Page 11 of Knight's Desire

She suddenly felt foolish. There was a reasonable explanation for all of this. There had to be. Just because she couldn’t think of what that could be didn’t mean she needed to needlessly bother the police with her suspicions.

She could feel herself start to calm, her heart slowed its beating, her breathing feel into a normal rhythm. Yes, it all could be explained, but even knowing this, she suddenly felt uneasy about being in the Shoppe alone. Tossing her phone in her purse, she hurried to her office door, unlocked it and threw it open. The air stirred around her, wafting the faint scent of sandalwood to tickle her nose.

She half-walked, half-ran to the front door and fumbled with the lock in her haste to leave. She stumbled outside and locked the door behind her. Pulling her key from the lock, she paused. The foreboding she’d felt before returned. Her skin crawled, and she shivered. She placed her car key between her pointer and middle fingers, with the ridged side facing away from her, so she could use the jagged edge as a weapon if necessary. She turned around, scanning the street for anything out of the ordinary. She saw nothing, but she couldn’t shake the feeling someone was watching her.

Her head shifted to the right, and there he stood on the edge of the sidewalk between her Shoppe and the PI firm next door. Her breath caught in her throat. The man was massive, tall, and muscular and broad. His hair held a slight wave that made the locks unruly as they framed his face. His features were angular, the scruff along his jaw adding to his ruggedness. His piercing gaze studied her, confusion furrowing his brow. He opened his mouth as if to call out to her, but she took a step or two toward the corner of the building before whirling around to head to her car.

With no destination in mind, she drove from the Shoppe and away from whatever or whoever was messing with her. She would wait to return when Kayla arrived to open the boutique. She didn’t want her assistant to be there alone, even if she was being paranoid. And she had to be imagining a threat where there wasn’t one. She’d always been able to explain away her circumstances, and this would be no different. She just needed time to clear her head and reassess.

∞∞∞

“Done.”

Brick pushed down on the arm to set the chair he’d just built to rocking. He could already picture Kat using the chair to rock her little ones to sleep, one girl swaddled and resting on each arm. He had no doubt his friend would make a wonderful mother, and he was glad he could help set up this nursery for her.

A loud expletive had Brick turning his head, grinning at Wings Tyler as he cursed the furniture he was trying to build. A member of the Alpha Team, Wings was loud even if he was trying not to be, and right now, he wasn’t trying to be quiet. The colorful string of words boomed over the small nursery, eliciting guffaws from everyone else working.

“Dammit! I could build a changing table from scratch easier than I could put together this piece of shit. The instructions are in Chinese, for Christ’s sake!”

“Here,” BB said as he placed the roller in the paint tray. “Take over for me, and I’ll work on the changing table before you get so mad at it, you throw it out the window.”

The sound of feminine laughter had all the males turning their heads in the direction of the living room. None of them had wanted to join the baby shower the women planned for Kat, but they couldn’t deny the women sounded like they were having a better time than the guys were right now.

“You ready for this?” Jay fired the question at Tristin as they assembled a crib.

“To be a dad? Hell, no. To have the babies here, safe and sound, and to watch Kat be a mother, hell, yeah.”

“Have you decided on names for my lovely nieces, or will they be baby girl one and baby girl two for the rest of their lives?” Travis didn’t look up from the window frame he was trimming in a cream color, but his grin was meant to tease his twin.

“Actually, jackass, we have chosen names, but we’re not telling anyone until the girls are born. Kat wants it to be a surprise, and she didn’t want anyone to have a chance to change our minds.”

Travis chuckled. “It’s not us that keeps changing your minds. You and Kat are good at that all on your own.”

Tristin rolled his eyes. “True, but I think these names are for keeps. Anyway, I’m starving. What do you guys say we take a break and raid the food at that party going on in my living room?”

“You can keep the shower food,” Cole interjected. “I need something more than spinach dip and tiny sandwiches. I say we order pizza. A lot of it.”

A course of masculine voices offered agreement, and Brick stood with his phone in his hand.

“I’ll place the order. You guys keep working. Let’s see if we can knock this stuff out by the time the food gets here.”

Knowing the guys would continue to talk, laugh, and give each other grief in loud decibels, Brick stepped down the hallway to call their favorite pizza place. Once the order was in, he pocketed his cell, but as he turned to head back to the nursery, he drew up short to find Marlowe Williams standing behind him. Her wide eyes studied him, and he could almost hear her big brain working through whatever puzzle troubled her mind. He knelt in front of her, so she wouldn’t have to tilt her head so far back. Then he waited, allowing her to voice what was on her mind when she was ready.

“Brick, will you be my boyfriend?”

He bit back a chuckle at the unexpected question. Considering their age difference would make him more of a felon than a boyfriend, the proposal was comical, but Marlowe was sensitive to others laughing at her. He would never want her to believe he was making fun of her. “Well, Lil Bit, I would be honored, but I think someone as pretty and smart as you could do a whole lot better than me.”

She frowned and crossed her arms in front of her. He noted the stubborn set to her jaw. He had no idea where their conversation was going, but he was certain it would be entertaining.

“You sound like Aunt B,” she mumbled, referring to her aunt, Bridget Kincaid. “She said I should look for a boyfriend my age, but I don’t want a boy in my class. They’re stupid and gross. I’d rather have a boyfriend who’s nice and likes to talk about my experiments, like you.”

Marlowe was a mechanical genius at the tender age of thirteen, so when she talked about her “experiments,” she typically used words that went well beyond Brick’s expertise. He usually sat and listened and enjoyed the happiness that lit up her face. If he ever asked a question, she would patiently explain the answer, and she would capture a little more of the big man’s heart with her kindness.

“You might change your mind about them later, but for now, who says you even need a boyfriend?”

“There’s this dance. At school. The girls keep talking about the boys asking them to be their girlfriends and to go to the dance. I don’t even want to go, but…well…I don’t know.”

Brick looked over the girl’s shoulder, hoping one of the women followed her and could help him out with this. He was the last person to give relationship advice to a teenage genius, but he couldn’t turn her away. He had a soft spot when it came to Marlowe, and she never liked it when adults treated her more like a child than a young lady.

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