Defying Asher (Knight Security 1) Read online

  Until the sound of a shot being fired.

  Ian had told him all became pandemonium after that, a couple of horses bolting, the people either scattering like ants and pushing past Ian or falling to the ground so that they were a smaller target if or when any more shots were fired.

  The panic had preventing Ian from getting to the other couple for several seconds.

  Once he did, the shooter was long gone and he could see Jack Forsythe was down, Claudia sitting on the grass beside him, his head resting on her knee as she attempted to stanch the flow of blood pouring from his shoulder. By the time they got him to the hospital, he had lost a lot of blood, and the bullet still needed to be removed.

  “If Claudia refuses to play ball, I’ll be taking annual leave.” Ash now answered Gabriel. “I don’t trust Claudia, or anyone else, to keep Lissa safe.”

  “We’ll deal with that if the situation arises. I have no idea what’s going on between you and Miss Forsythe.” Gabriel frowned. “Nor do I want to know,” he assured him briskly. “For the moment, just make sure you do your job. One person is already dead, another has been seriously injured.”

  Coitus interruptus was all that was “going on” between Ash and Lissa at the moment.

  She had been understandably distraught at learning her father had been shot, controlled and silent during the drive to the hospital, also silent as she sat beside her mother as the two of them kept vigil waiting for Jack to come out of surgery. Which was when Lissa had announced she was staying at the hospital with her father overnight, despite the doctor’s assurances Jack was doing well and would probably sleep all night following the surgery.

  Ash had wanted to talk to her, but Lissa hadn’t so much as acknowledged his presence again before leaving with Claudia to see for herself her father was alive and, while not exactly well, at least expected to recover.

  Ash doubted Lissa was even aware he and Liam had stood guard outside Jack’s room all night along with two policemen. Ian and Caleb had accompanied Claudia Reynolds when she left to return to her apartment late last night. Ethan had taken over at the hospital this morning. Liam would be rejoining him once he’d had a few hours’ sleep.

  Ash was supposed to go home and get some sleep too. But there was no way he could do that with all the unanswered questions crowded inside his head. When he believed Lissa was now in more danger than ever. First Claudia’s bodyguard had been shot and killed; now Jack had been shot. Lissa was the next person on the list of those closely related to Claudia.

  He nodded. “Do we or the police know any more about the shooter?” He knew once the police had their statement from Ian, they had also called on Gabriel, wanting a full explanation of Knight Security’s involvement. People didn’t get shot in a London park every day. It had helped to keep those interviews to a minimum that Gabriel knew the police inspector who was in charge of the case, having worked with him on several other sensitive cases.

  “No shell casing or any other evidence was found. With time and the help of NYPD, the police ballistic department should be able to ascertain whether or not the bullet in Forsythe’s shoulder was shot from the same gun that killed Harvey Stein.”

  “Is there any doubt?”

  “Not in my mind, no, but the police require evidence not guesswork.” Gabriel stood restlessly. “This went south very quickly, Ash. It’s almost as if the shooter is one step ahead of us, anticipating moves we didn’t see coming.”

  “Like Claudia and Jack taking an unscheduled stroll through the park.” He nodded.

  “Exactly.”

  Ash sighed. “The obvious answer is he followed her from New York and he’s just been watching and waiting for the opportunity to shoot her. Until yesterday morning, Claudia hadn’t left her apartment since arriving in England.”

  “However. Whoever. This happened on our watch, Ash.” Gabriel scowled. “Lives, and the reputation of Knight Security, are on the line. If Miss Reynolds doesn’t agree with the changes I’m making, then this conversation is moot anyway because I will have no choice but to remove our company from the equation. Knight Security can’t protect someone who refuses to accept the level of protection necessary to keep her and those around her safe.”

  No matter what Gabriel and Claudia decided later this morning, Ash was determined not to leave Lissa unprotected.

  Whether she wanted his protection or not.

