Breaking Out Read online

  David clenched his hands into fists. The urge to move, to act, was crawling over his skin, growing right along with his concern about what the fuck was going on here.

  Mati stared at Reese in horror. She clearly hadn’t known any of this.

  And Reese wasn’t finished yet. “Not long after the car incidents, there was a break-in at the house while I was asleep in my room and Hodges was in his apartment. We weren’t in the habit of arming the security system when we were home, so we had no idea anyone had been in the house until the next morning when I discovered my father’s office—which had become my office—turned upside down.” Reese frowned. “We took our security a lot more seriously after that.”

  “When was this?” Chance asked.

  “About six year ago.”

  Mati eyes widened. “That was when you stopped…” Mati cast a glance at David. “Traveling,” she finished, though David would bet his last dollar that hadn’t been what she was about to say.

  Reese nodded, still not looking at Mati.

  She frowned, ducking her head to try to meet his eyes. When that didn’t work, she stroked her fingertips along his jaw from ear to chin, tipping his face up toward her.

  He finally looked up at her, his expression wretched. “I’m so sorry. When nothing else happened, I thought it was safe to hire you. To have you at the house with us.”

  Mati leaned back. “What are you talking about?”

  “I put you in danger. I got complacent. I didn’t think anything of leaving you there. Alone. I never should have done that. I—”

  Mati pressed her hand over Reese’s mouth. “You listen to me, Edwin Reese Lamont. I wanted this job. I love this job. I love the house, I love Hodges, and I even love you, though you do make it a challenge when you’re being an idiot. You will not apologize for any of that, do you understand me?”

  She glared at Reese until he nodded, then took her hand away. He looked at Mati like she’d hung the moon.

  David watched them, a smile hovering on his lips, and wondered how the hell two people this attractive could be named Matilda and Edwin.

  The intercom beeped and announced their hotel room was waiting.

  Chance thanked the disembodied voice and scowled down at his notes. “Well, you’ve given us a lot to think about.” David snorted at Chance’s gift for understatement. “The only other question is if you have any idea who could be behind all this?”

  Reese tore his eyes from Mati and shook his head, his expression grim. “Not a one. My father never once accused anyone. And the investigators I hired never came up with anything, either.”

  Chance and David exchanged a long look. It was impossible to do an accurate threat assessment when they had so little to go on. The perpetrator had been able to keep his identity and motives well-concealed, possibly for decades, which indicated a level of sophistication that did not work in their favor.

  “May I have the contact information for those investigators?” Chance asked. “I’d like to get their input.”

  “By all means,” Reese said. “I’m sure Hodges has already told them what’s happened. They should be investigating this latest incident now, as are the police.”

  “Excellent. If you could let them know it’s okay to speak with me and ask them—and Hodges—to keep me in the loop, that would help.”

  “I’ll take care of that now,” Reese said, pulling out his phone.

  David spared one last nod for Chance, knowing his friend would be all over this the moment they set foot out the door. The good news was that Mati and Reese were far away from where the threats seemed to be centered, and it would have been difficult for them to have been followed—a full night of driving and border control had seen to that.

  The bad news was that because of the long night, Mati looked ready to collapse against Reese’s chest and pass out, and Reese didn’t look much better, the bruises under his eyes darker, his face paler.

  David stood, enjoying how Mati’s and Reese’s eyes tracked his movements. He stretched showily and planted his hands on his hips.

  “I think it’s time I got these two into bed.”

  Reese couldn’t decide if he was flattered, amused, or horrified by David’s shameless announcement.

  Mati had no such qualms and immediately burst into laughter.

  She stood and pointed at David. “You’re a troublemaker.”

  It didn’t sound like a criticism.

  The way David smiled at Mati did things to Reese’s stomach that Reese was incapable of explaining in his current state. Perhaps ever.

  “That’s the understatement of the century,” Chance muttered.

  “What? I like to keep things interesting,” David said in what Reese presumed was meant to be an innocent voice.

  “Hmmm…” Mati said with a long look up and down David’s body, “I bet you do.”

  David’s eyebrows went up. Reese bit back a smile. At least he wasn’t the only one bowled over by Mati.

  He stood and thanked Chance and Kieran. Kieran caught him in another tight hug.

  Reese squeezed him back. “What’s with the Morrisons and these hugs?”

  “They work, don’t they?”

  Reese sighed as tension drained from his neck and shoulders. “Yeah, they really do.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t tell Callum you like them,” Kieran said as he released him.

  Reese grinned. “Thank you.”

  David waited for them by the door while they said their goodbyes, then Mati took Reese’s hand and pulled him from the office with a bright, if tired, smile for David.

  Reese hadn’t been this excited about holding hands in at least twenty years. He wanted to blame it on fatigue, but he suspected it was because he was ridiculously easy when it came to Mati.

  He held on once they were in the elevator and Mati and David were discussing the logistics of getting them to the hotel. They were to take David’s car, and Chance would bring Reese’s car to them later if they needed it. Mati, always prone to speaking with her hands, gestured without releasing him. He shut his eyes, leaned his head back against the wall, and listened, wise enough to know where he wasn’t needed.

