It was really happening. Someone had found her.
Why had the FBI tracked her down? Had something happened with the de Sade case? Her heart fluttered at the thought of having to get involved in that again. She felt herself get a little faint. Best case scenario—this was unrelated and someone needed to talk to her about the Russian mob case. She’d stayed off the record, but someone might have mentioned her name. Worst case scenario? She’d been right. The Marquis de Sade had tracked her down because he wouldn’t want to leave loose ends.
“Laura? Are you all right?” Wolf stood and then knelt at her side, his hand grasping hers. “Maybe we should take you upstairs so you can lie down.”
The door to the SUV opened.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I should have dealt with them myself,” Wolf said in a deep, soothing tone. This was another reason Laura had known she and Wolf couldn’t work out. He was so much more interested in her when she needed help. Wolf was looking for a damsel in distress. Where the hell had he been five years earlier?
“I’m fine, Wolf. I’m just seeing ghosts, that’s all. I can handle them.” And if de Sade had come for her, then maybe she had some unfinished business with him, too. But it was more than likely about the mob trials. Alexei Markov had set off a firestorm when he’d decided to turn on his mob boss. Nate Wright, Bliss’s sheriff and Callie’s second husband, had already had his fill of Feds. He’d complained to Laura about it earlier in the day.
Except the minute the dark-haired man in the perfectly tailored suit slid gracefully from the SUV, Laura realized this had nothing to do with Alexei’s case.
She’d left out a scenario.
Armageddon. In that scenario, Rafael Kincaid showed up and her past finally, truly caught up with her. Laura closed her eyes and prayed it was just an illusion. That glorious man in the suit wasn’t Rafe. She opened her eyes.
Shit. It was Rafe, and he wasn’t alone. An enormous man walked behind him. His suit wasn’t perfectly tailored. He looked uncomfortable in it, like any moment his body was going to burst from its confines.
Cameron Briggs.
Rafe was an elegant bird of prey, while Cam was a huge tiger stalking his next meal.
What the hell were they doing here? When she’d left, she’d made damn sure that the two men who had broken her heart into tiny little pieces and then stomped on it in a public forum couldn’t find her. Oh sure, they’d been all tears and apologies after she’d been nearly murdered, but it was just guilt.
“Do you know those men?” Wolf asked.
She knew every inch of those men. She knew just how Rafe liked his cock sucked and that Cam could eat pussy all night long. She knew them intimately and far beyond the physical ways they liked to fuck. She’d spent a year with them just getting to know them. She’d spent a year working and drinking and talking. She knew Cam was ashamed of how he’d grown up and Rafe hated that people knew he came from wealth.
She knew they valued their placement in the FBI far more than they could ever love a woman.
Laura nodded.
“From the look on your face, it wasn’t a good thing. Do I need to kick some ass?”
“No,” she said quickly. Wolf would do it, and he would get in trouble.
Rafe and Cam were looking up and down the street, their mouths moving in short, clipped words. Finally, almost in slow motion to Laura’s mind, Cam turned and stopped. He stood looking at her in the window, as still as a statue. Rafe watched him for a moment, and then turned as well.
“Laura.” There was no mistaking the word Rafe’s mouth made.
Laura stood, utterly panicked at the thought of them walking in and realizing that after five years she still wasn’t over them. How pathetic was that?
Rafe moved first, followed by Cam. They stormed into the Trading Post, stalking through the tourist merchandise and the little candy aisle until they made it to the tea room.
“Laura.” Cam was the one who said her name now. “We found you.”
“No thanks to him,” Rafe said, eyeing Wolf, who stood beside her. “He sent us on a wild-goose chase. You look good, bella.” Bella. Beautiful. It was what he’d called her when they had made love. How dare he ever call her that again.
What if they had come after her? What if they had figured out what a mistake they had made? Rafe was eating her up with his eyes.
Cam was pulling his alpha male act, staring Wolf down. What if they had searched for her, longed for her the way she’d longed for them?
“You know what you did was illegal,” Cam was saying, his icy blue eyes laser-focused on Wolf. She stared at him for a long moment. His golden hair was cut short. She’d always wanted to see what it would look like longer, but Cam liked the simplicity. It highlighted his masculine face. Cam was all sharp angles with the exception of his sensual lips. God, she remembered what it felt like to have his mouth on her. “You impeded an investigation. You lied to duly appointed federal agents.”
Laura let her hope die. It hadn’t been a big hope anyway. They were here on a case. Of course. How silly to think they still gave a damn about her.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Cam asked Wolf.
Laura said the words without really thinking. It was instinct that caused her to protect herself. She slid her hand into Wolf’s and lied through her teeth.
“He’s my fiancé.”
Rafe’s face fell. Cam took a step back.
Wolf hauled her close. “You know how it goes, gentlemen. I’m not one to let a little thing like an investigation get in the way of true love.”
Yep. Wolf Meyer was cool as a cucumber under pressure.
And Laura Niles was definitely under pressure.
Chapter Three
Cam Briggs felt like his gut had been kicked straight out of his body.
Engaged? How the hell could she be engaged? Cam had spent the last five years of his life thinking of nothing but Laura, and she had been getting engaged to some dickwad military guy.
He had to be military. Ex-military, Cam would bet. And that dude wasn’t afraid of a little PDA.
“Sorry, I had no idea why you were looking for her,” said the asshole who seemed to be trying to inhale Laura’s hand. He had brought her hand to his lips, and his other arm had snaked around her waist, drawing her close to his body. “When you have something this gorgeous, you have to take care of it.”
“She’s not an ‘it,’” Cam snarled.
Rafe put a hand out, a silent request that Cam stay calm. It was a familiar gesture to Cam. Rafe took over, all smooth professionalism.
“We understand,” Rafe said, gesturing to the table behind Laura.
“If I had a fiancée as beautiful as yours, I would protect her at all costs, too. Please, if you would sit with us, we do need to talk to your fiancée.”
Cam tried to get to that calm place that seemed to come so easily to Rafe.
As Laura and her affianced asshole sat down, Rafe leaned in and whispered in his ear.
“Watch them. There’s something wrong with this scenario,” Rafe said. “Look at her body language.”
Cam settled down. Rafe had always been good at getting him to think. It had been that way ever since the first day they had been partnered up. Rafe had just known how to deal with him. Rafe had made him comfortable.