Trouble in a Tight Dress (Six Points Security, #1) Read online

  Frustrated and annoyed, he glanced over at Wade, whose face gave no indication of what he was thinking. “Nina lied to me.”

  “Can you blame her?”

  “Yeah, actually, I can. It’s called full disclosure. It’s critical in our line of work. And don’t get me started on Larissa.”

  Wade snorted. “Would you have hired her if you knew?”

  No way in hell. “That’s not the point.”

  “Sure it is. She’s a damn good employee. As far as I know, she’s never fucked up an assignment or compromised a client’s information.”

  “Again, not the point. It’s a matter of trust, and she betrayed it. She had multiple opportunities to come clean with me, and each time she chose to lie.”

  His response didn’t seem to faze Wade. “When she took the job, she had no way of knowing if she could trust you with that kind of information.”

  “She could have told me later.”

  Wade made a sound that said exactly what he thought of that comment. “Yeah, there’s something that makes good dinner conversation.”

  Before Austin could reply, Wade stepped up to the line and fired slowly and methodically, round after round after round, until the slide locked back to indicate the chamber was empty. Clearly, he’d been coming to the range a lot on his own, because all eight rounds were tightly grouped in the center of the target. Without saying a word, he went back to the loading table, ejected the magazine, and slapped in a fresh one.

  “Nice job,” Austin said.

  Wade grunted. “You like her. A lot. That’s why you’re so bent out of shape about this.”

  His brother’s statement raised Austin’s hackles, most likely because it was true. “Of course I like her. In spite of her attitude, she’s a good employee.”

  Wade stared at him over the tops of his sunglasses. “That’s not what I mean and you know it.”

  Yeah, but he wasn’t about to admit it. Austin slanted a look at his brother as he stepped up to the firing line. Try as he might, he couldn’t get Nina out of his head, and it showed in his pitiful shooting. Once he finished, he stalked back to the table to reload. Wade didn’t utter a single word, but Austin felt his eyes on him.

  “I can’t be with a woman I don’t trust. Not after what happened with Taylor.”

  Just speaking his ex-wife’s name triggered a host of unpleasant memories. Sure, they’d had some pretty good times, but when things went bad, the crash and burn had been epic. And once the divorce was final, he’d vowed never to get suckered like that again.

  “She’s not Taylor.” Annoyance crept into Wade’s voice. “Not even close.” He walked up to the line, aimed, but then lowered his arms and turned back toward Austin. When he took off his sunglasses, there was pain in his eyes, so deep and intense that Austin could almost feel it. “I was in love with Carmen. Never told her. I thought I had plenty of time, and something always seemed to get in the way.”

  Wade paused, as if giving the words time to sink in. Or maybe, judging by the way the muscle along his jaw flexed, he was reliving the past in his mind. He’d never said what happened to Carmen, only that she had died. “Regret’s an awful thing to live with. It eats at you from the inside out, until you’ve got nothing left. Nina’s a good woman. She made a mistake. It would be a damn shame if you let that ruin a good thing. Think about it.”

  NINA LEANED BACK AGAINST her chair and rubbed her tired eyes while she waited for the final security software update to finish loading.

  She’d been at it for about three hours, remotely accessing each client’s server and installing a patch to ensure their data couldn’t be compromised by the latest virus to spread across the web. Fortunately, none of their clients had been infected yet, and they wanted to keep it that way.

  With a yawn so wide it made her jaw pop, she glanced over at the empty box on the floor by her file cabinet. She’d grabbed it on her way back from the break room, just in case Austin fired her when he came back from wherever he’d gone. If that happened, she could pack the few personal items she kept in her office and be gone in less than ten minutes.

  The thought made her a little sick, but it would be foolish for her to ignore the possibility. Honestly, she couldn’t blame him. A lie of omission was still a lie, and she’d told them time and again. How could she expect him to trust her after that? Hell, she wouldn’t trust herself if she were in his position.

