“You didn’t say whether you’ve made a decision about working for the company you mentioned.”
I put my hands on the edge of the kitchen counter and rolled my shoulders. “I’ve decided to accept their offer.”
Mila set the food she was getting out of the refrigerator down and came to stand next to me.
“You don’t sound happy about it.”
It wasn’t unhappy I was feeling; it was irritation. Rile had made a bargain with me. The Invincible team would help as long as I agreed to come on board. I wasn’t about to tell Mila that, though. It would make her feel as though I’d done something I didn’t want to, because of her. If I lied, though, there was a good chance she’d pick up on it.
“The truth is, I’d decided to accept their offer. I just hadn’t planned on telling them as soon as I did.”
“But you did it for me.”
“I did it now, in part, because of you, but as I said, I had already decided to take their offer.”
“What does it mean in terms of the ranch?”
“I don’t expect things to change too drastically. I’ve worked with each of these men before, so they’re accustomed to when I can take on assignments and when I can’t.”
She walked back to where she’d set the food, but I sensed she’d left something unsaid. That she was biting her bottom lip told me it was something she was concerned about. I walked over and rested my hand on the small of her back. “What’s bothering you?”
She took a breath as if she was going to speak, but then closed her mouth.
“Mila…”
“It’s nothing.”
I put my hands on her shoulders and turned her to face me. “I told you a whole helluva lot more than I’m used to telling anyone. Please tell me what’s on your mind.”
“There isn’t anything on my mind.”
I moved my arms to encircle her waist and looked into her eyes. “I can wait. I’m a very patient man.”
She laughed. “I doubt that’s true, and the reason I don’t want to answer you is because it was silly.”
I raised a brow but, otherwise, didn’t move.
“Okay.” She let out a deep breath. “I was wondering if you’d have to be away a lot.”
“From?”
“The ranch. The States.”
“And you?”
Her cheeks flamed, and she tried to wiggle out of my grasp.
“Look at me,” I said when she looked everywhere but. When she did, I cupped her face with my palm. “Believe me, I’ve already taken that into consideration.”
She smiled, but I knew she didn’t buy it.
I brushed her lips with mine. “You don’t think I know how crazy that sounds?”
“I live in Boston…”
My first reaction was to tell her she used to live there, but things were already moving so quickly between us that I stopped myself from taking it a step too far and telling her I never wanted her to leave. The fact that she’d taken into consideration that we might not see each other, made me happier than I could say.
We made dinner, dancing around each other in the small kitchen as though we’d done it many times before. Being with her was easier than anyone I’d spent time with before, except for Quint, who had been my best friend for years. And that was entirely different.
I was attracted to Mila, but I wasn’t nervous around her, and most of the time, she wasn’t anxious with me either. She’d mentioned that she didn’t like to be touched, and yet I never saw signs that she was bothered when I put my hands on her—and I did it every chance I got.
After we finished eating and had cleaned up, I led Mila over to the sofa that sat in front of the big stone fireplace. It was too hot to build a fire, but it was the only place where we could sit inside where I could draw her into my arms.
“Come here,” I said, nestling her closer to me. She settled in and rested her head on my chest. “I want to ask you about something.”
“Okay,” I heard her murmur.
“You don’t have to answer anything I ask if you don’t want to.”
“Go ahead.”
“You told me that you don’t like to be touched.”
She tensed and tried to sit up, but I’d kept my arm around her shoulders for a reason. I kissed the top of her head.
“I touch you a lot, yet you don’t seem bothered by it. In fact, I think you kind of like it.”
I could feel her tense muscles relax, and if I could see her reflection, I’d guess she was smiling.
“I do like it, and to be honest, initially it surprised me too. Now it just feels natural.”
Resting my head against hers, my mouth close to her ear, I drew circles on her shoulder with my fingertips. “Tell me why you don’t like it, Mila.”
“It isn’t something I talk about.”
I brought my fingers to her neck and gently kneaded it. “Did someone touch you in a way you didn’t want?”
It took a while, but eventually, she nodded.
“Before you moved to Boston?”
She nodded again. “It’s one of the reasons I left.”
It was all I could do to keep my anger in check. If she sensed it, she’d clam up. “Was it someone close to you?”
Mila shook her head. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
“If I ever do anything to make you uncomfortable, I want you to tell me.”
She didn’t answer with words, but she snuggled closer to me, and that told me everything I needed to know. Mila trusted me, and I wouldn’t do anything to make her regret doing so.
It wasn’t long before her breathing evened out and I knew she was asleep. It was another example of her trust in me. I closed my eyes, not wanting to wake her. When I did, she’d go into one room to sleep and me another; I wasn’t ready to let go yet.
It was quiet out in the woods. I could hear the creek bubbling out front and the sounds of wildlife in the distance, but when I heard something that sounded like footsteps, my eyes opened wide.
