Take a Chance (2 page)

“
I’m fine,” she said, firmer
this time.

The police officer with them moved to her
side. “Can you tell me what happened, ma’am?”

“
I came in early this
morning to get a few things off my desk, but I’m positive I locked
the door behind me.”

“
It was locked when I
arrived. First thing I checked when I started the exterior
inspection.” The man who’d rescued her spoke and she wished she
could remember his name. He’d told her, but her brain was doing
strange things with her ability to process information.

The officer nodded in the man’s direction.
“You’re sure, Mr. Gladston?”

“
Yes. When I heard the
screams, I broke the glass to get into the building.”

Dena opened her mouth to thank him, but both
of her brothers said the words at the same time. She shot them both
her best glare and then looked straight at her savior. “Thank you
for helping me, Mr. Gladston.”

He smiled and for a minute she thought she
was back in the fight, her heart beating double time.

“
Please call me Steve,” he
said. “I’m just glad I was here.” He held her gaze but directed a
question to her brothers. “Is there any ice in this place? Her
cheek’s beginning to swell.”

“
Thank you,” she whispered
when they both took off to find an icepack.

“
It’s going to hurt for a
few days, honey. You’ll appreciate the ice.”

The endearment went straight to her heart
though it was probably a habit for him. “No. Thank you for getting
rid of Simon and Grant. They smother me.”

The killer smile was back and she couldn’t
hold her own mouth still. Such a charmer. He probably had a wife at
home, or a long line of women waiting for their turn.

“
When the dust settles
around here, I’d like to take you to dinner.”

Her pulse flared again, but not from fear or
panic, and a tiny kernel of heat formed in her belly. “I’d like
that,” she replied.

“
Tonight?” The corner of his
mouth lifted in a half smile. “I promise to give you a better end
to this day than the beginning was. Up for it?”

* * * *

Steve waited within earshot while Dena told
the officer what she could remember. It was a surprisingly detailed
account considering the personal trauma she’d sustained, and his
appreciation of the young lady went up the chart from cute and sexy
to strong and courageous. Sexy was a given.

The suggestion of dinner had been a reflex,
an attempt to help her put the incident in the past. But watching
her step away from her brothers, or at least attempt to do so, had
him rethinking the evening.

Simon just might kill him.

When she finished, Simon wrapped an arm
around her waist. “Grant’s going to take you home and mom’s going
to keep you company for the rest of the day. I’ll send someone to
your house to pack an overnight bag.”

Steve hid a grin when she slipped out of her
brother’s embrace and separated herself from both family members.
“No. I have work to get done today and plans for the rest of the
weekend.”

“
Now, Dena—”

“
Don’t talk to me like I’m a
child, Simon. I love you but I’m not going to let you push me
around.” She turned to the officer. “Are we done?”

“
I still need an inventory
of what was taken.”

“
Follow me.”

Officer in tow, she strode past Steve and
damn if she didn’t wink at him. With a smile to her brothers, Steve
said, “Still want to walk the building and work up a bid? I already
have a few ideas to make this place a helluva lot safer.”

The brothers exchanged glances. Grant
followed Dena and the officer while Simon stayed in the foyer.

“
Where do we begin?” Simon
asked.

“
First thing I’d suggest is
a better lock on the front door, and I’m assuming your brother’s
going to call the glass company about the hole I made?”

Simon nodded. “It’s taken care of, and thanks
for what you did this morning.”

“
Just glad I was here. Now,
let’s go through the place and see what we’ve got.”

He headed back to the main entrance and
picked up the clipboard he’d dropped during his messy entrance.
Flipping it open, he noted the date and time, telling Simon, “First
and foremost, you need a more secure entrance with an electric lock
or some other system. It didn’t take me long to get inside, but it
did make a lot of noise and a mess. I have several options for us
to discuss when we finish the survey.”

He made sure Simon realized they’d moved to
the business side of their relationship while they discussed
possible solutions for office security, knowing the man had a
distinctly overprotective attitude concerning his sister.

Every word out of Steve’s mouth focused on
the job while they moved from the hall to the first office and
continued as he noted needs in each space.

Three rooms into the tour, Simon said, “I’d
appreciate it if you stay away from my sister.”

Finally. He’d watched Simon’s expression and
the set of his shoulders tighten little by little and waited for
the comment. “I’m taking her to dinner tonight. She needs a little
fun to take the taste of this morning out of her mouth.”

“
She doesn’t need your help
with the taste in her mouth.”

A glare came with Simon’s reply and Steve
kept his expression placid. Or close to it.

“
With all due respect, the
decision belongs to Dena.”

“
My sister isn’t any part of
your business.”

“
I’m glad you agree,” Steve
said with a smile. “What we’re looking at right now is business.
You need to realize my relationship with Dena has nothing to do
with G&L Security and what I can provide security-wise for your
business.”

“
You don’t have a
relationship with my sister. You just met her.”

Time to get back on track. “How many security
cameras do you have in the building?”

Simon cursed under his breath but answered,
as Steve knew he would. “None.”

“
That’s where we need to
start.”

Chapter 2

Steve climbed into his truck and tried hard
not to groan. Simon Lindsay was an arrogant, nitpicking son of a
bitch, but in the end, he’d ponied up. He’d agreed that his
business was in dire need of security and allowed Steve to suggest
a wide range of top of the line measures to make the place safe and
secure. The fact that his baby sister had been attacked might’ve
swayed him a little and Steve didn’t argue the point. In fact, he’d
carefully avoided discussing the incident.

The walk through had taken most of the
day.

The man liked to talk, and the subject had
eased back to Dena and her date with him more than a few times. The
man didn’t know when to let it go. True, if Steve had a sister as
enticing as Dena Lindsay, he’d be overprotective as hell, but Simon
talked about safety more than he taught it.

