Talbot did so, and then slowly shook his head. “Fuck, Wakefield, the last thing I want to do is wind up on the wrong end of a JSOC op.”
“Drew and I are on leave from the Joint Special Operations Command, so you’re not. But it’s worse than that. The woman Pecos grabbed wasn’t Alvarez’s woman. She’s mine.”
“Oh, shit.” Talbot exhaled heavily. “This has just been one giant Charlie Foxtrot from the word go,” he said.
“Yeah, it’s a cluster fuck, all right.” Dev’s instincts warned caution. Something was going on here. He had the distinct impression that things weren’t quite what they appeared.
“I wondered when I began to follow you. I had my suspicions when I realized I was following a couple of pros. That’s why I held back. Things just weren’t adding up.”
Dev tilted his head to one side. “Maybe we should talk.”
“Yeah.” Talbot motioned with his hands, and Dev nodded. He lowered them slowly, then squatted, and kept his hands dangling in front of him in plain sight. “Maybe we should.”
* * * *
“Let me have a look at you.” Drew sat cross-legged in front of her, a penlight in his hand. He’d taken some things out of his knapsack. Julia recognized disinfectant when she saw it. She supposed she was due a little field dressing of her wounds. Since they’d surprised her outside of the shack just as she’d slithered out the window, there’d been almost no time to see to anything but making tracks.
“It really does look worse than it is.” Even so, she dutifully closed her eyes and let Drew have a look at the small cut and goose egg–sized lump taking up space on her forehead.
His touch gentle, he used one finger to trace the edge of the cut. Julia realized he was trying to determine if it felt hot to the touch, signaling possible infection.
“Does it hurt anyplace else, kitten?”
His voice matched his touch, and she wanted to hug him and do whatever she could to make him feel better. She thought it quite possible her injuries hurt her lovers more than they hurt her.
“Just a little bit, where the seat belt grabbed me when my car was stopped by the tree—and where my breasts had to squeeze out that window back there.” She wasn’t going to tell him that basically, she hurt all over. But she figured she’d better fess up to the shoulder strap injury, and the breasts. The way it hurt there had to be bruises, and possibly scrapes. He and Dev would be sure to see them on her as soon as they got her naked.
Delicately, Drew worked her T-shirt up and then off her so he could get a look at her chest. His slight hiss confirmed her suspicion that her head wasn’t the only spot on her body sporting black-and-blue patches.
“Jesus, kitten. I ache just looking at you—and not just because I want you.”
Julia could hear the anxiety in his voice. They’d gone to so much trouble to rescue her, and even now Dev was risking his very life for her. How could she ever repay that? Easing their worry about her seemed the least she could do. “It really does look worse than it is, darling. I promise you.”
Drew tilted his head, and she wondered if he was going to call her on her little white lie. But then he turned and looked over his shoulder into the night.
“Baby doll, didn’t anyone warn you that your nose would grow if you told a fib?”
Julia felt all the tension drain out of her. Dev’s voice preceded him out of the darkness, and then he was there, with them, alive and unharmed.
“You’re back.” Well, of course he’s back. Julia shook her head at her own inanity, and then closed her eyes as that small action stirred her headache anew.
“Yes, I’m back. Now, let’s finish fixing you up.” He got down on the ground between her and Drew, then looked at the other man. “What’s the word on a ride out of here?”
“Actually, it will be a ride if you want to leave sooner rather than later, because the chopper is grounded,” Drew said. “The storm’s moving fast, but only expected to last overnight. I told them since we’re safe, we’ll wait out the weather. We’d end up getting home about the same time, either way. The helicopter ride will be shorter and less jarring for Julia.”
“I agree.” He reached out and examined her head wound himself, using his fingers on her chin to tilt her head so he could have a better view.
It took all of her effort to bite back her smile. They were both trying not to let her see how shaken they were by her injuries.
“Did the good sheriff come up with some place we could wait out the storm in relative comfort, or do we build a shelter ourselves?” Dev asked.
