Trouble In A Tight Dress (Six Points Security Book 1) Read online

  His mood darkened at the thought of his sister. After so many years of fruitless searching, he’d assumed she’d died in a ditch somewhere after running away from home. To find her in Orlando, alive and well, went beyond his wildest expectations. At first, he hadn’t believed it when Victor showed him the picture he’d taken at the fundraiser. But the more he studied the image, the more he recognized the sister he’d lost so many years ago. Her hair was different and the baby fat was gone from her cheeks, but he’d know those eyes anywhere.

  The front door opened, and two of his men entered, their arms loaded with plastic shopping bags. Originally, he’d planned to be in town for two days, but now he wasn’t leaving until he’d secured his sister, and he needed more supplies for the penthouse. He gave them a curt nod as they moved to the kitchen and then turned his gaze to the window and its spectacular view of the Orlando city skyline.

  As children, he and Nina had been close, but now she acted as if she wanted nothing to do with him. Like she actually had a choice. Her attitude pissed him off. He was the head of the family, the leader of the Order of Petrov. How dare she turn him away?

  Obviously, she’d been away from the family for too long. She needed to relearn her place, as well as her role in the family business. Now that he’d found her, he had plans for her, and he wasn’t taking no for an answer.

  The door opened again, and this time Victor stepped inside. He looked tired tonight, his suit a little rumpled. The lines around his mouth and eyes were deeper than usual, his skin drawn taut across his cheekbones. At fifty-six, he’d been around since Ivan was a child, and he trusted the older man more than anyone else in his organization.

  “What did you learn?” Ivan asked.

  Victor crossed to the couch, his hands clasped behind his back like a soldier at attention. “She works for a place called Six Points Tactical and Security, been there about a year. One bank account, two credit cards. No arrests or marks on her driving record. She’s been living in the same apartment with the same two roommates for about a year and a half.”

  “And the guy?”

  “Austin Flint. His family owns the business where she works. Former Marine, divorced, no kids.”

  “Is he fucking her?”

  “Not to my knowledge.”

  “Good. Let him live for the time being.” Tempting as it was, he’d rather not risk drawing attention to himself or his organization. But if Flint became a problem, or if he stuck his nose where it wasn’t welcome again, Ivan wouldn’t think twice about putting a bullet in his brain and dumping his body in a lake full of alligators.

  “As you wish,” Victor said with a nod. “How do you want me to proceed with Antonina?”

  Ivan sipped his drink, barely noticing the burn of good vodka as he considered his options. “Keep track of her movements. If you see an opening, take it, and then bring her directly to me.”

  “What if her boss gets in the way again?”

  “Do what’s necessary to eliminate the problem, but don’t leave any witnesses.”

  WHEN AUSTIN ARRIVED at work the next morning, he found Larissa clicking and typing away on her computer, her face a mask of concentration. She looked tanned and well-rested, with her long auburn hair pulled back in a simple ponytail.

  For a few long moments, he simply stood in the doorway and watched her do her thing. Even hard at work, there was serenity in her expression, a clear indication that she was satisfied with her career, her family. Her life. And why wouldn’t she be satisfied? She had a bright, beautiful daughter, another child on the way, and a man who loved her more than life itself. When Austin first met her husband, Shane Falco, he wanted to stuff the guy in a crate and ship him off to parts unknown. But Shane had eventually won him over through his devotion to Larissa and Emma.

  Austin was happy for her. Really, he was, especially after all she’d been through. But he had to admit, he was also a little envious. At thirty-eight, he had a successful business, a house, and siblings who loved him, but his love life sucked. With his schedule, he didn’t have much time for dating, and casual hookups weren’t his thing. And considering how his marriage had crashed and burned, he was probably better off alone.

