Sunrise For Three: A Military Erotic Romance (Sexy Siesta Series Book 3) (2 page)

Mia took a deep breath to recover from the double punch to the stomach. She was a fool to put so much trust in them. In anyone really. After her rotten childhood and an even worse ex-fiancé, she still hadn’t learned her lesson. And now that Marc and Colt knew her body in various sorts of disrobement, including full commando, she hoped like hell this was the final lesson she needed to drive the point home.

Trust was no more than a myth.

“No, gentlemen.” Mia slashed her hand in the air between them. She cocked her head to the side, channeling all the hurt in her heart into her tone. She wanted to make damn sure they understood what she had to say next because afterward she was walking out the door and never looking back.“Because you obviously think less of me than I thought, let me explain something to you. I’m not some hussy that sleeps with just anyone. In fact, I haven’t dated a man in a year and before that I was a virgin, so how could the pictures be from some one-night stand as you say, Marc?”

His eyebrows shot up at the use of his given name or maybe it was her almost virginal confession.
Demonios
, who knew? She let the anger building in her veins overflow and taint her words, so he was bound to be burning from the cut.

His nostrils flared and his chest expanded as he inhaled. And just like that the hard lines around his eyes softened. For a fleeting moment she thought he would apologize, but so true to his character, he sealed his lips instead.

Defeat replaced a fraction of her anger before resolve settled in. She straightened her shoulders. “I’ll gather my things.” It took all she had to hold back the hurt from her tone this time.

White-knuckling her now cold coffee, she placed the mug on the table, gathered her folders then walked past her bosses. Tears pricked the back of her eyes, but she refused to show any more weakness in front of the two men she began to think, for some silly moment, might care for her.

“Stop.” Colt’s soft command had her pausing, but it was Marc’s gentle hand on her elbow that turned her around slowly. “I jumped the gun. I’m sorry about that, Mia.” Regret flashed in his eyes, and she saw he truly meant what he said. She nodded, her mouth set in a grim line.

She didn’t have to completely let them off the hook.

Marc guided her away from the door and deeper into the conference room.

He led her to the table and Colt pulled up a chair for her. She eased down and crossed her arms over her chest
. I’ll let them think I’ve sheathed my claws long enough to listen to what they have to say
.

Both men took their own chairs, briefly glancing at each other as if communicating in secret code. With the table at her back, they effectively had her cornered.
Now what are you going to do,
chica
?

Marc braced his elbows on his knees and leaned a little closer. So close that with the slightest movement, the material of his slacks brushed against her right bare knee. She caught Colt appraising her from under hooded eyes and her cheeks flushed from the attention. She hoped her face didn’t betray the fear she felt inside. She needed to be strong more now than ever.

Colt shifted back in his seat and moved his focus to Marc. With a single nod toward the phone Marc held, Colt asked, “Why don’t we start over, Mia?”

Marc passed her phone back to her. When she reached out to take it, he captured her hand in a gentle hold. “Start from when you received these, please.” His gaze held something that bordered on pain. Like she was the one hurting him.

More for her to digest on the mystery that was Marc Dangere.

“First, why don’t you both tell me what’s going on with this? With the ‘sweetheart’ and the ‘darling?’” She motioned between the three of them. “You can’t just throw that at me and not explain,” she continued. Heat once again crept into her cheeks.
Dios
, would she ever stop blushing in front of these two? They continued to sit, their expressions giving nothing away. Mia nibbled at the flesh of her lip. Did she overstep and read too much into their words? Maybe they were just trying to calm her. ¡
Por Dios! W
hy hadn’t they fired her by now?

As usual, Colt spoke first. His husky tone pulling at the tethers to her libido. “Because we’re tired of dancing around you like you’re a delicate freaking flower, sweetheart.”

Marc cut in. “Well, I guess that might have a truer ring to it than we thought.” He smiled, the effect reached his eyes and blew her mind all in a single second. Marc’s smile was like a shot of tequila. Warm, intoxicating and an experience you would never forget.

His square jaw with a feather-light dusting of stubble highlighted his kissable lips…
simplemente maravilloso
.

Her heart sank when his expression grew solemn again. Marc gathered her hand in his larger one. Colt sat forward too. This close and she could almost kiss them with just a small turn of her head. The air grew warmer around her, their mingled masculine scents working double time to calm her nerves. Was it because she wanted to trust them, have them this close to her always, or did they have that effect on all women? Probably a little of both.

“What I think we meant to say was, we’ve given it some thought and we’ve seen the small gestures from you to make us believe you’d be interested in something more than just…how should I word it…?” Marc paused.

“Traditional.” Colt threw out the word as if he had a hard time chewing it. He took her other hand. “Today we were going to ask you to stay after work so we could have a talk. Hell, it’s against all our work ethics, but there’s just something about you, Mia, that makes us what to throw the rule book away.”

Marc ran his free hand through his hair and let out a deep sigh. “Before we go any further…ah, hell, I don’t know…maybe we should just focus on this clusterfuck of a mess, then we can sort this other stuff out.”

Why was he throwing on the brakes? She cocked a brow and pinned Marc with a curious stare. “Are you not going to ask what I want?”

“Smooth, bro.” Colt shot a dirty look at Marc and if she didn’t know better, she’d say he blushed. That
had
to be a first.

The intercom buzzer from the downstairs security team went off beside them and broke the building tension. Colt squeezed her hand before he stood to answer the incoming message.

“Mia, pull up those images again. Let me see if there’s any information I can find and get the investigation started. While I do that, give me the run-down again on when you received them.”

