Guardian Ranger

by Cynthia Eden

  She nodded. “As long as the phone’s on.” Then she turned away and headed out of the room.

  Wyatt swore. “You’re telling me...my own deputy...is the one who did all these murders? Him, and not Cale?”

  Her gaze snapped up to Wyatt.

  “Cale hasn’t been cleared on anything yet,” Logan said, eyes and voice both hard. “We’re gonna find Jimmy. We’ll bring him in, and then we’ll see just what the hell is happening in this town.”

  For such a sleepy town, Whiskey Ridge sure had a lot of deaths.

  Jasper’s fingers curled around Veronica’s wrist. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

  “I’m sure Sydney has some clothes she can borrow,” Logan murmured. “You taking her to the motel?”

  Jasper nodded. He tugged on Veronica’s wrist. She didn’t move. She was remembering that car, coming at her. At the time, she’d been so scared, but now... “Wyatt, didn’t Jimmy buy an old car a few years back? One that he wanted to restore?”

  “That black ’67?” Wyatt gave a nod. “Yeah, he’s been keeping it in his garage, but I think it’s almost...”

  He trailed off as he saw the tension on Jasper’s face.

  She thought about Jimmy’s old car. About the long, heavy lines of the ride he’d loved so much. Then she said, sadly, “I’m pretty sure that’s the car that ran me off the road.”

  Logan swore. Then he rushed to follow Sydney. “Syd, I need that GPS now.”

  Because it looked as though they’d found the man who’d just tried to kill her, and it was one of the men who’d promised to protect and serve everyone in Whiskey Ridge.

  * * *

  VERONICA CAME OUT of the shower, dressed in a white terry cloth robe. Her hair trailed over her shoulders, and her skin was flushed.

  She still looked too fragile. But he’d realized that the delicate appearance was only skin deep for Veronica.

  The woman had a core of steel.

  “When were you gonna tell me that you lifted that flash drive?” he asked her.

  She paused at the threshold of the bathroom. Steam drifted around her. They were in his motel room. He had the door bolted, and he figured it was time they cleared the air between them.

  Provided, of course, that he could keep his hands off her.

  “I was going to get around to that,” she murmured, “but there was the little matter of you getting shot, me finding out you were an EOD agent and, then, well, you arresting my brother.”

  “Yeah, the little matter of all that.” He stalked toward her.

  She tensed. “I thought I had the room to myself. You were supposed to wait outside while I showered.”

  “I’m not going anyplace. You were almost killed tonight.” The memory had his heart racing. “Do you know what that did to me?”

  She looked confused. As if she couldn’t figure out why her death would matter to him.

  He put his hands on her, right near her shoulders. She smelled fresh and clean and just looking at her made him ache. So the whole no-touching-her bit had lasted for all of five seconds. The woman made him weak.

  “You were worried,” she said, giving a little nod. “You’re an agent, so your job is—”

  “Forget the job.” Anger thickened his voice. “This isn’t about a job any longer. It’s about you.”

  She blinked. “What?”

  “I’m not on the EOD’s side, okay? I’m not using you. I’m not trying to get information on your brother. I’m here, right now, because there is no other place on this whole earth that I’d rather be. I want to be with you.”

  “Jasper.” Her gaze searched his.

  What was she looking for? What emotion? What truth? Whatever it was, he sure as hell hoped that she found it.

  “The case is between us, I get that. You think your brother’s innocent? You think he’s being set up by that deputy?”

  “Yes.” She breathed the words. “I do.”

  Such incredible faith. He wanted her to have that kind of faith in him.

  “Then consider me on your side from here on out.” The choice really was that simple to him. He couldn’t keep ripping her apart by going after her brother. He’d resign from the EOD. He’d be with her.

  If she wanted him.

  “Wh-what are you saying?”

  He had to kiss her. That little stutter got to him every single time. His lips brushed hers, gentle, because he was determined to be, for now. “I’m saying that I have your back, always.” Another kiss against her lips. “I’m saying that you can trust me to be there for you.”

