JOSS: A Standalone Romance (Gray Wolf Security) (5 page)

Carrington

Joss was standing by the main doors of the school when I pulled up to pick up McKelty later that afternoon. She stepped down from the steps and came over, her expression unreadable.

“Good day?”

She nodded.

“Where was the photographer?”

Joss pointed to a building behind and to the right of us. I turned and studied the top of the building, looking for any sign that someone was watching us. My phone buzzed as I looked. I tugged it out of my pocket—almost as an afterthought—only to discover a text message from Joss.

Our liaison with the LAPD sent a team to check it out. She doesn’t think they’ll be back.

“How can she be sure?” I asked, turning back to her.

Joss caught my eye and studied my face for a second. Then she began to type into her phone again.

Because they were just trying to frighten you. And they did.

That was true. I was frightened. But I wasn’t sure Joss fully understood the nature of the threat.

“Did Ash tell you who I think is doing this?”

She didn’t respond, just stared at me with those big, blue eyes with the tinniest specks of green.

“There are several illegal organizations working out of Los Angeles that need the ability to transport large items to and from certain foreign countries. They approached me more than six months ago, offering to pay me triple to use my shipping business for their illegal transactions. I refused.”

Her eyebrows rose and that annoyed me. Did she really think I was the kind of guy who would allow such a thing to take place? If so, she didn’t know me very well.

“My grandfather started Matthews Shipping with nothing but a loan from a bank and a willingness to work hard. He and my father both put all of their heart and soul into the company. I’m not going to be the one to spoil all of that.”

She touched my arm as she nodded again. And then we were suddenly surrounded by children as the school bell rang and class was dismissed. I turned just in time to see McKelty coming out of the door, her step lacking her normal enthusiasm.

“Hey, darlin’,” I said, kneeling to greet her. “How was school?”

McKelty glanced at Joss, then shrugged. “Okay.”

“Just okay?”

She shrugged. Another glance at Joss, and then she moved around me to get into the car. I stood and looked at Joss myself.

“What’s that all about?”

Joss shrugged, too.

Great. Two uncommunicative women.

Needless to say, the ride back to my office was silent. I turned on the radio just for the noise, caught by surprised to see Joss tapping her fingers on her thigh to the beat of a popular pop song. Her lips were moving too, though no sound was coming out.

She liked music. Interesting.

I set McKelty up on the couch in one corner of my office, her homework on her lap. I sat beside her, my laptop open to the list of emails that came in over the forty minutes it took me to pick her up. Joss was pacing the length of the room, her cell phone in her hands. She was talking to someone, and I was deeply curious to know whom that was. I told myself my interest was restricted to how the conversation she was having might impact McKelty and myself. I even believed it. A little.

McKelty wasn’t concentrating on her homework. She kept looking up at Joss, watching her move up and down the length of the room, her eyes glued to her phone.

“Was he your boyfriend?” she suddenly asked. “Everyone said he was.”

I looked up. Joss paused in her movements, her eyes jumping from my face to McKelty’s.

“Everyone thought he looked really nice, but I said he wasn’t your boyfriend just because he kissed you.”

“Excuse me?” I demanded, jumping to my feet. In the same motion, I shoved my computer onto the low coffee table. “You were kissing some guy while you were supposed to be watching over my daughter?”

Joss shook her head emphatically. She started typing into her phone and an instant later my phone buzzed.

He was a coworker. A friend. He was telling me what he found on that rooftop.

“He had to kiss you to tell you that?”

She crossed her arms over her chest, a look of defiance covering her gorgeous features.

I’d almost forgotten that McKelty was watching us until she asked, “Was he your boyfriend?”

Joss shook her head, her eyes falling on McKelty. She went to her, falling to her knees in front of her. She took the pencil out of McKelty’s hand and wrote a single word on her homework page.

Friend.

“That’s what I told everyone.”

Joss smiled, patting McKelty’s cheek lightly. She started to stand again, but McKelty grabbed her wrist.

“Do you know how to do multiplication?”

Joss nodded.

“Can you help me? I don’t understand.”

Joss glanced back at me. I waved at her, telling her with one of her own gestures to go for it.

Joss took a blank piece of paper from a stack beside McKelty and began writing. In a couple of minutes she had a multiplication table written out. Then she pointed at one of the problems on McKelty’s homework and showed her how to find the answer with the chart. McKelty watched closely.

“That’s all you have to do?”

Joss nodded.

She smiled. “That’s so much easier than how the teacher told us. She said we had to add the same number over and over, but I couldn’t remember which number it was we had to add or how to tell how many times to do it.”

Joss touched her shoulder, returning her smile. Then she stood again, returning to her pacing.

“Thanks for that,” I said as she passed me.

She handed me her phone, indicating a text message on the screen.

Warren’s people were able to get a few fingerprints from the rooftop. They weren’t as careful as they should have been. Should have an identity soon so we’ll know whom we’re fighting.

“That’s good, right?”

Joss nodded.

I studied her face and this horrible thought crossed my mind.  I hoped they didn’t figure it out too soon. I wasn’t ready to see Joss go.

Joss

I went up to my room as soon as we arrived at the house. David had everything covered with cameras and whatnot so well that there was no reason for me to stick around downstairs. I showered, enjoying the heat of the water falling over my head. I stood there much longer than I probably should have, my mind a blank. At least, I wanted it to be. Somehow, though, Carrington kept invading my thoughts.