  Shaking his head, he forced the thought from his mind. When he knocked on the doorframe, Larissa’s head snapped up and a smile warmed her face.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  “Not much.” He entered her office and sat on the rickety chair on the opposite side of her desk. He’d offered to replace it at least a dozen times, but she insisted on keeping it, most likely because it was so damn uncomfortable it kept people from hanging around her office for long. “I just wanted to see if you found anything useful on Trask’s tablet.”

  She shook her head. “Either Trask is clean, or he’s really good at covering his tracks. The only thing I found so far was an email from Aranza’s lawyer dated six months ago. He requested a meeting to discuss the zoning for a warehouse his quote-unquote client planned to buy. But when Trask responded to ask for details and set up a date, his lawyer said the purchase had been cancelled due to unforeseen financial issues.”

  She peered up at Austin. Worry creased her brow. “That’s about the same time I wiped out his account. If I hadn’t done that, Aranza would have set up shop, and we could have—”

  “Don’t. You know better than to play that game.” Austin braced his forearms against his knees and leaned toward his sister. In the course of her cyber hunt for Aranza, she’d uncovered one of the drug lord’s secret bank accounts in the Cayman Islands. Using her skills as a hacker, she’d cleaned out every penny and donated it to charities all over the world. To the best of their knowledge, Aranza never figured out who was responsible, but if he ever did, he’d come after Larissa with a white-hot vengeance. “What you did crippled Aranza’s operation, at least for a little while. We’ll find him; it’s only a matter of time. And when we do…”

  She nodded and her eyes glinted with fierce determination. “Yeah.”

  “We knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Nothing worthwhile ever is.” Austin stood to leave. “Keep digging; my source is credible. And let me know as soon as you find anything we can work with.”

  “You got it.”

  He almost made it to the door before he turned back to face her. “Be careful, all right? I want this for Wade, but I don’t want you doing anything that could put you or your family in danger. Especially with…well, you know.”

  “Yeah, I do.” She smoothed one hand over her belly where a bump was starting to show. “Don’t worry, big brother. I’m good at what I do, remember?”

  “The best.” That wasn’t an exaggeration. The things she could accomplish with a computer bordered on miraculous…and were a little scary. He pitied the idiot who was stupid enough to get on her bad side. It was a wonder she hadn’t been recruited by some covert government agency to wreak havoc on America’s enemies. Then again, maybe she had but wasn’t allowed to share those kinds of secrets. As the possibility weighed in his mind, he remembered a question he’d meant to ask. “What do you know about Nina’s family?”

  Leaning back, Larissa lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug. “Not a lot; she really doesn’t talk much about them. I know they live on the West Coast and that she’s been estranged from them for quite some time. Why?”

  She was holding something back; he could see it in her eyes, but he decided not to call her on it, at least for now. “Her brother’s in town. He wants her to make nice and go home.”

  Shock registered on Larissa’s face. “She told you that?”

  “Didn’t have to. I stopped by her place last night to see if she could fix Nate’s phone, and the brother was hassling her in the parking lot.” The fear on her face had caused his blood pressure to spike a good twenty points. It also triggered a host of protective instincts he hadn’t realized he had—didn’t want to have—for her.

  She was a pain in the ass. A thorn in his side. He already had enough on his plate and di
dn’t have time to be worrying about her. Because if he did, that signified she meant something to him that he wasn’t prepared to admit.

  Clearly surprised, and more than a little concerned, Larissa rubbed one hand over her face. “Oh, no. Is she okay?”

  “Yeah, she’s fine, although I’m not sure what would have happened if I hadn’t been there. As it was, he refused to leave until I threatened him with the cops.”

  Scenes like that made him thankful for his family. Sure, they weren’t perfect, and his brothers could push every one of his buttons, but when push came to shove, they all pulled together and he knew he could always count on his family, just as they could count on him.

  The front door chimed, and Austin checked his watch. “That’s probably Nina. I better go. Don’t tell her I told you about what happened, okay?”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it.” She paused and the smile faded away from her face. “Keep an eye on her, okay? I don’t want to see her getting hurt.”

