The Men with the Golden Cuffs (Masters and Mercenaries #2)(32)

“You look like a man ready to take a chunk out of someone.” Liam had a shit-eating grin on his face. “Remember my advice. Fuck her and get it over with. It’s inevitable. Then you would have had every right to punch that bloody wanker in the face. That * wouldn’t punch back.”

Jake nodded to Ginny as he strode out the door. He hoped the young woman had enough sense to get out when she could.

He could hear Professor Brooks shouting at someone. God, he hoped it was Ian. The door slammed behind him, just as his cell rang. He looked down at the number.

“Tell me it’s Ian giving us the go ahead to kill the bastard.” Liam’s Irish was back. And there was a grin on his face. He’d enjoyed f*cking with the professor.

But Jake lost his smile. “It’s Brighton.” He slid his hand across the bar to answer the call. “This is Dean.”

His police liaison sounded grim. “Hey, Jake. Did you take the Serena Brooks case? You know that writer you called about yesterday?”

Jake got a cold shiver that always went up his spine when the shit was about to hit the fan. “Yeah. I’m out at her ex-husband’s place right now. What’s going on?”

“You should come down to the station. The cop working her case found something. Do you want me to call her or would you rather do that yourself?”

Fuck. He didn’t want to call her at all, but he didn’t have the right to keep things from her. She had the right to know what was coming for her. “I’ll do it. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. How bad is it?”

“Well, it’s more serious than we thought, or she’s more clever. No idea, man. You need to talk to the cops handling this case. I’ll keep them here for you. I don’t know about this, Jake. It gives me a nasty feeling.”

Brighton was a cop with eighteen years in. Jake trusted Brighton’s gut. Especially when his own was telling him this was more complex than it seemed. “We’ll be there.”

He hung up the phone and called Adam. The whole way to the police station, he couldn’t help the feeling that everything was about to go wrong.





Adam looked over the desk at Sargent Edward Chitwood. He was a quiet man with the sort of bland good looks that most people ignored. His desk was neatly appointed, complete with a picture of his perfectly bland wife and kids. In the family portrait, they were all smiling. The perfect American family. But Chitwood wasn’t smiling now.

“Brass is not happy with you, partner.” Chitwood’s partner was a fit-looking man named Mike Hernandez.

Chitwood sighed. “I know, Mikey. It was stupid. It was also kind of instinctive. I had the thing in my hand before I really knew what I was doing.”

“This is the letter you found?” Adam asked. He turned and looked back. Serena was standing at the vending machines. So much for his perfect lunch. She was going to have to eat chips and drink a soda. His gut was in knots. The minute they’d gotten Jake’s call, she’d paled and a fine tremble had hit her. They had been forced to cancel lunch and leave her agent’s office early. Serena’s life was being completely disrupted.

Chitwood nodded. “Yes. I am so sorry to have to give this to her.”

Hernandez looked over at Serena, his mouth a flat line. “I’d like to study her when she reads it.”

He would be looking for anything that wasn’t normal, anything that gave away the fact that she’d set this up herself.

“I’d like to point out the fact that she was with me when the note was left,” Adam said.

Hernandez shrugged. “So she has an accomplice. Have you met those friends of hers?”

No. He was scheduled to have lunch with them tomorrow. Liam had already forwarded files on both Bridget Slaten and Chris Roberts. He hadn’t read them, though. It was easy to see that at least one of the cops working her case thought Serena was a whack job.

He glanced back again. She had a green can in her hands. He could still feel her lips on his. She’d been so f*cking sweet, her hands exploring his body with the awe of a woman on the verge of something amazing. He could still hear the hitch in her breath as he’d pulled their pelvises together. If Ian hadn’t stopped him, he would have put his hand up her skirt and teased his fingers into her *, rubbing her little clit until she was shaking in his arms.

He wouldn’t have f*cked her. He wouldn’t do that without Jacob. The last thing he wanted was for her to bond to only one of them. He’d been down that road, and it led to heartache.

The door to the division office opened, and Jake strode through with Liam in tow. He watched as Serena looked up and almost immediately took a step toward him. And then she forced herself to stop. Jake’s eyes laser focused on her. His hand actually came up and then the big old coward put his hand back down. So close.

They said something, and Jake’s hand finally came up and found her shoulder. It was an awkward touch, but it was there. Liam looked over and rolled his eyes letting Adam know he’d probably already figured the situation out.

“So, she has three bodyguards?” Chitwood asked, studying the scene in front of him. “That seems like a bit of overkill.”

“It’s just me and my partner, Jacob Dean. Liam is our backup. But I think Lieutenant Brighton would prefer you ran everything by me or Jake. We’ll be with her twenty-four seven.”