Sunny

I lifted my bag higher on my shoulder and hit the button for the fifth floor. As I rocketed higher, I looked down at the card clutched in my hand. I never planned to use it. But after talking to the police yesterday, learning that two weeks into the investigation, they still had no leads on who broke into my house or the precious items stolen, I decided to call Ruby and ask some more about what the King Agency could do for me. I wanted my grandmother’s jewelry back. The thought that someone else had it . . .

My belly rolled and my nose started to sting. I couldn’t bear to think about it.

I straightened my shoulders and took several deep breaths. Pull it together, Sunny.

Ruby had sounded happy to hear from me, and explained that they were specialists at getting stolen items back. I was sold. I didn’t care about their value, I just wanted back what was taken from me. It was all I had from my mother’s side of the family. I’d treasured every beautifully crafted piece. They were my inspiration, the reason I got into jewelry making in the first place.

And if they could track down the man who’d hurt me as well . . . that was something I was more than willing to pay for, whatever the cost. I was still afraid at night, still not really sleeping. I wasn’t only afraid, though—I was angry, furious, about what happened to me. That someone had come into my home and taken my things. I wanted them back. I wanted them all back.

The doors slid open and I spotted Lulu behind the reception desk. She stood as soon as she saw me, a smile stretching her lips.

I smiled back, careful not to smile too wide. My stitches were still in and the bruising on the other side had faded a lot, but it still ached. That wasn’t the only reason I didn’t want to smile too wide, though—the nerve damage had become more obvious. Not all the muscles on the right side of my face worked like they used to. The damage wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but when I smiled now, only the left side of my mouth lifted the way it should. I had a kind of crooked smile. I was still getting used to it. I wasn’t a vain person, and there were people going through far worse than I was, but I could admit I felt self-conscious—mostly, though, I didn’t want anyone’s pity.

She came around and pulled me into a hug. I was surprised, but warmed by it.

“I’m so glad you decided to come. Ruby’s out working a case, and sorry she couldn’t be here. The guys here are very good at what they do, though.” She paused. “But they’re intense, and it can be a little . . . um, intimidating, and after what you went through, I thought it’d be good for one of us to be here when you came in to introduce you.” She took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’s going to be fine. I promise.”

I squeezed her hand back. “Thank you, that’s so . . .” I let out a shaky breath because I was nervous. I don’t know why, maybe the idea of talking about what happened again, but I appreciated her being here. “You’re a really nice person, Lulu. You and Ruby.”

Her smile grew warmer. “We know a kindred spirit when we meet one.” Before I could ask what she meant by that, she said, “Come on, Hunter and Van are just down here.”

She led the way and I followed, my nerves increasing as we went.

Lulu chatted as she led me through a security door and headed down a short hall. “Hunter’s my fiancé. You’ll be meeting with him and his brother Van today. They’ll just ask you a few questions and go from there.”

I nodded, my eyes sliding to the tattoo on the side of her neck. “Hunter,” scrawled in beautiful sloping, loopy script. I had wondered who Hunter was when she first came into my shop. I’d assumed it was her son’s name . . .

“Just through here,” she said and opened one of the doors without knocking, leading me into a large office.

Two extremely tall men stood to one side, deep in conversation. Lulu said they were brothers and you could tell, though one was heavily tattooed with dark hair and blue eyes, and the other had darker skin and dark eyes. Their features were quite similar. Both were definitely very good looking.

They turned as we walked in.

“Hunter, Van, this is Sunny,” Lulu said.

Hunter, the one with all the tattoos, came forward and shook my hand. “Nice to meet you. Lulu’s told me a little about what you went through.” His eyes grew intense as they moved over my face and a muscle in his jaw jumped. I’d given up trying to cover my bruises. Makeup just seemed to make them more obvious, so I’d just been using a little tinted moisturizer or some concealer.

“It’s nice to meet you.”

Van moved in next and shook my hand. I instantly knew what Lulu meant by intimidating. The guy was even more intense than Hunter.

“Thank you for taking the time to meet with me,” I said.

“Lulu said you had your security system updated. Do you mind if I ask who you used?” Van asked.

Okay, no small talk then. “Oh . . . um . . . Gallery Security.”

He glanced at Hunter then back to me. “We have a guy we trust, who really knows his stuff. Do you mind if we get him to come check it over?”

