Lorenzo stood with his back against the wall, his hands up in a placating gesture, not even trying to deny it, which only made it hurt all that much more.
“Are you going to stop this?” he asked, giving Deven an exasperated look. “I’m frigging bleeding here!”
“Stop her? Are you kidding me?” Deven asked with a laugh. “I’m not the kind of brother who would stop her from killing you. I’m the kind who’s going to help her hide the body.”
Lorenzo looked stunned for all of a second before a hard knock at the door interrupted whatever he was about to say next.
Deven smirked. “Then again, maybe I won’t be the one helping to hide the body.”
Turning, he walked over to the door, opening it without even checking at the peephole, revealing an angry-looking Hale standing there in his SWAT uniform.
Karissa had no clue how Hale could possibly know to be there—at this very specific place and time—until she remembered the text that Deven had sent the moment they’d walked in the door. He’d obviously let Hale know Lorenzo was here, but had he also told him that she’d been tempted to violence every time her damn brother opened his damn mouth?
“Lorenzo,” Hale said, his voice calm as he walked into the room. “I can’t say I’m thrilled to see you, but I also can’t say I’m surprised. Having experienced your crap firsthand, I’m not shocked to see Karissa about to shove her sword through your chest. Though it does make me wish I’d waited in the hallway for a few more minutes.”
Karissa had no clue how her asshat of a brotherwould react, but she definitely didn’t expect him to violently shove her sword aside—especially at the cost of his own skin—and then charge straight at the man she was falling in love with.
Love?
Wait. What?
She was distracted from that stunning revelation by the sound of her brother shouting something ridiculous about this whole thing being Hale’s fault even as he was swinging a hard right hook at him, looking for all the world as if he intended to kill Hale.
The blow struck with a heavy thud, and Karissa took a quick step forward, prepared for the worst. But Hale barely rocked back on his heels, his head jerking to one side for a moment from the force of the impact before coming right back.
Seeing the complete lack of effect from his punch, Lorenzo tried again, this one heading straight for the center of Hale’s face, right at his nose, which he had broken the first time ten years ago. She moved toward them, sword coming up high, already knowing she’d be too late to stop the strike from landing.
The blow never landed though as Hale caught Lorenzo’s fist in midair, squeezing until Karissa could hear crunching. At the same time, Hale wrapped his other hand around Lorenzo’s neck, jerking him off his feet and thumping him back against the nearest wall.
“Stop it,” Hale said, bouncing Lorenzo off the wall again as he tried to punch him with his other hand. “I’m not a seventeen-year-old kid anymore and you don’t have your other two brothers here to help. So stop trying to take a swing at me. You’re only embarrassing yourself.”
Lorenzo had given up the struggle by the time Karissa reached them. Hale glanced her way for a moment before dropping her older brother back to the floor. Lorenzo pushed Hale’s arm away in a blatant attempt to recover his dignity, but it was pretty much a wasted effort.
“Okay, Lorenzo,” Karissa said, stopping to stand beside Hale. “You’ve delivered the message you were sent here to deliver, so you can leave now. Deven and I have a job to finish. What happens after that is completely up to me.”
Lorenzo opened his mouth to say something—that was almost assuredly asinine—but stopped himself at the look on her face. Not to mention the fact that Hale was still standing barely eighteen inches away from him and obviously ready to continue the fight if Lorenzo felt so inclined.
With a grunt of disgust and anger, Lorenzo shoved past both of them to yank open the door. Then he turned and glared at her.
“This isn’t over, Karissa,” he ground out, his eyes blazing with what almost looked like hatred. “You may think what happens is up to you, butthat isn’t true, especially after I tell our parents about this.”
He stormed out before she had a chance to respond, leaving her, Hale, and Deven standing there listening to his footsteps retreat down the hallway. Karissa had to fight the urge to chase after her brother and smack the stupid out of him.
Until Deven started chuckling.
“Did our brother—he of the manly law enforcement background—just threaten to tell Mom and Dad on you?”
Karissa considered that for a moment before she started laughing too. “Yeah. I think that’s exactly what he did.”
Chapter 21
“I should have said this earlier,” Karissa said, glancing over her shoulder at Hale as she led the way up the steps to the roof of the fancy hotel where Dominic Patterson was staying. “But I appreciate you not pounding my oldest brother into the ground like a fence post. I know firsthand how irritating he can be. Your restraint after getting punched in the jaw is commendable.”
Hale chuckled, taking a moment to admire the amazing bottom moving ahead of him. Damn, Karissa really did have an absolutely irresistible butt.
“To be honest, it took everything I had not to break your brother’s nose in repayment for ten years of not being able to smell bacon, cinnamon buns, or chocolate,” he finally said, dragging his attention to the top of the staircase and the sign there saying they’d reached the twelfth floor. “I held back more out of concern for the effect it would have on this thing between us than any qualms about hurting Lorenzo.”
Karissa threw another look over her shoulder at him. “If someone had kept me from smelling chocolate for ten years, a broken nose would be the leastof their problems. So again, I’m going to have to commend you for your restraint. And don’t worry, we’re good, regardless of what you do to my ass-clown of a brother.”
