Another Second Chance Read online

  She’d learned about the motion detectors the hard way after using the inside route to avoid an early morning Texas thunderstorm. Kent West had skidded into the parking lot a few minutes later, executing a one-eighty which would have made any stunt driver proud. After she explained, he’d given her a phone number to call if she wanted to avoid another “toad strangler.” She still remembered being more embarrassed by his riotous laughter when she’d asked why he thought she knew anyone who would strangle a toad. She was still learning the unique language spoken by Texans, but at least she no longer needed an interpreter to go grocery shopping.

  “Jesus H. Christ, Colbie, could you please focus for five minutes? The fact you’re so distracted worries the shit out of me. You’ve had your head up your ass for the past week, and these last ten minutes, you’ve been gone more than you’ve been present.”

  She could see the underlying concern in his eyes and held back her smile at his cursing. She’d learned early on that her boss had a tendency to curse when he was frustrated. The colorful language wasn’t as large a part of his everyday language as most of the men who frequented the garage, but it sure came to the surface when he’d reached the limit of his patience.

  *

  LIAM’S PHONE VIBRATED, repeatedly, on the bench outside the gym’s large shower. Stepping out from under the spray, he grabbed a towel and studied the screen. Since he’d muted the annoying device, he knew there were only a few people whose calls could activate the sound. Looking at the screen, Liam felt his stomach knot at the words emblazoned on this screen.

  Picking you up in five. Problem with Colbie.

  He was dressed and standing outside the large training center behind the Prairie Winds Club with two minutes to spare when Bode’s pickup slid to a stop directly in front of him ten seconds later. He hadn’t even closed his door when his friend was speeding down the drive.

  “Two guys stopped in the garage today, flashing a picture of Colbie to Gus and asking questions. She managed to stay hidden under your car, but she was rattled.”

  Liam could almost hear the ‘and’ in his friend’s voice, so he waited for the rest of it.

  “Gus said he got the impression this wasn’t the first issue she’s had, but for some reason, she hasn’t mentioned anything to anyone.”

  “Let me guess—she’d managed to convince herself she was being overly cautious, maybe even paranoid.” Liam had seen it before. It was human nature to tune out what the mind didn’t want to accept, even when personal safety was at stake. Most of those in witness protection had already lost so much, they often had trouble facing the prospect of losing everything again. “Where is she now?”

  “You aren’t going to fucking believe this,” Bode surprised him by laughing. “She’s finishing the tune-up on your car. Evidently, you were right, she’s fallen in love with that little death trap on wheels.” He and Bode had very different ideas when it came to transportation. Liam preferred classic sports cars, but Bode had quickly adopted their American teammates’ preference for big trucks.

  The two used the outside entrance while she was working to check her small apartment for electronic monitoring devices. They’d learned a lot about her during their previous inspections. Liam hadn’t missed the pictures of the Spitfire during their first walk-through and immediately started looking for one as similar as possible to the magazine photos displayed on the front of her small refrigerator.

  Buying the small roadster and having it restored wasn’t cheap. But after watching Gus’ security footage and seeing her reaction to what his accountant referred to as a “new line-item,” he knew it had been well worth the cost. Liam rarely dipped into the trust fund his grandfather set up for him, but for once, he’d done so without apology. He’d known the time was drawing near when he and Bode would re-enter Colbie’s life—he just hadn’t realized it would happen today.

  Chapter Two

  COLBIE HAD ALMOST finished working on the Triumph when Kyle West stalked into the garage. Glancing around, she was shocked to see so many people standing nearby, but Kyle’s attention was focused entirely on her. Yippee skippy.

  She’d met Kyle and Kent the first day she’d arrived in Texas. Both men had tried to persuade her to live in one of the cottages on their property, but she’d politely declined… repeatedly. She’d known before their first meeting the Wests were well-respected, former Navy SEALs who owned their own kink club. It had taken Colbie only a few minutes in their company to know moving under their constant perusal would be a colossal mistake. She’d lived under constant scrutiny and knew too well how daunting it could be. No thanks. Been there, done that.

  “Hi, Kyle, to what do I owe this pleasure?” It had only taken her ten minutes to finish the tune-up and the garage was already wall-to-wall testosterone, thanks to the influx of several Prairie Winds team members.

  “Cute, Colbie. Very clever. I can see my brother and I made the right decision keeping you and our lovely wife apart.” His words might have sounded curt, but the warmth in his eyes when he mentioned his wife gave him away.

  “You’re worried I’ll give her tips on how to cut the brake lines on your monster truck?” She’d quickly learned when she moved to Texas, any threat to a man’s truck was taken seriously. Anytime she wanted to get under the one of the West’s skin, she threatened their precious pickups.

  “This is one of the reasons we wanted you living close—to keep an eye on you.” When she looked up from wiping the last of the grease from her hands, he was watching her intently. Leaning back against the car, with one ankle crossed over the other, his thumbs hooked in the pockets of his dark Levi’s®, he looked more like a billboard model than the owner of a wildly successful kink club.

