Code of Control (10 page)

“I would have
thought accusing a woman of a little night patrol would have been incentive
enough for her to shoot you,” Devon replied with a hard smile.

“Did I not tell
you to shut the hell up?”

His shamelessly
grinning brother winning another round, Nolan made a quick glance toward
Charlotte. She was refusing to look at either of them now.

After morning
chores, she’d cornered him and they’d had a shortened talk that he did not at
all want happening. She’d given him an ultimatum, and he in turn callously warned
her to back off. They were now at a draw. She hadn’t backed off and he was not
getting what he wanted, either.

“Shooting you
has nothing to do with any partnership. This is ridiculous.” She threw her
hands in the air. “You’re asking me to do the impossible, Nolan.”

He removed his
Kevlar vest. “I need to trust you—expect you not to crack under the pressure.”
He tossed the Kevlar at Devon’s relentlessly grinning face.

Charlotte rose,
jamming her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “I’m going inside. When you
come to your senses, let me know.” She gave him a sidelong glance then stomped
away. He needed to reroute her flight before fight mode, quickly.

“Charlotte?” She
halted but did not turn around, her head bent down. “If you don’t do this now,
you might as well go home.”

“Don’t threaten
me with stupidity, Nolan.”

“It wasn’t a
threat.” He growled under his breath, clenching his jaw tight. It was; perhaps
she would accept it as anything but.

“No?”

“No,” he said
firmly.

She turned to
look at Devon. “Is he serious?”

Devon’s gaze
slipped to Nolan then back to her. “Unfortunately, he is. My brother has a way
about him that grates the skin raw.”

“And you’re fine
with this?” she asked incredulously.

Devon shrugged.
“Kill him if you want. If he dies, I get the farm, although it is not in my
best interest to run a dairy farm when I have better things to do with my time.”

“That’s—that
is…” She looked too startled to continue.

“Charlotte, what
about facing your fears?” Nolan probed, interrupting them.

Her gaze whipped
toward his like a viper to its prey.

“Fuck my fears!
You’re the one who wants them fixed, not me.”

“I don’t care
what you fear,” he answered casually.

“The hell you
don’t!”

“Why would I?”

“You do, because
you have this huge Spartacus complex that is about to burst at the seams.”

“A what?”

“You want to be
the alpha male, king of the hill. When anything or anyone tries to contradict
this you turn stupid.”

He stormed
toward her, reaching for her elbow. “That is not what you said to me when in
the hotel, sweetheart. You said a ton of shit that I hadn’t wanted to hear, but
not once did you call me an alpha male.”

“I—I” Her mouth
opened and closed, her eyes filling with tiny sparks of anger.

“In fact, you
said…,” he added, likely pushing on her last straw.

Charlotte’s hand
rose faster than he could react. She slapped him as hard as she could. “Don’t
you dare finish that, Nolan Morgan, or I’ll break every bone in your body this
time.”

He set his palm
to his flaming cheek. Dammit. She really needed to stop belting him in the
face. “Charlotte…”

“No!” she yelled.
“What I might have mistakenly told you was just that, a mistake. Don’t you dare
use it against me now. Nor speak of it in front of your brother. I was drunk.
You made me that way.”

He watched with
fascination the veins in her neck pulsate.

“I made you? Damn,
sweetheart, I did not pour the alcohol down your throat. You did that all on
your own.”

If angry with
him, then she going to Devon, he’d have ample excuse to hate the both of them. At
this point, he despised only himself for falling into a beautiful woman’s trap
with no foreseeable way out of it without someone getting hurt, namely that
someone—the one who least expects it—him.

Therefore, he’d
gotten her pissed; exactly what he wanted.

Chapter Eleven

Devon walked up
to him, but Nolan did not want to face his twin’s accusations until he had the
chance to calm down.

“What do you
want?” he verbally rushed at his brother.

“Not a damn
thing,” Devon said, smiling.

“I know you, Dev.
We shared a womb. You want something or you would not have gotten up this early.”

His brother drew
in a deep breath, held it, and then glared. “What I want is for you to grow up.
This does not look about to happen anytime soon, so I’ll settle for just telling
you like it is.”

Nolan stood
tall, balling his fists. “Dare to continue on that train wreck?” he warned his
twin.

Devon nodded. “I
dare, because you’ve been on your high horse for far too long and I’m sick of
it. Looks like others are finally sick of it, too.”

“Go fuck
yourself,” Nolan grumbled, unclenching his hands to gather up the gear. He did not
want to get into a row with Devon, still smarting about Charlotte getting the
upper hand, but such was life.

Devon suddenly grabbed
his arm, his grip tight. “I’d rather fuck the hot woman you’re pushing in my
face. It’d be a hell of a lot more fun than dealing with you right now.”

Nolan gained freedom
from restraint, his brother older but Nolan much stronger. “I’m not pushing…”

“The hell you’re
not!”

“I can’t help it
if she wants you over me. She had her chance. She made her choice.”

