Razor's Edge (3 page)

“No. I don't want you back until you're sure you've fixed the problem for good.”

Roxanne took a deep breath to keep herself from shouting at her boss. “How long is long enough to convince you?”

“As long as it takes. No less than a week.”

A week? If Mr. Chord's thief had left any trail, it would definitely be cold by then. “That's more time than I'll need.”

“This isn't negotiable, Razor,” said Bella. “If his buddies stay away for a few days, chances are they won't come back. And there's something else, too.”

“What?”

“Assholes have a tendency to escalate things when confronted. I'm not letting anything happen to you, so I'm assigning the new guy to you. Wherever you go, he goes. Got it?”

“You're giving me a babysitter?” Roxanne did shout this time, jumping to her feet in anger.

Bella strode around her glass desk and got right in Roxanne's face. “I'm giving you a badass former special operations babysitter—one I want on our team. Don't fuck that up.”

Great. Now she wasn't going to be able to look into possible leads on the thief. Her babysitter would no doubt rat her out. “I don't need him, Bella.”

“I think you do. And he needs you, too. While he's babysitting, you're going to explain how things work at the Edge. He's already passed all our tests and breezed through training, but he hasn't taken on any real jobs yet. Think of this as his orientation.” Bella pressed a button on her phone. “Lila, please send Tanner in.”

“This isn't a good idea. I'm a horrible teacher. You need to get Riley to do the training. He's good at that kind of thing.”

“Riley's good at everything, which is why he's too busy for this. You, on the other hand, happen to have some free time on your hands. Deal with it, Razor. This is happening.”

Fine. Roxanne had screwed up. If this was her punishment, she'd take it like a woman, get through the next few days, and be back to her real job in no time. “Let's get this over with.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” said Tanner as he came in on the heels of her statement.

Bella made the introductions. “Razor, this is Tanner O'Connell.”

Tanner was not what she'd expected. She'd been so upset about being saddled with a babysitter, she hadn't even considered that he might be a hot one. And he was—smokin'. Taller than Bella, even in her boots, Tanner stood with a posture that screamed complete confidence. His shoulders were wide, his back straight, and his blue eyes stayed fixed on her, unblinking. An amused grin lifted one side of his mouth and formed little crinkles at his eyes. His jeans clung to thick, long legs, and on his feet were the worn cowboy boots of a true Texan.

“Tanner, this is your new partner, Roxanne Haught. We call her Razor.”

Tanner's dark brows went up at that. “Razor? Is that because you have a sharp tongue?”

“The sharpest,” she replied. “You'd better beg Bella for a new trainer, or I'll skin you alive.”

His gaze dropped to her mouth. “Might be worth it.”

Bella grabbed each of them by one arm and pushed them toward her office door. “I see you two have a lot to talk about. Outside of my office. I have work to do.”

“This is a bad idea,” said Roxanne, praying for a last-minute reprieve.

Bella ignored her. “And don't think you can come back here in a few hours claiming you tried to make it work. There will be no trying today. Just doing. Got it?”

“Yes, ma'am,” said Tanner. “We won't let you down.”

Bella gave Tanner a stern look. “She's going to try to ditch you. Don't let it happen. Some asshole is giving her trouble, and if she gets hurt, you're fired.”

All hints of amusement fled Tanner's rugged face, making his eyes turn cold. He seemed to grow a couple of inches taller and took a step closer to Roxanne. It reminded her of her best friend, Jake, who had a tendency to be a bit overprotective.

Tanner nodded. “I understand.”

“Good. I'm glad that's settled. Now get out.” Bella shooed them through the door and shut it behind them.

It was time to let the new kid know how things worked around here. “If I'm going to be your trainer, we have a couple of things to get straight.”

“Such as?”

“I'm in charge. You do what I say, when I say.”

The slightest creases formed at his eyes, but he didn't refute her order. “Is that it?”

“No. I don't want or need a babysitter. I'm going to deal with my personal problems on my own, without your interference.”

“Anything else?”

Wow. He was taking that remarkably well.

“I think that covers the basics. But I reserve the right to change my mind.”

He moved, somehow maneuvering her so that her back was against the wall. He nudged closer, breaking the edge of her personal space. His voice dropped to a quiet rumble that Bella's secretary, Lila, would have had trouble overhearing from her desk a few feet away. “Then it's my turn to talk. I don't work for you. I work for Bella, which means she's the one who gets to hand out the orders, not you. So, while I'm happy to learn whatever it is you have to teach me, I'm sure as hell not going to stand around like a good little boy while you deal with your personal asshole problems when Bella specifically told me not to.”

Roxanne wasn't sure what she'd expected from the seemingly good-natured man, but it wasn't that. She pulled in a breath to put him in his place, but an instant later, his thick, hot finger pressed against her lips, quieting her.

She was so shocked by the touch, she entirely forgot that she should have been upset by it. Instead, she drew in a breath scented with soap and the faintest hint of his skin.

A touch of vertigo spun inside her head, and she realized she'd forgotten to breathe. The roughness of his work-hardened finger grazed across her mouth as her lips parted slightly so she could pull in enough oxygen.

“I'm not done,” he told her. “You and I are going to be working together, and I'm not going to let you do anything to screw up my chances of keeping this job. I need the work. So you and I are going to get along real nice-like and make Bella proud. Got it?”

As close as he was, she could see deep blue streaks radiating out from his pupils. The creases around his eyes were paler, as if he'd spent a lot of time in the sun, squinting. His scent reminded her of a summer drive in a convertible—warm and exhilarating with just a hint of an incoming storm.

She felt her skin heat and attributed it to her sudden flash of irritation at his high-handed ways.

