Isaiah
With his finger on the trigger, Isaiah stood behind the car, ready to yell out for the two guys coming down the driveway to put their hands in the air, when he heard the chuckling.
“Do you know I just lost a bet?”
Even after Isaiah recognized the voice, his heart was still pounding. He wasn’t sure what was worse: the initial theories that’d raced through his head of who these two guys might be—none of which were even close—or this.
“Damn, Sai!” The chuckling turned into all out laughing now. “No wonder you’re in no hurry to get your ass home.”
Isaiah placed his gun back into the holster and picked up the flashlight from the ground with a frown. “Moe hinted you might be having too much fun and it’s why you’re still out here in the middle of nowhere.” AJ squinted when Isaiah pointed the flashlight at him then at Sabian, his teammate and good friend. “I just bet this guy on the drive out here that there was no way my oldest and ever professional brother would be doing the chick he was hired to watch.” AJ smirked, glancing back at the light coming from the kitchen. “Sorry to interrupt at such an inopportune moment, but I swear to you the moment I was able to make out what was going on”—he brought his hand to his mouth to stifle another laugh—“I shut the lights off.”
“I didn’t see anything,” Sabian said, holding up both palms in front of him. “Swear to God I miss all the good shit.”
“Yeah, well, maybe if you’d put that phone down for two seconds, you would’ve.” AJ shook his head with a frown then smirked again. “I guess this time it’s a good thing he was glued to his phone.”
Sabian retorted with something about being a co-pilot and trying to make sure this place was where they were supposed to be. Isaiah only half listened as he saw the movement in the kitchen. The back door opened and Kelli stuck her head out. “Everything okay, Isaiah?”
“We’re good,” Isaiah said, nodding, but didn’t offer an explanation. “I’ll be in, in a minute.”
Thankfully, AJ and Sabian seemed too embarrassed for her to glance back at her. They both stared at Isaiah instead. The moment she closed the door they busted out laughing again. “Dude, seriously? You banging the boss?” AJ turned back to the kitchen again and lowered his voice. “I mean ’cause technically she’s paying you to . . . you know . . .”
“Her dad’s paying me.”
That only made them laugh even louder; though they did attempt to muffle their laughter this time. “Oh man, that’s even worse. Bet he has no idea what kind of perks you’re getting out of this gig.”
Before Isaiah decided how much he’d be telling them, he needed to know why they were here and how long they were planning on staying. He might just be able to get away with not telling them who they’d caught him banging. This could mess with his plans. He’d already decided he’d wait until he got back and spoke with Nathan in person. He figured Nathan would likely be okay with it, since it had been over a year and Kelli assured him there’d never been anything significant to her acquaintance with his brother. If Nathan agreed this wasn’t a big deal, then his others siblings would have no choice but to agree.
“Listen,” AJ said, a little more serious. “You’re not getting yourself in any trouble doing her, right? Her dad must be pretty uptight if he hired you to protect her from danger in this hick town. Ain’t nothing happening around here.”
“She’s an adult. I’m good.”
“Yeah, I bet you are.” Sabian chuckled.
AJ turned to Sabian with a smirk, but fortunately for Isaiah, he changed the subject a bit to explain why they were there. Isaiah half listened with his thoughts still on Kelli inside and willed her to stay there. AJ’s series in Boston had been rained out. He had a travel day tomorrow but tried to get a straightaway flight to the San Diego area today. When he couldn’t but saw there was one into Santa Fe, he decided he’d surprise Isaiah and then get a flight out from Santa Fe in the morning.
“Addison and the girls won’t be home until tomorrow anyway. So I figured, since you were in New Mexico, I’d stop by and see you. Moe said there’s no ETA for when you’re getting back. You still don’t have any idea?”
“It shouldn’t be too long now,” Isaiah explained, glancing nervously at the kitchen window where he could see movement. “Couple weeks tops.”