  She’d learned Kyle and his twin brother were quietly recruiting many of their government’s best and brightest for their rapidly growing team of contract Special Forces operatives. Specializing in hostage rescue, the team had a passion for saving young men and women who’d unwittingly fallen into the hands of sex slave traders. She’d been told their commitment to dismantling the sex slave trade was what had brought her to their attention. When they heard what she’d done, they had volunteered to assist with her relocation.

  Looking around the room, Colbie noticed everyone’s attention was pointedly focused anywhere but on the two of them. Cowards.

  “Don’t you think you’re overreacting a bit?” If she hadn’t been watching closely, she’d have missed the muscle in his jaw tensing; it was the only outward sign he was frustrated with her. After long seconds, he shook his head.

  “No, Colbie, I don’t. And I’m confident this problem won’t be solved by using the ostrich theory of coping.” Nodding in the direction of the garage’s large office, he stood to his full height and motioned her forward. “Let’s chat.” Chat. Yeah, right. He’s going to chat and I’m going to listen.

  *

  KYLE WEST COULD see the defiance building in Colbie—it practically vibrated in the air around her. If he didn’t talk her back from the edge, Liam and Bode were going to face a huge challenge they hadn’t created. She was going to have enough trouble understanding why they’d been nearby and hadn’t contacted her when she’d obviously been interested in them back in England. Dammit, this is usually Kent’s specialty. He’s much better at the touchy-feely stuff than I am. The only woman I want to touch and feel-up is Tobi.

  Shaking his head at his own frustration, he tried to refocus his attention on the problem at hand rather than anticipating his sweet wife’s return tonight. She and Gracie, her best friend and business partner, were flying in from Montana where they’d gone to update a couple of the forum shops at the Mountain Mastery Club.

  Tobi and Gracie’s two-day trip had mushroomed into a ten-day revamp of most of the small shops when Gracie discovered how many customers had been turned away during the previous two quarters. He smiled to himself; those two were turning out to be brilliant business women. The only downside? They were spending more and
more time away from home. They needed to hire help, but so far, they hadn’t found anyone they felt shared their vision and drive. The snick of the door closing broke him out of his musings.

  “I’m going to cut to the chase, Colbie. The men who came into the garage today are contract mercs.” He held up a hand when she would have mentioned the term could be applied to his team as well. “We don’t know who’s paying them—not that it would change our response. Until the slavers’ network is completely dismantled, no one can know where you are.”

  “You don’t think they’ll move on?” He could hear the hope in her tone, but her expression was filled with grim acceptance. What he hadn’t expected was for her to drop her gaze under his scrutiny; up to this point he’d never seen her exhibit a single submissive trait. He knew she’d been a member of The Castle Masters Club in London, but had always assumed she was a Domme.

  “No, sweetness, I don’t think they’ll give up easily. Just as I don’t believe their appearance here is a random stroke of their good luck. I also suspect there have been things which have seemed odd or unusual to you leading up to today. What I want to know is why you didn’t alert someone.”

  “We’d be interested in hearing about that as well,” Liam’s deep voice filled the room as he and Bode stepped inside.

  *

  BODE SAW COLBIE’S FACE go sheet white when she saw them walk into the room. She hadn’t seen them since the night they’d delivered her to headquarters, and he was certain having them walk in today of all days had seriously thrown her off balance. “Why are you here? You don’t even like me.” What the fuck? Don’t like her?

  Bode felt his entire body stiffen in response. Part of his reaction was from surprise, but his dick was focused on the way the soft cotton of her t-shirt molded itself to her breasts. They rose and fell in a way which assured him their heft was all natural—no silicone implants for their woman. Their woman? When had he laid claim to her? Sure, he wanted her. He wanted to feel her smooth skin under his hands, her peaked nipples poking into his chest. And he could hardly wait to feel her heat wrapped around his dick. But realizing he wanted more than a physical connection was a startling realization.

  “Who told you that I don’t like you?” The question came out harsher than he’d planned, but damn it, she’d surprised him.

  “It’s not like you made any effort to keep your disdain a secret. You hauled me into your headquarters like a sack of dog poo you couldn’t wait to be rid of. You walked away and never looked back. I was stuck in a closet they called an interrogation room for hours… HOURS, and you never even checked on me.” The longer her tirade continued, the louder it was getting. She was still running on adrenaline and had obviously decided to focus her frustration on him. Fine. He could play bad cop as well as anyone.

  “You’re wrong, but I doubt you’ll listen to reason, so continue spouting off nonsense you’ll regret later.” He almost laughed at the murderous look on her face. She reminded him of the cartoon characters whose faces turned crimson before steam spewed out of their ears.

  “Wrong? How could I possibly be wrong? Did you or did you not walk me into your super spy office and leave me? Why I expected anything different from two men who didn’t say jack shit to me during the entire drive from the local police station is a mystery, but there you have it. Hell, every question I asked you was answered with a grunt. Well, guess what… I don’t speak caveman. I speak English, French, and German, but when it comes to caveman, you better bring in an interpreter. Consider it a part of your accommodation budget. You know… making allowances for the less articulate, because not everyone has mastered distinguishing between polite and rude grunts. Boy, oh boy. You take the cake and the custard, too. I don’t think you said ten words to me after you interrogated me.”