  After her coolness toward him since yesterday morning, Ash was pretty sure the answer to that was “not.”

  “How are you feeling, Daddy?” Lissa studied her father anxiously as she sat beside his hospital bed, one of his hands tightly clasped in hers as it lay on top of the bedcovers.

  “You tell me.” His face was almost as white as the pillows he was lying back against. “I haven’t been Daddy to you since you became a precocious teenager and announced you were going to call us Jack and Claudia in future.”

  She had been a precocious teenager. Also a rebellious one, hitting out verbally at everyone and everything. Calling her parents by their first names was only the tip of the iceberg. If not for Stazzi’s friendship and steadying influence, Lissa knew there had been the danger she would go completely off the rails and get herself into situations she might not have been able to get out of. Typical self-destructive stuff of a teenager.

  “The doctors successfully removed the bullet from your shoulder,” she answered briskly. “But they want to keep you in for a couple of days just to make sure there’s no infection or delayed shock.”

  He sighed wearily. “I guess this makes the threat to your mother pretty real.”

  “I think Harvey’s death already proved that.”

  Jack gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m so sorry for what happened to him. I know how fond you were of him.”

  Tears instantly stung Lissa’s eyes. It had been a long and sleepless night sitting at her father’s bedside, and his sympathy was in such stark contrast to her mother’s lack of it.

  Typically, Claudia, having spoken with the police inspector and the surgeon having assured her of Jack’s recovery, had left the hospital late last night to return to her apartment. And Malcolm. There hadn’t been so much as a phone call from her mother since, to check on Jack or Lissa.

  Cold, unfeeling bitch didn’t even begin to touch the names Lissa had called the woman who had given birth to her, during the lonely sleepless hours of vigil she had spent at Jack’s bedside last night.

  As for Asher…

  Lissa hadn’t seen anything of him since she went to see her father after his surgery. Ash had been nowhere to be seen once her father was settled in his room for the night either.

  “Don’t you have a travel agency to open this morning?” Jack prompted.

  “My assistant is opening up today.” She shrugged. “I’ll check in with her later.” She had telephoned Gloria last night. Also her next-door neighbor, to ask if she could let Sherlock back into her apartment and give him some food and water. Her cat would no doubt make his disgruntlement known when she got home later today.

  “That’s no way to run a business, baby.”

  Baby.

  Ash had called her that yesterday morning as the two of them made love together.

  Lissa immediately shut down any thought of her would-be lover. She was in no frame of mind to think logically or clearly. “You’re more important than my business,” she assured her father.

  “Glad to hear it, but I really just have some discomfort. I have no plans to die for a long time yet.”

  “Are you trying to get rid of me?” Lissa teased.

  Jack’s expression softened. “You look tired.”

  She was tired. And nauseated at what could have happened to her father yesterday morning while she was happily in bed begging Asher to thrust into her “harder” and “deeper.”

  Merely thinking of her throaty pleas was enough to make her cringe with embarrassment.

  God knows what Asher thought of her now.

  Nothing she hadn�
��t already thought about herself, she was sure.

  “Good to see you’re awake, Mr. Forsythe.”

  Talk of the devil.

  Lissa schooled her features into an expression of cool enquiry before she turned to look at Asher standing in the open doorway. Which didn’t stop her heart from pumping more rapidly or her stomach feeling as if it had turned over completely. “No thanks to Knight Security,” she snapped, her embarrassment about yesterday morning making her feel defensive.

  “That’s a little unfair, baby,” her father chided.

  Asher’s gaze narrowed as it met Lissa’s hostile one. “Miss Forsythe is entitled to voice her opinion,” he answered noncommittally.

  “My opinion is that Claudia should hire another security company.” Lissa couldn’t seem to stop the insults now she’d started. Delayed shock? Possibly. “The one she has seems to be incompetent.”

  “Lissa—”

  “It’s okay, Mr. Forsythe,” Asher assured him evenly, his gaze remaining fixed on Lissa, the expression in the darkness of his eyes promising retribution. “My brother Gabriel is meeting with Miss Reynolds right now to discuss what security she needs.”

