by Mary Wine
His hand closed around his gun and he swept the area around him twice before realizing it was his phone that had woken him. The horizon was pink as he pulled the phone from his pocket.
“I’m sending you back up.” Dresner informed him. “The second set of tracks belong to a woman who gave Devon shelter. Make sure you eliminate her.”
“A female will slow him down. I don’t need back up.”
His men were waking up and listening. There were a couple of nods.
“Your pay is high enough,” Dresner snapped. “Remember, no one gets paid if Devon Ross isn’t caught. Don’t get greedy.”
“Got it,” Burgos conceded. “Why is he heading north?”
“We don’t know. It’s possible he’s suffered trauma from his helicopter going down. For the moment, it is an advantage. Run him to ground. Don’t move on him until you call in.”
“Understood.”
Normally, Burgos didn’t care for being put on a short leash when it came to taking action. But today was different. Dresner didn’t suffer failure gracefully. It was better to let him think he was in charge, because the vast forestland stretching out in front of them had plenty of places for Devon and his friend to blend into.
But Burgos always did like a challenge.
Especially one that came with a large bounty.
Devon Ross smelled good.
Kalin took a deep breath and sighed. She snuggled closer to the man, dreaming of the first hours she’d met him. He needed her, so it was okay to just relax against him. And man, did he feel good against her. Somehow, she’d forgotten how much of a rush it was to be against a man. The pure intoxication of having her senses filled with his scent.
Her patient chuckled.
Her eyes opened in a panic as she realized she’d been dreaming. The scent of fresh-cut pine mixed with the musky tang of bare skin and she stared in horror at the open buttons on his shirt.
Buttons she’d opened.
“Oh…shit,” she squeaked, sounding far too much like a teenager on her first date.
“No need to cuss, I like keeping you warm.”
His arms were clasped around her. Alarm raced through her but close on its heels was deep, dark enjoyment.
“You shouldn’t be keeping me warm.” Her tone had come down a few octaves but she still sounded like an outraged virgin. He smoothed a hand down her back, unleashing a flood of heat that confirmed she was anything but innocent when it came to what she was feeling.
Oh hell yeah, she understood how good it would feel to just throw caution to the wind.
“Why not, Kalin?” he whispered against her ear. “I’m repaying the favor you did me.”
“That was different—” She raised her chin to argue with him and he sealed her protest beneath his lips. She tried to recoil, but he captured the back of her head and renewed his assault on her mouth. It wasn’t that it was a hard kiss, but it hit her senses like a hurricane. He teased her lips, tasting them with gentle motions before pressing against them more insistently. She opened her mouth out of sheer need. It flooded her system, refusing to be held back by any ideas about right or wrong. Her heart accelerated and she felt his heart pounding faster beneath her fingertips too.
A bird squawked right above their shelter and he jerked. Devon rolled right over her and onto his knees before she realized he was finished kissing her. His body was tight as he slid one hand into the pine needles covering them and peered outside.
“There’s no one there,” she informed him.
He didn’t look back at her but continued to scan the spot in front of them. “What do you base that conclusion on?”
She sat and shook a few pine needles off her chest. “You can hear the birds. They’d be gone if there were larger predators nearby.”
He turned and shot her a look rich with approval. “You know a thing or two about survival.”
Yeah, but when it came to reining in her emotions, it felt like she was wet behind the ears. Desire was tormenting her with just how easy it would be to take advantage of the situation. Logic was currently helping by pointing out that she wouldn’t be hurting anyone. She didn’t have any commitments.
But he might.
She might be a lot of things, but she wasn’t going to be a homewrecker.
Nope. No way.
Not even for a smoking-hot hunk like Devon Ross.
Chapter Three
The sun was making its way across the sky and her feet hurt enough to confirm they’d been making some good progress even though the view never seemed to change. The forest appeared to go on forever, and Devon Ross appeared to be completely at ease traversing it.
“You can stop glaring at me.”
Kalin turned around and shot Devon a hard look. “I am not—” She hadn’t looked into his eyes all day. The moment she did, she felt his presence inside her mind.
“No, you weren’t,” he admitted, his tone completely unrepentant. “But you’re avoiding me and putting up walls.”
And it bothered him. Her temper stirred. “You don’t need to be bumping around inside my head.”
“Because I kissed you?”
She stepped back when he reached for her chin to renew their eye contact. It was odd to continue arguing with him while looking away, but she needed to keep him out of her head or risk another lapse of sanity. “Because Grace might be your girlfriend or fiancée or someone who is out there waiting for you to return.”
“She’s a tracker,” he growled and froze, looking across the forest as a memory surfaced.
She could feel it moving through his thoughts like the sound of a familiar song. The melody was clear but the words were muffled. It frustrated him and she found herself battling helplessness.
“So there are more like you? Working in the…military?” She was stretching, hunting for anything that might trigger another memory.
