Chapter 7

Rocky was flying.His feet were in the air, his head was facing down, and his ass was racing toward the floor.

What the?—

A deep, masculine grunt escaped his throat as he landed flat on his back against the kitchen's unforgiving floor. Stunned more by the impressive over-the-shoulder throw Raegan had just performed than any actual pain, it took him a beat to comprehend what had just happened.

Jesus. She's a whole lot stronger than she looks.

The thought had just entered his mind when the toe of a black boot came rushing toward his face. Moving out of the way in the nick of time, Rocky grabbed the tiny ankle attached to said boot and gave it a single, hard tug.

As expected, Raegan lost her balance and started to fall. Not wanting her to get hurt, he quickly pushed himself up toward where her head was about to hit the floor, and Rocky slid his body across the floor with an outstretched palm to hopefully cushion the blow.

He thought that would be it. That it would be over. She'd see it was him and realize there was no reason to continue the fight.

He was wrong.

Raegan's head no more landed against his hand when she made a move for the gun holstered at her hip.

Ah, hell.

Moving lightning fast, Rocky half-rolled, half-threw his body almost fully on top of hers. His left hand shot out, sliding her pistol from its holster a fraction of a second before she could grab it.

"Stop!"

She didn't stop. In fact, the spry woman seemed to be even more determined than ever to kick his ass. Or perhaps even try to shoot it.

Raegan's body twisted, kicked, and punched beneath his, the woman clearly refusing to give up the fight. Using his free hand to block the incoming blows, he shoved her pistol into the back waistband of his jeans before grabbing hold of her wrists and pinning them against the floor on either side of her head.

"Damn it, woman." He spoke with a deep, frustrated growl. "It's me. Rocky!"

That time, she did stop. A breath of silence passed as those mesmerizing eyes of hers stared up at him from the shadows of the night.

"Rocky?" Her long lashes fluttered with several rapid, shock-filled blinks. "What the…what the hell are you?—"

"Doing here?" His sharp tone cut her off. "Funny. I was about to ask you the same thing." A muscle twitched in his jaw as he clenched his teeth together. "Christ, woman. Are you purposely trying to get yourself killed today?"

"Get off me." The fight in her husky voice returned with a vengeance.

"Not until you tell me why the hell you"re robbing this place. Or is this all part of the bank scheme, too?"

The confusion in her frown seemed genuine. "Bank scheme? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Your bank, along with four others, were hit within minutes of each other today. Now I catch you breaking into this place on the same damn night? I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this."

"I'm not robbing this place." She grunted as she fought against his unmoving grip.

"Then why are you here?"

"That's none of your business."

"Wrong, sweetheart." The endearment wasn't meant to be a pleasantry. "You made it my business when you tried shooting my ass. So, I'll ask again…why are you here?"

Flames of anger burned behind her golden stare. "Get the hell off of me, and I'll tell you."

Rocky wasn't sure which surprised him more. The fact that his seemingly sweet and bubbly neighbor was giving him hell after nearly kicking his ass…or that he was more turned on in that moment than he had been in a long damn time.

She's a criminal, dumbass. With a gun! You should not be thinking about how good it feels to press your body against hers.

"If I let you up, are you really going to tell me the truth or spin some bullshit story about why I just watched you break into some random house three doors down from your own?"

"Well…" Raegan's smile was full of spit and vinegar. "I guess, in order to find that out, you'll have to let me go."

"Or I don't." He stared deep into her angered gaze.

She laughed then, the rough and raspy sound making his dick twitch behind his zipper.

"And what? We just stay like this all night?"

Sounds like a damn fine plan to me.

With a clearing of his throat, Rocky pushed the inopportune thought away. "I got nowhere I have to be." He shrugged. "Unless it's to haul your ass down to the nearest police precinct."

A mixture of fear and anger lit the fuel behind her gorgeous gaze. But there was something else there. A desperation so urgent, so intense, it reached a place so deep inside him, he never even knew it existed.

"I already tried going to the police." Her sandy blonde ponytail swept along the kitchen floor as she shook her head in earnest. "The police. The Army. But they didn't believe me." Moonlight shimmered in the reflection of her unshed tears. "No one does."

"Believe you about what?"

Pale pink lips began to part, but before she could say more, the flash from a set of bright, twin beams filtered through the home's front windows and into the kitchen where they still lay.

"Shit!" Raegan's eyes grew wider than he'd ever seen them. "They're back! We have to…" She pushed against the firm but gentle hold he still had on her wrists. "Seriously? Look, you can turn me in if you want, but if we don't leave right now, there's a really good chance this will turn into more than a simple B and E."

The odd statement gave him pause.

"Who's out there Raegan?" he demanded with a low rumble.

"I'll explain once we're out of here." She became almost frantic, then. "I swear it. Just not here."

