“What the hell emails are you talking about?” Sawyer demanded. Both his and Cameron’s posture stiffened.
“They’re not actually coming to Juliet, they’re addressed to Lisa Sinclair. Creepy stuff that mentions specific details about her attack last year. I’ll show you.” Evan got out Juliet’s laptop and showed her brothers what she’d been dealing with for nearly a year.
Sawyer dropped into a chair. “Why didn’t she tell us about all this?”
Evan shook his head. “She said she didn’t want to put a burden on anyone. That we had ‘real’ cases we were working on.”
Sawyer’s expletive was ugly. “That’s the most asinine thing I’ve ever heard. This stalker thing is obviously escalating. Look at how many more there have been in the last three months. And that ratio quadrupled in the last couple of days.”
“I know.” Evan gave a long exhalation. “I don’t like it. As soon as we get the drone codes situation under control with Cady, I’m going to make this top of my priority list.”
Cameron had been leaning against the counter, silent since Evan had shown them the emails. He spoke up softly now. “She shouldn’t have had to go through this alone. Not after what she’s been through. I’m going over to her house right now to talk to her.”
Evan put out an arm to stop him. “Cam, that won’t work.”
“I’m her brother. She’ll let me in. I just want her to know she’s not alone in this.”
Evan sighed. “She’s not at her house.”
“Where the hell is she?” Sawyer asked. “Is she back at Omega again? She spends too much time there.”
“No,” Evan said, and cleared his throat. “She’s upstairs. Asleep. In my bed.”
Evan watched as the two men he had been friends with for over fifteen years looked at him as though he was an adversary. Sawyer stood next to Cameron, both glaring at Evan.
“What do you mean, she’s up there in your bed?” They studied his clothes. Obviously, Evan had also been sleeping when they had gotten there a half hour ago. It didn’t take them longer than the average three-year-old to put the details together.
“What the hell are you doing, Evan?” Sawyer’s words were quiet, making them all the more menacing.
“Did she want to go to bed with you or did you push it?” Cameron’s voice wasn’t as quiet.
Evan’s whole body tensed. “You two are my best friends in the world, but you better watch what you say right now. I would never put Juliet in a situation like you’re suggesting.”
Sawyer’s breath flew out in a huff, and he relaxed against the counter. “Damn it, we know that, Evan. It’s just, first the undercover work, then those emails, and now you tell us she’s sleeping with you.”
“It’s too much, too soon,” Cameron agreed.
“She wasn’t sleeping sleeping with me. You both know she and I can’t go under at Vince Cady’s house with her cringing every time I touch her. So we’ve been spending as much time as possible together in the last thirty-six hours.”
Evan thought mentioning her house and the shape it had been in probably wouldn’t help the situation overall. Her brothers would feel the same way she had at first. As if there was no way she could handle the case.
“She can handle the case,” Evan said, as much to himself as to Sawyer and Cameron. “I believe that.”
“You be careful not to let things get out of hand, Evan. Don’t take it too far.”
Evan reminded himself that these were Juliet’s brothers. Brothers who loved her very much, which was why they were being so overprotective. But they knew him, knew how long Evan had carried a torch for their sister. They just didn’t like that anyone would care that much about her.
“You know how I feel.” Evan snapped his mouth shut and reached for the coffee, to give himself a moment to formulate his words.
“How you feel about what?” Juliet’s voice chimed in from the kitchen doorway.
Evan stopped, frozen. How much had she heard?
“Hey, little sis. We were just talking about some tracking and emergency equipment the tech department has come up with,” Cameron said.
Thank God. Evan really didn’t want to get into his feelings for Juliet, with two of her brothers sitting in his kitchen, while he was wearing his pajama pants. Juliet, thankfully, had changed out of the T-shirt and boxers she had slept in, and put on yoga pants and a sweatshirt before coming downstairs.
Sawyer hugged his sister. “Yeah, Megan came up with something we’d like you to wear while undercover. It’s a tracking and distress device. Only good short-range, but completely undetectable. Perfect for while you’re at Cady’s house.”
“We were dropping by to see what Evan thought of it. Didn’t expect to find you here this early in the morning.” Cameron’s eyebrow rose.
Juliet flushed just a little bit, but she was used to dealing with her brothers. “It’s not what you think.”
“So Evan assures us.”
Evan poured Juliet a cup of coffee and handed it to her. How he wished it was what it looked like. Nothing would make him happier.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Getting rid of her brothers took a couple hours. Juliet loved them, she really did, but they were ridiculously overprotective. When her oldest brother was around it was even worse, although Dylan was usually the most reasonable. He understood, by experience, that sometimes no matter how traumatic the event, you just wanted to be left alone.
Juliet definitely didn’t want to talk with her brothers about being in bed with Evan. No matter how innocent it had been.
And definitely didn’t want to talk about how good it had been to lie there with him.
She had avoided sleeping in a bed all these months because of her fears. But being in one with Evan, she’d found her fears hadn’t really crossed her mind. She’d been too busy thinking about him. About how close he was and how good he smelled.
And how she was nervous about being in
