Page 26 of Justified Fear (TFH Team Bravo #2)

The memory of their one night together still left her hot.

The guy definitely knew how to kiss, and no, she didn’t think he did it because he was ordered to.

That was stupid, and as much as it is something they show in movies and even Task Force Honolulu, she knew that their time in bed together had not been fake.

Still, it was hard to deal with the whiplash.

The moment he got an order from his boss, he was ready to sell her out to her father.

Reaching out, Keely slid her hand down Maya’s back. The German Sheppard opened her eyes.

“You probably hurt your daddy’s feelings.”

“He’ll get over it,” Eden said from the doorway. She stepped in and closed the door. “How are you this morning?”

She sat up. “Irritated.”

Eden’s mouth twitched. “I don’t blame you. But Dillon and TFH have been working overtime. They have some leads. Why don’t you get dressed and come on out so we can go over them? And Maya needs to go out, right?” she asked while staring at Maya.

The dog looked at Keely for approval, and she nodded. “Go on. I’ll be out in a sec.”

“Take your time,” Eden said as she opened the door to let Maya out. Then she stepped through the door and shut it with a click.

Since Maya was there, Keely knew she would at least be facing Ryan, and she didn’t want to do that.

Not without a ton of coffee in her system.

It only took her five minutes before she was stepping out into the living area.

Aaron, Eden, and Mix were there, and so was another woman with long, dark hair.

When the woman looked over at her, there was something vaguely familiar about her eyes.

“Hello. I’m Emily Daniels, everyone’s favorite at Dillon.”

The last name clicked, and she glanced over at Aaron, then back at Emily. “Hello. I take it you’re Aaron’s sister?”

She nodded. “Just don’t hold it against me.”

“Eden said there was stuff that was going on?”

“Yes. I thought we would let Ryan return because he was up all night working on it.”

Now, she felt even worse. Yes, she had every right to be mad about the situation, but she shouldn’t have taken it out on Ryan.

He just made her feel so much, like more than she had with any other man.

What did that say about her that she never felt this way with Chad?

But her emotions were running on fear and extreme horniness.

She guessed that was the best way to describe her obsession with Ryan.

There was a beep, and she realized it was the front door. With haste, she hurried to make herself a cup of coffee. Being a coward, she didn’t turn her head to look at him. All of a sudden, the Dillon agents seemed to disappear. Ryan walked toward her. She felt Maya brush against her legs.

“Go get a drink, Maya.”

His deep voice rumbled over the words. Maya listened to him, and then it was just the two of them in the kitchen. She still hadn’t looked over at him.

“How are you this morning?”

Gah, that voice. She remembered the way he sounded when he talked to her when they were in bed together. The memory of that had her squeezing her thighs together. “Fine. Sorry, Maya abandoned you.”

Keely could feel his gaze as it traveled over her. “Are you planning to not look at me ever again?”

“It hurts.”

He sighed, frustration and sorrow filled the lonely sound. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have threatened you with your father.”

She set her cup under the basket and hit the brew function.

“No, you shouldn’t have. I do not like anyone who curries favor with my father.”

There was a long beat of silence. “The fuck?”

She blinked. In the short time she had been around Ryan, she hadn’t heard him cuss much.

“Look at me.”

She sighed, but did as he ordered. The anger Keely saw almost had her taking a step back.

“Don’t be scared of me.”

“I’m not scared.”

“What kind of assholes have you dated that you would assume that’s what I was doing?”

“I don’t think there has ever been a man in my life who wasn’t trying to get in good with my mother or father.”

His gaze studied hers. He had the most amazing blue eyes with flecks of gold. The hard look seemed to soften the longer he looked at her. It did something to her insides. It was as if she could almost feel her heart turning over.

“I want you to understand one thing and one thing only. I threatened you with your father because I was scared.”

She snorted, but he didn’t smile in response.

“The first thing I was thinking about was getting you to safety. We still have no freaking idea what the hell is going on. We can’t detect who might be after you since the three assassins are dead.

At the time, we had no fucking leads. We needed to get you out of your house and into a safe house as fast as we could.

The faster we got you out of there, the better.

If I thought bribing you would work, I would have done that.

I would have done anything to get you to safety, Keely. I can’t have you hurt.”

The backs of her eyes burned.

“I hope I didn’t screw everything up with you, since you’re the first woman in a long time that I’ve wanted.

Hell, I can’t remember ever wanting a woman as much as I want you.

” He stepped closer to her, crowding her up against the counter.

She didn’t feel scared. She felt…safe. “But I would rather get you pissed off at me than risk your safety. You are important to me.”

A lump rose in her throat, and she couldn’t speak around it.

No one had ever said things like that to her.

Chad had never told her she mattered so much that he would risk losing her for her safety.

Ryan cupped her face with his right hand.

She felt the calluses on his fingers as he smoothed them against her face.

Then he rested his forehead against hers.

“I will always put your safety first, Keely. Always.”

She opened her mouth to respond, to tell him that he didn’t need to always do that, when Emily called out.

“I know you two are trying to make up right now, but how about coming over here so we can go over all the information, including the info that Mix just got from his favorite source.”

With a grimace, Ryan dropped his hand, but Keely grabbed it. “To be continued.”

