Chapter 9

Remy couldn’t understand why Triana needed to go back to her mother’s apartment above the shop to change before they headed out to the French Quarter to meet up with everyone else that night. As far as he was concerned, the form-fitting navy-blue dress she was wearing, with a slit that showed off plenty of thigh, was just fine with him. But she insisted it wasn’t sexy enough for Bourbon Street or the kind of dancing she had in mind.

Not that he really cared what they did. After the day he’d had, he simply wanted to spend some quality time with Triana. If that meant watching her change clothes for an hour, he was definitely okay with that. Actually, in terms of quality time, he couldn’t imagine anything better than watching her take her clothes off over and over again.

After spending another hour down at NOPD headquarters, he, Brooks, and Drew had headed back to the SWAT facility, hoping to get back to the training they had planned out for the day. It hadn’t worked out that way. Instead, they’d sat in the briefing room the entire afternoon talking to officers from the Public Integrity Bureau and filling out statements regarding when they had learned about the raids and with whom they had talked during the time period from that point until the actual raids had taken place.

If there was anything Remy hated more than lawyers, it was paperwork. And the PIB truly loved their paperwork.

It had been easy to put all that frustration and stress behind him the moment he’d picked Triana up for dinner, though. Being with her made all the crap he and the SWAT team had been dealing with the past two days fade into the background. He didn’t have a clue how she did it, and by and large, he didn’t care. If it meant being able to put thoughts of Aaron Lee and his damn crystal meth out of his head for a few hours, he was willing to accept it without a lot of analysis.

When they’d gone to a nearby diner to grab an early dinner, Remy quickly discovered it didn’t take a fancy restaurant to enjoy himself with Triana. He’d had a simple seafood po’boy sandwich and a bowl of soup but had enjoyed it as much as the expensive cut of meat he’d had last night. They’d sat in the booth and chatted about inconsequential stuff like how the Saints were looking this year and whether LSU was going to fire their football coach. He found it didn’t matter what he and Triana talked about. He simply loved hearing her velvety, soft voice.

They were half a block away from her mother’s shop when Remy heard the sound of strident, angry voices coming from that direction. He didn’t recognize the man, who was saying something about this being the last offer Gemma was going to get. But he definitely knew the woman. It was Gemma, telling the man to get the hell out of her shop.

Tightening his hold on Triana’s hand, he picked up his pace the last twenty feet or so, jerking open the front door. The second he stepped inside, his senses went on alert and he gently pushed Triana behind him.

There was a slick-looking man in a fancy suit standing in front of Gemma, berating her for being a stubborn old woman. The man’s attitude and clothing screamed lawyer, and Remy instinctively knew it was the same jackass Triana had mentioned to him that morning. But it wasn’t the lawyer or his condescending voice that had Remy’s fingertips and gums tingling. It was the three large brawler types the lawyer had with him. Remy recognized professional thugs when he saw them. They had noses that had been broken multiple times and scarred knuckles, not to mention wore cheap, loose-fitting sports jackets that allowed them to move easily as well as conceal a weapon.

All eyes turned toward him and Triana as the little bell above the door tinkled, announcing their presence.

“Mom?” Triana said hesitantly from behind him. “Is everything okay?”

Gemma turned, relief on her face. “Of course. Mr. Murphy—or rather the person he claims to be representing—seems to have taken a sudden interest in my little voodoo shop. He offered to buy the whole place, including all the merchandise inside it and the apartment above it, for a ridiculous amount of money.”

Remy was focused on the three toughs, who’d started to spread out and move toward him, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw Triana’s startled expression. She was obviously stunned and more than a little confused.

“You’re selling your shop…your home?” she asked softly.

Gemma shook her head. “Good heavens, no. I was just telling Mr. Murphy, for the second time, that the shop isn’t for sale, when you came in. Unfortunately, he’s a little hard of hearing.”

Murphy glared at her. “Mrs. Bellamy, insult me all you want, but the offer my client is making is very fair. And as I’ve said more than once, it’s not an offer you’re in a position to refuse.”

