Breaking Boundaries (SEAL Team Heartbreakers Book 5) Read online

  “It was you holding onto me, Bro, until help arrived.”

  Warren’s expression morphed into stony, and Kathleen studied the project manager. Why would he be angry? Accidents happened. It was a miracle both men hadn’t been killed.

  “Are you injured, Julio?” he asked.

  “No, just shook up.” His dark skin remained pasty, and he was shaking visibly.

  She was, too, now the danger had passed. She gripped the hard hat for something to focus on, and braced her feet as her legs went from stable to cooked spaghetti. Maybe she shouldn’t have stood up so soon.

  Tom Hill, the project foreman she’d met earlier, threaded his way through the crowd. “What happened?”

  Warren quickly explained the situation.

  Tom squatted on the balls of his feet next to Julio, and they spoke for a couple of minutes. “Hector,” Tom looked up at one of the men standing close by. “Give him a ride home.”

  Tom straightened. “Crowes.”

  Kathleen stepped back, surprised by Cal’s size as he climbed to his feet. Lying flat on the concrete, he’d appeared lean and long. Standing to his full height, he was transformed into powerful as he worked his wide shoulders and muscular arms, as though shaking off the strain. How long had he sustained the guy’s weight before she arrived to relieve him of some of it? Even a few minutes would have been beyond difficult.

  With his high cheekbones and intense eyes, he projected the air of a warrior. Kathleen recognized the stance, so similar to that of her father, a Boston policeman. And not just her father. Her brother Michael had followed in his footsteps. Her brother Mark served as a first sergeant in the Marines, Jason a sergeant major in the Army, and Zach a Navy SEAL. They all seemed to place their feet exactly the same way, shift their weight, and scan their environment as though facing off against a threat, even when they were at ease. This man had to be ex-military.

  Tom extended a hand to Crowes and they shook briefly. “I’m glad you were around. Good work. Do you need to take the rest of the day?”

  “No, sir. I’m ready to go back to work, but the wind is getting dangerous up here. I’d suggest we run more safety netting.”

  “Maybe we should put Cal in charge of that,” Warren said.

  Kathleen frowned and glanced at Warren. Why put a man in charge of running safety netting who’d just spent minutes—that had probably seemed like hours—hanging over the edge of a platform twenty stories above the ground? It seemed…insensitive and cruel.

  She caught Hill’s quick frown.

  Cal studied Warren for several moments, his gaze narrowed. He nodded. “Roger that.” He offered Julio a hand up. The slighter built man seemed calmer, and he’d regained some of his color. Cal bent and said something to him, then strode across the platform to the large service elevator they were using to transport materials to each floor. The crowd started breaking up.

  Kathleen followed Warren and Tom Hill to the personnel lift. Julio and the other worker, Hector, got on with them for the trip to ground level. The solid metal cage blocked most of the stiff breeze, but the wire openings on each side allowed it to filter through, a good thing; otherwise the lift would have been airless and claustrophobic. As it was, Kathleen braced a hand on the metal support behind her and held on while it trundled down the vertical track to ground level.

  The wind ceased as they reached the bottom of the structure. Hector pulled up the metal panel door, folding it back, and then parted the wire doors, and he and Julio departed.

  Cal and the two other men who’d ridden down in the service elevators were already lifting the rolls of security net. Warren stopped, blocking Kathleen from exiting the lift. “Hey Crowes, did you find your hard hat?”

  “One of the crew did.” He held it up. A large crack marred one side. He shoved it on despite the damage and jogged to Julio to hand him his.

  “You need to come in and write up an accident report, Cal,” Tom said.

  “Will do.”

  “Julio, you’ll need to fill yours out before you go home.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The three men moved off toward the foreman’s trailer.

  When Cal ran back to the other two men working with him, Kathleen frowned. She saw a limp she hadn’t noticed before.

  He and the two other crew members began to load the bright orange security netting onto the freight elevator.

  “He’ll wear that damn cracked hard hat to remind everyone what a hero he is,” Warren murmured next to her.

