Friends E-Book

Mary E. Thompson

• Herausgeber: BluEyed Press
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

It should have been a quick trip to the bank. Cash a check so she could pay her rent and get to the interview on time. Instead, Kyra found herself lying on the floor, unable to move as three men robbed the bank and killed the guard who tried to stop them. 

The moment Slade realized he’d been drugged, he fought it. He tried to take in everything, but the drugs were strong, and he went down, staring into the eyes of the curvy woman who collapsed first. He wanted to tell her everything would be okay, but even if he could speak, he couldn’t get the words out. He knew there was no guarantee of that. 

When the woman from the bank shows up for an interview, Slade pushes the team to hire her. Kyra is smart and beautiful and perfect for the job. She’s also off-limits.

But when another bank is hit, the lines between Slade and Kyra are blurred. They lean on each other, and everything they thought they knew gets flipped upside down.

Leseprobe

FRIENDS

F-BOMB: SEALS LOVE CURVES, BOOK 5

MARY E THOMPSON

Friends

F-BOMB: SEALs Love Curves, book 5

Copyright © 2020 Mary E Thompson

Cover Copyright © 2021 Mary E Thompson

Cover Photo from depositphotos, Copyright © aarrttuurr

Background from depositphotos, Copyright © yupiramos

Flag from Pixabay, CC0

Published by BluEyed Press, All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, businesses, locations, and events are either products of the author’s creative imagination or are used in a fictitious sense. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-944090-76-0

Print ISBN: 978-1-944090-77-7

Audiobook ISBN: 978-1-944090-78-4

Created with Vellum

F-BOMB: SEALS LOVE CURVES

Welcome to the world of F-BOMB where a group of former SEALs have come together to protect the curvy women they love and the country they call home from the dangers of the world. They have the training and the knowledge, and they have the ability to kick some ass when needed. And it’ll be needed.

F-BOMB: SEALs LOVE CURVES

Freedom

Fiancée (subscriber exclusive)

Forgotten

First

Failure

Friends

Family

Forbidden

Future

Finally

SUBSCRIBE NOW AT MARYETHOMPSON.COM

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

About the Author

To friends who become so much more…

1

Kyra Cordes cleared her throat and stepped forward in line for the teller. She was in a hurry, and there were not nearly enough people working. She didn’t expect it to take so long to cash one check, but if she’d waited until after her interview, the bank would have been closed. And she had to pay her rent tonight.

She tapped her shoe and glanced around. She caught the eye of a guy a few people behind her and rolled her eyes. He smiled and nodded, like he agreed.

Finally, she made it to the front of the line. She cleared her throat again. Her throat was scratchy. Spring was in full bloom, and with it, pollen was everywhere. She dug through her purse to see if she had a cough drop and heard, “Can I help you?”

Kyra looked up and found the teller calling to her. She smiled and stepped forward. She didn’t even have to see the woman’s stomach behind the counter to know she was pregnant. God, Kyra was surrounded by pregnant women. At work, at the gym, at the damn bank. Rubbing it in that she couldn’t get pregnant.

“Hi,” Kyra said to the teller.

“Can I help you?” the teller repeated, her smile dipping just a little. There was a line behind Kyra, a long one. The teller eyed it, then brought her focus back to Kyra.

“Yeah, um, I need to cash this check.” Kyra handed over the check and the deposit slip and cleared her throat again. “Do you mind if I grab one of these?” She pointed to the hard candy dish next to the window.

“Sure,” the teller said, taking the check with a smile.

Kyra unwrapped the candy and popped it in her mouth. She cleared her throat again and turned her neck. Her shoulder was stiff. That didn’t usually happen when the pollen started to bother her.

“How did you want this back?” the teller asked, lifting her gaze to Kyra.

Kyra opened her mouth to answer, but her tongue felt thick. She opened her mouth again. Nothing came out. No sound, no words, nothing.

The look in the teller’s eyes screamed of concern. Kyra didn’t know what was happening to her, but it was obviously not good. This was not pollen, and it was not going to get better with a hard candy.

Kyra panicked at the thought of the candy in her mouth. She couldn’t move her tongue to spit it out. Like everything else, it was numb.

The teller stood and got taller and taller and taller. Then a sharp pain hit Kyra’s head. She couldn’t see the teller anymore, but instead she saw feet. And the front door.