He was nothing like the other men I’d known in my life. When I was in the Army, I quickly grew weary of the über-masculine men, who thought they were God’s gift to women. That was part of what drew me to Ash. He wasn’t trying to get into my pants all the time. I wouldn’t have minded if he had, at the time. But that was before, before he became my friend. Before he did the impossible and got justice for my husband and my boy.

All I ever wanted was a family. When my father died, he left a hole in my life. My mom tried, but she never really got over my father’s death. It was as if she died that day, too; it just took five years and a bottle of pills for it to become a reality. So, when I met Esteban while I was stationed in Texas, I saw an opportunity I needed. There’d been a few dalliances here and there, but never anything serious until Esteban. He believed in family as much as I did. He was ready to settle down in a way most men his age balked at. He was the perfect man—at the perfect time—for me. Neither of us could have imagined how it would end.

Carrington was a totally different kind of man from both the guys I served with in the Army and Esteban. He was clearly uninterested in a relationship. His focus was that little girl, something I could completely understand. If Isaac had survived…I couldn’t let my thoughts go in that direction. It was too hard. But I could appreciate Carrington’s priorities. But I also got the impression that he was the kind of man who loved hard when he did allow himself the opportunity. That both scared and excited me.

I found myself wondering about his long missing wife. What did she look like? Was she tall and model-esque, or small like me? Was she dark, one of those beautiful women with black hair and dark eyes? Or was she pale, like me, with blond hair and creamy white skin? Was his focus on McKelty in part because he was still in love with his wife? Did he see her when he looked at his daughter? It wasn’t any of my business, really. But I was curious.

I closed my eyes and saw the look on his face when McKelty asked me about Kirkland. It almost made me smile. If I didn’t know better, I would have said he was jealous. And that idea sent a spark of pleasure through me like nothing I’d ever felt before. Not that Carrington and I…what? He was a client. I was a professional. How many times had I chastised Kirkland for becoming involved with his targets? But, again, Donovan was about to marry one of his clients—though he’d known her since he was a child—and David had gotten involved with a client, though she wasn’t
his
client specifically. It was technically Donovan’s case. That hadn’t turned out well. These sorts of relationships were almost doomed before they started. How could two people sustain the excitement that came from a victim-protector relationship? It was impossible.

But knowing that didn’t make the attraction disappear.

I hadn’t been attracted to anyone since Esteban. I had simply accepted the fact that I would never have the family I’d so desperately craved since my father died. And I wasn’t interested in the type of thing Kirkland indulged in so often. Sex for the sake of sex wasn’t my thing. So why bother?

Yet, I wasn’t as dead as I’d thought either. When I looked at Carrington, things happened inside of me that I hadn’t felt in a long time. Things I hadn’t felt since I was a teenager…sneaking around with the captain of the football team. I thought those things disappeared with maturity, but maybe I was wrong.

Why did it have to be Carrington?

I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off with one of the heavy towels I took from the cabinet. I found myself wondering if Carrington had ever used this particular towel and then that led to thoughts of him standing in that huge bathroom in his master suite, naked in front of the long, wide mirror. I could almost see him, imagine what he’d look like wearing nothing but this towel. And the thought made my thighs press together, my nipples harden, and a blush darken the skin stretched across my high cheekbones.

I really had to stop.

I dressed in shorts and a clean t-shirt, crawled into bed, and tried to concentrate on a novel I’d picked up at the mall last week. It was the newest release in a series I’d been reading for years, one I’d been long anticipating. But I couldn’t concentrate. I finally just set it aside and turned out the lights, trying to pretend that I could actually sleep.

I couldn’t.

I texted Kirkland instead.

Can I ask you a question?

Always, je t’aime.

I smiled. I loved it when he revealed his roots. There was just something about Cajun French that made my heart flutter.

Have you ever been able to resist one of your clients?

How do you mean?

I mean attraction.

There was a long moment before the response came.

A few. Why?

How did you do it?

I don’t get involved with the married ones. Too much drama. And there were a couple who were just too high maintenance. I avoid that sort of thing.

Even when you’re attracted to them?

Even then. It’s self-preservation.

I smiled. That was such a Kirkland thing to say.

How do you turn down someone you’re attracted to?

Is there something you need to tell me, Joss? Have you finally decided to give me a chance?

I chuckled, a silent sound that shook the entire length of my body.

Just like you to think this is about you.

Seriously. What’s going on?

I didn’t want to answer that. What would he think of me when I told him I was having sexual feelings for a client? He’d call me a hypocrite. Tell me I was entertaining thoughts that I’d yelled at him over many, many times in the past. And he’d be right. I was a hypocrite.

Joss?

I don’t know. Maybe it’s this kid.

I knew that was going to be tough for you.

I’m okay. I just...I guess it’s just bringing up a lot of things I thought I’d put behind me.

Is there anything I can do?

Again, that was so Kirkland. Everyone thought he was so shallow because of the way he was with women. But, really, he was probably the most loyal friend I could ever want. Even more so than Ash in some ways. He’d gotten me through some dark nights just by simply being there. That was something that seemed really easy but that so few people could accomplish. And I would always love him for that.

No. But thanks.

Anytime, je t’aime. You know I’m always here for you.

I know. Get some sleep.

You too.

Easier said than done.

I put my phone down and closed my eyes, trying to clear my mind. But, of course, my thoughts went right to the last place I wanted them to go. Carrington. What was it about him that made it so that I couldn’t get him out of my head?

Kirkland once told me that I needed to get laid. He said that sex is a physical thing, like taking a jog. Sometimes the body just needed that release of endorphins. I was beginning to think he was right.

It had been a long time.

I laughed at myself. And then sleep slowly settled over me.

But then the dreams came.