“Dammit, bro. You
pushed her into that choice. I did not come here to cause riff between you and
she.” Devon’s head jerked toward the house. “I’m here to do technical training,
that’s all. You’re the one trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.”

“There’s not a riff
between Charlotte and me,” he counteracted.

“Are you stupid?
I have eyes.” Devon’s gaze slipped to the farmhouse again. “I bet she’s packing
her suitcase as we speak.”

“Good,” Nolan
ground out; furious his brother would call him stupid—aloud.

“Dammit, bro…”

“No. I mean it.
It would be better for all if she jumps ship and quits before too much time is
involved…or wasted.”

“Is that what
you really want? Reading your face right now, I’d say Charlotte leaving with
her tail between her legs is the last thing you want her to do.”

Nolan’s pulse
went screaming through his veins. “What I want no longer matters.”

“Why?”

“Dammit, Dev! You
slept with her last night. I can’t get my head past that.”

“The fuck I did.
She made me sleep on the floor. No matter what I did or said to you to get your
goat today, my ass was still on the floor.”

Nolan’s widening
gaze stared at his twin. “Don’t lie to me Dev. You’ve never slept on a floor
when there’s an available body to impale.”

“That body
wasn’t available,” he muttered, gathering up the remaining gear. “Believe me.”

“Bullshit!”

“Seriously, I’m
not lying to you about this. Why would I?” His eyes trapped Nolan’s. “She has
this huge hang up about you. I don’t know how long you’ve known each other, or
how long you have been fucking her, but she’s really into you, and no one is
going to move her past that for quite some time.” He set the shells back into
the box, unused. They were blanks, but Charlotte hadn’t been told this.

“She can’t
possibly have a hang up about me,” Nolan answered.

“Oh, yeah? Then
how come she cried out your name at least twice during the middle of the night,
scaring the shit out of me?”

Nolan shrugged. “How
the hell should I know?”

“I’ll tell you
how you should know. You’re lying to yourself about the fact there is not anything
going on between you two.”

“There’s not. I
met her two days ago. I took her to a hotel, yes. We did screw each other, but
it was not supposed to mean anything. Mindless sex with a stranger, nothing
more. When she waltzed into my office for the partner interview, I’d been
floored, to say the least. She’d been just as surprised to see me as I was to
see her.”

Devon’s eyebrows
rose. “Are you shitting me?”

“I wish I was,” Nolan
grumbled.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. I
did not know her from Eve two days ago.”

“And yet…” Devon’s
gaze slipped back to the farmhouse. His smile grew tenfold. “Fuck, bro!”

“What now?” Nolan
asked.

“You’re in deep
shit.” He chuckled loudly, perhaps to make his point more clear.

Unfortunately, Nolan
was not in a joyful mood. “I know.”

“What are you
going to do about her if she’s not in there packing?”

“Continue where
we left off.”

“How?”

“I don’t know
how!
The plan is to get her back out here and do what needs doing.”

“Shooting you?”

Nolan shook his
head. “Trusting me. Pulling the trigger is just a small part of it.”

“Then what?”

“Then the three
of us go to work and take care of
OSHIT
’s latest problem. We’ve been
hired to do a job and I plan on doing that job, no further discussion.”

“I’m not going
anywhere with the two of you,” Devon replied quickly.

“Why not?” His
brother’s fast retort sounded truthful, but without Devon Nolan would be at a
loss on the technical side of things. He needed his brother on the team to
crack the codes. Charlotte may be great, but she’s not tested, confirming her
abilities.

“Tactical Team 2
needs me a hell of lot more than you do. You’re on your own with this one.”

Nolan’s jaw
twitched. “I can’t be on my own with her. She’ll get us killed!”

Devon glanced at
the farmhouse again. No sign of Charlotte anywhere. “I’m wondering if you
protesting as hot as you are is that you believe it the other way around and
you’re just trying to cover your tracks.”

“What is that
supposed to mean, asshole?”

“You’ll figure
it out soon enough,” Devon said cryptically. “Hopefully, before we have to dig
another hole.”

Nolan glanced at
the house. He could not imagine what Charlotte was doing inside, other than getting
ready to leave him for better things.

“Go in there,
talk to her,” Devon suggested. “Stop being the alpha bully in a one-man wolf
pack.”

“T—the what?”

“You heard me, Nolan.”

“I heard you. I
can’t believe you would ever call me that.”

“Why not? It’s
true.”

“I’m not an
alpha bully. Hell, I’m not alpha anything these days.”

“No, you’re not.
You’re a goddamn moron when it comes to women.”

Nolan clenched
his jaw. “The last time you called me a moron, I made you eat the word with my
fist.”

“Hey, if the
shoe fits…”

“My fist is
going to fit your fat mouth, sooner than you think, bro,” Nolan threatened.

Devon pretended
fear. “So scared, Little Brother.”

“Little by only
two fucking minutes! Why must you always bring that up?”

Devon walked away.
“Because it’s true,” he responded over his shoulder.

