HelenKay Dimon - Tamed

“He needs to stay with Lindsey.” Makena spoke slowly, as if she were explaining a big idea to a small child. “The only way he’ll do that now is if he doesn’t know this happened.”

Connor waited until she finished. “That’s not an option.”

The stretcher rolled by and Shane moved the group to the side to stay out of the way. He also lowered his voice as the rumble of conversation in the room died down. “It actually is.”

“This explanation should be interesting,” Cam said under his breath.

“Makena can stay with me.” Shane ignored Connor’s lifted eyebrow and the stunned expression on Makena’s face, though he thought she could play her shock down a bit. “For protection.”

Cam cleared his throat. “Uh-huh.”

“Protection?” Connor asked at the same time.

Shane decided to ignore both of them. “We need to move her to a safe location while we confirm this guy’s identity and figure out why he had her contact information, because that suggests more than a burglary gone wrong.”

“And you’re volunteering to be her bodyguard.” Connor hesitated over each word, not bothering to ask it as a question. “You think that’s a good idea?”

“I’m standing right here.” Makena rolled her eyes. “And I’m a grown-up who should be part of this conversation, in case you gentlemen missed that fact.”

Shane could fight his team or Makena, not both. “Someone sent men after you and we need to know why.”

“Because of Corcoran, I assume.” Connor glanced at the detectives. “I’ve ordered a lockdown just to be safe.”

“That sounds bad.” Makena bit her bottom lip.

“My wife is not a fan of the protocol,” Connor said. “No one on the team is, since it involves being trapped inside and having the women in our lives skip their regular schedules. Not exactly an easy task since they fight every minute of it.”

Makena snorted. “Good for them.”

“Easy for you to say.” Cam whistled. “Julia is going to be ticked off.”

Shane jumped back in before the conversation devolved into an us-versus-them battle. “You guys handle the lockdown and I’ll handle Makena.”

Her eyebrow lifted. “Oh, really?”

Okay, that was a miscalculation. He knew that tone. Dreaded that tone. “Your safety.”

“Right.” Cam nodded. “That’s what you meant.”

Connor shifted just enough to bring everyone’s attention snapping back to him. “I’ll give you a twenty-four-hour reprieve on calling in Holt.”

That was not going to go over well. Shane started a mental countdown. Ten, nine, eight...

“Don’t I get to decide?” Makena asked.

“No.” Connor’s smile faded as fast as it came. “In the meantime, I need to go finish my ‘Homeland Security is taking over’ speech.”

“That explains the uniforms.” Makena’s gaze roamed over Connor’s vest.

Shane liked the Homeland ones. There was a certain subtlety to the white lettering on the dark material. Better than the FBI. The team had them all. Whatever the job called for, they were ready.

“I wear this, I flash paperwork and give out a phone number that rings in the office of a very important man, and we control the crime scene. No questions asked, which is what we need right now.” From anyone else the comment would have come off more egotistical than realistic. Somehow Connor sold it.

Not that Makena was easy to impress. “That’s a lot of power.”

“I can be trusted.” Connor winked and then walked away, forging a path as policemen shifted out of his way.

Cam waited a second, then followed. “I’m going to watch.”

A crowd formed around Connor as he rapid-fired questions. Shane appreciated the distraction. Because it left him alone with Makena at least for a few minutes. Enough time had passed. He wanted answers.

“What’s in that safe?” He’d kept the police interest off the bedroom and whatever Makena had locked in there, but he wanted to know.

She shushed him. Actually shushed him. “Not now.”

He wanted to insist, but as his mind ran through the events of the past few hours, he couldn’t bring himself to put her through one more thing. Not that they could wait long. Not with gunmen on the loose and a dead body being taken to the morgue. “Your time is running out.”

Her eyebrow lifted. “Meaning?”

His temper. He’d had enough game playing during his marriage to last him forever.

With a hand on her forearm, he steered her out the front door to the porch. Neighbors milled around the yard, shadowed in the police cars’ headlights. Darkness had fallen and a cool breeze carried the smell of the nearby river up to the cottage.

He ignored all of it and concentrated on her, making sure to drop her arm as soon as he could. Touching her just tempted him, and right now they had serious business to figure out. “You are way smarter than I am. You know what I’m saying.”

She leaned in and dropped her voice to a low whisper. “Can you get it out of here without raising questions or causing a problem?”

He didn’t even know what it was. He’d been to the house many times and didn’t remember a safe. That probably meant a small one, which made his task easier. No way could he load a heavy safe on his back and get it out of there without questions.

“I’ll be able to take the contents out.” He made the distinction but didn’t know if she picked up on it or not. “And when I do I plan on looking through whatever is in there, so don’t even bother arguing about that.”

She linked her hand under his elbow. “I should be able to do something to convince you not to invade my privacy.”

The words skidded across his senses. She didn’t mean...couldn’t mean... “Don’t do that.”

Her dark eyes filled with confusion. “What?”

Doubt kicked him in the gut, but he ignored it. “If that’s the kind of offer I think it is—”

She shot him a frown that suggested she was just about to kick him. “Oh, please. It was an honest comment.”

“Before someone tried to kill you tonight, you would have just had to ask and I would have left your personal life alone.” That wasn’t quite true. His job provided him with the ability to check out certain details. If he thought she was in trouble, he would not have hesitated to rush in and help out. “But now that I know you’re in danger and hiding something, the chance of you winning this battle is zero.”

“You don’t play fair.” She waved a hand between them. “Whipping out that whole bodyguard, good-guy thing.”

He had no idea what that meant, so he skipped over it. “Can we carry the contents?”

“Yes.” The answer came quickly and didn’t sound all that convincing.

But that didn’t change the plan. He only had one real play here, and it depended on keeping Connor away from the usual full-house search. “We grab whatever this is, head to a dark and quiet place I know to get something to eat, and you tell me what the big secret is.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You can eat after all that’s happened?”

The woman latched on to the damnedest comments. “I can always eat.”

“How is that possible?”

Shane couldn’t remember the last time a situation had robbed him of his appetite. If it didn’t mean more hours in the gym, he’d eat even more during the day. “I’m not exactly small.”

She leaned against the porch railing. “Oh, I know.”

She did it again. The husky tone. The potentially provocative phrasing. Much more of this and he’d hustle her out of there and do something really stupid. “Makena.”

Silence screamed between them. After a few seconds she lifted her hands as if in mock surrender. “Fine. Sneak stuff out, eat and talk. Got it.”