  Kathleen’s breath caught. Quick anger followed, but she couldn’t afford to speak her mind. She’d been an employee less than twenty-four hours. Being paired with Warren for the afternoon was giving her a real insight into the man, however. He’d first tried to put the move on her, and now he was being an ass. And not once had he asked her if she was okay.

  “I need to have a word with Tom before we leave. Go sit in the truck while I talk to him.”

  “All right.” Gladly. She needed a few moments away from him to restore her patience. Plus, her wrist was beginning to throb a little.

  She stepped down out of the elevator and paused to allow a large concrete truck to roll by before jogging across the tracks it left.

  Midway across the yard, she cut away from her path and strode purposefully toward the three men loading the safety net. “Hey, Crowes.”

  He straightened at her approach. Kathleen extended her hard hat. “It’s too big for me since I haven’t adjusted it yet, and you’re more in need of it than I am.”

  Crowes’ piercing gaze settled on her. She had thought his eyes were blue, but they were a deep blue-green, almost teal.

  With his wide cheekbones and strong jaw projecting such intense masculinity, the woman in her cringed, regretting her barely-there makeup, her hastily confined hair, and how a few strands hung, stringy and tangled, on either side of her cheeks. The professional in her was determined he would accept the hard hat.

  “That’s all right. I can make do until I get a new one from the foreman’s trailer.” His slow, husky drawl sent a delicious chill through her.

  “You still have several hours’ work to complete, and I only have a couple of fifteen minute stops. Take the hat.”

  Crowes reached for her hard hat, a frown working across his brow. He switched the cracked hard hat for the new one and extended the damaged one to her. “Thanks.”

  She accepted it. “I noticed you were limping just a little. If you’ve hurt your leg, you need to get checked out at the hospital so the company can cover the injury.”

  His features went still. “It’s an old injury; there’s nothing can be done about it.”

  “Oh.” Embarrassed, she cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. Take care.” She nodded and walked away from him, and with every step was suddenly hyper-aware of how wide her butt looked in jeans. She cringed inwardly as she proceeded slowly to the truck.

  “Miss.”

  Kathleen turned to find he’d followed her.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  “Kathleen, Kathleen O’Connor. I’m one of the architects who works for Wiley Design.” She extended her hand automatically and barely controlled the flinch, as her wrist twinged, more from the movement than from his firm grip.

  “Cal Crowes. Nice to meet you. That was a hell of a thing you did up there. I appreciated the help.” His unusual teal eyes swept her face. “You’re new to the job?”

  “Yes, I just started today.”

  “Congratulations. Hell of a first day.”

  Kathleen smiled. “Yeah, something to tell my family about. You didn’t do too badly yourself.”

  “Why did you give me your hard hat?” he asked.

  Because Paul Warren was being an asshole and something in his attitude toward Cal struck her as unfair. “Because yours is damaged, and it’s a safety violation for you to wear it.”

  He glanced back at the foreman’s trailer and seemed about to say something else, then shook his head. “I
appreciate it.”

  “I’m sorry Mr. Warren suggested that you set up the safety netting.”

  “It’s all right. Heights don’t bother me.” His smile was brief, but changed his intensity to amusement.

  “I think they’d bother me if I’d just stared down twenty stories and held on to a coworker for what seemed like an hour.”

  He dropped his gaze to his feet and shifted his weight, as though the reference embarrassed him. “Not an hour, but it seemed a while for us both.” He shrugged. “You got to get back on the horse sometime, and it might as well be now.”

  His attitude about the whole ordeal and his modesty despite rescuing his coworker made her admire him even more.

  The wind buffeted them, kicking up the dry dirt. Cal shifted, blocking the stiff breeze and the dust, but not before a loose strands of dark hair whisked across her face. She reached up to remove them, but his finger was already there, looping them behind her ear.

  Kathleen’s breath caught and her stomach went into a free fall. They both froze. Cal continued to gaze at her for several seconds, his fingertips resting against her skin. When he finally dropped his hand, it broke the spell.

