Street Game
Page 30
Obsession. Addiction.
The words shimmered in her mind. A blanket of resentment. A wealth of possession. She couldn’t find love. If he let himself think it, he didn’t acknowledge it.
If he let himself feel it, he refused to show her. Anger. He was so angry.
Jaimie pushed at his chest. “We’d better go.”
Mack stepped back away from her, out of the light and into the shadows where she couldn’t see his face. Where she couldn’t see his body tremble or his hands shake.
Tiny red dots appeared, clustered over Mack’s heart on his bare chest. A second cluster appeared centered between his eyes. Jaimie gasped and froze. Mack stilled, one hand sliding under his shirt at the small of his back as he looked up. Eight grimfaced men stared at him from across the room, guns drawn and aimed.
“You want to tell me what you’re doing with our sister?” Ethan demanded.
“Because it doesn’t look good from where I’m standing.”
Mack let his breath out. “That’s not funny. I could have shot you.”
“Yeah, well, take your hand out from under that shirt really slow Mack,” Kane said. “Jaimie, you take a step away from him.”
Color swept up Jaimie’s neck and into her face. “Are you all crazy? Put your guns away and stop fooling around.”
“Poor choice of words, Jaimie,” Javier said. “I think there’s been enough fooling around. We aren’t fooling. No one, not even Mack, is going to mess with our sister and get away with it.”
“No one stopped him when we were living together,” Jaimie pointed out, jerking her head up, eyes narrowing dangerously. Her riot of curls went flying in all directions. Usually that was enough to get them all under control, but the guns held rock steady.
“We thought his intentions were honorable back then,” Marc said.
“We just got you back,” Lucas added.
They all nodded in agreement.
Kane indicated for her to move with his gun. “Get away from him, Jaimie. He doesn’t get to lead you on and walk away free.”
“You aren’t going to shoot him,” she said firmly, but she didn’t sound too sure.
“No, but we’re going to beat the hell out of him,” Jacob said. “Go on upstairs while we take care of this.”
“Go on upstairs, Jaimie,” Mack agreed quietly.
“What century are you all living in?” Jaimie demanded. “This isn’t funny. It’s not like any of you . . .”
“Not with our sister, we don’t,” Javier snapped. “Get away from him, Jaimie. I mean it. Go upstairs.”
“You’re serious.”
“He doesn’t get to touch you unless his intentions are strictly honorable.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Jaimie stepped in front of Mack. “You’ve all lost your minds.”
Mack put her gently aside. “You can try to beat the crap out of me, boys, but none of you are that good.” He flexed his shoulders.
“Put your weapons up right this minute,” Jaimie demanded. When no one did, she put both hands on her hips, trying to be seen around Mack’s large frame. “This is my house and you’re being disrespectful.”
“He’s being disrespectful,” Kane said.
“For your information, and it’s none of your business, I seduced him, not the other way around. You’re pointing your guns at the wrong person.”
The men looked at one another.
“Is that true, boss?” Lucas asked.
“It f**king doesn’t matter. You all made one hell of a mistake tonight.” Mack’s voice was ice-cold. “You pulled your weapons with Jaimie in the line of fire. You want a piece of me, come get it, but before you do, holster your weapons, and you can all consider that a f**king order.”
His low tone carried throughout the warehouse, a lethal intent none of them could mistake. Silence fell. Guns disappeared.
Jaimie shivered and laid a hand on Mack’s arm, looking up at his face. His jaw was set, his eyes frozen, glittering chips. He wasn’t joking. There was no humor or amusement. The level of tension in the room went up several notches.
He moved so fast he was nearly a blur, without warning, launching into action. He went vertical, lashing out with powerful legs in a left, right leg kick, dropping the two men closest to him. Lucas and Marc went down hard, the sound sickening, indicating Mack wasn’t holding much back.
They’d all seen him like this before, usually over Jaimie, and the remaining men tried to scramble out of harm’s way. Mack was already in motion, coming back to the floor and running two steps up the wall and flipping off it, clearing a ten-foot distance, driving Kane, who had been farthest from him, to the floor.
