Shattered Rules (10 page)

Near the motel's office,
he spied a metal flagpole, secured into the ground with concrete. “Get up to the pole.”

Norm look
ed at the pole and then at the bulge the gun made under Brick’s coat. He got up.

Brick
undid the handcuffs. “Put your arms around the pole.” He fixed the boyfriend's wrists together with the zip tie he pulled from the same pocket that held the handcuffs. This guy wasn't going anywhere until FBI picked him up and took him into custody.

Kelly
started at Brick with clear eyes when he knelt next to her. A strange wheeze came from her when she tried to speak.

“
Don't try to talk. Just nod. Does anything hurt?”

S
he shook her head no.

“
Try and take a breath. Did that hurt?”

“
No.” Her voice cracked.

“
Good. I'm going to help you sit up. Take it slow.”

“
That hurts,” she whispered.

“
I think you're going to have one heck of a bruise where he hit you,” he said. “But I don't think anything is broken. He must have knocked the air out of you. Can you stand?”

She nodded.

He helped her walk to the car and sit in the passenger seat.

“
We'll leave for the cabin as soon as the FBI gets here. The Bureau can hold Norm as a material witness until I can find out how he fits into this mess. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“
Yeah,” she said in a weak voice. “I just want to go back to the cabin.”

***

Forty-five minutes later Brick parked the Volvo in the cabin’s garage.

“I’m so cold
.” Kelly said when they entered the home.

“
You need rest. Why don’t you get into bed Kelly? I’ll bring you a hot cup of tea.”

“Thanks
.”

I
n the kitchen, he rummaged through the cupboards looking for tea, hoping there was some.

What the hell had he
’d been thinking taking Kelly into that kind of situation? He'd led her into a circumstance where she could’ve been seriously injured. Dealing with a domestic dispute was never easy, never clean. He shouldn't have let her get into that predicament.

Too many times he'd seen the innocent bystander get hurt.
His charge Annie had taught him how horribly wrong things could go. She’d been his responsibility and she’d died. He swallowed the bitter memory and rebuked himself. Now that he'd made it his job to protect Kelly, he needed to make sure she was kept out of the line of fire. He’d damn well do it right this time.

He put
two steaming cups of tea on a tray and walked to the bedroom.

The only light in the
room came from the gas fireplace, giving everything a warm orange hue. Propped up by two king-sized pillows, Kelly sat in the middle of the huge four poster bed. Her hair spread out on the pillow and glistened gold in the fire's light. With a warm smile, she gazed at him, a look of trust gleaming in her hazel eyes.

He couldn't look her
in the eye. He was using her in a game she knew nothing about. Guilt slashed him.

When
he handed her the cup of tea, his fingers brushed hers and static electricity sent a shock through him.

H
e watched her delicate pink tongue catch a drip of golden liquid that ran down the teacup. “Good,” she said licking her lips and smiling.

H
eat stirred in him.

“
You must be cold. Come under the covers.” She threw back the comforter and patted the bed next to her. “Sit with me.”

He wasn't cold. He was about to ignite. He
examined the room, no chair.

“
Uh, not a good idea.”

She frowned
.

“B
ut too tempting to resist.” He slipped off his shoes and sat on the bed and leaned back against the headboard, careful their bodies didn’t touch. Still, her warmth singed him. He took a sip of the hot tea, wishing it were ice water.

The
flames in the fireplace danced.

She handed him her half-empty
teacup and he put it on the nightstand next to his empty one.

“
Brick.”

“
What is it?” He turned to face her.

“
Nothing. Just Brick. I like to say it. It feels so good on my tongue,” she said breathlessly.

“
Brick.” Her full luscious mouth made almost no sound as she formed his name.

Reaching out he touched h
er cheek with his fingertips, a light caress. His eyes locked with hers. With lips parted and her eyes closed, she sighed when his lips met hers.

H
er soft body pressed hard against him. A jolt of fire shot through him, but he kept his kiss gentle. Carefully he eased his tongue into her lush, honeyed mouth and she opened wide to accept him, a soft moan answering his request for more.

H
er tongue flirted with his. Chills went through him. Her fingers combed though his hair and then moved down his back. He pulled her closer. This was what he’d wanted since he’d seen her in bed at the motel.