“There’s supposed to be an old, abandoned barn about a half mile to the northwest. Morgan checked Everywhere Earth, and the structure was still there as of the latest satellite photo taken last year.”
“Strange place for a barn,” Dev said. “This whole area looked decidedly barren of civilization when we tracked in.”
“Not so strange,” Julia said. “At about the time my ancestors were founding Lusty, this area was part of an enormous staging area, where ranchers would come from the East and the West to combine their herds to drive the Chisholm Trail, taking their cattle to market. There were line shacks and shelters sprinkled throughout here to accommodate the large assemblage of human and bovine visitors.”
“I guess you can’t be that concussed if you’re able to pull obscure facts like that out of your brain,” Dev said.
“Concussed? No, at least I don’t think so. But I am tired. Can we sleep, soon?”
“Let’s finish this, then we’ll find that barn,” Drew said.
Dev gently held her chin while Drew uncapped a small bottle that had an eyedropper. “Crap, this is going to hurt, I just know it,” Julia said.
“Sorry, kitten.”
Well at least he didn’t try to placate me by denying it. Julia closed her eyes and curled her hands into fists. Drew used a piece of gauze to sop up any liquid that tried to run down into her eye. It stung like a son of a bitch. Determined to be stoic, she bit her bottom lip and didn’t make a sound.
“Shh, baby.” Dev uncurled her fists and kissed the crescent marks she’d given herself on the palms of her hands. She guessed they knew exactly how much that disinfectant had hurt.
“Let’s leave it open to the air, for now,” Drew said.
Julia blinked back her tears. The effort to bear down had cost her, because her head began to pound anew.
“Here.”
She turned to Dev, who proffered a couple of white pills and his canteen.
“Just ASA, but they’ll help.”
“Thanks.” Julia gulped down the pills with a sip of water. She handed the canteen back to Dev.
“Did you kill him? The man who was following us?” She’d thought she wouldn’t ask that, since neither of the men even mentioned the reason Dev had gone off on his own.
Dev gave her a small smile, and then stroked his finger down her cheek. “No, baby doll. He’s not dead, and you don’t need to worry about him anymore. Let’s get you to that shelter. The wind’s picked up, and if we don’t hurry, we’ll get drenched. You’ll feel better once you sleep.”
“You’re a big, tough Navy SEAL and you’re afraid of a little rain?” Julia knew that taunt would make him smile.
He chuckled, shook his head, and then got to his feet. In the next instant she sighed, because Drew had reached down and scooped her into his arms.
“I can walk, you know.”
“Of course you can. But maybe we just like carrying you,” Drew said.
Julia knew her lovers. If one of them had been forced to kill a man—and she had no doubt whatsoever that if necessary, both were capable of the act—their souls would bear the scar of it, whether that man deserved killing or not. More, they’d do everything in their power to keep that taint from touching her in any way. She’d be willing to bet that would be the only thing they might lie to her about.
How did she make them understand that if what they were building together was to last a lifetime,
they had to let her carry her share of the load? Sharing meant sharing the bad times as well as the good.
She’d let them get away with their small prevarications for now. She was beyond tired, beyond where her mind could function at its full capacity.
But after she napped, after they’d let the adrenaline flowing through all their systems ebb away, she’d ask him again, and this time she would insist on a complete answer. She would shoulder their burdens just as they seemed determined to shoulder hers.
That was the very definition of a full partnership, and Julia would accept nothing less.
Chapter 16
Ramos carried the body of Juan Pecos out of the shack himself, hiking nearly a mile through the dark terrain. Juan’s certainly wasn’t the first body he’d had to dispose of in his long career. Ramos finally came upon a small ravine with a stream. There, he dumped the lifeless corpse, confident that the coyotes and other feral creatures in the area would find him to be a good meal.
It had always been his preference to provide sustenance for God’s creatures whenever he could.
