He started to pull back, or at least tried to, but it seemed he was no more able to move away than she was. She caught a glimpse of his eyes, a darker blue than ever, heard him suck in a breath so deep it hinted that he’d needed it as badly as she had. Then his head came back down, his mouth captured hers, and she felt an entirely different kind of thrill, which made no sense to her either. Why would it be different? Why would him kissing her instead of the other way around be so very...special?
Then she was lost again in that flood of sensation, that rippling heat, until she was clutching at him almost wildly, wanting more, ever more. Right here, right now, on the cold ground, she didn’t care. She had to have more. She had to have it all. With him, it had to be all.
When he broke the kiss, her head kept spinning for a moment. She heard a low, faint “Damn,” and it took her a moment to register he’d actually said it. She felt a shudder go through him, ending with his hands tightening on her shoulders once more. And then he stepped firmly, purposefully back away from her. If she hadn’t had the prominent evidence that he’d been as aroused as she had been pressing against her abdomen seconds ago, she might have felt hurt.
“That should never have happened,” he said stiffly. “I’m sorry.”
She, who had an answer for every situation, didn’t seem to have one ready for this. It took her a moment to remember how to speak, anyway.
“I...believe I’m the one who started it.”
“Doesn’t matter. I should have stopped it.”
She should have realized he would react this way. If she’d learned nothing else about Ty Colton this week, it was that he took his job—protecting her—very seriously. And obviously, in his mind, that included protecting her from him. Even if she didn’t want that particular protection.
“I’m very glad you didn’t,” she said softly. “I wouldn’t have missed that for the world.”
He looked startled that she’d said it, but when he looked away, as if he couldn’t meet her gaze any longer, she thought she saw the slightest curve of one corner of his mouth. As if he were pleased but didn’t dare show it.
“It’s getting late. We’d better get back.” His voice was so rough she knew she’d been right. And that was enough.
For now.
Chapter 25
Ty’s jaw was getting tired of being clenched so much. This was ridiculous.
On their hike back to the cabin, they had reached the spot where the tree had gone down, and he thought that grabbing the splitting ax and tackling that big pile of logs would be just the thing to take the edge off. Too bad it was already getting dark. Besides, he couldn’t leave her alone for as long as that job would take. Which of course compounded the problem.
Yeah, he’d made a mistake, a huge one, letting that kiss happen. He’d compounded it by initiating one himself. But that didn’t mean he had to spend every minute obsessing about it. He could stop that. Use some of that stubborn he was known for. Hadn’t his boss told him one of the reasons he took him on was that he was stubborn enough to stay out of the Colton family business?
And damn lucky you did, or you’d be a suspect in that mess instead of trying to unravel the truth about it.
Not that he’d gotten much unraveling done since Eric had dropped this job on him. He knew his sister Jordana was still digging, and that she wouldn’t stop until she had the truth; she was nothing if not determined. Eric himself said she was the kind of determined he always looked for when recruiting. Ty had always admired the way she’d stood up to the old man, and when he’d told her that, she’d said she admired him for the same thing.
“I guess we did stand up to him, didn’t we? He was about as happy about you joining the Navy as he was about me going with Elite.”
And in the end, they respected each other for taking the harder path because it was the right thing for them.
But he kind of doubted Jordana envied anyone these days. She and Clint had worked things out and she was happier than he’d ever seen her. He’d always told her he thought the Chicago businessman was a good guy, and the way he’d handled the chaos that the current Colton mess had brought into his life had only proved that in Ty’s book.
But that hadn’t slowed down her dogged investigation in the least. Still, Ty was bothered by not being hands-on himself, despite the fact that technically he had no legal standing. Because he knew that in a private capacity, both he and Brooks could sometimes get people to open up in ways the police could not. Something about that lack of arrest powers made people more willing to talk.
But he wasn’t out there working on it. He was stuck here. Stuck with the woman he’d thought would be the proverbial spoiled little rich girl but who instead had intrigued him at every turn. Including physically, he reluctantly admitted. It was a line he’d never crossed while working before, yet now he wanted not just cross it but obliterate it. And that shook him to the core.
“That’s quite a frown.”
A snap of adrenaline shot through him. That was twice now she’d come up on him and he’d been unaware. Which meant he’d been unaware of their surroundings, too, out here in the open.
Idiot. Get your head in the game, Colton. You’re supposed to be protecting that body, not lusting after it.
This had to stop. Both times she’d surprised him, it had been because he was so deep into thinking about her that he’d been oblivious. In this case, he’d been reliving that kiss, again and again in his mind. And that, obviously, was not something he could admit to her. He could barely admit it to himself.
Backtracking in his thoughts for an answer to her comment, he said, “Just thinking about a family problem.”
She studied him for a moment. Not that he knew that from looking at her, since at the moment he didn’t think he dared. But he’d swear he could feel her gaze on him as they started walking again.
