Keeping Claire

Chapter 1-1

Chapter One

Movement in the doorway to her office had Claire lifting her head. Her stomach clenched tight with the effort of not reacting to the sight of Ryan and Jacob standing in her doorway. There was no good reason for the two owners of the company to have come looking for her—a hard-working but mid-level paper-pusher. Clearly, the s**t had hit the fan.

Ryan Diel took a step forward, his hard body stiff with anger. s**t, s**t, s**t. She’d kept to herself and worked hard for the company—her small way of making up for any trouble she might inadvertently cause them. Their complete collapse, for example. Which meant the only reason for his rigid stance was that they’d discovered something about her. And there was nothing good about that possibility.

She rose, slowly pushing her chair back with her legs. Ryan took another step forward when she opened the desk drawer, so she angled her body, allowing him to see the purse she pulled free. He held out his hand and she gave the bag up without question. Oh yeah, this was bad. Lips she’d fantasized about tightened as he studied her face. She made certain he saw only the blank expression she’d honed with years of practice. Which seemed to piss him off. He narrowed his bright-green eyes for a minute before turning and walking out of the room.

She allowed a tiny hiss of breath to escape before squaring her shoulders and following him out the door. Focusing her attention on the taut ass in front of her helped tune out the sights and sounds of her coworkers as they watched her being led to the large office Ryan and Jacob shared. She needed to get out of the building fast, but it was suddenly occurring to her that the brilliant idea to work for a security company had been about the stupidest move she’d made in five years.

At her previous jobs, if human resources or management had called her into the office for an unexplained reason, she would have just left and been in a new city with a new name in a matter of hours. Only now did she realize that cardboard-box manufacturers and small bookstore owners were going to react differently than security specialists. Damn it, what had she been thinking? Clearly she hadn’t been thinking enough. Maybe five years had worn her down more than she’d realized. She remembered hitting town and walking past this building three or four times before deciding that maybe she’d be safer at a company whose records couldn’t be hacked. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Understanding where she’d gone wrong wasn’t going to help her now, though, and she was an i***t to be wasting time thinking about that rather than how she was going to get out of this building. Regret caused acid to churn in her stomach. Though she’d been careful not to make friends, Teck Security was a good company with friendly, helpful employees and caring owners. She should have left three weeks ago when she’d found herself joking with the receptionist as they walked out to the parking lot. Over the years, she’d rarely interacted with her coworkers, leaving them with the impression that she was a b***h. She probably was a b***h, but not the way they thought. It just made it easier for everyone when she had to leave without notice.

Ryan entered their office and she followed, Jacob close on her heels. That the blinds had already been pulled was about all she had time to notice before she was pressed up hard against the now-closed door. Her whole body went stiff, but she concentrated and relaxed her instinct to fight. Ryan searched her expertly, but under the circumstances, she was shocked to feel a tingle in her breasts as he passed over them. There was nothing inappropriate about the way his hand brushed between her legs, but her stomach clenched, and it wasn’t in fear.

The heat of his body left her in a rush as he stepped back. She had to lock her knees to keep from trembling, though from adrenaline or fear she wasn’t sure. Jacob gestured to the couch and she forced herself to walk to it slowly and sit as if she’d been invited to a meeting, not thrown against the door and searched like a criminal. If there was one thing she knew how to do and do well, it was pretend that a crazy situation was perfectly normal.

Vaguely aware that they were going through her purse and examining each item, she scanned the room for a way out. The huge furry face of Jacob’s dog, Took, watched her from the side of the desk. As if the two large men weren’t enough to keep her from making a dash for freedom, how could she forget about the enormous mastiff, Jacob’s faithful companion? Every time she’d seen him before she’d had to resist the urge to get down and hug him. Funny how that was the farthest thing from her mind right now.

She returned her attention to the men since she was clearly stuck in the room until she managed to convince them to let her out. Jacob was examining her antacid packet, the pain reliever bottle already discarded next to the lotion and the lip balm. Her own damn mini pharmacy. It took her a puzzled moment to figure out that they were searching for some sort of electronic device. That was a good sign. They’d figured out that she wasn’t who she’d claimed to be, but didn’t actually know who she was or why she was there. They probably thought she was a corporate spy or embezzler or something along those lines.

More than five minutes had passed and they’d yet to say a word, but that didn’t bother her. She had plenty of experience sitting still and remaining silent. If they thought to unnerve her, they were in for a surprise. Finding nothing in her purse, Jacob returned the items to it while Ryan opened her wallet. He didn’t seem surprised to find all identification in the name they knew her under. She used the time to resurrect one of her favorite fantasies, one that involved running her hands through his curly brown hair while his mouth did delicious things to her breasts.

