She swallowed hard, fear flickering in her gaze. Damn, he hated the sight of any woman being afraid of him, but he wasn’t stupid enough to think women couldn’t be dangerous. Just because she was petite and so fucking gorgeous it almost hurt to look at her, didn’t mean he’d be letting his guard down around her. “I won’t attack you.”

As he placed her on her feet, he tried not to look but damn, his gaze dipped down to her breasts. Lush, full, a little more than a handful, he wondered what it’d be like to cup them…

“Pervert,” she snapped, wrapping an arm around her chest before turning and grabbing a fluffy, white towel from one of the nearby racks.

She quickly wrapped it around herself but not before he got a full view of her entire, delectable body. She was petite with toned legs, but not lean. She was soft and curvy and he liked the little triangle of hair covering her mound. He supposed he could have pretended not to look, but why bother. He shrugged. “You’re the one naked in my friend’s house. Now why the hell are you here, passed out and wounded? Who are you?” He wanted to talk about the wound he’d seen on her ribcage. It was difficult to tell, but it might be a bullet ricochet.

Her eyes widened a fraction. “You’re friends with Vadim?”

Surprised she knew his friend’s name, Roman nodded. “Yeah. How do you know him?”

She pursed her lips together, eyeing him as if she didn’t trust him—when she was the one who’d broken into Vadim’s house.

“You know what, I’m calling the cops.” He went to grab his cell phone from his back pocket but she held her hands up.

“No, wait! Vadim and I have been friends for years. We did some work together years ago, before he got out of…the military.”

Roman lifted an eyebrow. “Which branch?”

She watched him for a long moment, clear she didn’t trust him. Well the feeling was fucking mutual. Finally she said, “Marines.”

He nodded. “That’s right.”

The tension in her shoulders seemed to relax at that. “The company I work for handled a couple government contracts and Vadim and I ended up working together. I came to see him because…well, it doesn’t matter. I forgot he’d still be on his honeymoon or I’d have never come. If you’ll just let me get dressed I’ll be on my way. No harm, right?” She laughed nervously and he didn’t miss the little wince she tried to cover up.

He frowned, ignoring the last part of what she’d said. He could see a spot of blood coming through the towel where she’d been wounded. “What kind of trouble are you in? Did someone fucking shoot you?”

Her beautiful face paled. “No.”

His jaw tightened. “Don’t lie to me.”

When she didn’t respond he sighed and pulled his cell phone out.

“Wait—”

“I’m not calling the cops,” he muttered. “What’s your name?” he demanded as he scrolled to Angel’s number.

He raised his eyebrows when she didn’t respond, watching and waiting. Finally she sighed, seeming almost defeated. “Taylor.”

Though Roman hated to interrupt Vadim and Angel, this called for it.

Vadim answered the phone on the second ring. “Why the hell are you calling my wife on our honeymoon?” he growled, not much heat behind his voice. “Is everything okay with Charlie?”

“Your dog is fine. There’s a woman at your house who says she knows you. Broke in, but hasn’t touched anything. She passed out in the shower and I’m pretty sure she’s been shot.”

“Are you fucking with me?”

“Nope. Says her name is Taylor. Dark hair, blue eyes, not very tall.” He wasn’t sure he bought her story.

The woman just wrapped her arms tighter around her middle, looking young and vulnerable; the sight disturbing to Roman.

“Taylor Arenas?” Vadim’s voice was shocked.

“What’s your last name?” Roman asked her.

She paused for a moment. “Arenas.”

“Yep.”

“Put me on speaker,” Vadim demanded.

“Hold on.” Roman looked at Taylor as he held the phone out. “I’m putting Vadim on speaker.”

The tension lines around her mouth lessened. “Okay.”

“You’re on,” Roman said.

“Taylor? What’s going on?” Vadim demanded.

“I…I’m in trouble, but I forgot you were on your honeymoon. I’m so sorry, Vadim. I never would have come here otherwise.”

“Fuck that. What’s going on?”

“Vadim, I…can we have some privacy?” she asked Vadim, carefully avoiding Roman’s gaze as she stared at the phone.

Roman snorted as Vadim said, “Taylor, you can say anything in front of Roman. Anything. He’s a former Marine too. I trust him with my life.”

Well, damn.

She took a deep breath, her eyes filling up with tears, which she angrily swatted away. It was clear she didn’t want Roman around but that was just too damn bad. “Long story short, Neal shot Hugh. He’s been diverting funds to a bogus company and when Hugh confronted him, Neal just shot and killed him. I saw it happen and managed to escape—though he nicked me, but it’s just a flesh wound. But now something else is going on. I think Neal is somehow framing me but I don’t know how he’d have been able to do that. I guess he could have erased the video feeds at work but… I just don’t know. When I went to the police station one of the security guys who works for Neal was waiting and then there were cops at my place when I went home. I called some people from work and they both told me the police want me for questioning. It sounded like they thought I killed Hugh so I just ran. I knew I needed to get out of the city and you were the first person I thought of.”

Roman had no idea who the woman was talking about, but the way she spoke about them, without using last names, told him that Vadim must know the men. Or know of them.

“That motherfucker,” Vadim growled. He took a deep breath. “You can’t just run from the cops. You’ve been shot and you need to document it. You were shot at work?”

“Yeah.”

“Where in the building were you shot?”

“Hugh’s private elevator.” She wrapped her arms tighter around her small frame and Roman found himself wanting to pull her into his arms.

After hearing her story it was clear someone needed to protect her. She sniffled once, looking even more lost.

“Okay. Go to the hospital now.”

“I can’t.”

“You can and you will. Roman is going to take you and he’s going to call a detective friend of ours.”

Roman nodded. If Vadim trusted her and wanted to help her, he was going to trust her. He’d be doing some investigation of his own, but Vadim trusted almost no one. “Hurley?” he asked Vadim.

“Yes.”

Taylor shook her head. “Vadim—”

“No. Listen to me. You need to get ahead of this now. Without knowing any more details, I know that running from the police makes you look guilty as shit. You have got to get in front of this. This all happened this morning?”

“Yeah.” Her voice sounded small, broken.

Hell, if she’d just seen someone close to her get killed this morning Roman was impressed she was keeping it together.

“You can explain away your running through shock and fear, especially since you were shot and saw your boss killed. You’ve got to trust me on this. Roman will call Detective Hurley and have him meet you guys at the hospital. Roman?”

“I’m on it, man. Anything you need.” He wasn’t positive he trusted this woman, but he trusted Vadim. “Vadim, give me a second.” He looked at Taylor and pointed to the door. “I’ll be right outside.” Without waiting for a response, he left the room and closed the door behind him

Taking it off speaker, he spoke quietly to his friend. “You sure you trust this woman?”

“Yes. Hugh Powers owns, or owned, Powers Group. He was like a father to Taylor. She never would have killed him. I’d stake everything I own on it. Neal Lynch is a sleazy bastard. I only met him once and it was enough for me. I believe in Taylor.”

“Good enough for me.”

“Thank you. I…owe you for this.” Vadim had loosened up a little since he’d been with Angel, but that stiff, almost formalness crept back into his voice.