He jerked his head back toward her, his pupils slightly dilated. “There is Grace. She’s tough. Black hair. Emerald eyes.” He appeared lost in thoughts for a moment and she could feel him fighting to push back the fog obscuring his memory. “She’s married… Not to me.”
He took off walking, his longer stride making it an effort to catch up with him.
“Hey, now who is putting up walls?” She reached for him, lunging forward to hook his elbow with her hand. Maybe it wasn’t the wisest thing she might have done, but the impulse was too strong to control.
He jerked around, moving his arm in a practiced motion that looked like something out of a martial-arts movie to dislodge her hand. It was lightning fast and brutally efficient. She yelped as her wrist was twisted, locking up the bones in her arm for one pain-filled moment.
He cussed and reached out to capture her hand. She tried to evade him but he caught her hand and began to rub her wrist.
“Don’t sneak up on me, Kalin.”
She angled her hand and broke his grip. “Don’t assume you’re the only one who knows a little hapkido.”
He growled at her. “I know a hell of a lot more. Deadly shit, Kalin, and you need to stop asking questions.”
She was poking the bear, but he was recalling things and that knowledge just encouraged her. The desire to help was so much a part of her, she didn’t even hesitate.
“About the military or about Grace?” Kalin propped her hands on her hips. “Are you jealous of her husband?”
Surprise flashed across his face before he shook his head. “It was a fucking relief to have the brass stop trying to match us up. A double relief if you could have seen how close to the edge Grace was before she met Brice…Brice…”
He reached up and rubbed his forehead.
“Don’t get mad, Devon,” she offered. “You have to work through it.”
He lowered his hand and stared at her. He burst inside her mind and she stumble
d back with the sheer volume of his thoughts.
“Stop yelling inside my head.” He made an effort to rein in his power. It was surprising too, because she wasn’t completely adjusted to the concept that he was psychic and able to control it. “Who is Brice?”
Devon narrowed his eyes. “You just don’t get it, do you, Kalin? Don’t ask me questions, don’t learn things about me.”
“You kissed me this morning, buddy.”
“And you crawled on top of me naked when we met.”
She didn’t take the bait he was dangling in front of her nose. She flashed him a knowing smile. “You think you’re the first frustrated tough guy I’ve had to listen to when fate decided to give them a wallop? Well, you aren’t. I acted in order to save your life and if you didn’t care for the view, you should have kept your lips off mine.”
“Oh, I liked what I saw, and I’d like to sample it too. Keep pushing your nose into my life and you might not ever be able to return to your world.” He took a moment to survey her from head to toe, his keen gaze missing nothing. When he locked gazes with her again, she felt the unmistakable touch of desire.
It set off a chain reaction inside her. Sensation rippled down her spine and then spread out across her skin. Her clothing felt tight, like opening her top would be the biggest relief. It was a hot curl of lust. Something she didn’t have a great deal of experience with. Her love life was a sad little story of men that had failed to make her feel like Devon Ross did. He filled her with intensity and her better judgment was coming up short when it came to any sort of defense.
“Nothing to say?” he demanded, his face flushed with the swelling of his emotions. But it was more than just the desire to be in command. She could see the need flickering in his eyes. The need for someone, for anyone to understand the torment going on inside his mind. He was pushing her away out of duty, but it was a form of self-sacrifice.
“No,” she answered him far too truthfully for her own feelings.
“Then you’re not assessing the information I just gave you and its effect on your life.”
“Oh, I understood you clearly.” Her temper had fizzled out like a campfire in a rainstorm. “In fact, I think it’s pissing you off to know just how much you don’t scare me. Too bad. I’m not going to start crying because you’re not comfortable with me being okay with what you are.”
Her comment brought him up short. For a moment, there was something in his eyes that looked a lot like gratitude. It drew her forward. She stretched up and slid her hand along his jaw. His skin was warm, hot actually, but his mouth was hotter. She pressed her mouth against his, seeking some method of proving to him that she wasn’t afraid of him.
Not of any part of dealing with him.
The lust lingering in her belly became a flame that licked across her clit and through her slit. It was brutally blunt, the need to feel him inside her stronger than she’d ever expected it to be.
It shocked her and she stepped back, stunned that he let her go.
And disappointed.
There was no denying that fact. It tore through her on the heels of the heat, leaving her shaking her head.
“You don’t make much sense, Kalin,” he said.
“About as much as you do.”
He surprised her with a grin. It transformed his face into a visage that was drool-worthy handsome. For a moment, he looked like the perfect guy next door. Rugged, mature and full of vigor. A man animal that you could bring home to Mommy before letting your inner passions loose. The perfect bundle of temptation.
“I suppose that makes us good company.”
He turned and started walking again. She felt cut off but scoffed at her injured feelings.
Stockholm syndrome was a bloody bitch.
Devon altered course. He began heading down, out of the forest. The first hint of a car engine was strange because the sounds of civilization had been absent from her life for the last few days. They crossed several roads but he never walked along them. Only over them before blending back into the forest. It was hard going at times, the plant life resisting their efforts to move through it.