  A window popped up on her monitor, indicating the update was complete. The software had a habit of messing with the coding in some of the more intricate databases, so she checked a few files and smiled at the knowledge that at least one thing decided not to mess with her today. She closed the pop-up, marked the account on the master log, and shot Larissa a quick email to let her know she was finished with her list.

  After Austin took off, Larissa had offered to give her a ride home at the end of the day. She was still a little angry with him for storming out of the office the way he did. In her book, it was best to hash everything out and just get it over with. Yes, she understood that he was upset, but not knowing how he was going to act when he returned was nerve-racking and irritating.

  The chime for the front door caught her attention, and her pulse tripped at the sound of Austin’s deep voice. Another voice replied to whatever he’d said—Wade, from the sound of it—but they weren’t talking loudly enough for her to make out the topic of conversation.

  As their footsteps got closer, she turned her gaze to her monitor, not wanting them to think she was eavesdropping. Wade walked past her open doorway without looking in her direction; Austin wasn’t with him, so he must have stopped at Larissa’s office.

  Her suspicions were confirmed at the sound of a door closing and muffled voices in the adjacent room. What she wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall in that room. Then again, maybe it was best to not know, especially if he was telling Larissa that he’d decided to fire her.

  A door clicked open, and a few seconds later, Austin appeared in her doorway. He braced one hand against the frame as a frown tugged at the corners of his mouth.

  “You finished with whatever you had going on today?” he asked.

  Considering he just talked with Larissa, he should already know the answer, but Nina assumed it was his way of making conversation. She nodded. “Yeah, the updates are all done.”

  “Good. Let’s go.”

  “Where are we going?”

  He looked at her as though the answer was obvious. “Home, remember?”

  “It’s okay; Larissa said she’d give me a ride.”

  “I said I’m driving you.”

  Nina straightened in her seat, her temper sparked by the commanding tone in his voice. “Look, I understand that you’re angry, but that doesn’t mean you get to bark orders at me. If you’re going to fire me, just let me know now so I can pack up my things before we leave.”

  Confusion flickered over his features. “What? No, I’m not going to fire you; Larissa would skin me alive.” The roughness in his voice softened a fraction as he tilted his head toward the front door. “Come on, let’s go. If we leave now, we can get home before traffic gets bad.”

  He walked away before she could respond. Quickly, she logged off her computer and grabbed her clutch, and then hurried to the foyer, where he surprised the crap out of her by holding the door open.

  He was still angry; his body language made that abundantly clear. But if he wasn’t going to fire her, then what did he want to talk about? Not wanting to do anything to antagonize him, she decided to keep her big mouth shut and wait for him to speak.

  Outside, the sun was starting to set, painting the sky in a brilliant display of purple, orange, and yellow. The lot was quiet, with only about a dozen or so parking spots occupied. She followed Austin to his truck, a twinge of guilt going through her at the sight of the bullet holes and shattered mirror.

  “I’m sorry about your truck,” she said as she fastened her seat belt. “I’ll pay for the damage.”
/>   “Nothing for you to be sorry about. It wasn’t your fault.” He said it as though that kind of thing was an everyday occurrence. “Besides, it gives the truck character.”

  In her opinion, giving a vehicle character meant an amusing bumper sticker or something distinctive hanging from the rearview mirror. But if he wanted to add bullet holes to the list, she wasn’t about to argue.

  With a twist of the key, the engine roared to life, and Austin pulled out of the lot. At the stop sign, he turned on the stereo, the volume high enough to discourage conversation. For once, traffic wasn’t too bad, and he merged onto the main road, headed toward her apartment. He hit the gas to make it through the intersection before the yellow light switched to red.

  A mile or two passed without him saying a word, and his silence was driving her batty. Obviously, there was something he wanted to say, and she wished he’d just spit it out. At last, he lowered the volume on the stereo, but his focus remained on the road.

