Lover Claimed (3 page)

She groaned.

Probation. Again.

She hated being good for a year.

He stirred and her gaze shot back to his
face. She waited for him to open his pretty eyes. Pretty eyes? How
did she even know he had pretty eyes?

Because he looks like the type that
would
, she thought to herself.

Dark abundant lashes like his always framed
beautiful eyes. Right, pretty first, now beautiful. She snorted and
sat back on her heels, resting her hands on her legs.

Come to think of it, he was way too gorgeous
to be an officer. She’d only seen officers this fine in the
specialty calendars, and they were never from anywhere like
Jacksonville, Florida.

She mentally scratched the notion of him
being a law man and went back to her other thought.

This asshole tried to break into my
apartment.

Trudy probably came by earlier and dropped
Piper off. Meisha remembered Trudy telling her a little while ago
that one of the head honchos from the company she worked for was
stopping by her house for a meeting.

Meisha nodded to herself. That was it. Trudy
had probably dropped Piper off to her house before her meeting and
this thug somehow slipped in afterward. He was probably feeding
Piper to keep her quiet. Meisha reached out and thumped him on his
shoulder.

She didn’t live in the safest neighborhood,
but the rent was cheap and her and her neighbors had an
understanding. If they didn’t touch her, her apartment or her bike,
she wouldn’t feel the need to disable any of them for life. To her,
they had a perfect understanding. Yeah, she would love to live in a
better building, maybe even get a nice little ranch house like
Trudy had, but a mortgage would require putting down roots, which
was a no-no. If the Yaruzi came for her she would need to leave on
a moment’s notice. Her and her family had an exit plan. The only
thing Meisha would leave behind were a bunch of as-seen-on TV
gadgets that she’d felt compelled to buy and, of course, Trudy. But
she never liked to think about the latter.

Since the man lying on her kitchen floor was
so brazen about his break-in, it meant only one thing. All her
threats to the people in her apartment complex were starting to
fall on deaf ears. She needed to take this punk out into the
courtyard and give the neighbors a reminder as to why they should
leave her alone.

She eyed her captive. He was big, too big for
her to drag him out the door.

Roll him?

Piper was practically straddling his face,
trying to lick him to death. “Make sure you keep that up. When I
get him out in public you can hump him all you want.”

Her burglar frowned and groaned. “Pft. Stop
licking me, dog.” He tried moving his arms but found them bound
behind his back. His eyes flew open in panic.

Meisha pushed Piper aside just in case she
needed to knock him out again. His eyes landed on Meisha.

She was right. His eyes were pretty. Light
brown with a hint of gold speckles.

He squinted, his glare focused on her. “Untie
me,” he ground out.

Meisha narrowed her eyes. “No.”

The color of his eyes flashed from brown to
green.

She leaned a little closer to get a better
look. “Holy shit, is that some kind of trick?”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” he warned.

She raised a brow and chuckled. “Really? You,
hurt me?” There was no way he was getting out of the bindings. When
she’d first moved from Japan to the US, her mother enrolled her in
the Girl Scouts. Thanks to them she’d learned to tie a wicked
knot.

He went silent, but his arms still tugged at
his ties.

“If you haven’t noticed, you’re all tied up.
I could do whatever my little heart desired.”

The side of his mouth quirked up. “And what
does your heart desire?” His voice had dropped an octave.

She caught her breath. The dimple in his
cheek was…cute. Her heart fluttered. She scooted away from him.
That’s what she needed—distance.

He pulled his gaze away from her and stared
at the ceiling. “You will untie me now and I promise I won’t do
anything to hurt you,” he said casually.

She snapped back to what was going on, no
longer feeling the heat from his penetrating stare. She slowly
stood and wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans. “Listen to me very
closely. What’s about to go down now is that I’m going to roll you
into the courtyard, so everyone can see what I’ve done.” She raised
her arms and wrapped her dark, straight hair into a bun, tucking
the ends into her ponytail holder. She figured this wasn’t going to
be easy, since he’d woken up. “Then, I’m going to call the police
so they can take you to jail.” She peered down at him. “They’ll
like you in jail—you’re pretty.”

