warn Kyle, tell him what I’d done so he could warn the others while I fixed what I’d…shit, what had I done? I’d stupidly poked my nose in things I shouldn’t’ve and now everyone I loved was in danger.
But I could fix it.
Maybe.
A hand on my elbow and what I felt had nothing to do with the way that hand slid down to my forearm, or the way fingers curled around and gently pressed in, nothing to do with the heat on my skin. My reaction was wholly inappropriate. I didn’t have to look to know the man I’d met downstairs was the one touching me.
But I looked anyway and when I did, I wish I hadn’t. The moment I did our eyes didn’t connect, they fused. And I know Gabe felt it, too, because one moment his gaze was soft and the next he flinched.
Yes, flinched.
That didn’t feel good.
No, for some godforsaken reason it hurt.
“Take a seat, Evette.”
Gabe’s head dipped to the side indicating the chair he’d pulled away from the table. The gesture was nice, gentlemanly even, but I didn’t want to sit. I wanted to flee.
How had this become my life? One day I was sitting behind my computer in my home office researching a story my editor at the online news website I worked for had assigned me, the next I’d ditched my assignment and was knee-deep in a scandal of epic proportions.
I should’ve stopped there but I couldn’t.
Someone had to pay for what happened to Kalee, Piper, and Anaya. And I wanted to make sure they did.
Chapter 3
What in the Sam hell was going on?
Evette London was not the kind of woman who made you look twice. No—at first glance she captivated you. She caught you in her snare so you couldn’t look away. She was also a woman who didn’t understand her allure. If she had, she wouldn’t have had the unmistakably soft innocence that surrounded her.
The beauty she possessed would have a man bending over backward to give her what she wanted. That, added with her openness, the sweetness in her eyes—the way the light brown warmed her gaze—she could bring a man to his knees.
And that was what I was fighting against, ten minutes after meeting her. The pull of her was so strong it had made me recoil in fear. Never had I had the urge to throw a woman over my shoulder like some barbarian and hide her away, promise her the world, keep her for always, and claim her as mine.
Keep her?
Claim her?
What the hell was wrong with me?
The last thing I wanted was a woman. A woman meant responsibility, sharing, giving, it also meant taking. Out of all that it was the taking part that bothered me the most. I could give but I would never again take. Not in any way, shape, or form. I would never again take anything, not kindness, not compassion, not sympathy.
But I could give Evette something—protection.
Someone was trying to kill her and that was why she was here.
The reminder brought me back to the room.
Evette took the seat I’d offered.
Zane and Ivy Lewis had settled at the head of the table. Lincoln Parker to his brother’s right. The rest of my teammates: Owen, Kevin, Myles, and the newest member Cooper had also found seats. Leaving me and Kyle Smith standing. Kyle wasn’t on the Blue Team, he was on the Gold Team. The only reason Kyle had been in the office that day was to go sit in on our debriefing with Cruz, an FBI agent who’d help with our last mission.
Evette had gotten lucky and picked a day to show up when her friend Anaya’s husband was in the building.
Seeing as Anaya and Evette were close, or as I’d heard from Anaya “sisters” it was understandable Kyle was not sitting but pacing like a caged animal.
Ivy, being the only person in the room with any sort of manners, made the introductions and as she did Evette looked at each man in the room. With her eyes no longer on me, it gave me a chance to take her in without falling victim to her appeal.
Evette looked scared but determined.
Fearful yet angry.
Then it hit me. Evette London did not fly across the country for protection; she came here for help. She had a plan. I saw it in the way her shoulders were squared, her spine straight—the woman was prepared for battle.
And something about that made my heart beat faster.