Fire and Ice (Guardians) (5 page)

The three jackasses didn't waste anytime jumping into their jeep to drive away. "Later, Detective Tanner," they called out.

Tanner turned his attention fully on Maia.

"You new in town? I'm Detective Rick Tanner."

"Yes, I just got in yesterday."

"Got a name?"

"Uh, Maia."

"Well, Maia, I'm sorry about your intro into the town of Westcove. Syd, Tommy and Benny drove in three weeks ago and have been nothing but trouble. Funny thing is no one wants to press charges. I'm keeping an eye on them. Now I know they are all scary and shit, but the offer still stands. You can come down to the station and press charges."

When Maia didn't answer, Rick continued. "I'm from another town myself. Got assigned here because of some trouble trickling down from the bigger cities."

Maia stiffened. "What kind of trouble?"

"Sorry, can't talk about an ongoing investigation. You might reconsider running anywhere by yourself if you're staying for a while. Given the way you look, there's bound to be trouble."

Now what the hell did that mean? That I brought this on myself?
Maia thought angrily.

Rick read her mind and sighed. "Look, that didn't come out right. All I'm saying is you're a beautiful woman. Haven't seen someone as pretty as you. Ever."

Oh, now he's flirting. She could do flirty.

Maia smiled her sultry smile. It obviously had the desired effect on detective as his jaw slackened in response.

"I better head back. See you around... detective."

And with that, Maia turned around and headed back to the stonehouse on the cliff.

***

"I can bake pies," Maia declared to Grace Banning. "I make my dough from scratch too, all butter."

She was hanging out in the kitchen having lunch. Grace whipped up a mustardy-mayo dressing from scratch. That meant starting from an egg-yolk and whisking in the oil slowly. Maia liked nothing better than homemade mayonnaise. A sandwich of prosciutto, provolone cheese, roasted Piquillo peppers and that special dressing between freshly baked focaccia bread was simply divine. Maia could get used to living here. She loved to eat.

She remembered her foster parents. Viktor had been in her life since she was twelve and placed her with a couple he knew personally. He began to train her as soon as she turned fifteen. The training could get brutal but she was lucky. Her foster parents were loving and warm, which was probably why Viktor chose them: so they could balance out
 
the harshness and coldness that she had to endure under him. Her foster mom loved to cook and she baked everything from scratch.

"Jack loves pies," Grace informed her and smiled. Maia rolled her eyes. She liked Jack's housekeeper except for the way she believed Jack walked on water. Grace was fifty-years old, and was slender with long blond hair held up tightly in a French twist. She moved so gracefully in the kitchen she gave new meaning to domestic elegance. Her older sister Betty ran an upscale grocery store in town and all Grace had to do was email her the order and Betty's son, Kyle, would drop off the goods every few days. Such was life in a small town.

Grace shared that Betty was recently widowed and that her seventeen-year old son was helping his mom out as much as he could.
 

"That's hard. What about college?" Maia asked.

"Kyle may have to skip the first year of college until his mom can handle the grocery store by herself or afford to hire more help. He is such a bright kid, it would be a shame if he didn't get the opportunity," Grace said sadly.

"So what do you want for dinner tonight?" Grace asked her.

"No dinner for tonight, Grace," Jack said as he strode into the kitchen. "You can go home at 3pm since you had to come in early. I'm taking Maia out tonight to sample Westcove Tavern's famous burgers." A thought occurred to Jack and he asked Maia, "You do eat meat, right?"

"Heck, yeah. I love my meat," Maia replied without thinking and could have kicked herself when Jack raised an eyebrow and grinned wickedly at the double-meaning.

"There's hope yet," Jack drawled.

"Maia makes pies from scratch," Grace piped in as she turned around to prepare a sandwich for Jack.

"I love pies," Jack said. "Are you taking requests? My favorite is apple pie."

It looked like Jack had gotten over his snit this morning, Maia thought.

"This weekend."

Jack groaned. "I'm at New Park this Saturday but will be back that evening. Can I have it for Sunday breakfast?"

"Apple pie for breakfast?" Maia thought that weird.