It was impossible for Remy to miss the threat in the man’s words. He didn’t imagine Gemma had either. But Triana’s mother didn’t bat an eye. Instead, she folded her arms and looked at the lawyer like he was an errant two-year-old having a tantrum.

“Yet here I am, refusing your offer nevertheless.” She looked at Remy. “Could you please be a dear and escort Mr. Murphy and his friends out of my shop? This conversation is over.”

“My pleasure,” Remy said.

Two of the lawyer’s thugs immediately stepped forward to block his way while the third moved over to stand near his boss. Remy wasn’t in the mood to toy with these guys, not after they’d come in here and tried to intimidate Triana’s mother, but with Gemma and Triana standing there, it wasn’t like he could cut loose and go all werewolf on them. Unfortunately, he was going to have to restrain himself.

So, instead of tossing both men across the room like he wanted to, with two fingers, he poked the first guy in the sternum hard enough to crack the bone and make the man stumble back a few feet. A split second later, the man fell to the floor, gasping and fighting for air.

Remy spun around just as the second guy took a swing at his head. Remy brought up his hand, catching the thug’s fist in midair and stopping it a few inches from his face. Then he squeezed. Not as hard as he could but hard enough to end the fight quickly. The sound of the bones in the man’s hand cracking was probably loud enough for Triana to hear over by the door.

The guy wailed in pain, his knees giving out as he collapsed to the floor. Remy squeezed the man’s hand a little harder before he let go, just to make sure the asshole didn’t develop any silly ideas about getting back up.

Out of the corner of his eye, Remy saw a flash of movement and turned to see the third man coming his way, his hand behind his back like he was reaching for something. Remy didn’t know if it was a knife, a gun, or some other weapon, but he wasn’t going to let the man get it the rest of the way out.

Unable to contain his inner wolf any longer, Remy snarled low in his throat, an animalistic warning that would be unmistakable to even the dimmest bulb in the box. The idiot coming at him must have been at least a little brighter than that because he stopped in his tracks, his hand still behind his back.

“You might want to reconsider your plan,” Remy warned. “Because if that hand comes out with anything in it, you’re going to learn just how far out of your weight class you really are.”

The guy stared at him for a moment, then glanced at his two buddies where they were lying on the floor rolling around in pain before finally eyeing the lawyer, who was paler than his white linen suit and obviously not going to be of any help.

Shoulders slumping, the man’s hand slowly came out from behind his back, empty.

“You want to call the police?” Remy asked Gemma as he continued to keep his eyes on the third man.

“No,” she said.

Remy frowned. “You sure? These guys threatened you.”

The lawyer opened his mouth to say something, likely full of bullshit concerning the legal threshold for establishing the conveyance of a threat or some other crap that Remy really didn’t care to hear. Remy glared at the man, letting his eyes flash gold for a split second. The old man swallowed his words and looked like he might do the same to his tongue.

“I hate lawyers, so don’t talk,” Remy said. When it was obvious the man was smart enough to keep his mouth shut, Remy turned to Gemma. “You sure about not calling the police? What if these guys come back?”

Gemma’s mouth curved. “I think they’ve gotten the message. This shop and the things in it are not for sale. Is that understood, Mr. Murphy?”

When the lawyer nodded, Remy motioned with his head toward the door. He didn’t like the idea of not calling the police, but he understood Gemma’s reasoning. She wanted these people gone and probably thought he’d scared them enough to keep them away for good. He hoped she was right.

But as the lawyer and the uninjured thug helped the other two jerks off the floor and out the door, he couldn’t miss the angry looks on their faces. They’d been embarrassed, and they were pissed. Remy had a bad feeling this might not be the last time he saw them.

Then he caught sight of Triana standing by the door, watching the men hobble out. She hadn’t said a word or even moved the entire time the confrontation had taken place, but now her heart was thudding like a drum and she was breathing fast. She was scared to death, and if the way she was looking at Remy was any indication, what she’d just seen him do likely had as much to do with her fear as the fact that a bunch of lowlifes had threatened her mother.

* * *

Triana decided she must be in shock. She wasn’t even sure how she’d gotten upstairs, other than a vague recollection of Remy steering her that way.