* * *

Slade O’Keefe was barely paying attention to the other people in line in front of him at the bank. He hated going there. It was almost as bad as the DMV. The people were just as happy to be working there, and just as efficient.

It was his turn to make a cash run for the week for F-BOMB, the company Slade owned and ran with his former SEAL teammates. Their boss, Daniel Dunn, liked to have petty cash on hand in case they bought lunch or dinner or breakfast, or all three, as was the case that week. They’d used the last of their cash buying treats to have on hand for the interviews they were conducting.

With Dunn about to have a kid, the whole team agreed they needed an office manager. Someone who would keep shit together. They all clearly sucked at the job, as evidenced by the fact they ran out of cash and had to tip the last delivery driver in change. Embarrassing.

The group of them were former SEALs who had created a business as private security and investigations consultants. That was the fancy way they talked about it. In reality, they were civilians with the skills of all the bad guys who could work around the letter of the law to get things done. That was how Slade liked to think of it.

The front door opened and closed quickly, drawing Slade’s attention. His neck stopped him from turning all the way. Something wasn’t right.

In front of him, the teller shouted and the woman on the other side of the counter fell to the floor.

Slade rushed over, more of his body fighting him. He’d definitely been drugged. He didn’t know how or when, but something was working its way through his system. Quickly.

He tapped the woman’s cheeks and rolled her onto her back. “Ma’am, can you hear me?”

She immediately started choking.

Slade rolled her to her side again and apologized before he stuck his finger in her mouth to see if she was choking on something.

Something hard touched his finger. He scooped it out, hoping it explained why she fell. Nope, just a piece of candy.

Slade turned her face to his. She looked up at him with hazel eyes, almost green to match her shirt. They were dilated, like she was on something.

“Can you hear me?” he asked, feeling his own body sink deeper and deeper into whatever drug was pulling at him.

She opened her mouth like she was trying to say something, but no sound came out.

Slade reached for his phone to call Rocky, the team’s medic, but someone else screamed before he could grab it. Slade turned and froze.

“You aren’t going to want to do that,” said a man with a gun trained on Slade.

“I’m just trying to help her.”

The man shook his head. “No, you’re not going to get her help. Because that’s why we’re here. And besides, you’re going to need help soon, anyway.”

“What did you do?” Slade choked out. The fight was draining from him. He dropped one hand to the ground, struggling to keep his eyes on the man with the gun.

The man smiled. His blue eyes were like ice. His face was scarred, like he either had a bad case of chicken pox as a kid or serious acne. Slade catalogued everything. The man’s short, dark hair with a hint of red. The black hoodie and dark jeans. And the gun that was definitely from a run-of-the-mill gun shop and not something homemade.

Which meant if Slade could get him to fire it, they might have a chance to find him later.

“You’re a coward,” Slade said. “You don’t have the balls to shoot me.”

The man shrugged, allowing Slade a moment of relief. Then he lifted his gun to the teller. “You’re already on the ground. You’re not a threat. Shooting you would be a waste of a bullet. But her?”

Slade struggled to turn his head to the teller. Fear mixed with her tears. Her hands cupped her round belly, protecting her unborn child. She slowly shook her head.

“Are you going to be any trouble?” the man asked her.

“No,” she said quickly. “No. Please.”

The man looked back at Slade and grinned. His teeth were almost perfect. Everything about the man said he had plenty of money, but he was robbing a bank. That wasn’t always about the money, but Slade wasn’t going to be able to do anything to stop it.

His arms gave out, and he dropped to the floor. The man lowered his gun so it wasn’t pointing at the pregnant teller. He glanced at Slade and grinned.

“See? I told you you weren’t a threat.” He looked around the rest of the bank and said, “Let’s move.”

Then he disappeared from Slade’s view.

* * *

Kyra watched the man who’d tried to help her sink to the ground in front of her. For a moment, she had hope that he would save her and she’d be okay, but then the man she’d smiled at in line pulled a gun on them.

A bank robbery. She could only imagine what her parents would say if she told them about this. Her entire life, she’d been the screw up. The one who let them down. She wasn’t thin enough or smart enough or anything enough. Not when her older brother was perfect. He was attractive and athletic and smart and everything a parent wanted in a child.

Kyra? She was as opposite as it could get. She was a disappointment. Which was why she lived on the other side of the country from her family. It was almost far enough.