  Her lips parted in surprise.

  Another kiss. This time, his tongue dipped inside her mouth and tasted that sweetness.

  “If your brother is being set up, we’ll find the evidence that links Jimmy to the kills. We’ll clear Cale.”

  And if he isn’t innocent...if Jimmy and Cale are somehow working together...

  He’d still be there for Veronica. From now on, he planned to be the man she needed him to be.

  “Why?” she asked him softly. “Why are you changing your mind? Is it because of—”

  “It’s because of you.” Simple. “I won’t lose you.” Not when she was everything that he’d ever been looking for his whole life.

  Once, he’d told Logan that if a woman ever looked at him the way Logan’s fiancée, Juliana, looked at that guy...well, Jasper had said that he’d hold as tight to that woman as he could. Jasper hadn’t known a lot of love in his life, but he’d seen it in Juliana’s gaze when she looked at Logan.

  And, too late, he realized that he’d seen the same look in Veronica’s eyes. Hope, trust, love—all of that had been in her eyes.

  I want that look again. He’d work for it, do anything necessary, in order for her to look at him that way again.

  “You wanted me once,” he whispered against her mouth. “I can make you want me again.”

  Her hands rose, slowly, and settled lightly on either side of his jaw. Her stare was guarded now, but he could be patient. He could prove his worth to her.

  “Jasper...”

  He turned his head and pressed a kiss to her palm. “I can’t lose you.” How had she come to mean so much to him, so quickly? The image of her on that rain-soaked road would haunt him until he died.

  “I’m not going anyplace,” Veronica told him. She stepped closer to him, erasing the last bit of distance that separated them. “I want to be with you.”

  His control began to fracture. He kissed her again. Harder. Her hands dropped to his chest, smoothed over his skin. His fingers went to the belt of her robe, pulled the tie loose and slid inside to find smooth, naked skin.

  But she pushed against him. “Jasper, your shoulder, your wound...”

  “I’ll hurt more if I can’t have you.” The need to take her again blazed through him. Death had been too close. He had to know that she was safe. Jasper wanted her body against his, and he wanted the pleasure to wipe away the fear that made him feel hollow inside.

  And to think that some of his EOD buddies believed he was a man who didn’t understand fear.

  I understand it now.

  Jasper kissed his way down her neck and enjoyed the shiver that slid over her body. Her hands were being so careful on him, but a little pain wasn’t about to slow him down.

  He led her to the bed. Kissed her, caressed the flesh that seemed to have been made just for his hands. Her nipples were tight, pink and he laved them with his tongue. She liked that. He could hear her pleasure in the moan that slipped from her lips. Good. Because he sure liked tasting her.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” she said again. Her hands were hesitant on him. He glanced up at her. Desire was warm in her eyes, and her flush had deepened.

  He caught her hands, pushed them back over her head. Held them there with his left hand. “You’d only hurt me if you turned me away.”

  Her legs were open, parted slightly. He eased between her thighs and placed a kiss on her stomach.

 
“Jasper?”

  His right hand caressed her flesh. He wanted her as aroused and eager as he was. Lust was a constant heat in his blood now, burning him from the inside out. But he wouldn’t take, no, he wanted to give the pleasure to her.

  Needed to see the pleasure on her face.

  He pushed his fingers into her, stroked the most sensitive part of her body. Her hips arched up toward him. Eager. Not as eager as he was, not yet.

  His fingers thrust again. He released her wrists, bent and tasted her.

  She gasped out his name and that was the moment he’d been waiting for. The moment when pleasure and need merged for her.

  After quickly taking care of the protection, he positioned his aroused length at the entrance of her body. Met her gaze. Saw the desire.

  The...trust?

  Yes.

  He drove into her as his control shattered. She met every thrust, rising up with her hips, wrapping her arms around him—but not touching his shoulder. His Veronica. Always so careful.

  So perfect for him.

  His thrusts grew harder. Deeper. Her sex tightened around him, and he knew another release was close for her. His own climax was bearing down on him. He kissed her, because he wanted to taste her pleasure.

