“And I suppose you know every woman who lives near enough to drop in?”
“Didn’t say that.” But, like any other red-blooded male, he’d noted the more attractive ladies. “Hell, if any of my neighbors were good-looking, and if I wasn’t expending all my energy chasing you, I still wouldn’t go that route.”
Dare nodded. “Too close for comfort.”
“Exactly.”
Alani frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“Complications,” Trace explained as he paced.
Suspicion narrowed her eyes. “What kind of complications?”
“The kind where, after the sex is done and the interest gone, you’re stuck with an annoyed woman in close proximity to where you live.”
Slowly, taut with judgment, Alani swiveled around with a dark frown aimed at Jackson.
He said, “Uh…” Trace wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t have to spell it out to her like that.
“Doesn’t matter now.” Trace saved him by slashing his hand through the air. “Does she sound like anyone you’ve been with?”
Jackson shook his head. “Nope.”
To Alani, Trace asked, “Did you speak to her?”
“Well…yes.” With renewed annoyance, Alani glared at Jackson again. “She answered your door for you.”
Jackson’s brows shot up. “Where the hell was I?”
“On the couch.” She poked him in the chest. “You were all lounged back, comfortable, your feet up on the coffee table. I was ready to leave since you appeared otherwise involved, but then you got up when you saw it was me at the door, and the woman said she had to go anyway, and…”
“Jesus, Alani.”
“Don’t use that tone with me.” She turned her cannon on her brother again. “Did Jackson do anything you haven’t done?”
“He was with another woman!”
She started to bolt off Jackson’s lap, but when he held on to her hips, she subsided, too anxious to fight her brother to quibble over her position. “So? We didn’t have any kind of understanding—”
“We do now,” Jackson announced, just in case she’d missed that important fact.
“—and he said he was thrilled to see me.”
Whoa. On a gut level, Jackson rejected that wording. “Thrilled?” Sure, he might have been thrilled, but would he really have been that obvious?
Dare grinned, shook his head and repeated, “Thrilled,” with clear mockery.
“And that’s all it took?” Trace asked.
She strangled on a deep inhale. “Are you calling me easy?”
“No!” Now Trace looked appalled. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”
“Jackson’s sincerity was enough for me to stay. And then…well…”
They all waited.
“Oh, forget it!” And this time she got away from Jackson. “It happened, okay? Get over it so we can concentrate on the fact that he was drugged.”
“No one is forgetting that, hon.”
She glared at Dare. “We need to know who she is.”
“And if she worked alone,” Jackson said.
“Doesn’t seem likely.” Silently fuming, Trace stepped up close to frown down at Alani. “What about your financier?”
Oh, hell. Jackson had forgotten all about Marc Tobin. Sitting forward, he stated, “That’s over.” Or at least it better be.
At the same time, Alani said, “I broke things off with him.”
Tension washed out of Jackson’s shoulders, leaving him with a certain sort of contentment. The persistent throbbing in his temples faded.
Trace looked from Alani to Jackson and back again. “Since when?”
“A little more than a week ago.”
A whole week? And she hadn’t come to him right away? Damn, had she been grieving over the breakup?
“Did you give him a reason?” Dare wanted to know.
“None of your business.”
Trace brought her chin back around. “Sorry, sweetheart. Maybe you don’t know how this works, but under the circumstances, we need to hear everything. It’s the only way we can really analyze the potential danger.”
“You actually think Marc could be involved?”
“He’d have reason to be furious with Jackson—or with you.”
Surprise held her silent for a heartbeat before she scoffed. “You think I’m in danger? That’s absurd. Jackson is the one who was drugged.”
Unable to hide his smirk, Trace said, “Getting all the facts is the only way we can protect Jackson, too.”
Oh, now, that burned his ass. “I don’t need—”
Before Jackson could finish protesting, Alani faltered. “But…Marc wouldn’t have had anything to do with—”
“Jackson getting doped? Probably not, so don’t get alarmed. But I want you to tell me everything anyway.”
Jackson noticed so many things—the way her lips trembled, the new tautness in her shoulders, her pallor and shallow breaths.
“Trace,” he said low. “Back off, will you?” Sure, she needed to be sheltered, but scaring her wouldn’t accomplish anything.
Trace narrowed his eyes and cupped Alani’s shoulder. “Nothing’s going to happen to you, honey. This is just a precaution.”
She swallowed hard and averted her gaze from one and all. “I told him I was thinking of seeing…someone else.”
Dare put his elbows on his knees. “You mentioned Jackson to him?”
“No, of course not.” She shook her head. “That would have been needlessly rude.”
Since Alani was the epitome of graciousness, Trace accepted that explanation. “Did anyone know you were coming to see Jackson yesterday?”
“Jackson knew.”
Doing a double take, Jackson asked, “I did?”
“I called you.” Her sad smile came and went. “But I suppose you’ve forgotten that, too. I called you before leaving work.”
“Anyone overhear that call?” Dare asked.
“I was in my office, so I doubt it.” And then, head high and shoulders back, she turned to leave the room. “I’m going to put on coffee.”
“Alani…” Knowing the idea of danger had shaken her, Jackson started to stand.
“No.” She stopped him by raising an imperious hand. She pointed a finger at the food she’d brought him and gave a succinct order. “Eat.”
No one gave him orders.
Jackson considered her. She’d left her rich boyfriend in the dust. She’d freely defended him to her brother.
She’d slept with him, whether he remembered it or not.
Overall, he was pretty damn happy with her, so he gave her a salute. “Yes, darlin’. Whatever you say.”
CHAPTER THREE