Rocky studied her closely, his hesitation lasting only a few seconds longer. Then he dipped his chin in a single, curt nod and told her, "Fine. But so help me, you try to do anything to?—"

"The only thing I'm going to try to do is get that hutch back where it belongs and get the hell out of here before whoever just pulled up gets inside."

"Who's out there?" That was the real answer he needed to know.

"Seriously? You want to do this now?"

Rocky gave a casual shrug. "No time like the present, right?"

The sound of a vehicle turning off traveled to them from the outside. Not sure how far she would go before calling his bluff, he watched her reaction closely and waited.

But then…

A single tear escaped the corner of her eye, falling down over her temple before splashing against the shiny floor below. "I can't." Her response was barely a whisper.

"Tell me who it is, and I'll do whatever I can to help you."

A glimmer of hope stared up at him through the shadows. Raegan opened her mouth to say…something…when they heard the familiar sound of a car door slamming shut from outside.

With a low curse, Rocky released her wrists and pushed himself up to his feet. Reaching down, he offered the woman a helping hand, which she accepted in an instant.

"They can't know we were in here." She rushed over to the displaced hutch.

They?

With no real choice but to help now and get answers later, Rocky turned and pressed his palms against the front of the hutch's solid frame. Together, they pushed it back in place with ease.

Apparently, Raegan had no problems taking charge, because the next thing Rocky knew, she'd grabbed his hand and was pulling him toward the back door.

"Come on!"

He curled his fingers around hers, purposely letting her take the lead. With him following her out, he was able to keep himself between her and the perceived danger about to make entry into the house.

Raegan opened the back door and rushed outside. The cool night air felt crisp against his skin as Rocky cleared the threshold just in time.

Because someone had just entered the house through the front door, barely giving Rocky enough time to flick the lock on the interior knob and silently pull the door shut behind him.

Keeping his voice in a low, hushed growl, he ordered the woman still holding his hand to, "Go!"

With their heads down and their bodies slightly hunched, the two took off through the neighbor's backyard. When they came to Raegan's house, she slowed to a jog and began turning in that direction.

"Oh, I don't think so." Rocky reached out and took her hand in his once more. Pointing to his house, he informed her brusquely, "We'll talk over there."

"But—"

"I'm not asking."

This time, he took the lead, though he did slow his broad steps a tad to keep from making her jog to keep up. Barely.

Swear to Christ, she'd better have a damn good reason for doing what she did, or so help me…

They finally made it up the few steps of his small, covered back porch. Having kept his focus split between their path ahead and the potential threat behind them, Rocky felt confident they'd escaped undetected.

With his free hand, he reached for the keypad mounted above the back door's handle. At the last second, he shifted his body a few inches to the right, effectively blocking Raegan's view.

"Really?"

He could practically hear her rolling her eyes at him while he forced her to blindly wait.

"I just watched you break into someone's house." Something he still couldn't wrap his mind around. "You really think I'm going to just willingly show you how to break into mine?"

"I would never do that," she claimed.

The keypad beeped, and the tiny red light turned green as the locks automatically began to disengage. Rocky turned the knob and opened the door.

Shooting her a quick, disbelieving glance over his shoulder, he told her, "Recent actions prove otherwise."

"I told you, already. I wasn't there to steal stuff."

Flipping on the lights, he led her through his newly renovated kitchen, past a small dining nook, and into the living room at the front of his house. With a quick flick of his thumb, the room's rustic, wrought iron light fixture came to life.

"Sit." He dropped her hand and motioned toward the couch.

Raegan dutifully obeyed, not saying a word as she walked over to his black leather couch and took a seat. The void her touch left behind was far stronger than it should've been, and Rocky drew in a deep breath to keep his expression schooled and his head in the game.

"Talk." He crossed his arms at his chest.

The look on her face pulled at Rocky's heartstrings, and damn if he could ever remember feeling this divided. Part of him wanted to spank her sexy ass red, and the other…

I want to pull her into my arms and hold her as close as I can.

Raegan glanced down at her hands as they rested in her lap. "I admit I entered that house forcefully and without authorization from the owner." Her throat worked with a swallow. "A Class 1 felony, if I'm not mistaken."

"Why?" That one question burned deeper than all the rest. "And before you even think about lying to me, you should know my teammate has already started a file on you."

"He's what?" A hefty dose of anger filled her beautiful face.

"The bank robberies," Rocky stated as if that explained everything. "Five U.S. Bank branches, all hit at approximately the same time of day."

"Five?" Raegan's brows arched high. "I-I only knew about the incident at my bank."

Her stunned reaction seemed legit, but he still had to ask, "You haven't watched the news or gotten onto social media?"

"I don't do social media." She frowned. "I haven't had my TV on since I got home after seeing you at the bank." Pushing herself to her feet, Raegan began pacing across his refinished hardwood floor. "But if that many branches of the same bank were hit at the same time…" She stopped and turned to look at him. "That can't be a coincidence."