She trudged on, trying to remind herself that she’d been meaning to burn a few pounds off her backside.
“Your butt is sexy as hell.”
She gave him a hard look but he only shrugged.
“Can’t help it. I hear you, and I do think your curves are sexy. You don’t need to work them off.”
Her cheeks heated, stunning her because she was way past the age of blushing.
“Where are we going?”
He flashed her a knowing grin. “Changing the subject? You kissed me last time.”
He was teasing her. There was even a glint in his eye that looked mischievous. Beyond the hard, muscular shoulders and lightning-fast reflexes was a naughty little boy.
“Well now, Devon, I suppose we could keep talking about how much you like my figure, but where would that get us?” She kicked a couple of granite rocks. “It is a little rough here for any sort of romp.”
She’d surprised him. With their gazes locked, she felt it flash through his mind before he chuckled.
He winked at her. “We could manage. Maybe against a tree…”
He projected an image straight into her mind that stole her breath. “You play dirty, Mr. Ross. Be careful what you start, my daddy didn’t raise a loser.”
But she laughed on the heels of her reprimand because she was enjoying the moment. It was hot and dangerous because she was playing with fire, but it was also exciting, making her giddy.
It had been a damn long time since she’d felt like laughing at life.
“Why?”
Devon was watching her with a questioning look. His eyes had narrowed and his pupils were dilated as he tried to probe her feelings.
“It’s nothing.”
He shook his head slowly, knowing she was lying.
“Well, it’s nothing compared to what we’re dealing with at the moment,” she justified.
He lifted one eyebrow. “I’ll concede that point, but I can feel the intensity of it, so don’t try and tell me it’s nothing. You’ve got a memory eating you.”
Boy, he had that right. Not that it made a bit of difference, and yet it did because she suddenly felt less alone.
Stockholm syndrome.
He went back to leading the way. Part of her questioned if he knew where he was going, but Gold Tooth’s buddies were a hard reality that she had no idea how to deal with. Devon was her best bet, so she followed him.
“We can’t do that.”
Devon offered her no hint of remorse. He used a small pair of binoculars to scan the motorhome storage area below them. It was nestled in between two ridges. A highway ran through the low point of the valley, evening traffic flowing smoothly. The sun was down and the cars had their headlights on.
There was sparse lighting illuminating the motorhomes. There were at least two hundred different recreational vehicles. Everything from vintage trailers to top-of-the-line bus-style motorhomes.
“It’s breaking and entering,” she informed him.
“Only if we get caught.”
He was lying on his belly, looking like a sniper out of some movie.
“Okay, it’s time to ask again, why not just go into the local police station? It’s not like we’d be dealing with a single sheriff that might be at risk from not believing you.”
He lowered the binoculars. “Because I’m still not sure who I am.” He raised the binoculars again and scanned the stored RVs. Most of them had covers on them and dead pine needles had collected on top. “What I do know is I need to stay out of sight. It’s like some sort of first law that’s been drilled into me. Heather died because she was discovered.”
“Heather was your wife?” She recalled that fact very well, but prodding his m
emory just might result in keeping them from becoming petty criminals.
He nodded. Only once, and she felt the burn of anger coming from him. But he took a last look down at the quiet RV storage area before stuffing the binoculars into her backpack.
“It’s too early in spring. Most of these units haven’t seen a human in months. It’s not like we’re going to vandalize them. The most I’m planning is using some shower water.”
“A shower?” She climbed to her knees and then to her feet to follow him.
“Tempting, is it?” he teased.
“Yeah.” She followed him as he threaded his way through the last of the natural vegetation and onto what served as a parking lot. “Are we talking soap?”
“That would add stealing to breaking and entering.”
She pushed her lower lip out in a pout.
“But I’m betting there is shampoo.” He winked at her.
“You’re such a bad boy,” she teased, realizing just how comfortable she was with him. It shouldn’t have been possible.
But he felt the same way. For a moment, she felt him inside her mind, just felt him enjoying the moment before he turned and snapped back into survival mode.
The asphalt was gravelly where water and ice had taken its toll. Devon avoided the areas lit by rough beam-supported lights. In several places, the wire connecting them was sagging.
“Relax, Kalin, the guy who owns this property is up in his living room watching his big screen. He just found a way to make his land work for him.”
“But shouldn’t there be some sort of security?”
Devon looked around the front edge of an RV before crossing the open space.
“When it comes to expensive toys like these, people have to carry insurance on them. This is a local guy renting out parking spots for the people who have tract homes without enough space for their weekend toys.”
He made his way through several more rows before stopping beside a large bus-type motorhome. The thing was huge and completely covered. It was up on blocks with more covers on the wheels. A half foot of dead leaves had collected around the blocks. Devon pulled a survival knife from his pocket and selected one of the accessories. He fit it neatly into the lock in spite of the dim light. There was a moment when she was sure she heard the approach of a security guard before the lock clicked and he opened the door.