“The bodies they found or the cancer cases?” she asked. He stopped dead, turning his head sharply. Stared at her. “I told you I saw something. Now I remember what it was. Researching the area, I saw some of the stories, about both,” she explained.
“And the idea that those cancers are somehow connected to Colton Construction is right up your alley, isn’t it?”
His voice was sharp, and he was a little surprised at himself. He’d sounded more than just edgy because he felt like he’d been slacking off on the job at hand. He’d been worried about the whole situation, yes, but he wasn’t used to feeling defensive about the family business, and didn’t know why he’d retorted like that. Except she got to him in many ways he wasn’t used to.
“I have some knowledge and experience with such cases, yes,” she said easily, as if he hadn’t snapped. Then he realized she was probably used to dealing with upset or angry people about these things. “And the fact that in the study I saw, all the men who’ve become ill worked for the same company at the same time, at the same building site is highly suggestive.”
“I’m sure.” He’d thought the same thing, and again wondered why he was feeling edgy about her putting it into words. Sure, he’d always defend his family, but that she was saying what others had, what he himself had considered seemed different somehow.
“There could be many causes,” she said. “Contaminated building materials, lack of careful workplace practices.”
“Right.”
She tilted her head as she looked at him. “I’m not making accusations. It’s far too early for that, and it may well be your family’s company has nothing to do with it. It could be something that had already been in place, nothing they were responsible for. For example, if something had once been built there using arsenic-treated wood before it was banned. The arsenic can leach into the soil and contaminate it, and there would be no way to have known without testing.”
By now he wasn’t surprised at her knowledge about similar situations. It had become clear she was no
figurehead, no front or money supplier who talked big, spent money, but knew nothing. She did, as she’d said, her homework, and she learned and remembered.
What surprised him was her willingness to proffer an explanation where Colton Construction was absolved.
Someday maybe you’ll get it through your head that she’s not what you expected, in any way.
Someday? He was thinking as if it would matter on that future someday. As if when this was over she wouldn’t simply go back to her world, and he would stay here in his.
He was calling himself all sorts of stupid when they finally cleared the trees. And he stopped dead again. Glanced at his watch, wondering if it was off. It was barely past sunset, so he’d thought the deeper darkness had been the trees. Even leafless, the big cottonwoods cast shadows.
But now, for the first time since they’d left the point he got a clear look at the sky to the west. The storm clouds had arrived and were piling up in a way that told him that the predicted strong frontal system was approaching. But it wasn’t that that had the hair on the back of his neck prickling, it was the sky itself.
Green.
There was no mistaking the tint of green in more than one place.
“Come on,” he said, “we need to get to the cabin.”
“Why the rush?” she asked, although she picked up her pace to keep up with him. And she could do it, with those long legs of hers.
He gave himself a mental slap. Now of all times he needed to focus. “I don’t like that sky,” he said.
She looked. “It does look strange.” Her brow furrowed. “Why does it look green?”
“We can have the science-versus-folklore argument about that inside, but for now just accept it doesn’t mean anything good and keep moving.”
He was thankful she didn’t argue. They kept going, and he kept giving the sky wary glances. They were halfway across the clearing the cabin stood in when the hail started. Sudden and hard, the frozen pellets came down like a vertical avalanche, bouncing as they hit the ground. And them.
“Now we run,” he said. And grabbed her hand. He told himself it was simply to be sure she kept up, but he didn’t even believe it himself.
They ran. The hail was getting larger, harder, and there was already enough on the ground to keep it from melting quickly.
“It’s moving fast,” she exclaimed, and he heard the first tinge of concern in her voice.
“Yes.”
He left it at that, seeing no need to voice his particular thought yet. But by the time they reached the deck of the cabin, it was more than a thought, it was apprehension. The moment they were close enough, he heard it, the blaring sound from inside. He swore, low and harsh.
“What?” She sounded worried for the first time. Distracted, she slipped on the step up to the deck that was slick with the icy pellets.
He grabbed her, kept her upright as he said with angry disgust, “We get about one a year in November, and it has to be freaking here and now? Keep moving.” His gut was yelling run but the deck was as slippery as the steps, and he didn’t want to deal with a broken limb on either of them.
“What?” she repeated, her voice rising a little. He stalled until they got inside. He closed the door behind them. “Ty? Tell me what that sound is.”
He tried to ignore how much he liked her using his first name. And finally turned to face her, the alert ringing in his ears.
“It’s a tornado warning.”
Chapter 26
A tornado. In Kansas. Ashley couldn’t help it, she laughed. “Seriously?”
“Very.” There was no denying the grim tone of his voice. He was already headed down the hall toward the panic room.
She could tell now that they were inside that that’s where the whooping alert sound was coming from. She followed. This was one phenomenon she had zero experience with. She’d been through hurricanes, earthquakes, even a volcanic eruption once, but she’d somehow managed to never encounter an actual tornado. The closest she’d ever been was one of her mom’s favorite old movies—and not the one involving the flying monkeys.
