TheFugitivesSexyBrother (3 page)

“Thanks. The vote of confidence means a lot to me. And I’m
sunk without your leads.” Emily drummed her fingers on the steps beside her,
then picked up her sandwich for another big bite.

After a minute, Neva cleared her throat and took Emily’s
hand. Her long, manicured nails dug into Emily’s palm. “Why
did
you take
this job?”

“I need the money, Neva. You know that.”

“I’ve heard you turn Guy down before when he offered you
bigger bounties. A lot of them weren’t half as dangerous as Bonavita and you
still wouldn’t take them. It can’t just be the money.”

A half-grin slipped through Emily’s guard. “Well, Matthew
was
really
pissing me off that day.”

Neva let out a laugh. “That’s all it took? I’ve heard Guy
practically beg you.”

Emily frowned. “Guy’s always had faith in me. He’s always
said I can. And I love him for it, don’t get me wrong. I think he’s a really
good man. But there are so many more people in my life who say I can’t. Matthew
is just the latest addition. And…I’m tired of it. Really, completely done with it.”

“That’s great, Emily. That’s what I mean when I say you’re
stronger than me.” Neva nodded, her approving expression firm. She reached into
her purse and pulled out an envelope.

Emily opened it and blinked. “Jeez, you’ve got everything
here except what color lunchbox he carries.” She paused on a picture—much more
flattering than the mug shot Guy had shown her. In a business suit that
strained to contain his muscles, Fernando Bonavita’s image provided another
sharp reminder of the emptiness in Emily’s bed.

“He’s cute, isn’t he?” Neva dissolved into giggles
immediately at Emily’s glare.

Emily rolled her eyes. “‘Cute’ is the last thing I need to
be thinking about my quarry.” She swallowed hard. “But yeah, he looks really
good.”

“Right?”

“There’s something about his eyes though. They’re too hard.
He looks too much like a killer. I couldn’t be with a man like that. And look
at that suit! Obviously he takes himself way too seriously.”

Her friend clucked her tongue. “You’re so picky!”

“Are you sure
you
don’t want to bring Bonavita in? I
hear the money’s good and I bet he’s a better date than our friend Matthew.”

It was Neva’s turn to roll her eyes. “Unlike you, I don’t
know the first thing about self-defense. But I think I’m earning my share,
right?”

Emily grinned back. Her afternoon suddenly looked a lot
busier.

Javier’s smart phone buzzed in his pocket. He paused his
video game and glanced at the screen. The vibration originated from the custom
application he’d written to monitor the motion sensors he’d set up around the
perimeter of Fernando’s house. Returning his attention to his computer, Javier
quit the game and pulled up a view of the exterior cameras.

A girl was crawling beneath Fernando’s hedge. Even with the
cameras, Javier would never have seen her if the motion sensor hadn’t
pinpointed her exact position. She held her body low, wore clothes that blended
in perfectly with the hues of the yard’s greenery, and moved slowly enough that
she wouldn’t attract the casual eye.

Game time.

Plans and strategies tumbled through Javier’s head, but he
remained still for a moment, frozen by discomfort. No jilted lover Javier could
imagine would act this way, approaching the house like a single-member SWAT
team. He squinted at the grainy image of her. He supposed she was a woman, not
a girl, but she was a slip of a thing. Her body seemed slight in comparison to
the thick, tawny hair bound at the back of her head. Skin only a shade lighter
than the hair peeked out of the camouflage clothes in a few places—Javier
caught a glimpse of a light-brown shoulder blade and the back of a thigh. He
remained glued to the screen, fascinated by her strange grace. She didn’t seem
like his brother’s type at all.

Javier cleared his throat, struggling again with suspicions
he didn’t want to acknowledge. But what harm could it do to play along? That
girl couldn’t hurt him, and more than anything he wanted to repay Fernando for
all the years he’d looked out for his kid brother. It wouldn’t hurt to earn
recognition as an adult in the process. Maybe if he could gain Fernando’s trust
he’d be rewarded with true explanations instead of obvious fabrications like
this one.

Javier glanced down at his clothes. He should really be
dressed as Fernando but hadn’t had the patience to wear suits when he didn’t
have to. He frowned at the image on the screen. He’d locked all the doors and
the ground-floor windows were sealed and made of shatter-resistant materials.
He had a minute before he had to decide his next step with the girl.

He went to the closet, stripping off his T-shirt on the way
and stepping out of his jeans. Fernando’s clothes hung a little loose on
him—their bodies were close, but the tailored touches Fernando had added
emphasized his thicker physique. Javier was slightly taller and slightly
leaner. He found a pair of dark-gray pants that fell far enough down on the leg
and looked okay in the mirror. Javier turned to the dress shirts and found
himself confronted with a dizzying array of fits and colors. How did his
brother deal with all this complication every morning? And why did he care so
much?

