I sense Shane’s irritation with me as we walk through the corridors of our nightclub. I know he expected me to back him up earlier when the twins had suggested bringing a hostage home was a good idea. My younger brothers are like excitable toddlers. To them, Jessie is a shiny new toy for them to play with. It’s not often we have visitors or guests to our home, and the idea of having a new person actually living with us is tantamount to a kid getting a puppy for Christmas. At least for Liam and Mikey.
I had some altogether different motives for agreeing to her request, though. I’ve been unfortunate enough to have more dealings with Nikolai Semenov and his family than my brothers. Notoriously vicious, paranoid and straight up crazy, anyone not related to him by blood, who could gain his trust and also have the backbone to work with him, obviously has something special about them.
I hadn’t even noticed her when we’d first walked into the room. The smoke from the twins blowing the door off had blurred my vision. Shane had gone straight to her, though. When I’d heard a woman’s voice, I’d assumed it was one of Nikolai’s whores. I didn’t particularly enjoy the thought of putting a bullet in her head, but she had seen us, and we couldn’t afford any comeback. I’d been ready to kill her at Shane’s word. Then she had crawled out from under that desk, dressed like a teenage boy, but unable to hide those incredible curves, and with long flaming red hair tied up in a ponytail. She had squared up to Shane, all five foot four inches of her, and challenged him. Nobody spoke to Shane like that. Never. And especially not with a semi-automatic in their face.
I don’t believe in love at first sight or any of that shit, but this woman made my heart pound and my dick hard. She was a tiny fucking powerhouse and all I could think about was how she had bigger balls than most of the men I’d ever met. If she wanted to work for us, then we should fucking let her.
Shane glances at his watch and frowns. “We need to make this quick. I don’t like having some stranger in our house and not being there.”
“Relax. The twins will keep an eye on her. I’m pretty sure she’s not exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of us kidnapping her.”
“We didn’t fucking kidnap her. She asked to come with us,” he snaps.
“Yeah. Because it was either that or die. What choice did she have, really?”
“Semantics,” he says with a dismissive wave of his hand. “We have no idea who she is. Why she was working for Nikolai, or if we can trust her at all.”
“Well, like she said, if you’re not happy in two weeks, you can go back to your original plan,” I say with a shrug. I already know that Jessie Heaton is going to impress us. You don’t get to work that closely with one of the top Russian faces if you’re not shit hot at what you do.
“If she hasn’t murdered us all in our beds before then,” he snarls.
“What? She’s about one hundred and twenty pounds wet through. You’re really worried she can take you?” I laugh, and he scowls at me.
“Just call Henry and get him here now. I want this dealing with, so I can keep an eye on our little hacker upstairs.”
I take my cell from my pocket and call our head bouncer to find out where he’s at and leave Shane pacing the corridors in annoyance.
An hour later, Shane and I walk into the penthouse apartment on the top floor of the building we own. We have just finished our meeting with our head bouncer, Henry, and his team, putting plans in place to deal with the recent trouble that’s been happening in our clubs.
Shane is still pissed. “Make sure the hacker is settled, and she isn’t causing any trouble,” he snaps before stalking off to his office.
I shake my head and bite back a smile before heading down the hallway to the kitchen, where I find my two younger brothers.
“Where is our house guest?” I ask.
“She’s in her room. Lisa got here about ten minutes ago to check her over.”
I nod. “You asked her to do the full range of tests, yeah?”
“Yes,” Liam says with a grin and Mikey chuckles.
“What’s so funny?” I snap. Between Shane’s moodiness and the twins goofing around like teenagers whenever they get the chance, I sometimes feel like I’m the only sane one living in this place.
“Just you asking for the whole nine yards, that’s all. You planning on having some alone time with her, Bro?” Liam says, his grin widening further.
“Grow the fuck up,” I snarl as I stalk towards the refrigerator and take out a beer. The twin’s juvenile behavior doesn’t usually bother me at all. At twenty-six, they are eight years younger than me and they’re both pretty funny most of the time. But today, they have touched on a nerve. Because I have been thinking about Jessie Heaton, and what she would look like naked and tied to my bed since the moment I laid eyes on her. It’s taken me by complete surprise, because I haven’t looked at a woman like that for a long time.
