His Innocent Lover (Slade Security Team 3)

“I’ll try—”

“Don’t try. Do!”

Travis let out a breath. “Fine. But you damn well owe me for this.”

***

Trent raced into the condo five minutes later to see Travis standing in the living room, a towel wrapped around him.

Travis held up his hands. “She’s still in the bathroom. Along with my clothes. She won’t throw them out to me. She won’t even talk to me. Frankly, right now, if you’ve got a live grenade, I’d rather deal with that.”

Shaking his head, Trent narrowed his eyes. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that my place is an hour away with good traffic and yours isn’t. Why the hell didn’t you tell her you had a brother?”

Sighing, Trent headed for the bathroom. He knocked once and then he tried the door, thankful that she hadn’t thought to lock it. “Chloe?”

He stepped inside. She sat on the toilet, hunched over. She’d dressed but she also had his navy-blue towel draped over her.

She looked up at him. From her red-rimmed eyes, he was going to guess she’d been crying. “Hey now! I’m sorry you didn’t find me in the shower. That would have been a very welcome surprise. But no harm done.”

Lower lip trembling, she stared at him. “I didn’t even know you had a brother. He looks just like you! Except for that…that…” She gestured to her forehead.

“Good thing you noticed that.” He stepped closer.

“Don’t you come near me.” She held up a hand. “It’s not funny! I completely embarrassed myself, and..and…”

“You made an honest mistake. Now come on out and meet Travis. He’d like his clothes back.”

“He’s still out there?” She glanced towards the closed bathroom door.

“I think he’d like to apologize for scaring you.”

Chloe looked at her lap and up again. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”

Trent straightened. She kept saying that like it was an accusation. “Yeah, I expect there are a lot of things you don’t know about me.”

Wrong thing to say. She stood and stepped away from him.

He smiled and beckoned to her. “Come on out and meet Travis.”

She kicked a pair of jeans at him. “He can get dressed first.”

Trent gathered up Travis’ clothes. He took them out, threw them at his brother. “Get decent, dammit. I’m making coffee for us.”

When Travis had put his jeans and T-shirt back on, Trent called out, “Okay—it’s safe.”

She came out slowly, her face red, eyeing the two of them like they were the vipers in the pit she’d fallen into.

Travis held out his hand. “Nice to meet you.” Trent slapped his hand down.

Chloe wrapped her arms around herself. She glanced from Travis to Trent. “Any more of you at home?”

Trent shook his head. “Just the two of us.”

He took hold of Travis’ shoulder and pushed him to the door. “See ya later. Call Slade for me. I’m going to be off duty for a couple of hours.”

Travis glanced back at Chloe. “Don’t be too hard on him. He’s only mostly a dummy.”