Fierce-Ella (The Fierce Five Series Book 5) Read online

  “You didn’t,” he asked, pushing her back a little.

  She stepped out of his arms and went to the fridge to get a beer. She needed one right now, then grabbed one for him. “I did. She told me she was going to be watching me now that she figured out I set the four boys up.”

  “You actually admitted it to her?” he asked, looking shocked.

  “Of course not, but I didn’t deny it. Why bother at this point? Anyway, I told her I wouldn’t go behind her back. I’m just going to do it in front of her face.”

  “I can only imagine her reaction to that.”

  “She told the two men I hadn’t taken my meds today and to ignore me.”

  Gavin burst out laughing. “You should know better than to butt heads with Ella.”

  “She learned everything from me. I’m older and wiser and I’ll still find someone for her.”

  Gavin shook his head. “Leave Ella alone. Let her figure this out on her own. She’s always had the hardest time finding a man. Harder than the boys finding women.”

  “That’s because the boys really did terrorize everyone she was interested in,” she argued.

  “She set herself up for a lot of it. Always running around besting them her whole life and rubbing their faces in it. Then when she turned fourteen she stopped being a tomboy overnight and turned into a beauty queen. Those boys didn’t know what hit them and they got scared.”

  She remembered the first time Ella asked her to go shopping and they turned her jeans and sneakers into skirts and shoes. She was so proud of her only daughter back then turning into a lady. But her sons all panicked and she’d heard them later that night formulating a plan to make sure no one touched their baby sister. She’d been proud of them too, but would never admit that to Ella.

  “Ella has been there for each and every one of those boys through everything. Maybe now that they are all married, or soon to be, and have wives that could and probably will kick their butts, they won’t interfere with Ella finding a mate. That’s why it should be easier.”

  “Jolene. Do me a favor and take a breather. Be happy you found someone for the boys, but Ella needs to be handled differently.”

  “I know. Which is why I’m going to be right up front with it. I’ll find someone. You just wait,” she said confidently rubbing her hands together. Her husband grabbed his beer, rolled his eyes, and walked out of the room. “I’m telling you, Gavin,” she shouted after him. “I’ll find her the perfect man.”

  Push Her Buttons

  Travis McKinley swiped his card at the back door of Fierce leading into the restaurant early Sunday morning. Well, not so early for him, as it was seven in the morning, but the restaurant and bar wouldn’t open until eleven. The first of the kitchen staff would be in around ten prepping for lunch. He knew the schedule of operations of all his clients.

  He glanced at the security control panel, saw the lights blinking and put the code in to shut the system off even though he saw Ella Fierce’s Lexus in the parking lot all by its lonesome when he pulled in. After three years of doing their security, he knew that Ella would always be here on Sunday morning while he rotated cameras around. He wondered if she’d ever trust him to come in on his own.

  Probably not. She was a tough nut to crack. Hell, he wasn’t sure there was anything to even wiggle her open, let alone crack her down the center to see what she was made of. She was harder than cooled lava.

  He turned to look at the camera he knew was facing the control panel, squinted his eyes and then shook his head like he always did. He had no clue if she was watching him, but just in case, he liked to let her know he knew she was there.

  He set about pulling down the eight cameras that rotated through the kitchen and bar and placed them in different spots, hidden from view. He hadn’t thought the Fierce siblings would have liked his suggestion to this rotation system years ago, but they’d jumped on it. It was more work for him, but they were paying him a steep price for it. Especially since they only allowed him to come in and do it and not one of his employees.

  Once he had the ladder out of the storage room, he set about moving the cameras or changing the angles of some that he’d kept in place. He knew what he was doing before he even got here, as their plan was programmed into his computer.

  Efficiency was key when you owned your own business.

  If Ella wanted a camera placed in a specific spot, she’d email him by Saturday, but she hadn’t so he did his own thing. If she had a problem with it, she’d tell him. She never shied away from letting him know if something wasn’t to her liking. He’d bet she was like that with everyone.

  Once he was done, he made his way up the stairs intending to just say hi to the queen of the palace. He was probably a glutton for punishment to do it, since Ella always seemed so cool to him, but he was feeling reckless this morning. He’d been having the urge to push her buttons for a good year and never seemed to make it happen.

  Today was going to be the day. Why not? It’s not like they’d fire him or discontinue his services. He was cocky enough to know that and was tired enough this morning to see if he could get any reaction out of her other than her death stare and quick dismissal.

  “Yes,” she said before he could even knock on her doorframe and make his presence known.

  “Just thought I’d drop this quote off for you in case you had any questions. I figured you could ask me in person.” He knew she hated even calling him with questions; he’d always heard it in her tone. He just couldn’t figure out what he’d ever done to tick her off.

  He wasn’t the most graceful of people, but he was always professional and businesslike. He tried to be friendly. He’d tried all sorts of tactics to get Ella to open up with him. Nothing worked, so he gave up, making him wonder why he was standing in her office right now.

