and stay on his feet. His law enforcement training had kicked in and adrenaline was on full-tilt. He’d lock them in the bathroom until help arrived.
Joshua managed to open the door to the men’s room even though the teen was fighting him like a wild banshee. Her freeze response sure made a wide turn into fight mode in a hurry.
“Cut it out. I’m trying to help, if you hadn’t noticed,” he said through heavy breaths. She wasn’t making it easy, either.
He stuffed her inside the bathroom with him and then locked the door. “Those men weren’t exactly trying to take you to prom.”
Joshua heard a familiar noise and realized he shouldn’t have turned his back on her. He whirled around. There she stood. A Glock aimed at the center of his chest.
Now didn’t that just make this night even better?
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, noticing how off his initial assessment of the teen, the woman, had been. Strips of hair clung to her neck even though most of her blond mane was in a ponytail. She had piercing crystal-blue eyes—eyes that shone like he was looking across the surface of Diamondhead Lake at first light—and she had thick, dark lashes. Her body had more curves than he’d initially realized; he’d felt those the second he’d picked her up. They were easier to ignore when he thought she was sixteen. She was closer to his age, so around thirty and his throat went dry despite water dripping from him everywhere.
She was soaked, crown to toe, and as much as Joshua didn’t like it, he felt a surge of attraction. All of which was overridden by the anger coursing through him. Even though she put up a good fight, he disarmed her quickly and then wrestled her against the wall before she could make a dive for her weapon that he’d sent sprawling across the floor.
His body had that same irritating sexual reaction when it was pressed up against hers. He captured her wrist as she nailed him in the chest and then he caught her other as it rose up in a fist. He pinned both of her hands above her head. Big mistake, a) because the move caused her breasts to rise and press against his chest harder, and b) because her knee shot up quickly.
Joshua pinned her thigh with his before she could knee him where no man wanted to be kneed.
“What’s your problem, lady?” he asked, staring into furious blue eyes.
* * *
“BACK OFF. YOU HAVE no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into,” Alice Green said, fuming that this guy had disarmed her so quickly. She was exhausted and getting rusty now that she’d been off the job for the past six weeks, having dedicated herself solely to finding Isabel. “And let go of me.”
The cowboy might be the epitome of tall, gorgeous and chivalrous but his good deed had just cost her the investigation. Alice cursed.
This was the closest she’d been to Marco Perez, aka The Ghost, in days. She’d spent long weeks before that researching crime rings to narrow it down this far, and had been abducted by two other criminal organizations. The last time she’d seen her boys was Thanksgiving Day. Since then, she’d been choked, punched and stabbed. And it had come down to The Ghost as her last chance to find Isabel.
Alice had put herself out there as bait, using her informant to plant the seed and set up the kidnapping. It had been difficult undercover work and had taken more patience than she realized she had. Perez’s organization finally bit and this jerk had just messed up weeks of damn fine police work in sixty seconds. Well, if she’d still been on the force.
Alice was furious. And frustrated. And she could think of another word she’d like to drop when it came to the cowboy’s actions but it wouldn’t do any good. The fact that he was acting on goodwill was the only reason she didn’t completely unleash hell on him.
“I have to go,” she managed to get out through clenched teeth. If the task force found out what she was up to after being warned to stay away she’d lose everything, including her twin boys. “Thanks for going all Dudley Do-Right on me but I need to follow those men out there.”
Tall, Dark and Cowboy cocked an eyebrow. “I’m sure the police would be happy to help as soon as they get here.”
“I don’t have time to lose,” she countered. “They’re getting away as we speak.”
“Then tell me what’s going on and I’ll consider letting up,” he said, staring her straight in the eye.
She ignored the shiver racing up her arms, chalking up her goose bumps to being soaked to the bone in an air conditioned bathroom. Didn’t the worker believe in turning on the heat?
Telling the truth wasn’t an option. Fighting didn’t help. She’d have to take another approach.
Alice relaxed her body against the strong cowboy, looking up at him with her most sincere expression as she prepared a lie. “I’m sorry. Thank you for helping me. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t been there. That guy out there is my ex and I really need to know what he’s up to for the sake of our boys.”
Shock registered in the cowboy’s eyes. He had a rare combination of green eyes and black hair—no, black wasn’t a good enough word—it was more like onyx.
Water dripped from his thick black eyelashes and his tight curls. She could tell that he’d been wearing a hat, and in this part of the country that meant a Stetson. He was tall, six feet four inches would be her best guess. Based on the ripples running down his chest, she’d say the guy spent serious time at the gym. His hands were rough, which meant he worked outside. But not too rough, telling her that he hadn’t been doing it for long.
“Are you telling me you know that guy?” he asked and she could tell he wasn’t buying her story.
“Intimately.” It was easy to sell that last part because it was the truth. Alice did know more details about Marco Perez’s life than she ever wanted to about any criminal on the loose. He was the head of a large-scale kidnapping ring known for selling teenage girls or using them for baby farms. He was also most likely long gone by now. His ability to disappear and make every witness around him do the same had earned him The Ghost moniker.
Alice couldn’t afford to explain herself to law enforcement. They’d run her name and she’d be discovered. She had to protect her identity.
“What’s your name?” she asked. If she could bait this guy into casual conversation she had a chance at making it out of there before the cops arrived. With her arms hauled over her head the cowboy was in the power position.
“Joshua O’Brien,” he said. “Now it’s your turn.”
It was a statement, not a question and she figured that she was grossly underestimating this guy.
“Will you let me go if I tell you, Joshua?” She’d used his name on purpose. Get him talking, get him comfortable and she could break out of his grasp.
“Maybe,” he said.
“I’m Alice,” she responded. The cops would be banging on that door in a matter of minutes in a best-case scenario...a matter of seconds in her worst nightmare. In no way could Alice allow that to happen. She’d be taken to jail and her reputation, as well as her career, would be over. As it was she could still return to the force after she located Isabel and brought her home safely.
Sirens wailed in the distance, which meant cops were getting closer. She needed to move faster with the cowboy in order to get away. Or distract him long enough to...
The chance presented itself, so she took it.
The cowboy had loosened his grip. Alice drew her knee up and tagged him as hard as she could in the groin.
She dropped and spun, breaking free from his grasp. A sweep of her right leg and he stumbled to catch himself.
He recovered quickly using the wall to redirect his weight, but he wasn’t fast enough.
Alice pulled her backup weapon, a Glock G42 .380 pocket pistol,