  “Of course.” There it was again, that inconvenient jumble of emotions, and he ruthlessly brushed them aside. “Let me know when you find something on Aranza that I can work with.”

  NINA DARTED THE short distance from her car to the office and still got soaked to the skin. The rain had started an hour or so ago, and according to the weathermen, it was going to hang around for the next couple of days. As the door closed behind her, Nate emerged from his office and started down the hall in her direction.

  “Were you able to fix my phone?” he asked.

  She barely contained her laugh. The poor guy was so addicted to his phone; it was a miracle he’d made it through the night without it. “Yeah, you had way too much stuff stored on your internal memory. I installed a new card to give you more space and cleared out the history and cache. It’s working a lot better now.” She retrieved his phone from her purse and tossed it to him. “Here you go, Squishy.”

  “Squishy?” Ty called out from his office down the hall, and then burst into a fit of laughter.

  Nate shot her a pained look. “You just had to say that out loud, didn’t you?” He twisted his head toward Ty’s office and raised his voice. “Hey, don’t judge. That’s my password, asshole. You never would have guessed it.”

  “Whatever you say, Squishy.”

  “Who the fuck’s Squishy?” Wade asked as he walked into Ty’s office, and a few seconds later, a low chuckle drifted from the room.

  So that’s what Wade sounded like when he laughed.

  Nate turned back to Nina, looking as though he wanted to murder his brothers. “What do I owe you?”

  “No charge this time.” Try as she might, she couldn’t stop from grinning. “Squishy was payment enough.”

  After Nate left, she made her way down to the break room, where she stashed her lunch in the refrigerator and poured a cup of much-needed coffee. As she took a big sip, Austin walked into the room, looking ridiculously sexy in a pair of black dress pants and a crisp white shirt with the top two buttons opened and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. No tie, but he never put one on until he was ready to leave for an appointment, which, if she remembered correctly, wasn’t happening until later that morning. It made her feel underdressed in her jeans and T-shirt, but then again, she’d spend her day behind a keyboard instead of meeting with high-powered professionals.

  She gave him a polite nod of acknowledgment, still feeling awkward and a little embarrassed over what happened last night with Ivan.

  Austin opened the fridge and grabbed a can of Mountain Dew. “How are you doing this morning?”

  “Fine.” That was a lie. She was freaking exhausted. After fixing Nate’s phone, she’d spent half the night digging up dirt on Ivan. What she’d discovered had given her insomnia. Not only had her brother taken over her father’s criminal organization—he’d more than doubled its size and scope. “Thanks again for your help last night.”

  “Not a problem. I’m glad I could help. Have you heard from your brother since he left?”

  “No, I think he got the hint.” Another lie. Ivan left two messages on her phone last night, leaving her to wonder how the hell he got her number in the first place. The first one sounded apologetic and sincere, with him asking her to reconsider his request to return to California and reunite with their family. The second message, left two hours later and probably after a few drinks, sounded more like the Ivan she’d encountered in the parking lot, full of veiled threats about responsibility and consequences.

  Austin studied her for a few seconds, as if trying to determine whether she was telling him the truth, and she fought the urge to squirm. She hated lying to him, especially when he looked at her as if he really cared, but what other choice did she have? He was a by-the-rules kind of guy. If he knew about her family’s criminal ties, he’d never look at her the same way again. Hell, considering how much he valued integrity, he might even fire her on the spot.

  At last, he blinked and gave her a smile that melted her insides and loosened some of the tightness in her chest. “Let me know if he gives you any more trouble. I meant what I said last night about protecting our own.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

  Guilt gnawed on her conscience as she watched him leave. Maybe, if she laid low for another few days, her brother would give up and go home without her. The odds were stacked against it, but it was her only hope for preserving the life she’d worked so hard to create.

