She waited for more, much more, but that’s all he said. “Will I see you again?” Lynette hated that her voice cracked and tears burned in her eyes.
Great. Nothing like a sobbing hormonal woman for Gage’s send-off into what would no doubt be a life-and-death situation. She didn’t think for a minute that Gage was only going to do those two things he’d named.
Lynette waved Gage off when he started to pull her into his arms. “I can stand on my own two feet,” she reminded him.
And herself.
In fact, she’d spent years trying to overcome the fear that her father had put inside her.
Lynette cursed the tears that came anyway.
“Right now, you look like you’re about to fall off your own two feet,” Gage whispered, and put his arms around her despite her protest. “No shame in that. You’re tired, cold, and you’ve been through two sets of trouble already, and the sun hasn’t even come up.”
“Three sets,” Lynette corrected. “You didn’t include yourself.”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. He pushed her still wet hair away from her face and used the pad of his thumb to swipe off the tear that streaked down her cheek. “I always was trouble for you.”
Trouble in a body that still heated her up in one second and infuriated in the next.
That was Gage.
Their relationship had never been easy.
“You should come with a warning label attached,” she whispered. “Especially one attached to the zipper of your jeans.” That part of him was just as much trouble for her as the rest of him. Maybe more.
“Oh, yeah? What should that warning label say?” Amusement danced through his eyes while the Texas drawl danced off his words.
She could think of a few. Caution: Hot. Or maybe Danger Ahead.
“Do not remove,” she settled for saying and hoped that the joke would lighten the mood.
It didn’t.
“Will I see you again?” she repeated, fearing a no and a yes equally. Either one would be yet another complication.
“Afraid so.” He brushed a kiss on her cheek. It was a peck but not chaste.
Gage’s mouth was never chaste.
Their gazes met, and he was so close that Lynette could give him a real kiss. Like the one in the SUV. And she thought about it, she really did, especially since his afraid so could be a lie. This might be the last time she saw him again.
Lynette stared at him, trying to remember every detail in case this was indeed the last time. His dark brown hair was a little too long as usual. Gage always managed to look like a rock star who’d just climbed out of bed. Rumpled. Kissable. Hot.
But one of the details was wrong.
“Your eyes,” she mumbled.
“Colored contacts.” He touched his index finger to first his left eye and then his right. No more brown.
Lynette smiled at the gunmetal-gray eyes that stared back at her. “Killer eyes, I used to call them.”
“How romantic. Guys like to hear that kind of talk from a woman.” But he smiled, too.
Her smile faded just as quickly. Killer as in they always did her in. Those eyes still worked magic on her. And that couldn’t happen. Even though it would rip her heart apart again, it was best to let Gage go.
But maybe she could risk a goodbye kiss.
“We’ve got company,” Grayson called back to them.
It broke the kissing urge in a snap, and Gage stepped into the first office he reached, and as he’d done before, he turned off the lights.
Good thing, because Patrick Harkin entered the building.
“Lucky us,” Lynette mumbled. “Patrick is here.”
Gage groaned, and Lynette agreed. She was too tired for another round with another suspect. But she doubted she could avoid it completely. Her best bet was just to make it as short as possible.
“I heard about the explosion at the airport,” Patrick greeted. “I wanted to find out what happened.”
Maybe it was an honest question, but when Patrick looked at her, something inside her snapped. No more need to make this short. She was riled enough to ask questions and force the answers out of him.
“Did you hire someone to try to kill me?” Lynette demanded.
Gage groaned again, and she went up the hall so that he wouldn’t have a chance to grab her and pull her into the room with him. She was tired of playing the whiny victim here. She wasn’t helpless, and Patrick was about to learn that the hard way.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Patrick’s tone suddenly didn’t seem so casual. “Nicole called me and said a burglar tried to break in to your house.”
“Not a burglar. And he didn’t try to break in. He fired shots into my bedroom window and tried to murder me.”
Patrick looked appropriately shocked. “I had nothing to do with that.”
“Didn’t you?” she pressed. She went closer, hoping to violate his personal space and then some. “Because I don’t trust you, and I think you have plenty to hide.” Lynette went even closer. “But here’s the bottom line, Patrick. This stops now. Hear me? Now!”
He shook his head, as if ready to deny that, but Lynette waved him off. “I’m thinking anything you say right now will be a lie so just save your breath.”
Mason stepped to her side. “So, did you hire a nut job to kill Lynette?”
Lynette knew Mason was far more intimidating than she was. It felt good to have someone on her side again, and it didn’t feel as if she were leaning on him. Just the opposite. She’d missed this camaraderie with Gage’s family.
“No, absolutely not,” Patrick insisted. His expression morphed from surprised to indignant concern. “I’m a businessman, for Pete’s sake. Besides, I don’t have a reason to kill her or anyone else.”
“Yes, you do,” Lynette corrected. “At least you think you have one, but when I was doing all that snooping around, I didn’t find anything that implicates you in a crime.”
“I’m still looking,” Mason added. “In fact, this little visit just makes me want to dig harder to see what’s put that fear in your beady little eyes.”
