while I do that? Then we’ll keep talkin’.”
I looked up at him.
He had things to do for peace of mind which meant my safety. He also knew I was freaking out and needed him. So he was going to give me that if I needed it and his peace of mind be damned.
Yep. Definitely. I was falling in love with him.
I didn’t share that. I said, “I’m okay for ten minutes while you do that.”
He gave me a squeeze, let me go with one arm, reached out to the bed, snagged both guns then he moved us up the bed. He put the guns on his nightstand, took the phone from me and put it in its cradle. Then he maneuvered me and Memphis into the bed and got in it with us. He sat back to the headboard, knees bent and held Memphis and me tucked close to his side.
Then he called Deaver, briefed him quickly and told him he wanted twenty-four hour coverage on the house starting now. Then he called Lee, briefed him and explained the situation. I didn’t get much about Lee’s replies due to Sam’s side of the conversation being guarded. I decided to bury that in a part of my brain I never intended to access again so I did that. Then Sam called what apparently was Tanner’s voicemail at work and left a message.
Then he flipped his phone shut, tossed it on the nightstand, turned to me, both his arms came around me and Memphis and he slid us up his chest.
“Right,” he whispered, “how you doin’?”
“I’m good,” I whispered back.
“Deaver and Aziz are stayin’ in a hotel in town. He’s gonna make contact when he gets here. I gotta go down. You wanna come with me or try to get back to sleep?”
There was no way in hell I was going to go back to sleep.
Still, I also didn’t want to see a woken up and called to duty in the middle of the night Deaver. He wasn’t overly friendly by the light of day; I didn’t want to experience a Deaver who’d had his beauty rest interrupted.
So I said, “I think Memphis proved she’s got my back.”
Sam grinned. Then he shifted an arm from around me, pulled Memphis out of my clutch and held her up, her face close to his.
“Good girl,” he muttered.
Memphis aimed and missed a lick at Sam’s nose.
Sam handed her back to me.
“I’ll be back soon,” he whispered.
“Okay,” I whispered back.
“You sure you’re okay?”
No.
But I was sure I’d eventually get that way.
So I answered for the future, “Yeah, I’m sure I’m okay.”
He leaned in and kissed my nose. Then he gave Memphis a head scratch, disentangled from us, nabbed his gun and moved to the door.
He stopped in it and looked back at me.
“I’ll be back soon,” he repeated.
God, Sam Cooper was a good man.
“I know,” I whispered.
He studied me a second, his face got soft then he disappeared into the dark hall.
I moved Memphis and I under the downy cover and into Sam’s soft sheets. Then I looked at Sam’s alarm clock and saw it was twelve minutes after three o’clock in the morning.
At twenty past, Sam came back and Memphis and I watched as he put his gun on the nightstand then he slid in bed in his shorts and gathered me and my dog in his arms before he twisted and turned the lamp off.
“Deaver on duty?” I asked.
“He did a perimeter check and yeah, he’s on duty.”
I nodded, my cheek sliding against his chest.
Sam’s arms got tight.
Then I whispered, “It’s over.”
Sam’s arms got tighter.
I felt tears sting my nose and my voice was husky when I whispered, “Thank you, Sam Cooper.”
Sam rolled to facing me, Memphis jumped out from between us and went to sprawl on her side and Sam pulled me close. I shoved my face in his throat and wept, luckily silently but with extreme relief.
As I did this, lips against the hair at the top of my head, Sam whispered back, “My pleasure, baby.”
My breath hitched and I pressed closer.
Sam’s arms got even tighter.
And it was then I knew I was wrong.
I wasn’t falling in love with Sam.
I was already there.