Desolation Road

by Feehan, Christine

  Lana nodded her head. “I guess that makes sense. She’s obviously smart. Code is always saying that technology is a two-edged sword. He’s made us very aware our phones can not only track us but put us in places we don’t want to be when a crime goes down. Cameras are everywhere and they’re more sophisticated. Devices in homes can record conversations and anything on social media is open season. This woman clearly doesn’t want anyone to find her.”

  “Until tonight in the restaurant, when she wanted to be seen,” Absinthe pointed out.

  “And she left her phone at her house after telling you she was taking a bath and staying in,” Lana mused. “Lights on in the right rooms. Lights go off when they’re supposed to.”

  “Where the fuck did she go?” Absinthe asked.

  “That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?” Lana said.

  “It’s interesting that you mentioned that Code made us very aware our phones can not only track us but put us in places we don’t want to be when a crime goes down. Do you think my little librarian is out committing a crime somewhere?”

  “I think she’s smuggling Josefa out of the country. I still think she was a victim of trafficking. For whatever reason, Scarlet took her to that restaurant. Taunting the traffickers? But she didn’t ever let Josefa’s face show clearly,” Lana argued with herself. “That doesn’t make sense, no matter how I say it.”

  Absinthe sighed. “I guess I’m going to have to find out what she has to say in the morning.”

  “You can’t confront her and let her know you were spying on her like a stalker, Absinthe. Seriously, if she has a go-bag, she’s got one for a reason. She’s got to be in some kind of trouble. Oh, God, what if she’s coming after you? What if she’s an assassin for hire?”

  “And her cover is being a librarian in Sonoma for over a year just waiting for an assassination assignment?” Absinthe raised his eyebrow at Lana.

  “You have to talk to Code and have him investigate her right away. I mean it. This isn’t safe anymore.”

  He hated that she was right. He would have taken the chance for himself, but not for any of the other members of Torpedo Ink, and he knew after Lana talked to them that they would be sticking close to him.

  FIVE

  Scarlet couldn’t help the way her heart pounded as Aleksei came riding up on his motorcycle, looking for all the world as if he’d been born on it. She thought she might chicken out, but the moment she saw him on his Harley she knew she had to ride on the back of the thing with him. Just once. God. Just at least one time. She’d done her best to prepare. Braided her hair. Wore jeans. A T-shirt, a denim jacket. Gloves. She had sunglasses.

  She’d parked her car in the parking garage adjacent to the library in the space where she always parked it, grateful he hadn’t insisted he pick her up at her house. She didn’t want him to try to come in. There was no way to explain her home. She’d lived there a year. Even if she got a bunch of boxes and were to pretend she was moving to a new apartment, he’d more than likely offer to help her move—he was that kind of man.

  He smiled at her in that way he had. Slow in coming. So she had to wait. It almost stopped her heart while she waited for that smile to reach his eyes. Those beautiful, crystal-blue eyes of his that seemed to focus so completely on her. To see no one else but her. Every time she was away from him, she told herself he wasn’t real, that he couldn’t possibly really look at her like that, but he always seemed to.

  “Hi.” She couldn’t help the happiness in her voice. She didn’t even try to keep it from showing. This was her day. If she never had another one like it, so be it. Today was all hers.

  “Hi, miledi.”

  Just the way he said it, soft and low, in a velvet voice that seemed to slide right over her skin in stroking fingers, sent shivers of awareness down her spine.

  “How’s my beautiful librarian this morning?”

  “Absolutely great.” Because she was. She so was. His gaze moved over her from head to toe, a slow appraisal, dwelling on her curves. His look sent heat rushing through her veins. His gaze touched on her boots and his faint smile sent another slow burn through her body.

  “Did you get your friend off?”

  “Yes. We had a nice dinner, a good talk and she flew out last night, back to Chile. Did your friend pack us a picnic lunch?”

  “She did. I’ve got it safely stowed away. Do you have anything you need me to put up for you?”

