UnderFire Read online

“What?” Mike’s eyes widened and he took his glasses off and peered at Bob. “Are you serious, man?”

  Bob huffed. “Of course. A woman out in the workplace can’t always be trusted.”

  Kathleen must have tensed again because Jake leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Ignore him.”

  She gritted her teeth and turned a glare on Jake. But she didn’t say a word. When Bob didn’t get a response, he returned to the front of the room.

  What seemed like forever passed by before a text from Lena came over Kathleen’s phone.

  Are you guys doing all right?

  Kathleen texted back. We’re okay. What about you?

  Fine. Glad Jake is with you. You’ll be out soon.

  Crossing my fingers.

  Looks like S.W.A.T. is taking down the bad guy now. They’re coming in.

  Loud noises echoed around the building, including shouts.

  “Something is going down,” Charity said, slowly standing up.

  Jake’s phone received a text. “Rick just texted me that S.W.A.T. is on the move. Should have us out in no time.”

  Suddenly from the front, Blowhard started calling out, “We’re in here! Here!”

  Jake grimaced and cursed under his breath. “Shit.”

  Kathleen, Mike and Charity followed Jake as they left the back area and approached the front.

  “Hey, dude, the authorities know where we’re at. They’ll get to us.” Mike’s voice was filled with exasperation.

  Not much longer and S.W.A.T. contacted them by shouting through the blocked door.

  “Police! Anyone in there?” a man’s voice called from outside.

  “We’re here!” Bob yelled. “Get us out of here now.”

  Kathleen took a deep breath of relief. Soon she could go back to her hotel room in town. She didn’t know what she wanted to do at first but then a thought came to mind. Maybe she needed to get Jake Frasier out of her system once and for all. She thought maybe she knew how to do that.

  Chapter Three

  Snow fell steadily as Jake stood with his brothers Matt and Rick outside the mall. Despite the hum of police activity, Jake’s adrenaline still ran high. He’d tackled situations in the desert during war that had rattled him and he’d dealt with them as best he could. You didn’t handle the mall situation as well as you could, Frasier. Not well at all. He knew why.

  Kathleen McSwain had turned him upside down this week. When bullets started to fly, his first thought was to reach Kathleen and protect her. His first and only thought. Hell, it didn’t make any damn sense. Sure, he’d want to protect a woman in danger, or anyone for that matter. With Kathleen the drive had been almost painfully acute. He hadn’t seen her in years. He’d been in the army since he was eighteen, with no time to mull over his teen years. He gritted his teeth. He’d made serious mistakes when they were adolescents and he didn’t care for how he’d handled meeting her again at Danelle and Patrick’s party last weekend. Seeing her hammered one reality home—she made his blood run hot. She’d been a tomboy with short russet-brown hair, thin and gangly with gorgeous blue eyes filled with challenge. He wanted to sink his hands into the mass of curly hair that hung to her mid-back. He wanted to touch her smooth skin and gather her slim but curvy body against his. Christ, he wanted to kiss her. If not tonight, sometime before he returned to work, he’d get that kiss.

  He shoved aside thoughts of tasting Kathleen’s pretty mouth and paid attention to current events. S.W.A.T. had arrested Teddy Xavier as the single shooter. Xavier had shot up the place because he was pissed that he hadn’t been hired for a security job. He’d wounded his ex-girlfriend but she’d survived. Trapped in a unisex bathroom, Matt, Melanie and the shooter’s ex-girlfriend had stayed safe. Lena and Rick had kept a vigil outside the mall. Police questioned everyone separately over a two-hour period. The crime scene wasn’t wrapping up but the police had told them they could leave a couple of minutes before.

  Jake’s brothers looked different but he couldn’t say why. He knew the mall shooting had affected him but not in the way he’d expected. He didn’t want to feel watchful and worried for Kathleen but when he’d put his arm around her numerous times during the ordeal, she’d leaned into his touch. Regardless of what had happened between them in high school, her acceptance made his desire to protect her even stronger. He was disturbed as much by her capitulation as he was by his willingness to give comfort.