He snorted. “You might try to touch me, but
when you get closer I’ll kick you on your butt and subdue you. Once
I knock you out, I’ll find something to cut my bindings. Then I’ll
take you to the courtyard and show everyone what I’ve done to
you
. And no, in my scenario, I won’t be calling the police.
I’m taking a wild guess here, but I’m sure your neighbors would
like to have you for themselves for a while. Tell me, how is your
relationship with your neighbors? Will they untie you?”

She blanched at the thought of being tied up
while the gangbangers decided to take their revenge on her for all
the times she’d called the cops on them.

“Thought so,” he said with a smile.

“I’m going to knock that smile right off your
fucking face,” she seethed.

He shook his head. “While this has all been
really entertaining, I must get going. I only came here to drop the
dog off for Trudy. Now that I’ve done my job, I’ll be on my
way.”

Meisha took a step closer to him. “Trudy?
What have you done to her?”

He frowned. “I haven’t done anything to her.
She was attacked earlier. My brother and I got to her just in time.
She’s unharmed and with him now.”

She let his words settle in her brain.

Liar. The attack happened yesterday, not
today and it hadn’t been Trudy who was attacked anyway.

She threw her head back and laughed. “You
almost had me going. You’re just some low-life thug that spends
time watching television. You saw her drop off her dog and
recognized her from all the news channels. They’ve been running the
story all day.” She tapped the side of her head. “Nice thinking,
Rico Suave, but your story is a no go.”

“Rico Suave? You can’t be serious. I don’t
look anything like him.”

She tilted her head to the side. She could
see women falling at his feet. He was a handsome guy, with dark
brown hair, a nice build and a smile that could melt the panties
off a nun. “Well, you do, just a little. You have that Latin bad
boy look about you.”

He rolled his eyes. “This is some kind of
fresh hell. I hate Rico Suave.”

“I kicked your butt, tied you up and
threatened to take you out for a little public humiliation and
that’s what you’re grasping onto? That I compared you to a Latin
eighties heart throb?”

“One, I’m not Latin, I’m Hungarian. Two, how
do you even know about Rico Suave? What are you, like twenty years
old?”

“I’m thirty and I watch a lot of
I Love
The 80’s
on VH1.”

He sighed. “I have to get out of here.”

“I agree. Now tuck your head and hold on for
the ride. I hope you don’t get dizzy easily.”

“This is foolish. I’m not letting you roll me
anywhere. I told you, I’m only here because of a favor to Trudy. My
brother and I had a business appointment with her earlier. When we
got to her house two guys were trying to get at her. We chased them
away. Kristof took her back to our hotel to keep her safe while we
figure out what’s going on. Trudy asked me to bring Piper to you
for the night. If you don’t believe me, you can check my pocket.
She even gave me a key.”

Meisha looked down at his front pocket. Oh,
something appeared to be in there, but she doubted her key would
make that big of a bulge.

“My back pocket,” he ground out.

She averted her eyes. Heat crept slowly up
her face. “Um, okay. Let’s rewind. You said Trudy was
attacked?”

“Yeah, not too long ago.”

Meisha shook her head. “I spent the day with
her.” She backed up and reached behind her, feeling for the couch.
“I-Is she alright?”

“She’s fine. We got to her house just in
time.”

This was some serious shit. When Mark,
Trudy’s employee had been killed, Meisha assumed that he’d gotten
himself mixed-up with the wrong people. But if someone was after
Trudy, this meant something entirely different. No one had any
reason to try to hurt Trudy. She was the nicest and sweetest person
that Meisha had ever met. The only reason someone would possible
want to hurt Trudy would be to…

Get back at me. The Yaruzi are here.

Meisha’s head swam at the thought. Her and
her family had been hiding from the Yaruzi since leaving Japan, and
the day she’d always dreaded looked to be here.

“Did you get a good look at the men who were
after Trudy?” she asked.

Please, please don’t let it be them.

The intruder snorted. “What are you? Some
kind of sketch artist or something?”

