Fierce Protector: Hard to Handle trilogy, Book 1 by Janine Kane

would have meant clothes hitting the floor, tongues exploring each other, hands sliding down into jeans which hid delicious hardness.
    ***
    There was a car in her parking place, she found to her annoyance. Then she saw that someone was standing on the stoop outside of Trish’s place. With a stab of fear in her gut, she recognized immediately the profile of her brother. He was smiling slightly, squinting at her headlights as she parked. You have got to be fucking kidding me.
    “Hey, Sis,” he said with entirely inappropriate brightness in his voice. “Told you it was time for a visit. How are you?” Eva slammed her car door almost as hard as she could, and simply stood there. “I really was hoping you’d be pleased to see your own brother,” he added optimistically.
    “I know why you’re here,” she said angrily. “What I want to know is, how did you know where I was staying?”
    Hank walked the few steps to the garden gate and opened it, ostensibly for Eva, although she still didn’t move. “Trish’s father was very helpful,” he confessed. “I had to, Evie, I really had no choice but to come here.”
    Anger boiled in her gut like bad chili. “You need to get back in your car and drive away,” she said steadily, somehow hoping her clarity might convince him. “I can’t help you.”
    “I think that you can, and I think that you should,” Hank replied, matter-of-factly.
    “You need money, right?” He nodded slightly. “I work in a bakery , part-time. Most of my savings went on gas for this piece of junk,” she tapped the Pontiac, “which was my only way to get away from all the crap you created in Chicago. I don’t have two dimes to rub together.”
    Hank stepped forward again, leaning now on the garden gate. “But you know people who do.”
    “Leave my friends out of this,” she warned. “If you come near them . . .”
    “What? You’ll have me arrested?” he sniggered. “Great, go ahead. Jail would be the safest place for me, at least until one of Vincent’s men finds me on the inside and sticks a shank in my back.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “I was supposed to deliver something,” he explained. “I was shaken down and I lost the package.” His delicate choice of words did nothing to soothe Eva’s exploding temper. “Vincent says I’m responsible for the package, and for the money I was meant to collect.”
    “So, you’re responsible,” she said dispassionately. “Get a job.”
    “It’s thousands , Evie. More than a construction worker makes in six months.” He fell to his knees. “Do you want me to beg? I’ll beg.”
    “ Get the hell out of my life! ” she yelled at the top of her voice. “You’re a fucking parasite . I never want to see you again.”
    Hank rose with a sudden swiftness, turned slightly and then landed a hard, driven punch across Eva’s left cheek. “You call me that , you bitch, when you’re sponging off your friends! When you’re driving my car!” He spat on the ground by her feet. “I knew you didn’t really care. I knew you’d rather I were dead in some ditch with a bullet in my brain. You’d do anything to get rid of me, just like the others.”
    Eva’s world was vibrating with a sickening pulse, back and forth. She tasted blood. Her arm had caught under her as she awkwardly landed on the sidewalk, and the other arm refused to push at the ground with enough force to lift her. She was certain he would kick her to death, right here. Readying herself for the blows, she squeezed her eyes shut and tensed her stomach, bringing her knees up in a reflexive gesture of self-protection.
    There was nothing. She heard only an engine starting, and then Hank roared, squealing, out of the neighborhood and into the night.
    ***
    Most of his lights were off now, she saw. There was only his Mercedes parked outside; the others must already have left. She tried turning on her cellphone again, but it only managed to bring up the menu page before