  Chapter Five

  FOR A SATURDAY night, the bar was quiet, which wasn’t a surprise, considering the Magic was hosting a big game tonight and thousands of fans had packed the arena. In another hour or so, after the game ended, downtown Orlando would flood with people eager to celebrate a win or looking to drown their disappointment.

  Nina preferred it quiet. For once, she could actually talk to her friends in a normal voice instead of having to shout over the noise. Plus, she didn’t have to wait in line to use the bathroom like she did when it got really busy.

  With everything going on with her brother, she would have preferred to stay home tonight. She hadn’t heard anything from Ivan in a few days, and the silence made her wonder when the other shoe was going to drop. But one of her roommates had a birthday this week and insisted that Nina join in the celebration.

  At last, the birthday girl showed up, a fashionable fifteen minutes late. Nina set her mojito on the table and stood to give her friend a hug. An engineering student working on her master’s degree, Shailene was the perfect roommate—quiet, clean, considerate, rarely at home, and she always paid her rent on time. When she wasn’t on campus, she was either out with her boyfriend or in her room studying. This was the first time they’d had a chance to talk in almost a week.

  “So how was that thing you went to last weekend?” Shailene claimed a seat at the table between Dorcas, their other roommate, and Kenzie, one of Shailene’s friends. “It was a charity event, right?”

  “Yeah, a fundraiser for Senator Trask.” Nina sipped her drink. “It was mostly listening to boring rich people talk about political stuff.”

  Shailene wrinkled her nose. “Who’d you go with?”

  “Ryan and Austin.”

  Dorcas, her other roommate, gave her a look over the tops of her glasses. “You didn’t tell me you had two dates for this thing.”

  “It wasn’t a date,” Nina said, suddenly feeling defensive. “It was more like a…work thing. They needed someone who knew about tech stuff, and Larissa was away on vacation.”

  The expression on Shailene’s face said she wasn’t buying Nina’s bullshit. “Come on, spill. I know Austin’s pretty hot. And which one is Ryan? Is he the one with the long hair?”

  “No, that’s Ty. Ryan’s the one who used to be a cop.”

  Dorcas made a low sound of approval as she stirred her drink with her straw. “I wouldn’t mind being the meat in that sandwich.”

  “Dorcas!”

  “Hey, I’m just saying. A girl’s got needs. I know you do too.”
<
br />   Thankfully, Shailene’s boyfriend, Caleb, returned from the bar, a beer in each hand, and claimed a seat next to his girlfriend. After kissing Shailene, he glanced over at Nina. “Some guy at the bar’s asking about you.”

  “Which guy? Is he hot?”

  “Not in my book, but I’m probably not the one you should ask.” Caleb jerked his head to the right. “He’s over there, by the redhead in the blue mini.”

  It took Nina a few moments to spot the redhead, and when she did, her blood turned to ice in her veins at the sight of one of the men who’d been with Ivan the other day. The tall blond wore gray slacks and a white dress shirt, and his gaze scanned the area as though he was searching for something but hadn’t found it yet.

  Why was he here, and what did he want? Whatever the reason, it couldn’t be good, and she had no intention of hanging around long enough to find out. Fighting a burst of panic, she grabbed her purse and shoved it over her shoulder. “Shit, I’m sorry. I’ve got to go.”

  “Why? Who is he?” Shailene asked.

  “I’ll explain everything later. If he asks, you don’t know me.”

  “Whoa, wait,” Dorcas said, concern clear on her face. Always the momma bear, she stood in front of Nina, blocking her view of Ivan’s henchman. “What’s going on? Are you in some kind of trouble? Do you want us to go with you?”

  Nina shook her head. No way was she dragging them into this mess. They’d only end up getting killed. “No, it’s all right. I’ll be fine. I just don’t want to deal with him, okay?”

  For a long moment, Dorcas stared at her as though she wanted to argue, but then she pressed her lips together and nodded. After a quick round of hugs, Nina turned away from the table, but instead of heading for the front of the bar, she peeled off to the back by the bathrooms where the service entrance was located.