  “I hope she kicks his ass,” Lissa said disgustedly.

  “Lissa—”

  “She can try.” Ash knew his smile was more a baring of his teeth than any real humor. “But I have a feeling it will be more a case of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object.” If anyone was capable of standing up to Claudia Reynolds, then it had to be his older brother. “Gabriel will insist that things are done his way in future.”

  “What happened to the customer always being right?”

  There was no way Ash could miss that Lissa was spoiling for a fight, illogically so, by first berating him and Knight Security for not protecting her father from being shot, and in the next breath championing her mother’s decision in regard to the way she had instructed them to protect her.

  No doubt Lissa’s bad temper was due to a lack of sleep and the hours of tension and worry about her father. Even so, she was out of line. Unacceptably intent on reducing Ash to nothing more than another lackey of her domineering mother. Besides which, he was tired himself after being on duty for almost twenty-four hours.

  His mouth thinned. “I suggest we take this outside and let your father get some rest.”

  Lissa’s chin rose. “I have nothing more to say to you.”

  He raised dark brows. “But I have some things I want to say to you.”

  It felt as if Lissa’s stomach had done another complete flip as she saw the dangerous glitter in Asher’s eyes.

  “Go, baby,” her father advised wearily. “I need to get some sleep anyway. And give the man a break, hmm? No one could have predicted what happened yesterday morning. Whoever this person is attempting to harm your mother, they obviously don’t care who else gets hurt in the process.” He squeezed Lissa’s hand before releasing her. “Go home,” he encouraged. “Shower and get some sleep. Check in with your staff. Then come back later if you want to. Apparently, I’m not going anywhere.”

  Lissa was more than a little ashamed of her remarks to Asher as she bent to kiss her father on the cheek before preceding Asher out of the hospital room.

  She could feel Asher’s brooding tension as he followed her and quietly closed the door behind him.

  Lissa turned to face him once the two of them were out in the corridor. Asher took her arm to pull her farther down the hallway, out of earshot of the two policemen and his brother Ethan. “I don’t—” she started.

  “Before you say anything else to make me want to spank your bare backside raw, let me warn you against making any more accusations against Knight Security.” Asher’s eyes glittered darkly. “You can be as personally pissed with me as you want, but don’t let that spill over onto Knight Security. Your mother went against Gabriel’s advice when she gave instructions for her protection. We have followed those instructions.”

  Her chin remained stubbornly high. “And yet my father still ended up with a bullet in his shoulder.”

  “Yes, he did.” A nerve pulsed in Asher’s clenched jaw. “And no one regrets that more than we do. Your mother was told what was needed to keep her and those around her safe. She would only agree to two bodyguards being present when she was inside her apartment building, one bodyguard if or when she left the building. Gabriel is with her right now explaining that isn’t enough.”

  “And if she won’t agree to changes?” Knowing how arrogant her mother could be, Lissa knew that was a distinct possibility.

  “Then she’ll leave Gabriel with no choice but to tell her we will only continue to guard her and her family for as long as it takes her to find herself another security company.”

  That seemed reasonable in the circumstances.

  Lissa raised derisive brows. “You and whose army is going to spank my bare backside raw?”

  Asher snorted his impatience. “After all I’ve just said, that’s the one thing you’ve decided to challenge me on?”

  She wasn’t challenging him exactly. She was more…intrigued.

  Asher was right. What the hell was she thinking? Harvey was dead, her father had been shot, her mother was in danger, she was probably in danger, and all she could think about was how it would feel to have Asher’s hand spanking her bare flesh.

  Would he put her over his knee? Or maybe bend her over a table or sofa?

  And how sick was she to even be thinking about that at a time like this, let alone feeling this delicious thrill of excitement running down her spine at those erotic thoughts.

  She was an idiot. A halfway-in-love-with-Asher-Knight idiot.