  His gaze found Kathleen as she stood with Lena and Melanie. Lena sat on the tailgate of Rick’s truck. Her sprained ankle was wrapped with an elastic bandage. Charity’s boyfriend Shane had come to the mall and picked her up, and Bible-thumping Bob had left a minute ago.

  “Who the hell was that guy in the suit again?” Rick asked.

  “Mr. Obnoxious.” Jake had already explained Bob’s religious fervor. “I was tempted to kick his ass more than once.”

  Matt laughed. “That bad?”

  Jake didn’t know where to begin. “You have no idea. Kathleen was having a hell of a time. I could tell she wanted to tear him a new one.”

  Rick said, “Can you blame her?”

  They all knew Kathleen’s background and why she’d wanted to punch Bob Ceno. Jake didn’t mention it because it reminded him of his own culpability. Yeah, he’d screwed the pooch way back then and hadn’t supported her the way he should have. Was that the reason he’d wanted to protect her so fiercely? Because he hadn’t all those years ago?

  “You guys okay?” Jake asked.

  Rick smiled and looked a bit sheepish. “Lena’s refusing to have her ankle looked at but I’m taking her home.”

  “She drove, right?” Matt asked.

  Rick shrugged. “Yeah, but she needs someone to talk to right now and I don’t want to leave her alone.”

  “Uh-huh.” Jake had a feeling all three of them were headed into dangerous ground but didn’t have a damn clue how to stop it.

  “Would you look at that?” Rick said.

  Jake looked over and saw Lena, Melanie and Kathleen in a group hug. “Women.”

  Matt chuckled and his eyebrows went up. “What, you don’t want a hug?”

  “Fuck off,” Jake said playfully. “Come on, let’s take care of the ladies.”

  Matt walked over to talk to Melanie and Jake had a feeling they’d end up together tonight. Rick asked about Lena’s ankle. She tried to brush it off but Rick lifted her into his arms.

  When Kathleen’s gaze met Jake’s, he saw raw need flare in her eyes, a longing for something he couldn’t define. He reached for her hand and walked away with her.

  “We’ll see you later,” he said to Melanie and Matt.

  “Where are we going?” Kathleen said as he led her toward his rental sedan.

  “I’ll take you to your hotel.”

  She smiled at him but there was something uncertain in her eyes. Maybe she wasn’t that different from when she was a sixteen-year-old. She’d always had an interesting combination of vulnerability and bravado. She’d shown both of those attributes in the storage room tonight.

  “You hungry? We can pick up some food,” he said.

  She sighed. “I’m dying for a hamburger and fries.”

  “We’ll swing by the burger place on the main street. They’re open until really late.”

  They climbed into his sedan and as she tried to buckle her seat belt, it defeated her. He frowned and reached for the belt.

  “I’ve got it.” She snapped the words as she recovered and closed the belt. “I’m just a bit tired.”

  “I can see that.”

  She threw a glance at him but this time it had apology written all over it. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m…”

  “Jumpy?”

  “Yeah. What about you?”

  “I’m a bit jumpy too. I say we have those burgers and raid your minibar. That’ll take the edge off.”

  Surprise filled her eyes but then she smiled. “You’re a bit wild these days. When you were seventeen you never would have raided anyone�
�s minibar.”

  He laughed. “You would have.”

  She sighed, and he heard the resignation and the teasing in her voice. “Yeah. I would have, Major Frasier. Your parents must be proud of you and your career.”

  He shrugged. “Mom is unimpressed.”

  “I still can’t believe that. She was in the marines. That should count for something with her, that all three of her sons are in the military.”

  He grunted. “You’d think so.”

  His mother was a piece of work, no denying it. She’d been a marine for twenty years, hard as nails and lacking motherly tenderness. Their father, though, had picked up where mom left off. He’d been a house husband most of twenty years and suffered the prejudice that went along with it. But he was a brave, good man and had given Jake and his brothers an excellent foundation.

  Jake started the engine and soon they’d pulled out of the mall parking lot and onto the street. “You all right?”