I gently eased myself out from under Mila, propped her up with a pillow, and crept over to the closest window. The only light inside the cabin was a single candle burning, so I doubted anyone could see much. They’d see my shadow in front of the window, though, so I stayed off to the side, drew my gun from my calf holster, and looked in the direction I’d heard the noise. It wasn’t long until I heard the sound of a vehicle’s engine off in the distance. I crept to the door and eased outside, staying close to the cabin as I looked around. Without much light from the moon, I couldn’t see if there were footprints, but I’d check all around the structure in the morning.
I went back inside, where Mila was still asleep on the sofa. While my plan had been to sleep in separate rooms, there was no way I’d let her out of my sight now. I scooped her into my arms and carried her into the first bedroom I came to. Unlike the others that had smaller beds, this one had a king-size mattress.
She stirred when I eased her body onto the bed.
“Decker?”
“Shh. Go back to sleep.”
I lay next to her, only allowing myself to doze on and off.
The sun had been up for at least a couple of hours before Mila woke up.
“Hey,” I said when she looked up at me.
“Hi.” She removed herself from my grasp, sat up, and looked around the room. “I don’t remember coming in here last night.”
“You were pretty out of it.”
“You slept here?”
“Yep. Just like this.” I looked down at my fully clothed body.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what? Being exhausted? Don’t be.”
She got out of bed; I watched as she looked at her phone and powered it back on. When she padded to the restroom, I got up too and straightened the bedclothes. Maybe she’d want to go back to sleep. If so, it would give me time to go out and look around for evidence of anyone being on the property the night before.
Remembering that she’d wanted s
ome yesterday morning, I went into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. As I waited for it to brew, I peered out the same window I’d stood near the night before. I couldn’t see anything from this vantage point, but I’d get out there as soon as I could to take a better look.
“What are you looking at?” Mila asked.
“Nothing. Just waiting for the coffee,” I answered without turning to look at her.
“If it’s okay, I’d like to take a shower.”
“Of course it’s okay,” I told her, trying to strike the image of her naked body under the streaming water. As soon as she was finished, I’d take a shower too, but mine would be an ice-cold one.
When I heard the bathroom door close, followed by water running, I went outside.
Texas was pretty damn dry this time of year, but next to the creek and under the trees, there was enough humidity that if someone had been walking around last night, they might’ve left footprints.
I slowly walked toward where I thought I heard the vehicle’s engine, shining the light from my phone ahead of me. I could see fine, but the added illumination might make it easier to spot indentations in the ground. About ten yards into the woods, something caught my eye. A twig had snapped and, from it, hung a very small piece of fabric. I looked around that particular area and saw what I’d been looking for—footprints. There was only one set, and from the look of them, I’d say the person who left them wore a size twelve, or bigger, shoe.
I heard another noise and turned to find Mila standing on the front porch of the cabin, watching me with a cup of coffee in her hand.
“What are you doing?” she asked when I walked closer.
“Thought I heard something last night.”
“And?”
“There are tracks in the woods, but it’s hard to say how old they are.”
Mila shuddered and then brought the cup to her lips.
I sat down on the steps, and she joined me.
“Do you think someone was here?”
“I’m not certain.”
“But?”
“I know I told you that we could stay here another night or two, but I’d feel more comfortable if we went back to the ranch.”
“Okay,” she murmured, taking another sip of coffee and then looking around. “I really like it here. I hope I can come back someday.”
“I hope so too.”
She set her coffee cup down next to her. “When will we leave?”
“I’ll take a shower and then pack up the food.”
Mila’s cheeks flushed before she turned away. I put my fingers on the side of her face and turned her head back toward me.
“What are you thinking, beautiful?”
She shrugged. “I should’ve asked you to join me. That wasn’t very polite on my part.”
The look on her face set every one of my nerve endings on fire. I grasped the back of her neck and held her as I captured her mouth in a kiss. When her mouth opened to mine, I deepened it. When she moved closer to me, I lifted her onto my lap. I couldn’t kiss her hard enough to quell the urgent need I felt coursing through my veins. She wrapped her arms around me and crushed her breasts into my chest.
I released her lips and kissed down her neck while, at the same time, unfastening the buttons on her blouse. When I felt her tense, I stopped. I moved my hand to her waist and brought my lips back to hers.
“There’s no rush, Mila. We’ll take this as slow as you need to.”
“I’m sorry.”
I pulled back and looked into her eyes. “Don’t ever apologize for putting on the brakes when you don’t feel comfortable. I meant what I said. There’s no hurry. As far as I’m concerned, we have all the time in the world to get to know each other. Intimacy, done right, is more than a physical attraction. It’s what’s in here,” I pointed to her head, then to her heart, “and what’s in here.”
“But I’m the one who…”
“We were both flirting, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Neither of us can deny our attraction, but that doesn’t mean we’re ready to act on our desire.”
