Tamed

Her glance dropped and she spied him on his knees, right near the body. He had his hands hooked behind his head, but the police kept shouting. They knocked him down on his stomach as they wrenched his arms behind his back.

“No, he’s not—” A policeman pulled her back before she could rush in and move everyone off Shane.

Shane turned his head to the side and looked up at her. “Call Connor.”

Her brain scrambled. “My cell doesn’t work.” She shook her head, trying to remember where she put it or why that information even mattered.

“They probably blocked the signal. Try again.” He glared, as if willing her to listen. “We need Connor.”

Connor Bowen, the owner and head of the Corcoran Team. The man with power and connections. She knew one thing: if Shane needed Connor for reinforcements, they were all in trouble.

Chapter Three

Shane tried not to stare at her. Being in the same room with Makena always resulted in the same reaction. His heart rate kicked up as fast as his common sense took a nosedive. The black hair, usually pulled back with those sexy curls hanging down by her ears. The dark eyes and hints of the heritage passed down from her Japanese mother.

The long legs and trim body...everything about her set his blood boiling. So beautiful that she tested every vow he’d ever made postdivorce about keeping relationships light and sex only. He wanted her every minute and fought off the attraction with every cell and every muscle.

He tore his attention away from her and watched his team as he stood in the middle of her family room with activity buzzing around him. Cam and Connor had arrived. Connor had walked through the door and immediately started doing what he did best—he ran the whole show. Came in with a cover and ordered people, all while silently wrestling control away from whatever poor schmuck thought he ran the crime scene.

Cam, along with Holt, formed the three-man traveling team for Corcoran. Cam showed up to help because that was what Cam did. No questions asked, he rushed in and provided support. Many times that included flying a helicopter. This time he stood on the other side of Makena, across from Shane, and made sure no one got near her.

Connor broke away from the detective and headed over to the Corcoran semicircle. “We have one dead attacker.”

“Thanks to Shane,” Cam said.

“You would have done the same thing.” Every member of the team would have put his body in front of Makena. Forget about her being innocent, though that counted as a good answer. She was Holt’s sister, and no one touched the people the team members cared about.

“Probably.” Cam shrugged. “I’m betting I would have used more finesse. Maybe been quicker about it.”

Shane knew Cam was joking...or engaging in what Cam thought qualified as joking. Making sly comments meant to break the tension. If Shane hadn’t walked in on some guy manhandling Makena, watched as the guy tried to choke the life out of her, he might be more in the mood to be soothed. But not right now.

“The guy intended to kill me.” The rough edge to Makena’s words was hard to miss.

Cam’s smile suggested he didn’t. “Then I definitely would have killed him, too.”

Shane was about to remind her about Cam’s odd sense of humor when Connor broke in. “Now that we have that settled.”

An officer behind Makena knocked into her. She jumped. Looked two seconds away from screaming but somehow managed to bite it back.

Shane could not help being impressed. She didn’t deal in danger as they did, yet she’d stayed calm. She’d listened to the informal training they gave her and kept fighting no matter what. She never let down her guard. Those smarts and that strength had kept her alive.

She cleared her throat as she visibly brought her nerves back under control. Most signs vanished. All but the way she rubbed her hands together in front of her until her skin turned red. “What about my neighbors?”

No surprise her mind went there. Shane had checked on that first thing. “They weren’t home.”

Her shoulders fell as she blew out a long breath. “I heard a shot...or I thought I did.”

She wouldn’t like the answer, but Shane offered it anyway. “Killed the dog.”

Cam swore under his breath. “That sucks.”

An awful situation, but the death toll could have been so much worse and Shane remained grateful it wasn’t. “At least it wasn’t a person.”

“I like dogs.” Cam moved out of the way as the ambulance crew brought in the stretcher.

“Is this what you guys always talk about on a job?” Makena watched every move as the crew lifted the still body and locked the stretcher in place. Her voice shook and a certain sadness moved in her dark eyes.