  “I don’t know. I think so.”

  “You did good in there.”

  “In the storage room?”

  “Yep.”

  She made a doubtful sound. “Bob got to me.”

  He glanced her way and saw a deep frown touching her pretty mouth. He ached low, his groin reacting with brutal intensity. If he could taste that mouth, he’d take away her frown. Damn. Calm down, boy. You aren’t getting any tonight.

  He wanted to ease her mind. “I don’t blame you. Bob is offensive and condescending. I’m sorry you were subjected to that.”

  She drew her thick hair back away from her face, stuffing her fingers into the mass of curls. His fingers itched to explore the soft strands and feel them brush across his body. An erotic image popped into his head of that hair touching his chest as she kissed her way down to his cock. Jesus, he had it bad.

  He swallowed hard. “It’s a trigger for you. It’s understandable.”

  “I don’t want it to be a trigger. I thought I was over this stuff.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up. You were trapped in the room with him. If you could have walked away it would’ve been different.”

  She unbuttoned her long trench coat and he caught a flash of black leggings, black boots up to her knees and a fluffy pink sweater. She looked good enough to eat.

  “Thank you for…” She hesitated. “For watching out for me.”

  “Anytime.”

  “Considering how things ended between us all those years ago, I wouldn’t think…” She trailed off once more.

  A craving started inside him but this one had nothing to do with sex. “Look, if you want to talk about it—”

  “There’s the burger place.” She pointed to the local joint they used to eat at as kids.

  Okay. So she didn’t want to discuss their past. Their very rocky, stormy past. Maybe he didn’t want to either. He’d buy her dinner, take her back to the hotel room and…leave her there to sleep.

  They made it through the drive-through in record time and she let him buy her the biggest combo. As they drove away, she clutched the food bag on her lap as if it was a lifeline, her gaze pinned somewhere in the distance. She didn’t speak on the way to the The Dixie. The Dixie was two stories of old-style hotel. One street off the main drag, the hotel had few amenities enclosed in its old building. She directed him to the end of a row and her first-floor room. He brought the sedan to a halt.

  “Come inside,” she said.

  Not much longer and she sat on the king-sized bed trying not to spill fries and messy burger all over the dull yellow comforter, and wondered if she’d lost her mind.

  I freaking invited this hot, totally ripped man into my hotel room.

  Now that she was here with Jake nervousness had taken hold. He didn’t have the demeanor of a man interested in a night of sex. He sat at the desk, munching fries and taking a big bite out of his double burger. He ate with enthusiasm, as if he’d never tasted anything better in his life. She watched without remorse. Yeah, she’d told Lena and Melanie she wanted a one-night stand with this man and part of her really, really did. The other part wished she’d never invited him. Not because she feared him. Hell no. She knew without a doubt he’d never hurt her. In fact, she knew he’d protect her with his life. Maybe that was what was wrong with her. This mouth-watering soldier had flipped her libido into overdrive when he’d taken care of her in the mall. An equally defiant part of her reared its head. She didn’t like a man taking care of her, making decisions for her. But he hasn’t. He’d waited and watched, been there when she needed but never intrusively. Damn him. Could he be any sexier? She didn’t think so. Maybe naked. Yeah. That.

  As a teen he’d been good-looking with that hint of the man he’d become. Girls had drooled over him, including her. At thirty-one he’d grown into tall, rugged, delicious man who fired up all her female needs.

  “Something wrong with your burger?” he asked.

  She looked away, realizing she’d been staring like she’d been starving and he was a piece of meat. “No. It’s great.”

  Before she’d decided to eat, she’d stripped off her boots and coat. The Spartan room wouldn’t impress anyone but she’d been too cheap to sign up for a week at the more upscale Monterey Hotel down the street. This place would have to do. Although it was only Sunday night, she felt as if she’d aged a year. Now the noise, confusion and fear had drained away she felt weak as a lamb and hated it. She dove into her burger with gusto.