As she laid there on the ground, the only thing she could think was at least she was wearing clean underwear. Her mother always told her to make sure she wore clean underwear in case she was ever in an accident. Kyra thought it was a weird rule, especially because if she was in an accident that was bad enough that someone would see her underwear, the chances were good that the person also would have no idea they had been clean before the accident.

Kyra hoped she didn’t wet herself laying on the ground staring at the sexy man who was giving her looks. Wait, was he trying to say something?

He kept shifting his eyes up like he was trying to look behind himself. Was he having a seizure? No, he kept looking back at her. He was doing it on purpose.

Kyra looked behind him. Not much was going on. The men were getting everyone to lie on the ground.

Oh! He wanted her to watch what was going on.

Kyra tried to nod, but her head wouldn’t move. She didn’t want to risk making a noise and alerting the men with the guns that they were communicating, so she just blinked and hoped he understood.

He stopped rolling his eyes back in his head, so she assumed he got the message.

Kyra watched the men work. They were clearly in a hurry, which worried her less than if they were taking their time. If they were in a hurry, they were going to try to get out of there before the cops showed up.

Would the cops show up?

Kyra hoped so, but how would she know. Someone had to alert the cops for them to know there was a bank robbery in progress. That usually meant a silent alarm.

She almost laughed at herself. She watched too many cop shows. She didn’t know how real life worked.

Two of the men stayed with the other people in the bank. Another man and two women were also on the ground, like Kyra and her companion. Drugged, she assumed. It was the only thing that made sense, although she couldn’t figure out how they’d been drugged. It had to be something in the bank that she touched. The door? The pen? Deposit slips! She touched the deposit slips. She tried to look at the man across from her. Yes! He had a deposit slip, too. That had to be how they drugged everyone.

Movement caught Kyra’s gaze, and she screamed. The teller she’d been speaking to was being dragged away by the man with the blue eyes. They went to an office. Kyra’s noises didn’t get far, and she wasn’t very loud, but the man across from her noticed.

A tear ran down Kyra’s cheek. The woman was pregnant. She didn’t deserve to be treated like that.

Kyra stared at the doorway they disappeared through until the two of them walked back out with a third person. A man with keys. The three of them went to another doorway and disappeared again.

They weren’t gone long before the man with the gun came back alone. He had a black bag over his shoulder. He nodded to the other two men he was with, now both holding bags of their own, and the three of them went for the front door.

The security guard stepped in front of them. “I’m not going to let you leave here with that,” he said.

The man with the blue eyes grinned. It was the kind of smile Kyra would have found attractive in other situations. God, what kind of men did she like?

“And what are you going to do to stop us?” the man asked.

The guard reached for his side. Before he could even get the gun out, the man lifted his and shot the guard.

Kyra jumped and squeaked. The guard stepped back and fell against the wall. He slid down slowly, his eyes wide, leaving a red streak.

“Anyone else want to stop us?” the man asked. “How about you?” He pointed the gun at a man in his twenties. “No? You?” He chose a woman in her forties. “How about you?” He pointed the gun at Kyra.

Tears slid down her cheeks. She just needed rent money. For an apartment she no longer wanted to live in. And instead, she was going to die.

The man grinned and shook his head. “No one can stop me.”

Then he and his friends walked out the door like they were regular customers, if you could overlook the masks the other two had covering the lower half of their faces.

Kyra waited to hear gunshots or sirens or something to tell her the police were there, but there was nothing unusual. Silence. Normal street noise.

The other people started to move. To get up. One went to check the guard for a pulse. One checked the front door. Another pulled out his phone and called the police. Kyra and her companion had no choice but to lay there and let it all happen around them while the drugs worked their way through their systems.

* * *

Slade watched as his companion’s eyes scanned the room. He could hear people getting up and moving. His phone buzzed constantly, likely the rest of his team trying to reach him. The word was definitely out about the robbery, and help was arriving.

Feeling returned in his fingers first. Slade itched to grab his phone, but the feeling was slow to filter through the rest of his hand.

The whole time Slade laid on the ground, his anger filled him. Once again, he was defenseless as someone held him captive. This time, he wasn’t going to walk away. He wasn’t in the middle of a war and had to follow orders. He was going to find the men who did this. He was going to end them.

A firm hand landed on Slade’s shoulder, and his entire body jerked. Adrenaline sped through his system as he turned and tried to fight off whoever the hand belonged to.