“Mack, back off,” Javier yelled, crouching low, hands up to face the threat coming from up above. “Someone’s going to get hurt.”
Mack was moving across the ceiling like a spider, his speed incredible, dropping into the center of Ethan, Jacob, and Javier, his leg sweeping out in a spin, knocking them all on their butts. Javier stood up slowly, facing him, palm out as if in appeasement, but he was in a good offensive position.
“I’m going to say we deserved that, Mack, but I’m not good at this kind of discipline. Let’s go eat and call it good.”
“Apologize to Jaimie and we’ll call it good,” Mack said.
“I don’t need . . .” Jaimie trailed off when Mack shot her a look.
“Mack’s right, Jaimie,” Kane said, from the floor. “It was a dumb joke. If one of us had stumbled, you could have been hurt.”
“Killed,” Mack said. “What the hell have I been teaching you all these years?”
“How to kick the crap out of people?” Ethan muttered under his breath.
CHAPTER 11
“What did you say?” Mack demanded.
Ethan shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing, boss. Nothing at all.”
The men turned and started up the stairs, some walking a little gingerly. Jaimie started after them, but Mack caught her arm, preventing her from moving.
“Where’s Paul?” he asked Kane.
“First floor with Brian.” Kane looked closer. “You’re still itching for a fight. We thought you’d be all mellow after . . .” He broke off when Mack shot him a look.
“You thought wrong.”
Kane sighed. “Brian has Paul under guard and Javier brought his computer as ordered. You want to fill me in?”
There was a small silence. Mack’s thumb slid over the inside of Jaimie’s wrist, but he didn’t look at her, simply brushed soothing strokes back and forth across sensitive skin. She wasn’t certain if he was soothing her—or him.
“Jaimie discovered a pattern with a couple of the missions you’ve been running lately, Kane. The last three you’ve been asked for by name—you and Brian.” He waited for the significance to sink in. When Kane didn’t display any reaction Mack continued. “All three missions went south. If I hadn’t had a bad feeling and sent backup, you and Brian would have been killed.”
“You think Sergeant Major buried the report we gave on Whitney.”
“And all the evidence you’d gathered,” Mack added.
Kane rolled his shoulders. “I thought we’d been targeted. That’s why I stayed away from you and didn’t talk about it. We had orders not to. You knew we were sending our reports on Whitney up the chain of command, but Brian and I talked it over after the first mission where we were ambushed and we decided to try to distance ourselves from all of you just to try to keep from dragging you into our mess.”
“That was a bullshit decision,” Mack said. “That’s not how it works.”
“For anyone but you? Everyone I care about is on this team, Mack. Same with Brian. We’re not about to put any of you in jeopardy.”
Mack sighed and threw another glance at Jaimie. “So everyone is protecting everyone else and putting themselves in the line of fire in the name of love. Great thing to do. You’re all a bunch of boneheads.”
“What would you do?”
“Exactly what we’re going to do. Remove the threat. I won’t have you or Brian sent out on a suicide mission. If Sergeant Major is protecting Whitney, then we’ll take him out.” He made the statement coldly, without passion. “He’s a dead man if he deliberately put you in harm’s way, but we’ll do it smart.”
Kane half turned.
“Kane.” Mack’s voice was low but carried a thread of menace, a wealth of command. “Do we have an understanding?”
“Yes, Top.”
The tension in the room eased. Beside her, Jaimie felt Mack’s body relax a bit, his fingers still stroking her skin. “Is Gideon keeping an eye on our terrorists?”
Kane nodded. “But he’s hungry. He said to eat fast and relieve him. I didn’t tell him Jaimie didn’t make the lasagna.” He grinned. “I didn’t want to destroy his good mood.”
“I made the sauce. You couldn’t have messed it up,” Jaimie pointed out.
“Don’t count on it, little sister. Javier had ideas.”
“You didn’t let that man touch the sauce, did you?”
“I tried to stop him,” Kane said piously. “I did, Jaimie. He whipped out that big knife of his and started cleaning his fingernails. I had to let him do whatever he wanted.”
