HelenKay Dimon - Tamed

None of this could happen.

Shane’s hand went to her shoulder, then up to touch her hair. “Talk to me.”

“The police can’t go near my safe.” She’d locked everything away in anticipation of Shane’s visit. Gathered up every shred of evidence and hidden it. She knew if she’d left out even a piece of paper, Shane would sniff it out. She’d been so careful. And now...

His eyes narrowed. “What are you saying?”

“I’ll explain later.” She had his arm and started pushing and shoving him in the direction of the bedroom. “You just need to keep them away from the safe.”

A banging started. Sounded like the side of a hand pounding against her front door. Then the doorbell dinged once, and then a second time. The noise hit a crescendo as her panic rose and whipped up around them.

“I’ll keep the focus on me.” He motioned toward the front door. “Go let them in.”

“What about—”

“You’ll explain it all later.”

She didn’t answer. Didn’t have time because the front door crashed in. Chaos exploded around her as uniformed officers piled into her small family room. She turned back around to say something to Shane, but he’d disappeared.

Her glance dropped and she spied him on his knees, right near the body. He had his hands hooked behind his head, but the police kept shouting. They knocked him down on his stomach as they wrenched his arms behind his back.

“No, he’s not—” A policeman pulled her back before she could rush in and move everyone off Shane.

Shane turned his head to the side and looked up at her. “Call Connor.”

Her brain scrambled. “My cell doesn’t work.” She shook her head, trying to remember where she put it or why that information even mattered.

“They probably blocked the signal. Try again.” He glared, as if willing her to listen. “We need Connor.”

Connor Bowen, the owner and head of the Corcoran Team. The man with power and connections. She knew one thing: if Shane needed Connor for reinforcements, they were all in trouble.

Chapter Three

Shane tried not to stare at her. Being in the same room with Makena always resulted in the same reaction. His heart rate kicked up as fast as his common sense took a nosedive. The black hair, usually pulled back with those sexy curls hanging down by her ears. The dark eyes and hints of the heritage passed down from her Japanese mother.

The long legs and trim body...everything about her set his blood boiling. So beautiful that she tested every vow he’d ever made postdivorce about keeping relationships light and sex only. He wanted her every minute and fought off the attraction with every cell and every muscle.

He tore his attention away from her and watched his team as he stood in the middle of her family room with activity buzzing around him. Cam and Connor had arrived. Connor had walked through the door and immediately started doing what he did best—he ran the whole show. Came in with a cover and ordered people, all while silently wrestling control away from whatever poor schmuck thought he ran the crime scene.

Cam, along with Holt, formed the three-man traveling team for Corcoran. Cam showed up to help because that was what Cam did. No questions asked, he rushed in and provided support. Many times that included flying a helicopter. This time he stood on the other side of Makena, across from Shane, and made sure no one got near her.

Connor broke away from the detective and headed over to the Corcoran semicircle. “We have one dead attacker.”

“Thanks to Shane,” Cam said.

“You would have done the same thing.” Every member of the team would have put his body in front of Makena. Forget about her being innocent, though that counted as a good answer. She was Holt’s sister, and no one touched the people the team members cared about.

“Probably.” Cam shrugged. “I’m betting I would have used more finesse. Maybe been quicker about it.”

Shane knew Cam was joking...or engaging in what Cam thought qualified as joking. Making sly comments meant to break the tension. If Shane hadn’t walked in on some guy manhandling Makena, watched as the guy tried to choke the life out of her, he might be more in the mood to be soothed. But not right now.

“The guy intended to kill me.” The rough edge to Makena’s words was hard to miss.

Cam’s smile suggested he didn’t. “Then I definitely would have killed him, too.”

Shane was about to remind her about Cam’s odd sense of humor when Connor broke in. “Now that we have that settled.”

An officer behind Makena knocked into her. She jumped. Looked two seconds away from screaming but somehow managed to bite it back.

Shane could not help being impressed. She didn’t deal in danger as they did, yet she’d stayed calm. She’d listened to the informal training they gave her and kept fighting no matter what. She never let down her guard. Those smarts and that strength had kept her alive.

She cleared her throat as she visibly brought her nerves back under control. Most signs vanished. All but the way she rubbed her hands together in front of her until her skin turned red. “What about my neighbors?”

No surprise her mind went there. Shane had checked on that first thing. “They weren’t home.”

Her shoulders fell as she blew out a long breath. “I heard a shot...or I thought I did.”

She wouldn’t like the answer, but Shane offered it anyway. “Killed the dog.”

Cam swore under his breath. “That sucks.”

An awful situation, but the death toll could have been so much worse and Shane remained grateful it wasn’t. “At least it wasn’t a person.”

“I like dogs.” Cam moved out of the way as the ambulance crew brought in the stretcher.

“Is this what you guys always talk about on a job?” Makena watched every move as the crew lifted the still body and locked the stretcher in place. Her voice shook and a certain sadness moved in her dark eyes.

Shane wanted to make it better. Fought the urge to go to her, put an arm around her...test his control to its very limit. But he would do it for her. Or he would have done it if the audience didn’t consist of Cam and Connor and what looked like six police officers filing in and out of the house as the detectives talked in the corner.

Unable to think of the right thing to say, Shane went with the one thing that might help. “He’s trying to calm you.”

Her eyes narrowed as her head turned and she stared at Cam. “Really?”

“He’s terrible at it. Makes you pity Julia, doesn’t it?” Julia White, the love of Cam’s life. The reason Shane now hesitated when he called in a favor or needed backup as he played a hunch.

“The office is working on background on the attacker.” Connor talked over all of them. “Preliminary reports are he had a record. Petty stuff.”

“Are we sure that’s it?” Shane glanced around, from the discarded fire poker to the magazines strewn all over the floor. Despite the battle, most of the furniture and other stuff in the room remained intact. But the man was still dead. “If so, it looks as if he escalated this time.”

Connor nodded as he retrieved his cell from his back pocket. “We need to call Holt.”

“No.” Makena put her hand over the phone. Looked as though she tried to tug it out of Connor’s hands.

Connor pulled it out of reach. “Excuse me?”

Before she said a word, Shane knew where this was going to go. Holt had met Lindsey during a job. She had grown up in a cult but possessed an inner strength. Holt hadn’t stood a chance against her. He fell in love in the equivalent of a week. He’d spent two months going back and forth from his house in Maryland to hers in Oregon, but he was on his way back home and bringing Lindsey with him for good this time.