“Slade, it’s me,” Rocky said. Adrian Malone, known as Rocky to the team, was the team medic and one of the smartest people Slade knew.

“Oh, God,” Slade groaned, the adrenaline forcing the last of the drugs from his system. “Rock.”

“What the hell happened?” Rocky asked. He held a light up and shined it right in Slade’s eyes.

Slade wanted to fight him, but he knew it would be worse if he didn’t let Rocky do a quick exam. “Drugs and guns. I don’t know what they gave me or when.”

“Deposit,” the woman on the ground murmured.

“Deposit?” Rocky asked.

“Deposit slips,” Slade said, looking down at the papers still clutched in his hand. “They must have put the drugs on them.” He looked down at her. “Good catch.”

She tried to smile, but not much of her face moved. Her hazel eyes still showed fear, but her breathing was steady. Some of her hair had fallen forward into her beautiful face, but she couldn’t move it out of her eyes. She was still clearly feeling the effects of the drugs.

Rocky noticed and went to her, brushing her hair back and starting an exam. Slade checked out the scene around them. The guard laid on the ground near the door, not moving. Other people huddled together and walked around. Police officers were taking statements.

“Slade,” Rocky said, pulling his attention. “What’s her name?”

Slade shrugged. “I don’t know. She was the first one to go down. I came over to help her and they pulled the guns.”

“You know you need to give a statement,” Rocky said.

Slade nodded. “I’ll talk to Captain Patrick. Is she going to be okay?”

Rocky leaned back and nodded. “She’s going to need to go to St. Nicholas, but she’ll be fine. You should go, too. For now, stay put. I’m going to bag those slips.”

Slade nodded and watched Rocky walk away. Slade sat back on the floor next to the woman. She tilted her head to look up at him and her hair slid back into her face.

Slade brushed it back from her eyes and smiled. “Hey.”

She had beautiful eyes. Hazel with a lot of green in them. Perfect lips with a little bow. Round, soft cheeks. And a curvy, plush body to go with them.

Slade was a sucker for a curvy woman. And damn if the one trying to smile at him didn’t make him forget all about the way they met.

2

“Hell, yeah,” Bobby said, slapping the dashboard. “What a rush! That was awesome! Did you see how they went down?”

Stevie chuckled next to him and nodded. “They never saw it coming. That was smart, putting the drugs on the deposit slips. Genius.”

“I told you,” Bobby said with a cackle. “I’m gonna make us rich! All of us. Stick with me, boys, and we’ll be on a beach, or wherever the hell we want to be, in no time.”

Bobby checked the rearview mirror, but no one was following them. His heart was pounding and the blood in his veins was racing. The only thing better than pulling off a score like that was finding a hot woman, or a few, to make use of the hard-on it gave him.

“Why did we have to go there?” Mario mumbled from the backseat. “Of all the banks?”

Bobby rolled his ice-blue eyes at Stevie. They talked about Mario and knew he was going to be a pain in the ass. Bobby’d known Mario most of his life, and he wanted to bring his old friend along, but Mario… Bobby wasn’t sure if he was cut out for the life Bobby intended to build for himself. Bobby had big dreams. Dreams that didn’t involve regrets or second thoughts or whiny little bitches that made him feel like he shouldn’t enjoy what just happened.

“Because we know it. It made the most sense,” Bobby said, the frustration in his voice barely held in check.

“You should have told me where we were going,” Mario said softly.

“Why? So you could ruin the whole thing for us? No,” Bobby spat. He turned to glare at Mario in the seat behind Stevie. His head was down as he studied his fingers, smartly avoiding meeting Bobby’s gaze. “That’s not what this is about. We brought you in on this because you said you needed some money. Fast money. Easy money. You don’t get to be all pissy about the way we got the money. We got the money, so shut the fuck up.”

Mario scowled in the backseat, but he didn’t say another word. His face was pinched up tight as he turned to look out the window. His neatly trimmed beard and perfectly cropped hair screamed too good. Mario held down a regular job sometimes, but he had bills to pay, so he went to Bobby for help. He knew what he was getting into. Bobby never tried to pretend he was someone he wasn’t, but Mario did. He wanted to look like he was all neat and clean and perfect, but he was just a lowlife like Bobby.

