Page 4 of Too Lethal to Love

Angie picked it up. “No. It belongs underneath, but sometimes, if we’re busy, like today, it doesn’t get put away.”

Beth let go of the gun and pulled her hand from her bag. Some cheapskate must have peeked at the order forms in the binder and randomly chosen her cake to swipe. She clung to that explanation. Considering the other scenario wasn’t an option.

It had been two years of silence from the man who’d terrorized her. Two years of fighting for control. Theaffirming words she repeated helped when she felt threatened but didn’t completely ease her anxiety. Nothing ever would.

As she pulled up the messages on her phone, tension ebbed from her body.

No disturbing texts.

No threatening emails.

Nothing to indicate he was back.

The hum of an engine snapped her head up. A black SUV backed out of the parking spot directly in front of the shop. As it drove away, her compact sedan came into view.

The phone slid from her grip. She clamped her other hand over her mouth, but the terrified edges of her scream tore through. The cake she ordered sat on the top of the hood. Its silver-dusted frosting twinkled under the streetlight.

Angie ran to her side. “Are you okay?”

Beth ignored her as she picked up her phone. Her fingers trembled as she dialed the second person who came to mind who could help. She had to stay far, far away from the first.

Kane leaned back into the jewel-toned throw pillows on Scarlett’s, and now Chris’s, couch since they’d recently moved in together and tipped his beer bottle toward Nic. “Are those gingerbread cookies on your ugly-ass Christmas sweater going at it?”

“Even cookies have needs.” Nic rose from the couch and glanced at the stairs. “Based on how long that shower has been running, I’d say Chris and Scarlett’s needs are being satisfied too.”

“They’d better hurry up. It’s almost time to go.”

“Can’t rush love.” He started for the kitchen. “Want a beer?”

“Nah, I’ll save it for later.” Unless he was on official leave, as Chris was for the next couple of days while he and Scarlett were on their “engagement-moon,” two drinks were his limit. He’d need them later to dull the pain in his hip where VIPER’s surgeon had attached his super leg. After the Mexico mission, he’d received a special concoction to help heal the bumps and bruises he’d sustained. The aches were nearly gone, but the wonder drug did nothing forphantom pain. His leg ached like it was still made of living muscle and nerves instead of an indestructible alloy invented in the VIPER lab.

Nic appeared back in the doorway, his phone to his ear. “I’ll meet you there.” He hung up and motioned for Kane to follow him as he strode to the front door.

Kane stood and pulled on his leather jacket over his navy-blue button-down. “What’s happened?”

“Someone stole Beth’s cake and scared the shit out of her.”

“What?” Kane sprang from the couch. Confusion about the first part and anger about the second raced through his mind as he scooped up his cowboy hat from the coffee table and jammed it onto his head.

Nic gave him a rundown of the incident at the bakery as they jogged down the steps. “Sounds like some asshole is fucking with Beth, and not in the wayyouwould like to.”

“Shut up.” Who knew that when he’d signed on to be part of the nation’s first generation of super soldiers he’d not only gain his career back but also get a bunch of busybody brothers? Nic wasn’t wrong though. Beth starred in his fantasies.

Kane opened the door of his pickup truck and pulled his handgun out of the glove box. He couldn’t utilize his V-Strike technology if they encountered hostiles at Beth’s place. His weaponry was only active when VIPER headquarters gave the okay. He didn’t mind reverting to good old-fashioned firepower, though. Sometimes he missed the weight of a gun in his hand. “How far out is she?”

“Fifteen minutes.” Nic closed the door of his SUV and slipped the weapon he’d retrieved inside his coat.

“Good.” She lived around the corner from Chris and Scarlett in an identical townhome in Alexandria, Virginia,just outside of Washington, DC. There was plenty of time to secure the place before she arrived.

“Beth made me promise not to tell Scarlett. She doesn’t want her to worry during her engagement party. She also told me not to bring you.”

Nic’s words nearly tripped him up but didn’t slow his stride. “She what?”

“What did you do to piss her off?”

“I did nothing.” Well, nothing since a few weeks ago, and nothing she knew about recently. “We all can’t be Casanovas like you.”

“Someone in thisfamiliahas to be the charmer.”

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