Javier shook his head at himself and reached for the nearest
one, only to freeze at the sound of Fernando’s
upstairs
bedroom window
sliding open. Had the woman really climbed up here in a matter of minutes? She
hadn’t been carrying any gear.

He shrugged on the shirt and stepped out of the closet,
still buttoning it. She stood just inside the window, her stance wary and her
eyes on the computer screen. Handcuffs and restraints swung from the belt loops
of army-green short-shorts. Her gaze flicked toward him, her blue eyes large
and bright against the sandy backdrop of her face. She wore no makeup, but a
generous scattering of freckles added plenty of interesting color and shape to
her features. A smile spread over Javier’s face before he could think the
situation through.

The interloper scowled in response, producing a can of mace.
“You think this is funny, Bonavita?”

Javier held up his hands quickly. He didn’t want to get
sprayed. But he couldn’t back down completely or the game would be up before it
had even begun. He imitated the cool confidence his brother always possessed.
“You wanted to see me so badly you couldn’t knock?”

Her frown deepened. “You watched me approach the house on
video monitors and decided to…change your clothes?”

“Couldn’t let you think I didn’t care about our date.”

She glanced at the monitors and shook her head, her lips
forming the word “stupid”. Javier cocked his head, but before he could ask she
brandished the mace more fiercely. “Take whatever weapons you’ve got and put
them on the floor.”

“What you see is what I’ve got.”

“Yeah, I’m going to believe that.”

Javier shrugged. “If you want to strip-search me, I won’t
stop you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Pig.”

“Then I guess we’re going to stand here all day.”

The woman sighed and set down the can of mace. Javier’s body
relaxed, but before he had a chance to enjoy it he was on the floor, the woman
on top of him. She couldn’t have weighed much, but she knew how to make her
body
heavy
. Her legs wrapped his thighs in an intimate hold that kept
him immobilized, and the blade of her forearm wedged under his chin threatened
his windpipe.

Javier gasped from the shock of his back crashing to
Fernando’s hardwood floor but recovered as quickly as he could. “Beds are much
more comfortable.”

“In your dreams, Bonavita.”

Moving with practiced confidence, she rolled Javier onto his
side without relaxing the strength of her hold. She snapped a set of handcuffs
around his wrists.

“Whoa, whoa. Baby, let’s talk about this.”

“Very funny. Like you don’t know why I’m here.” A light
layer of sweat had appeared along her neck. She smelled wild and powerful, like
leaves, salt and sun. Javier knew he should be more concerned about himself,
but he couldn’t get his mind off the idea of her lying on top of him for an
entirely different reason.

She returned Javier to his back, the position forcing his
cuffed hands to dig in to his spine. He curled up to remove the pressure, but a
sharply placed knee to his chest forced him back down and pinned him. “Woman,
you are serious.”

“Are you just figuring that out?” Her hands slid inside his
shirt. For one delicious moment, Javier’s eyelids fell shut and he shivered at
her touch. She stopped moving and he opened his eyes slowly to confront her
solemn stare. “You are enjoying this way too much,” she said.

If his hands had been free, Javier would have tried to enjoy
it a lot more. He’d forgotten how it felt to roll around with a woman,
forgotten the sensation of soft, warm flesh against his own. Sure, the
situation clearly meant serious trouble for Fernando, but Fernando wasn’t here,
was he? Javier felt wild and invincible. He grinned up at the woman. “How could
I not? Look at you.”

She glared, but her cheeks turned rosy, bringing out a
clearer view of her abundant freckles. “Wonderful. The first man to be stunned
by my good looks happens to be the most dangerous quarry I’ve had in years.”

Encouraged, Javier waggled his eyebrows at her. “I’m
dangerous, all right.”

The woman cleared her throat, shook her head and drove that
knee a little deeper into his ribs. “Look, just be quiet and let me do my job,
okay?”

She slipped her fingers into the waistband of Javier’s
pants, circling his hips and reaching behind his back. Her touch really was
getting to him, the distinct calluses on her fingertips somehow emphasizing her
femininity even more. No woman had touched him there since Terri and he hadn’t
realized how much he’d missed it.

She paused again, frowning, then reached into his pockets.

“It’s not in my pocket,” Javier said helpfully.

She made a frustrated sound in the back of her throat and
continued her search. “I know you’re handsome, but do you really think this
nonsense is going to get you anywhere? Just because I’m a woman, I’m going to
be totally overwhelmed by your hotness and forget that you’re worth fifty grand
to me?”

Fifty. Grand. Javier swallowed hard. The time for pretending
to believe Fernando’s lies about a jilted lover had long passed. “You think I’m
handsome?” He spoke lightly, his brain still working to come up with innocent
explanations for the substantial sum of money the woman claimed his brother was
worth. The erection stirring in his pants wilted as he considered the full
implications of the situation.

