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Tiffany got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach when the car she was tailing took an exit several miles west of downtown. Knowing this neighborhood had a bad reputation didn’t make her feel any better. She hit her door lock button as she continued her chase, zigzagging north and east, as they edged closer to downtown. She almost lost him more than once and was forced to run two traffic lights to keep up.
She worried that she was following too closely when he unexpectedly turned down a narrow alley between two warehouse-looking brick buildings. He finally stopped and parked close to the end of the building while she pulled to a stop at the end of the alley—as far away as she could while still keeping her eyes on him.
Even from this distance, her breath caught when she got a good look at him as he exited the sports car and headed to a door underneath an awning. He’d had the window down and he stopped to run his hand through his wind-blown shoulder-length dark hair just before using a keycard to gain entry to the building. She could hear the thud of the heavy steel door as it slammed shut behind him.
She waited a few minutes until she felt confident the coast was clear before driving her car up to park directly behind his BMW. Uncertain what she’d expected to find, she needed to investigate if she had a prayer of gaining entry to the building.
The only lettering on the door readTPP 7969. Of course, her attempt to open the door was met with resistance. She saw a keypad along with the keycard reader and spent a few minutes trying to guess the code.
She was about to get back in her car to drive around the building in hopes of finding another entrance when someone grabbed her from behind. Her attacker’s arms wrapped completely around her torso, trapping her arms at her sides and holding her back immobile against a rock-hard chest.
The girls had taken self-defense classes over the years. She was happy when her training kicked in, remembering to lift her high-heeled foot and stomp down on her attacker’s foot as hard as possible. This might have been an effective strategy had it met with any other pair of shoes in the city. Unfortunately, just her luck, her attacker was wearing steel-toed boots. All Tiffany managed to do was twist her ankle from the force of her failed defensive move.
“Ouch! Shit that hurts. Goddamn it, let me go! I’m going to call the police! Let me go!” She screamed, floundering to get free while trying to get someone to call for help. But she was in a sketchy part of town, down a deserted alley, and despite her attempts to wiggle free, her captor was just too strong. She fought like a she-cat until she finally ran out of strength, slumping against the muscular body behind her.
“Shhh. You need to settle down now, baby.” His voice was low, but demanding as he held her up.
Oh, my God! It’s him.
He answered almost as if he’d heard her thoughts. “I know… I’m like a bad penny. I just keep turning up.”
He didn’t release her. Instead, Markus’s friend buried his face in her curls. He took a deep breath, drawing in the scent of her hair. His lips brushed across her ear as he softly chastised her. “You don’t listen very well, do you? I distinctly remember telling you to go home and wait there for Brianna to call, yet here you are.”
A strange combination of relief and trepidation invaded her thoughts. An odd premonition warned her he might be more dangerous than some random hoodlum. She refused to show her fear.
“Let go of me and take me to Brianna. I know she’s here.” Tiffany tried to fling free of him, but his grip was too hard.
“Do you now? And what makes you think that?”
“Just the way you and Markus were talking. What is this place, anyway?”
Tiff could feel the outline of his hardening cock pressing into the small of her back. She should be pissed that she could feel him slowly grinding his hips to increase the friction between their bodies. Traitorous juices spilled into her panties. She needed to put some space between them if she had a hope of not embarrassing herself.
“I’m serious. You need to let go of me now.”
Without warning, he abruptly released her. Only too late did Tiffany realize just how injured her right ankle was from her earlier, failed defensive move. Without his stabilizing arms holding her up, she immediately toppled over when her injured ankle gave out on her. Only his fast reflexes stopped her from face-planting onto the dirty alley.
“Whoa there.” He tried to hold her again as she flailed around ungracefully.
Tiffany lifted her right leg to take her weight off of her pained ankle. She hopped around, trying to catch her balance until she found herself once again in his tight embrace–this time face to face. Was that concern in his green eyes?
She finally found her voice. “Thanks for catching me before I ended up on the ground.”
He held her steady while looking down at her feet. “How’s your ankle? Do you think you can walk on it?”
“I just need a few minutes. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Tiffany grimaced in pain as she attempted to put some weight on her injury, trying to evaluate how serious it was.
“So where are we and what does TPP stand for?” she asked as she tried to hobble on her sore ankle.
He chuckled mysteriously. “I’m not so sure you want to know the answer to that question, little girl. You know what they say—I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
His answer annoyed her. “Fine, then maybe we should start with something easier, like who the hell are you?”
The mystery man looked amused at her sassy response.
He waited long enough to answer that Tiff was beginning to think he was ignoring her.
“My name is Lukus Mitchell. I’m Markus’s best friend and old roommate from college. I own this building. It’s where my security firm is headquartered. It’s also where I live.” If that were true, having known Markus for three years, Tiffany was shocked that she hadn’t met him before. And she was certain they hadn’t met, because she would have definitely remembered meeting Lukus Mitchell if their paths had crossed before.