“True or not, I
know you pushed me out of the way to get out of Mom first and it still pisses
me off.” Unfortunately, his brother was no longer in hearing distance at that
point.

Nolan took a
deep breath, swallowed his pride, and walked toward the farmhouse. He found
Charlotte sitting on the end of his bed. She looked up upon his entry.

“Why are you in
here?” he asked, stopping dead in his tracks. The sight of her on his bed
tightened his loins.

“This is where
Devon threw my clothes. Funny thing though, I can’t seem to find them, and I don’t
want to snoop through your closet.”

He stepped into
the room, shutting the door behind his back. His gaze had drawn to her empty
suitcase lying on his bed. She hadn’t packed a thing, although it looked as if she’d
meant to.

Charlotte’s brow
furrowed, she said nothing more to him, so he moved forward and sat down next
to her.

“We need to talk,”
he openly admitted.

She shook her
head. “No, we don’t. I need to find my clothes, and then get the hell out of
here before you lose your mind and make me do something you can’t fix.”

Nolan tipped up
her chin when her head suddenly lowered. He could tell tears had fallen, quite
recently. Moisture pooled the corners of her eyes, and there were shadowed traces
of fallen tears down both cheeks.

“What’s this?”
he asked, his thumb removing another small, telltale sign from an emotional
failure.

She maneuvered
her head out of his hand. “Nothing,” she said, sniffing back more of them.

“Tears aren’t
nothing, Charlotte,” he warned softly.

This time, she
looked him square in the face. “I’m done playing your games, Nolan. I can’t do this
anymore. I thought I could, but I can’t.”

“What game am I
playing now?”

“You’re trying
to use me to shove a wedge between you and your brother,” she said. “I don’t
want to be used in that way.”

“I know,” he
rasped out, feeling horrible for doing it.

“You know?”

Nolan nodded. “I
have been doing exactly this thing from the moment he walked through the front door.
I’m sorry.” His breath came out of his lungs in one fell swoop, his pride
lowering to his knees. “Devon assured me I am a moron, and at this point, I’m
quite convinced of it, too.”

“How so?” she
wondered softly.

“I’m pushing you
away on purpose.”

She drew in a
hurried breath. “So, you admit you’ve been doing it?”

“Yes, I admit
it. It wasn’t nice, nor what I wanted, but there is something about you I can’t
get past, and the easiest route for me to walk was to push you away.” When she
did not contradict this, he added, “Can you forgive me? I’ve been such an ass
with you. It was not my intention when hiring you.”

“Should I
forgive you?”

“It’s your
choice.”

Her sigh reached
inside him, grabbing hold of his nuts.

“Fine. I won’t
leave,” she said. “Not yet anyway. But I’m sleeping in here tonight, whether
you like it or not.”

“Why?”

She gave him a
soft smile. “Your bed is comfortable.”

Nolan’s grin
slowly grew. “And quite useable I’m told.”

“Don’t push your
luck,” she warned. “I’m sleeping in here. Not because you win this round, but
because your brother’s snoring is atrocious and I’d never get any rest for at
least two weeks.”

Although to hear
Devon snores bothered her did make him smile, he said, “I wasn’t pushing
anything. I was just making conversation.”

“Then perhaps we
should talk about something else,” she suggested.

“Like what?”

“Who is in that
photograph?” Her hand raised, her finger pointed at the frame near his bed.

A sudden lump
grew in his throat; momentarily it choked off his words. “That would be my
daughter.”

Charlotte was on
her feet within seconds. “You’re
what
?”

He took extra moments
to answer this. “It’s a photograph of my daughter.”

“She looks about
twenty years old! Did you have her when you were fifteen?”

“She’s sixteen,
not twenty. She’s got her mother’s model looks and she knows how to use them to
her advantage, believe me.”

“But—”
Charlotte’s mouth open and closed, her eyes darting back to the photograph.

Nolan stood,
moving toward it. He rubbed his finger over the glass, removing the thin layer
of accumulated dust. He then turned back to the woman behind him, her mouth still
agape.

“Her name is
Carolyn. She’s sixteen going on thirty, a father’s worst nightmare.”

“Why isn’t she
here? Where is she?”

“She’s in Paris.”

“Paris?”

“Yes, Paris, finding
her way.”

“Finding her way?”
Charlotte parroted.

“I don’t hold my
daughter back from living her life, any more than she gives a rat’s ass what I
do with mine. She’s spending a year in Paris, then it’ll be a year in Italy.
After that, the plans are still up in the air.”

“I—I,” she
sputtered.

“Like I said…you
and I need to talk.”

“It would seem
so, Mr. Morgan.”

“Want to sit
down?” he suggested, jerking his head toward the bed.

“Um, no. I would
rather stand for this confession,” she ruled.

“Suit yourself.”
Nolan sat, leaning back on his elbows. While Charlotte paced in front of him,
her hands jammed into her back pockets, his groan had to stay in check. The
motion of her hands behind her back was pulling her T-shirt taut across her
ample chest, and it was all he could do not to throw her on his bed and make
love to her.