This again?
“You mean easier for you?” This time, I look away in frustration. “I’m not upending my life to make yours easier.”
“Ms. Harlow, the men who have your information are dangerous men. Staying here with your family would put them in danger as well.”
I take a step toward him, my head tipping back to meet his dark eyes. “Agent, the men who have my information are going to look for me here, whether I’m with my family or not. Why would I separate myself from guaranteed safety to take a chance out there with someone whose abilities I know nothing about?”
A tick in his sharp as a knife jaw draws my eyes, and my gaze travels to his lips. His beard is cut perfectly to the shape of his cupid’s bow, and I wonder if he takes the time to trim it every day.
He’s looking down his narrow nose at me. Anger is churning behind those eyes, but his face is passive, displaying no emotion.
“Is this the agent I’ve heard so much about?” I turn to Marley coming down the stairs.
Marley doesn’t like strange men, she was sexually assaulted as a teen and avoids strangers for the most part. She must have been listening to our exchange upstairs and has decided that her discomfort is worth keeping the peace.
She stands next to me, and the pissed-off agent standing across from me looks between us. People have told us our whole lives we could pass for twins, but right now, Marley’s boobs are huge with milk since she had her own twins four months ago.
There’s no mistaking our boobs, that’s for sure. Even when she’s not full of milk, her boobs are still bigger than mine.
Even though I don’t plan to have kids, I’m still jealous of the cleavage she is sporting under her tank top, even if it is mostly milk. Another thing I’ve always envied is her roundbutt, she calls it a bubble butt, and she hates it, but I’ve always wished I had more curve in my backside.
But not enough that I would spend time in the gym every day to get it. I’m lazy that way, and I don’t like to sweat if I can help it. Because of her work with her horses and being in the stables all day every day, Marley is very toned.
Tipping my head, I swing my hand in his direction. “Marley, this is Special Agent Abbot. Apparently, he is here to infringe on my Fourth Amendment right, but he seems to force himself a lot, so this is pretty normal for him. Agent, this is my sister Marley.”
I think if we had a spit-roaster, I would be rotating over it right now based on the way his jaw is ticking. I smile sweetly, and he looks away from me and holds his hand out to Marley. “Nice to meet you, Mrs.?”
Marley takes his hand with a smile. “No need to be formal, just call me Marley.” She looks between us before she turns to me. “Have you offered Agent Abbot a drink or anything?”
“Agent. What brings you back?” Mason’s voice booms in the hall behind us.
The agent steps away from me and pulls the piece of paper he showed me from his pocket and hands it to Mason, who has planted his feet between me and Marley.
He reads it quietly, and I can see the twitch between his eyebrows. Marley and I look at each other and then back up to him. As if on cue, Jax comes down the stairs and looks over Mason’s shoulder to read the court order. His shirt has a big wet spot across his chest, and he smells like sour milk.
Mason looks at Agent Abbot as Jax takes the order from his hand to finish reading it. “Just how serious is this? I get the feeling you minimized the situation last night. A judge doesn’t order this type of protection without serious cause. And expedited.”
Abbot slides his hands in his pockets again and straightens his shoulders. “If we could talk somewhere.”
“Oh, no,” I say and step between them as I look up at Agent Abbot. “You don’t get to go to another room and talk about something that directly affects me behind closed doors, like I’m not here.” My pissed-off just swung into the red. If there’s anything that makes my blood boil, it’s when the men congregate in another room, away from us mere females.
I know with all my heart that my brothers are only always trying to protect us, they are alpha to the core, and it comes from a place of love. But it still pisses me off.
My eyes narrow, and I stare up at him. “I think you might have the wrong idea about me, Special Agent. If you want to treat me like a delicate flower that might wither under a little heat, I’m warning you now, I will treat you like an intruder and show you the meaning of difficult. It’s a two-way fucking street.”
He called me difficult last night while driving me home. If there’s anything I’ve learned from being the middle sister between three sometimes obnoxious brothers, it’s how to be aggressively fucking difficult.
What surprises me is that Mason doesn’t say my name in warning like they always do when they think I’m out of line. I don’t show it, but I’m happy he agrees with me.
Abbot stares down at me in silence for long moments, his eyes locked on mine. “I’m part of a drug enforcement task force in Oklahoma, specifically the northeast part of the state.
“The case I’ve been working on for the past two years involves drug smuggling across the U.S.-Mexican border. It started out small-scale about a decade ago but has grown exponentially.”
His eyes never leave mine as he continues. “A new player showed up a few years ago, and fentanyl deaths in the area have skyrocketed. He’s dangerous, and doesn’t care who livesor dies, as long as they don’t get in his way. I’ve been investigating the organization, and the men you witnessed last night, who are no doubt looking for you, are part of that organization. We were set up to apprehend them last night, to get intel from them.”
I knew this was serious last night, I watched a man get killed. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve replayed that scene in my head a thousand times since last night, pushing it away each time, but to listen to him spell it out, painting the danger in my mind, is making my heart beat against my ribs. The anger that was just making my head so hot minutes ago has evaporated like steam.
“Instead of getting the intel I desperately need, I had to stop them from getting to you. So, now I’m here to make sure you stay safe, and I can’t express enough how much I would like to transfer you to a safe place, not only for your safety but also for your family’s.”