I brought my lips to hers again and kissed her as deeply as I had before. I wanted her to understand that her pulling back hadn’t changed how I felt. I still wanted her, loved the feeling of pressing my lips to her soft mouth, and that was enough for now.
15
Mila
When Deck got up and went inside after being so sweet to reassure me, I wanted to cry in frustration.
It had been almost nine years since one stupid night changed my life. Nine years in which the idea of a man touching my body, shut me down. Nine years that I spent wondering if I’d ever be ready to let go of the fear, the memories, the anxiety that sent me into near panic whenever a man got too close.
I tried counseling, which helped some, and had visited a Sexual Abuse Support Group the therapist recommended. I attended one meeting and never returned.
The other people in the group spoke of horrifying experiences, far worse than what had happened to me. Some talked about how they’d told a person of trust, who didn’t believe them or looked the other way.
I hadn’t been able to bring myself to talk about what happened to me that night, or how the person I should’ve been able to trust had saved me only to turn around and betray me.
Had I been harmed mentally and emotionally? Yes. Physically? Not nearly as bad as most of the other people in the group—at least the ones who had shared their stories that day.
I wondered now if I should’ve tried harder to do the work the therapist had recommended. Worse, whenever I thought about that night, I wondered if I’d made the right decision when I agreed not to report it. But what choice had I had?
I picked up my cup, went inside to get more coffee, and heard my phone’s ringtone from the bedroom. By the time I got to it, it had gone silent. I didn’t need to look at the screen to know it had been Adler, or listen to the message he left to know why he called.
Why had he come back to Texas? When he’d left for Boston, his attitude had reeked ambivalence. He seemed angry that I refused to fly back with him, but not at all concerned as to why.
When he’d called yesterday, his pleas for me to call him back seemed frantic. Again, why? What had happened between the time he left me standing in front of the sheriff’s office and the next morning? I couldn’t come up with an explanation that made any sense.
I heard the bathroom door open, and turned to meet Decker’s gaze.
“Adler?” he asked, looking at the phone in my hand.
“I missed his call.”
Decker nodded and walked into the bedroom. “I’ve given this some thought.”
“Okay…”
“I want to invite him to stay at the ranch.”
I was stunned. “Why?”
“It’ll give me the opportunity to get a read on him. Not to mention that, in order to do so, he’ll need to be scanned into the ranch’s security systems. If Rile and the boys haven’t found anything on him yet, that’ll speed things up.”
“If there’s anything to find,” I added. Was Adler really one of the bad guys? Part of me didn’t want to believe it even though another part of me was beginning to believe he was.
“That’s right,” he responded, albeit half-heartedly. “There’s another possibility. He may not want to expose himself to a background check. If that’s the case, he’ll backpedal. And then, we’ll know there’s something he’s hiding.”
I sat on the end of the bed, and Decker sat next to me. “Talk to me, sweetheart.”
“There wasn’t anything you said that truly surprised me, other than your suggestion that we invite Ad to stay at the ranch. It all makes sense. I’m just having a hard time understanding what he could possibly have to do with my sister’s murder. It wasn’t like he could’ve flown to Texas, shot her, and then returned to Boston. He was at my apartment shortly after I got home from work, and stayed with me until the next morning.”
“Can you repeat that la
st sentence for me?”
I leaned over and rested my head on Decker’s shoulder. “He slept in the chair.”
Deck put his arm around me and kissed the side of my face. “You came pretty close to giving me a reason to rip his arms off.”
“I never let him touch me, and I never would. When you were in the shower, I thought about how different it is between you and me. I hardly know you, and yet I feel safe with you. I’ve never been able to let my guard down with Adler. Not just him, any other man.” I turned so I could look into his eyes. “I haven’t let another man touch me in nine years, Decker.”
I watched as the weight of my words settled on him. There was as much relief etched into his furrowed brow as there was concern. He held me close to him but didn’t speak. It wasn’t until my phone rang again that either of us did.
“What should I do?” I asked.
“Turn it off.”
“But—”
“You can return his call as soon as we’re back at the ranch.”
Before I could ask another question, I heard a different phone buzz, but I had no idea where the sound was coming from.
16
Decker
I pulled the phone out of my bag. I’d left it on, anxious to hear back from Rile.
“Hello, my friend,” the man said, beginning our conversation the way I was growing accustomed to.
“Rile.”
“When do you intend to return to Austin?”
“We’re leaving for the ranch in a few minutes. Where are you?”
“Our plane was diverted to DFW. We should arrive shortly after you.”
“I found evidence that someone paid us a visit last night.”
“As your email stated.”
That wasn’t accurate. My email stated that I suspected someone had been outside the cabin the night before; I hadn’t yet confirmed that fact when I sent it.
Decked (The Invincibles Book 1) Page 7