She hadn’t even realized Murphy was at the shop until Remy had tightened his hold on her hand and practically dragged her there almost faster than her feet could move. Triana’s stomach had clenched the moment she’d seen that creepy old lawyer and his scary friends. The fact that they were there trying to intimidate her mom was obvious, not to mention terrifying. Those three men were big, and they looked like they were eager to hurt someone.

“Do you want me to make you something to drink?” Remy asked softly as they sat down at the kitchen table. “Tea, maybe? Or something stronger?”

Triana shook her head. “No, I’m okay. I just need time to process everything. It all happened so fast.”

Fast was an understatement. One moment, her mother had been talking about the lawyer making an offer for the shop and everything in it, and the next, Remy was beating up Murphy’s goons. The entire thing couldn’t have lasted more than a minute, but while Triana had been freaking out, her heart thundering in her chest as she tried to understand why they hadn’t called the police, her mother had acted like a brawl in the middle of her shop wasn’t a big deal.

After Murphy and his crew left, her mom had gone about her business while Triana stood there gaping like a fish out of water, saying she was heading out to attend an emergency meeting of the local shop owners about coordinating preparations for the storm in the event it turned in New Orleans’s direction. Then her mother gave her and Remy hugs and told him to bring his friends over for dinner tomorrow night, before flipping over the closed sign and walking out.

Triana tucked her hair behind her ear with a trembling hand. “Are you sure it was safe to let Mom go out there on her own? What if those men are waiting somewhere out there?”

Remy reached across the table and took her hands in his. She couldn’t help noticing how small hers looked compared to his and that they’d stopped shaking the moment he touched her—as if he was some kind of security blanket she liked to hold on to.

Triana cringed a little at that admission. She might work for a crime lab that supported the Houston Police Department, but clearly she wasn’t built for tense situations. She’d been worthless down in the shop.

“Those men are currently on their way to the nearest emergency room,” Remy assured her. “They have no interest in anything beyond pain relief at the moment.”

Triana supposed she could believe that. She was pretty sure she’d heard bones break when those two thugs had tried to get in Remy’s way. She had no idea how he’d done it, but maybe it had something to do with his SWAT training. Hopefully those goons had been scared off for good. The idea that they might come after her mother at some point when Remy wasn’t there scared the crap out of her.

Regardless of what Remy said, something told her there was a good chance those men, or others like them, would come back. And she and Remy would both be going back to Texas soon.

“All that stuff about buying the shop is BS,” she said quietly. “While I’m sure Murphy and whoever he’s working for would be thrilled to get his hands on this place—it’s worth a thousand times what Mom’s family paid for it back in the day—the offer to buy it is about the necklace my father wore. I guess they thought she’d take one look at the amount on the check and forget about taking the necklace with her when she moved.”

Remy gently caressed her hand with his fingers. “But you knew your mom wouldn’t sell, right?”

Triana nodded. “Deep down, yeah. This place has been in her family for a long time. It’s where all her memories are, especially those she made with my dad.”

She smiled as she thought about the conversation she and her mother had earlier, when she’d told Triana she’d fallen for her father the moment they’d met.

“What?” Remy asked softly.

She shook her head. “Nothing. Just something Mom told me today about her and Dad. It was a special memory she has of him and this place and is yet another reason she’d never sell the shop. Not voluntarily, anyway.”

“And she’s not going to have to,” Remy said firmly. “If Gemma has any more problems with these people, my guys and I will go pay Murphy a visit. We may look like poster children for Officer Friendly, but trust me, we can be very persuasive when we want to be.”

She laughed. She was sure that if Remy or any of those other big cops from Dallas showed up at Murphy’s office, the guy would probably flee the city within the hour. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but she felt better knowing Remy would do something personally if those jerks threatened her mother again.

“I can see you being very persuasive, considering how quickly you handled those guys downstairs earlier,” she said. “Speaking of which, how were you were able to push them around so easily? I know you have training on your side, but those men were nearly as big as you.”

