Innocent Next Door (Military Men Book 1) (22 page)

Dillon and Josh exchanged a glance.

Summer narrowed her eyes. “He stays with me. He’s seen me dress before.”

“I don’t think they want to hear that, sweetheart.”

“Fuck, no.” Dillon jerked his head toward the door. “Out, Tarei. You’re coming with us.”

“You do know Nikolai?” Summer glanced from brother to brother. Their hard faces gave away little, but she guessed they weren’t telling her something big. Fine. She’d worm the information from Nikolai the minute she got rid of her brothers.

Summer sat and made a show of grabbing the covers. The sheet slipped dangerously close to flashing her nipples.

“Aw, Summer!” Josh said, starting to back away. He grabbed his brother’s arm and yanked.

Dillon resisted until Summer made another move. “The kitchen in five minutes,” he ordered. “A second longer and we’ll come back and drag you out.”

Her brothers exited the room, their remarks to each other peppered with enough swear words it was a wonder her mother didn’t make an appearance with her bar of soap.

Summer scrambled from the bed and searched for clothes. “I don’t care what they said, I’m having a shower before I face them. And you are coming with me to explain what my brothers are talking about and why they don’t like you. The bathroom has a lock.”

Twenty minutes later, Summer sailed into the kitchen with Nikolai trailing her.

“Coffee?” she asked Nikolai.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t think you can waltz in here and act like nothing has happened.” Dillon paced the length of the kitchen like a big cat confined to a cage. “Mum’s not going to be happy when she hears.”

Fury made her jaw clench. “What? You gonna tell tales? It’s about time you all realized I’m an adult. I’m not a sickly kid anymore. And I’ll sleep with whomever I damn well want. If I want to sleep with an entire rugby team, then I will.”

“Over my dead body,” Nikolai snapped, curling a possessive arm around her waist and hauling her against his side.

“For that, we might let you live,” Josh conceded.

“But you can keep your hands off our sister.”

Nikolai didn’t appear perturbed by her brother’s posturing, so Summer allowed herself to relax a fraction. She was old enough to make her own decisions, and if some of them were wrong, they were her consequences to fix.
By herself
. She silently acknowledged her reckless streak, but she was working on that and trying to temper her reactions to new situations with thought first. Sometimes it worked.

Nikolai ignored her brothers and brushed a lock of hair from her face. He pressed a kiss to the spot of skin he’d uncovered and captured one of her hands to trace the fine skin at the inside of her wrist. “We’re engaged. We’re getting married.”

Summer was so busy concentrating on the fiery sensation racing from her wrist and down her body, she didn’t register his words at first.

“Married?” Josh glanced at Dillon.

Summer’s mouth dropped open. Had he said married? She thought they’d discussed that earlier and come to an agreement. About to argue, she decided silence might be the wiser course. A glance at her brothers and their silent communication confirmed this course of action. She’d take issue with Nikolai and his high-handedness later.

“That’s okay then.” Dillon’s grudging tone didn’t fit his words. “We’d better ring Mum and let her know the news.”

Okay, that did it. “I’m not marrying Nikolai.”

Silence fell, broken by the roar of the next-door neighbor’s lawnmower. Nikolai stiffened beside her, his hand gripping hers tightly. Dammit, enough. Time to pack a bag, call a cab and see if she could stay with Angel.

She wrenched her hand from Nikolai’s and stomped to the door. She flinched inwardly at the burst of angry heat caused by three big, bad SAS men glaring at her back.

Too bad.

They could settle their fight by themselves, and if they wanted to pound each other into the ground let them.

“Summer!” Nikolai roared.

“I’m fed up with you all shouting orders at me. I won’t marry you. You haven’t asked me.” Was it too much to ask for a little romance? When had proposing on bended knee gone out of fashion? Dammit, she wanted roses and sweet talk.

Summer kept walking and threw open the bedroom door. The rumpled bed reminded her of how good it felt when Nikolai was holding her, his cock tightly wedged in her pussy. Too bad memories would have to sustain her because she wasn’t putting up with commands. They might belong to the army, but she didn’t, and it was about time they remembered this fact.

Boots thundered on the wooden floor behind her. Great. The entire herd had come to watch her pack.
Fine
.

“Care to offer suggestions as to the best place to pack these, boys?” Summer held up the box of glow-in-the-dark condoms, with the label facing outward and clearly visible. Mrs. Ferguson would have been proud. She’d listened carefully during their marketing seminar.

