Angel: A Linear Tactical Romantic Suspense Standalone Read online

  The weather might have been mild for the past few weeks, but it was winter in Wyoming, and mild could change to ugly overnight. Not a time you could stay in a house with most of the windows knocked out.

  He wrapped her in a blanket and set her on the couch. Her drugs had kicked in, and she was drowsy, but she still resisted.

  “I have to help you with the windows,” she said despite the big yawn she couldn’t stop.

  He raised an eyebrow. “And just how do you expect to do that, gimpy? You can’t do much with those bandages.”

  She scrunched up her features in an adorable pout that made him want to kiss the hell out of her. “Well, you’re not going to be able to get the plywood over the windows by yourself. I don’t have enough wood anyway.”

  He heard the sound of multiple vehicles pulling up the driveway and kissed her on the top of her head. “I’m not going to be fixing the windows alone or using plywood.”

  “You hired people?”

  “No. I called my friends. Actually, I called your friends. They were happy to help out.”

  The look on her face would’ve been comedic if it wasn’t so heartbreaking. “My friends?” she asked slowly.

  He just smiled at her.

  “Jesus, Jordan,” Charlie yelled from the front door as she stormed her way in. “What did you do, have batting practice in here?”

  The petite blond gave Gabe a nod and a small smile from behind Jordan’s back and mouthed thank you. Gabe knew the two women had been roommates for a few weeks before Charlie had moved in with her fiancé Finn.

  “Charlie?” Jordan tried to get up from her perch on the couch, but she got tangled up in her blanket. Charlie came around and sat by her.

  “Don’t get up. I’ve got huge news to tell you.”

  “About the wedding?”

  “About the fact that the wedding isn’t going to be a moment too soon. Guess who’s having a baby!”

  Jordan sat straight up on the couch, staring at Charlie’s completely flat belly. “You’re pregnant?”

  “Yep! Just took the test—okay, three tests—today.” Charlie moved around and sat on the couch, dragging Jordan in for a hug.

  “I’m so excited for you,” Jordan whispered, a huge smile on her face.

  “Let’s just sit here on the couch, and I’ll tell you all the latest about the wedding, and we can let the guys go to work. Although you might have to share your blanket with me. It’s cold in here.”

  “Is Finn here too?” Jordan asked. “Is he going to help Gabriel board up the windows?”

  Gabe watched as Charlie tucked a strand of Jordan’s hair behind her ear. “Finn. Zac. Dorian. Gavin. The whole gang. So you sit here with me and let them work for a change.” She made a shooing motion with her hand toward Gabe and started talking about wedding dress fittings. He smiled as he walked out. Jordan didn’t have a chance against Charlie and her overwhelming personality.

  Outside the guys were unloading the windows Gabe had bought.

  “Thank you for picking them up.” He shook Zac’s hand, then the other men’s.

  “Not a problem,” Zac said. “What the hell happened?”

  They carried the replacement panes to the six windows that needed swapping. The process wasn’t terribly hard, but it took two people.

  “Evidently this isn’t a new occurrence.” Gabe and Zac carried the window around the side of the house. “A couple of months ago, she had a window broken, and some guy named Allan Godlewski was here harassing her.”

  Finn and Zac both cursed. “I know that asshole,” Finn said. “Lives in Reddington City. Why the hell was he here?”

  “He’s buddies with Adam DiMuzio, isn’t he?” Zac asked. When Finn nodded Zac turned to Gabe. “The DiMuzios own the pizza place in town. Mr. DiMuzio has been one of the biggest pot stirrers when it comes to Jordan. Every time it seems like it’s going to die down, he’ll remind people about the past.”

  Zac helped Gabe clear out one of the broken panes so they could replace it with a new one. “In Mr. DiMuzio’s defense, his family was one of the ones Michael Reiss hit hardest. Plus, he and his wife were good friends with Carol Peverill, my late-mother-in-law. When Becky and Micah died, they took it hard.”