  Mati was a natural project manager. In the blink of an eye, she could juggle more schedules and details than anyone he’d ever met. Reese was good at strategy and negotiations, and even building relationships when he felt like it, but he’d be lost without Mati to help him execute and ride herd on his ideas. He’d been maintaining what his father had left him until he’d hired her. Now they’d grown it into something else altogether. Sure, he’d been alarmed by her color-coded filing systems and project charts when she’d first started, but now he found them, and the sound of her voice detailing everything that would need to be done in the next four minutes, soothing.

  They went straight from the elevator to their car to retrieve their luggage. David managed most of it as if it hardly weighed a thing and led them in the opposite direction to one of those big American cars that were a modern homage to the classic muscle cars.

  Reese grinned.

  “What’s so funny?” David asked, eyeing him as he popped the trunk and threw in their bags.

  “This car suits you perfectly,” Reese observed.

  David looked over the sleek, sexy lines and shiny chrome that somehow emphasized the sheer power under the hood. “You think?”

  Reese gave David the same look, seeing just as much sleek beauty and power. “Definitely.”

  “Wow,” Mati said softly.

  David held Reese’s gaze, his dark eyes unreadable in the dim light of the garage, his lips curling into a shamelessly satisfied smile. Reese wanted to run his thumb over David’s full lips to see if they were as soft as they looked.

  Mati yanked open the car door and held it for Reese. “Okay, everybody into the car. We need to go to the hotel, and then I need to sleep, because I think I’m starting to have delusions or something.”

  David chuckled and slid behind the wheel
.

  Reese climbed into the back seat, concerned when Mati sat next to him and rubbed her hand across her forehead.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. I’m sure everything will make sense once I’ve slept.”

  Reese wasn’t convinced that was true, since he’d practically just propositioned a virtual stranger, a man, in the middle of a parking garage. Was that ever going to make sense?

  Nope.

  He wrapped his arm around Mati’s shoulders, and she snuggled into his side and closed her eyes.

  David watched them in the rearview mirror.

  Reese had no idea what was happening, between any of them, but his gut told him to keep going. To follow the path.

  Reese pressed his lips to Mati’s hair while staring into David’s warm brown eyes.

  “It’s going to be okay,” David said softly.

  Reese nodded. He’d make sure of it.

  Mati sighed as Reese kissed the top of her head. She didn’t know what to think.

  David was definitely flirting with them. Both of them. Individually, simultaneously, any way he could. She suspected it came as easily to him as breathing, but she didn’t think it was purely for amusement, either.

  His dark gaze held intent.

  And, unless she was crazy, Reese was flirting back. Hell, he’d stood by the car and eyed David like he was the dessert buffet at the Four Seasons—which she totally understood. Every single time she looked at David, she wanted to put her mouth all over him, too.

  But Reese was straight. Or he had been until this morning. Of course, things could change, people changed, and sometimes people had exceptions, but all that was hard to wrap her head around right then.

  Once they were moving, Mati couldn’t keep her eyes open for more than a few seconds at a time. It was bright outside and the traffic was stop and go, but she was only dimly aware of any of it in the brief moments she’d resurface from sleep.

  She couldn’t have said if the drive was five minutes or five hours, but it was definitely too soon when they rolled to a stop and the door on her side of the car swung open.

  “Come on, sweetheart. This is where we get out.”

  She smiled against Reese’s shoulder, her sluggish brain taking longer than it should to realize the sweetheart had come from David and not Reese.

  Someone released her seatbelt.

  “What are the chances she’ll let me carry her into the hotel?” David asked, his deep voice close to her ear.

  Reese chuckled. “You’d probably bleed out before you made it ten feet.”

  Mati sighed and sat up, straightening her glasses. “I’m awake,” she muttered, sliding toward David and the open door. She pointed a finger at his smiling face when he reached for her. “Don’t even think about it, mister.”

  David held up his hands innocently.

  Mati snorted, then climbed from the car and blinked groggily at the bustling entrance to their large, high-rise hotel. A bellhop rolled the cart with their luggage into the swanky, modern lobby and she staggered to follow. They were halfway through the door before she registered that David was hanging back, scanning up and down the block.

  A tickle of unease worked its way down her spine.

  She didn’t say anything when David joined them in the lobby, or when he tucked them in a corner while he checked in, but when they were alone in the elevator, she had to ask, “Do you think we’re being followed?”

  She felt stupid as soon as the words left her mouth. This wasn’t some nighttime drama. This was her boring life.

  David took the question seriously. “No, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t check to make sure.”

  The elevator doors parted to reveal their floor, but no one moved. David sighed and nudged them along, ushering them down the hallway until they arrived at Room 1237. He unlocked the door and opened it with a flourish.

  Mati gasped when she saw the suite. It was a tasteful studio apartment, with a tiny kitchen, a dining area for six, and a fair-sized lounge with a couch and two big chairs. All of that paled, though, in comparison to the view from the windows. She crossed the room and gawked at the beautiful parks spread out below them.