Meanwhile, the woman determined that his pockets were indeed
empty. She sat back on her heels, her shifting weight creating new types of
discomfort in his compressed chest and spine. “What really matters, Fernando,”
she said, “is that I think you’re evil.” She snapped another set of metal
restraints around his ankles, adjusting them to an uncomfortably tight squeeze.

“Evil?” Javier echoed. He blinked. He tried not to know the
details of Fernando’s activities, but he’d never heard whispers of anything
he’d consider evil. Drugs, yes, but he told himself Fernando sold to people who
would buy anyway. Maybe this woman had a strict view of the law? “Don’t you
think ‘evil’ is taking it a little far?” He attempted his best version of
Fernando’s charming smile.

“You think I can’t see through that, asshole?” She rolled
Javier onto his stomach and resettled her knee in the small of his back. She
jerked on the handcuffs, yanking his arms farther behind his shoulders. “Guys
underestimate me all the time, but I have to say, I’m a little insulted you
didn’t think it was worth carrying a weapon to defend yourself from me.”

“You think I would shoot a lady?”

She let out a small, disbelieving sound. Javier grunted as
she shifted off his back, gripped him by the hair and pulled him up to balance
on his knees. “I should slap you for that one.”

“What are you talking about? A man can’t have honor?”

“Not when he shoots a little girl.” She spoke between
gritted teeth, grimacing as she hauled him to his feet. It must have been quite
an effort, because Javier’s limbs went bloodless at her words. After a
fruitless struggle, she cursed and let him drop. Every bone in Javier’s body
felt the thud, but the physical pain didn’t register compared to the spinning
agony that hurtled through his insides.

“Sabi,” he whispered before he could control himself.

“Sabi? Who’s that?”

Javier shook his head, trying to roll away from the woman to
hide his face. He had trouble drawing breath, his chest had seized up so
tightly. If what she claimed was true, then everything he knew about Fernando
was wrong. The brother he’d loved and idolized his entire life—the man he’d
served blindly without regard to personal cost—was a monster he didn’t even
know. Javier pressed his face into the floor and groaned.

“Hey!” The woman tugged at him. “Hey, what’s your problem?”

This time Javier couldn’t avoid the details. With a shaky
breath, he gathered his scattered, confused thoughts and forced them into
silence. Twisting in his restraints, Javier hauled himself up and around to
face her, his body hunched and awkward in the pinching cuffs. “Tell me
everything.”

“What?” The woman bit her lip. “Listen, buddy, you’ll get
your trial. And you can talk to a lawyer. Skipping bail never looks good, but
the system is designed to be fair. I’m sure they explained all this to you when
they charged you.”

Javier shook his head firmly. “Please.”

She stared at him, then shrugged. “I don’t know anything you
don’t. You’re accused of shooting down a little girl in the course of gang
activity. My boss, Guy, bailed you out on condition you’d return for your court
date. You didn’t show, so Guy asked me to track you down and take you in.
Otherwise, he’s on the hook for half a million. It’s a pretty big deal.”

“You’re a bounty hunter.”

“What did you think I was? Your girlfriend?” She stood,
sighed and nudged him with a sneaker-shod toe. “What’s going on with you,
anyway? One second you’re making my job easy by acting like a total pig and the
next you’re all sick and green. Did I get you in the stomach by accident or something?”

Now that she mentioned it, Javier did kind of feel like
throwing up. He lifted his head, shaking a thick black lock of hair out of his
eyes to give her a clear view of his expression. “I’m not Fernando,” he said.
The words were a betrayal, he supposed, but Fernando didn’t actually expect him
to get hauled to jail in his place, did he?
You were supposed to try harder
not to get caught, moron.
Javier’s internal version of Fernando’s voice
never minced words.

The woman laughed. “Really? You’re going to try that one?”

“It’s the truth. I’m not Fernando. I’m his brother, Javier.”

“Give me one reason I should even entertain this.”

“Because I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to break into a house
and restrain someone the way you’ve done to me. Maybe bounty hunters have some
special dispensation for the people they’re looking for, I don’t know, but I
don’t think whatever immunity you’ve got extends to younger brothers who happen
to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

She paled and Javier knew he’d gotten to her. His moment of
triumph almost distracted him from her horrific revelations about Fernando’s
alleged behavior. Almost.

“Come on, surely you’ve got a picture of him.”

“The one I have with me is too small and blurry.” She paused
and sighed. “I’m going to have to take you with me.”

“What?”

“I can’t risk leaving you here while I go investigate, can
I?”

“What happens to your career when you take the wrong guy to
your boss?”

She swore under her breath. Leaning over, she wrapped her
arms around Javier again. “Come on. Get up.” She twisted his arm until he had
to stand to relieve the pressure.

A moment later, on his feet and panting, inches from her
sun-scented form, Javier’s body again responded as it would have to a lover. He
flushed, shuffling back to get a little distance from her distracting form.
“Let me go,” Javier said, “and I won’t make any complaints about what you’ve
done.”