  “I understand why you didn’t say anything about your family, but it still pisses me off.”

  Okay, fair enough. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier.”

  “An apology isn’t what I want from you.”

  “Then what do you want?”

  He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he waited until he stopped the truck at the next red light. Then he twisted in his seat, and the emotions swirling in the depths of his eyes hit her with the force of a freight train.

  “What I want is irrelevant.” His voice sounded strained. “Right now, I’ll settle for honesty.”

  When the light turned green, he hit the gas a little harder than he should have, and he didn’t speak again until they were another half mile down the road. “Six years into my stint with the Marines, I met Taylor at one of the bars off-base. She was everything I thought I ever wanted in a woman: beautiful, smart, funny, and the sex was pretty damn hot.”

  Okay, she could have gone to the grave without knowing that last part.

  He laid on the horn when a Mustang cut him off, and when the guy flipped him off, he returned the favor. “Anyway...Taylor.” He blew out a heavy breath. “I fell so deeply and completely in love with her, it bordered on obsession. We got married the day before I left for my second tour in Afghanistan.”

  Okay, this was a little too much honesty for her, because hearing about his perfect ex-wife was making her irrationally jealous. Never in her life had she wanted to claw out the eyes of a woman she’d never even met. “Look, you really don’t have to—”

  “Yeah, I do. You need to understand why this is so important to me.” He hooked a right onto a residential street that was probably nice at one point, but now it looked run-down. It wasn’t the quickest way to her apartment, but she suspected he was taking this route to ensure they weren’t being followed by any of Ivan’s men.

  “Like I said, we got married right before I flew out with the rest of my unit. We talked almost every single day while I was gone, and things seemed great when I came back. But about six months later, I got deployed again, and things changed. She didn’t call me as much this time around, and when I called, sometimes she didn’t answer. At first, I chalked it up to clashing schedules, but in my gut I knew something was wrong.”

  Austin paused, his knuckles white from his grip on the steering wheel. “The next time I came home, I found a guy in my house...in my bed...with my wife. Taylor had the nerve to get pissed off at me when I beat the shit out of the fucker.” He laughed, but the sound lacked humor. “She was six months pregnant at the time. I’d been in Afghanistan for ten. Needless to say, we got a divorce.”

  Even in the fading light of the cab, she could see the pain in his eyes. Her heart went out to him. “Oh, Austin, I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I don’t want your sympathy.” His gaze flicked to the rearview mirror and then back to the road.

  “Then what do you want?”

  He took another right, one more left, and they were back on the main road. He shot her a quick glance. “You, but only if we’re on the same page.”

  His admission made her heart do a little flip, and she fought hard not to let it show. In the back of her mind, she wondered what changed his mind but decided to save the question for later. Instead, she asked, “And what page is that?”

  “I want to make sure you’re into this as well, and you don’t feel pressured because I’m your boss. If you’re not, just say the word, and we’ll go back to the way things used to be. I give you my word that it won’t affect your job. But if you’re on board, I want honesty, no matter the situation.”

  “What if we do this and things don’t work out?”

  “I’m not going to fire you, if that’s what you’re asking. When I was in the military, I worked with a lot of people I despised, but that never affected my professional relationship with them.”

  “You think there’s a chance you’ll despise me?” Jeez, talk about a buzzkill.

  “That’s not what I said, and that’s not what I think. If I thought that was even a remote possibility, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

  He pulled into her apartment complex. At her building, he parked in a spot by the mailboxes, slipped the truck into neutral, and shifted in his seat to face her.

  “I’m going to be perfectly straight with you, because I don’t have the time or the inclination for bullshit.” He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. “You do things to me, Nina, things I didn’t think I was capable of anymore. And it’s more than just physical attraction. What it is exactly, I have no idea, but I think it’s past time to find out.”

