Twist My Heart by Brooke Taylor (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

My spine softened at the dropped connection, but the upset was quickly replaced by curiosity in the heaviness my muscles had taken on, the way my fingertips pulsed. They were mine and yet I felt detached from this body. It still belonged to someone else. To her.

Nik strode to the kitchen where he filled a bowl with water and set it on the floor. To me, he said, “You should probably get in the bath. The soreness you’re feeling now is only going to get worse if you don’t.”

“I’m feeling pretty good right now, actually,” I murmured as I set the empty shot glass on the counter.

“I bet.” His drawled voice was a mixture of smooth and rough, and had the same effect on me as the alcohol. “But it won’t last.”

“Maybe I should have another then.”

“Not a chance,” he said with a stern clip and a flash of flex.

I laughed and as I turned away, my gaze dropped to the floor, where I spotted a women’s purse jutting out of Nik’s bag.

“What’s this? Is it mine?”

“I’m guessing you had it in your possession. Titan must’ve grabbed it.”

“Had it in my possession? Are you suggesting I stole it?”

“If anything, I’m suggesting your dog stole it.”

I didn’t dare glance up to see the smirk I was certain he was flashing. None of this was funny. I dumped the contents of the purse out on the kitchen counter. One look at the wad of cash and the ID in the exotic leather wallet and I knew the purse hadn’t belonged to me. She’d most likely stolen it.

“We need to find out who Seraphina Westin is, get all this back to her.” Maybe if I returned her stuff to her quickly, she wouldn’t press charges.

“It’s possible you didn’t steal anything. Could be a fake ID.”

As if impersonating someone else was better. “Thanks to the morning news, we know I’m old enough to do whatever and whoever I damn well please, including you.” He straightened up, but before he could offer up a redo of our hotel bathroom encounter, I continued, “So the only reason I’d need a fake ID is if I was pretending to be someone else.”

I studied the photo on the driver’s license. With a black, shoulder-length wig with bangs and enough makeup, I could maybe pass for the striking woman in the photo. Probably. I tossed it aside.

Yep, even she didn’t want to be her.

Nik had yet to respond. Whether he was still considering my comment about ‘doing’ him or he had no counter for why I’d need a fake ID, I wasn’t sure and didn’t care.

I lifted the roll of money. “How much do you think this is?”

“A lot. Ten, fifteen grand? Maybe more.”

My stomach turned at the amount and suddenly I became the speechless one. Gun, money, fake ID… Grand Theft Canine had been only the beginning. She had me so far in over my head I couldn’t see straight. All the blood had rushed from my brain and pooled heavily in my gut.

Nik’s hand lightly clasped my elbow. “Thea, I know this is overwhelming. But don’t jump to wild conclusions. Let me see what I can find out while you’re in the ice bath.”

“Wait…a what kind of what?”

“Ice. Bath. A bathtub filled with cold water and ice.”

“Are you messing with me? Ice bath? I was sure I’d heard you wrong before.”

He lowered his eyes to his hand, still wrapped around my arm. My eyes dropped, slowly taking in the muscles of his forearms, the dark hair and the hard tendons, the thick veins in his large hands, his strong fingers. Fingers I’d moments before imagined being inside of me, now curled as his thumb stroked along the sensitive skin along the inside of my elbow.

“Something’s gotta cool things off around here.” His eyes lifted, meeting mine. His lips twisted as he flashed a dimple I’d never seen before. The slashed hint of it caught me so off guard, I momentarily forgot the purse, my predicament, and his ludicrous idea of a bath and instead became acutely aware of the warmth of his touch and the heat spooling between my thighs. Cool things off…

Yeah, good luck with that.

* * * *

Nik filled a five-gallon bucket from the industrial-sized icemaker in the workout room of his walk-out basement. He’d restarted it when he’d come through the day before to de-winterize the cabin after his deployment. Hefting the bucket up, he poured the cubes into the cold tub water. Ice baths were standard procedure after he and Coop or Leo had beat each other raw practicing Combat Jiujitsu, Sayoc Kali, Krav Maga or whatever other martial arts moves Leo had taught them to improve their close-quarters combat skills. If you could handle just a few minutes of the cold, there was nothing better to keep the aches and pain at bay.

He closed the bathroom door, leaving Thea to soak for as long as she could stand. Given the curses he heard her muttering, he doubted she’d gut it out for more than a few seconds.

After opening a bottle of water, he flipped on his computer and started running basic checks, like Googling Thea’s name. Nik’s mind worked to fit the pieces together. The gun, the money, the thumb drive, the German shepherd, the black SUV, the blood, the lack of easy info on her, her toughness, her intelligence. Was Thea Gale really such a puzzle, though?

From the way she’d held her gun on him in the hotel room and the tactical way she’d maneuvered in the video, she wasn’t your average Kansas farm girl. Being the betting man he was, his money was split between Langley Farm Girl or on her having gone down the yellow brick road at Quantico.

But there was always the possibility she was merely your run-of-the-mill bad girl on steroids who’d stolen a shit ton of money and broken her canine pal out of doggy jail.

All options came with