Enjoying the calm of the Texas night, he took a moment to light a cigarillo, and then strolled back to the shack to await the return of Mr. Talbot. He sincerely hoped that minion didn’t disappoint him by killing Alvarez or his woman.
Ramos wanted to save that pleasure for himself.
He envisioned killing the woman while her man watched, helpless. Yes, that would be a good beginning of the punishment Alvarez had earned with his arrogant interference. He knew he had to make his vengeance huge, and make it known to all who worked for him, or who were his competitors. His organization was beginning to crumble beneath him.
Only swift, hard action could save it.
While he waited he used his BlackBerry to access his e-mail, firing off a couple of missives to newer employees, making sure they understood that he was a man who held the reins of control in his tightly closed fist.
First Ramirez, and now Pecos. He supposed it was true, what they said. One just couldn’t get good help these days.
Midnight passed and it was nearly 1:00 a.m. before he heard the sound of a man approaching. He felt one eyebrow go up when Mr. Talbot emerged out of the darkness, alone, his gun drawn.
It would be a mistake to make a wrong move with this man. Talbot wasn’t in the same league as those who worked for him—those he owned.
This man’s soul would never be possessed by another. It could merely be hired for a time.
“Did you kill them?” He really hoped not. Killing Peter Alvarez was a job Ramos really wanted for himself.
“No.”
Ramos waited to see if Talbot would volunteer more than that. He very nearly reached for his own gun. Only the look in Talbot’s eyes kept him from doing so, kept him still and waiting.
“It occurred to me that you might want to accomplish that feat yourself,” the man said. “Besides, Alvarez wasn’t there. The woman was rescued by two pros. I recognized them, in fact. They’re a couple of Navy SEALs. They took turns carrying her, moving quickly, which means that—”
“She was hurt too badly to walk.” Ramos was very glad to hear it. He began to pace as he assimilated this information. With his woman hurt, Alvarez would be vulnerable. His guard would be lowered, and so there would never be a better time to lay a trap for him, and kill him.
“I was going to say they were racing toward a pickup. That meant untold numbers of reinforcements. I don’t have a problem taking on two men, even if they are Navy SEALs. I draw the line at walking into a trap. Bad for business.”
“Fate, I suppose,” Ramos said. “If we had gotten here just a bit sooner, we would have had her.”
It took all of Ramos’s considerable cunning to appear insouciant. No, he supposed he couldn’t expect a man he’d hired to put himself on the line for him. Fine. He would rebuild his organization, taking better care this time, and then he wouldn’t need men like Talbot.
That meant he had to carry through with his plan himself. But how could he lure his enemy away from his woman, away from that bastion of American wealth? His plan had been to use the woman as bait. Now she was out of his reach and….
Ramos stopped pacing as a bold idea came to him. He turned and gave Talbot a level look.
“You said your partner had Pecos under surveillance in this Lusty, Texas.”
“He did. That’s how we knew he’d left town.”
“Where is your partner now?”
“Why do you want to know?”
Ramos felt his temper spike, and had to work at keeping it from boiling over. He wasn’t used to being questioned. He didn’t like it at all.
Then again, he’d been a fool to believe those who gave the appearance of being cowed actually were. Had he not been betrayed twice now by those who’d given him nothing but deference?
Ramos swallowed his pride. He’d learned a hard lesson these past few months, and it was a lesson he would not soon forget. “You said Alvarez wasn’t with those men you followed, the ones who rescued his woman. I was just wondering if you had…what is that American expression…‘eyes on him’ back in Lusty, right now?”
“It was never our assignment to follow Peter Alvarez. You hired us to track Juan Pecos, and that is exactly what we did.”
“But your man would surely be able to know where one Federal agent was in a town that I am told is very small, even by American standards.”
He watched Talbot’s face, looking for some clue as to that man’s thoughts, or his emotions. Mr. Connor Talbot proved impossible to read.
“My partner could do any damn thing he decided to do, if he decided to do it. You hired us to track Pecos.” Talbot looked over at the shack, and Ramos got his point.
