SASSY IN STILETTOS ARe version (24 page)

“Don’t be obtuse. Our deal was you were to follow
the directives of Caleb. From what I understand, you left your home to go and
stay at the hotel.”

This was exhausting. Micha hadn’t slept properly
in two days. She also hadn’t seen Caleb, but she knew he was kept apprised of
everything where she was concerned. And she had a hell of a few days coming her
way. She had to prep for her Simon interview, and seeing him again was not
going to be good for her. How the hell had her life spun so out of her control?

“When this whole mess started, The Westhorpe was
one of my options. I simply availed myself of it a couple of nights ago. You
should be happy. I’m listening to reason. I haven’t given my detail the slip,
and I let them act like I’m a foreign diplomat or some shit. I’m following the
rules.”

“Where is Caleb?”

“Lady, I’m not his keeper.” Then realizing how
harsh that sounded, she added, “I appreciate the concern. But honestly it’s
unfounded. I’m fine. Caleb’s men are all over me like a pleather suit. I’m
perfectly safe. You need to back off.”

“I’m protecting my investment.”

Micha studied the older woman. The deepened lines
around her mouth, the lines in her forehead. Her usual sleek bob was windblown
and a little disheveled. She was dressed impeccably in a vintage Chanel suit,
but the accessories were all wrong. Adele looked a little out of sorts herself.
Had she been worried about her? That was impossible. The old woman didn’t
really know her. No one did.

“Look. I’m fine. I’m perfectly safe. I appreciate
the detail, but you and I both know it can’t last forever, and frankly I don’t
think this calls for this level of security. It feels like overkill.”

“It’s my prerogative to worry about employees.”

“Uh huh.” For the first time in a long time, Micha
felt like she had a mother again. A hard as nails, meddling, pain in the ass
mother. But who could really choose their parents? And since Adele was in such
a concerned mood, it didn’t hurt to try a new tactic. “But since you are so
concerned about me, I’m thinking we might want to change out the security
company we use to maybe a larger outfit. Caleb and his team are doing a good
job, but maybe it’s time for them to—”

Adele pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “I’m
not an idiot, Miss Bennett. Mr. Atkins stays. You’ll have to work out the
lovers’ spat you’re having and deal with him.”

Micha’s jaw went slack as the older woman stalked
out her door.

***

Micha sat in the passenger seat of Caleb’s BMW,
mutinously silent. Still smarting from her conversation with Adele, she tried
every relaxation technique she could think of. But every time she closed her
eyes, all she could see was Adele telling her to do as she was told. Alec
really had to do something about his step-mother.

Like it or not, Micha was stuck with Caleb. In the
car for another hour and a half. And that’s if they were lucky and didn’t hit
any traffic. She would not break down and cry—or throw things. She kept
repeating the mantra over and over again to herself.

“You’re really not going to say a word to me the
whole way up?” Caleb’s gravelly voice reverberated in the near silence. They’d
tried music, but neither of them could agree on anything, so instead, they’d
turned it off and put on NPR in the background.

Micha turned to him and muttered, “Word.” Then she
turned back around to stare out the window. Fine, so that was childish, but she
didn’t give a flying fuck. Emotional remnants of the other night still sliced
deep. Caleb forcing her to look into his eyes as he slid against her G-spot. Never
allowing her to look away or hide from him. Then finding that woman in his
kitchen.

“Oh, real mature, Micha.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you, Caleb.”

He exhaled. “Well the good news is that you and I
are stuck in the car together, so you can’t run away like you always do.”

Run away?
He was the
asshole who would be running away once she got done with him.

“I’ve already said everything I have to say on the
matter.” She kept her voice cool and professional. Detached. If she could only
stay detached, she could get through this drive. She’d need a whole other
coping mechanism to get into the interview with Simon, but she’d worry about
that later. Like when she actually saw him later. As plans went, she could have
used Jaya’s help on this one.

“Fine. I didn’t exhaust everything I have to say.”

Perfect, she’d be forced to listen to him for the
next ninety minutes. As torture devices went, this was a doozy.