S
he tilted her head back and he laid kisses on her slim neck. Through the cotton fabric of her shirt, he caressed the tightened bud of her breast. She moaned his name, increasing his desire. He touched her again. Then he demanded more from her kiss. His hands explored her contours. Her breathing quickened. Her body moved rhythmically with his.

Ignoring his
desire for more, he pulled his mouth from hers. Her longing for him was just a symptom of her need to feel safe, a want born out of fear. He wouldn't use her alarm to feed his own craving.

“
What's wrong?” Her voice was husky with emotion.

“
Nothing. But I have to go.”

“
Don’t leave me. Stay.” She pulled him close and kissed him.

C
hapter Thirteen

“
I can't stay with you.”

“
Why?” Kelly frowned.

“
It wouldn't be right. You're hurt.” Brick stood up from the bed.

“
But I need you.”

He saw the truth of that statement in her budded breasts
, rapid breathing and the longing that blazed in her eyes. He gently touched her lips and she licked his fingertips.

He needed her with an ache that was almost painful. Damn the FBI
for putting him in this situation. It ignited a hunger for her.

“
Please, don't go.”

“
I have to.”

“
Why.”

“
Because more than anything else in the world I want to stay.”

A look of confusion spread across her lovely face.
“I don’t get it.”

“I know.”

She couldn’t know the guilt he felt for using her, or understand the pressure the FBI put him under to find out something and report back ASAP. If he got caught touching her he’d lose his creditability and end his career with the bureau. And he didn’t want to hurt Kelly. She’d eventually find out he’d used her to get information on Johnny Vega, but she wouldn’t be able to say he taken sexual advantage of her.

With
all the willpower he could muster, he walked out of her room. He was only able to leave Kelly because he was sure he was doing the right thing for both of them.

He
’d promised to protect her. He just hadn't realized how hard it’d be to protect her from him.

The
bedroom door closed quietly behind him.

H
is exhaustion growing with each step, he climbed the stairs and took the first bedroom he found. Decorated in whitewashed pine furniture it was a pleasant room, but the main attraction for him was the king-size bed. It was long enough to accommodate his lengthy body. How many nights had it been since he slept in a bed? Too many.

The
cell phone battery was dead. He plugged it into its charger and then found bedding in a cupboard. After quickly making the bed, he stripped down to his boxers and extinguished the light. Unable to sleep he lay in the dark and listened to the silence.

After the betrayal
s of the last few years, he’d guarded his emotions, keeping them so sheltered from view even he wasn't sure what he felt. But sitting in the bed next to Kelly, raw feelings threatened to erupt. Last night she‘d almost disarmed him and caused him to discard the protective shell he’d built around his emotions.

He
’d bared his soul to Kelly’s sister, Carrie. He'd shared his dreams with her and the consequences had been betrayal and excruciating emotional pain. Since then he'd made sure no one got too close. His rules: no close relationships, no ties, no love.

Kelly
tempted him. There wouldn't be any point denying he wanted her. He did. But her sister had taught him a bitter lesson. And they were made from the same cloth. The same DNA ran in their veins. Only a fool would open up to pain and betrayal twice and he was no fool. The saying “Once burned twice shy” held meaning for him.

A vision of
Kelly, her passionate expression and luscious lips nearly undid him. He craved her with a desire stronger than any he had ever experienced for any woman, even Carrie.

He sat up in bed.
His body poised and ready to give, he could fill her and satisfy his craving. She was probably still awake and she had asked for it. He stopped that thought and laid back down. There were more important things to think about.

He
remembered his boss telling him that the Sierra Nevada snowpack had melted into the Truckee River and a dead FBI agent, Jack Anson, was found floating face down in the icy water. The memory hit him like a cold shower. It put life into perspective. His petty desirers and infatuations were unimportant.

An hour later
, without turning on a light, he slipped on his clothes and pulled on his holstered gun. With a pillow and comforter tucked under his arm he went downstairs and stretched out on the sofa in the great room, a better place to protect Kelly.