Patrick’s face turned bright red, and it seemed to take him several seconds to put his temper in check. He turned his narrowed gaze to Grayson. “You need to call off your brother, or you could find the sheriff’s office slapped with a lawsuit for slander.”
Grayson shrugged. “It’s not slander if it’s true.” He casually checked his watch. “Tell you what—it’s barely 6:00 a.m. Too early for an interrogation since I haven’t even had my coffee yet. But come back at 8:00. We’ll talk then. Or rather, you’ll talk, and I’ll listen.”
“Is that an order?” Patrick demanded.
“Yes, it is,” Grayson answered, and Lynette nearly cheered.
“Fine,” Patrick spit out. “I’ll be here, but I’m bringing my lawyers.” He stormed out, slamming the door behind so hard that the bell clattered to the floor.
“I’ll send you a bill for that,” Mason called.
They stood there long enough to make sure Patrick wasn’t going to come rushing back in.
“I’ll get Ford and Nicole in here at the same time so Dade and I can interrogate them all at once,” Grayson explained. “With their tempers, one of them might blow up and say something incriminating.”
“Don’t count on it,” Lynette mumbled. “Especially from my father. His sheep’s clothing hides the wolf very well in public. Besides, his lawyers aren’t going to let him speak.”
Another shrug from Grayson. “Maybe one of the other two will rattle, then.” He looked at Mason. “Go ahead and take Lynette to the ranch.”
It was time. Gage and she had technically already said their goodbyes, and now she somehow had to make it out of there without crying.
Mason and she started down the hall, and Gage stepped out. He gave her a look. That’s all. No words. But he followed them into the parking lot.
The sun hadn’t come up yet, so they only had the overhead security
lights. Mason paused in the doorway and glanced around, his attention swinging from one side of the parking lot to the other. He also put his hand over the gun in his shoulder holster before he led her straight toward a cruiser that was parked next to Gage’s SUV.
She looked over her shoulder to get one last look at Gage, but the sound stopped her cold. It was barely a sound at all, more like some movement that she caught from the corner of her eye.
“Get down!” Mason shouted.
He didn’t wait for her to respond. He grabbed her and pulled her to the side of the cruiser.
Just like that, Lynette’s heart was in her throat again, and the fear returned. The questions, too.
What was going on now?
Other than the possible movement, Lynette hadn’t seen anyone in the parking lot, but Mason and Gage apparently had.
Both had their weapons drawn.
She followed Mason’s gaze to the front part of the parking lot. Toward the street. More specifically, toward the hardware store directly across from the sheriff’s office. There was a thin alley there, pitch-black, and she didn’t have to be a lawman to realize it would be the perfect place for a hit man to hide.
But was it another hit man?
They waited for what seemed an eternity with her fears rising and with their attention locked on that alley. Mason didn’t move a muscle, and from what she could see of Gage, neither did he.
Lynette was on the verge of deciding this was all a false alarm when there was another sound. Not movement this time. It happened fast, a zinging sound ripping through the air, and something slammed into the SUV.
“A shot,” Mason mumbled along with some profanity.
Oh, God. Her heart dropped again. It hadn’t been a regular blast— She’d already heard her share of those this morning. This one sounded as if it’d come from a gun rigged with a silencer. And she knew that couldn’t be good. Someone was trying to kill them and trying not to be heard. Probably so that the sheriff and any deputies inside wouldn’t come running.
The gunman ran though. He came out of the alley, sending a stream of shots their way. Nonstop. The bullets pelted into the SUV and the concrete surface of the parking lot. Mason shoved her lower to the ground and crawled over her back. Protecting her. Just as Gage had done in the woods when Denton was firing at them.
Lynette caught just a glimpse of the gunman as he darted out of the alley and disappeared from her line of sight. But apparently not from Mason’s.
“He’s at your six o’clock,” Mason yelled to Gage.
“I got him,” Gage answered.
Lynette tried to pick through the darkness and the rain to see the threat, but Gage apparently had already located whatever or whoever was out there.
Gage took aim.
Fired.
Since his gun didn’t have a silencer, the two shots blasted through the parking lot.
And then nothing.
Everything seemed to freeze. Except her heartbeat. It was pounding so hard that Lynette thought her ribs might crack.
Even though Mason was practically all over her, Lynette could see Gage from beneath Mason’s cover. With his weapon ready and aimed, Gage took slow, cautious steps toward the street. Lynette saw it then.
The man on the ground.
She pulled in her breath. Held it. And prayed that the guy didn’t get up and start firing again. But he didn’t move. Gage made his way to him, stooped down and touched his fingers to his neck.
“Dead,” he relayed to Mason.
Mason stood, and somehow so did she. It was the second time today she’d seen a dead man, and it didn’t get easier. She was thankful for that. Thankful, too, that Gage had managed to save her once again.
But this couldn’t continue. Sooner or later, a gunman might get lucky, and it could cost them everything—
including their lives. It was bad enough that she was in danger, but now she’d brought that danger to his family. Maybe to the entire town, because anyone nearby could have been shot with a stray bullet.
“You know who he is?” Mason asked.
