Dangerous Tease (The Layton Family 3)

“Shut up, Sam.”

His hazel eyes widened and his shoulders sagged. The idiot thought she was going to kick him to the curb.

“The only thing I thought about while I was on the run was doing whatever it took to keep them away from you. That was the most important thing in the world to me.” The light from the heat lamps surrounding her bed turned his hair into the color of a hot July sunset and she wished like hell she could touch him.

Before he could say anything, the door slammed open.

Cy, dressed in head-to-toe black, took up almost the entire space. A petite woman stood just behind him.

“Hey there, little brother.”

Cy strode into the room, stopping just shy of Sam, who quickly stood up. Not bothering to look at the other man, Cy kept his focus on her and completed a slow perusal of her battered body, taking stock of each minor scrape and major injury. By the time he reached her toes, an angry flush burned in his cheeks. The brunette slipped her hand into Cy's and squeezed.

“I'm going to kill that shithead Snips,” he bit out.

“He's down the hall with a police guard in front of his door, but I wouldn't bother. The doctors don't expect him to pull through.” Josie shrugged her shoulders, the small movement sending waves of pain rippling through her body. “Anyway, you'll have to stand in line behind Sam and me to get a crack at him.”

At this, Cy turned his attention toward Sam. He puffed out his chest and took half a step closer. “My sister is in this hospital because of you.”

Sam said nothing but the vein in his temple went into overdrive.

A heat wave swept through her body. “Cy, that's not fair.”

“Not fair?” he roared. “You almost freeze to death while this yahoo and his brother meandered about. Hell, if they hadn't lucked into finding Snips' car, you'd be a block of ice by now.”

“Stop being an asshole, Cy—”

“No, he's right.” Sam turned his hazel gaze on her. “I failed you.”

An ache started in her chest, making her throat close and her eyes water. If someone had ripped out her lungs from her chest, Josie couldn't have hurt more than she did at that moment.

When she opened her mouth to speak, he stopped her with an upraised palm. “Let me finish.”

She nodded, her heart fluttering.

Sam glanced at their company and the tips of his ears turned magenta. He drummed his fingertips against the outside of his thighs and chewed his bottom lip before refocusing all his attention on her. The self-conscious tension melted out of his shoulders. “You are exactly what I never realized I needed in my life. You're fun and adventurous and you wouldn't know how to go along to get along if you had an instruction manual. You make me want to be a better man. The kind of man who deserves you.”

The ability to form words deserted Josie and she stared dumbfounded at him. She needed to say something—anything—but her mind had gone completely blank.

“I'll leave now.” A wicked look darkened Sam's eyes and he smirked. “But I'll be back.”

He leaned down and brushed a feather-light kiss across her lips, then straightened and headed out the door. His footsteps on the linoleum floor kept time with the EKG monitor until the sound disappeared completely, leaving her listening only to the erratic beat of her own heart.

“Well, that was way too touchy-feely for my taste,” Cy said.

Josie relaxed her head back into the thin pillow, feeling about fifteen degrees warmer than she had a few minutes ago. “Shut up, Cy.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but the woman at his side quieted him with another squeeze. He looked down at her and his expression shifted from annoyance to something much softer.

The other woman approached her bed, a kind smile dominating her heart-shaped face. “I'm so sorry to meet you under these circumstances. I'm Marlene Truss.”

Everything clicked together. “The governor's daughter?” Cy had told her in Vegas he was protecting the governor's daughter from an assassination plot by the Callandriello family.

“Yes. If I'd have known everything that had happened was putting you in danger, I never would have let Cy come with me.”

“Like you could have stopped me.”

Marlene pushed her dark bangs from her face and stared up at Cy with her hands on her hips. She didn't say anything. She didn't have to. Cy, who stood at least a foot taller and was a hundred pounds heavier, grimaced and turned his attention back to his sister.