What was going on here? I thought this was a consultation about my missing jewelry. Maybe a discussion about finding the asshole who broke in. “Please, don’t go to any trouble . . .”

“You’re on your own?” he asked.

“Well . . . yes.”

“It’s no trouble.”

I opened my mouth to argue.

“You may as well just go with it,” Lulu said, voice laced with humor. “These two are bossy as hell, but they mean well. They also know what they’re talking about.”

“We are here, you know,” Hunter said to his fiancée.

She shrugged, a smirk on her lips.

Van motioned to a chair, and I took a seat. These men were all business and they remained that way as they asked me a ton of questions about the jewelry, what it looked like, if I had pictures, value, who knew about it, if the guy who broke in knew I had a safe.

Hunter sat back in his seat. “We’ll get a copy of the police report, but I’m going to need you to go over what happened that night so we can get a full picture.” He held my eyes. “Do you mind if we have another of our guys sit in on this? He’ll be helping us work the case.”

“Yes, of course, that’s fine.”

I heard Van leave the room, then come back. It sounded like he wasn’t alone, but I didn’t turn around because Hunter had already asked the first question.

“What time did it happen?”

I clutched my bag, needing to hang onto something. I didn’t want them to see the way my hands shook. “It was just after midnight. I heard him coming up the stairs.”

Hunter nodded. “And that’s when you called nine-one-one?”

I felt my face heat. God, I hated that I blushed so damn easily. “No . . .” My mouth was suddenly dry. “I thought it was someone I knew . . . a friend . . . it wasn’t until the door was opening that I realized it wasn’t, that it couldn’t be him.”

His head tilted to the side. “Someone else has a key to your place? Security codes? Someone you’re seeing, dating?”

I cleared my throat. “No . . . to all of that.”

Hunter frowned. “Then why would you think it was this friend? If he had no way of getting into your house?”

I stared across at him, trying to come up with the right words to explain Zeke. The kind of man he was. “He managed it once before, and I . . . I didn’t think to ask how he got in.” My face grew hotter. They must think I was an idiot.

His frown got deeper. “Sunny, are you still seeing this man?”

I shook my head.

“Do you think it could have been him? Your attacker, he concealed his face, yes?”

My head shot up from looking down at my fingers. “Oh, no. It wasn’t him. No way. The guy that attacked me was smaller, lighter. He was on top of me holding me down, and . . . I’d know . . . it wasn’t him . . . he’d never . . .”

There was a growl behind me, cutting me off abruptly. It was pitched low and held so much unmistakable aggression I actually jumped.

I spun around.

Oh my God.

Then shot to my feet. “Zeke?”

Standing across from me by the door, looking like he was about to tear the room apart, was Zeke. My Zeke.

His eyes moved over my face, taking in the damage, and his nostrils flared. The veins in his arms and neck were suddenly bulging, and he hissed out a breath.

What in the hell was going on here? “What are you doing here?” I forced out past frozen lips.

“You were broken into.” He sucked in a rough breath. “Attacked.”

It wasn’t a question.

“You know Sunny?” Lulu said to Zeke, interrupting our bizarre and extremely awkward reunion.

“Shit,” Hunter, muttered. “I’m guessing Zeke was the person you thought was paying you a midnight visit?”

Zeke

When Hunter said one of Lulu’s friends had some trouble and needed our help, the last person I expected to see when I walked into his office was Sunny. An office I was currently striding across.

What I’d just heard? Jesus Christ. My motherfucking trigger finger was itching and I didn’t even have a goddamn target yet. I crowded her, unable to stop myself, sliding my fingers under her chin and tilted her head back, taking in the damage to her face. She blinked those big violet eyes up and me and another growl escaped before I could stop it. There was a fading bruise on her left cheek and a white bandage on her right. I slid my thumb just below it.

“He hit you?” My voice sounded like someone else’s, so damn deep, wrecked.

She nodded.

“What’s under the bandage, Sunshine?”

“Stitches,” she whispered, thick, long lashes blinking rapidly.

I instantly noticed that side of her face was less mobile. My gut twisted into a knot. “How?”

“He had a knife,” she said.