"The federal government agrees with you." Rocky shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. "For reasons I'm not going to get into right now, my team has been asked to look into those known to have been involved in all five." His stare lasered into hers. "The suspects and the bank employees."

"You really think I was involved? I shot the guy for crying out loud." A haunted flicker flashed behind her angered gaze, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. "For that matter, I was shot at. I mean…" Raegan gave a quick lick of her lips. "I could have been killed today, Rocky."

"And yet, a few hours later, you still managed to gather enough fortitude to knowingly and willingly commit a felony."

Irritation flared, but rather than pop off with another argument or smartass remark, she rolled her lips inward before giving her head a quick nod. "Fair enough. But…"

"But what?"

"If your teammate has already looked into my background, you should already know why I broke into that house tonight." Her swallow was audible. "You should know everything about me, now."

Not even close, sweetheart.

"I haven't seen the report yet," he admitted. "I told my teammate to hold off on sending it to me until I was ready to read it."

Her expression twisted with confusion. "Why?"

"I wanted to talk to you first. Give you a chance to tell me your story rather than read it in some file." When she didn't volunteer anything more, he slipped his hands from his denim pockets and took a few steps toward her. "Okay, let's back up. How about you start by telling me where you learned to take on a man my size the way you did? Or how you managed to ward off an armed robber without getting yourself or any of the other hostages injured in the process?"

Because he'd seen the footage from inside the bank. As soon as Rocky had gotten home, he'd showered, made a sandwich, and grabbed a beer, and then he sat down and watched the surveillance video from inside Raegan's bank.

When it was over, he replayed it a second time. And a third. And when he was finished watching his tiny bit of a neighbor expertly defend herself and the others around her…

He'd watched it again.

"I was Army." Raegan's soft voice pulled him back into the present. "Second Lieutenant."

"Explains the shooting and hand-to-hand," Rocky muttered low.

One corner of her lips twitched. "I was part of an M.P. unit."

"Military Police." He nodded. "I'm impressed."

"You won't be." She went back over to the couch and sat with a sigh. "Not after your buddy gives you all the juicy details about my stellar departure as one of Uncle Sam's good little soldiers."

"You get a Dishonorable?"

Raegan shook her head with a humorless smirk. "I received a Purple Heart, an Honorable Discharge, and a ‘Thank you for your service'."

"You, uh…" Rocky's throat worked a hard swallow. "You got a Purple Heart?"

She looked up at him, a strange expression falling over her pretty, bitter face. Rather than answer his question, Raegan slowly rose to her feet. And with her eyes still staring back into his, she unbuttoned her jeans, released the zipper, and shoved her pants down to her knees.

"What the hell, Raegan?" Rocky threw up a shielding hand and turned his head away. But not before he caught a glimpse of her black cotton panties and toned, bare thighs.

"You wanted the truth; I'm giving it to you. Figured you'd have a better chance of believing me if you saw the scar."

His eyes fell shut, and he filled his lungs with a slow, deep inhale. If she was willing to drop trou during an impromptu interrogation, he was already pretty convinced she was telling him the truth.

"It's okay." Rocky shook his head. "I don't need to see it."

"Well, I need you to see it." Her tone was almost desperate in its delivery. "I need you to at least be able to try and understand."

"Understand what?" He turned back around, his gaze instinctively dropping to her exposed upper legs.

His gut tightened when he saw the circular, puckered scar a few inches above her right knee. Suddenly he wasn't thinking of smooth, sexy curves, but rather the horrific image of her injured and bleeding out.

"It was a through-and-through." She turned sideways so he could see the damage the exit wound had caused. "I didn't realize it at the time, though."

Pushing aside the sudden, unexplainable rage he felt for the person responsible, Rocky asked again, "What is it you need me to understand, Raegan?"

Her ponytail fell over one shoulder as she looked down and began pulling up her pants. Shimmying back into them, Raegan quickly rebuttoned and zipped them.

When her gaze returned to his, there was an equal amount of pain and determination.

"I agreed to tell you everything about me and why I was in that house tonight because I'm hoping you'll understand my reasons for what I'm planning to do."

"I know I'm probably going to regret asking this next question, but…what exactly is it you're planning on doing?"

"The man responsible for my scar and the deaths of my entire M.P. unit is connected to that house," she stated as a matter of fact, "I've been watching and waiting for him to return, and I think he did. Tonight. So I'm going to keep watching for as long as it takes, and when I see him again…" Her voice trailed as it grew thick with emotion.

After a few seconds of waiting, Rocky prodded with a soft, "When you see him again…what?"

Raegan blinked, almost as if she'd been lost in some sort of a trance. But then she pushed back her shoulders, jutted out her adorable chin, and stared him square in the eyes as she said without remorse, "When I see him again, I'm going to kill him."