No, that wasn’t true. Bobby wasn’t a lowlife. He was on the top of the damn world. He’d walked away from the person he was growing up. He flipped his parents the bird the day he turned eighteen and never looked back. The assholes didn’t get to define him. He defined himself.

The only thing leftover from his childhood was Mario.

Which was why Bobby was so pissed. If he could reach Mario, he’d turn around and slap the little bitch. Mario whining about the bank they hit wasn’t what Bobby needed. It killed the boner he had, which meant he wasn’t going to be able to enjoy their night as much. It was better when he could walk in showing off what he had and have the women all falling all over themselves for a chance to suck it or fuck it.

And they all wanted to.

Fucking Mario.

Stevie pulled into the garage and closed the door behind them. It was pitch black, shut off from the world. Just the way Bobby liked it. He didn’t need anything the outside world could give him. He needed money and women and freedom. Nothing else mattered.

“Are we going out tonight?” Stevie asked when he opened the driver’s door. The car lit up, casting a harsh glow over all of them. Stevie pulled off the dark hat he wore in the bank to hide his platinum blond hair and mussed it up.

“I don’t know,” Bobby muttered. “I’m not in the fucking mood anymore.” He shot Mario a glare that had his old friend looking worried.

“Sorry, Bobby,” Mario said quietly, averting his dark eyes. He climbed out of the backseat and stood next to the car, away from Bobby. “I just worry we’ll get caught. That someone will recognize one of us.”

“You need to stop worrying. We’re invisible to them. We always are.”

“Not to all of them,” Mario said, scowling once more. He looked up at Bobby and walked around the car toward the door into the house.

Bobby shook his head and slung his arm around Mario’s shoulders just before the garage went dark again. “No one knew who you were. That’s why you wore a mask and glasses. Next time, we’ll go somewhere else.”

Mario nodded and smartly kept his mouth shut. Bobby led them into the house. Home sweet home. Stevie’s mom left him the house when she died, and it was the perfect place for the two of them. It was also why Bobby made sure Stevie was in on everything. He was the brains, but Stevie could turn him in in a heartbeat if he ever wanted to. And the son of a bitch was crazy enough that he would totally do it.

The three of them carried their supplies and loot into the house, leaving the bags by the garage door. Mario took off once everything was inside. He trusted Bobby to give him his cut of what they collected. Stupid fucker, Bobby thought with a grin. He and Stevie carried their riches downstairs to where they housed it. They pulled about a tenth of what they collected out and set it aside for Mario, then hid the rest where he’d never know he didn’t get his fair share.

After all, what could he do about it? Tell the cops?

* * *

Kyra’s ride in the ambulance nearly made her sick. Not because of the ride but because of the cost. She had basic health insurance, and it was going to cost her a small fortune.

She asked the EMT what time it was and groaned when she realized she’d missed her interview. There was no way they’d give her another chance. She really wanted the job, too. But no new job and giant bills from the ambulance ride and most likely the hospital meant there was no way she was moving out of her apartment any time soon.

By the time she got to the hospital, she was starting to feel less woozy and numb. The man who’d tried to help her in the bank, Slade, asked if he could ride with her, but the EMTs wouldn’t let him since they weren’t family.

Kyra figured she’d never see him again, but she’d just gotten settled on a gurney when he strolled into the emergency room looking all big and badass and making every female in the room hope he was looking for her.

Except Kyra.

She didn’t do attachments. Not that she didn’t enjoy them, but after learning she couldn’t have kids, she also learned men had biological clocks that ticked louder than most women. Her boyfriend of six months dumped her for someone who would be able to give him a family someday, and all the dates she’d been on since ended with a similar line.

So, Kyra kept to herself. She was used to relying on herself after a lifetime of being a constant disappointment to her family. Why would she expect anything else from the rest of the world?

“Hey,” Slade said, pulling a stool to her bedside and making himself comfortable. “How are you? How is she?” He addressed the nurse with his second question.

“She’ll be fine,” the nurse said with a kind smile. She was pushing sixty by Kyra’s guess, and probably thought Slade looked like one of her children, but it was also impossible not to react to those dark brown eyes when he pointed them at you. The nurse definitely blushed.

“Are you sure? Have you run a tox screen? And checked her nerve function? The drug was definitely powerful. I’m guessing a neurotoxin of some sort. She almost choked on a piece of candy, and she couldn’t move.”