  “Is this the Boston Garden?”

  David shut the door, put the chain and deadbolt in place, and came to her side. “The closer park is the Commons, and the next one down is the Public Gardens. The Boston Garden is a mile off to the right and is where the Bruins play hockey.”

  “I want to see,” she said enthusiastically.

  “The parks or the arena?” Reese asked from her other side.

  “All of it.”

  “That can be arranged,” Reese said, glancing at David. “Though, perhaps not on this visit.”

  They hadn’t discussed what the rules were going to be, or why, exactly, David was in a hotel suite with them, but Mati didn’t think long walks around the city were in the cards. It was probably something they should cover at some point.

  As was the fact that the suite, while spacious and beautiful, was only one large room, with a single king-sized bed to one side.

  Mati might be a rock star at logistics, but the logical part of her brain had no idea how this was going to work. The hormonal part had plenty of ideas. So many ideas. Before she could make any suggestions, though, there was a knock at the door. She and Reese jumped, but David went unnaturally still, listening.

  He walked to the door and peeked through the peephole. It was the first time Mati noticed the discreet bulge under the jacket he’d pulled from his trunk. That hadn’t been there when they’d met him at Chance’s office, and she was pretty sure she knew what it was.

  A frisson of fear ran over her for the first time since she’d been freed from the panic room.

  David opened the door and unloaded the luggage cart without allowing it or the bellhop into the room. As soon the door was closed and bolted again, he turned to them. “You two ready for a nap?”

  “God, yes,” Mati said, because even awkward sleeping arrangements and gun-toting sex gods weren’t going to prevent her head from hitting that pillow.

  Curiously, she pressed the button labeled Privacy beside the windows. They instantly went dark, only a hint of the city beyond left to see.

  “Whoa. That’s so cool,” David said with wonder.

  It should not have been possible for a man built like Adonis to be that fucking adorable. Mati wanted to drag him into bed with her and Reese and cuddle up with them both. God, that would be heaven.

  And she’d swear Reese was thinking the same thing.

  Reese tore his eyes off David and shook his head as if to clear it. He focused on Mati. “I can sleep on the couch.”

  “No,” she said. That was a step back she had no interest in taking. Whatever you want, he’d said. She believed he meant it. “There’s no need.”

  Reese smiled, pink-cheeked and flustered.

  Fucking hell, they were both more adorable than should be possible.

  She was doomed.

  “Why don’t you get ready for bed,” David suggested, his deep voice intimate in the dark room. When had he gotten so close?

  Reese looked at David, his tongue darting out to wet his lips.

  David grasped her arm and Mati almost laughed. If he was hoping for support in the face of all of Reese’s…Reese-ness, he’d come to the wrong place.

  Reese’s gaze darted away. “I’m going to wash up.” He scooped up his suitcase and disappeared into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

  “He has absolutely no idea how hot he is, does he?” David asked.

  “None,” she said.

  David appeared baffled by the very notion. Clearly, he did not suffer from the same issue.

  Though, for all that he was strikingly handsome, that wasn’t what drew her to David. His kindness was what really made her want to know more. His confidence that made her feel safe.

  Mati startled when the bathroom door opened. Reese marched across the roo
m, dropped his suitcase at the base of one of the huge windows, and spun, as if daring them to say anything.

  Mati was so doomed.

  She bit her lip to keep from grinning. “I never took you for the Captain America pajama bottoms type.”

  Reese huffed and rolled his eyes. “Callum has strange ideas about appropriate gifts for Canadians, but they’re very comfortable.”

  Mati laughed. Her eyes roved over him, enjoying the rare opportunity to see him in something other than his work clothes. She’d had her legs wrapped around his hips and she still hadn’t registered how much lean muscle he carried. How broad his shoulders truly were.

  David’s dark eyes roved over Reese, too, his hand rubbing over his flat belly, his bottom lip caught between his teeth.

  Mati was dangerously close to throwing caution—and her clothing—to the wind.

  She snatched up her toiletries kit, and the nightgown she’d packed on the assumption she’d have a freezing-cold hotel room to herself, and retreated into the bathroom.

  Chapter Seven

  David studied Reese from across the corner of the bed. The room was warm and dark. Quiet. Reese had been enticing in his travel-worn clothes, but in a t-shirt and pajama bottoms, he took temptation to a whole new level.

  His waist and hips were narrow, his shoulders broad. He looked stronger, more powerful, like this, and yet sweetly vulnerable with his long, bare feet peeking out from beneath his whimsical pajama pants.

  It was like central casting had sent the man David wouldn’t be able to resist. He wanted to hug him, protect him, feed him until there were another five pounds on his lean frame, and fuck him until he could do no more than whimper David’s name. And not necessarily in that order.

  On top of that, he couldn’t imagine doing any of it without Mati. The two of them were intertwined in David’s mind. His brain saw them as individuals, of course, but his libido saw them as one. A package deal.