Justine Davis - Backstreet Hero

At first he’d been suspicious—neither did that drawl mean he was a fool, as many had learned along the way, to their detriment—but she’d kept on, until he rose to the bait. She’d had the feeling he’d known exactly what she was doing, but had let her lead him. And then, after he’d easily passed the G.E.D. tests and she’d told him exactly how far she thought he could go, he’d made her a promise. She’d been the first person other than his brother to really believe in him, he’d said. Someday he’d repay her.

He certainly had.

“What’s wrong, Lilith?”

Only when she heard the voice of her assistant, Liana Kiley, did she realize she’d been rubbing her shoulder again. She looked up at the young woman and ruefully explained.

“A wire?” Liana stared at her, eyes wide. “You could have been seriously hurt. Or worse.”

“So my neighbor informed me,” Lilith said. “But the only damage was a scrape on my briefcase, and sore spots in my shoulder and…landing zone.”

That got her a smile, but Liana’s concern didn’t abate. It was one of the first traits Lilith had noticed about the bright, lovely redhead; she had a large capacity for compassion, a trait that made her an excellent fit for Redstone.

It had also netted Liana the man in her life, new Redstone Security team member Logan Beck. Liana’s concern for the ex-cop who had once saved her life had not only gotten him out of a morass of injustice, it had opened up a new life for both of them, together.

“And it was only last Thursday that truck nearly hit you. You could have been killed.”

Lilith smiled to reassure Liana. “Let’s hope it’s not going to be a string of bad luck.”

Liana frowned. Lilith knew that look. Liana had worn it often enough in her first days here, when Logan had been struggling against false accusations of being a crooked cop.

But they’d come through it and become yet another of the growing list of couples brought together under the Redstone banner. Lilith found it amusing as well as bemusing that so many soul mates had found each other through Redstone. She’d teased Josh once about his heretofore unknown matchmaking talent, but she actually tended to believe longtime Redstone pilot Tess Machado’s more pragmatic explanation—when you brought smart, talented people with the same principles and standards together, as Redstone did, it was only to be expected.

“Let’s get going,” she said briskly, knowing Liana would accept that as a diversion; even now she was still feeling a bit guilty that her first days on the job had been taken up completely by her quest for justice for Logan. Even though Lilith had assured her she’d more than made up for it in the months since, the young woman she’d come to genuinely like would never take Redstone for granted, not after what they’d done for her and Logan.

About an hour later, Lilith had just hung up from a conversation with Redstone’s resident genius inventor, Ian Gamble, the man whose work had been the target of the industrial spying that had blown up into the scandal that had destroyed the JetCal Corporation and sent both their CEO and Redstone R&D head Stan Chilton to prison, when Josh himself appeared in her doorway.

While it was a tradition for Redstone’s leader to make a tour of his headquarters any day he was present, he usually came by earlier in the day. It was common knowledge to all Redstone people that this was their chance to ask him anything, as Liana had learned; a casual mention had resulted in the mobilization of Redstone’s much vaunted private security team and the vindication of Logan Beck.

“Running late?” Lilith said with a smile.

Josh didn’t smile back. His gray eyes fastened on her intently as he came into the office. And he didn’t stroll, in that looselimbed, lanky way he had, he strode in like the head of a multinational conglomerate that he was.

Instinctively responding to the difference, Lilith stood, wondering with some trepidation what was wrong. “Josh?”

He just stood there for a moment, looking her up and down. She knew better than to think he disapproved of her casual attire; jeans and the red knit shirt with the Redstone logo were the unofficial uniform for many of Redstone’s people, and she’d been glad she’d had the tough denim on when she’d hit the concrete this morning.

The moment the thought came into her mind, her puzzlement vanished and Josh’s demeanor and actions made sense.

“Liana, I presume?” she said ruefully; she should have known the girl wouldn’t keep this to herself.

“Logan.”

“I’m fine, Josh.”

He looked her up and down once more. She held up her arms to display she was unhurt. “See? Nothing broken, snapped or otherwise seriously impaired.”

He didn’t look convinced.

“Repeat after me,” she said, in her best teacher’s voice, “‘You look fine, Lilith.’”

At last he eased up. “You look…elegant, as usual, even in blue jeans, Lilith.”

She laughed. This was old ground between old friends as well; he teased her about what he called her refined air and elegant grace, so opposite of his own down-home, laid-back demeanor. Hers, he had once said, masked a steely spine, boundless energy and whip-smart intelligence. She had simply looked at him, and in a deadly accurate imitation of his own lazy drawl, had said, “Back at you.”

“You know,” he said now, with a casualness that warned her he was anything but, “I don’t believe in coincidences. Not when it comes to danger to my people.”

Lilith’s brows rose. “Danger?”

“Two narrow escapes in a week?”

She chuckled. “That sounds so dramatic. I nearly had a traffic accident. And this morning I ran afoul of a child’s prank.”

“Maybe.”

“Coincidence, Josh.”

“You know what Draven says about coincidence.”

“Draven,” she said, “is a born cynic.” Then remembering how the Redstone Security chief had mellowed since his marriage to Grace O’Conner, she added, “At least, he was when he always used to say that.”

“And now he’s more protective than ever. So when I tell him about this, he’s going to take appropriate action.”

“Tell him? Why on earth?”

“Because I don’t believe in coincidence, either. Not when one of my brightest and best has uncharacteristic ‘accidents.’”

“Thank you for the compliment, but really—”

Josh stopped her with an upheld hand. “No compliment, just truth. As is the fact that you’re going to have to tolerate a little attention for a while, until I’m sure this doesn’t mean anything.”

“Mean anything? You mean like someone’s intentionally trying to hurt me?”

She started to laugh even before she finished the words, but when Josh simply looked at her, his jaw set, realization struck and her laughter faded away.

“Yes,” he finally said, his voice echoing with grim acknowledgment of what they both knew but she had managed to put out of her mind.

There indeed was someone who could be trying to hurt her. Or even kill her.

Because he’d tried it before.

Tony Alvera didn’t stop to knock on his boss’s door, any more than he had bothered to park his racy blue coupe in an allotted slot; he was in too much of a hurry. He knew he’d committed a breach of decorum when he realized John Draven was with someone in his small, efficiently organized office, but there were times when he reverted to his younger days of not caring about such things, and this was one of them.

“Sorry,” he said perfunctorily, nodding at the woman in the office.

Because he wasn’t really sorry, there wasn’t much sincerity in the apology, and Draven lifted a brow at him. Since it was the one already slightly twisted by the scar that slashed down the left side of his face, the look was even more intimidating.