"Did you miss the part where I said I love pie," Jack retorted.

"Pie for breakfast it is."

Grace's back was to the couple talking about pie, but she was smiling broadly at their exchange.

"Man, you are right. This is one of the best burgers I've ever had," Maia declared, licking her fingers clean.

They were late getting into Westcove Tavern because Jack's meeting ran too long. The place was packed on a Thursday night, so they opted to sit at the bar because customers occupied every available booth and table.

"Sorry for getting you here so late. You looked like you were ready to eat me for dinner when I got out of that meeting," Jack teased, but Maia didn't fall for his double-meaning again. He'd been making sexual innuendos the whole afternoon but she had successfully ignored them.

He was right though, by 8:30 pm she was starving, and probably looked murderous. She did not do hungry well.

"Girl, you did a good job with that burger. How do you stay so skinny?" Their bartender, Tina, came back to clear their plates.

"You don't wanna know," Maia replied.
 

Jack chuckled.

"Another beer?"

"No, I'm switching to tequila later. Give me a few minutes," Maia told Tina.

"So you're a tequila kind of girl, huh?" Jack said, his eyes twinkling. He was obviously in a good mood.

Maia didn't respond; she had been distracted by a group of rowdy guys having an argument a few seats over. They needed to call it a night, since they had clearly had too much to drink. One of the results of her job was heightened vigilance of possible threats. It would take a few days for her to decompress and stop seeming paranoid. Which was why she loved the ocean: listening to waves rolling in brought her to her zen place.

"Maia?"

She stiffened and felt Jack freeze beside her too.

She turned around and faced Detective Rick Tanner.

Oh, fuck
.

"I thought that was you. Never forget a pretty face. Now, what did I say about going around by yourself," Rick admonished. For a detective, he was certainly clueless not to have picked up that she was there with Jack, unless he thought that Jack had picked her up because they were sitting at the bar.

"Actually, she's here with me," Jack said bitingly, possessiveness and territoriality emanating from him forcefully. "What I wanna know is how you met Maia, Rick?"

Okay, no introductions necessary, they know each other.

Rick frowned. "Maia was accosted on the beach this morning by three fuckwads who rolled into town three weeks ago." He looked at Maia questioningly and a little bit smug, as if he knew something Jack didn't. "You didn't tell him? Honey, there's no shame ..."

"Detective..." Maia quickly tried to shush him. Jeez, for a detective he sure had a big mouth.

"It wasn't your fault ..."

"Detective ...."

"...they touched you..."

"They did what?" Jack roared, his eyes slicing through Maia, waves of fury rolling off him; she was pretty sure they were not directed at her. "Why the fuck didn't you tell me?"

"Don't you dare yell at me, Jack McCord!"

"Now, Jack, she was pretty shaken when I got there. They really freaked her out and maybe she wasn't ready to talk about the incident" Rick explained in a concillatory tone.

Jack's expression shifted from anger to incredulity as if he could not decide how to process the detective's conclusion that she had been freaked out—she who had just taken out eight Russian mercs that past week. Jack's face turned red, and then he laid his elbow on the bar and lowered his head on it, his shoulders shaking.

The detective looked worried. "You okay, man?"
 

Jack's shoulder shook a little harder.

Maia thought that this would be an excellent time to use the ladies' room and started to hightail it out of there.

Rick started. "Maia..."

As Maia took a few steps forward, she felt her neck prickle as she observed the rowdy boys getting more agitated, just as she heard Rick shout, "Maia, look out!"

A massive drunk body started hurtling towards her. She instinctively bent at the torso and flipped the guy over her back, using his momentum to throw him over. She sank to a lunge to steady herself before straightening up to see everyone who had witnessed what had happened gaping at her.

"Motherfucker!"

"Holy shit!"

"Did you see that?"

"You go, girl!"

Maia wished the floor would swallow her up. She just couldn't do normal.

Rick Tanner was too stunned to say anything. Jack stood up quickly and threw a couple of bills on the bar. "Tina, we're outta here," he said urgently.

"What? I was going to give that girl free tequila for that show!" Tina protested.

