“No, you don’t look like you are.” His gaze dipped to her mouth. “I’m not making the same mistakes this time,” he growled.
“Neither am I.”
His hands reached for her, but—
His phone rang. A loud, heavy metal sounding blast. He’d tossed the phone on his desk when he came into the office. As the phone blasted again and vibrated, War swore. He backed away and scooped up the device. He quickly put the phone to his ear. “Odin, your timing could not be worse…”
Actually, Rose thought it could have been worse. Odin could have called when they’d been, ah, playing a game of pool.
“What?” War barked.
Her spine straightened.
“The SOB was sniffing around my place?”
Which SOB? She inched closer.
“Damn straight I want you to hold him. Rose and I will be right there.” He ended the call. His fingers remained tight around the phone. “Remember that plan about me playing nicely with good old Gary?”
Cautiously, she nodded. It had been a very recent plan. Not like she could have forgotten it already.
“Consider the plan altered. Odin just found that jackass slinking around my beach cabin. He’s spying on me, and I want to know why.” His eyes glittered. “How fast can you make that shower?”
“Give me two minutes.”
“Done.”
***
Odin tossed his phone onto the couch. “Get comfortable.” He waved toward the PI. “You’re not going anywhere.”
The jerk immediately jumped to his feet. As if Odin had not just said…get comfortable. “You can’t keep me here!” Gary Strom blasted. “There is no way you can make me stay!”
Odin looked at Gary, then glanced down at his own body. No way, huh? He outweighed the man by one whole hell of a lot. Bigger, stronger, meaner…Gary did not want to play this game. Odin crossed his arms over his chest. “Want to bet?”
Gary gulped.
Yeah, that’s what I thought. Some people were all about picking on those who were smaller and weaker.
Odin had always hated those kinds of people.
Chapter Sixteen
“Gary, Gary, Gary…” War cocked his head to the left. “Do you have any idea how badly you screwed up a perfectly good night?”
“You can’t keep me here!” Gary snapped.
From his position near the window, Odin frowned over at Gary. “He keeps saying that. It’s like he doesn’t even know who we are.”
“Oh, I think he has a very good idea of who we are.” Too good of an idea. “Didn’t I warn you to stay away?”
Gary swallowed. His gaze darted around the room, as if looking for help. The dude was not going to find it. Odin appeared pissed as hell—the exact same way that War felt. Rose was staring suspiciously at the PI from her perch in War’s favorite, over-stuffed chair.
Gary’s gaze dipped on them all, then slid past the frame that sat on War’s end table. Odin must have been tidying—the guy was a serious neat freak—because the frame was now sitting up again. Gary barely looked at the frame before his stare zoomed around as if searching for—
“Help is not going to magically appear,” War informed him. “So how about we cut to the chase? And by that, I mean, why the fuck are you hiding outside of my home?”
“I wasn’t hiding!” Gary instantly denied as his gaze shot back to War. “I was…doing recon work. You know the business. You know how it is.”
Oh, he knew the business, all right. “I know I told you to keep your ass away. I know you didn’t listen.” He took an aggressive step toward Gary. “I know that pisses me off.”
Sweat dotted Gary’s wide forehead. “He offered me double, okay?”
“Dylan?”
A jerky nod. “Offered me double my usual pay to find some shit on you that he could use. He, um, doesn’t like for you to be around her.” A vague motion of his hand toward Rose.
Rage burned inside of War. “Too fucking bad. Around her happens to be my favorite place.” Around her. In her. No one was going to keep him away.
Not ever again.
Gary raked a hand through his already disheveled hair. “I gave him all the intel I had on you.”
Voice silky as he took yet another step toward his prey, War asked, “And what intel would that be?”
Gary risked a glance at Odin. Then back to War. “About the stuff you’ve done as a SEAL. About all those black ops missions.”
Curiosity pulled at War. “Just how would you get access to classified intel?”
Gary’s pointed chin lifted. “I’m a better PI than you think.”
I highly doubt that. “You just got caught outside of my place. If you were good, Odin wouldn’t have seen you.”
Gary shrugged.
“What did you think you would find on me by hiding outside?”
Gary hunched his shoulders but didn’t speak. Annoying.
“Gary? I’m getting bored,” War prompted.
“Thought you’d be screwing someone else,” Gary finally snapped. “I could get a pic and give that to Dylan. Double pay. Easy money.”
Rose had been silently watching, but at those words, she surged to her feet. “You are such an ass!”
Gary flinched.
“Stop trying to ruin people’s lives! Try doing some real work. Find missing people. Track down criminals. Recover stolen property!” Red burned in her cheeks. “Don’t try to destroy people that you don’t know.” She rushed toward Gary with blood in her eyes.
War wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side before she could attack. “Easy.”
“I do not feel like being easy!”
Fair enough. He bent his mouth to her ear. “Guess you don’t want to be nice anymore?”
Her answer was a snarl.
God, she was wonderful.
Keeping his arm around her shoulders and keeping Rose close to him, War lifted his head and peered at Gary. “She doesn’t want to be nice.”
“Uh…” Gary’s sweat situation was getting worse.
“If she doesn’t want to be nice, that means I don’t have to be nice, either. The way I see it, you’re an intruder.”
“What? No, no, I’m—”
“You were trying to get into my home. When my buddy Odin and I caught you, we had to use force to stop you.”
“Oh, shit,” Gary whispered as his eyes widened. “Shit.”
War eased his arm from around Rose and closed the final bit of distance between him and Gary. His head tilted to the left. “That will be the explanation I think we’ll give to the cops.” He nodded. His head slid to cock on the right. “I like that plan. Let’s get this show moving—”
“Wait!” Rose’s voice. She’d just grabbed his arm. “Before things get uncomfortably physical for Gary, give him a minute to talk.”
“Oh, shit,” Gary said again.
“He’s not saying anything helpful,” War noted.
She pushed War to the side so she could glare down at Gary. “That’s about to change, isn’t it, Gary? Because if it doesn’t, I don’t think you will like what happens next.”