“He wasn’t in my kitchen when he was cleaning his fingernails, was he?”
Kane leaned close, lowering his voice. “I don’t think sex works for either of you.
You should be relaxed and feeling great, not hostile and tense. Maybe you need to have a little talk with me, boss. I could give you a couple of pointers.”
Mack snorted. “You’re going to give me pointers on sex.”
“I’m willing, boss. Just to help you out.”
Mack made a suggestion that was anatomically impossible, accompanied by sign language.
Jaimie put her foot on the stairs again. This time it was Kane stopping her. “You forgot your underwear, honey. I think your thong is under the desk there and your bra is on the floor next to the chair.”
Jaimie kicked him in the shins. “If we’re all going to be childish, I’m joining right in,” she snapped and stomped back across the room to sweep her undergarments up.
She couldn’t remember how they came off. Mack was good at that, getting her out of her panties and bra. Half the time when she lived with him, at home, she hadn’t worn any. He was prone to throwing her up against a wall or on a table, or bending her over a chair. The flashes of memories made her wet and her ni**les hard. She could feel his eyes on her, and heat swept through her body. It was impossible not to think about the multiple cl**axes he’d given her, when he was looking at her with that smug, male look on his face. Just for good measure she kicked him too as she swept by, her head up, her haughtiest look on her face.
“What was that for?” Mack demanded.
“We really need to talk, boss,” Kane said.
The two men followed Jaimie up the stairs. Jaimie hesitated at the top of the stairs and Mack dropped a casual arm around her, sweeping her beneath his shoulder as he walked her to the bathroom. He kept her close, his body between her and the others, wanting to make certain she was comfortable. These men were her family, ones she’d grown up with, but she was younger by several years and at a distinct disadvantage, unlike Rhianna, who was a rough-and-tumble tomboy. Jaimie lived in her brain and often felt separated from everyone.
Mack turned back to the others. They were already digging into the food, goodnaturedly shoving at one another and jostling for position around the lasagna and salad. Javier stood to one side, eyeing a small laptop.
The words shimmered in her mind. A blanket of resentment. A wealth of possession. She couldn’t find love. If he let himself think it, he didn’t acknowledge it.
If he let himself feel it, he refused to show her. Anger. He was so angry.
Jaimie pushed at his chest. “We’d better go.”
Mack stepped back away from her, out of the light and into the shadows where she couldn’t see his face. Where she couldn’t see his body tremble or his hands shake.
Tiny red dots appeared, clustered over Mack’s heart on his bare chest. A second cluster appeared centered between his eyes. Jaimie gasped and froze. Mack stilled, one hand sliding under his shirt at the small of his back as he looked up. Eight grimfaced men stared at him from across the room, guns drawn and aimed.
“You want to tell me what you’re doing with our sister?” Ethan demanded.
“Because it doesn’t look good from where I’m standing.”
Mack let his breath out. “That’s not funny. I could have shot you.”
“Yeah, well, take your hand out from under that shirt really slow Mack,” Kane said. “Jaimie, you take a step away from him.”
Color swept up Jaimie’s neck and into her face. “Are you all crazy? Put your guns away and stop fooling around.”
“Poor choice of words, Jaimie,” Javier said. “I think there’s been enough fooling around. We aren’t fooling. No one, not even Mack, is going to mess with our sister and get away with it.”
“No one stopped him when we were living together,” Jaimie pointed out, jerking her head up, eyes narrowing dangerously. Her riot of curls went flying in all directions. Usually that was enough to get them all under control, but the guns held rock steady.
“We thought his intentions were honorable back then,” Marc said.
“We just got you back,” Lucas added.
They all nodded in agreement.
Kane indicated for her to move with his gun. “Get away from him, Jaimie. He doesn’t get to lead you on and walk away free.”
“You aren’t going to shoot him,” she said firmly, but she didn’t sound too sure.
“No, but we’re going to beat the hell out of him,” Jacob said. “Go on upstairs while we take care of this.”
“Go on upstairs, Jaimie,” Mack agreed quietly.
