Chapter 4
“Levi?” She stood hesitantly at the office door.
Both Ice and Levi had their heads bent over blueprints of some kind. She knew they had plans for an expansion to the compound but didn’t know what that entailed exactly.
Levi looked up and smiled. “What’s up, Sienna?”
She ventured inside a few steps and said, “Rhodes just told me about the cousins found dead in the house. I’m pretty sure those were the two names I deciphered from the code and spreadsheets Bullard sent.”
Levi’s gaze widened. “I wondered why they sounded familiar. I couldn’t find anything that would give me a reason to confirm that though.” He stood up straight, walked to the table where she had placed the codes with her scratch pad of decoded names. He tapped the second line and said, “You’re right. J. Lewis, M. Lewis. Also, the initials R.F.”
“And those names had the lower figures by them,” Sienna said. “It’s potentially a smaller deal. Of course, this is just supposition until we get more answers.”
“But we can also track a lot of information about those cousins now ourselves,” Ice said.
She walked to a desk in the far corner. Sienna recognized it as the one she usually used, but as they all shifted, depending on who was here and who was gone, she didn’t know if anybody had a dedicated computer.
Ice sat down, opened the laptop and said, “I’m not as good as some of the guys, but I’m learning.”
Levi grinned. “We don’t do anything illegal,” he explained to Sienna, “but we do have access to a lot of databases, including police files. And if we can’t get enough information on our own, we have friends in places who can.”
“No arrests on either name,” Ice said. “But we have sealed juvie files for both.”
“I’m not surprised. We won’t get those unsealed.”
“Don’t need to,” Ice said simply. “The fact that they even exist means their teenage years were something of a life of crime.”
“Any other members of the family?” Levi asked.
Sienna waited, wishing she could be more involved. Then realized she had access to some of that information as well. She went to her laptop and turned it on. Within minutes she said, “Martin has a brother. Both parents are still alive. Jeremy has a sister, and his mother is alive. The cousins were raised next door to each other.”
She studied the addresses in front of her. “The families actually own their houses. Maybe they had money or came into some. There are no mortgages on either.”
“So both men were raised with lots of family, good values, and obviously not a poor living area if the parents owned their houses,” Ice theorized.
“I can’t confirm that about the neighborhood,” Sienna said, “but it wouldn’t be too hard to double-check. Not that it helps much.”
“There’s often no reason why some kids go south like that,” Ice said. “Also, maybe they just went into that world to make money, and that’s how the parents paid off their houses.” She looked at Levi. “About time to bring in a few of our connections, pass over some of this information and see what they might have to offer.”
“Or call Bullard first,” Sienna said. Both turned to look at her as she smiled. “Or not.” She raised her hands and shrugged. “Don’t quite know how all this works. But normally we would get as much information on our side before offering any to somebody else.”
Ice laughed. “I like the way you think.”
Levi checked his watch and said, “Perfect. It’s about six in the morning over there. I’ll call Bullard now.” He pulled out his phone, turned to look at Ice and said, “I’ll let you talk to him.”
In a surprise move she reached up and kissed Levi on the cheek. “You can talk to him, sweetie.” She walked from the room. “It’s getting late. I’m headed to our suite.”
Sienna shut down her laptop as she heard Levi talking to Bullard and with a small wave, turned and walked toward the office door. And that’s when she saw Rhodes, leaning against the doorway, arms crossed. She glared at him. “Did you hear the whole thing?”
He raised his eyebrows at her tone and said, “Sure. Why not? I didn’t interrupt or have anything to add.”
His words were correct, and his voice was level, but the glint in his eye made her suspicious.
She brushed past him. “Levi’s talking to Bullard now. So, if you want to talk to him about this, you’ll have to wait.”
“Are you heading to bed now?”
An odd tone was in his voice. She turned to look at him. “I’m going to take a shower.”
“Ah.”
She stopped, pivoted to face him fully and glared at him. “What does that mean?”
He raised his eyebrows once again.
She shook her head. “Don’t raise your eyebrows like that. What do you mean?”