  Keys and Maestro had shown up early at his hotel room with the lunch for Scarlet and Absinthe. The two were probably asleep in the room. Player and Master had gone ahead to the Avenue of the Giants after Lana had reported to the rest of his brothers. He’d texted them where he was taking Scarlet for their lunch so they would have the chance to reach it in advance and be able to look out for him. He didn’t think it was necessary, nor did he want them there, but Czar and Steele both insisted, and he wasn’t in a position to argue with them.

  He had, with great reluctance, turned over the fork he’d taken from the restaurant with Scarlet’s prints on it as well as airdropped her photograph to Lana’s phone so she could give them to Code. He knew the second she told Czar, which no doubt she would do the moment she returned to Caspar, Code would be on his computer, dropping everything else he was doing to ferret out every bit of information he could on Scarlet.

  Absinthe had this one day with her. One. After this, his club would really be interfering. He would no longer have the chance to find things out about her on his own. Depending upon what she was into, he might even lose her. He wanted to have this one day at least. She was wearing gloves and he was grateful for that. It would lessen the impact when she put her hands on him, but he would still feel her emotions. Hopefully, the good would outweigh the bad, just as they’d done in the library.

  “No, I’m just really excited. I have no idea what I’m doing, so you’ll have to tell me.”

  She sounded excited. He liked that. He smiled at her and handed her a helmet. “You need me to help you put that on?”

  “I think I can manage.” She suited action to words and checked to make certain it was on snug enough.

  He indicated the foot peg. “Foot there. Swing your leg over. Right up behind me. Wrap your arms around my waist. You’re going to follow my body movements. Don’t anticipate, just go with me. If you get scared, just tap on me and I’ll slow the bike. I’ve been riding for a long time, but I don’t want you to get nervous. This is supposed to be fun. We’re heading to the redwoods. It’s beautiful riding there. If it gets to be too much, we can always pull over, turn around and head back. I won’t be upset, Scarlet. I really won’t. This is a long ride for a first time, so we can change to something shorter.”

  She loved that he obviously meant it. Were there really men like him? She hesitated. She would know in a moment. She almost didn’t want to take that next step.

  “Scarlet?”

  Absinthe reached for her gloved hand and put it on his shoulder. “Seriously, babe, we can switch to another vehicle, your car and you drive, or we can do something here in town.”

  She wasn’t giving up riding on the Harley with him for anything. She swung up behind him and wrapped her arms around him, closing her eyes, expecting to be swamped with all kinds of emotion. They’d been so careful not to touch each other. Just a brief slide of a finger here and there. That had been incredible, establishing such a strong connection, but now, when they were in such close proximity, when she had her body tight against his, and granted there were layers of clothes between them, and both wore gloves, she only felt happiness. His. Hers.

  The bike roared to life. It didn’t rumble. It roared. Powerful. Formidable. A beast coming to life. She felt that vibration between her legs and she gripped Aleksei tighter. He dropped a hand over hers, patted hers and then had both hands back on the bars and was taking them out of the parking lot.

  She closed her eyes and let herself just breathe him in. He smelled the same, that faint, wonderful aroma
of man and sandalwood that got to her every time. She loved the way the wind rushed at them and when she opened her eyes and got over the faint dizziness, the way the world was all around them. He was careful in traffic, not hurrying them or getting too close to cars, until he took the exit onto the freeway. Once on the highway, he picked up speed, but she could tell he was still very cognizant of her riding with him. The longer they rode, the faster they went and the more she loved it, but then she’d always been an adrenaline junkie.

  Scarlet knew she could ride with him forever. She didn’t want to go back. She wished they could just ride off into the proverbial sunset and she could escape her life. Riding with Aleksei felt more intimate than with any other man she’d been with. When his body moved, hers naturally followed. Her breasts pressed deep into his back and every movement and bounce of the bike rubbed her nipples so that they burned, hot and tight, and her breasts ached.