He chuckled. “It’s my experience that size rarely matters as much as people thinks it does. Most of the time, it usually comes down to locating that one sensitive spot on the other person, then knowing what to do with it when you find it.”

Triana lifted a brow. “Are we still talking about how you handled those goons downstairs?”

He gave her a sexy half smile, and she realized he’d been playing with her, trying to get her to stop stressing over the stuff she’d seen downstairs. It was amazing how he could be so in tune with her emotions and what she needed at any particular moment.

She was still thinking about that and all the stuff her mom had said about falling fast simply being a way of knowing you’d found the right person you were meant to be with, when Remy suddenly pushed back his chair and stood, tugging her to her feet.

“Come on,” he said. “I’ll show you what I mean.”

Curious about what he meant by that, Triana let him guide her across the kitchen and through the living room, into the short hallway that led to her old bedroom. Her heart began to beat faster all over again, but now it was for a different reason.

Remy stopped and turned so suddenly she almost ran right into his chest. Before she could move, he put a hand on her shoulder and gently nudged her up against the wall in the hallway. Her pulse skipped a beat. It was kind of crazy how fast he could get her going.

Triana thought he was going to kiss her, but instead of capturing her mouth with his, he stayed where he was, one big hand on her shoulder pinning her to the wall.

“Now imagine that I’m one of those thugs from downstairs,” he said. “What do you do?”

She stared up at him, sure he was kidding. That was definitely not the image she wanted in her head right then. “Is now really the best time for a lesson in self-defense?”

“Something else you’d rather be doing?” he asked, a knowing smile teasing the corner of his mouth.

“Yeah, there is.”

“Great,” he said. “Then show me what you’d do and we can move on to that something else you’d rather be doing.”

She considered trying to distract him with a kiss, but the firm set of his jaw dissuaded her. He was serious about this. Sighing, she gazed up at him, trying to imagine what she could do if a man as tall and muscular as Remy were pinning her to a wall like this. After a moment, she shrugged.

“I guess I would punch the guy.”

“Where?”

She looked at Remy like he was speaking a foreign language. “Where?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Where would you punch me?”

She lifted her hand and balled it into a fist, then gently rested it on the side of his strong, sexy, scruff-covered jaw. That’s where everyone got punched in movies. “Here?” she asked.

He frowned. “Not unless you want to break your hand. Remember what I said earlier about finding that one sensitive spot on the other person?”

She couldn’t resist a teasing little smile. “And your sensitive spot would be…?”

His mouth quirked. “There’s the obvious one, and if you can kick or knee a guy there, it will definitely work. But if all you can do is punch, there are other places just as sensitive.”

“Like?” she prompted, hating the idea that she might need to know this kind of stuff.

He pointed at a spot just below his sternum, right in the center. “There’s the solar plexus. A hard strike to this area will definitely knock the wind out of someone and give you time to run.” He tapped his index finger to the side of his head. “A punch to the temple is going to hurt your hand, but it will temporarily stun most people. If you don’t think you can hit a person there hard enough, grab the top of the ear and yank. That will definitely take the fight out of the toughest bad guy. However, if you only have one chance to hit a person and it’s life or death, aim for the throat, and punch as hard as you can. At the very least, it will give you time to get away.”

Triana leaned against the wall, praying she was never in a position to have to do any of the things Remy had showed her. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to.

“Okay,” he said softly. While he still towered over her, his expression was less serious than it had been before. “Self-defense lesson is over for the evening. Sorry I spoiled the mood we had going on there, but with what happened downstairs earlier, I felt it was something we needed to talk about, and I didn’t want to let it wait.”

She nodded. “I understand. And you didn’t spoil the mood.”

His smile told her he was fully aware she was fibbing her butt off. “Why don’t you change and we’ll get out of here? Everyone is probably wondering where we are.”

When Remy took a step back, she grabbed his hand, pulling him back. He gave her a questioning look, but before he could say anything, she stood on tiptoe and kissed him.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“For what?” he asked.

“For being more worried about me and my safety than you are about getting naked with me. It sounds like something any guy would do, but trust me when I tell you, it isn’t. Most men are so focused on what’s important to them that they’d never tell a girl something she really needed to hear, no matter how badly she needed to hear it, if it got in the way of what they wanted.”