“Nothing. I should take a shower too.” He whistled as he walked past her and tossed back, “Too bad we can’t have one together and conserve water.”
And then, just like that, he was gone. She made her way into her suite and slammed the door, locking it behind her. She leaned against it. Then slowly sank to the floor.
Because now the only thought in her head was of the two of them, making passionate love, bodies twisting in hot water, completely into each other.
Damn him. Now she needed a cold shower.
*
That was mean of him. Yet he grinned. Too bad. She was just way-too-damn distracting. He should have spoken to Jarrod when he was here before he went off on another mission.
Jarrod had to know his sister hooking up with someone here was a possibility. There were several single men. Attraction happened. And way too fast in some cases. He headed to his suite and stripped to get into the shower. He laughed again at his comment and the look of shock on her face. He stepped into the water, then realized though he had said it as a joke, his body was already thinking about the two of them in the damn water. And his body wasn’t taking no for an answer.
He was forced to turn down the temperature to cool himself off in order to get through it. By the time he wrapped himself in a towel, dried off and stepped into the bedroom, he was pissed at himself. By teasing her, he was teasing himself, and that was the last thing he needed. He glanced at the time and realized it was still pretty early. He put on his sweats and a T-shirt and headed downstairs to watch a movie. The living room was empty, and that was the way he liked it. He turned on the monster seventy-two-inch TV. The one thing they all agreed on when they decided they needed a TV was that they would buy the biggest and most badass one they could find.
He grinned as he checked through the movie listings until he found a hard-core action flick. Before pressing Play, he walked to the kitchen to grab some popcorn. He put the bag in the microwave, poured a shot of whiskey and when the microwave finished, carried the drink and popcorn back into the living room and stopped. He was no longer alone.
Sienna had the remote, checking out a chick flick on the screen.
“Ah, hell, no,” he said. He put down the popcorn and his drink and said, “No chick flicks allowed in the house.”
She turned, one eyebrow raised, and said, “As a man you’re afraid of romance. Or maybe it’s sex.”
He glared at her. He remembered all the comments he’d made way back when about her temper. Obviously, he had pricked it well tonight. He decided to change his tactic. He bent in front of her and kissed her. “Anytime you want somebody to warm your bed, you just have to say so,” he said. He snatched the remote from her hand and immediately flicked it back to the movie he had set up.
“Besides killing, is there anything else you guys like to do?”
He hit Play, and the movie started immediately. He zoomed into a big action scene where a building was being blown up. He grinned. “Love this stuff.”
She snorted. “Of course you do. No plot, nor character, just blow shit up.”
But she didn’t leave. She curled up in the opposite corner of the couch and watched it with him. About ten minutes later he realized she had grabbed the entire bowl of popcorn and held it close to her chest, on the side away from him. He looked at her in outrage. “First you to try to steal my movie, then my popcorn.”
She glanced at him innocently and said, “While I eat this popcorn, why don’t you get yourself another one?”
He glared at her and chuckled. “I have a better idea.” He got up and moved right beside her, touching her from hip to knee, wrapped an arm around her and said, “We’ll share.”
She tried to wiggle free, but that wasn’t happening.
Finally, she subsided and glared at him.
“That’ll teach you to take over a man’s domain without his permission.”
“Like it’s yours.” She scoffed. “Do you think I don’t know how to handle you guys? Remember, Jarrod’s only one of four brothers I have. And they are all big, tough, macho guys like you. You’re nothing special.”
He had meant to reach into the popcorn bowl but her smaller hand slipped in under his, and she snagged up the last of it, popping the bunch in her mouth. Then she glared at him, like a challenge.
He stared at the empty bowl and then glared at her in mock outrage. The trouble was, he didn’t want to move, not at all. He thought about getting another bowl to share, then realized as soon as he moved, she would leave. He’d much rather stay here.
“Think you’re so smart, do you?” She turned her head away, kicked her legs up between them and sat curled up in the corner. “I’m not getting browbeaten by male bullying.”
“I didn’t bully you,” he said. But he settled back slightly, giving her space. He looked down woefully at the bowl still in her arms. “You’re the bully. You ate all the popcorn.”