Mia did as Marc requested, pulling up the images for the second time. “I was down by the coffee shop close to my apartment when this hit my inbox.” Mia scrolled past the images of her coming back from the lake after her ritual weekend skinny-dipping then stopped on the one where it showed all three of them grabbing lunch after a long morning with clients last week.

“The first thing I noticed, well, after my naked rump was, the sender’s email address. Or lack of, anyway.”

Marc nodded.

Colt was holding the door for them, looking back over the crowded sidewalk, while Marc ushered Mia inside the restaurant with a hand on her lower back. She remembered the day because both men had been so attentive to her over their shared meal. They asked her about family and her goals, and even touched on the subject of kids. Mia worried her lower lip and looked down at the picture again. How could someone intrude on such a private moment? For what reason?

Her breath died in her throat and fire exploded throughout her body, her mind racing with a myriad of worst-case scenarios. Only she didn’t have any worst case scenarios in her past. No current boyfriends or jealous friends.
Dios
, she had too little of one and not enough of the other to even ping on her radar.

Marc peeled her fingers loose from the phone and shut it off. “You don’t need to look at these anymore, Mia. Is this why you were late this morning?”

She took a calming breath before answering. “Not exactly,” she said, her voice only half as shaky as she felt, “The images pissed me off, but what I found when I got to my car after my coffee run scared the crap out of me.” Her foot bounced in place and Marc rested a hand on her knee. “You’re safe, now, Mia. Take another deep breath and walk me through what happened. Slowly.”

She nodded and her eyes zeroed in on the soft contact of his skin on hers, thankful for the anchor. “Whoever took those images also left a nice little note keyed into the paint of my hood.” This time there was no stopping the tears that burned her eyes. She dragged in another deep breath to steel her jittery nerves before continuing. Silence settled over the room, and she knew both men patiently waited for her to continue.

“What message, sweetheart?” Colt coaxed her in a strained tone laced with a hint of worry. He returned to where they sat a couple of feet away from the intercom phone.

“
Pronto Morirás,
” she said in a thin whisper. Mia pulled her lip between her teeth and mentally patted herself on the back for not completely breaking down in tears. The men were the tough-guy types. No telling how they would react to a woman crying.

Mia clamped down on her emotions, slipped her hand inside her jacket pocket for the other half of the message and held it out for the both men to see. “It means, ‘you will die soon’
.
And if this is any clue to go by, it will be a quick death.”  She dropped the silver-tipped bullet in Colt’s palm. “Sorry. I know I should have called or something and not touched it, but at the moment I went a little
loca, no
.”

Freaking bat-shit-crazy was more like it with the way she’d grabbed the bullet and peeled out of the parking lot so fast onlookers jumped out of her way. She’d had no real idea what to do but come to work, thinking she could figure something out before quitting time.

“Son of a bitch,” Colt drawled out through gritted teeth.

Marc slammed his fist down on the table and stood, sending his chair flying backward. The brute force left a dent in the opposite wall. “What a way to bury the lead, Mia. You should have told us that little detail first, damn it.” His face flushed red.

Banked anger rippled just beneath the surface. The veins in his neck throbbed. “And stop biting your damn lip, for God’s sake, and look at me.” He kneeled next to her and encompassed her face with both of his hands. His thumb grazing the place on her lower lip where she had a tendency to bite. A shock of energy rushed her and she inhaled sharply. He felt the zap of energy too, because his eyes lit, acknowledging the exchange between them.

“Why didn’t you tell us this sooner?” His words were a rough whisper. He pushed away and stalked over to the window and the view that had held her attention for the better part of the day. She watched as he rubbed a hand along the outside of his right thigh out of habit.

According to the gossip girls of the office, Mia found out soon after starting her new job that the injury he sustained, and that forced him to retire from the Marines, gave him a slight limp. By all accounts he had become a hero that day by saving four members of his unit, including Colt.

She shifted her weight and glanced at Colt sitting beside her. Anger simmered just beneath the surface, but he held it in check. A tendon in his jaw twitched, his eyes leveled on the floor by her feet. When she moved, his gaze shot up and pinned her with a heated look. Anger swirled in the depths of his eyes, but she saw fear there too. Fear for her? Her heart swelled at the thought.

She knew neither of the men would hurt her, but she couldn’t help but think that they were a force to be reckoned with when ticked off. The tension in her shoulders eased a fraction.

“He’s right, Mia, you should have told us sooner. Now we might have missed any chance at nailing the person behind this quickly.” Colt remained seated beside her. He leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees like Marc had earlier, but instead of holding her gaze he dipped his head, effectively hiding his eyes. Regret crept in. Mia realized she didn’t like it when he hid his eyes from her. What a time for a revelation.

Her pride bristled at what they said, but they were right. And this was no time to act scared no matter how much this shit made her want to run for the hills. They dealt with this stuff day in and day out. Death threats were just another day on the job, but she wasn’t equipped for this. She rubbed at her eyes, tired from a choppy sleep the night before.

Wait. Last night
. Mia shot up and grabbed her phone from the table. “Last night I received a phone call. Actually, three. I didn’t connect it until now. They were all hang-ups and I thought it might have been my ex-fiancé or some prank. Now I’m not so sure.” Mia flipped and swiped until her recent calls tab popped up on the screen. “Here’s the proof.” She handed the phone to Marc with a sigh, hopeful that it was something they could use. She wasn’t up to date on all the high-tech things that went into tracing people, but even she understood how the phone system worked.

“You think your ex has anything to do with this, Mia?”Marc stepped back from the window and closed the distance between them in three strides.

“Who knows? I didn’t think he’d beat me, but now…I wouldn’t put this past him. The restraining order is still in effect, but those are as useful as toilet paper in a rainstorm.”