Hearing those words, it felt like someone had shoved their fist into my gut and tore out something vital. Some fucker had broken into her house, had touched her beautiful face, had cut her. I wanted to kill them. Slowly. A bullet would be too kind. I glanced up at Hunter and Van, ignoring the looks on their faces while they watched me and Sunny, and filled them in. “Get Jude to call in any markers he’s owed at the station. I want any info we can get.”

I looked back down at her face and sucked in a sharp breath. Jesus. She’d thought it was me. She thought whoever had broken in was me. She’d held off on making the call. I’d let myself into her place that night, and because of that, she’d been hurt. “I’m sorry,” I said. Useless fucking words, pointless fucking words. Too little, too late. But I didn’t know what else to say.

I heard people moving around us, then the office was empty, the door closing behind Van. I appreciated them giving us space, but being alone with her right now wasn’t a great idea.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” she said soft, husky.

“You thought it was me.”

Her cheeks got darker. “So you work here?” she said instead of answering me.

I nodded.

She offered a small smile. “That explains it.”

“What?”

“That edge you have, your . . . intensity.”

The smile was crooked. Just as beautiful as before, but seeing it sent rage through me. She was lucky to be alive. Then another thought fired through my mind that sent dread through me so fast my fucking knees felt weak. “He hit you, he cut you . . . did he do anything else, darlin’?”

Her eyes widened when she worked out what I was asking.

“No, he . . . he said if he had more time . . .” Her throat worked. “He didn’t touch me like that, though. He hurt me, then he got me to open my safe, then he left. He wasn’t working alone, at least I don’t think he was, I’m pretty sure someone was outside, I heard a car horn and then he left quickly.”

Thank fuck.

Her fingers curled around my wrist, sending zaps of awareness through me. I was still holding her chin, one hundred percent focused on her. She lowered my hand and I missed the feel of her skin instantly.

“I promise you, I didn’t know you worked here,” she said.

“I know.”

She shook her head, those gorgeous blond waves moving around her shoulders. “I’m not some stalker, following you around.”

Jesus. “I know.”

“If I’d know you worked here . . . I wouldn’t have . . .”

“It’s all right, Sunshine.” She actually thought I’d have a problem with her coming here? After what happened? She must think I was the biggest asshole on the face of the earth.

She swallowed, her slender throat working. “Do you think you’ll be able to find it, my grandmother’s jewelry?”

“Yes.” I’d find who hurt her as well and make him wish for death.

Her brows lifted. “You’re that sure?”

“Yes.”

She dropped her hands, and took a step back. I wanted to pull her back instantly. She tucked her hair behind her ear. “Thank you, for this, for being so great about me showing up here like this.”

I shook my head. She didn’t need to thank me for shit. She’d hesitated making that 911 call because of me. If she’d made that call as soon as she’d heard him coming, she might not be standing in front of me with stitches in her face.

“Look, I know this situation is . . . well . . . what I’m trying to say is . . . don’t worry about me. I don’t expect anything from you, you know? I’m fine. We had some fun and now it’s over. You don’t owe me anything. And I don’t want things to be weird between us because of our previous personal relationship.”

I stared down at her, not sure what the fuck to say. She was looking at me like she had that night, blank, so damn closed off. I was feeling anything but indifferent. Shit, seeing her again, I wanted that personal relationship to pick right the hell back up where it left off.

“I should go,” she said. “You, ah, know where I am if you need any more information from me.”

I still didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t done a lot of talking for a lot of months. I didn’t know how to translate what was in my head to actual words without sounding like an asshole. So instead I said, “We’ll have someone come and check over your security system.”

She offered me a jerky nod and rushed out the door.

I watched her leave, fighting the urge to go after her. Like when I first met her, I had the strongest urge to look after her . . . to protect her from every-fucking-thing. Instead, I shoved my hands through my hair and gritted my teeth. Going after her would be a goddamn stupid thing to do. I’d stopped seeing her for a reason and not one goddamn thing had changed.

Still, I found myself sitting outside her house later that night. Until we’d made sure her security was solid, I needed to know she was safe. Her light was on in her living room, the flicker of the television visible through her curtains. What was she doing? It was late. Couldn’t she sleep? Was she afraid? Shit, I wanted to go in there, carry her upstairs, and climb into bed with her. Make sure she felt safe.

Those thoughts were so damn dangerous.

So instead of following my instincts, I hunkered down for the night. We’d solve this case, and the sooner the better.

Then I’d go back to life without Sunny.