Josh sniggered. “I wouldn’t wear those if you paid me.”

“He better have worn them,” Dillon growled.

Nikolai tensed noticeably and shot an irritable look at Summer. “I didn’t, which is why we’re getting married.”

“Bastard.”

Dillon and Josh rounded on Nikolai. A fist flew. She wasn’t sure which brother the punch came from but it connected with Nikolai’s jaw. Before she knew it, fists were going in all directions along with realistic crunches and spurts of blood.

“Stop it!” She threw the box of condoms at Dillon’s head. Green foil packets rained down, landing all over the floor. Something else to throw. She grabbed the nearest thing to hand. The fly-fishing book. She heaved at Josh. Bull’s eye! The book hit the back of his head, bounced off and thumped to the floor while she searched for another missile.

At a loss, she glanced back in time to see Nikolai clip Dillon’s jaw with a well-directed punch. Dillon’s head snapped back. He dodged to avoid a second punch, and his foot landed on the book. It skidded from under him, but Dillon balanced like the panther he resembled and kicked the fly-fishing book aside. It crashed against the wall.

The book.

Something to heave at her brothers again. When she scooped it up, a tightly wadded piece of paper fell from the damaged spine. Sudden excitement pounded through her. A reason Dare wanted the book. “Nikolai!” she shrieked.

The three men ignored her cry. Nikolai took a blow in the stomach, roared and came up swinging his fists. Dillon ducked, stepped back and bumped Josh. Josh dodged but collided with her. She squeaked in alarm as they fell to the floor in a tangle of limbs and a loud thump.

“Get off me, you great big oaf!” She pushed at her brother, but he was slow to move and felt like a giant sack of potatoes draped across her chest. “Can’t breathe.”

“Get off her, dammit.” Nikolai came to the rescue.

Seconds later, the weight lifted from her chest, and Josh thumped onto the mat beside the bed.

“You okay, sweetheart?” He helped her sit up and brushed her hair from her eyes. “Do you need your inhaler?”

“Inhaler? God, Summer. You haven’t used your inhaler for over a year,” Dillon said.

“No, I’m fine. Josh knocked the wind out of me. Is he okay?” She peered past Dillon’s worried face to study Josh who was rubbing the side of his head in a groggy manner.

“Nah, he’s got a hard head. He’ll be fine,” Dillon said. “I’m more worried about you. I thought you’d grown out of the asthma attacks.”

“Dillon, for the last time, I’m fine. If or when I’m not feeling well, I’ll take myself off to the doctor. I don’t need my family treating me like a baby. Nikolai, look what fell out of the book when the spine broke. I didn’t think of breaking the binding.”

“We’ve got more important things to worry about than a damn book,” Dillon said.

“Summer is in—”

Summer placed a hand on Nikolai’s shoulder and squeezed hard. “I’ll tell them since it was my fault. I’ve got myself in a spot of trouble—”

“Why didn’t you call us instead of him?” Josh climbed to his feet and rubbed his head. “We’re family.”

“She came to me,” Nikolai snapped.

Summer drew in a sharp breath, and warmth tugged at her heartstrings. Maybe there was hope for this particular big, bad SAS man, if he thought of them as a unit. She pulled a face. No, not a unit. That smacked of army and military. Team? No. Perhaps couple. Shying from the idea, even though it made her warm and tingly inside, she unfolded the tightly wadded up paper.

Marina, berth C49, Seraphina.

Summer frowned. That was it?

“What trouble?” Dillon demanded.

“This is an address for a marina. Weird. Why hide it in a book? Why not email or phone?”

“Summer, what trouble?” Dillon thundered.

She bit her lip. “I met a man and—”

Dillon sliced a black glower in Nikolai’s direction. “Him?”

“Will you let me finish? Five minutes tops. Then you can do your shouting. More impact that way.”

“Mum was too lenient with you,” Josh said. “Should have paddled your backside.”

“Nope,” she said. “The only one who gets to do that is Nikolai. Do you want me to tell you or not?”

“Continue,” Nikolai said, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “About the clotheshorse. Not the other. We’ll discuss that later.”

Summer brightened. “Tonight?”

“Enough,” Dillon snapped.

Summer bit back the building grin. Her big brother looked distinctly uncomfortable, but he was playing dumb. She made a mental note to use the ploy as a distraction again.