Roxanne pressed her hands against his chest to push him back, but as soon as she felt the hard contours of his muscles beneath her hands, her mind stuttered for a moment before she remembered herself and finished pushing.

Tanner stepped back, his finger shiny from her lip gloss.

Roxanne pressed her lips together to fix the damage he'd done to her makeup and swore she could taste him—salt and earth and something else that made her wish for another taste just so she could figure it out.

Not that she would do that. Bella generally frowned on her coworkers tasting each other.

Roxanne cleared her throat to cover her discomfort. “I can see already that you and I are going to have problems.”

“Nope,” he said. “Not a single one. We're both going to do what the boss says.”

No way was she letting a stranger into her personal life to help her make an ex-boyfriend back off. But he didn't have to know that. “Fine. You win. We'll meet back here after lunch and get started on your training.”

By that time, she'd have dealt with Kurt and no longer have anything to hide. She'd throw herself into training Tanner, and in a few days, everything would be back to normal.

R
oxanne “Razor” Haught obviously thought she was dealing with an idiot.

She was wrong.

Tanner shook his head in amusement as he followed her to the underground parking lot. She hurried out to her car, clicking over the pavement on some of the sexiest high heels he'd ever seen. The artificial overhead lighting gleamed off her perfectly styled hair, showing off several shades of golden blond that matched her wide cuff bracelet exactly. Her bare arms were subtly muscled, with a combination of strength and softness that made Tanner sweat from fighting the need to see what that felt like. The brief touch of his finger against her soft mouth was more than enough to haunt his dreams for a week. Now that he knew what her lips felt like, he was going to spend way too much time thinking about them.

Her shiny lip gloss clung to his finger, and he couldn't quite bring himself to wipe it away. He liked it there—a small reminder of a few brief, pleasant seconds that would never be repeated.

Beneath her classy slacks that hid more than they displayed, her legs were probably sexy as hell. Even though he was working with her, he couldn't help but wonder just how those legs would look if all she was wearing were those strappy leather heels.

Not that he was ever going to find out.

He'd known from the instant he saw her in her fancy clothes and sparkling jewelry that she was going to be trouble. Women with money always were, and office rumors claimed that she was rolling in it. Not only was she an only child who'd gained a substantial inheritance when her parents died a few years back; she also owned more land than was healthy for a person. Between the real estate and old oil money, Razor was set for life and then some.

She was a woman used to getting her own way, but that was about to change.

Razor slid behind the wheel of a shiny silver Mercedes and pulled out of the parking lot at the Edge. Tanner followed her, keeping his distance in the heavy lunch-hour traffic. She turned into the lot of a high-rise building and parked in a visitor's slot.

Tanner gave up his secret chase and found the first open parking spot he could, rather than lose her in the maze of the building. By the time she hit the elevators, he was right on her sexy heels.

“Why are you following me?” she asked without turning around.

“Bella told me to.”

The elevator doors opened, and a small crowd of people got out, heading to lunch. Razor got in. When the doors slid shut, she turned and glared at him. “This is ridiculous. What harm can possibly come to me in broad daylight in an office building?”

“Bella seemed worried.”

“Bella is overprotective.”

“I noticed. Possessive, too. But so long as she's signing the paychecks, she gets to be.”

Razor frowned, which only made him notice her mouth that much more. It was a nice mouth—soft, with just the barest sheen of lip gloss. In a mad corner of his mind, he wondered if it was flavored.

Tanner shoved his hand into his pocket and made sure he'd wiped away all hints of that lip gloss from his finger before he did something stupid and tasted it.

They were working together, and that meant he needed to keep things professional between them. He knew better than to mess up his chances at the Edge by getting involved with a coworker—even one wearing flavored lip gloss.

“Is it really that simple for you?” she asked. “Bella has the money, so she gets the last word?”

“Bella hired me. Not you.”

“So if I were to offer you more money to walk away, you would?”

Anger rose, flashing just below the surface. “My loyalty can't be bought.”

“Seems to me as if it already has been.”

The elevator doors opened and Razor strode forward, her heels clicking on the polished marble floor.

“I'm here to see Kurt,” she announced as she passed the receptionist.

The young woman shot to her feet, scurrying to stop Razor from passing. “Do you have an appointment?”

Razor kept going without an answer, and as soon as the receptionist realized she could not be stopped, she scurried back around her desk and picked up the phone.

Tanner wasn't sure if she was calling this Kurt guy or security, but he wasn't about to stop and listen long enough to figure it out. Wherever Razor was going, so was he.

She opened a door on her left, walking in as if she owned the place. The man behind the desk quickly shut his laptop and stared up with a guilty look on his face.

Kurt's skin said he was nearing forty, but he had the body of a much younger man. Several pictures sat atop his desk for visitors to see, showing him rock climbing and skydiving. There was another of him shirtless, wearing boxing gloves and dripping with sweat.

His hair had begun to gray, and he'd tanned his skin until it was a deep, crinkly brown. Even though the man was dressed in a suit and tie, Tanner could tell he was an athlete.

“This has to stop, Kurt,” said Razor.

“What the hell are you doing in my office?”

“You sent another man to follow me again, didn't you?”

Kurt glanced back at Tanner, who planned on keeping his mouth shut unless things got out of hand.

“No. I've never seen this man before in my life,” said Kurt.

“Not him. The skinny guy with the bad haircut.”

“I have no idea what you're talking about.”

Razor pulled out her phone and brought up a photo. She set it down on Kurt's desk. “Proof. Which I plan on showing the police if you don't stop sending your buddies around to follow me.”

Kurt looked at the photo. “I don't know this guy. Looks like a drug addict to me.”

“This isn't funny anymore. We're over. Deal with it.”

“I have. As a matter of fact, I'm seeing someone else now. Not that you care.”