“She was lucky you were there with her,” the nurse said, patting Kyra’s arm. “My daughter’s boyfriend probably would have left her in the bank and ran if this happened to them. Hold on to this one.”

Kyra opened her mouth to argue, but Slade grabbed her hand, startling her into silence.

“I don’t plan to let her go,” he said.

The nurse grinned brightly. “I’ll go talk to the doctor and make sure he tests her for everything. We can’t have anything happening to your girl.”

“Thanks,” Slade said.

He wrapped his other hand around hers and pressed his lips to her knuckles. Sparks shot up Kyra’s arm and settled low in her gut. Nope. She could not go there. Not with a man like him. He was way too hot for her to think she had a chance with him. He was just being nice, for some reason. Kyra knew women with as many curves as she had did not get the hot, badass, alpha guy in the end. Not ever.

As soon as the nurse was gone, Slade swung his dark gaze back to hers. He released her hand with one of his and brushed her hair back from her face. He smiled, his eyes full of concern and his face a mask of worry.

“Do we know each other?” Kyra asked. Her own parents hadn’t ever given her a look like that. Sure, they loved her, she was pretty sure, but they never worried about her. Maybe it was because she became independent really young, but then again, she became independent because they never really seemed to care what she did.

Slade’s face fell. His eyes scanned her head. He stood and gently pressed his hands all around her scalp. She wasn’t sure what he was doing, but it had been so long since a man had touched her that her body froze.

He leaned forward, looking at the back of her head and bringing his body close to her, and she inhaled. She told herself she just needed the air, but that was a lie. She needed new fuel to add to her solo fire. If she wasn’t ever going to have sex again, at least not with another person, she needed all the help she could get in the fantasy department. And Slade was the stuff fantasies were made of.

Tall, dark, and handsome were only the half of it. She figured she’d barely come up to his shoulder if they stood side-by-side, which was something she loved about a man. Being on the curvy side, she preferred men who could make her feel small. He not only made her feel small, but all the muscles he sported under his black tee made her feel petite. His arms were bulky and his hands were magic on her head. He smelled like a man should smell, spicy, with a hint of musk. He wasn’t the kind of man who sat around and did nothing. His jeans were well worn and his boots said he could kick some shit if he needed to. He worked hard. Likely with his hands.

Those strong, steady, heavenly hands.

“I don’t feel anything. How hard did you hit your head?”

Kyra remembered she was the only one there and looked up at him. That concern was back in his eyes.

“Do you remember what happened?” he asked.

“At the bank?”

He nodded.

“Um, yeah. Why?”

“Tell me everything that happened.”

“Why?”

“Humor me,” Slade said. He put a hand on her shoulder and left it there, scorching her skin and making her feel like he cared.

Kyra sighed and went through the whole afternoon from walking in the door to the bank and filling out the deposit slip to collapsing and watching the people around her. Around them. She ended with his arrival at the hospital.

“You pay attention to detail. Wow. Not many people can recall that much about a situation. But I thought you didn’t remember me?”

“You were at the bank, but I meant do we know each other from somewhere else?”

He chuckled and shook his head, finally understanding why she asked. He took his seat again and smiled at her. “No. I would definitely know if we’d met before.”

Ah. He was one of those men. The kind who took home the hottest woman in a bar and made her wild all night, then walked away the next day without a thought in the world about her.

Kyra knew a few guys like that, but none that were half the man Slade was. But it was clear she wasn’t his typical fling. Even if he was looking at her like he was worried. It was more the way a man would look at his sister than the way a man would look at the woman he planned to strip naked. Message received.

“Sorry. The way you were acting with the nurse made me think…”

Slade grinned and reached for her hand again. “I just wanted to make sure they covered all the bases with you. I didn’t want them to miss something. We bagged the deposit slips, but if there’s something else in your system, something we didn’t know about… We want to make sure we have all the information.”

“Oh, you’re a cop? I didn’t realize.”

Slade shook his head. “No. I work with the police on special cases, though. I’m familiar with procedure. You’re still going to have to make a statement to the police.”

Kyra pushed up in her hospital bed and pulled her hand out from under his. “How do I know you aren’t one of them? That you weren’t in on it?”

Slade leaned back and crossed his arms over his wide chest. Kyra thought he might be offended by the question, not that it stopped her from asking, but he looked as casual as he had the entire time he was there. “You don’t, aside from me telling you I’m not. You’re going to have to decide if you want to trust me.”