“What century are you all living in?” Jaimie demanded. “This isn’t funny. It’s not like any of you . . .”
“Not with our sister, we don’t,” Javier snapped. “Get away from him, Jaimie. I mean it. Go upstairs.”
“You’re serious.”
“He doesn’t get to touch you unless his intentions are strictly honorable.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Jaimie stepped in front of Mack. “You’ve all lost your minds.”
Mack put her gently aside. “You can try to beat the crap out of me, boys, but none of you are that good.” He flexed his shoulders.
“Put your weapons up right this minute,” Jaimie demanded. When no one did, she put both hands on her hips, trying to be seen around Mack’s large frame. “This is my house and you’re being disrespectful.”
“He’s being disrespectful,” Kane said.
“For your information, and it’s none of your business, I seduced him, not the other way around. You’re pointing your guns at the wrong person.”
The men looked at one another.
“Is that true, boss?” Lucas asked.
“It f**king doesn’t matter. You all made one hell of a mistake tonight.” Mack’s voice was ice-cold. “You pulled your weapons with Jaimie in the line of fire. You want a piece of me, come get it, but before you do, holster your weapons, and you can all consider that a f**king order.”
His low tone carried throughout the warehouse, a lethal intent none of them could mistake. Silence fell. Guns disappeared.
Jaimie shivered and laid a hand on Mack’s arm, looking up at his face. His jaw was set, his eyes frozen, glittering chips. He wasn’t joking. There was no humor or amusement. The level of tension in the room went up several notches.
He moved so fast he was nearly a blur, without warning, launching into action. He went vertical, lashing out with powerful legs in a left, right leg kick, dropping the two men closest to him. Lucas and Marc went down hard, the sound sickening, indicating Mack wasn’t holding much back.
They’d all seen him like this before, usually over Jaimie, and the remaining men tried to scramble out of harm’s way. Mack was already in motion, coming back to the floor and running two steps up the wall and flipping off it, clearing a ten-foot distance, driving Kane, who had been farthest from him, to the floor.
“Mack, back off,” Javier yelled, crouching low, hands up to face the threat coming from up above. “Someone’s going to get hurt.”
Mack was moving across the ceiling like a spider, his speed incredible, dropping into the center of Ethan, Jacob, and Javier, his leg sweeping out in a spin, knocking them all on their butts. Javier stood up slowly, facing him, palm out as if in appeasement, but he was in a good offensive position.
“I’m going to say we deserved that, Mack, but I’m not good at this kind of discipline. Let’s go eat and call it good.”
“Apologize to Jaimie and we’ll call it good,” Mack said.
“I don’t need . . .” Jaimie trailed off when Mack shot her a look.
“Mack’s right, Jaimie,” Kane said, from the floor. “It was a dumb joke. If one of us had stumbled, you could have been hurt.”
“Killed,” Mack said. “What the hell have I been teaching you all these years?”
“How to kick the crap out of people?” Ethan muttered under his breath.
CHAPTER 11
“What did you say?” Mack demanded.
Ethan shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing, boss. Nothing at all.”
The men turned and started up the stairs, some walking a little gingerly. Jaimie started after them, but Mack caught her arm, preventing her from moving.
“Where’s Paul?” he asked Kane.
“First floor with Brian.” Kane looked closer. “You’re still itching for a fight. We thought you’d be all mellow after . . .” He broke off when Mack shot him a look.
“You thought wrong.”
Kane sighed. “Brian has Paul under guard and Javier brought his computer as ordered. You want to fill me in?”
There was a small silence. Mack’s thumb slid over the inside of Jaimie’s wrist, but he didn’t look at her, simply brushed soothing strokes back and forth across sensitive skin. She wasn’t certain if he was soothing her—or him.
“Jaimie discovered a pattern with a couple of the missions you’ve been running lately, Kane. The last three you’ve been asked for by name—you and Brian.” He waited for the significance to sink in. When Kane didn’t display any reaction Mack continued. “All three missions went south. If I hadn’t had a bad feeling and sent backup, you and Brian would have been killed.”
