“And scare her, upset her even more?”
“She has to be kept abreast of the situation, Sandman. There may be some information that she could recognize as a clue. She’s safe here with us. That was the point of you taking her out of the equation.”
“I’ll tell her. I just wanted to give her one day of no bad news. It’s been nonstop for her since she returned from Europe.”
“I know. I was looking up information on her last night. She came down this morning early for a drink. I think she couldn’t sleep.”
“There’s something we all share in common,” Sandman remarked.
Big Jay knew that he and his brothers had difficulty sleeping at night. The nightmares were less frequent, but now just the memories, the hint of danger on the mist of their dreams made the evening hours awful. That was why, when Sandman suggested that Big Jay remain on guard, he was more than happy to oblige.
“Listen, I want you and Duke to look into this woman who was found. She worked for the records department in city hall. Then I’m going to see if there are any leads on that bomb that was sent to Donald’s office. I still think there was more to that.”
“Okay, sounds like a plan. I’ll let you know if I find anything.”
* * * *
Grace was totally in tune to her body. Her mind, however, was hollering for her to stop acting like some inexperienced teenage girl. Yes, she was a professional woman who traveled and worked in Europe with supermodels, but she was not experienced. One lover sure didn’t constitute anything remotely close to experienced. However, throw her into a house under the protection of three, sexy, hot military men, and holy shit, she’d lost her mind. It didn’t matter which one of them touched her. Sandman, Big Jay, or Duke, she felt it to her nipples and her pussy. It was instant and it was incredibly strong.
“So this is the library. Not sure if you’ll find something of interest, so I’ll just get you the e-reader and write down the password for you. Don’t worry about the cost. We have an account set up.” Duke pulled open a desk drawer and handed her the reading device.
She looked around the beautiful room. There were two large windows that looked out over the backyard and some sort of pond and waterfall.
“That is gorgeous. Is that a waterfall and pond?” she asked as she moved closer to the window. It even had a sitting area around it with a swinging bench and lots of flowers.
“Yeah, we worked on that together,” Duke said from behind her. She tightened up when she felt his hand on her waist and the other go to her left shoulder.
As he gave her shoulder a slow, light squeeze, she found herself leaning back against him.
“There are Koi in there, too. I’ll take you outside later, once I finish helping Big Jay look over some things.”
She turned to look up toward him.
“I’m sorry that you need to be involved with this. You probably wish you were working in SWAT right now and training officers.”
He cupped her chin and she gripped the windowsill behind her. Every ounce of her body was aroused. She swallowed hard and nearly coughed from the difficulty.
“I don’t regret being here. I sure as hell am glad that my brother called Big Jay and I in on this. We’re going to keep you safe and we’re going to find this guy.”
She lowered her eyes from the intensity of his words.
“No one has been able to. It’s been so many years. How can he still be out there and committing all these murders yet remain undetected?”
He caressed his thumb across her lower lip. The look in his eyes as she held his gaze did a number on her. The depth and emotion in his blue eyes was stunning.
“That’s not for you to worry about, Grace. We’re good at our jobs. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better as well.”
“It’s always nice to make new friends. I just don’t want you guys to miss out on important things in your life because of me and this situation.”
He scrunched up his eyes and stared at her lips then locked gazes with her.
“Sweetheart, we wouldn’t be here unless we wanted to be. Now, you just need to relax a little and let us take care of you. I mean that.”
She gave him a small smile and as he began to move his lips closer toward her, she anticipated his kiss. But it never came as he immediately stepped back and Sandman entered the room. She hadn’t even heard him coming, but Duke had.
“What’s going on? Did you give her the password and the e-reader?”
“She’s got it and is ready to download, right, Grace?”