Into the Fury (BOSS, Inc. #1)(91)

“I took a pain pill, so at the moment I’m fine.”

“She’s okay for now, but I need to get her settled in somewhere.”

“You got that covered?” Ian asked.

“Yeah.”

Ian tipped his head toward the back of the office. “Let’s go into the conference room and you can fill us in.”

Setting a hand at Val’s waist, Ethan guided her toward the door to the conference room.





Val sat quietly as Ethan talked to Luke, Ian, and Sadie, going over the events of the day. As the story unfolded, with Ethan dramatizing Val’s bravery in protecting his daughter and embarrassing her, Sadie kept tossing her glances.

Their gazes met, and the look in the older woman’s eyes softened. Apparently, Val’s rating had moved up on her women-suitable-for-her-favorite-men’s list.

“So you’re staying at Dirk’s,” Luke said with a nod of approval. “It’s private. Good access in and out in both directions. He’s got Wi-Fi, and he keeps plenty of hardware there.”

“Hardware?” Val asked, wondering why they might need maintenance tools.

The question seemed to amuse the men. Ethan gave her an indulgent smile. “He means weapons, honey. Dirk’s got a gun safe. He could outfit a small army with what he keeps inside.”

“Oh. Right.” Dirk and his toys. But then, guns and ammunition were hardly toys. A shiver ran through her.

Sadie leaned over and squeezed her hand. “You need anything, you call me. Women have different needs from men. You call, I’ll make sure you get whatever it is.”

Val smiled. “Thank you, Sadie.” She yawned. The pain pill was making her groggy and it was hard to concentrate.

“So that’s it,” Luke said. “You need to leave the house, you call and I’ll come stay with Val. You or your boys need backup, you call. Yeah?”

“All right.” Ethan smiled. “Thanks for the worry, little brother.”

“You’re welcome, pain-in-my-ass big brother.”

Ethan chuckled. “I’ve got to get those files.” He rose and the conversation came to an end. In minutes, Val was back in the Jeep and Ethan was heading for the safety of Dirk’s house.

Val just prayed the place would actually be safe.





Dirk’s ranch-style home sat on a road in an area south of Bellevue off Lakehurst Lane. Ethan glanced at Val, who sat next to him in the passenger seat as they drove through the heavily treed area toward their destination. The rain continued, pounding against the hood as the Jeep rolled along.

“So will Dirk be home while we’re there?”

Val hadn’t said much since they’d left his office. The pain pill was making her sleepy. Ethan figured the ache in her injured arm was probably coming back—if it had ever actually gone away—and a trickle of guilt slid through him. He was supposed to protect her. But damn, this whole thing made absolutely no sense.

Or, more likely, it made complete sense and he just hadn’t figured it out yet.

“Dirk left town for a couple of days. I think he needed a break.” He turned down a narrow lane, into a neighborhood of homes on large, tree-covered lots, the properties so overgrown he could barely see the houses through the dense, leafy foliage.

“Doesn’t look like Dirk’s kind of neighborhood,” Val said, surveying the nondescript family homes in the area.

“For years in his spare time, Dirk’s been buying foreclosures and turning them for a profit. He got this house in an estate sale about a year ago; an old woman who died without any kids. It came with all her furniture and it’s only a few blocks from the lake. Dirk’s got a boat, so he decided to keep it, at least for a while. He’s got a one-bedroom apartment in Bellevue. He stays there most of the time. It’s closer to the action.”

“Dirk seems like a restless kind of guy, someone who’d get bored fairly quickly. I think that’s one of the things Meg was worried about.”

Ethan’s gaze swung to hers. “Meg thought Dirk would get bored with her?”

She shrugged. “She says he’s a chick magnet—that’s what she called him. She doesn’t think a guy like Dirk could be faithful to one woman. I have to say, he seems like kind of a tumbleweed.”

He scoffed. “My brother, Luke, now he’s a tumbleweed. Dirk, not so much. Like I said, besides doing his job, he buys and sells property. It takes hard work and brains to make money at that, and it doesn’t happen overnight.”

She looked up, clearly reconsidering her original impression. “He never said anything.”

“It isn’t his way.”

Val fell silent as Ethan turned into the gravel driveway, pulled up, and got out to retrieve the spare garage door opener Dirk kept in the mailbox along one wall. He climbed back in, opened the double car garage, and drove the Jeep inside. A dirt bike sat in the second car parking space.

“I thought he rode a Harley.”

“He does. His Viper’s in the shop, and he’s off on the Harley.” Ethan grinned. “The dirt bike’s mine.”

She studied the knobby tires and racy design. “I guess Dirk’s not the only one who likes his toys.”

Ethan chuckled. “It’s an off-road machine. It isn’t meant to be ridden on the freeway. It’s more about getting out of the city and into the woods.”