Gage nodded and quickly made his way back to Lynette. “His name is Walter Jonavich. He’s a hit man who often pairs up with Freddie Denton, the guy who tried to kill Lynette earlier.”
Oh, mercy. She used the cruiser to steady herself. “You don’t think Denton brought along someone else, do you?” she managed to ask.
But Gage didn’t answer her, which was an answer in itself. And that answer was yes. Then Gage got her moving.
“I’ll call for a cleanup,” Gage told his brother. He headed straight for one of the cruisers. “But I’m getting Lynette out of here now.”
Chapter Eight
Gage pulled the cruiser to a stop directly in front of the guesthouse on the Ryland ranch. The main house was much larger and just a quarter of a mile away, but he’d decided against taking Lynette there. According to his conversation with Grayson, the guesthouse and the grounds around it were equally safe.
And this way, Lynette and he wouldn’t have to deal with the rest of his family.
Well, not yet anyway.
Eventually he would have to decide how to handle all of this—the danger and his so-called homecoming—but for now he just wanted to get Lynette inside, so she could get her mind off the fact that she’d nearly been killed. Again.
Gage should have anticipated that Denton wouldn’t come alone. But he’d screwed it up. In hindsight while Denton was at Lynette’s house, his sidekick, Walter Jonavich, probably had been at the airport putting an explosive device on the plane. Of course, one of their other suspects could have done that, too, but the bottom line was that someone had known that Lynette was supposed to be at the airport and on that plane.
And it was that someone who clearly wanted her dead.
“How long will we stay here at the guesthouse?” Lynette asked, pulling his attention back to her.
“A day at the most. We’ll leave as soon as the safe house is ready.”
She nodded. “Thanks,” Lynette added when he opened the passenger’s side door to help her out. She stood, looked up at him and met his gaze. “But you can get that worried look off your face. I’m fine. The baby’s fine.”
“Yeah, because we got lucky.” And Gage would never forget that something as fragile as luck had played into this.
“No. Because you’re a good shot.”
She gave his arm a friendly pat and walked ahead of him and into the single-story cottage-style guesthouse. Everything about it looked homey, from its fresh white exterior to its porch complete with a swing and rocking chairs. Heck, it even had a picket fence and flower beds.
It was a place with fond memories.
It’d once been his grandfather’s house, and after he had been killed twenty years ago, the family had used it for guests and for the occasional ranch hand or two before Mason had built a massive bunkhouse to accommodate the workers.
But years ago, this house had served a different purpose. When Lynette was seventeen, Gage had sneaked her in so they could have sex for the first time. Over the next two years, they’d come back. For more sex and some heavy-duty make out sessions.
It’d happened so often Gage used to get aroused just driving past the place.
Lynette looked back at him, the corner of her mouth lifting as if she knew what he was thinking. “It’s been a while,” she mumbled.
A while that seemed like yesterday. It was way too fresh in his mind, and especially his body, and Gage started to wonder if this might be as big a mistake as his plan that’d already backfired.
Still, he didn’t stuff her back in the cruiser and drive away. Like a moth to a flame he followed Lynette past the gate and into the yard.
“Bittersweet,” she added, and paused on the bottom step so she could take the place in.
Oh, yeah. It was exactly that.
“You cried after the first time,” he reminded her. That, too, was a darn fresh memory for something that’d happened
fourteen years ago.
She made a sound of agreement, went up the steps and opened the front door. “Because I thought you wouldn’t respect me.”
Surprised, Gage shook his head. It was the first time he’d heard an explanation for those tears.
He followed her into the living room and shut the door. Gage also armed the newly installed security system that Mason had told him about. “I never did understand that logic. Did you lose respect for me?”
“Never,” she mumbled.
At least that’s what he thought she said.
Never meant a lot to him, considering all the crap that had happened after their so-called marriage. Of course, he’d probably misunderstood her.
She took off her shoes, which were caked with mud from their run through the woods. “I need to grab a shower.”
Good idea. Anything to help her relax. And it might help if he had her out of his sight for a moment or two so he could get his bearings. He felt off-kilter, and it wasn’t a good time for that. Best to keep his mind on the assignment of protecting Lynette rather than taking arousing trips down memory lane.
“After your shower, you should eat something,” Gage added. “Mason said he had one of the ranch hands stock the fridge for us.”
Lynette nodded.
Gage nodded.
But she didn’t move.
Neither did Gage, though he knew he darn well should be hoofing it out of there, away from her and away from the stupid mistake he was thinking about making.
Lynette glanced into the open door of the bedroom. And at the bed where she’d lost her virginity to him. It was covered with the same patchwork quilt.
Then, she glanced at him, as if waiting for something. “I can feel the memories here,” she whispered.
So could he. He could feel them in every part of his body. Especially the parts involved in creating those memories that they still felt.
She turned, just a little, and he saw her breasts rise and fall with her suddenly shallow breath. Lynette probably didn’t know it, but she was sending out a signal that his body had no trouble interpreting.
She ran her tongue over her bottom lip.
Okay, so maybe she did know about the signal-sending. Maybe she wanted exactly what he wanted. Being on the same page could be a good thing. Or bad.
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