How easily she’d tricked him. At the thought, he grimaced. He, a grown man, caught off guard by a mere slip of a girl. He would have to keep this one to himself or he would be the laughing stock of his friends.
And speaking of friends…with a friend like Khalil he definitely didn’t need enemies. After assuring him everything was arranged he’d sent him here to seek out a woman who didn’t even want to see him. In fact, she was adamant that she’d told Khalil he should stay away. And still, the guy had let him come looking for her like some darned fool. Nostrils flaring, he clenched his fists. He was looking forward to breaking Khalil's scrawny neck.
It was a deflated Rafe who climbed into his car and headed back to his motel. It wasn’t just that he hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to Anya, to let her see that he wasn’t the rake his friends had made him out to be. Now there was another, even more serious problem. The woman had torn out of the room like she’d just been under attack. From him. He had no doubt that Anya Petersen was now under the distinct impression that he was a stalker of the worst kind.
As he drove, Rafe shook his head. Jesus, what a situation. In all his years dealing with women this was the first time he’d ever had one flee from him. And it was all the fault of someone he'd called a friend. He would kill him.
But when Rafe got back, marched to Khalil's room and pounded on the door there was no answer. When he checked back an hour later there was still no response. Lion was nowhere to be found either and that was clear evidence that he was party to this whole thing. And, as expected, they’d turned off their cell phones.
Itching to get even, Rafe was so wired he didn’t get to sleep until almost one in the morning. After two more tries that night he'd finally given up hope of getting his hands on them. It would just have to wait till morning.
By morning, though, it was like the high-tension wire inside him had gone dead. He wasn’t even angry anymore. All he felt was drained. He didn’t bother to go looking for the guys. In fact, he didn’t need to. They came looking for him.
As if they’d done nothing wrong the two of them stood in his doorway, practically beaming.
“So how did it go?” Lion asked, his wide grin threatening to split his face in two. “Did you guys kiss and make up?”
Khalil’s smile was smug. “I bet they did a whole lot more than that. Our guy looks like he was up all night.” Then he laughed and winked at Lion. “I told you my strategy would work. Just get them together and they’ll fall into each other’s arms. It’s the chemistry between them. Impossible to fight it. Right, Rafe?” He was still chuckling as he raised a hand to touch fists with Rafe.
He didn’t get the response he’d expected. Instead of returning the fist bump Rafe lifted his hand to grab a fistful of Khalil's shirt and drag him into the room. “Don’t you ever,” he said through clenched teeth, “do that to me again.” Then he shoved him away, making Khalil stumble back, his eyes wide with surprise.
“Hey, what did I do?” Rafe’s victim asked, his voice breathless. “You’re cursing me out for doing you a favor?”
“Favor?” Rafe snarled. “You call that a favor? After assuring me you’d do no such thing, you set me up. Anya didn’t agree for me to come. She said she told you she didn’t want to see me.”
Khalil straightened his shirt then glanced at Lion as if for support. “I never told Rafe she’d agreed to meet with him, did I? I said she was expecting him.” He turned back to Rafe. “That’s different.”
Rafe gave a hiss of annoyance and waved him off. “Semantics. You lied through your teeth and you know it.”
“For a good cause.” Lion jumped in. “He was just trying to get you kids back together. He was trying to fix what I’d messed up.” He shrugged. “I guess that backfired. Big time.” He gave his defender a rueful smile. “Sorry, Khalil.”
Rafe had heard enough. He walked over to the bed and flung himself onto it, on his back, then covered his eyes with his arm. “Get out of here, you two,” he growled. “I should whup both of you but right now I’m too tired. Probably wouldn’t be worth the trouble, anyway. The damage is already done.”
For a long while there was silence until Rafe began to wonder if his friends had sneaked out of the room. Then he heard Lion’s voice.
“Seriously, Rafe, what happened between you two? It couldn’t have been that bad.”
How was he supposed to answer that? Rafe grimaced and then he sighed. “Yes, it was that bad. Anya kicked my butt.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” This time the question came from Khalil.
Rafe sighed again then lowered his arm so he could see the expressions on his friends’ faces when he told them what happened. Right now he was being a real sucker for punishment. “I went to the center like you guys told me to do and I hardly got a sentence out before Anya blasted me, asking me what I was doing there. She wanted to know why I’d come when she’d told me not to.” His lips twisted in disgust. “Of course, nobody bothered to tell me that part.”
Khalil, the little jerk, shoved his hands in his pockets but said nothing.
Rafe gave him a cutting look then he continued. “I tried to explain that I had no idea she’d said that. The next thing I knew she’d grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back. Then she almost broke my back with a hell of a kick.” He shook his head. “You could have knocked me over with a feather. Where the heck did that girl learn to fight like that?”
“Oh, yeah. About that.” Khalil gave him a guilty look. “I forgot to tell you. The class she was teaching at the center was self defense for seniors. She’s got a black belt in karate.”
“You forgot to tell me?”
Khalil shrugged. “I didn’t think it was that important.”
“Well, it was.” Rafe swung his legs off the bed and got up with a sigh of resignation. “But maybe not so much now. After all the damage you guys did there’s no way I’ll ever have another chance with Anya. I give up.” He headed toward the bathroom. “In fact, I think I’ll just call it a day with this whole Europe trek bit. I’ve had enough.”
That got an explosion of reaction from his friends. “What?” The word shot out of Lion’s mouth. “You’re going to leave us?”
“We’ve got two more weeks to this trip,” Khalil said, sounding almost as distressed. “We haven’t even hit Austria yet. You can’t do this.”