  How could such an innocuous gesture seem so intimate? And how could she feel like her bones were melting from just a look?

  She glimpsed movement when Warren opened the door to the foreman’s trailer. He paused in the doorway, momentarily distracted as Tom Hill joined him there. She didn’t want to cause Cal Crowes any more trouble, and she guessed there would be more if Warren caught him talking to her.

  “Mr. Warren is coming back.” Kathleen tilted her head to look up to the top floor. “Be careful up there.”

  “Roger that.” He touched the narrow peak of the hard hat and strode away.

  Warren cast a look in Cal’s direction as he walked across the construction site yard. “What was Crowes doing?” he demanded.

  “Nothing. I gave him my hard hat, and he thanked me. That’s all.”

  Warren scowled. “Why would you do that?”

  She shrugged. “He has several hours work ahead of him. It would have been a safety issue for him to continue wearing a cracked helmet.”

  He nodded to the damaged helmet she held in one hand. “But now you’ll be wearing it.”

  “Only for a short time. And I won’t be working on the sites. My brothers bought me a bright red one for a graduation gift. I’ll wear that one from now on.” They got into the truck and Kathleen reached for her seat belt.

  Warren remained silent.

  “If you don’t want me on the other sites, I’ll stay in the truck while you go up.”

  “That won’t be necessary.”

  He sounded pissy. Which suited her just fine; she was getting a little pissed off herself. And disappointed. The excitement she’d felt about being invited to view the current construction sites had been wrenched away by Warren’s attitude, and his dislike of Cal Crowes. What the hell was going on between the two men?

  Warren focused on her. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine.” She’d rather eat dirt than admit her wrist was throbbing to the beat of her heart. She pulled her sweatshirt sleeve down over it.

  “What you did up there was admirable, but from now on, no matter what happens, let the crew take care of it. They deal with emergency situations—not all the time, luckily they’re rare—but when it’s needed.”

  “Crowes couldn’t sustain Julio’s weight without help. He needed a counterbalance to keep from being dragged over the edge. We were there, and the other men weren’t.”

  Warren nodded. “Don’t let what he did make him into some kind of hero. Crowes has a prosthetic leg below the knee on the right side. He’s a liability to the company and poses a danger to his coworkers on the site.”

  Shock held her still for a second then two. From what she’d seen, he was a productive worker, and had saved both Julio and Wiley Design’s bacon. Anger brought heat to her face. “That liability just saved you from a lawsuit, Mr. Warren.”

  Warren’s face reddened. “If he makes a mistake or has an accident, and it’s caused by his disability, the company will be liable.”

  Kathleen struggled to keep her voice even and dispassionate. “If you fire him because of his disability, or show any form of prejudice against him because of it, you’ll have every equal rights group out there on your ass, and it will come down on Wiley Construction like a ton of bricks. That may prove more of a liability than having a man with a prosthetic working for the company. I’d tread very carefully.”

  Warren glanced in her direction. “I didn’t know you had a law degree to go along with your master’s.” There was a hint of sarcasm in his tone.

  Kathleen breathed through the rage threatening to engulf her. “Employment regulations and rights are part of the curriculum. It’s just good business. If your foreman hired him, he trusts Crowes can do the job. I’d stay away from it.”

  Warren remained silent, but his taut jaw and compressed lips gave her pause. If she’d said too much, it could come back on her as well as Cal Crowes. Oh, well, it was too late now.

  Chapter 2

  ‡

  Kathleen marched into the office she shared with three other architects—Hillary, Ed, and Dave. It was a relief to escape the truck and Paul Warren. If ever he invited her anywhere again, her answer would be a resounding no.

  The office closed around her, quiet and creative. She loved the space. Each architect had a quadrant of the room. Large banks of tinted windows let in soft exterior light. Each of the other workers had personalized their space with books and pictures of family and the projects they’d worked on. She couldn’t wait to do the same.

  She already had pictures of her family on the counter that ran along one wall. She could put up pictures of some of the projects she’d done during her undergraduate and graduate programs. She’d worked with an architectural firm during summers and during her semester of co-op to complete some of the requirements for her licensing.

