“This is Devlin Shade,” Lex said as he quirked a brow. “The last partner in our little business.”
“I hardly think your business will stay little for long,” Gwen murmured.
Devlin headed toward her. He offered his hand to her, just as Lex had done. She shook his hand, a bit cautiously, and felt the strength in his hold.
“My friends call me Dev,” he said as he stared down at her. “I hope you will, too.” His voice was quiet.
She managed a faint smile as she pulled her hand back from him.
Dev had a laptop tucked under his right arm. He put the laptop down on Chance’s desk and booted it up.
“Dev isn’t just brawn,” Lex told her. “He’s pretty much a tech genius. When I found those little devices tucked away at your place, I called him—”
“And I started working to track the signal on those babies,” Dev finished as he leaned over the laptop. “We left them in place and followed the transmission.”
Chance moved, a ripple of menace. “Tell me you found the bastard.”
“I do believe that we did.” Dev glanced up from the screen and smiled. Gwen decided the guys all needed to work on their smiles. Sharks had friendlier grins. “The signal went right back to a little club I think you’ve heard of…a place called Wicked.”
Her gaze flew to Chance at the mention of Wicked. She knew the club and knew he did, too. After all…she’d first met Ethan Barclay in Wicked. The place had opened last spring and become the place to be in D.C., provided, of course, that you were looking for a site to party hard.
When she’d been in Wicked that first night, everyone had been catering to her. Later, she’d learned the reason why. Ethan owned the club. He also seemed to own everyone in it. He’d wanted to catch her attention, and he had.
“That sonofabitch,” Chance snarled. “I told him to stay away from her.”
A chill skated down her spine.
“Guess he didn’t heed your warning.” Lex’s eyes had hardened. “And I’m thinking that means it’s time we pay the guy a visit.”
A muscle jerked in Chance’s jaw. “If that bastard burned my place, if he’s the one who’s after Gwen, he’s getting more than a warning.” His eyes glittered. “He’s about to face the fight of his life.”
Lex nodded.
“Get a tail on him,” Chance said. “I don’t want the bastard so much as sneezing without me knowing about it.”
“Chance…” Gwen touched his arm. “We should call the cops. Give them this evidence. Let them take over the case from here.”
All of the men turned equally unreadable gazes on her.
“What?” They didn’t need to look at her as if she was crazy. It was a perfectly reasonable request. “You’re bodyguards, not vigilantes. You don’t need to hunt this man down.” She shivered. The last thing she wanted was an encounter like last time. “Just…just let the cops handle it, okay?”
Now the men were exchanging glances. She could practically feel the undercurrents in the room.
“Excuse us a bit, will you?” Chance murmured to the guys.
Lex and Devlin—Dev—hurried toward the door.
Chance braced his legs, cocked his head, and studied her. He didn’t speak until the others had cleared the room.
Then, voice low and vibrating with a barely controlled fury, he said, “Someone tried to kill you tonight.”
“Chance—”
“That fire was set while you were upstairs with me. Someone cut the alarm. They wanted the blaze to spread until it was too late for us to escape. But that SOB made a mistake. I had a backup system in place, a secondary alarm, and we managed to get out alive.”
Her hands twisted in front of her. “I’m so sorry about your home.” Her voice sounded as miserable as she felt, and, right then, she couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes. If he hadn’t come after her that night, if he hadn’t followed her from the bar, he’d still have his place. His mementos, his—
“Fuck the home. It never mattered much to me anyway.”
Her gaze shot up to him.
“I’ve had houses in dozens of countries over the years. I’ve lived in so many places, they all blur together for me.” His lips twisted in a grim smile. “You want to know the one place I actually felt comfortable in? Where I felt as if I belonged?”
Gwen nodded.
“With you,” he said simply and he gave a hard smile. “You’re the closest thing to a real home I’ve ever had, and I didn’t even realize how important you were until you kicked me out of your life.”
Breathing was pretty hard right then.
“I never meant to get that close to you. I have a rule…I don’t get that close to anyone, but you snuck up on me. Slid past my guard, and you got to me.” That grim smile vanished. “Then you told me to get the fuck out of your life.”
She was actually starting to feel a little dizzy, so Gwen gulped in a deep breath. “You know, it would have been incredibly helpful if you’d told me all of this months before, instead of, you know, dropping this little bombshell on me when it seems as if someone may be trying to kill me.”
“My timing is shit.”
“It totally is.”
“I don’t want you to slip away again.”
This was the moment. The big moment in her life. The moment that could change her future. Sometimes, you didn’t know when these moments were happening, but this time…she knew. “I’m not going anywhere.” She’d tried to run from her feelings before, and that had done nothing but brought her trouble. If he wanted them to take a risk together, she was more than game-up for that plan. After all, she’d already spent far too much time loving him in silence. Why not see if they could do more than crash and burn?
His shoulders relaxed. “Good. Good. Lex and I will hit Wicked and fix Ethan.”
Um, fix him?
“You stay here with Dev and I—”
Gwen knew he’d stopped talking because Chance had noticed her shaking head. “You aren’t leaving me behind. This is my life we’re talking about. If Ethan is after me, then I think I deserve to be there to find out why he’s doing this to me.” Besides, should she admit that she felt a whole lot better being close to Chance? She honestly did think of the guy as her guardian angel. No offense to Dev, but Gwen knew nothing about the man.