  She reached an elegant hand forward and he handed over the envelope. They were the only two here and he was positive she’d be the only one working a few hours more, yet she was dressed like she belonged in a corporate office on Monday morning ready to ring the opening bell on Wall Street.

  “What’s different?” she asked. He wondered if she ever smiled. If she did, it was never around him. It was too bad because she was one stunning woman that made his heart skip a beat more times than he cared to admit. Yep, just a glutton for punishment, he was!

  Ella had dark hair, dark eyes that looked so serious and ran deep. Deep and serious was something he’d been for years and he was tired of it now. He wanted to go back to how he was when he was a kid. How he was ten years ago, maybe even just five years ago. Anything different than now.

  He wanted to let loose and have some fun. He just wanted to live a little with the life he’d made for himself after giving up his dreams.

  He wanted to find something from everything that he’d lost.

  “Some of the cameras in the brewery are fogging up from the steam,” he said. “I looked into the reason why we couldn’t always see clearly on the monitors. That’s the cost to replace them with ones that won’t fog up.”

  “You could use more technical terms with me, you know,” she said, looking the papers over. “You don’t always have to say things like ‘won’t fog up.’ I’m pretty smart.”

  He knew she was. She was probably one of the smartest and strongest women he knew. Hell, she had to be, having the four brothers that she did and running everything in this business.

  He wasn’t the stupid one; he knew who held this operation together and it was Ella Fierce.

  Tiny, compact, elegant and put together like a woman he’d always wanted but never considered approaching. Why? Because he was a big brute of a man that didn’t have it in him to kiss her ass or worship the princess of the castle.

  Something about Ella told him she’d need or want to be worshiped. Been there, done that and hated the end results.

  But when he tried to convince himself what he wanted was someone who wouldn’t depend on him and could take care of herself, well, that w
as Ella too.

  He wasn’t used to such conflicting thoughts and maybe that was why he was standing in her office talking to her now when he could have emailed her this quote like he always did and saved himself the frustration.

  And why he was even thinking of her along those lines was a mystery because she’d never given any indication of wanting those thoughts from him anyway. So he treated her the way she treated him lately. Cool and professional.

  If he had sweet little fantasies about bending her over her desk in one of those slim skirts she wore, he never let on and he’d never tell a soul.

  “You are pretty smart. You also have a lot of work to do and worry about since you’re here on a Sunday morning bright and early, which tells me you’re pretty busy. Why fill your brain up with my job?”

  She laughed at his wiseass tone that he purposely had dripping with sarcasm at her expense. Then she smiled. His breath caught and he was tempted to put his hand to his chest and flirt. He held his hand back but he did flirt. Why not? He said he was feeling reckless.

  “Wow. Look at that. You do have the ability to smile. Who would have known?”

  And her smile dropped, just like that. Like he became enemy number one again and he had no clue why. “I’ll talk to my brothers about this at the next meeting on Wednesday and then let you know.”

  He sighed. The sound of dismissal was in her voice again. “Sounds good. You know how to reach me,” he said saluting her and walking out of her office, down the stairs, setting the security alarms again, making his way to his truck and back home to get some sleep. He’d been up all night trying to break into a new client’s facility and finding all their weaknesses. After he got up later this afternoon, he’d type up his report.

  But for now he was hoping to shove Ella out of his dreams since she obviously didn’t want him even in her office.

  ***

  Ella breathed a sigh of relief when Travis walked out of her office.

  She’d watched his movements on the camera in her office from the moment he came in, gave her a little head shake for being there, then drove away an hour later after doing what he was scheduled to do.

  Why couldn’t she keep him out of her mind?

  He didn’t even like her. Or if he did, she’d have no clue because all he did was treat her like she was too stupid to understand anything other than cameras fogging up.

  She was probably just losing her mind thinking of him as much as she had been. It had to be because every time she turned around she had to talk to him about something lately.

  When Brody found out his best friend had been using Fierce as a front for an illegal business, their father decided they needed to heighten security. No one was going to ever do that to their family again.

  The five of them were worried they’d lost everything they worked so hard for for their parents. Her father wondered if he’d lose the bar he started, the place where he’d met their mother.

  Big Gavin Fierce stepped up and took control and found McKinley’s Security and they pushed it all on her to manage. Things like that always happened. Whatever nobody else wanted ended up in her lap with someone sweet-talking her about how good she was with all the details and being on the ball when no one else was.

  They kissed her butt and she knew it. She fell for it, only because she knew she would do it better than them anyway.

  At first she only had to deal with Ken McKinley, Travis’s father. But within months he retired and his son Travis took over.

  Sure, Travis had tons of great ideas and had actually bailed them out of a few messes. Even stepping in when they needed more than security systems in their buildings.

  Travis had walked her through security tapes to find a woman that was trying to set Aiden up with sexual harassment and recovered older footage of her actions prior with other staff.

  Then Travis not only set cameras up to catch thieves at the brewery, but when the alarms went off in the middle of the night, she’d called him and he’d helped Mason during a midnight break-in.