  Above the desks hung a row of cubbies for storing work materials, books, and other things. Hers were empty, but they wouldn’t be for long.

  She settled into her computer chair and rested a plastic bag full of ice cubes on her wrist. It was a little swollen and bruised, but she could rotate it without much pain. She was certain it wasn’t really injured.

  “You got some sun today,” Hillary Bryant, the other female architect in the office, said from behind her.

  Kathleen swiveled to look over her shoulder. The woman was tall, but rail-thin with a cap of light brown hair and brown eyes. “I think it was more wind than sun.”

  Hillary nodded. “It looks good on you.”

  Kathleen smiled. “Thanks.” The woman had been welcoming thus far. Kathleen hoped for a good working relationship.

  “How was the tour?”

  “Eventful. One of the workers was blown off the tower project. One of his coworkers grabbed him just in time.”

  “Wow.” Hillary gripped the only other chair in her section and sat down her long legs going on forever. “Tell me about it.”

  “It was on the twentieth floor. The wind had gotten pretty fierce, and they hadn’t put up the safety netting yet.” She shivered at the reminder of the twenty-story drop that had seemed to reach for her from over Julio’s shoulder, and the vertigo following it.

  “We’ve been very lucky. I’ve worked here nearly six years and I can only remember two accidents.” She eyed Kathleen’s wrist. “What happened?”

  “I got too close to the action and bruised my wrist. It’s nothing.” She changed the subject. “From what I saw today, safety is stressed at all the sites. More than at some of the others I’ve been on.”

  “And how did you get along with Paul?”

  “Okay.” That was safer than saying they’d had an argument and she thought he was an A-1 asshole.

  Hillary’s brows rose. “You told him no when he asked you out?”

  “Wel
l, no. He didn’t ask.” And I wouldn’t have gone out with him anyway. Now she was thinking back over their discussion, she hoped she hadn’t burned any professional bridges by arguing with him. And if she had—Her stomach began to ache. “Is it standard practice for women to go out with him when they’re first hired here?”

  Hillary gave her a friendly grimace. “It usually happens.” She leaned forward in her chair. “What happened?”

  Kathleen grimaced. “We agreed to disagree on something…non-dating-related.”

  Hillary’s lips twitched. “And you won the argument?”

  “Let’s just say my points were more persuasive than his. But I don’t think I changed his mind.” Kathleen swiveled her desk chair around to face Hillary a little more.

  “Are you going to tell me what you argued about?”

  “I had hoped not to stir the office pot until I’ve at least gotten to settle in a little. It isn’t my style to make waves.”

  Hillary’s brows rose and a look of quick interest lit her face. She held up a finger. “Hold that thought for a moment, and maybe by the time I’m finished, you’ll decide to trust me with whatever it is.”

  She rose and went first to Dave Barker, the oldest of the architects in the pod, then Edward Reynolds. When she returned, she held up forty dollars. She offered a twenty to Kathleen.

  “What’s it for?”

  “I had a bet going with those two that you’d turn Paul down. I thought you’d be too smart to fall for his special brand of charm.”

  Kathleen laughed. “So If I had agreed to go out with him…?”

  “I’d have been forty dollars down. I’m splitting my winnings with you.” Her smile widened with mischief.

  Kathleen shook her head. “Keep the twenty and buy me a beer one day after work.”

  “Deal. Are you going to tell me what put you off of Paul?”

  Kathleen sighed. “He was an insensitive ass to one of the workers.”

  “Men rarely realize when they’re being insensitive.”

  Kathleen felt her anger rising again. “He realized.” She described the accident, leaving her part of it out. “Crowes was the man whose head and shoulders were hanging off the platform. His workers dragged him back onto the platform, and he pulled the other man up to safety. I don’t know how long he’d been holding onto him, but you could tell they were both exhausted and shaken up. Then Mr. Warren suggested Crowes needed to be the one to put up the safety netting.”