“You’ve been running away since I met you.”

She ignored him. But his voice melted over her
like warm chocolate. She loved the sound of it and it eased the tension out of
her shoulders.

“You remember that first night? Alec and Jaya had
disappeared, and then Ricca had given us some space on the dance floor. I
thought I’d hit some kind of jackpot. You were so fucking sexy.  When you
pulled on my hand and whispered that we should get out of there, do you have
any idea how hard it was to not take you up on that offer?”

She didn’t speak, but she shifted in her seat,
thinking about how he felt inside of her.

“Fine. I’ll tell you. It was blue-balls hard. You’d
been grinding on me for over an hour, and all I wanted to do was sink into you
so quick and so fast that neither one of us would have moved for a week. Problem
was, I’d seen you smile at something Jaya said earlier. It was such a sweet
smile. A genuine one. No pretext, no edge, just a smile for a friend. I wanted
to know how to make you smile like that again. I knew that as soon as I slept
with you I’d lose my chance to do that. So I asked you out instead.”

He would not get to her with some sappy story. Even
if it was sweet. She shook her head. She didn’t need to think about him wanting
to make her smile. Her brain played the reel of that woman asking if Caleb
still did that thing with his tongue over and over again. She ground her teeth,
bracing against the pain. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Ahh, she speaks. Well, anyway, clearly you turned
me down that night. But I figured all I had to do was keep asking, and
eventually you’d say yes.”

“You underestimate me,” she muttered.

“Yeah, I should have known better. I eventually
saw the writing on the wall once Alec and Jaya hooked up. I knew I had to get
to you before Beckett and Ricca figured their shit out because there was no way
you’d even sleep with me if they were together. And I was right.”

“It doesn’t matter, Caleb.”

He ignored her. “So I’ve been trying to be your
friend. But I can’t help but want you. I figure, I might have had a shot once
if I didn’t care about what made you smile.”

“Caleb, stop, this won’t get you what you want.”

He shrugged. “You learn to be patient when you’re
in a ditch somewhere, waiting days to get a kill order.”

Micha whipped her head around to stare at him. He
never talked about himself. She didn’t think anyone besides Alec knew about his
past in Afghanistan.

“Anyway, so I figured I’d lost my chance. Then
Adele paired us together for the dance. I thought if I could make you smile,
you’d actually see me. You know. I’m not a bad looking guy.”

“Modest too.” Micha rolled her eyes.

He grinned. “More like honest. And you clearly
find me attractive.”

“Again with the modesty.”

“Again with the truth. So I figured you’d come
around. Then all you did was fight me. At the rehearsal dinner, I only wanted
to make you feel better. Next thing I know, I’m living every dream I’ve had for
the past two years. But again, you’re weren’t all over me, because you wanted
me. You were on me, because something scared you. And as much as I wanted you,
I wasn’t going to take advantage like that.”

“Because, what? You love me?”

His cheeks flushed, and he exhaled a long sigh. “Actually,
yes.”

“Bullshit.” He didn’t love her. She knew better
than to believe that lie. No one loved her once they knew her well enough.

Caleb shrugged again. “Then that night in your
apartment. I was sure I was dreaming, but there you were in my arms. Once you
climbed on top of me, you should have known that I wasn’t going to run
anywhere. I’m not letting you go without a fight, Micha. I’ve been in love with
you since that smile, and you’re not running me off with your doubt and your
fear. When you come around, I’ll be here.”

Micha covered her face with her hands and let out
an exasperated laugh. Why was he so fucking stubborn? “You say you love me?”

His grip tightened on the steering wheel. “It’s
the truth, Micha. I don’t need to tell you I love you so you’ll sleep with me.
It’s the only truth I have for you.”

“Fine, then how come you never shared anything
about your past with me? The stuff that matters.”

He was quiet for a moment, the quietly said, “I’m
an open book. What do you want to know?”

Now was her chance. If he would even tell her the
truth. “How did you end up here? Doing security?”

“I was a Marine. Did two tours in Afghanistan. I eventually opted out of sitting in dark desert holes or lonely towers
waiting to kill people. After my second tour, I transferred to State Department,
escorting diplomats and Americans to scary places.”