The man had headed out after the woman while Ramos had gone inside. But certainly he would have heard the gunshot and understood the result.
Talbot swung his gaze back to Ramos. “I’m assuming that tracking your employee is no longer an issue.”
Ramos tilted his head to one side. “And you were successful in the job I hired you to do. You do not need to worry, the rest of your payment has already been wired to your account.” Ramos held up his BlackBerry to underline his point. “Now, I’d like to hire you to do one more job. I want you to locate Peter Alvarez, monitor his movements. What information I have on the town of Lusty, Texas, tells me they have a clinic there. It’s probably where they will take his woman, as she is one of theirs. They would want their own people caring for her. Yes. That’s what I would do.” He paused to rethink his reasoning. It was sound. “You will get me into the town, and give me the information I need so that I may finish this myself. I just need a working knowledge of the town, the clinic, and to have a good idea where Peter Alvarez is when I get there.”
Ramos watched as Talbot checked his gun, and then holstered it. The look he gave him told him nothing. The man looked from the pitiful shack Juan Pecos had used as his hideout, to the aging Ford sedan the man had driven.
He walked over to the latter, hunkered down, and reached under the front bumper. When he stood, he held an object Ramos understood to be the GPS tracking device he’d used.
Then he met Ramos’s gaze. “All right,” he said at last. “We’ll negotiate.”
* * * *
“It’s a good thing I don’t scream when I see rats.”
Drew looked up from splaying his flashlight along the edge of the stall to give her a big grin.
“You’re not the screaming type,” he said. “You’re more likely to kill the little critter with any and all necessary force.”
Julia smiled back. Her smile turned into a yawn. “You have a point.”
Outside, thunder chased the lightning flashes across the sky, and the rain began to fall in earnest. This barn lived up to the adjectives old and abandoned. The roof leaked in some spots, and the structure had provided a home of sorts for several different feral creatures.
Her SEALs had chosen the one area they believ
ed they could make secure. The stall was the largest of the four left standing, and was in the back, west corner of the building.
It hadn’t taken the men long to clean it out—clean but old straw had littered the ground, and there’d been no sign of any nests.
“No holes along the base. That explains the lack of rodent habitation in here,” Drew said. “They’re basically lazy creatures and will take the path of least resistance.”
Dev returned with a piece of board he’d pried from the side of another stall. He laid it across the opening of their adopted refuge.
“Just a precaution. Likely, any critters sharing this shelter with us will do their best to avoid us,” Dev said. Then he looked around. “I’ve slept in worse.”
Julia figured that “precaution” was for her benefit. She appreciated the gesture. Drew had been right—she was more likely to attack a rodent than run screaming away from it. But that didn’t mean she necessarily wanted to demonstrate that ability anytime soon.
“Our bed isn’t going to be very comfortable tonight, I’m afraid,” Dev said. He reached into the pack he’d carried and hauled out the same survival blanket he’d wrapped around her earlier.
“I don’t care. I’m with the two of you. That’s the only thing that matters.” Julia meant every word. She didn’t care where she was as long as the men she loved were with her.
She caught the look that passed between them, but didn’t understand it. “What?”
Dev and Drew locked gazes for another moment, and then Drew turned to her. “What you just said? It honors us and humbles us, and shames us, too. It was our job to keep you safe. We didn’t do that.”
“What…you’re going to tell me now that you’re really from the planet Krypton? That you have super powers, and are all-knowing, all-seeing gods?”
“Baby doll…”
Oh, she knew what was going on in the minds of her men, all right. But how best to put a stop to it? That was a question she didn’t really have an answer for. “Don’t you ‘baby doll’ me.” Julia paced away from them, trying to get her brain to function better. Trouble was, she felt tired and grimy and her brain refused to function any better than it was. The sound of rain hitting the barn soothed her, even as the fresh scent of the falling water lured her.
Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Navy SEALs [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 16