AJ glanced back at the kitchen. “Don’t worry. We ain’t spending the night. We saw a hotel in town. We can crash there for tonight. I don’t want to make things weird for you. Maybe we can do breakfast before I leave. Our flight isn’t ’til noon.” He smirked again and peered at him. “So do you really have to be out here still or are you just sticking around for . . . the fun of it?”
“No.” Isaiah shook his head, knowing full well he couldn’t talk his way out of this one. “I really do have to be here at least a couple more weeks.
“But you’ll be home for Monster Mash at Manny and Max’s, right?”
“Oh, yeah, long before then.”
At least he assumed he would be as it was still a few months away. They spoke baseball for a bit. Isaiah felt rude not offering them a beer or even an invitation to go inside, but he was trying his damnedest to keep this from blowing up in his face. He needed to talk to Nathan first. Then it happened.
“Hey, can I use the restroom,” Sabian asked. “I took a leak at the airport, but that was a long ass drive to get here.”
There was nothing Isaiah could think of to keep this from happening, but his only hope was that maybe AJ would be too uncomfortable to want to go in. That hope was killed when AJ asked if Isaiah or his girl had an aspirin he could bum.
“I don’t get jet lagged anymore,” AJ said, touching his temple with a frown as they started toward the back door. “But I still get this irritating headache sometimes. Usually it just takes an aspirin to kill it.”
Isaiah braced himself as he opened the door to the kitchen. While she shouldn’t be, a part of him hoped she’d be hiding out in the bedroom, too embarrassed to show her face. They might as well have been doing what they were doing in the bedroom. As far as he knew, the only other two cars that had been in her driveway the entire time she’d been staying here, besides her own, were his and Gordo’s. So it was with almost all certainty that no one would see them out there. Of course, this would be the day and exact time AJ and Sabian would show up.
To his dismay, Kelli walked into the kitchen just as they walked in, but froze. Clearly, she’d expected to see Isaiah walking in by himself. He introduced Kelli to Sabian, hoping Sly wouldn’t remember her from the ESPY award show last year where she’d arrived and left with Nathan. It appeared he didn’t, or at least he wasn’t going to mention it when they greeted each other politely. Then Sabian excused himself to the bathroom.
He turned to his brother next, whose expression already appeared completely stunned, then addressed Kelli first. “Kelli, you remember my brother AJ, right?” She nodded; then Isaiah braced himself but was ready to come to Kelli’s defense if necessary. “Do you remember Kelli?”
“I do, actually,” AJ said, staring at her coldly.
Kelli flinched then lifted her phone, which must have buzzed in her hand. “My dad,” she said to Isaiah then glanced at AJ. “I gotta take this.” She started toward her room. “I’ll be back.”
“Take your time,” Isaiah said, hoping she’d pick up the inference in his tone.
The moment he turned back to AJ his brother mouthed the words, “What the fuck?”
Isaiah glanced back at Kelli, who wasn’t entirely out of the front room yet, so he waited until she walked into the hallway door and out of sight.
“Please tell me there’s someone else here and that wasn’t her on the hood of that car.”
“No one else but me and her are here.”
“What the hell are you doing, Sai?”
“It’s a long story.”
Isaiah lowered his voice, hoping AJ would take heed, or they’d have to move this outside because Isaiah knew firsthand AJ could be loud. And his hotheaded brother didn’t particularly give a shit about being bluntly rude.
“Are you kidding me? This is the same chick that lied about everything and tried to play you and—”
“Outside.” Isaiah pointed to the door and AJ wasted no time.
The second his brother was outside he spun around to face Isaiah. “There’s an explanation for the lies,” Isaiah said, beating him to the punch and glad now he’d shut Kelli’s window earlier. “There was a perfectly good explanation for all of it. I don’t have time to explain all the details. All I can tell you is there was a lot more to her and me, before she even met Nathan.”
