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Ella
Ella grabbed Linc’s hand into her own. Ethan was right—Linc couldn’t go home. “I know that this statement is going to come back to bite me in the ass, but Ethan’s right. You can’t go home, Linc. It’s just not safe.”
“I’ll be fine,” he assured. “Besides, what are the chances that the guy who broke into my place will double back? I’m sure that it was just a random break-in, and I’ll be just fine.”
“You can’t be serious,” Ethan growled. “You know how many people would love to take a shot at either of us. We dismantle companies for a living. People get fired and they blame our company for their former boss’s idiot decisions. We have a shit ton of enemies, even if you don’t want to admit it, Linc.” Ella had done a little bit of research about their company when she installed Ethan’s security system. She was hoping that he’d hire her to do his corporate security too, but she was still waiting. According to what she’d learned about Linc and Ethan’s firm, they went in as a company’s last chance to stay afloat, but it usually didn’t work out for the business that was in trouble. They’d help them redistribute and even sell off assets, but when they had to shut down, they’d lay off employees and she was sure that they made their fair share of enemies. Nailing down the person who broke into Linc’s place earlier was going to be more difficult than she had previously thought.
She pulled her hand free from Linc’s, knowing that she was wearing a pout. “I thought that you were going to hire me to handle your home security,” she said.
“I did—or at least, I’d like to,” Linc admitted.
“Well, as your new security detail, I can’t let you go back to your penthouse tonight. The place needs to be gone over by my team. I’d like to dust for fingerprints, to see if any were left behind. I’d also like to go over what security you have in place and decide what you’ll need for the future. If you go home now, you’ll mess up my whole plan and I can’t promise to keep you safe.”
Linc chuckled, “I think that I can keep myself safe,” he assured.
“Sure, like you did earlier tonight?” she asked. “How did you do staring down the barrel of a gun?” she taunted.
Linc’s scowl covered his gorgeous face and she almost felt bad for what she had just said. “You don’t play fairly, do you, Ella?”
She shrugged, “I try to, but I won’t sugar coat things for either of you,” she said, looking between them.
“We wouldn’t want you to either,” Ethan assured. “How about we go back to my place for the rest of the evening?” he asked. “That way, we can pick up where we just left off.” Ella had to admit, that sounded like a damn good plan to her. It had been so long since she had sex and the two of them together were incredible. She’d like a repeat performance if they were offering.
“This is ridiculous,” Linc said. “I’m sure that whoever broke into my place won’t be back tonight.”
“You can’t be certain of that,” Ella insisted. “How about if you agree to stay at Ethan’s tonight, I’ll spend the night too? We can have some more fun and get to know each other better,” she said. Ella wasn’t sure if that would be enough to have Linc agree to stay with Ethan, but she had to try. Letting him go back to his place with a burglar still on the loose was a bad idea. As his new head of security, she couldn’t allow it.
Linc looked between Ethan and Ella and for a split second, she worried that he was going to give them more of a fight. “You’re right,” he breathed. “It’s not safe for me to go back to my place tonight. Besides, I love Ethan’s place,” Linc said, grabbing Ethan’s hand into his own. Ella was sure that she’d never get tired of watching the two of them together. The way that they kissed each other was so passionate and almost raw, she couldn’t wait to see them do it again. Ella never really imagined being with two men but being with the two of them while they were also together, was the hottest fantasy she never knew she wanted to be a part of.
“I love having you at my place, Linc,” Ethan gushed.
“Jesus, you two are a hot mess,” Ella teased. “How about we get a move on. It’s almost sunup and I need a least a few hours’ sleep before I head over to Linc’s place to scope it out.”
“I can go back to my place with you in the morning if you’d like,” Linc offered.
“Um, no,” Ethan cut in. “You can’t because we have meetings. I need you in on a few of them. Are you okay with going over to Linc’s place on your own?” he asked.
“She can’t go in there by herself—it’s not safe,” Linc growled.
Ella couldn’t help but giggle at his statement. “You do know what I do for a living, right?” she asked. “I think that I can handle a bit of danger, Linc.” She certainly had the background for it.
“Let’s head out,” Ethan ordered. She grabbed her stuff and stepped onto their private elevator, flanked by both guys on either side of her. “We’ll take my car,” Ethan said. “You can grab your cars in the morning.” Ella didn’t argue with him. She was too tired to insist on driving and Linc looked just about as tired as she felt.
“You don’t live far from the office if I remember correctly, do you?” she asked Ethan.
“Nope,” he said. “Just a few minutes. It’s one of the reasons why I bought my place. I didn’t want a long commute and this place certainly allows for that.”
Linc looked over his shoulder and smiled at her. “How did you get involved in the security business?” he asked.
“It’s kind of a long story,” she admitted.
“Well, how about the abridged version then?” he asked.
“I kind of stumbled into it, really. I graduated from high school and went to college, just as I was expected to, but I hated it. I didn’t want to go to school and when I finally told my father that, he told me that I either needed to be a full-time student or get a full-time job and pay rent. Otherwise, I could find another place to live. So, I did—the military put me up on base and when I got done with boot camp, I was deployed.”
“You were in the military?” Linc asked. She knew that Ethan already knew most of her story. He admitted to researching her when he hired her to do the security in his penthouse.
“I was in the Army,” she admitted. “I served four years and got shot in the left shoulder. I put in for honorable discharge and it was granted. I spent three months rehabbing my arm and when my father started bitching about me getting back out into the world and figuring myself out, I decided to join the local police department. Of course, I had to go to the local academy for six months, since they didn’t recognize my time in the military as training for what they had planned for me to do. I hated having to go through that, but I did it, just to prove to my father that I could find my way after leaving the military.”
