“Oh, sure, a good thing.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I have no idea what March 2006 means. Who remembers what they did eighteen years ago?”
Had Frank placed the shirt after the wardrobe person set up Alex’s clothes? To be fair to Frank, the wardrobe person did the setup way in advance of Alex’s arrival at the venue, giving anyone who was backstage time to leave the shirt.
“We need to have Frank look into the wardrobe person—run a background check. And check the security tapes.” Since Frank wasn’t privy to Danni’s role as Alex’s personal bodyguard, Danni couldn’t tell him what to do. Not that testosterone-swaggering Frank would listen to her anyway. Now she was glad that Frank didn’t know her role, since she planned on upping her surveillance on him.
Alex leaned back in the chair, stretching his legs out.
“You know, you’re amazing. I know you said no to sex, but, Danni, I don’t know what I would do without you. I’d really like us to be more than friends.”
Despite her dual PhDs, she might never understand men. “Let’s focus. You would’ve been eighteen years old in 2006. Someone from your past? An old girlfriend before you became famous?”
Alex gulped the water. An obvious shudder went through his body. “I had a girlfriend my freshmen year in Providence, but she died after I dropped out. I got my first recording deal January 2006, and they wanted me to start touring at semester break, so I guess I left college in March.”
“You left school. Can you remember where you were touring in March? Maybe a fan you hooked up with?”
Alex stared at her. “You’re kidding, right? Like I would remember. It’s pretty much a blur. I was all over the place. Milwaukee? Cleveland, Dayton, Scranton. Who knows? And who remembers the roadies?” Alex stood. “I need to get dressed. Frank will get on this. He’ll need to file another police report.”
Danni turned the T-shirt inside out and read the label. She’d call Reeves. This was a custom T-shirt, and if anyone could trace the manufacturer, Reeves could. And if the stalker had ordered the shirt online, Reeves would be able to track the order and possibly discover the identity of the stalker.
She’d never give up until the stalker was caught. Still on leave from her work with Jordan Dean, she had the time to devote her skills to solving a crime and the time to figure out what she wanted to do next with her life once the stalker was behind bars. She wasn’t sure she’d return to the research lab. Being held prisoner and forced to do her life-saving research for criminals made a girl reevaluate her life’s purpose.
Trouble was, she kept getting distracted by someone who promised to complicate her life whichever choice she made.
She’d figured she’d be logical about her choice, but that plan got thrown out of the window whenever her mind flicked to the memory of Lars lying in the hospital bed. He was too ill to keep up his macho, jokester defense. Instead, he had been vulnerable, open, and grateful for her care. And she liked that man. She liked that man too much. He never complained about his pain but thanked her for every little thing.
Sigh. It would be another restless night.
Chapter Four
Lars waited with Sophie at the private entrance to the backstage area of the enormous LA Music Center. For a US Marine Raider, an elite spec forces operator who could control his metabolic rate, his heart rate, and his breathing, today was a lost cause. He’d like to believe that the reason was that he hadn’t returned to his level of fitness after his injury. But fitness wasn’t the issue. His breathing and heart rate were surging in anticipation of Danni.
Could he see her touch Hardy and not react? Faced with the obvious, he’d have to give up obsessing over this one woman. Give up his need to have Danni in his bed and act out every fantasy he had imagined to burn out his fascination finally. He just wasn’t built to quit. Quitting went against every fiber of his being. It wasn’t in the Marines’ or the Jenkins’ credo to give up.
He’d have to move on without her, the sassy woman he had wanted since the moment he met her. After her and Jordan’s harrowing kidnapping by the 14K Chinese crime gang, Danni had flipped her long blonde hair and told him, her rescuer, that she was disappointed that he wasn’t as good-looking as his twin.
He looked down to see Sophie’s big baby blues focused on him. “If you hurt her, I’m going to have both Finn and Aiden kick your butt. They consider Danni their sister.”
And here he thought he had been clever in his attempt to get Sophie to LA.
“What about your loyalty to me? You’ve known me your whole life. Did you ever think Danni might be capable of hurting me?”
Shit. He was off his game. Deny, deny, deny… The pain of Danni walking away. Maybe it was having grown up with Sophie that made him honest.
“You don’t have a track record of appreciating the finer points of women. Whenever you’re were in Seattle, you and Sten were always hooking up. It’s all a game. Nothing but a competition. Have you ever actually looked at a woman for more than a good time?”
He was glad that Sophie had never learned about his disastrous relationship with Carmen, the only woman he’d vowed to love forever and had planned to marry after his first deployment. Too bad Carmen turned out to be a cheating skank. He thanked Uncle Sam for interfering with his plans before he made a big fricking mistake.
“I’ve never lied to any woman about what I want. And the women were down with it, or I walked away. No one was hurt.”
“Well, Danni isn’t ‘down with it.’ She doesn’t need another man unable to commit.”
This was new information. Danni maintained she was a player and not interested in commitment. He stowed the reference to explore later. He’d hit up Reeves, who was the easiest to interrogate. Danni’s women friends were all tight-lipped about what shaped Danni’s take-no-prisoners attitude toward the Jenkins brothers. This was the first time Lars had heard that someone in her past had hurt her. If it were true, then he and Danni were perfect for each other. Both were realistic about the happily ever after bullshit.
“You’ve been listening to Danni too long. Have you ever considered that as soldiers, my brothers and I don’t want to bring anyone into the dangerous and unpredictable lives that we lead? And not just because we’re sexist womanizers?”
His family was the perfect example of the devastation that military life wreaked on marriages and families. His mother was left to raise five boys on her own after his dad had been killed in action. He never wanted his kids to grow up without a father.
Sophie wrapped her arms around his middle and rested her head on his shoulder. “Honestly, I never thought about it until Finn’s deployment. I don’t know who took it harder when he left—me with my fear, or him with his guilt for leaving me alone and afraid.”
“Oh, honey.” Lars leaned back and pushed Sophie’s abundant blonde curls away from her face. “You have nothing to worry about. Finn is an indestructible, kick-butt SEAL. He’ll make sure he’s safe since he has you to come home to.”
“Does Finn know you have a thing for his baby brother?” Danni’s husky voice reverberated into his brain, triggering every cell with unanswered needs.