  Then she was tensing beneath him as the wave of release hit her. Her sex contracted around him, and his climax ripped through Jasper, sending pleasure pouring through his body as he held her tightly beneath him.

  They hadn’t just had sex. He got that. He’d had sex with plenty of women over the years. The pleasure he took with her, the way he felt...

  So much more.

  He stared down into her eyes. He could hear the drumming of his heartbeat filling his ears. She was everything he wanted, and he’d been a blind fool not to realize it sooner.

  “Veronica.”

  She smiled up at him. “I didn’t think it could get better.” Her hand lifted. Traced a sensual path down his chest. “I was wrong.”

  His lips took hers.

  A knock sounded at the door. A knock that he was very, very glad hadn’t sounded about one minute sooner.

  But Veronica’s eyes still widened in alarm and her cheeks stained more with that lovely red. “Oh, no, do you think—”

  “I think you should stay exactly where you are. It’s just Logan or Sydney, coming with some extra clothes for you.” He’d forgotten all about them until that moment.

  He rose from the bed, pulled the covers over her and bent to grab the clothes that he didn’t even remember ditching.

  But Veronica was already hopping out of the bed. “I’m not staying here naked! What if they know—what if—”

  Oh, they knew, all right. He was pretty sure that Logan understood the hungry looks he’d been shooting at Veronica.

  Unless he was very, very bad at reading people, there’d been a whole lot of desire and longing looks passing between Gunner and Sydney for months.

  His team understood lust.

  As for him, he was starting to understand love.

  He headed for the door. After he checked through the peephole, he pulled it open. Because he didn’t want to embarrass Veronica any more, he only opened the door a few inches.

  Logan lifted a brow even as he also raised a small paper bag. “Some fresh clothes for your lady.” The guy’s voice was carefully expressionless.

  Jasper tried to remember if he’d been...loud. Had he bellowed Veronica’s name?

  Logan’s knowing look said, yep, he had. “Not a word to her,” Jasper growled. No one would insult Veronica.

  Logan nodded. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” But then his face hardened. “Sydney just got a hit on the deputy’s cell phone. It turned on near Cale and Veronica’s ranch.”

  The deputy must have doubled back. Maybe he was still looking for the evidence Veronica had taken from Reed’s computer, hoping that Veronica didn’t have it on her.

  Too bad. The EOD has the files.

  “We’re going hunting.” Logan cocked his head. “You in with us?”

  Jasper looked over his shoulder at Veronica. She had belted the robe around her body again. She stared back at him with wide eyes.

  “No,” he said slowly as he turned back to face Logan. “I’m staying with Veronica. I don’t want her alone.” Not until he was exactly sure what they were dealing with. Deputy Jimmy Jones had looked like a scared kid the few times Jasper had seen him.

  Jimmy had been at the police station the night it was torched. Wyatt had said the kid was in the back, and the flames and explosions had first started back there. And when Wyatt went looking for him, Jimmy had been gone.

  Gone because he’d been outside, killing witnesses?

  It sure looked that way.

  And Jimmy looked like a scared kid.

  “I thought you might say that.... Wyatt’s inside the TH.” Temporary Headquarters. Jasper knew the lingo. Logan continued. “He and Gunner are going to stay behind with Cale. Veronica could go there with them. She could—”

  “No,” Jasper said. He wasn’t leaving her.

  “Yes,” Veronica responded at the same time. She grabbed the bag of clothes from Jasper’s hand and pulled the door open even wider. “If you need backup, then Jasper’s coming with you.”

  Logan glanced between them.

  Her hand brushed against Jasper. “This is your job. You make sure that Jimmy comes in alive—he can come back and clear my brother.”

  Because proving her brother’s innocence was the one thing that mattered most to Veronica.

  “Logan has backup,” Jasper said, still not willing to leave her. “Sydney’s damn good at her job and—”

  “It’s a whole lot of land. It’s a guy who knows the area,” Veronica said, “and you’re tracking him through a storm. If Sydney’s found a link to him out at my ranch, you can’t waste time. Go find him.”

