Gunning for Trouble. HelenKay Dimon

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СКАЧАТЬ your phone?” he asked.

      When Avery didn’t answer, he turned around. She wasn’t there.

       Chapter Two

      Avery felt a rush of air behind her right before a hand clamped over her mouth and another slipped around her waist, banding her arms to her sides. A startled scream died in her throat as she was dragged out of the room and deeper into the shadows. The fog cleared from her head just as panic bubbled up from her stomach.

      The bare forearm and stone wall of a chest gave away the sex of her attacker. A man. A big man with a grip destined to leave indents on her skin. She kicked out her leg only to have his wrap around hers and lock it back. Her neck straining, she tried to get out a mumble over the shrieking building alarm, anything to warn Caleb.

      “Avery, I asked you…” Caleb’s comment faded as he scanned the room and his gaze fell on them. He reached for the switch and the overhead light flickered on.

      Despite having her chest compressed and her jaw locked shut by some animal’s fingers, her nerves stopped jumping around. Hearing Caleb’s voice didn’t send her spinning with relief, but it did bring back hope for survival. She knew him as a man who worked in a lab. This side of him, the part that felt at home with a gun and confident while engaging predators, was new to her, even though she always sensed that protective streak lurking beneath everything else. Heck, he didn’t even let the fact he was half-naked stop him.

      “Let her go.” He didn’t yell or threaten. Didn’t even raise his weapon.

      And that fast, the suffocating hold was gone. Off balance, she listed to the side only to have the attacker’s hand return again, this time to steady her. But it was too late for calm. If Caleb wasn’t going to shoot this guy, she would try to take him down. She turned and raised a fist to knock him into the fridge.

      The attacker caught her clenched hand in his but didn’t hurt her. “I don’t think so,” he said.

      She tried to think of another way to cause damage. “Who are you?”

      “The cavalry.” The man’s amused tone didn’t match the black commando T-shirt or stealth attack. Then again, neither did the boyish dimple or the wire-rimmed glasses.

      “He’s with me.” The second Caleb stepped up, the other man dropped her hand. The building alarm shut off right after.

      “Thank God. I can hear again.” The man nodded in Caleb’s direction. “Nice outfit, by the way.”

      Avery followed the stare as she tried to calm her breathing. Looking at the muscles stretching across Caleb’s bare chest sure didn’t help with that task. He hadn’t gotten soft in their years apart. If anything, he’d gotten more fit. She imagined this is what his body looked like back at the Naval Academy and in the years in the military that followed. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on his stomach.

      Those broad shoulders brought back memories. They would lie in bed with him hovering over her. She used to love to run her fingers over his skin, dip into the space between his collarbone and his neck, and then up and through his sandy brown hair. The man possessed the sexiest green-gray eyes she had ever seen.

      And a stubborn streak that made her head pound.

      “You got here fast,” Caleb said to the man who was obviously a friend and not an enemy.

      “Always nice when a contingency plan works,” the man said as he stole glances in her direction.

      When Caleb didn’t explain what was happening or even bother to act like standing there half-naked after his front door exploded was an odd thing, she took the lead. The way she figured it, she’d tolerated just about enough confusion for one evening. If her heart raced any faster, she was going to pass out. Last thing she needed was the show of male bonding, not with armed guys hunting for them only a few floors above.

      She looked up at the stranger. Caleb stood about six feet, but this guy had to be another three or so inches taller, so looking up was her only option. “Who are you?”

      Caleb placed a hand against the small of her back. “Avery Walker, this is Adam Wright. We work together.”

      Adam nodded his head. “Ma’am.”

      “You don’t want to know why I’m with Caleb?”

      She saw Adam swallow back a smile. “I figure if you’re here, it’s because he wants you to be. The rest isn’t my business.”

      “He’s the computer genius of the group,” Caleb said, cutting through the personal stuff.

      Adam scowled at Caleb but he missed it and Avery was too busy fighting off the flood of anger pouring through her. “Computers? Are you kidding? Felt more like you were the pain enforcer to me. You scared the he—”

      Adam held up his hands as if surrendering, even though he held a gun in one. “And you were a worthy adversary. If I hadn’t stopped you just then, we’d be picking my teeth up off the floor.”

      “We still might,” she mumbled.

      Adam smiled. “Fair enough.”

      She refused to be charmed or put off. Concentrating while Caleb stood there in his tight underwear was hard enough. “Anyone want to tell me what’s going on?”

      “Adam is with Recovery.”

      Adam’s shoulders tensed. “Caleb, what are you—”

      “She knows.”

      Adam looked back and forth between Caleb and Avery. “Not possible.”

      The poor guy looked ready to vomit, which she figured served him right after the squeeze play he put on her midsection. “Totally possible.”

      Caleb blew out a long, exaggerated breath. “Apparently it is.”

      She saw Adam’s hand shift toward his gun. She saw it and Caleb saw it.

      “Stop.” Caleb pressed his hands down as if trying to calm the situation. “Avery is safe. Trust me. I’m not worried about her alliances.”

      She had no idea what that meant but the whole talking-like-she-wasn’t-there thing wasn’t her favorite.

      “She does about Rod and Recovery.” She hesitated to make sure her sarcasm made an impression. “My question was really about why we’re in this condo and when exactly Caleb here had the time to call in the cavalry here.”

      He had the nerve to shrug. “We all have contingency plans in case of an emergency.”

      “I’m his,” Adam said.

      They acted as if that explained everything. “I still don’t get it.”

      “If the silent alarm trips—” Adam pointed to his watch as he spoke “—I come running. If Caleb isn’t here or on that fire escape, I know he needs help.”

      “You got here before we did.”

      “I live in the building and was already in СКАЧАТЬ