“Yeah,” Josh sniggered. “I’m thinking this discussion doesn’t have much to do with punishment.”

“I met Dare Martin, and we went out together a few times. When I started getting serious about Nikolai, I tried to break it off with Dare. It was strange,” she mused. “He’s not stupid but he acted thick as a plank of wood when I tried to end things. He asked me out for dinner.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Nikolai said.

“He knew I used to visit the same bookshop he patronized, and when he asked me to pick up a package of books for him now and then, I didn’t think anything of it. But one night, I opened his package of books. The title was a duplicate of the first one I received by mistake. That’s how we met,” she added. “I thought it was strange so I found another copy and exchanged them. Then the owner of the bookshop was found murdered. The police are calling it a robbery gone wrong. I think it had something to do with me exchanging the books. Dare wanted this message.”

Josh groaned long and theatrically. “Jeez, Summer. Why didn’t you just go and stick your hand into the lion’s mouth?”

Irritation bloomed without warning. “Shut up, or I’ll give you a matching lump on the other side of your thick head. I agree it wasn’t the wisest course of action, but it’s too late now. I need help, not ‘I told you so’.”

“Why didn’t you control her?” Dillon growled at Nikolai.

“Excuse me?” Nikolai straightened. “We are talking about Summer.”

Dillon glanced at his sister and shrugged. “Point taken. So, what do we do now?”

“I’ve already spoken to the police,” Nikolai said, tugging the paper from her hand. “Jake’s brother is a cop. I’ll take the book and the paper to him. My guess is that his communication is being monitored and this is a way to get information under the radar.”

Dillon nodded.

Josh grunted his approval.

“What are we talking about? Drugs?” Summer scowled. As usual, they were treating her like a child, patting her on the head and expecting her to go along with their plans. Her mouth tightened to a mutinous line. “I’ll go to the police with you. They’ll want to talk to me.”

Nikolai frowned at her. “No, it’s too dangerous.”

Dillon and Josh repeated their nods and grunts of endorsement.

Summer huffed and went back to her packing. Ignoring the big, bad SAS men, she picked up the green foil packets and tossed them into her overnight bag. She crammed in her clothes and stomped down the hall to the bathroom to collect her toiletries.

Somehow, without saying a word, Dillon and Josh had gotten to Nikolai, and he was backing off. She wanted to curse. She wanted to screech. Instead, she did nothing and concentrated on packing.

“Good,” Dillon said. “I’m glad you’re packing. You can come with us.”

Summer stilled. “Where?”

“We’ll go to Uncle Henry’s for tonight and back to Eketahuna tomorrow. You should be safe there.”

“What about my job? If I leave, I won’t get my certificate.”

“You can do it another time,” Dillon said.

Summer sucked in a deep breath, ready to hurl a curse or two. Her job was important. She might not make world-altering decisions or save lives like them, but she made people happy. She glanced at Nikolai, half expecting him to protest, but the stupid man didn’t utter a word.
Fine
. Now she knew where she stood in his list of priorities.

* * * * *

Prison must feel like this.

Her two brothers hovered her while she watered Uncle Henry’s rose garden. They tensed at the purr and rumble of each car and made a nuisance of themselves until she wanted to scream. Frustration simmered as she turned off the water and rolled up the hose on Uncle Henry’s special stand.

“I don’t think you should see Nikolai again,” Dillon said without warning.

Even though she’d expected this, her brother’s words still riled her, stoking her slow-burning anger. “It’s none of your business. I wouldn’t think of telling you not to go out with Suzie Daniels when you’re at home on leave, even though she’s a gossip and jumps into bed with Tom McPherson the minute you leave town. Nope, wouldn’t even consider telling you that.” She turned her back on her oldest brother and came face-to-face with Josh’s smirk.

“Help me out here,” Dillon snapped. “You tell her since she won’t listen to me.”

The humor dropped from Josh, leaving an image of what he must look like in soldier mode. “Dillon’s right. There are things you don’t know about Tarei. Go home and date one of the boys there. I’m sure you’re not lacking for offers.”

“You’re treating me like a defenseless child. None of you will tell me what happened with the police and the note. I’m tired of it. I am an adult. You can’t stop me dating Nikolai.” Rant done, she stormed inside, sensing rather than hearing her brothers follow. They weren’t the only ones in trouble. Nikolai wasn’t talking either.