The thud of her wallet being dropped on her purse had her blinking back into reality. Finished examining her belongings, which she would be dropping into a trash bin first chance she got, Ryan and Jacob walked over to stand in front of her. Though Jacob was slightly taller than Ryan, they were both over six feet and towered above her as she sat. She didn’t even attempt to make eye contact—if they wanted her to look them in the face they were going to have to come down to her level. In the meantime, she was staring right at Ryan’s zipper and wished he were wearing jeans instead of slacks. A small twitch of the fabric invited her to lick her lips, but she resisted. Just barely.

Chairs appeared and the men sat. She still wasn’t at eye level but she didn’t want to push things and sat back against the couch so that she could see them better. Her leg automatically came up to cross over her knee and she was startled to feel her cheeks flush when Ryan’s gaze followed the motion and remained riveted to the hem of her skirt.

Fuck. This was not good, she shouldn’t be reacting to him. No lust, no embarrassment, no anger, no fear. No shame for bringing trouble to their company. Reactions were deadly. She lowered her foot to the ground and hardened her face once again. Ryan blinked and Jacob looked curious. That was fine. It was a lot better than most other reactions they could be having. They could hate her or forgive her, as long as she got away and never saw them again. If she could get away before those looking for her caught up to her, they might not lose their business. Or their lives.

“Miss Fiordalisi—” Jacob began.

“Please,” she interrupted, “call me Claire.”

She’d picked the last name because it had seemed amusing at the time to watch people try to say it, but it wasn’t funny now. How could she forget, even for a second, that the people she encountered every day were in danger because of her? Now the idea of laughing at their expense made her sick.

“Claire. It would be best if you explained yourself.”

He didn’t say anything more, didn’t say “or else” out loud, but she knew it was there. These men were trained in security, what the hell had she been thinking? This was nothing like the time she’d had to run out on the one-hour photo lab owner in the middle of a roll of thirty-six, his mouth hanging open as she called out over her shoulder that she wouldn’t be back. These guys wouldn’t just stand and stare as she moved on.

“Right. Well,” she said.

Damn, she had no idea what the best way to handle this was. When she’d first started running, she hadn’t given much thought to what kind of explanations she might give. And she rarely needed to. The few times she’d been in such a situation, where she had to talk before she could run, she’d just told the truth. Most people were happy to see the backside of her then. But these guys were different. And, again, that was her own stupid fault.

It occurred to her now, far too late, that if they believed her, they were going to want to help. Which would lead to them getting killed. Which would suck. Damn macho men, no wonder she’d always been careful to avoid them in the past. Sure it meant she was rarely satisfied with the easily-led-by-the-nose losers she occasionally hooked up with, but that was best for all concerned. Only, she hadn’t realized that Ryan and Jacob would not be like that because she’d been very careful not to think about him. Them, she meant them. And not to dream about them. Well, him. She’d only dreamt about Ryan.

And, once again, she was avoiding the issue. She realized she was staring at her knees, having said nothing, when she had to look up at them through her lashes to gauge their mood. They were both watching her intently but didn’t look angry at her lack of response. In fact, they looked less angry than they had when she’d first seen them in her office.

A lie—a credible lie—was the only solution. She sat up straight and opened her mouth. Then closed it and slumped back down. s**t, s**t, s**t. She brought a hand to rub at her forehead. Great, now she was getting a headache. Five years on the run was more relaxing than she’d realized if this bit of stress was affecting her so strongly. It should be nothing compared to what she’d endured for so much of her life.

She sighed and rubbed her temple, allowing a small grimace. Now that she wasn’t in panic mode, she had to remember that normal people expected a reaction, not the stony façade she’d perfected as a child.

“Look,” she said finally. “It’s not that complicated. I haven’t stolen anything from your company or given data away, or planted bugs, or...whatever it is you think I’ve done.”

Forcing herself to meet Jacob’s eyes as best she could, she tried to convey the absolute truth of that. She wasn’t sure if the pounding in her head was causing the nausea or the realization that she had seriously endangered these guys. If she couldn’t convince them to let her go, soon, they were all going to be in a world of hurt. Which made meeting his eyes difficult.

“I admit I lied on my application. My name, my experience, hell, even my qualifications. But I was fully capable of doing the job, and I’ve worked my ass off to do it well. You don’t even have to fire me. I quit. I’ll leave—no harm, no foul.”

She stood up, the ache in her head becoming a full throb. Dizziness had her swaying and she put a hand out to steady herself. Ryan caught her arm and lowered her to the couch before she had a chance to pull away. Jacob put his hand to her temple and she had time to think that’s weird before darkness swamped her.

Ryan gave Jacob a worried glance but didn’t voice his concerns. They’d been working together to penetrate the woman’s maddeningly thick skull and he’d sensed Jacob’s worry before she’d passed out. It wasn’t normal for a human to be able to resist their mind search at all, let alone to the degree that Claire had. They should have stopped when she’d displayed signs of a headache, but had been convinced that once they were inside they could take away her pain. Only they hadn’t gotten inside. Though focused on his mental efforts, Ryan had still heard every word she’d said. And they’d rung true but were so obviously a small part of the story that they hardly mattered. Her desire to escape was clear, and that did matter.