Trac stood quietlyto the side, watching everything play out until he saw Lakyn’s reaction to Tobi’s surprise. Unshed tears filled hereyes and a stark, disillusioned look of rejection moved over her dust-covered face in a sweeping surge. Grasping her shoulders, he slid his hands up until they bracketed her face, focusing her attention on him.
“Darlin’, Tobi isn’t unhappy to see you, she just knows she’s been busted by her Masters.” The first tear breached the lower rim of her blue eyes and left a clean stripe of skin as itrolled to her chin.
She gave him an almost imperceptible shake of her head, “It’s okay,” she whispered, “I’m used to this… really. Could you give me a ride back to my car, please? I’ll call a tow-truck and get a motel room for the night, and then figure things out after I’ve had a good night’s sleep.”
Trac saw Tobi try to step forward, her eyes wide with guilt, but Kyle’s grip around her upperarm halted her progress. It was the first time Trac could remember being genuinely annoyed with his bosses spirited wife. He knew she hadn’t meant to hurt Lakyn’s feelings, but the pain in the exhausted woman’s eyes was gutting him.Fucking hell, tears are my kryptonite.
“No, darlin’, I’m not going to do that. Let’s get you cleaned up and fed, then we’ll discuss your options.” Before he couldmove her out of the room, the door opened a fraction, then slammed back shut from the force of the wind. Over the howling squall, Trac heard a string of Spanish curses that would have surely made Columbus’ sailors proud.
Juan was already chuckling when he swung the heavy wooden door open and pulled a petite, dark-eyed ninja into the room.
“Mia, sweetness, why are you coming in this door alone?”
“Fruit fucking salad, I just wanted thirty seconds without those two hovering over me like I was their damned job. Somebody better fix this, or I’m going to start taking boring landscape pictures and hanging them all over the club.” Five seconds after she’d finished speaking, the door slammed open again and Tucker Deitz’s imposing frame filled the doorway.
“You are in big trouble, Kodak.” Theman was intimidating on his best days and downright scary dressed in combat and climbing gear as he was now. “I told you I’d walk you up. You’ve been crawling around a fucking swamp for three days, and suddenly, you can’t wait fifteen seconds to get into a shower?” Mia didn’t respond, causing Tucker to follow her gaze and flinched when she let out an excited shout.
“Lakyn? Holy margarita magic,what a wonderful surprise.” Trac felt Lakyn’s quick intake of breath just before the tension seemed to drain from her muscles that had been rigid seconds earlier.
“Mia? Oh my God. You look like a warrior fairy.” The two women abandoned the men at their sides and met in the center of the rapidly filling reception area. Their heartfelt embrace emphasized the fact they had obviously met before,their familiarity and friendship were easy to see. Trac wasn’t sure why he felt relieved—dammit, he’d promised himself he wasn’t going to fall for a woman he knew would leave, and there wasn’t a doubt in his mind Lakyn Storm would leave. Hell, her entire life revolved around travel and public appearances.
To the side, Trac noticed Tobi leaning against Kyle who had one arm wrapped loosely aroundher as he brushed tears from her flushed cheeks with his free hand. Trac knew she felt awful about upsetting Lakyn, and under any other circumstances, perhaps their famous guest might not have reacted so strongly.
It was easy to see Lakyn was running on fumes, the deep purple bruising under her eyes gave away her exhaustion. She’d already been worried Tobi would be angry she hadn’t been completelyforthright about who she was, so the other woman’s response had hit Lakyn hard. There was a part of him that suspected the woman Tobi had been talking to was much more real than Lakyn Storm.
He’d bet his inheritance Tobi had seen deeper into the heart of the real woman than most people were ever allowed to see. Trac wanted to see the transcript of the two women’s communication, he suspected itwould tell him more about the stunning woman standing a few feet away than anything he could read about her online.
“Someone want to catch me up?” Brock Deitz’s deep voice sounded from the door, breaking through Mia and Lakyn’s excited chatter. Mia made short work of the introductions and explained the two women had worked together on a couple of projects. They’d become friends but had lost contactover the past several months.
Lakyn reluctantly admitted she’d been forced to change all her online contact information and warning bells were sounding so loud in Trac’s mind, he barely registered the rest of the conversation. There were only a few reasons he could think of for a celebrity to suddenly change their contact information, and none of them were good. Hell, the business inconveniencealone had to have been a huge pain in the ass.
Everything he was hearing made him wonder where her manager was while all of this was happening. It seemed to Trac, protecting his client should be a fairly large part of the job description. If Lakyn belonged to him, nothing would come before protecting her. Trac wanted to know why the manager wasn’t stepping up to the plate.