  They ate in silence, and then she realized that if she planned to seduce him she’d better get into the bathroom and brush her teeth. She smiled.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked, shoving the remnants of burger and maybe a half dozen fries into the bag.

  She sure as hell wouldn’t confess to what she’d just been thinking. “If anyone had told me yesterday that I’d be with you in a hotel room eating a burger, I’d have told them they were full of crap.”

  He chuckled and his rugged features transformed from scary handsome to charming and approachable. She blinked, afraid he was a mirage.

  “I don’t think I would’ve believed it either.” He turned the desk chair toward her and sat with his long legs sprawled out. He clasped his hands at his waist. “So, McSwain, I hear you’re a graphics designer with a film company. You like the job?”

  People expected her to say yes. She knew Jake had heard where she worked when they’d been at Danelle and Patrick’s party this weekend. She knew he was only making polite conversation.

  But she would be honest with him. “No.”

  His eyes widened. “Really?”

  She took a long sip of diet cola. “Really. I live in Los Angeles and I’m starting to hate the smog and noise and… You get the idea. The film company I work with is full of self-important twits. My boss has decided that since no one else in the office wants to do their jobs, he’ll just ask me to do it all.”

  “Oh man. I’m sorry about that. You got a line on a new job?”

  She drew in a deep breath and chewed a fry before answering. “No. I decided last week I need to, though.”

  “Staying in L.A.?”

  “I have some friends in the area but I don’t know if I want to stay there. What about you? Are you going for twenty years in the army?”

  “Yep. I love my job.”

  “Even the war?”

  “No. No one with half a brain wants war.”

  Worry touched her. “You’re all right, though? Did it…affect you?”

  “You mean did I come back with PTSD or something?”

  “Yes.”

  He shook his head. “I’m all right.”

  “You’re sure?”

  He smiled. “I’m sure. Not everyone comes back with PTSD, you know.”

  She polished off another fry and topped it with a swig of cola. “I know. Lena works with a lot of vets with PTSD. It seems like it’s rampant.”

  His eyes were dark and serious. “A long war damages a lot of soldiers. Not all of it’s visible on the outside. Mo
re than ten years of war makes a hell of a mess.”

  She sighed. “Yes.”

  A smile warmed his mouth again. “Thanks for the concern. I would have thought…”

  “Thought what?”

  “After the way things ended between us, I thought you hated my guts.”

  “I never hated your guts.” Memories flooded her, far deeper and more severely than they had in recent times. “I know what I said but that was a teenager talking.”

  I hate you. I hate you. I hope you die. Those words rang in her head on lonely nights. “All through the rest of high school and college, I wondered if I’d cursed you. If I’d wake up some morning with a call that you’d been killed. It terrified me.”

  “But there I was still in high school with you and then you heard about me from time to time while we were away in college, right?”

  Big confession time. “Lena or Melanie would hear and they’d tell me. I almost told them not to but in the back of my mind I couldn’t bear not knowing what was happening with you. So like I said, I’m sorry I said those awful things to you.”

  He leaned forward, his eyes pinning her with concern. “You were a hurt teenager who didn’t deserve what was happening to her.”

  Tears welled up and scared her. She didn’t cry, at least not in front of others. “So my father was a nutjob holy roller who liked to beat me when I didn’t agree with his religious doctrine. There are worse things.”

  His brows furrowed. “Not much. Where’s your brother?”

  “Timothy is doing well, thank God. He’s getting his doctorate in philosophy. He’s the eternal student.” She smiled at the thought of skinny, tall, nerdy Timothy. “He’s the strongest in the family. He doesn’t seem to have the issues I have.” She swallowed a lump in her throat. “That my sister had.”

  “Maybe he just hasn’t told you about his issues. People can stuff a lot of shit.”

  “Is that what you do?”

  Bingo. He went silent for a second before he said, “Yep. That’s what I do sometimes, and then I realize I have to work things out in my head. And I go for a run or pump some iron to help me think.” His honesty took her off guard and she stared at him. Before she could speak, he said, “Maybe your brother deals with your past family life by always being a student. He doesn’t have to go into the real world as often.”