“Doesn’t matter, Sai—”
“Yes, it does. She never tried to play us. It was an unfortunate coincidence that Nathan asked her out and she agreed to as friends. But she didn’t know we were brothers, and she made it as clear to him as she had with me when I first met her that her life was too complicated for relationship. Hence her needing a bodyguard now.”
“Did she plan this too?’
“No!” Isaiah said, losing his patience now. “You were there the morning I had to switch assignments. What? I suppose you think she had the guy in L.A. knocked off so I’d be forced to take on this assignment.”
AJ scoffed. “I wouldn’t put it past her.”
“Don’t be a smartass, AJ. You only know what you think you know about her. You and I both know I wouldn’t get involved with someone like the girl we thought she was, regardless of how much I felt for her. It’s why I never bothered to try and reconnect with her.”
“How could you when she up and disappeared? For all you knew, she’d given you a fake name.”
“There’s Moe. You know I could’ve had him help me find her if I’d really wanted to. But I won’t lie. I was thinking the same thing you are right now. I did up until last week when she explained all of it.”
The back door opened and Sabian walked out with a smirk. “Can’t say I blame you. But she looks familiar. She someone you’ve brought around before?”
“No, he never brought her around,” AJ answered for Isaiah, shaking his head, then turned back to Isaiah. “Look. If you say she’s not full of shit—”
“She’s not,” Isaiah said, the annoyance kicking up a notch.
“Alright.” AJ overdid the nodding, closing and opening his eyes in the process. “But that still doesn’t change the fact that she was Nathan’s girl.”
“What?” Sabian turned to Isaiah, jaw dropped and eyes wide opened, but unlike AJ, he appeared more amused than disgusted. “That’s right. That’s where I remember her from.”
“I met her before Nathan ever did,” Isaiah informed Sabian. “And her relationship with Nathan was nothing more than a friendship.”
AJ pointed at Isaiah. “Weren’t you the one who told me he was all broken up about her disappearing the way she did?”
Isaiah wanted to groan, but he took a deep breath instead. “He’d been drinking, and he was more broken up about what was going on with you at the time.”
Now AJ’s hardened expression morphed into confusion. So Isaiah explained what he’d since concluded. At the time, Isaiah was trying to grasp on to anything that would convince his heart that giving Kelli another shot was out of the question. He’d had to squash his temptations somehow. Nathan had been far more upset about AJ having to deal with his step-daughter’s near death experience. But Isaiah had convinced himself Nathan was more upset about Kelli’s departure than he actually had been. The guy hadn’t seemed heartbroken at all after that day.
“I figured back then since she was gone for good and you and Emi didn’t seem to care for her that it was best that I forget about her too. But after everything that’s happened since I’ve been here and because her explanation about the way everything went down makes total sense, I couldn’t just ignore what I was feeling anymore.”
“Like what?” AJ asked, the suspicion still very much in his eyes and tone. “I’m curious. What was her reason for lying about owning the salon she worked at?”
“It wasn’t a lie. She does own them. But everyone she worked for was instructed to say she was just an employee and moved out of state with no forwarding address. It’s why she’s here. She’s hiding.”
Isaiah briefly filled him in on the issues her dad was having and how one of her brothers and an uncle were now dead. As soon as he’d told him, he regretted it. AJ appeared even more upset about that than the fact that Isaiah was now seeing Nathan’s ex.
“Why didn’t Moe tell you what you were getting into? He made it sound like this was an easy and safe assignment.”
“I don’t think he realized how bad this could get,” Isaiah said with a frown but made sure to follow up. “It actually hasn’t been. We haven’t had so much as a scare. She’d been in hiding for months before I was hired on and says she hasn’t had a single incident. This little war her dad’s been having is almost over, and he’s retiring from the business. So this should be over in a few weeks tops.”
As expected, that didn’t seem to satisfy his overly protective little brother. Isaiah asked about his wife Addison, Clair, and the baby in an attempt to change the subject. Luckily, it worked; almost instantly, his brother was smiling the way he always did when he spoke of his family. The conversation stayed on the subject of his girls for a bit. Then AJ asked if Isaiah thought he’d be home in time for the August birthday bash. Since their families had grown so much, each month they had one big party for anyone who had a birthday that month.