  “Enough to condone something like this?” Finn asked from the next window he was working on with Gavin.

  Zac shrugged. “I wouldn’t have thought so.”

  Gabe helped Zac secure the new pane into the frame. “Jordan said the windows were broken in rapid succession last night, and the people who did it were drunk and loud. So it wasn’t Godlewski acting alone. We know that much for sure.”

  Gavin shook his head. “Jordan is so isolated out here.”

  Finn slammed his palm against the wall. “But that shouldn’t make any difference. It’s one thing not to like the Reiss family. It’s one thing to ignore Jordan when she comes into town or even refuse to serve her in your place of business—although that’s crappy enough—but to deliberately do this to her house? To deliberately not give her the care she needed at the hospital today? That shit has got to stop. Charlie just about blew a gasket when she heard.”

  Zac nodded and continued to work on the window. “I’ll talk to Godlewski myself. That should at least stop the window breaking.”

  Gabe nodded, then noticed Dorian was standing at the trucks, looking out into the woods. “He okay?”

  Gabe had worked with the men at Linear Tactical to get Violet away from her kidnappers a few months ago. The team—Dorian included—made no secret of the fact that Dorian had been captured by enemy combatants and tortured for weeks during his time in the Army Special Forces.

  The man still struggled. Being around people was difficult for him. He was much more comfortable roaming in the wilderness and often headed out there for days or even weeks at a time.

  Gabe didn’t know the man well enough to know if him staring out into the trees was the sign of some sort of impending breakdown, but the behavior seemed odd.

  “Ghost, you good, man?” Zac’s use of Dorian’s call sign from the military wasn’t an accident. He was trying to bring him back if Dorian was heading down a bad mental path.

  “Yeah, I’m okay,” Dorian said. “There was someone out there watching us. But he’s gone now.”

  Everybody immediately set down the windowpanes and rushed to Dorian, looking in the same direction he’d been studying.

  “Where?” Gabe asked. “Do you think it’s Godlewski?”

  The big man shook his head. “No. I would’ve known about him long before now. There’s no way he has the skills to keep his presence hidden. This was someone else.”

  “Someone else, like we need to set up a guard?” Gavin asked.

  “No. He’s gone now.” Dorian looked away from the forest area and grabbed a pane from the truck. “Whoever it was wasn’t here for Jordan. I’ll check it out more closely myself when we’re done.”

  When Dorian didn’t say anything else, the men got back to work without any more talk or questions.

  Gabe grabbed Zac’s arm. “I’m not trying to disrespect your friend, but how reliable is his intel? If there’s someone out there watching Jordan, I need to know about it.”

  Zac pulled him closer and lowered his voice. “I trust Dorian’s instincts. If he says there’s no danger out there, you can trust him about that.”

  “But . . .” Zac didn’t have to say the word for Gabe to hear it.

  “No buts. I do truly trust Dorian.” Zac grimaced. “But he’s been catching glimpses of someone out in the woods for weeks now. Thinks someone is watching him. Watching Linear Tactical as a whole.”

  “What do you think? Have you spotted anyone?”

  “No, I haven’t found any trace of anything. I don’t think Dorian has found much either, to be honest.” Zac shrugged.

  “But he’s convinced someone’s out there.” Gabe looked out at the woods again. He didn’t doubt that Dorian’s senses were unparalleled. And his prowess in the woods w
as legendary. If there was someone out in the surrounding wilderness watching, Dorian would be the one to sense him.

  But this could also all be the sign of some mental deterioration.

  Zac shook his head. “I know what you’re thinking, and I’ve thought it too. Hell, Dorian has thought it. We’re watching for any other signs of PTSD. Together.”

  PTSD could be insidious, striking in ways someone least expected. But it sounded like Dorian was aware of the possible problems. And Zac and the other Linear guys had their friend’s back.

  Zac slapped him on the shoulder. “Now let’s get the rest of these windows fixed.”

  “Thank you for doing this, Mackay. A lot of people in town would say this is going above and beyond, especially for you.”