  Then just a few months ago, Cade hired Travis to find dirt on the ex of his now fiancée, Alex.

  Travis had indeed come in handy to the Fierce family over the past few years. For everyone but Ella.

  Nope, what he did was set her off.

  His big gruff personality seemed to want to just treat her like some silly little princess that could barely tie her shoes, let alone carry on a conversation.

  She’d lived with huge broody men with massive egos her whole life. The last thing she wanted to do was have hidden thoughts about one or even consider getting to know a man like that better.

  But today she slipped and smiled at him, and he had to go and make a big deal out of it. He couldn’t just let it pass and be nice to her. Never. That might be too hard for someone like him. Someone so cocky that he knew he had charm oozing out of every pore and women fell for it.

  Not her. She didn’t fall for anything any guy sent her way. Been there, done that.

  So she did what she did to every guy that treated her like that—she dismissed him and put him from her mind.

  She had more important things to focus on than his large frame that filled out his worn jeans. His rock-hard biceps that even put Brody to shame and were visible through his snug shirts. His short military cut that fit him to a T.

  No. She had more important things to focus on than the hot guy that would never see her as a woman even though she got up bright and early every Sunday to be here when he was—all dressed up and hoping he’d notice her.

  Everything About Him

  Several hours later, Ella was pushing her grocery cart around the store, looking at her list and double-checking she had everything on it.

  If she’d been paying attention, she wouldn’t have run into another cart. Or better yet, that other cart wouldn’t have run into her because he wasn’t paying attention.

  Of course it would be Travis that she’d banged carts with.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” he said with a shitload of humor in his voice. Was he mocking her? Was he being nice? Why was it so hard to know with him?

  “Yeah. Imagine that.”

  Her eyes took in that he’d changed from what he was wearing earlier this morning. She found she always noticed everything about him when she wished she didn’t. How much bigger he was than her brothers. How he hardly ever smiled when he talked to her, even if he attempted to say much more than a few short words implying she wouldn’t be able to understand him anyway.

  Why was she even thinking about whether he smiled or not when it seemed he didn’t even like her, she wondered.

  “You’ve changed your clothes,” he said, almost as if he was reading her mind. That was just too scary to even consider. Did he pay as much attention to her as she did to him? Nah, probably only to find something wrong.

  “I don’t stay in my work clothes after I leave.” Not if she didn’t want baby spit on them today. She’d left the office shortly after Travis, then went to get her baby fix with her new nephews at Mason and Jessica’s house. “What about you? One pair of jeans for work and one for play?” She barely stopped the cringe when he recognized her condescending tone with a lift of his eyebrows.

  It seemed he just brought the worst out in her.

  He laughed so at least he didn’t take offense, or he didn’t care. Probably didn’t care. “I just woke up about an hour ago. I hadn’t even gone to bed yet when I saw you this morning. I do make a habit of changing my clothes after a shower.”

  She wished he hadn’t said “bed” or “shower” just now because her mind was going down a path it had no business being on. She’d bet he was one of those guys that slept naked too.

  “Out partying all night before you came to our place?” she asked.

  “Hardly. I spent the night trying to break into a building to show the weaknesses in a new client’s security. Despite what you might think of me, I take my job extremely serious.”

  She was getting rea
dy to apologize for saying that, knowing he’d always given Fierce a hundred and ten percent. He was always there when she called and never hesitated to tell them yes to anything they wanted. But her mind read between the lines of what he’d just said. “You were trying to break into a business last night?” That might explain why he was wearing all black this morning when she’d never seen that before. “What would have happened if you were caught by the police?”

  “Are you worried for me?” he asked, a smirk on his face.

  “No,” she said quickly.

  “Liar,” he said. “But no reason to worry. I’m good and don’t get caught. And if by some chance I did, I’ve got friends.”

  “I hope you didn’t have your gun on you,” she said primly. “That carries a bigger fine and jail time if caught with a weapon while breaking and entering.”

  She was thinking back to Travis pointing his gun at Mason during the break-in at the brewery almost a year ago. Someone snorted and walked by them, probably hearing her lecturing Travis on committing crimes.

  “You sound like a lawyer right now. I don’t go anywhere without a gun. I’ve got all my permits on me, so don’t worry,” he said again. “Having a gun comes in handy, even if you’re pointing it at the wrong person at times.”

  “You could have shot Mason,” she said.

  “I wouldn’t have. I didn’t even know who he was until he turned around and I recognized him. He sure does have some moves on him. I’ve never seen anyone move that fast before.”

  “I thought I asked you to keep that within my family,” she reminded him.

  Mason didn’t want anyone to know what he was capable of. He’d never liked violence before and never had a need for it, but when his life was in danger he did what he had to do.

  “I am keeping it between us,” he said winking at her. What was she supposed to say to that? She didn’t even have a chance for a comeback when he commented on her attire. “You sure do look nice when you’re not all sassied up.”