Page 2 of Wicked and Claimed

She was vaguely aware of his thick-soled boots crushing the screen of her cell phone into shards of glass and plastic. Then everything went dark as her assailant hauled Kaylee out a rear service exit and threw her into the swallowing void of an unmarked van idling in the shadowy alleyway while her mother waited in the food court for a daughter who would never return.

CHAPTER ONE

New Year’s Eve

Lafayette, Louisiana

Amidst the revelers at Highrise, Nash Scott stood, beer in hand, a blonde under his arm, getting ready to ring in the new year, when the hair on the back of his neck rose. He stiffened. Goose bumps erupted across his skin.

Someone had eyes on him.

He’d spent too many years dodging bullets and hunting terrorists in third-world shit holes not to heed his instincts.

But this warning wasn’t about danger—unless it was to his heart.

“What’s wrong?” his older brother, Trees, demanded, scanning the nightclub like a man who had spent his life taking down enemies for God and country. He tucked Laila, his wife and the mother of his four children, protectively against his side. Then his gaze snagged on something that made him scowl. “Holy shit.”

The band announced they were taking a break. People chatted and clinked glasses, brushing past Nash in the crowd. The activity hardly registered. His earth stopped turning. His life stopped moving. His heart stopped beating.

Without turning to see for himself, he sensedher. He swore he could fucking hear her breathe. He inhaled her musky amber-rose scent he’d know anywhere. His cock hardened to steel.

His date, Lissa, turned and searched the room before frowning blankly. “What?”

Nash couldn’t respond to the blonde. “She’s really here?”

Trees nodded. “About twenty feet behind you. What do you want to do?”

Was his brother asking if he wanted to leave? Hell no. Haisley Rowe had left town two interminable years ago. So why had she shown up here? Tonight? No clue. But he was staying to get some long-overdue answers.

He wasn’t desperate to touch her again. At all.

After nearly a year of…whatever their relationship had been, she had left him with the briefest of goodbyes. No explanation, no fuck you. She’d just…gone. He’d spent six celibate months vacillating between craving her and hating her. The other year and a half, he’d tried to fuck her out of his system—when he wasn’t staring like a schmuck at the engagement ring still nestled in the velvet in the box he’d never had the chance to give her.

“Who are you talking about?” Lissa demanded.

The pretty blonde at his side was used to being pursued. There was hardly a red-blooded man in Lafayette who didn’t want to nail her, and she was notoriously choosy. But he hadn’t worked particularly hard to persuade her to spend New Year’s Eve with him. Strike one. He hadn’t taken her somewhere fancy. Strike two. Now that another woman had stolen his attention? He didn’t have to guess where that left him.

He didn’t give a shit.

Nash uncurled his arm from around her shoulders, swallowed back the last of his beer, and tried to wire his shit tight.

He’d waited—fantasized—about his chance to lay eyes on Haisley again. He’d even made a list of everything he intended to say. Now that she was so close, he felt annoyingly stunned, tongue-tied, and blank.

“I don’t think she’s seen you yet,” Trees assured. “Oh, wait. She just did.”

Nash knew the instant Haisley looked at him. Fresh awareness sizzled across his skin. Knowing she stood mere feet away was like a double shot of Red Bull to his libido.

Fuck, Haisley had always gotten to him, from the moment they’d met at his brother’s wedding. Despite the years and the hurt, he’d been bullshitting himself. Nothing had changed. He was still as hung up on her as ever. He’d give anything to touch her again.

Goddamn it.

“Are you seriously focused on another woman right now?” Lissa barked. “Um, hello. I’m standing right here.”

His behavior was rude as hell, but was lying to her about his interest really better?

“Is she coming this way?” he asked his brother.Or is she leaving again?

“Nope. She’s just hanging out with some of those girls who attended our wedding.” Trees turned to Laila. “Remember?”

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