“Just answer the question.” Her knees began
to wobble. She sat down on her couch. There were plans in place
just in case the Yaruzi found them, but neither her nor her dad
ever thought they’d go after Trudy.

“Yes, I got a good look at them.”

When the intruder didn’t elaborate any
further she waved her hand in the air. “And?”

“They were two men, tall, large builds.”

She let out a deep breath. “They weren’t
Japanese?”

“Definitely not.”

Relief washed through her. “Thank God,” she
whispered.

She almost jumped for joy. It wasn’t the
Yaruzi, they hadn’t found her and her family. But then a dreadful
thought crept into her head. What if the Yaruzi had sent someone
else to do the dirty work for them?

He turned to look at her. “Now that we have
all this settled can you untie me?”

She’d have to warn her parents and get Trudy.
She shouldn’t have ever involved her in her family mess in the
first place. If something happened to Trudy it would be all her
fault.

But first the intruder was right. She’d have
to untie him so that she could handle her business and get her
family and Trudy to somewhere safe.

She got up and took a step forward, but
paused. The threat he’d given her earlier rang in her mind. “What
happened to your grand plan of knocking me out and taking me to the
courtyard?”

“I’ll scrap it if you scrap yours.”

Fair enough. She went over to him and dropped
to her knees. When she took the knife from the sheath wrapped
around one of her ankles he shook his head. “Unbelievable.”

“Don’t judge me,” she said. She began cutting
at one of the ties. “I’m a single girl. I have to protect
myself.”

“And you don’t think you’re going overboard
with it?”

“Hey, I came home and found you in my
kitchen. What did you want me to do? Ask you what you were doing
here?”

He raised a brow. “Yes.”

He was right. She probably should’ve.

She untied one of the knots, freeing his
hand. “Kick ass first and talk later. That’s what my dad always
says.” Well, not those exact words. He said to assess the situation
and if she was in danger
then
kick ass.

He flexed his wrist and worked on the ties on
his other hand while she moved to free his ankles. “And your dad,
has he ever been in trouble with the law by chance?”

She bit her lip. Her dad was an ex-Yaruzi, a
member of the largest gang in Japan. He used to have plenty
problems with the law. But that was before. In exchange for his
information about some high ranking members of the gang, the US had
gotten her parents, her brother Miko and her out of Japan and into
the US in the witness protection program.

Freed, he sat up and then stood. She got up
too and took a step away from him. He was a lot taller than her,
maybe six-two, but she was only five-foot-one, so a lot of people
were taller than her.

“So, what’s your name?” she asked him.

“Lajos, Lajos Farkas.”

“Thanks for rescuing Trudy, Lajos.”

“I’m just glad my brother and I were able to
get to her in time.”

So am I.
Meisha would never forgive
herself if something happened to Trudy. “So which hotel did your
brother take her to?”

“Why?”

“Why?” she asked confused. “Because I’m
getting my best friend and taking her somewhere safe.”

“You don’t have to worry. She’s in good
hands, Kristof will watch over her.”

“And now I’m about to relieve your brother of
that job.”

“Thank you, but no thank you. We know these
guys, we can handle it.”

“Wait, so you know who they are? Did you
contact the police?”

Lajos shook his head. “Let me rephrase that.
I don’t know them, I know their…kind.”

“Murderers and people who attack women?
That’s who you hang around? What exactly do you do Lajos
Farkas?”

“I’m head of security for Dark Wolf
Enterprises. I know some very unsavory types of characters who
would do anything to bring a major corporation down—even murder
innocents.”

“And you think the men that killed Mark and
tried to get Trudy were really trying to target your company?”

“Yes, and unfortunately Trudy and Mark got
caught in the middle of it.”

“How can you be so sure?” she asked.

“I have my sources. I’m on my way to her
business to look for clues that might help me find out who these
men are and bring them to justice.”

She hadn’t thought about going to Trudy’s
business to see if the Yaruzi had left a message for her and her
family. If it was them that had sent the men to kill Mark, they
would’ve left something behind, warning her family that they would
be next—a symbol. Her dad had talked about their gang sign and how
they often left it behind to invoke fear in their victims.