She glanced at the bowl, then laughed. “Okay, maybe I am. But I was hungry.”
“Didn’t you get enough to eat at dinnertime?” He picked up his whiskey and settled back. “There is also some alcohol around, if you want a drink.”
She looked at the glass with vague interest. “I’m not much of a hard drinker. A glass of wine now and then, that’s a different story.”
“I can get you one if you’d like. We have both red and white.”
She hesitated, then shook her head. “No, I shouldn’t.”
“Why shouldn’t you?” he asked with interest. “It’s safe here. Even if you drank too much, nobody would take advantage of you. I might have to put you in your bed because you can’t get there on your own, but somebody would see the job done.”
She snorted. “How you would love a chance to do that.” She shook her head. “Nope, my ex-boyfriend was a heavy drinker. Still not terribly comfortable around them.”
“Having a drink in the evening is not being a drinker.” But he shrugged and settled deeper into the cushion. In his head, he wondered just how bad of a heavy drinker the guy had been. Had he beaten her? Rhodes glanced over at her, but she hadn’t shown any fear when he had pushed her boundaries. And that was a good thing.
Besides, if Jarrod had any idea that the ex might have knocked her around, he’d have taken care of the guy immediately.
Rhodes settled back to watch the movie, happy she had stayed with him. She moaned after a couple action scenes and groaned at a couple dumb one-liners, but hey, he didn’t put this movie on because he was concerned about the eloquent conversation between the characters. It was exactly what he needed to escape. And the longer they sat here, the more she relaxed. Eventually her legs stretched out beside him, not quite touching, not avoiding him either. But she was totally at ease, and that’s what he wanted.
At one point, she pulled her feet up and accidentally touched him. “Sorry,” she muttered.
“Doesn’t matter. The couch is huge.”
At that, she stretched out her legs. There wasn’t quite enough room, so he picked her feet up and put them on his lap. “Just leave them here. You’ll be more comfortable.”
At that she tucked a pillow under her head and turned her attention back to the movie.
By the time the credits rolled through, he was grinning like a fool. He always liked those movies. A large group of men going after the bad guys, along the way rescuing the damsel in distress. Just like his life. He shut off the TV and turned to ask, “What did you think of it?”
And stopped. She’d fallen asleep. He shook his head. He didn’t even know when she’d nodded off.
He got up, took his empty glass and bowl into the kitchen, rinsed and loaded both in the dishwasher, and came back out, wondering what he should do with her.
He checked his watch. It was 10:30 p.m. Definitely time for her to go to bed. He reached out a gentle hand and tried to shake her awake. She body-rolled with his movements but never woke up. He frowned and gave her a harder shake. She mumbled, tried to turn over, but the couch wasn’t giving her any room. Finally, in frustration, she fell back asleep.
He didn’t think he’d seen anybody sleep quite that way. But he had an easy answer. He reached under her body, picked her up in his arms and quietly walked to the elevator, hit the button and stepped inside. He could feel his muscles work as he had lifted her, but thankfully everything seemed to be going just fine. His original injuries caused him some concern, but this last year with heavy training, he was back into his prime condition again.
On the second floor, he walked to her suite and had to shuffle her in his arms to get her door open.
Thankfully, she’d left it unlocked. He nudged it wider with his foot, and walked carefully over to the bed. Then he frowned because of course, it was made. He pulled back the covers and sheets and laid her down. He quickly took off her shoes and stopped, staring at her shirt and jeans. If he undressed her, she’d be pissed. But how could she get a good rest if he didn’t?
He decided to go for it, taking off her jeans and T-shirt. Tucking her under the covers, he folded her clothes nicely, leaving them on the other side of the bed. At the door, he turned off the light, glanced over at the sleeping beauty and whispered, “Good night.”
She didn’t respond. Just snuggled deeper into the covers. He shook his head at her ability to sleep so deeply, so fast. He’d had high hopes for sleep himself. Now he wasn’t so sure. Instead of pictures of great action scenes dancing in his head, he would see a model-perfect body twisting beneath him.
By the time he made it to his suite, he contemplated another cold shower.