  Because it was what she wanted, he nodded.

  “We leave in five,” Logan said as he stepped back.

  Five minutes. Not long. Jasper shut the door. Pulled Veronica against him. “When I come back, you and I are gonna finalize some things.”

  She frowned up at him.

  “The EOD.” Jasper heaved out a breath as he tried to find the right words. “It doesn’t have to be the only thing for me.” He’d had another dream, one that had whispered through his mind for years.

  The picket fence. A family.

  Someone he loved.

  “Finish this job,” she whispered to him. “Come back, and we start fresh.”

  Sounded like one fine idea to him.

  He kissed her and knew that he wouldn’t, couldn’t fail on this hunt.

  * * *

  HE WATCHED THE EOD agents leave. They thought they were so smart. Tracking him. Closing in. They didn’t realize their mistake.

  He’d been the one to turn on the cell phone so they could do their GPS tracking. He wanted them out on that ranch.

  Because while the EOD was away, it gave him plenty of time to play.

  He smiled and checked his weapon. Perfect.

  They could search that ranch all night if they wanted. It would give him the chance he needed to take care of business.

  He glanced down at his chest. At the stupid star near his heart. People acted as if that star was supposed to mean something to him.

  It didn’t mean a damn thing.

  Money mattered. Getting paid for the jobs that he did. He’d been poor. He’d been pitied.

  He’d never be that way again.

  He’d found a way to get a whole new life, and to get that life, he’d just needed to become someone new. Cale wasn’t so special. Not “Cale Lane,” anyway. But “Striker”...he was special. People asked specifically for that mercenary when they went to Reed Montgomery.

  Cale had balked at the jobs that weren’t straight rescues. He’d never taken the hits. Even though those jobs paid the most cash.

  So someone had taken the jobs for him. Reed had been down with the switch. Moralit
y hadn’t been big with the guy, so Reed sure hadn’t balked at lying about which mercenary actually took a job. People wanted Striker? Then they were told Striker handled the cases, even if someone else was actually doing the job. It had been the perfect situation.

  But when Veronica just wouldn’t give up on her hunt and those federal agents came to town, well, he hadn’t been able to trust that Reed wouldn’t turn on him.

  So he’d eliminated Reed, just as he had the others.

  For now...now it was time for the next step. Time to take over the “Striker” name once more and finish the job he’d started.

  He’d been paid very, very well to take out EOD agents. Two more agents were on his hit list.

  Gunner Ortez.

  Sydney Sloan.

  It seemed someone down in South America wanted those two out of the picture. The same someone who’d paid to have the other EOD agents eliminated. When he finished this job, he’d have a cool two million waiting in his Cayman Islands account.

  There was a lot that a man could do with two million dollars. Hell, two million dollars could wash away so much blood.

  He rubbed the star on his chest, checked his weapon once more and got ready to finish the job.

  Chapter Twelve

  Inside the EOD team’s headquarters, Veronica paced along the narrow hallway. She didn’t see Gunner, but she knew he was just a short scream away. Not that she planned to scream.

  Jimmy? How could it have been Jimmy? The idea still seemed wrong to her. Jimmy had been such a sweet guy. Lost, sad, hurt by his mother’s abandonment, but he’d cared about Whiskey Ridge. He’d cared about her and Cale.

  Hadn’t he?

  A man of the law, now being hunted. Soon enough, they’d find out what was happening with Jimmy. Soon—

  Gunfire erupted, bursting from near the entrance of the headquarters. She tensed, then saw Wyatt rushing down the hallway to her. “It’s Jimmy!” Sweat glistened on his forehead. “He took a shot at me when I got close to the front window! Saw him...” He huffed out a breath. “For just a second... Fired back...” His fingers clenched around hers. “I think I hit him.”

  Footsteps thundered behind her. She looked over her shoulder. Gunner was there, with his gun out, and his face was a hard mask. “What’s happening?” he demanded.