“You think Sergeant Major buried the report we gave on Whitney.”
“And all the evidence you’d gathered,” Mack added.
Kane rolled his shoulders. “I thought we’d been targeted. That’s why I stayed away from you and didn’t talk about it. We had orders not to. You knew we were sending our reports on Whitney up the chain of command, but Brian and I talked it over after the first mission where we were ambushed and we decided to try to distance ourselves from all of you just to try to keep from dragging you into our mess.”
“That was a bullshit decision,” Mack said. “That’s not how it works.”
“For anyone but you? Everyone I care about is on this team, Mack. Same with Brian. We’re not about to put any of you in jeopardy.”
Mack sighed and threw another glance at Jaimie. “So everyone is protecting everyone else and putting themselves in the line of fire in the name of love. Great thing to do. You’re all a bunch of boneheads.”
“What would you do?”
“Exactly what we’re going to do. Remove the threat. I won’t have you or Brian sent out on a suicide mission. If Sergeant Major is protecting Whitney, then we’ll take him out.” He made the statement coldly, without passion. “He’s a dead man if he deliberately put you in harm’s way, but we’ll do it smart.”
Kane half turned.
“Kane.” Mack’s voice was low but carried a thread of menace, a wealth of command. “Do we have an understanding?”
“Yes, Top.”
The tension in the room eased. Beside her, Jaimie felt Mack’s body relax a bit, his fingers still stroking her skin. “Is Gideon keeping an eye on our terrorists?”
Kane nodded. “But he’s hungry. He said to eat fast and relieve him. I didn’t tell him Jaimie didn’t make the lasagna.” He grinned. “I didn’t want to destroy his good mood.”
“I made the sauce. You couldn’t have messed it up,” Jaimie pointed out.
“Don’t count on it, little sister. Javier had ideas.”
“You didn’t let that man touch the sauce, did you?”
“I tried to stop him,” Kane said piously. “I did, Jaimie. He whipped out that big knife of his and started cleaning his fingernails. I had to let him do whatever he wanted.”
“He wasn’t in my kitchen when he was cleaning his fingernails, was he?”
Kane leaned close, lowering his voice. “I don’t think sex works for either of you.
You should be relaxed and feeling great, not hostile and tense. Maybe you need to have a little talk with me, boss. I could give you a couple of pointers.”
Mack snorted. “You’re going to give me pointers on sex.”
“I’m willing, boss. Just to help you out.”
Mack made a suggestion that was anatomically impossible, accompanied by sign language.
Jaimie put her foot on the stairs again. This time it was Kane stopping her. “You forgot your underwear, honey. I think your thong is under the desk there and your bra is on the floor next to the chair.”
Jaimie kicked him in the shins. “If we’re all going to be childish, I’m joining right in,” she snapped and stomped back across the room to sweep her undergarments up.
She couldn’t remember how they came off. Mack was good at that, getting her out of her panties and bra. Half the time when she lived with him, at home, she hadn’t worn any. He was prone to throwing her up against a wall or on a table, or bending her over a chair. The flashes of memories made her wet and her ni**les hard. She could feel his eyes on her, and heat swept through her body. It was impossible not to think about the multiple cl**axes he’d given her, when he was looking at her with that smug, male look on his face. Just for good measure she kicked him too as she swept by, her head up, her haughtiest look on her face.
“What was that for?” Mack demanded.
“We really need to talk, boss,” Kane said.
The two men followed Jaimie up the stairs. Jaimie hesitated at the top of the stairs and Mack dropped a casual arm around her, sweeping her beneath his shoulder as he walked her to the bathroom. He kept her close, his body between her and the others, wanting to make certain she was comfortable. These men were her family, ones she’d grown up with, but she was younger by several years and at a distinct disadvantage, unlike Rhianna, who was a rough-and-tumble tomboy. Jaimie lived in her brain and often felt separated from everyone.
Mack turned back to the others. They were already digging into the food, goodnaturedly shoving at one another and jostling for position around the lasagna and salad. Javier stood to one side, eyeing a small laptop.