He looked at the weather station in the array of electronics. Swore again. The landline phone in the room rang. He grabbed it. The conversation was short.
“Looking at it. Yes, too close. Going now. Hope so.”
He hung up and spun around. “Come on. We’re heading for the cellar.”
She blinked. What cellar? “But shouldn’t we stay here in the safe room? It’s solid and—”
“Aboveground. They’re saying the one that touched down in the area was an EF3 to EF4. This whole place could be gone.”
Fear spiked in her at those words. She decided it would not be wise to argue with him, not over this. He was Kansas born and bred, and obviously knew what he was talking about.
“I’ll just go grab my—”
“No! No time. Tornadoes this time of year tend to move faster. We have to take shelter now.”
His urgency drove her fear higher. She was close on his heels as he ran back down the hall. They went through the kitchen, he grabbed up his keys from the counter, then yanked open a door she had assumed was some kind of cupboard or pantry. But it was a stairway going down to the cellar she hadn’t known existed. It was, oddly, mostly underneath what had to be the deck area.
He insisted she go first, and he closed the door as she started down, casting them into pitch-black. But then he apparently hit a switch because light flared. As she reached the bottom, she looked around.
She didn’t know what she’d expected, but this wasn’t it. It was larger, maybe twenty by twenty, with walls of what appeared to be solid concrete, broken up only by a set of steps on the far wall, leading up to what looked like an exit hatch of some sort. The heavy metal hatch had a small window that looked like it had been made for an airplane and able to withstand just about anything. There were shelves with what looked like emergency supplies along one wall, in addition to a counter with a sink and a microwave. On another wall was a small television and what looked like a duplicate of the weather station upstairs. There was a small couch and some upholstered chairs in front of the TV, and a table with several chairs near the makeshift kitchen.
That was all she had time to notice before a movement Ty made drew her attention and she turned in time to see him swinging a door shut at the bottom of the stairs. This was no ordinary door; it was thick, solid and metal, not wood. And it closed with sliding bars from the inside of the door that entered openings in the wall itself. It looked as if it could withstand a direct hit from a bomb.
“Why do I feel as if we’re going into lockdown at NORAD?” she said nervously.
Ty gave her a look that was at first startled but then, unexpectedly, he grinned. Suddenly her fear ebbed a little. “That’s actually where my Uncle Shep got the idea,” he said. “He had the chance to go on a tour there once when he was in the Navy.”
“That hatch his idea, too? It looks like it could be on a submarine.”
The grin widened. “Exactly. It was made by a company that does just that. He wanted the window so we could at least get a peek outside without having to go out there. And it lets a little light in when the power’s out.”
“Your uncle sounds like quite a guy.”
“He’s the best,” Ty said simply. And he said it, she noticed, with much more warmth than he’d ever spoken of his father. Then he gestured toward the back corner of the room, where she saw now there was a second small room, rather grimly built of cinder block. “That’s the bedroom and the last resort,” he said. “If it gets really bad, that’s where you go.”
She walked over and looked into the corner room. It looked like a jail cell with the narrow bunk, but there were bottles of drinking water lined up on the shelves opposite. And a large white case with the too-familiar red cross on it, which only added to her unease.
&
nbsp; “Define really bad,” she said, nerves kicking up again.
“If you feel the cabin lifting.”
She stared at him. Was he serious? Dear God, he was. She looked at the very heavy beams above them. Then back at him as he walked over and turned on both the second weather station and the television, tuned to a twenty-four-hour weather channel.
“How far away?” she asked, staring at the map.
“The one that touched down was just west of the dam.” Her breath jammed up in her throat. “That’s four miles from here, which is a long way, in tornado terms. Bigger concern is where there’s one...”
“There can be more,” she finished, looking upward again.
“Yes.”
As she looked up, she remembered what she’d noticed before. “Why is this mostly under the deck rather than the house?”
One corner of his mouth curved upward in that way that made her want to kiss him all over again. “Good catch. It’s so that if it gets really bad up top, we don’t end up with a refrigerator on our heads.”
She blinked. Then she smiled back at him. “I am forever amazed at the power of the human survival instinct.”
“That was my father. He does know the construction business.”
There was respect in his tone, if not warmth. At least not the kind of warmth that had been in his voice when he’d spoken of his uncle. The Coltons must have a complicated family dynamic. She supposed that with eight of them, it couldn’t be any other way. She wondered if all of them had the same rather stiff relationship with their father.
She made a mental note to give her father a hug when this was over. Even if he had annoyed her with insisting on this protection measure. Then again, if her father hadn’t insisted, she never would have met Ty. And that somehow seemed a much greater loss than having her life restricted for a while. Truly, she hadn’t felt restricted since they’d gotten here. In fact, until this storm had begun, she had barely thought about being without her phone. Her thought had been to retrieve it before they came down here, but that had been habit as much as anything, since it wouldn’t change the fact that there was no reception.
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