  When he frowned, she shook her head and held her hand up. “Don’t even try to deny that was an interrogation. Rapid fire questions, one after the other, equals interrogation. Look it up. You were polite and attentive, even flirty until you juiced the last drop of information from me. Damn, I felt like an orange or something. Squeezed until the last drop was gone, then you tossed me aside like a piece of garbage. Not great for my ego. Don’t know why I was hur…surprised. Happens all the time. As soon as guys find out I know more about their cars than they do, they’re gone.”

  A bolt of pain lanced his chest at her near slip of the tongue. Knowing she’d been hurt by their actions didn’t sit well with him. She was pacing the length of the office, arms flailing in the air, boots slapping the concrete floor so loudly, he wondered if her teeth were clattering with each step. When it didn’t seem as though she was going to wind down, he looked at Kyle, who appeared to be struggling to hold back his laughter.

  “That’s enough.” His sharp tone brought her to an immediate stop. “You’ve made so many inaccurate statements, I’m not sure where to start. First of all, we did not interrogate you. We asked the questions we needed answered because we wanted to take apart the criminal enterprise you inadvertently stumbled in to. You have no idea how long we’d waited for a break in that case. Hell, you were the answer to our prayers.” In more ways than I’m prepared to admit.

  “It’s true, little Spitfire. Every answer you gave was invaluable in the investigation. We were able to rescue twenty-three people because of your quick thinking.” Liam’s soft tone and soothing words had the desired effect. Bode watched some of the tension drain from her slender shoulders.

  “And as for not chatting you up during the drive, you should know it was draining all my energy to focus on the road when all I wanted to do was peel those oil-stained overalls from you and find out what delectable treats were hidden underneath all that bravado. Hell, it’s a miracle you made it out of the parking lot with a stitch of clothing on. I couldn’t have carried on a conversation to save my life. For the love of all things holy, woman, my oxygen deprived brain was barely functioning enough to drive because the majority of my blood was in my dick.”

  Colbie’s mouth gaped open in shock. Bode assumed his blunt words had offended the petite blue-blood, so he was astonished by her reply.

  “You got a hard-on because of me?”

  “See?” Liam snorted a laugh that defied his own upper-class background. “I told you she was bright.”

  “Oh, yeah, there’s no slipping anything past NASA’s newest recruit. Now, if the three of you can table this part of the discussion until later, I’d like to move things along. My wife will be home in a couple of hours, and I want to be home waiting when she arrives. My brother and I plan to let her spend some time with the kids before they head to our parents’ house for the weekend.”

  The heat in Kyle’s eyes was impossible to miss. The man loved his job, he was passionate about the work the Prairie Winds team did. Kyle was also committed to the kink club he and his brother founded. The club had quickly become one of the most popular and well-respected in the country. Their focus on the safety and privacy of their members had become almost as legendary as the stories of their heroism as Navy SEALs. It spoke volumes about their leadership that so many of the men who’d served with and under them joined the team when they left military service. But it was Kyle’s utter devotion to his wife that burned in his eyes now.

  Watching Kyle and Kent interact with their spirited little sub had been both entertaining and educational. Tobi West could only be described as a force of nature. She was whip-smart and as full of sass as any woman Bode had ever met. She was also loyal to her friends and had a heart as big as the state she called home. When the Wests moved into the new home they’d built on the Prairie Winds compound, Liam and Bode moved into their penthouse apartment above the club. Tobi seemed to adopt them after that and over the past several months they’d started to consider her the little sister neither of them had.

  Bode and Liam hadn’t hesitated when Kent and Kyle first approached them. Working for MI6 brought with it all the challenges of having the government breathing down your neck. The li
mits made it almost impossible to be effective, and they’d both been on the fast track to burning out before their thirty-fifth birthdays. Bode had always envisioned the two of them sharing a wife, but he’d known their family connections in the UK would have made the arrangement impossible.

  “I’m going to cut to the chase, Colbie. You can’t stay here. It’s far too dangerous and until we get this all sorted out, you’ll be staying at Prairie Winds. There isn’t an open cottage right now, so you’ll stay in the apartment above the club. It’s got plenty of room for the three of you. Let’s go. I’ll send someone upstairs to pack up your things. Your safety is our primary concern.”

  Bode watched Colbie’s eyes widen as Kyle steamrolled her. He knew what was coming, he could see the battle brewing in her bright blue eyes.

  Wait for it… three, two, one.

  Chapter Three

  COLBIE WAS SO pissed, she was sure the top of her head was going to blow like one of the exploding manhole covers she’d seen on YouTube. Kyle West might be horny as hell and anxious to get home, so he could fuck Tobi blind, but that wasn’t her problem. And it certainly didn’t give him any right to play God in her life.

  “Hold up, Kyle. I agree those guys represent a problem, but that doesn’t give you the right to waltz in here big as you please and start ordering me around. Holy Christmas and Blessed Easter, who died and left you king, anyway?” He looked like he’d just sucked on a lemon, and she was sure she’d heard him growl. Liam on the other hand looked mildly amused while Bode was glaring at her like she was an errant child.