  He shrugged, walking back toward where they’d been working. “Well, a lot of people in this town are proving themselves to be idiots. Jordan isn’t responsible for her father’s sins. And what happened with Becky and Micah was an accident of the most tragic kind. I can’t make Oak Creek change their minds or their actions, but I can damn well make sure they know I won’t be condoning them or acting in the same manner.”

  “Glad to hear someone in this town has some sense.”

  They resumed working on the window. “This town is good people, Gabe. Your sister didn’t make a bad choice by moving here, I promise. They just close ranks around their own, and unfortunately, they’ve lost sight of the fact that Jordan used to be one of those very own. They need to be reminded of what their values truly are.”

  Gabe hadn’t seen anything that made him think that was going to happen, but he hoped Zac was right. Because there was a lonely, injured, young woman inside this broken house who needed a community she could call home.

  They finished within the next hour and went inside to clean up the mess in there. Charlie was still sitting with Jordan, but Jordan was sound asleep.

  Finn kissed Charlie on the top of the head. “Obviously, you were talking to her about wedding stuff.”

  She reached back and thumped him in the stomach. “Just because you fall asleep every time we talk about the wedding doesn’t mean everyone does,” she whispered.

  Charlie got up to help them clean the inside of the house. Within thirty minutes, they had the glass swept up and everything put to rights as best it could be. Gabe built a fire in the fireplace and turned up the central heating to chase the chill from the house.

  “Any word on the fire?” Gavin asked. “That involved a window too, right?”

  Gabe’s nod was curt. “Sheriff Nelson thinks that attack was aimed at Jordan. He’ll definitely be questioning Adam DiMuzio and Allan Godlewski. I have Kendrick Foster looking into it on his own.”

  “It’s one thing to break windows on a house. Another thing altogether to start a fire. Jordan got hurt. She or Violet could’ve been killed,” Zac said. “Another reason this all has to stop.”

  Everyone was silent for a moment, watching the sleeping Jordan. She looked so young lying there. So defenseless.

  They all nodded at Gabe before moving toward the door.

  “Throwing the rocks in here had to have scared her,” Charlie said as she walked with Finn. “Obviously, the fire was tougher on her physically, but what happened here is what’s going to have the potential to leave the most scars. To be alone in your home that you love, sound asleep, and most of the windows getting smashed like that? It would’ve scared the shit out of me when I lived here.”

  “Did anything like this happen when you were here?”

  The small blond woman shook her head. “No. God knows trouble has followed me around enough in the past few months, but nobody messed with me, or Jordan, when I lived here.”

  Probably because of the massive man behind her with his arms crossed over his chest. Anybody who messed with Charlie Devereux was very definitely getting Finn Bollinger as a package deal.

  “I’m not going to let anything else happen to her,” Gabe said. “And Zac is going to make sure word gets around town that anybody who tries something like this again is going to answer to someone a lot tougher than Jordan.”

  Charlie reached out and squeezed his arm. “I was a little pissed at you because you were so overprotective of your sister. Violet doesn’t need it. She can take care of herself. But Jordan . . . she needs a champion. She’s not weak. She knows how to fight, but—”

  “She doesn’t know she’s worth fighting for,” he finished for her.

  Charlie gave him a nod before wrapping her arm around Finn’s waist. “Don’t screw it up, Collingwood, or you’ll answer to me.”

  It should’ve sounded ridiculous coming from someone as small as Charlie. She was nearly a foot shorter and probably a hundred pounds lighter than either he or Finn.

  For the first time, Gabe could see the iron strength that had kept her alive when a vicious terrorist had tortured her to try to get information. Had she broken, it would’ve meant both her death and probably Violet’s also. But she hadn’t.

  And it was that same iron strength that was focused on him now.

  So hell yeah, he believed she would kick his ass if he screwed this up with Jordan. But she wasn’t going to have to.

  “Believe me, I won’t.”

