His Secret Child (Slade Security Team 2)

“No, more like thinking most folks don’t fight hard enough to hang on to what they have. Tayra could have fought harder, but she didn’t. I still don’t really know why she bailed on Brock, but I do know she couldn’t be talked out of it.” That was all he wanted to say about it.

Bethany turned and pulled two mugs down from the cupboard. She set them down with a sharp clink on the tile counter. “My own folks should have divorced and didn’t. They hung on all right—till the bitter end. We had the police over about once a month when the arguments got loud enough. Our folks never had time for us—they were too busy fighting. For Tayra, it left her hungry for attention, and not always in a good way. I buried myself in computer code. Sometimes I wonder if all of that left Tayra hating any kind of confrontation. She’d always rather bail on a boyfriend instead of standing her ground and having a fight about anything.”

“But not you?” Slade asked. He heard what she wasn’t saying—how she came out of it just as much a fighter as her folks.

She turned away, pulled open the fridge door, and took out half and half. “How do you take your coffee?”

Slade was starting to think she was better than he was at ducking personal questions that cut too close to the truth. He picked up a cup, held it smooth and cool in his hand. “Black’s fine.” She poured it and used both hands to hold the pot steady. The steam and aroma reached him, and his mouth watered. There were few things better than that first cup of coffee in the morning. Bethany bit her lower lip as she poured, and Slade’s thoughts went back to that kiss. Okay, so that was better.

He wanted to kiss her again—kiss her senseless, leave her eyes darkening with passion, and empty her mind. He wanted to drag off that shapeless T-shirt and see what she looked like naked, and fit his palms over her breasts. He wanted to smell her and taste her.

But none of that would be smart.

The tears could be an act—the timing was about right to hook him in with the poor female who needed a strong shoulder to cry on. She could play him now for a fool who could be won over with sex, and she’d probably be able to pull that off. He’d always been a sucker for damsels in distress. Besides, get any guy cranked up and his mind ended up down in his pants. Slade was still half hard from that kiss. He still wanted more from her. He had to be careful. She was beautiful dynamite.

She poured her own coffee, added a large dollop of cream, stirred in two sugars. He smiled. “Take a little coffee with your cream?”

She leaned a hip against the counter. “Let’s say I take you up on your offer. I…I have to tell you, my love life’s been dismal over the last few years, and completely non-existent over the last few months. I’m attracted to you. I’m not going to be coy about that. All of that means I’m not sure how smart it is to let you stay around.”

“I’m too much temptation?” Slade asked. He couldn’t keep the humor out of his voice.

Bethany nodded. “Something like that. But…Jason likes you. And you’re not wrong about him needing a role model of some kind. However, if this is part of some plan to get him away from me—”

“You’ll rip off my head and let Jason use it for batting practice?”

She smiled. “Something like that.”

“Great.” He lifted his coffee to her. “Sounds like we’ve got everything all worked out.”

Chapter 7

Bethany replayed Slade’s words in her head, over and over again, as she sat at her computer, staring at the code she was wo

rking on. Or rather, not working on. She was working on her own project right now, something that would identify if any tracking program was being run on anyone’s phone.

The program would then send back a series of signals, causing the files that had originated from the phone or computer to destroy themselves. She wanted to get this done and put it out as freeware for anyone who wanted privacy to be able to have it. But without a hard deadline, she had no reason to pull late nights working on it. No reason to send Slade away.

Was she wrong about this idea of letting Slade stay? Had one kiss left her wanting too much more from him?

She gave a sigh. Slade was out now, buying supplies he’d said. “If I’m staying, I’m eating. I’m also not a bad cook, so we can share the burden,” he’d said.

She’d tried to argue with him, but it was useless. She had a feeling he won most arguments simply by being a stone wall that you couldn’t get around.

In the background she could hear Jason, playing his video game on the Wii. The game made soft pinging sounds, played bright, happy digital music. Tayra had been strict about that—no TV, no violent video games, and only an hour on weekends playing with his favorite games. Bethany wasn’t going to begrudge Jason a little fun right now.

She leaned her head back and wondered what it was that Slade wasn’t telling her about why he was here. From the way he’d spoken, there had to be more to it than just him being here for a friend—a man who was like a brother to him. She had to admit that was half the reason she’d let him stay. She wanted to know more about Slade—including if that was the only name he’d had.

Exiting out of her program, she pulled up a browser and went online. She’d done some research on Slade Security when she was looking for information on Tayra’s ex, but she’d focused more on Brock Wells. Now she tried to dig into Slade.

She didn’t find much. Slade—first name Jenson—was ex-military, former SEAL. He had a Master’s in political science, which was impressive. His firm was one of the top security companies in the world, but she’d already known that. His company didn’t list clients, and that wasn’t surprising—security meant you didn’t talk about secrets.

She had the impression that Slade was very good at keeping secrets. She couldn’t find anything about his personal life. No Facebook page, no listing of relatives, no background on him. Either he kept his digital footprint small or he—or someone else—had worked hard to scrub out his background so he could stay low profile.

Trying another angle, she searched for Tayra. She’d never really done that before—she’d had no need to find her sister since they were already close. Wedding pictures popped up, along with all of Tayra’s school information. Bethany saw a blurry image of Slade in the background at the wedding—it had been a rushed affair and Bethany hadn’t been able to attend. She’d been on deadline and Tayra had asked her to be a bridesmaid a week before the wedding. Bethany bit down on her thumbnail.

Had that been the mistake Tayra had made—rushing into a marriage? But she looked so happy in her wedding photos. The radiant bride. The image blurred. Bethany wiped her eyes. She didn’t know why Tayra’s marriage had failed, except she was sure Tayra had been more in love with finding a hero to save her than she was with finding a man who could be a partner to her.

A hollow tapping interrupted her meandering. She hit the button to put her computer to sleep and glanced at the doorway. Slade stood there.