Into the Fury (BOSS, Inc. #1)(23)

Val turned to the powerful man beside her. “I’ll be okay now. Thanks again for coming to get me.”

“I’ll be waiting for you after the show.”

“Oh . . . that’s right. I don’t have my car, so I guess I’ll be needing a ride.”

Something hot moved in those dark eyes; then it was gone. “I’ll keep you safe, Val. For now that’s all you need to worry about, yes?”

She nodded, smiled. “Thanks.” Turning away, she took a deep breath and walked through the door into a completely different world from the one in which she actually lived. An exclusive world of beauty and glamour and fashion.

She thought of Delilah and the image changed to the dark reality of murder. Then she remembered that Ethan would be waiting to see her safely home.

She took a deep breath. She could do this, do the job she was being so highly paid for. Val headed for her makeup station.





Ethan spotted Dirk walking the redhead, Megan, toward the busy dressing area backstage. Like all the models, Megan O’Brien was a beautiful woman. At the same time, she seemed more approachable than some of the others, more of a high-school sweetheart than a sophisticated fashion model. Maybe that was part of what Dirk liked about her.

Dirk grinned down at her, whispered something. Meg smiled up at him, turned, and disappeared into the room.

Dirk walked toward him. “Everything okay?”

Ethan nodded. “You?”

“Meg was pretty shook up. I think she felt better after Valentine called. I gather they’re close friends.”

“Seems that way. You behave yourself?”

“Meg made it easy. She has about ten thousand guys trying to get in her pants. She’s pretty cautious when it comes to men. What about you and Miss Dimples?”

Ethan let out a slow breath. “She’s not what I thought. She’s smart, saving her money to finish vet school. She was helping Sam wash a big hairy dog when I found her.”

Dirk’s mouth edged up. “Smart, hardworking, not prissy, and sexy as hell. So I guess you’re no longer off women.”

Ethan grunted. “I’m off them till this is over. I need to keep my head on straight and so do you. We need to find this guy before he kills someone else.”

Dirk sobered. “So where do we go from here?”

“If you’ll keep an eye on things, I’ve got a couple of errands to run. I’ll be staying with Val until the tour leaves or they catch this guy, so I need my laptop and a few other things from my apartment. I need to head down to the office. I want to talk to Sadie, see if she can come up with something that might be useful.”

Sadie Gunderson was a middle-aged woman who worked part-time at BOSS, Inc. With two grown kids and a couple of grandkids, she was the most unlikely computer whiz on the planet and dynamite good at her job.

“I’ll keep an eye. You’ll be back before the show?”

Ethan’s lips curved faintly. “What? Miss all those beautiful half-naked women? I’m over thirty, but I’m not dead yet.”

Dirk laughed. But the truth was, Ethan was more interested in seeing one particular half-naked woman, and because he didn’t like sharing, he would rather she be all-the-way naked just for him. Beyond that, he would worry about her safety until he got back.

Ethan headed for the door.





The sign etched into the plate-glass window read “Brodie Operations Security Services, Inc.” The relatively small freestanding building took up two floors of a brick structure on NE 8th in downtown Bellevue. The reception area, conference room, employee lounge, and an open area with rows of desks, each with its own computer, were located on the first floor.

Upstairs was Ian’s office, plus a room with a couple of beds where the guys could crash if they got in late, and the office Sadie sat in to work her computer magic.

Ethan shoved through the door into the reception area. Modern in design, with a butter-soft black leather sofa and chairs and a black granite coffee table, the waiting area as well as the rest of the decor was expensive, masculine, and comfortable.

Heading into the main part of the office, he spotted his brother, Luke, sitting at his desk.

“Hey, bro,” Luke called out. At six two, he was an inch shorter than Ethan, with a hard, lean-muscled build. A year younger than Ethan’s thirty-two, with his short-on-the sides, sun-streaked brown hair and brilliant blue eyes, Luke was an unrepentant ladies’ man with no intention of changing anytime soon.

As Ethan walked up, he grinned. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have a backstage pass to the titty show, would you?”

Ethan felt a shot of irritation. “It isn’t a titty show. These women are high-class models. They’ve been working twelve hours a day to put this show together.”

One of Luke’s dark eyebrows went up. “That so? Seems to me it was you who was grumbling about taking a job babysitting a bunch of airheaded women.”

“Well, I was wrong. They aren’t what I thought. At least most of them aren’t. The bad news is, last night one of them was murdered.”

The teasing light slid from Luke’s handsome face. “Don’t tell me it was the creep who sent those notes.” His brother knew the reason La Belle had wanted to add more security. Luke’s specialty was tracking down bail skips. He made a fat living as a bounty hunter, but he could handle just about anything.