  “Well, uh...” It was hard to think straight when he was so close, all hard, and male, and hotter than hell. Did she want him? Oh, hell yes. There was no doubt in her mind about that. But was it a good idea? Probably not, but she couldn’t come up with a good reason to say no when he was watching her as though he wanted to strip off her clothes and do all kinds of dirty, bad things to her.

  He grinned as though he could tell what she was thinking, and it sent a warm rush through her body. Then the grin faded, and for one heart-stopping moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. He leaned slightly toward her, his eyes darkened with desire—but then he must have thought better of it and leaned back against his seat.

  “You don’t have to answer right away,” he said, his voice a little rougher than usual. “Think about it, but don’t make me wait too long. I don’t think I can handle the suspense.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  NINA STOOD OUTSIDE her apartment, mustering her courage to open the door.

  Both of her roommates’ cars were in the lot, which meant as soon as she walked inside, they’d ask her about what happened last night. Not that she blamed them. If their positions were reversed, she’d want to know too. Plus, they had a right to know. But the thought of telling them the truth—about last night, who she really was, and her past—sat like lead in her stomach.

  She peered over her shoulder to the parking lot below, where Austin watched her from his truck. He’d offered to walk her to the door—no, actually, he’d insisted on it. And although she’d said no, he refused to leave until she was safely behind the locked door.

  After giving him a nod, she turned away and slipped her key in the lock. In spite of everything else going on, she couldn’t stop thinking about Austin’s desire to explore a relationship with her. Honestly, she’d love to take him up on the offer, but a host of insecurities held her back. She didn’t want to get hurt, didn’t want to hurt him. And then there was the problem with her brother. Not knowing what Ivan would do next left her in a nerve-racking state of alert.

  After taking a deep breath, she opened the door and saw Dorcas curled up on the couch in the living room, scrolling away on her tablet. A reality show played on the television with the volume turned down low. Shailene wasn’t anywhere in sight, which meant she was probably in her room studying.

  At the sound of the door closing, Dorcas loo
ked up. Curiosity lit her face. “Girl, where have you been? We’ve been worried to death.”

  A twinge of guilt went through Nina. She’d had a lot of reasons for not calling them last night, but that didn’t make her feel any better.

  “I’m sorry.” Nina crossed to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. Someone had drunk her last can of Dr. Pepper, so she grabbed a Mountain Dew instead. “I would have called, but I lost my phone and I couldn’t remember either of your numbers. Did you get the note I left this morning?”

  “Yeah, but it was pretty light on details.” Dorcas set her tablet on the coffee table and swung her legs over the side of the couch. “What happened?”

  “Hold on. Let me get Shailene so I can tell you both at the same time.” As it was, she really didn’t want to tell them at all, but she knew she owed them that much.

  Nina knocked on the door to Shailene’s room before opening it. Sure enough, her other roommate was at her desk, dressed in pajama pants and a matching T-shirt. She wore earbuds, and the music thumped so loudly Nina could tell she was listening to Rihanna. Her head bobbed in rhythm to the song as she studied something on her desktop monitor.

  As if sensing Nina’s presence, Shailene turned her head toward the door and pulled one of the buds out. She smiled. “Hey, you’re alive. Where’d you go last night?”

  “Why don’t you take a break, and I’ll fill you in?” Not waiting for a reply, Nina moved to the living room and claimed a spot on the couch next to Dorcas. Shailene came in a minute or so later and sat on the recliner to the left.

  “All right, spill,” Dorcas said, her butt on the edge of her seat.

  A burst of panic shot through Nina at the memory of Austin’s reaction to the same information. After taking a few moments to calm her frazzled nerves, Nina stared at her shoes as she laid it all out: who she really was, her family’s criminal connections, and her brother’s insistence that she return to the family’s home in California. Then she told them what happened after she left the bar last night, and how Austin had come to her rescue. In some sick way, telling them actually felt cathartic. There were no more secrets to hide, no more lying to her friends. She only hoped they wouldn’t be too mad at her for keeping them in the dark for so long.