Dance With Me - By Hayden Braeburn Page 0,16
me.”
He chewed on that for a moment, not liking the implications. “I ain't a babysitter.”
“A babysitter?” She shook her head. Was this man deliberately misunderstanding her, or was she on a wild good chase? “I need someone eliminated.”
He stood up, leaned across the table. “I don't know who gave you my name, lady, but they ain't a friend of either of us. I ain't a killer.”
That bastard. Why had she trusted Brandon? After that episode in the parlor the other day, she'd known better than to call him, but she'd had no choice. She stomped her foot. “So, what do you do?” If that asshole ex-stepbrother of hers had set her up, and she had just propositioned a cop, she'd kill him herself.
“I'm a skip tracer,” he answered easily. He tipped his head toward her, daring her to ask him what that meant.
“A bounty hunter? I asked him for an assassin and he sends me a bounty hunter?” she shrieked.
Dylan made a production of rubbing his ears. “Jesus, woman.”
“I need someone killed, not captured.”
“I gathered that.” He looked her up and down. “It's a bad idea, darlin'. You don't want to get caught up in all that.”
“He doesn't belong to her!” she exploded.
He held up his hands. “Whoa, there.”
“He ruined all my plans,” she muttered, a defeated look on her face.
This woman was all over the place. Hating himself for being curious, he asked, “You lookin' to off him or her?”
“Her! Always her.” Her expression softened from harpy to school girl as she went on, “He's mine.”
Dylan had a feeling the man in question didn't believe himself to be hers. He wished he could help the couple this woman wanted to have killed. “I can't help you there.”
“Surely somewhere in this hellhole of a bar is someone who can help me.”
That was very likely, but he wasn't about to agree. “Lady, this is a bad idea. Give it up.”
“What do you suggest I do?” she asked, her voice rising again. “Let her take him from me? Let her take my children from me? I can't! She was arrested for dealing drugs just this week!” He didn't need to know she had set all that up, it sounded compelling and she was in need. She watched his expression change from annoyed to intrigued and gave herself a mental pat on the back.
“Your children are in danger?”
In danger of not being born, but that wasn't important. “Yes. He won't let me have them, and she's in the way.” The truth. She told him nothing but the truth.
His golden eyes softened a bit. “I'm not killing anyone, but I want to help your kids. What are their names?”
She had thought about this for so long, the answer came easily. “Christian Michael and Catherine Melissa.”
“Twins?”
“I have to save them,” she sidestepped. “How do we save them?”
“She's endangering them?”
“I'll never have them if she's in the way.”
He gave her a confused look. “You'll never have them?”
“Back. I'll never have them back,” she quickly amended.
He noticed her stumble, but chose to ignore it. “I'm not killing anyone.” Never again. Never, never again.
“Understood.” She nodded. “But you'll help me?”
“I want to help save your kids.” He'd never turn his back on a child, no matter how off-kilter their mother. He'd help her save her children, if they needed saving.
Check and mate. She managed a couple grateful tears. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
FIVE
“Do you think it's safe for you to go to work?” Kat asked Mason the following morning.
“Why wouldn't it be?”
“I don't know. It's just... I'm holed up here with two bodyguards and you're going into downtown Tyler to oversee the bank. It just makes me feel, I don't know, worried.”
“She doesn't want to hurt me, babe.” He stood then, depositing his mug and plate into the dishwasher. “If I promise to go straight to work and then straight home, will you be happier?”
She glanced around the kitchen. “Where are the guys anyway?”
He chuckled. “The guys, as you put them, are around. Alec is in the house somewhere and Sean is walking the perimeter. I'm not taking any chances with you.”
She sighed. “I know you're not. I just don't want to take any chances with you.”
He walked back to her, wrapping his arms around her from behind. “I'll be fine,” he whispered in her ear before gently nipping the lobe. “I'll go to work, and when I come home, I'll prove just how fine I am.”
She turned in his arms, running her hands down the hard