“Not sure,” Isaiah admitted. “But I’ll keep you guys posted.”
Isaiah offered to get him the aspirin, but AJ passed. He said they had to stop to pick up a few things before getting to the hotel, but the rest of the time they stood out there talking, Isaiah was grateful they stayed off the subject of Kelli. Not that it lessened any of the tension he was feeling. He was fairly certain AJ’s backing off about Kelli had to do with not wanting to discuss it any further in front of Sabian. Sly was his good friend and all, and typically AJ didn’t hold back, no matter what, but when it came to private family matters, he was a bit more reserved. So Isaiah couldn’t be happier that Sabian happened to come along with him today.
They were out there for a while, shooting the breeze, until AJ finally said they needed to get some shut eye. He explained further about his flight the next day. The earliest he’d been able to get was noon, but he was waiting on a call to see if they could get anything earlier.
“If I don’t get an earlier flight, we’ll do breakfast in the morning.”
“Yeah, just call me.” It was all Isaiah would offer for now.
As much as he’d enjoy catching up with his brother, he couldn’t leave Kelli alone, and he didn’t want to chance any kind of rudeness on his brother’s part if they both joined him for breakfast. He and his brothers had almost never argued, not seriously anyway. AJ had always been quick to voice his opinion, especially when he felt very strongly about something, only they’d never had any kind of falling out over anything, even with the whole Desiree thing. Nathan was more hurt and heartbroken than angry at Isaiah. But since Kelli brought out so many firsts for Isaiah as far as emotions went, he didn’t trust himself not to say something he normally wouldn’t to his hotheaded brother if the guy was a smartass with her.
As soon as they drove away, Isaiah hurried into the house. Kelli was standing at the kitchen counter, preparing something. She glanced up at him with a wince. “How’d that go?”
“It went.”
He strolled over to her, already anxious to have her in his arms again. The moment he was close enough he turned her away from the counter and pulled her into his arms, kissing her softly.
“I couldn’t explain too much tonight. I got the feeling he preferred to wait until we could speak more privately. But he understands this is how things are now. And he agreed not to say anything to Nathan until I get a chance to talk to him first.
“Was he mad?” Her troubled eyes made him peck her again. “I always got the feeling he didn’t like me very much.”
Isaiah shrugged, trying to make light of it. “We’re all protective of each other in my family. So he was understandably concerned when he realized you were who he saw me with out there. I was able to explain some part of it, but I still have more to tell him once I get back home. We might have breakfast with him tomorrow morning.”
The utter dread in her eyes, despite her attempts to hide it, came through loud and clear, and he smiled. “We don’t have to. In fact, he said, if they get an earlier flight, we won’t. Those two have connections. So more than likely they’ll be out of here early. I’m not worrying about him or Nathan until I get home.”
That seemed to do the trick, and her tensed body loosened up a bit. One thing Isaiah knew without a doubt was that he’d be getting a phone call from his little brother in the coming days once he was home and able to speak with Isaiah more privately. There was no way his impatient brother would wait until Isaiah got home. But he kept that to himself. Right now all he could think of was something else.
Rubbing himself against her so she could see how ready he was to finish what they’d started outside, he smiled, leaning his forehead against hers. “So where were we?”
Kelli smiled, running her hand up his arm. “I believe you had me up on top of something.”
Isaiah brought his hand down to the top of her shorts and touched the button. “These were off.”
He leaned over her shoulder and saw what she’d been doing when he walked in—fixing him another meatloaf sandwich. With one arm, he pushed everything on the counter off to one side and undid her shorts. In the next second, both her shorts and panties were on the floor. “No more car hood for us tonight. That was enough risk-taking for one night. But we definitely need to finish what we started.” He lifted her onto the counter and devoured her mouth with a groan.