He chuckled, looking a little embarrassed at the compliment. “That’s me—Sir Remy Lancelot, your knight in shining armor.”

“Actually, that’s exactly what I’m starting to think you are,” she said.

Before he could say anything else self-deprecating and humble, she pulled him down for another kiss. And this time, she did it forcefully enough to convince him he definitely hadn’t spoiled any mood.

Triana knew she had him when his hands went around to cup her bottom and tug her hard against him. She could already feel his cock hardening in his jeans as his tongue slipped into her mouth and tangled with hers.

Her body immediately responded to his touch, desire spiraling through her to coalesce between her thighs. Clearly, it took very little on his part to get her going. If the hard-on in his jeans was any indication, she was good at getting him going too.

That’s why it surprised her when Remy lifted his head and took a step back. “I really was serious about what I said earlier. If we don’t get moving, we’re going to be late meeting up with everyone at the club. I know you really wanted to go dancing.”

She slid one hand down to the front of his jeans, caressing the bulge she found there. “I definitely want to go dancing, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a quickie first.”

Remy’s beautiful hazel eyes glinted, reflecting every ray of light in the hallway. “A quickie, huh?”

She tugged at his belt, unbuckling it. “I told you this morning that I can work fast when I have to, so I guess the real question is, can you?”

“Tell me you have a condom nearby.” His voice was a husky whisper, making her legs quiver. “Then you’ll see how fast I can work.”

Triana expected to find Remy naked and in her bed by the time she ran back from grabbing the condom out of the purse she’d left on the couch, but instead, he was standing in the hallway, his T-shirt still on and his jeans down around his ankles, his gorgeous hard-on at the ready. Okay, he really did intend to work quickly. She could handle that.

As difficult as it was to do, she resisted the urge to drop to her knees in front of him and instead helped him get the condom on. The moment she had that extremely enjoyable task done, she reached for the hem of her dress, ready to yank it over her head. She never got the chance because Remy pressed her back up against the wall and shoved the dress up to her waist. Excitement rushed through her at the idea of making love with most of their clothes still on. There was something so urgent and primal about it.

She hooked her fingers in her panties so she could push them down, but Remy grabbed her hands and pinned them to the wall above her head with one of his. “I’ll get those for you.”

Triana gasped as she felt something sharp graze the skin along her hip. A moment later, there was a tug and a ripping sound, then the remnants of her panties were flying through the air. She wondered briefly where the heck he’d hidden a pocketknife, but then he released her wrists to nudge the underside of her chin, tipping her face up to his. At the same time, the fingers of his other hand traced along the folds of her pussy, making her gasp.

“How did you get my panties off like that?” she whispered.

Remy flashed her a grin, then pressed his lips to her neck. “SWAT magic,” he murmured in her ear. “You don’t have a problem with a little magic, do you?”

She opened her mouth to reply, but the words came out as nothing more than a moan as his mouth did amazing things to the sensitive skin of her neck while one of his fingers slipped inside her. “Well, I was planning to wear those panties tonight when we went out dancing,” she finally gasped as his finger wiggled around, making her wetter by the second.

“I guess that means you’ll just have to go out tonight without any panties,” he said with a deep chuckle. “What a shame.”

Triana whimpered. Like she needed another visual to get her more excited. The thought of going dancing without wearing anything under her dress was scandalous and something she never would have done with anyone but Remy.

She was about to tell him as much, but he chose that moment to slip his finger out of her wetness. Getting a firm grip on her hips with both hands, he lifted her up and pinned her against the wall. She didn’t have time to wonder how he was able to hold her there so effortlessly because in the next breath, he buried himself deep inside her.

She gasped loud enough to be heard out on the street as he moved his hands to the underside of her ass and thrust into her urgently. All she could do was wrap her arms and legs around him and hold on for dear life as he took her harder than anyone ever had. She’d never been with a man so strong, so animalistic…so perfect.

As she buried her face against Remy’s strong shoulder while she came, Triana couldn’t imagine not being in his arms for the rest of her life.