Relief shown in his eyes. She might be making a mistake, but there was something sincere about his explanation. He nodded, then stopped long enough for her to grab her coffee. He led her into the living area with her hand in his.

Emily had a computer set up on the coffee table, but the TV screen seemed to be showing the same thing.

“Have a seat,” Mix said with a sigh. “This is all going to take a bit to go through.”

“These are the three bad dudes who were hired to kill people at that party. We still don’t know why,” Emily said.

The three men flashed on the screen. They were the same pictures that she had been shown. Then a video popped up.

“They are not regular Oahu residents. They arrived on the island in the days leading up to the dinner party. Seemingly not together. Different flights, yada yada, but we know these three dicks?—”

“ Emily ,” Mix said.

“No, they are dicks,” Keely said with a nod to Emily. The other woman beamed at her.

“You guys had two survivors,” she said, looking at Ryan, who was sitting on the arm of her chair.

“Yes. We found Keely that night, but we knew they had left with Ray, and he had been alive. We had some doorbell camera proof of that.”

“So, did you think he was in on it?” Emily asked.

Keely looked back at him.

“At first, we had no idea. We were working on the idea that he had been abducted. Either way, we wanted to find him.”

“And if he was, you didn’t want to freak him out,” Aaron said.

“Yeah. Then the call came in that he had been found.”

“And almost at the same time, the dudes were found dead.”

He nodded. “All killed with the same caliber gun.”

“And now Ray is gone again?”

Ryan nodded. “The security cameras were taken offline, and the hospital had a power outage. The cop on duty was hit over the head and left in the stairwell. We have no idea where Ray is now.”

“So, whoever it is has a lot of know-how when it comes to tech. All of that isn’t easy to do,” Mix concluded.

“Let’s talk about this loser,” Emily said.

Keely turned her head and found herself staring at Chad’s pic.

“Emily!” Aaron said.

“Well, he is a loser if he lost Keely. I mean, from what you said, she can cook, and she’s hot. It’s not like I’m on that team, but if I were, I would so go for her.”

“Thank you?” Keely wasn’t sure if that was the correct response.

“Anyway, you two had a business together. He bought you out, yada yada. He filed for bankruptcy last month.”

“I heard something like that. I try not to pay attention to him.”

“I would say good riddance,” Emily said. “Only…” Emily clicked on a picture.

Keely blinked, then blinked again. There was Chad in what looked like a security camera pic. She knew that area well at the Honolulu Airport. It wasn’t a massive airport, so there were very few ways to get from point A to point B.

“When was that?” Keely asked.

“One week ago. I had a friend in security at the airport looking for him.”

“Why would you do that?”

Emily looked at Ryan. Keely turned to him. “Why?”

“He might be out for revenge.”

“He seemed to show up out of nowhere,” Emily said, drawing her attention back to her. “He broke his lease, signed his bankruptcy papers, then hopped on a plane to Hawai’i. It’s suspicious.”

“He wouldn’t. He didn’t care when we broke up.”

“Oh. You’re talking about the twenty-year-old who was going to take over for you? Well, she’s gone. Seems that she fell for some rich dude and dumped Chad.”

“Still, Chad is lazy. He wouldn’t do this. And I don’t want to think he would do this.”

Because then, it would be her fault. These people all died because Chad wanted revenge? No. She could not accept that.

“More than likely, he has some other con going on.”

“Keely, you have to wonder why he would come all the way here,” Eden said, her voice gentle. “Also, you told TFH that he wasn’t from Texas, but that isn’t true.”

She looked at the other woman and blinked. The blows just kept on coming. “He told me he was from back East.”

“Well, he lied,” Emily said. “He was raised in Bedford.”

“Bedford?”

Emily nodded.

“The one thing I don’t like is that he came here under a different name—Sebastian Herd—which is hard to do. To get on a plane these days, you have to have some pretty good ID.”

“But…I’m confused. How would he know what I was doing here? I kept all my interactions with the Kellys private. I do that with all my clients.”

Ryan took her hand, threading his fingers through hers to draw her attention. There was an apology in his eyes.

“Ray is originally from Bedford, too.”

As the horrible ramifications started to hit her, her heart sank, and her soul felt like it was shrinking.

She drew in a deep breath.

“Is there anything else?”

“Not right now. We are conducting a broader search to determine what happened last night at the hospital. It will take a little bit to do,” Emily said. “Charity is working on a couple of blocks to the North and East. I am working on a couple of blocks to the South and West.”

“I need a shower, if that’s okay?”

“Of course,” Ryan said.

She drew in a deep breath and rose to leave them. Maya stood and followed her. When she got into the room, Keely motioned to the bed. “Go on. I’m going to freshen up.”

The dog jumped up on the bed, and after three circles, she collapsed.

Keely started the shower, and after undressing, she stepped under the hot water.

Her muscles began to relax, and at the same time, pain hit her.

It wasn’t exactly physical, but it felt just as bad.

She sat down on the floor of the shower as the tears started to stream down her face.

All that death…all that pain. If it were because of her, she would never be able to deal with it.

She didn’t realize she was actually sobbing until the shower door opened and Ryan stepped inside. She hadn’t even heard him come in, and he was naked. He pulled her up off the floor into his arms.

“It’s okay, baby. We’ll figure this all out.”

But even if she felt it, Keely wasn’t sure if she would ever feel right again.