Page 42 of Lethal Beauty

I rolled my eyes, queueing up the motion cameras, rewinding a few seconds to see Oliver’s not-so-graceful climb over the back rock wall and fall into a heap into the yard. He stood, dusting off his pants and straightening his shirt before picking up the armful of dreaded red roses and gamely starting in the direction of the house.

Ignoring Brody’s curse of dismay, I chambered a round in my weapon. “You want to know how I’ve dealt with my crazy fans in the past?” I walked to the back door, elbowing him in the ribs—hard—when he tried to hold me back. Stepping out onto the patio, I took careful aim before pulling the trigger.

Red sprayed across the lawn as the bullet connected with the top of one rose.

“Jesus!” Brody said behind me, the same time as Oliver cursed and hit the grass with a dive that would have made a swan envious. He put his hands over his head, still holding the bouquet, trying his best to take cover on the open lawn.

“Oliver,” I yelled, stomping a few more feet in his direction. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to be more obvious since subtlety and kindness haven’t worked with you. I’m not interested in you. I don’t care about your family or your so-called devotion to me. You know absolutely nothing about me, apart from what any fan on the planet can find in an internet search, and even half of that is wrong. I’m not your soul mate. I don’t love you, and I can barely tolerate your presence, let alone look forward to any time spent together. I hate roses, especially red ones, and detest uninvited company. Your daddy is the only thing we have in common, and he’s about to become a memory when I tell him I will not renew my contract with Valencia.”

I shot again when he tried to pick his head up, another flower biting the dust as I blew it into a million pieces. “I highly suggest staying exactly in that position until the police come.” Sirens rang out from a distance, alerting me that the cavalry had arrived. “If y’all will excuse me, I need to check on dinner.”

I turned on my heels, ignoring Brody’s incredulous look as I swept by him, leaving him to deal with Oliver. Strolling into the kitchen, I pulled out my phone, opening the gate with a swipe of my finger to allow the police easier access. Though, it would’ve been entertaining to watch them try to climb the fence. Then I texted Matteo, who apparently had been watching the entire thing as soon as the alarm tripped. The asshole teased me for shooting harmless flowers but agreed to report what had occurred to my handler on my behalf.

Calls from my brothers started next, almost as one. Pulling the rice off the stove, I began fluffing it with a fork as I put my phone on speaker and group-dialed them all—figuring I might as well get it all done at once.

“All y’all need to take a breath.” I started before anyone could say anything. “I’m fine, Brody’s fine, the kid who jumped the wall in my backyard is fine, and no one got a scratch on them, apart from some flowers. The police are arresting Oliver now, Brody is overseeing them, and I’m trying to save my dinner while I wait for them to come in and take my statement.”

“We were told shots were fired,” Boone said, his voice booming over the line.

I winced, hitting the side button on my phone a few times so that I wouldn’t lose my hearing. “I may have gotten a little upset, but I think it speaks to my maturity that I didn’t wing him.” Someone snorted. I couldn’t tell who, but no one else commented, and I took that as agreement. It was a fact that if that had happened a few years ago, I probably would have shot him. Not to permanently damage anything, but sometimes seeing a small little, Band-Aid-sized wound that you knew could have killed you had it been aimed differently made a man think a little harder about their preconceived notions.

“If y’all are heading in this direction, please head to Gideon’s. I barely have enough veggie stir-fry for Brody and me. There is no way I can feed anyone else. As it is, I’ll have to give him all the Spam in it, just so I can feel like I fed him a proper meal.”

“Spam and veggies are a proper meal?” Royce asked.

“Is Spam even food?” Boone grumbled, but I ignored him.

“And rice. It has protein, vegetables, and a starch.” I couldn’t help but defend my pitiful dinner, though he had a point. “All the things a proper meal is supposed to have. I suppose serving it on paper plates is crass, but I refuse to do the dishes, and a good hostess shouldn’t allow guests to do physical labor while in their house.”

“I can do the dishes, and you had no such qualm about the physical labor we just did an hour ago,” Brody chimed in as he stepped into the room from the back deck.

The line was quiet for a second before Keene spoke. “Was that supposed to be a euphemism, or are you just trying to get all of us riled?”

“Both,” I said brightly. “And let me tell you, I don’t think I’ve ever had my clock cleaned as well or as often as—” They hung up as a unit, and I sighed. “I wish you hadn’t said anything. Now they’re going to come over here all manly and have to defend my honor for no good reason. All that chest-beating isn’t fun when eighty percent of the men doing it are related to me.” I wrinkled my nose. “Now, if some of your old marine buddies wanted to come over in their stead, maybe we can add a no-shirt clause.”

He raised his hand, cutting me off. “Cut the shit. You and I both know your brothers would’ve known we slept together in a heartbeat, and I respect them—and my friendship with Keene—too much not to be upfront about it.”

I sighed again. “I still wish you hadn’t done it. That was clearly a one-time thing. And now that Oliver the pansy is off the streets, little ol’ me is safe to live by her lonesome again.”

He smirked. “A one-time thing? You’re the one who mentioned we needed to increase our cardio.”

I leveled him with a look, plating up the food at the same time. “That was before you ruined my afterglow. I have a rule against having sex with buzz killers—before, during, or after.” Shrugging, I took a delicate bite of the mixture in front of me. “One of those sorry, not-sorry kind of things. A girl has to have standards, after all.”

He leaned forward. “I bet I can change your mind.”

Shaking my head, I stared directly into his eyes so he could read the truth in mine. “No, Brody, you won’t.”

I wouldn’t change my mind. Not because of the questions, at least, not because he’d asked them. But because I couldn’t answer them, and if he was going to be so pig-headed about knowing every little thing about me, even though I knew he couldn’t talk about his classified missions, then I didn’t have a choice. If Brody could have ignored the inconsistencies and been content in his ignorant bliss, then perhaps I could’ve kept him around for a while. But he wasn’t going to let it go. I knew he wasn’t.

Before he could say anything, a uniformed police officer knocked at the back door. At the same time, Gideon, Keene, and Boone came rushing in, with Royce a step behind them. “I’ve got the LEOs.Youget to handle my brothers.” I gave my pitiful dinner a wistful look. The only thing worse than eating vegetables was eating cold, soggy vegetables. I kissed my brothers, giving them each a hug before going out the back door with the officer. With any luck, I wouldn’t have to go to the police station.

Of course, I wasn’t that lucky. By the time my statement had been taken, they’d verified my gun ownership and given it back to me, and I had signed, posed for, and sweetened up the local law enforcement, several hours had passed.

Surprisingly, my brothers had left the station before I was released, leaving Brody his truck. He’d said little beyond giving his statement to the cops and barely grunted when I told him I was ready to go, escorting me to the passenger side door of his truck like a gentleman. The silence in the vehicle on the drive home was deafening. Normally, quiet was welcome, but the cold shoulder was making the ride a bit uncomfortable.

“Are you upset I stole your bodyguard moment?” I asked finally. Brody didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who needed to be the hero, but he was a former elite, a real-life hero in every way. Maybe I cock-blocked a glory moment? No, that wasn’t right—he wasn’t that kind of man. “Or are you mad I won’t have sex with you anymore?” That seemed slightly more likely. I knew I was certainly upset about that as well, but a girl had to make sacrifices in the name of protecting herself.

“You shot at someone tonight, Lessia. You could have killed that kid had he flinched in the wrong direction.” He practically bit the words out, stilling me in my seat. I’d never heard him that angry before.

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