Micha hung onto every word. She wanted to know
more. Was dying to hear more. “How did you meet the brunette with the rack?”

Caleb shook his head. “I was sent with this oil
tycoon and his family to protect them while they brokered a deal for bio fuel
in Colombia. Sabine and I had covers that allowed us constant access to the
family. We didn’t want the Colombian government knowing that there were US ties
to the deal. I acted as James Sanderson’s advisor. Sabine was placed there as
my wife. It gave her access to the family and to their daughter. We were on
strict protection duty. Nothing was supposed to go wrong.”

Caleb went silent for a minute, and Micha slid a
glance over to him. His eyes were anguished. And his jaw was set firm.

“At any rate, we were escorting the family to a
birthday party, and we were ambushed on the road. We lost everyone. I still don’t
know how it happened or who gave up our coordinates or if it was dumb luck. We
were taking such heavy fire we couldn’t even get the bodies out. It was Sabine’s
job to keep the kid in the car. The vehicle could withstand pretty much
anything except a rocket launcher. Instead, she ran out to try to cover one of
our men. They bombed the car.” He was silent for a moment. When he continued,
his voice was grave. “It’s haunted me for years. That little girl. She had been
so excited for that party. When we returned home, we were the only survivors,
and Sabine said it was lack of operational direction. She threw me under the
bus to save her own hide.”

He went silent again. And doubt niggled at Micha’s
brain. He was right. She wasn’t upset about Sabine. She was upset about the
surprise of Sabine and the fact that he’d never shared anything with her but
still expected her to completely open up to him.
You never
asked.

“Were you hurt?”

Caleb shrugged it off. “Mostly shrapnel. In my
back. I think the being stabbed in the back thing is a great metaphor.”

Micha cleared her throat because she was curious
and wanted to hear the answer, and at the same time, she didn’t want to know. “Have
you seen Sabine since that day?”

“She called me a week ago with information about
who took out the Sanderson family. She said she had an informant she needed me
to hide for a few days. Then she’d give me the information I wanted.”

“Who was the informant?”

“Young girl. Early teens. That kid was smart
though. It appears she doesn’t trust Sabine any more than I do. First chance
she had, she bolted.”

Micha frowned. “Oh, God. If you say she’s only a
kid, how the hell is she surviving on her own?” Although she’d managed to do
it.

“I have one of my guys watching her. She needs to
feel like she’s in control before she’ll talk. I don’t know what Sabine wants
with her, but it can’t be good.”

“You don’t think Sabine has her best interest at
heart?”

“Yeah, that’s a negative.  Sabine has always been
selfish and wanted all kinds of things she couldn’t have.”

“You?”

He shook his head. “Usually money. I made the
mistake of thinking she was a wounded little bird before, but now I know she
can’t be trusted. She came to my place looking for the girl. Threatened you if
I didn’t bring the kid to her.”

A chill settled into Micha’s bones. “Is she
responsible for the stalking?”

“No. The stalker is personal to you. And Sabine
isn’t related to Simon Jax in any way, But Micha, there is one thing.”

Her stomach rolled when she noted the grim set of
his lips. “What?”

“She is responsible for the video. She wanted me
to come to heel.”

Micha crossed her arms. “What the hell is wrong
with that woman?”

“You don’t even want to know.”

“You really think she’s capable of hurting that
kid?”

Caleb merged out of the fast lane. “I don’t know. There
are a lot of things about Sabine that I never suspected. If my hunch is correct,
the kid is the key to finally finding out what happened that day.”

Micha chewed her lip. “How come we’ve never talked
about this stuff before? I feel like I’m only now learning about your life.”

“I don’t talk about it for obvious reasons. I don’t
get a lot of sleep thinking about my past life. No reason for someone else to
have nightmares.” He changed the subject. “How are you with this interview we’re
going to do? Are you prepared?”

“I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be.” What she
didn’t mention was her nerves.

“I don’t want you to worry about anything. I’ve
added additional men, including some freelancers.”