Julie Walker - Born Wild

And the threat would’ve been funny except for the fact that Ace was a master at Muay Thai, the most brutal form of hand-to-hand combat in the world. The guy might come off as intimidating as a glitter unicorn sitting under a rainbow at a Justin Bieber concert, but Bill wouldn’t want to find himself on the man’s bad side.

“I’ll be nice to her,” he promised through clenched teeth, because as much as he hated to admit it, Ace was right. It was time to let bygones be bygones. For Christ’s sake, it’d been twelve years!

The Knights’ resident flyboy turned his head, eyeing Bill suspiciously.

“Look,” Bill huffed with exasperation, “the thing is, I’ve never been good when it comes to lobbing around sugar and spice and everything nice. But I’m telling you I’m going to try, okay?”

Ace’s smile was victorious as he nodded once before turning to clomp up the stairs.

Then Eve reappeared at the end of the hallway, looking as beautiful as he remembered—scratch that; looking even more beautiful than he remembered—and all the old hurts came rushing back with brutal force. It made him realize just how difficult it was going to be to keep his word.

Jeremy Buchanan’s Condo

5:33 p.m.

“I could keep you safe,” Jeremy declared, hugging her tightly, and Eve felt her lower lip quiver. “I could hire bodyguards. I could take some time off work. You name it, Cuz, and I’ll do it.”

“No,” she shook her head, stepping from Jeremy’s fierce embrace, taking comfort in the unwavering look of support on his face. “I’m going to go stay at Black Knights Inc. until we can either find out who’s doing this, or at the very least convince your associates in the police department that I’m not crazy. I promise you, I’ll be safer there.”

Jeremy snorted, glancing past her shoulder at Billy, who was standing sentry at the balcony door in faded jeans, clunky biker boots, and that skin-tight BKI T-shirt that emphasized his washboard belly and made her internal temperature jump about ten degrees.

Ten degrees? Okay, so it was more like ten thousand. But who was counting anyway? Not her. No, sir. No how. She was not counting.

All right, so maybe she was counting a little bit. It was hard not to when he was caught in a ray of sunlight, looking for all the world like something out of a Sons of Anarchy episode—just with far less facial hair and pinky rings, and a far more deadly determination gleaming in his dark eyes—as he scanned the street below.

“You’ll be safer with a bunch of bikers?” Jeremy’s incredulity was palpable. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Oh…that.

Okay, so she couldn’t very well tell him the truth about Black Knights Inc.; she’d been sworn to secrecy. Which meant she was left with no recourse but to give him just enough information to assuage his fears. “They have a ten-foot-high brick wall surrounding the place and twenty-four hour surveillance. It’s like a flippin’ fort there. So don’t worry.”

“I’m not so worried about somebody breaking into the place,” Jeremy’s lips pursed. “I’m more worried about what you’ll have to put up with in regards to Mr. No-Neck over there.” He tilted his chin toward Billy. “I see the years haven’t improved his manners any.”

She shook her head. “You never liked him, did you?”

“He was never worthy of you, Eve.”

She searched her cousin’s eyes, so much like her own, and frowned. “You’ve been listening to Dad too much, Jeremy. Elitism doesn’t suit you.”

“It’s not elitism, Cuz. It’s pure, unadulterated fact. And I’d have known that with or without your father’s input. That man’s a grade-A prick. Pardon my language.”

“No pardon necessary,” Billy piped up from his position by the balcony door. Eve blushed from the soles of her feet to the roots of her hair. So much for what she’d thought was a private conversation. Note to self: Billy has the hearing of a bat. “Assuming,” Billy continued, “that you’re using grade-A prick as a technical term.”

“When I’m speaking of you,” Jeremy raised his voice, although it was apparent there was no need, “I most certainly am. And if you so much as look sideways at my cousin, I promise you I’ll—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Billy’s tone was bored. “You’ll beat me longer and harder than you beat that gherkin-sized dick of yours. I get it.”

Jeremy took a step in Billy’s direction, but Eve stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Remember you insulted him first,” she whispered.

“He’s a dickwad,” Jeremy hissed.

“More technical terminology, I’m assuming,” Billy mused, brow raised, sardonic grin on his lips.