Jack gripped Maia's arm and muttered, "Let's go." And proceeded to weave them both out of the crowded tavern.

When they got to Jack's vintage '65 Ford pick-up, he stopped and turned her around leaning her on the hood. "There's never a dull moment when you're around, is there?"

Just when Maia thought Jack was going to kiss her, they both heard footsteps approaching.

It was Rick.

"Maia, I never got your last name."

"Pierce," she replied instantly. Hesitating would only arouse suspicion.

"Well, Maia Pierce, I think there's more to you than meets the eye."

Oh hell
.

"Have a good evening." Rick lifted his chin at Jack. "Jack." And then the good detective left.

She was so screwed.

CHAPTER THREE

"You certainly had an interesting first day," Jack said, glancing briefly over to Maia who was contemplating the scenery through her window while his pick-up navigated by a row of expensive beach houses. "Why didn't you tell me about the incident at the beach?"

"Jack, seriously? You knowing what I do for a living? What those losers did was insignificant in the grand scheme of things," Maia said in irritation.
 

"Rick said they touched you," Jack said roughly, his anger returning.

"I let them touch me. There's a difference. It was either that or blow my cover," Maia said as if explaining something to a child. Then she looked at Jack and saw his hands had tightened on the steering wheel, his knuckles turning white. "It was nothing, they didn't fondle me or anything, just licked my neck and brushed my breast."

Okay, that was not the right thing to say, Jack looked like he was ready to commit murder. Every molecule of air seemed to have been sucked out of the cabin. What was with this overprotective macho-bullshit? Jack knew she could take care of herself.

"You may want to loosen your grip on that steering wheel, buddy. You've got a vintage truck here," Maia said, trying to cut the tension with some humor.

Jack didn't answer. The muscle of his jaw started working as if he was clenching his teeth too hard.

It didn't take long for the pick-up to pull into the driveway leading to the stonehouse. Maia longed to crash into that soft bed; she was so ready for the day to be over.

Jack was furious about two things: that some jerks had touched Maia and that she would do anything—even let those assholes touch her—just to protect her cover. The questions that had twisted in his gut early that morning came rushing back. How far was she willing to go to protect her precious job? Was sex really a part of her arsenal, what kind of company was AGS to allow that?

Well, he intended to find out right away.

He didn't even bother parking the truck in the garage, but he stopped just in front of the stonehouse, yanked the keys out of the ignition, slammed out of the car and darted right around to the passenger side. Maia had already started exiting the truck, but Jack tugged the door from out of her grasp, reached in for her wrist and dragged her around to the side of the truck. Caging her between his arms, he pressed down her body with the length of his.

"Hey!" Maia yelped, more in annoyance than anger.

"So what exactly would you do to protect your cover?" Jack asked softly.

"Step back!"
 

He didn't budge.

"I'm warning you, Jack!" Maia eyes glittered with her rising temper.

"Answer me!"

"Go to hell! Stop pissing me off!"
 

She tried to kick out but his muscular thighs were keeping her locked in. He quickly held both her wrists down to keep her arms immobile at her sides. Jack knew that in close proximity his strength had the advantage over her, she had no momentum and no leverage. He had her.

"Do you fuck them?"

"It's none of your goddamn business!"
 

"Do. You. Fuck. Them?" he thundered.

"Fuck you!"

"Well, sweetheart, that's the idea."
 

He crushed his mouth against her so savagely he tasted blood. He leaned her across the hood of the pick-up and pulled her arms apart while viciously thrusting his tongue through her lips not caring if she bit him.

She ignited and started returning his kisses. He groaned and delved further into her mouth, coaxing her tongue to tangle with his. He released her wrists and lifted her a little to spread her legs to accommodate his hips. Her newly freed hands slid up his head to sift wildly through his thick black hair. He became instantly hard, his erection straining against his jeans, and he started grinding and rubbing against her crotch. One hand went to cradle the back of her head while the other lifted one leg to grip her closer as he continued thrusting into her.

"Jack..." Maia breathed, her gorgeous eyes glazed with desire.