  She was aware of him with every cell in her body. It didn’t help that she was so tight against him, and that with the vibration of the Harley, after a while all she could think about was sex and more sex. Her panties were damp, and her clit inflamed and throbbing. She thought about how close his cock was to her fingers and wondered if the power vibration and her close proximity had gotten him in the same sexual frenzy as it had her. She really, really hoped that wherever he was taking her was somewhere secluded where there were no other people around so he would jump her. Please, please let him want to jump her.

  His hand had come back to cover hers. He hadn’t done that in the last couple of hours, but now that they were off the well-traveled freeway and more and more of the redwoods were coming into view along with the Eel River running along the side of them, he was relaxed. Scarlet felt so much a part of him, as if she really belonged. They moved together, man, woman, machine, along those wide sweeping curves of the road and the shorter, tighter turns and bends running along the motorway leading up to the Avenue of the Giants.

  The road narrowed and Richardson Grove came into view, the redwoods towering above them. Scarlet had lived in Sonoma for over a year, but she’d never made the trip up north, although she’d always promised herself that she would. Now, on the back of Aleksei’s Harley, she could look up at the towering giants and just marvel, wondering why she hadn’t made the trip. It was so worth it. The trees, she knew, could live over two thousand years. Just that would be an incredible thing in itself. They were beautiful.

  Aleksei maneuvered the narrow, two-lane road through the park and came to a stop down beside the water where the bathrooms were. She hadn’t even had to ask him to stop. He offered his hand and she put her palm on his shoulder to steady herself as she got off his bike, surprised that her legs were a little wobbly. She was extremely strong. She ran every day and stayed in condition, ready for anything, her body fit, but she wasn’t used to traveling on a Harley for hours. Clearly that was something she was going to have to get used to if she stayed with him.

  What was she thinking? She turned away from him fast, facing the bathrooms. He had parked close. Only the wooden stubs and a short expanse of grass and picnic tables separated her from the little building. The women’s side faced her. She took a couple of steps in that direction, afraid of her thoughts. She liked Aleksei too much and she didn’t have the right to draw him into her life.

  “Wait for me, moya literaturnaya ledi.”

  Russian. Definitely Russian. The way he said it in that velvet-soft, low but firm voice vibrated through her just the way the Harley had, sending little wicked flames licking over her skin, rushing through her veins and settling, burning unmercifully between her legs. She was so susceptible to him. That was good. He spoke multiple languages. He’d told her so. She loved languages. All of them. And his literary lady? Hell yeah. She’d take that any day. The way he said it was just plain sexy.

  “I prefer to escort you, just to be safe.” He wrapped his hand around hers.

  Her heart clenched hard. He was such a big man, towering over her, and his hand was much larger. Instead of feeling threatened as she normally would have, she felt ridiculously safe. She could easily take care of herself. The bathrooms were only a few feet away, thirty at the most, and in plain sight. There were a few motorcycles parked close and two picnic tables with occupants between them, but she’d already sized them up. She could take them if she had to.

  To Aleksei she was a librarian, and she hated to deceive him. She wanted him to know the real woman, not the one she pretended to be, not the façade she showed to the rest of the world. On the other hand, for the first time in a very long while someone wanted to look after her and it felt nice. She smiled up at him. “I think I’m safe.”

  “I think you are too, but two things, Scarlet. One, I wanted to hold your hand. I like everyone knowing you’re with me.”

  She liked that so much she didn’t pull away from him. “And two?”

  “I’ve always believed it’s safer with two people looking out for one another than one.”

  She wouldn’t know about that. She tilted her head to look up at him and frowned. “Maybe. But if you rely on the wrong person, you’ll be expecting help and it won’t come. You might hesitate that second too long. Then, where are you?”

  His fingers tightened for just one second around hers. “My brothers and sisters have never let me down, so I’ve never had that experience. I’m sorry if you have. That would suck.”