Eve decided it was time to get the heck out of Dodge. Which brought her around to the second reason why she’d stopped by Jeremy’s condo. “I, uh…” She hesitated. Because her dear, sweet cousin was already upset by her decision to leave his protection in favor of the Knights’ and she didn’t want to prick his ego further with her next request—he was big and cocky and all about playing the hero, which made it sort of funny that he and Billy didn’t get along because they were so very much alike—but she didn’t see any way around it. Jeremy had done everything he could to prove she wasn’t just being paranoid about her growing list of “accidents.” Now it was time to let someone else take a stab at it. “I need my case files,” she finally blurted.

Jeremy’s chin jerked back. “What? Why?”

“Because we’ve got an ex-FBI agent working for us,” Billy answered, still staring out the balcony door in narrow-eyed concentration. “And he might be able to see something in her files that you and your fellow CPD boys couldn’t.”

“Yeah, and I might be onboard with that except the part where this guy is an ex,” he stressed the word, frowning, “FBI agent.”

Eve stepped in before the two of them could start slinging insults again. Grabbing her cousin’s arm, she looked up at him imploringly, “Please, Jeremy. You’ve done everything you know to do and—”

“I could try to talk to my captain again,” he interrupted. “I could—”

“Get yourself fired,” Eve said, shaking her head. “Your captain has had enough. He agrees with the fire department and the investigator on the case. There’s no evidence. You can’t keep harping on him. You can’t keep questioning his judgment. He’s the only true friend you’ve got down at that station. Believe me, you don’t want to mess with that.”

The fact that Jeremy had chosen to become a police officer when he’d inherited enough money to keep him footloose and fancy free for life had caused more than a few problems for him at work. Most cops, who struggled to get by from paycheck to paycheck, couldn’t understand why Jeremy chose to risk his life on the force every day instead of whiling away his hours on a beach. But Eve understood. A person needed a purpose, something worth waking up for every morning. And Jeremy’s purpose was to be a hero…

She watched his cheeks hollow and his chin twitch from side to side as he considered her words. Then he cursed, and she knew she’d won.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “I’ll go get them.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, going up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek, his expensive cologne tickling her nose. “And I’ll call you tomorrow to let you know how things are going.”

“You sure you want to do this?” he pressed, searching her face.

Um, no? She didn’t want to do any of it. What she wanted was a char-free condo and a Vespa that had brakes, but those two things were no longer options.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him, avoiding his question. “I trust the Black Knights to keep me safe. Plus,” and she was going to go straight to hell for this lie, but she knew it would go a long way in easing her cousin’s misgivings, “Becky will there.”

A hint of relief flashed behind his eyes. “Okay,” he nodded. “But if things change, or if you catch too much flak from that one,” again he jerked his chin toward Billy, “then you call me.”

“I will.” She smiled, squeezing his arm and taking a deep breath before shouldering her purse and overnight bag.

A warm breeze wafted into the condo when Billy opened the balcony door, bringing with it the hot smell of summer, of fresh-cut grass, heavily blooming flowers, and steaming pavement. It ruffled Billy’s thick, dark hair like playful fingers. But somehow he still managed to pull off that whole mean and menacing thing. Which was good, she supposed. Because mean and menacing was exactly the kind of man she needed right now. And, perhaps, if she was honest with herself, it was the kind of man she’d needed all along. Or more specifically, he was the kind of man she’d needed all along. It crushed her to think about all she’d lost that night during her freshman year in college when she finally caved to her father’s wishes and agreed to go out with Robert Parish’s son, Blake.

One night out with the big-time land-developer’s pride-and-joy had changed her life. Forever…

“When we reach the street, I want you to stay behind me,” Billy murmured once she’d crossed the room to him, wrenching her from her unpleasant thoughts.

“Why?” When she glanced up into his hard, handsome face, she didn’t like what she saw there. She figured this was probably the expression he wore during those times he was knee-deep inside the wiry innards of an IED.

And, yes, it still blew her mind to know that Billy’d spent nearly a decade either making things go kaboom or disarming things that went kaboom.

Talk about having a set of brass balls. Geez Louise.