  Chapter 14

  Jordan nuzzled into her pillow, not quite ready to face the world. She willed her eyes to open as she stretched, careful of her hands. They still hurt, but not with yesterday’s agony.

  But her house . . . that was almost more than she could understand.

  The last thing she remembered yesterday was talking with Charlie on her couch while Gabriel and the Linear Tactical guys had been working all around her. Charlie had been in the middle of a sentence about her wedding when Jordan had interrupted her.

  “Why are the guys helping with the windows?”

  Charlie rubbed Jordan’s leg through the blanket. “It’s freezing in here. You couldn’t live in this house with so many of the windows broken out.”

  “You know that’s not what I’m asking.”

  Charlie gave her a gentle smile. “They’re here because you’re a neighbor who needs assistance. And because this never should’ve happened in the first place. And because if the roles were reversed in some way, you’d be the first person on her way to help.”

  “Zac too?”

  “Zac was the first one to volunteer, sweetie. Now shut up and let me talk about my wedding and my pregnancy.”

  Jordan hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but she had been lulled by her friend’s sweet voice and the soothing sounds of the others replacing her windows.

  Now she awoke alone in her bed, wrapped in so many blankets she was about to overheat. She managed to make her way out from under the pile, her brain struggling to put together the pieces from yesterday.

  Why wasn’t it dark in here? It should be if the guys had boarded up all the windows. She blinked as she realized light was flooding in the whole room, but no cold air was coming in. The windows hadn’t been boarded up with plywood; they’d been replaced altogether.

  She pushed the rest of the blankets off with the backs of her hands so she could go investigate further and discovered that except for her sleep shirt, which barely came down to her hips, she was completely naked.

  “Do you need help getting to the bathroom?”

  She jerked her head up to see Gabriel standing in her doorway.

  “You replaced all the windows? I . . . Thank you. That must’ve cost a lot of money.” Money she couldn’t really afford.

  He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorframe. “There’s nothing for you to worry about. The guys who did this are going to help pay for the damages, rest assured.”

  The way he looked standing there, as if everything in the world would bend to his will, she had no choice but to believe him.

  “Bathroom?” he asked again.

  She hadn’t thought this part through when she’d agreed to have him come stay with her rather than a nurse. Her
hands were feeling better, not nearly as painful as yesterday, but she didn’t want him in the bathroom with her. Charlie had helped her last night, and that had been bad enough.

  “I can manage by myself, if you can just rip off some toilet paper for me.” She couldn’t look at him as she said it. Damn it, she would just sit there and drip dry if she had to.

  “Fair enough.”

  She made it through using the bathroom relatively unscarred, finding she had more use of her hands now that they weren’t so painful. She could actually wiggle her fingers. Thank God, because there was just no way she would survive if Gabriel had had to follow her into the bathroom.

  When she came back out, she wrapped herself in the blanket to keep from giving him a peep show.

  “You look a thousand percent better than yesterday,” he said with that smile that did something to her insides.

  “I feel so much better.”

  And she really did. The pain medication, a good night’s sleep, knowing that the windows had been taken care of—and they’d been taken care of much better than she ever would’ve dreamed—had relaxed a part of her that had been tense for so long she was surprised it could even be loosened at this point.

  But mostly she felt better because when he’d turned to her at the hospital and told her he was going to take care of the situation, she’d believed him. Maybe she hadn’t had a choice at that exact moment, but she’d believed him.

  And he’d come through in spades.

  “Hungry?” he asked, turning back toward the kitchen. He didn’t wait for her answer. He pointed to one of the chairs at the kitchen table. “Sit.”

  She did, telling herself it was because there wasn’t much she could do to help him anyway.

  Not because nobody had ever taken care of her like this. Either way she might as well enjoy it while it lasted.

  He cooked omelets, telling her she was getting a Denver omelet, and she could either eat it or be a little whiny baby, thus proving people from Wyoming weren’t as tough as they claimed.

  She would’ve eaten battery acid after that remark just to prove him wrong, but then he checked with her to make sure the jalapeño peppers he was about to add were okay.