Service.”
“I find it very interesting that Daniel Black Eagle, the son of a known felon, buys in to an exclusive paramilitary training school and pretty soon that same school is blown to smithereens and burned to the ground.”
Chapter 14
She barely stifled the urge to tell the reporter where to stuff it, knowing he wanted her to lose her cool.
“Even more interesting, the man is currently shacked up with his partner’s daughter, and they are both explosives experts.”
“What the hell are you getting at?” Daniel’s voice was deadly, but not out of control.
She looked over at him, continuing toward the house. “Ignore him, Daniel. He’s blowing smoke out of his behind, and pretty soon he’s going to set himself on fire.”
“Like you set fire to your father’s compound? Is it true your father died in the fire, Ms. McCall? Do you think he died from smoke inhalation before the fire got to him? It puts a different complexion on the recent million-dollar life insurance policy your dad took out naming you as beneficiary, doesn’t it?”
Two thumps sounded from behind her, and she spun around to see what was going on. Daniel was walking toward her, and the reporter lay unmoving, half on the sidewalk and half on the street.
“Daniel, what did you do?”
“He tripped. Over my foot.”
She stared at the reporter and then looked toward the car where the photographer was busy trying to fix his camera under the interior lights. From his lack of reaction, she had to assume he hadn’t seen anything. He certainly hadn’t gotten any pictures, not with his camera out of commission.
“You can’t leave him lying half in the street.”
“He accused you of killing your dad. He’s lucky I didn’t throw him in front of the next passing car.”
The reporter groaned and started moving.
Daniel nodded toward him. “See. He’ll be fine. Unfortunately.”
“He knew an awful lot about you and me for that matter. Not to mention some insurance policy I’m darn positive my dad would never have taken out. He doesn’t trust insurance companies.”
“I know. I wouldn’t buy in to the school until he agreed to insure the property.”
“Why didn’t Dooley mention that policy?” she asked as they walked into the house, and Daniel closed the door behind them. “It would support his whacky accusation you had something to do with the school’s demise.”
Hotwire and Claire were nowhere to be seen, but she could hear typing from the study, and Claire’s bedroom door was shut.
“I don’t know.” Daniel pulled her around so she was looking up into his face. “Are you okay?”
“Other than knowing someone tried to kill my dad and apparently planned all along to lay the blame on me? Sure.” She smiled to make a joke of her words, but it slipped at the seriousness of his expression.
“I don’t like this one dam—darn bit. I don’t think you’re safe, Josette.”
“I’m not a helpless little bubblehead, Daniel. If anybody comes after me, I’m more than ready to give them a taste of the temper I’ve been keeping under wraps for the past three days.” And she meant it.
She would welcome a chance to meet her enemy face-to-face and take them apart with every trick her dad had taught her.
“They didn’t meet your dad head-on. They tried to blow him up. If you hadn’t been there, he would be dead.”
“If I hadn’t been there, the security system would have been set at a higher level for motion detection outside his room. I turned it off when I went for a walk.”
“If they came prepared to blow up the compound, they came prepared to dismantle your dad’s security features.”
“I told myself the same thing, but that doesn’t change the fact they didn’t have to.”
“And that doesn’t alter the fact you saved your dad’s life.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Heaven knew she didn’t believe in carrying false guilt around. Daniel had enough of that for both of them.
She moved into his arms until she was wrapped up against him, seeking his strength and warmth. “I know it’s stupid, but, Daniel, I always thought he was indestructible. It never occurred to me that anybody could kill him. I guess I thought he was never going to die.”
Burying her face against his chest, she couldn’t say anything more past the lump of emotional revelation clogging her throat.
His hand rubbed up and down her back. “I know, sweetheart. There’s nothing stupid about it. I used to think that my mom couldn’t die either. I mean, she’d survived years of marriage to my dad; I couldn’t conceive of him seriously hurting her. He needed her. Even I could see that, though I wouldn’t call what he felt love.”
“I’m sorry she died.”
“I am, too, but I’m not going to make the mistake with you that I made with her.”
She pulled back so she could see his face. There had been an odd quality in his voice. “What do you mean?”
“You’re in danger right now.”
“So?”
“I want you to go stay with Wolf and Lise until the enemy is contained.”
“No.”
“I’m not giving you a choice, Josette.”
“Really? How do you plan to get me to Wolf’s? Carry me there with my arms tied behind my back?”
“If I had picked my mother up and carried her out of the house, she wouldn’t have been there for my dad to throw against a wall.”
“She would have gone back to him, just like I’m going to Nevada to see if my dad is there, even if I have to walk down the side of Wolf’s mountain and hitchhike cross-country. If you really want to make sure I’m safe, you’re going to have to keep me with you.”
“Josette—”
“Think about it, Daniel. I’m trained to protect myself and to neutralize the enemy. Please trust me to make the right decisions for my own safety.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“No. You didn’t have one with your mother either,” she couldn’t help saying.
He sighed, but didn’t argue with her. No anger evident in his eyes at her mutiny, he brushed the hair away from her temple. “You’re so perfect, such a special woman. I don’t want you hurt.”
Tears unrelated to her dad’s dangerous brush with death filled her eyes. “I’m a former mercenary, Daniel, not a debutante.”
“You’re my woman.” He nuzzled her face. “And so soft.”
Her mind splintered away from their discussion as his gentle touch drew forth a reaction from her body that had nothing to do with making war. She turned her face toward his and met his lips halfway.
She opened her mouth, and their tongues collided in a mutual need to taste. Her hands slid of their own accord up his chest and around his neck as her body pressed into the hard length of his. His arms were already locked around her, but they tightened until she felt melded to him despite the clothes separating flesh hungry to touch naked flesh.
“This is becoming a habit.” The humor in Hotwire’s voice couldn’t even dampen the need Josie felt to connect with Daniel.
She ignored the other man’s presence and went up on her tiptoes to increase the pressure of her lips against his.
It was Daniel who drew away, holding her firmly separated from him when she tried to burrow back into his