“Why aren’t you in a bed?” a brown-haired woman asked, her gaze trained on them. She walked up to Slade and threw her arms around his neck. She pulled back and cupped his face in her hands, studying him the way Slade did with Kyra’s head. “Are you okay?”

Kyra slinked back on the gurney, feeling like crap for allowing herself to fantasize over another woman’s man. She didn’t know he was involved with someone else, but cheating was never okay in her world, even if she didn’t know she was a part of it. And even if it was only in her head.

“Lily, this is… crap, I’m sorry. I don’t know your name.”

Kyra smiled and extended her hand to Lily. “Kyra Cordes. I’m sorry. I was in the bank with your boyfriend—” Kyra caught the sparkle of the woman’s rings “—sorry, husband when the robbery happened.”

Lily snorted and shook Kyra’s hand. “He’s not my boyfriend or husband. He’s an idiot who should be getting checked out. And he’s single.”

“Lily,” Slade growled, shooting her a glare that held no heat.

Lily grinned up at him and patted his extra large chest. She was clearly a woman who didn’t take orders. “You can thank me later. Right now, you’re getting checked out. Archer said you were drugged, too.”

“You were?” asked the nurse who returned right then and overheard Lily’s words. “We definitely need to look at you, too. I can put you right next to your girlfriend, though. Keep the two of you together.”

“Thank you,” Slade said, ignoring the raised eyebrows from Lily.

Kyra felt like she was watching a comedy sketch unfold in front of her, except she was a part of the show. She had no idea what was going on, but apparently, Slade was sticking by her side a little longer.

“Girlfriend?” Lily whispered when the nurse left to get orders for Slade also. “I always knew you worked fast, but damn. You didn’t even know her name a minute ago.”

“It was the only way they’d let me see her,” Slade grumbled.

Lily smiled the kind of smile a woman with a secret used. She was finding the whole thing endlessly entertaining. Too bad Kyra was ready to get the hell out of there and get far away from the man who was far too tempting.

3

Slade tried to ignore Lily, but he knew she wouldn’t be pushed off. She was determined to stick with them. And since Rocky stayed at the scene to help check on others who’d been drugged, and Dunn called Captain Patrick to get permission for the rest of the team to be involved, Slade was at the hospital alone. He knew Archer would call Lily to check on him, but he thought he could handle it. If it weren’t for Kyra, he could have.

When he walked in, she looked so alone. On a bed in the corner with no one around to hold her hand. He didn’t hesitate when he rushed over to her. And when the nurse assumed they were together, Slade couldn’t bear the thought of saying they weren’t and being told he had to wait somewhere else.

Lily waited with them until someone came to take blood from each of them. Kyra was still a little groggy. The nurse mentioned keeping her overnight.

“I don’t think I can keep you with her overnight, though. We can’t allow coed rooms, even for couples.”

“I understand. If I’m good to go, I can sleep on a chair or something.”

“You don’t have to,” Kyra said firmly. “I’ll be fine.”

Slade tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled. “I know, but I’d feel better if I knew you weren’t alone tonight.”

“Oh, honey, let him spoil you for a night. Too many times we have people in here alone. If he wants to sleep on one of those uncomfortable chairs, hold on tight and don’t let go.”

Kyra looked like she was going to correct the nurse, so Slade lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles again. For whatever reason, it seemed to shut her up. And Slade was finding the soft skin of her hand irresistible.

The doctor ordered a CT for Kyra since she fell, but it came back clean. Their toxicology reports showed botulinum toxin, but Slade only had trace amounts. Kyra was exposed to more, so they admitted her for observation overnight.

The ER nurse handed Kyra over to another nurse who was going to take her up to a room. She explained that Slade wanted to stay the night, and the new nurse just smiled and said they had no problem with that.

Lily pulled Slade into the hall while Kyra was getting changed into a gown. It was hospital policy, but they also wanted her out of her clothes in case there was something on them.

Slade didn’t like her being out of his sight, but a nurse was in the room helping Kyra get changed. It was already after dinner and quickly heading toward night, but the only thing on Slade’s mind was making sure Kyra was safe.

“How do you know her?” Lily asked, tucking her brown hair behind her ear and giving him a curious grin.

“She was at the bank.”