One thing Steve planned to do tonight was
have a long talk about self-defense. Dena needed a few lessons and
he was willing to teach her everything he knew. In more ways than
one.

Damn woman was already under his skin after
seeing her in action. She had good old fashioned chutzpah, and her
brother refused to acknowledge it. Dena Lindsay was no shrinking
violet. Not in the least.

Under the sweet, sexy persona lurked a strong
woman with needs her family kept her from pursuing, and as much as
they tried to keep her caged, the more she struggled to be
free.

He could help her with those needs.

Hell, yeah, he could help her with his needs,
too. She was every bit a woman and he knew how to treat her right.
He’d told Simon it was a simple date, no fooling around, nothing
serious. But if she opened the door for more, so be it.

Her brothers would have to accept the fact
that she was a grown woman.

Pointing the truck toward the club, he turned
his thoughts to his second job. He and a couple of buddies were
building a BDSM club in the local boonies. Their closest competitor
was on the other side of Dallas and beginning to feel its age.

The new place, aptly named Private Delights,
was a reincarnated country club, but he doubted any of the prior
members would recognize more than the physical address once the
doors opened. They’d gutted the building and completely remodeled
every inch of the place, even going so far as to extend and rebuild
the façade.

He hadn’t been to the worksite in almost a
week, staying busy with the security business while Derek Lyons,
his partner at G&L Security, worked the remodel. The man had a
talent for construction and Steve was looking forward to seeing the
progress.

* * * *

Ethan Jenkins dropped onto his ass behind an
abandoned gas station and Lloyd followed suit, both trying hard to
catch their breath. Lloyd had been on lookout duty, but when the
job went bad, he’d taken off instead of helping John and Bill out.
He’d left all three to face the consequences and for that, Ethan
would make him pay.

Not now, of course. They still needed Lloyd.
As an attorney, he could get Bill and John out of jail, for one
thing. And his hacking skill was important, too. He’d been helping
himself and his friends to all kinds of sites online without
shelling out money.

Ethan got back on his feet, wound too tight
to sit, and paced the small area.

As soon as Lloyd got them into the brokerage
accounts and opened a few juicy company folios, they’d be set.
Rather, Ethan’d be set and to hell with his cronies. Once Jenkins
had the stock codes and the insider info, he could make his move.
Much easier to gamble on buying shares when you knew who was about
to merge and who was splitting. Once money started flowing, Lloyd
was dead.

Real time, he needed to hurt. Ethan moved in
close to the honorable Lloyd Evans and gave him a swift kick in the
kidneys. “What happened back there?” he asked his soon to be
non-friend.

“
Don’t have a clue. Didn’t
see her come in,” Lloyd panted. “What the fuck.”

“
And you didn’t see her car
in the lot?”

“
No. She came out of
nowhere.” Lloyd pushed to his feet and leaned against a filthy
wall, still breathing hard. “I swear I would’ve let you know if I
saw her come in.”

Jenkins dusted off his pants. The black
jacket he’d worn into the building came off fast, and he opened the
trunk of his car. Among the junk in the back, he found a bowie
knife and used it to shred the evidence, so to speak, while Lloyd
watched.

Yeah, the guy was eyeing the blade with some
serious fear in his face. About time some of his expensive
education bled through his lame brain.

“
Next time, don’t leave
until we all do. Got it?”

“
Of course. I just got
scared. I’ve never done this before.”

Ethan nodded and pitched half the armful of
black cloth into the weeds behind the old building and the rest
scattered to the light breeze. “I’m counting on you, Lloyd. I need
you to represent John and Bill. We need to get them out of jail.
Don’t disappoint me.”

He left the other man rubbing his backside
and hit a drive in burger place well across town. Making an
impression on the waitress was an easy alibi if anyone tried to
place him at Lindsay & Associates. From there, he went to the
gym to sweat out some anger about the busted job and then home.
Keeping everything cool meant making sure no one tied him to the
morning’s activities.

Dinner with the family was expected, a crappy
hour watching mom browbeat his wimp of a father. After that, he’d
hit a few clubs, maybe pick up a hot chick to get rid of whatever
lingering steam he had.

At least they’d managed to copy all the
files. Without the passwords, getting into each account would be
damn near impossible. Hard to bet on the stock market if you didn’t
have a little insider info. Lloyd sure as shit better be working on
them by now.

Either way, the man was on a short list for a
grave marker.

* * * *

Damn, the place was looking better every day
and might actually open on time, Steve thought as he parked in the
front lot. If he worked fast, he just might have someone to share
it with on opening night.

Simon’s baby sister was one helluva looker
with a mind of her own and an attitude and a sweet little ass in
need of a spanking. Getting out of Lindsay & Associates without
a boner hadn’t been easy.

He went in the front door and took a look
around the lower level. Construction crews were working on detail
projects but there were no signs of Mark or Derek, at least on the
lower level.

Once at the top of the main staircase, the
sound of loud voices keyed him to the location of his partners.
From the mixture of laugher and profanity, Derek was pissed about
something and Mark was egging him on. Not surprising.

Derek Lyons was easy to provoke these days.
Before his wife was killed in a car wreck, he’d been a hardcore Dom
with an easy temperament outside the clubs. The last three years
had been tough for all three of them. For Derek, because he’d lost
the only love he’d ever known. For Steve and Mark, it meant
watching a dear friend retreat into himself. Mark’s suggestion that
they build their own BDSM club had seemed a godsend to Steve. He
and Derek had formed G&L Security five years ago and the
business was thriving, but outside of work, Derek was still
isolated.

Mark Harrison was the entrepreneur of the
group, born into an oil field heritage and money. Raised by a
grandfather, he’d learned early to work hard and play harder. And
he had a tendency to hit pay dirt on a regular schedule.