Chapter 1
Austin
Two months earlier…
“I just got your voicemail. Um, are you sure you want me to fill in for you at the office? I don’t think your sister is going to like that very much,” I state into the phone.
Locking the front door behind me, I head out into the bright morning light and slide behind the wheel of my rental car. I just flew back into the states five hours ago from Afghanistan. After six days in the desert doing surveillance and the fifteen-hour flights to and from the country, I’m surprised I even know what fucking day it is. As soon as I got to the rental house that I’ve called home for the last month, I passed out face down on the bed for a few hours before I checked my voicemails. The only reason I’m not sleeping the day away is because my SEAL brother needs me.
“Yes, I’m sure I want you to fill in for me at the office. Gwen’s got some personal things going on in her life, and there’s no way I want her handling any cases on her own while I’m gone,” Brady explains to me.
I can hear heavy breathing and kissing sounds through the phone line as I back out of the driveway and head towards downtown Nashville. I chuckle to myself and shake my head. A few months ago, Brady was hired to help with security for one of the biggest pop stars in the country – Layla Carlyle. I knew the first time he called me bitching and moaning about her that it wouldn’t be long before he’d go over to the dark side like our other team member, Garrett McCarthy. Both of those assholes gave up the single life in the blink of an eye. By the sounds on the other end of the line, I’m guessing that Brady’s decision to go on tour with Layla has proven to be a good idea.
“Alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. That chick will be pissed off when she sees me walk through that door,” I reply with a laugh.
There’s more shuffling through the line and I’m pretty sure I just heard a gasp.
Lucky fucking bastard.
“Austin, I have to go. Just remember one thing: no fucking my sister.”
The call ends abruptly and I laugh again as I toss my phone onto the passenger seat. I really can’t be offended at Brady’s parting words. I’ve made it my mission in life to screw beautiful women, and Gwen Marshall is a gorgeous fucking woman.
She’s also got an attitude a mile long and would probably chew off my head and spit it out if I ever banged her. To be fair though, we didn’t exactly meet under the best of circumstances a month ago. Brady called me when Layla went missing and I dropped everything, drove out here to bumfuck nowhere Tennessee, and helped him get his woman back. Gwen and I spoke on the phone a few times before I headed out here and let’s just say those phone calls were some of my best work. I could tell as soon as I heard her raspy, beautiful, attitude-filled voice on the phone that I would enjoy getting under her skin. My attempts at flirting were swatted away like an asshole housefly. But I’m a SEAL – we don’t give up easily.
“This is Gwen, Brady Marshall’s sister. Your friend Garrett gave me your number. I need some help finding information for a case we’re working on.”
I knew Brady had a sister; he’d spoken about her once or twice. I assumed she was still in high school. The voice on the other end of the line most definitely belonged to a woman.
“Do you prefer pancakes or eggs?” I replied nonchalantly.
“I don’t, I like…what?”
The confusion in her voice made me laugh.
“Well, I figure since you need a favor from me, the least I could do is make you breakfast the next morning when you pay me back.”
The silence on the other end of the line lasted for so long that I pulled the phone away from my ear to make sure the call hadn’t been dropped.
“You have issues. Can you help me get the information I need or not?” she finally asked sarcastically.
“I can get you anything you need, darlin’.”
I heard her sigh in annoyance and that just made me want to push her even more.
“We need everything you can find on a woman named Eve Carlyle. No one will give us anything.”
I smiled to myself. She wasn’t easily rattled; I liked that in a woman.
“I can always make a woman talk. I have this trick I do with my tongue where I swirl-”
“Okay, I get it. Stop talking,” she interrupted. “Just, send me an email with whatever you find.”
It’s not like I’d ever really sleep with her. She’s my best friend’s sister. There are rules in the Guy’s Handbook that you never fuck with your friend’s sister. Or fuck your friend’s sister. Brady knows I’m not the settling-down type and I’m sure his sister, with the giant stick up her ass, is the type of woman who would want the white picket fence and nine million snot-nosed kids running around while she nagged the poor bastard who married her day in and day out. No, thank you. One night is about all I can stand with any woman.