  “It’s never actually happened.” That much was true. She’d never allowed herself to rely on anyone else. “I was just debating the other side. It’s a bad habit of mine.”

  He flashed a small grin. “I like it.”

  She loved talking with him. She could do it all day. About nothing. About everything. It might be a minefield and she might eventually step on a bomb, but it was exhilarating just being with him.

  They were at the little building and he let go of her. She didn’t want him to, but she had no choice but to go inside. In any case, she really needed to go. He waited for her to close the door. She knew he moved around to the other side of the building to the men’s side, although she didn’t hear him walking. That was another thing about Aleksei. He wore motorcycle boots as if they were natural footwear and he never made a sound when he walked. She loved that he could do that. It freaked her out a little bit, but she still loved that ability.

  There were so many things about Aleksei she admired. Mostly, it was his intelligence. She realized, the moment she knew he was capable of understanding everything he read in those enormous reference books he was always reading so fast, that she was pretty much gone on him. It helped that his muscles had muscles. Beneath his tight tees, the ones that stretched across his chest, he had those washboard abs. Muscles rippled when he moved. She felt his strength. She saw it. But another thing about Aleksei she loved was he was never obvious about his strength. He was quiet, he didn’t need to be loud. He could take someone apart with his eyes. Those beautiful, crystal-blue eyes that could look right through someone.

  She sighed. When, in the last six weeks, had she allowed herself to fall so hard for the man? Because she had. She wanted him and it had nothing to do with his motorcycle or sex, and she was desperate for sex with him—and she totally was in love with his Harley. Aleksei Solokov felt as if he’d been created to be her other half. She might have missed out on the best thing in her life through her own choices.

  Scarlet washed her hands, dried them on one of the few remaining paper towels and tried to see herself in the strange little warped piece of metal that passed for a mirror. She looked happy. She couldn’t remember being happy, not in a very long while.

  “I’m taking the day for myself,” she whispered, wishing she’d agreed to meet him very early in the morning. She was going to be Cinderella or whatever princess it was—she still got them confused, but she knew there were multiple princesses because she’d read all the stories to her sister. “Be happy for me,” she whispered, hoping Priscilla could hear her. “Please be happ
y for me.”

  Aleksei was waiting for her outside. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw him there. She had expected him, yet still, just seeing him waiting, looking so casual, lounging against the corner of the building, not in the least bit impatient, that slow smile climbing to his eyes, turning the crystal to a wild blue flame, made her melt inside.

  “Don’t know if I mentioned it earlier, literaturnaya ledi, but you’re fucking beautiful.” He held out his hand to her.

  No one had ever called her beautiful let alone fucking beautiful. And she liked the way literaturnaya ledi rolled off his tongue. She couldn’t help smiling as she took his hand. “Thank you.” Her voice sounded husky.

  “You up for more of a ride? I wanted to take you through the Avenue of the Giants. It’s a place not to be missed on a bike. There’re more private places for a picnic. We’d be alone though, Scarlet, and if you’re nervous at all, I want you to say so.”

  “Have you taken a lot of women there?” She wanted to bite her lip hard. What had possessed her to ask him that? Did it matter how many women he’d picnicked with there? She wanted to go with him. This was her day. Hopefully her night with him. Maybe her only opportunity. Eventually she’d blow it because she—wasn’t right. And she had a sword hanging over her head.

  “I told you, Scarlet, I don’t have relationships with women. You’re the first. You’re the only. I’m feeling my way here so if I make a mistake, I’m hoping you’ll give me a bit of room.”

  He tugged on her hand and brought her in a little closer to him as they maneuvered around the picnic tables. His body was between those at the tables and her. She couldn’t help noticing the way other women watched him as they walked back to the Harley.

  “I definitely would prefer somewhere with less people and I’ve always wanted to see the Avenue of the Giants,” she said hastily. She was going to blow it because she hadn’t ever really dated anyone. “That makes two of us feeling our way.” She laughed because suddenly everything was perfect again.