When he finally slept, Annie's face came into focus.
Stress pricked his scalp and tensed his spine. He knew what was coming and tried to wake up, but couldn't. As if someone had already pressed the play button on a DVD, a familiar nightmare began to run.

It was just as it had happened years earlier. Guarding
Annie, a government witness about to testify in court, he entered the large federal courthouse with her. Walking next to her, their footsteps echoed on the marble floor in the huge rotunda.

Annie’s
terrified screams grabbed his attention. Then he felt body-racking pain as a bullet hit his right knee and then the burn of a bullet as it grazed his right temple.

As h
e dropped to the floor, he saw Annie take a bullet in the chest. Blood red splatter made a wide pattern on her white blouse.

“
No!” he shouted.

Shock and disbelief shone on her young face
. She collapsed.

Betrayed by his FBI partner's greed, they had been caught in an ambush. He lay wounded on the floor of the courthouse, his right knee twisted grotesquely behind him. Unable to move toward her, he stared at
Annie. She lay just out of reach, their blood commingling on the cold Carrara marble floor.

Incapable of speaking, she beseeched him with her green eyes. Begging for his help,
a blood stained hand stretched out to him.

Blood dripped from his head wound into his eyes
. He wiped it away and tried once more to crawl toward her. No good, retching in pain he watched in horror as her beautiful young face grew pale. Each beat of her heart squeezed her life fluid from the gaping chest wound. It dripped to the floor in rhythm with her breathing.

Her terrified eyes pleaded for his help until finally her life was gone
and her vacant eyes stared at him, blaming him for her untimely death.

From the searing pain of a bullet and the agonizing pain of failure, useless anger whelmed up inside of him. He fought to wake up.

Awake and covered with sweat, he lived with the bitter memory.

As Annie's bodyguard he should
’ve saved her or at least comforted her, but he hadn't. She was dead and he was alive. No bodyguard should ever let that happen. He should’ve kept her alive or died.

He s
wallowed to pushed back the stomach acid burning his throat. He blinked and squeezed his eyes closed. He had to obliterate Annie's dead face from his vision. With his hand on his perspiration-covered forehead, he forced his eyes open again and stared into the dark.

After almost five years, he'd learned to live with
his failure and guilt. But he couldn't live with it if anything happened to Kelly. He groaned and felt the familiar heaviness in his chest. One death on his conscience was all he could take.

***

Kelly lay awake for hours wondering if she was angry at Brick or grateful to him. He was right, of course, not to respond to her. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment. She'd let her body's desire override her good sense. That had never happened before. She’d make sure it never happened again.

Even
when she was with Johnny, she’d never wanted him the way she desired Brick. It stunned her to realize she’d only dated Johnny out of ignorance and a wish to rebel against her sister’s strict rules. If she were honest, she’d admit that since she was a teenager, she’d never stopped caring for the one man she couldn’t have, Brick.

T
his wasn’t the time to complicate her life with an affair with her sister’s ex-fiancé. It could only lead to pain and she'd had enough of that. Even so, a sense of longing shook her.

With an
uncertain future, she wanted Brick to be concerned that soon she might be dead, gone from the earth almost as if she had never existed.

If the intruders had their way
she’d be murdered with few people to note her demise or feel the void left by her passing. Tears pushed against her eye lids, but she wouldn't cry. With so few days left she wouldn't waste time shedding tears. Nonetheless, one fleeing tear managed to slide down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away. She hadn’t told Brick the whole truth. So she didn’t deserve his concern.

Her lips were still swollen from
his kiss. The taste of him lingered. Her body heated. She wanted him. No. She corrected that thought. She wanted to share a love with him, spend a lifetime with him, an impossible dream. With a moan, she lay back against the pillows and closed her eyes.

Somehow she
’d survive. She hadn’t yet left a big enough footprint on the sands of time. Even if she didn’t deserve Brick’s love, it was too soon to die.

***

He could see Kelly’s cabin through the brushes of the empty lot. In the cab of a parked pick-up truck the man watched for movement in the house. He zipped his jacket. “Another damned cold
night,” he swore under his breath and tucked a blanket around him. Then he checked his holstered nine millimeter weapon. If something didn`t happen soon, he’d make it happen. He let his shoulders relax and smiled at the thought of a killing.