  She turned away. “I need to leave— Where are you going?” She stopped and frowned as Asher fell into step beside her.

  “Until I’m told otherwise, Zander and I are now your security detail.” He nodded to the large man who had fallen into step behind them.

  “What?”

  Asher eyed her mockingly, no doubt amused by the shocked horror in her tone. “Gabriel, in his infinite wisdom, has assigned me to be one of your bodyguards.”

  That was what Lissa had thought he’d said.

  Chapter 6

  She was too stunned to argue as Asher took hold of her arm once they emerged from the hospital, before guiding her toward a black SUV in the car park. His associate, Zander, walked over to get in behind the wheel of a second SUV.

  “So what happens now?” she prompted as Asher made no effort to start the engine once they were both seated in the front of the powerful vehicle.

  He glanced at her. “Well, first you apologize for behaving like a spoilt brat by talking to me that way in front of your father. Then—”

  “What?” Lissa instantly bristled at his domineering tone, her hands clenching on her thighs.

  “You heard me.” His tone remained unrelenting, hard. “I want an apology from you for having been as much of a bitch as your mother.”

  “How dare you!” The last thing Lissa ever wanted was to be anything like her mother.

  Asher’s jaw clenched. “Don’t challenge me.”

  “I don’t recall saying anything that wasn’t true.” Her tiredness and Asher’s uncompromising tone made her stubbornly determined not to back down.

  “You called the employees of Knight Security incompetent. Implied we’re responsible for your father being shot.”

  “If the cap— What the hell are you doing?” Lissa gasped as Asher pressed a button on the door beside him and his seat automatically moved all the way back before he reached out and hauled her over onto his side of the SUV. “Let me go, damn it!” She fought against the arm he had placed across her back to keep her in place facedown across his thighs.

  “Pity about the denim,” he bit out harshly as he easily fended off all her struggles. “I’ll have to make sure I make the spanks doubly hard if you’re going to feel it.”

  “Asher!” Lissa barely had time to gasp out his name before his hand la
nded painfully on her jeans-clad bottom. “You really are an asshole!” she choked.

  “Watch your mouth,” he growled as he landed another painful smack on her bottom. “You aren’t the only one who had no sleep last night, you know.” And another one. “Nor have you been treated like shit this morning by the person you went to bed with yesterday.” And another.

  “How come you’re allowed to swear and I’m not?” She turned her head to glare at him, her dignity in tatters. She had never been spanked in her life before, nor was it turning out to be the sensuous pleasure she had imagined earlier. Asher’s hand hurt, damn it.

  “Because, as usual, you’ve pissed me off.” Ash was enjoying spanking Lissa much more than he should have. There was something hot about feeling her firm flesh beneath the palm of his hand, as well as the satisfaction of delivering the well-deserved chastisement.

  “And now you’re pissing me off.” Those topaz eyes had fire blazing in their depths.

  “I can live with that,” he dismissed as he landed another smack. “I’m still waiting for that apology.”

  “Go to hell!”

  Ash landed three smacks in quick succession. “I told you to watch your mouth.”

  “I don’t answer to you.”

  “News flash, Lissa—right here and right now, I’m exactly who you’ll answer to.”

  “When hell freezes over!”

  “I could just keep spanking you,” he considered. “Problem is, it’s not a punishment when you’re enjoying it so much…” Ash mused as he realized her squirms were now accompanied by throaty moans. “You like having your bottom spanked.” His hand squeezed and caressed the twin orbs of her shapely bottom.

  The cheeks on Lissa’s face burned almost as hotly as the ones on her bottom at the truth of his words. Her only consolation was the windows were tinted, so hopefully no one else—including the man in the other SUV—had been able to look inside the vehicle and see what Asher was doing.

  And, in spite of the pain, the sting to the flesh on her smacked backside had caused a heat between her thighs that dampened her panties and made her clit throb. Her nipples were also hard and aching.