Page 5 of Too Guarded to Love

Joe pulled his hat over his eyes and strode toward the rental car. “Problem?”

Nic pointed to the parking meter. “Yeah. Someone ran her⁠—”

Olivia shot him a glare. “I can speak for myself.”

Nic caught his friend’s “what did you say to piss her off” look from the corner of his eye. He ignored it and held Olivia’s gaze. “By all means, sirena, take the lead.”

As she huffed and turned to Joe, an alert sounded in his head. He thought his passphrase to accept the mind comms call, still incredulous VIPER’s scientists invented a way for the team to communicate through electrical brain impulses. “What’s up?”

“Drink my moonshine yet?”

Nic chuckled at Linc’s question. The moody pilot from Alaska had a wall around himself harder than both steel legs he’d gained after his fighter jet crashed. He wouldn’t offer heartfelt condolences. He lent support by sharing his cousin’s Alaskan moonshine.

“Not yet. Are you at headquarters?”

“Affirmative. We got out of a briefing about Richardson about an hour ago. Chris and Kane should be here any minute with pizza for poker night.”

Good. All his brothers were in one place and taking a well-deserved break. “Any updates on Richardson’s location?”

“No, Chris isn’t happy his wife’s stepfather—oh, and also her kidnapper— is still loose in the wild.”

“I’m not happy about it either.” After months of investigating, it was still unknown if the famous business mogul who plotted with terrorists to abduct Dr. Scarlett Kerrigan, the brains behind VIPER’s cybernetic technology, had escaped or was “rescued” during a prison transfer. Either way, they’d find him and throw his psychotic ass back in prison.

Or in a grave.

Even after they’d apprehended Richardson over a year ago, he still managed to terrorize from behind bars. The narcissist who thought he was a king because he had money and influence with the worst kind of people wouldn’t stop being a threat until he was dead. He’d already tried to bring VIPER down. He was still trying. They needed to find him, but right now, an immediate matter jockeyed for Nic’s attention.

He glanced at Olivia. Once he sent her safely on her way, he’d talk to his brothers about his suspicions regarding Stella’s death.

As if sensing his attention on her, Olivia tipped her chin in his direction. She shifted her weight, her muscular legs shaking in her sexy-as-sin boots. Damn, she must be freezing, but she hadn’t complained once. Even though the storm had calmed, the chill cut through his rain gear.

Stepping to her and Joe, he resisted the urge to pull her to his chest and tuck her head under his chin. She’d likely tell him in that self-assured twang she didn’t need protection from the elements. And he shouldn’t offer anything besides vehicular assistance, but today’s emotional blender had shredded his good sense to ribbons.

With a sigh, he tied up the tattered pieces of his defenses into a haphazard knot. It settled in his gut like a stone as he pointed to the car. “Let’s get that tire fixed.”

Joe cocked his head to the open trunk. “We can’t. There’s no spare. I’ll call a tow truck.”

Nic rubbed the base of his skull. The neurotransmitter implanted in his cerebrum buzzed under his skin. VIPER’s medical team couldn’t conclude why the tiny chip that networked his brain with his steel appendages vibrated when he sensed something off. The puzzling reaction was as annoying as it was accurate. A near hit-and-run, and no spare in a rental car that should have gone through a thorough safety inspection, didn’t feel like bad luck.

Olivia drifted toward the driver’s seat. “I’ll wait in the car until the tow arrives. Thank you for your help.”

Nic pointed to the small house across the street. Inviting a strange woman into his space, especially one whose troubles had followed her to the beach, was the opposite of keeping his defenses intact, yet he couldn’t wrangle his offer to shelter her from the storm any more than he could control the tides. “That’s one of Joe’s rental properties. I’m staying there for the night. You can wait inside where it’s warm and safe.”

“Thanks, but it will be warm and safe in the car when I turn on the heat.”

He tapped the rear bumper with his boot. “But not safe if someone hits you.” He didn’t offer to move the tail of the vehicle closer to the curb. One lift from his bionic arm would be all it took, but he couldn’t display the enhanced strength his steel possessed.

The public thought the Veterans Integration Placement Experimental Recovery program, a.k.a. VIPER, was created to place wounded veterans back into service jobs. Only a handful of people in the Department of Defense knew they weren’t “placed” on routine security detail. Even fewer knew “experimental” didn’t mean temporary. The recovery part was spot-on, though.

He rubbed the juncture at his hip where VIPER’s surgeons had seamlessly melded flesh and an indestructible alloy. That spot, along with his shoulder where man fused with machine, always ached in the damp. He could run for miles at a speed double that of the fastest human and not feel any discomfort. But figuring out how to stop his body from aching when the barometric pressure changed continually stumped VIPER’s geniuses. He’d endure the discomfort over the searing pain he felt in his shoulder and hip after waking from a nightmare any day, though.

Joe dipped his chin to the radio clipped to his shoulder. His brow furrowed as he listened to the dispatcher. “Ten-four.” He looked at Nic. “Pileup on the bridge. I need to head over there.”

“How bad?”

“A big mess, but no life-threatening injuries. Cleanup will take a while.”

“Good.” Joe didn’t need a front-row seat to more death today.