“Hey, I’m not judging you, Con,” Liam goes on. “She is a fiery little pocket rocket and I totally see the attraction. I wouldn’t mind a piece of that ass for myself.”
“Hmm,” Mikey nods his agreement.
“Fuck you!” I say as I turn to face them. “Both of you.”
Mikey laughs out loud. “We’re just fucking with you. Conor.”
“Yeah,” Liam agrees. “To be honest, it’s nice to see you taking an interest in her. It’s been a long time.”
“I have no fucking interest in our new hostage,” I snarl at them before taking a swig of my beer.
“Good to know,” Liam says as he stares at me. “Leaves the pathway open for me and Mikey then,” he grins at me.
“Stop fucking with him,” Mikey nudges Liam on the arm. “He can’t help it if he’s got a hard on for her.”
I down the last of my beer and slam the bottle onto the counter. “You two are a pair of assholes!” I snap and then I stalk out of the kitchen and along the hallway. I almost bump into Dr. Lisa when I do.
“Hey, Conor,” she takes a step back and sucks in a breath. A few years after my brothers and I came to New York, and she was fresh out of med school, she saved Mikey’s life. A fight broke out in our club one night and someone stabbed him in the gut. He lay bleeding out on the dancefloor and Lisa knew exactly what to do. She has been our personal physician ever since. She asks no questions. She is loyal, and she is fucking good at her job. Whenever we need her to, she patches us up and makes sure we’re always at the top of our game. I don’t know what we’d do without her.
“How is she?” I nod towards the door she has just come out of.
“Surprisingly well for a woman who has just been kidnapped,” she says with a flash of her eyebrows.
“I guess she’s pretty tough. We found her working for Nikolai Semenov.”
“Shit! She must be then. Is that where you all went today?” she asks, her eyes full of concern.
“Yes.”
She reaches out and places a hand on my arm. “I know it must have taken a lot for you to go there. Are you okay?”
I swallow hard. I don’t want to have this conversation, and especially not with her. She’s desperate to fix me. If I gave her even the slightest suggestion that I’d consider speaking to one, she’d have a shrink in here within five minutes. She doesn’t understand that what Nikola Semenov did to me can’t be fixed – not like that anyway.
“When will you have her results back?” I ask, ignoring her question.
She stares at me, her eyes searching my face as though she might find the answer to her question written there. Eventually she shakes her head and sighs. “I’ll have them in a few days. I’ll send them over to you as soon as I do. I can tell you now that she’s not pregnant though.”
“Oh? How?”
“She has a contraceptive implant in her arm. And she’s on her period. Do you have any provisions here for her?”
“No,” I shake my head.
“I could have some sent over. But, she’ll need clothes too,” she shoots me a look of disapproval and I can tell she’d like to yell at me for being so dumb.
“Thanks for the offer. But, I’ll sort some stuff out for her. And, she was kind of a surprise. We had no idea she’d be there, and we certainly didn’t plan on kidnapping her and bringing her back here.”
“So, why did you? Kidnapping isn’t exactly your style, Conor. Not women, at least.”
“She asked to come with us. And I don’t know,” I shake my head. “But there was something about her. The way she stood up to Shane. You should have seen her.”
Lisa smiles at me and I realize it’s because I’m smiling too. “She seems like a woman who can handle herself. But, just be careful. You have no idea who she really is.”
“You sound like Shane.”
She shrugs. “Well, maybe that’s because we both care about you, and those knuckle-head little brothers of yours.”
“Well, I think I’m pretty capable of handling a five-and-a-half-foot computer geek,” I arch one eyebrow at her.
She laughs out loud. “Oh, Conor. I’m pretty sure she could turn you and your brothers inside out if she wanted to, sweetheart. So, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Then she pushes up onto her tiptoes and gives me a soft kiss on the cheek. “Take care of yourself, handsome. I’ll be in touch as soon as I have those results.”
I watch her walk to the elevator and lift my hand to my cheek to wipe away the lipstick stain she will have left there. She’s wrong. I can handle Jessie Heaton. But just how much I’d like to handle her might become a problem.
