by Leslie North
Honestly, she could take care of herself. A gal didn’t grow up in a garage full of men and not learn a few ball-busting self-defense moves. She could’ve escaped from Cam more times than she could count by now. Hell, she could walk out this very minute and never see him again.
Then the bathroom door opened and he stepped out into the hall—skin glistening with water and nothing but a damp towel slung around his hips to hide all his toned, tanned flesh—and Everly knew she wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. It wasn’t just the Aeon keeping her here, though that was part of it. The other part was Cam himself. He intrigued her, kept her guessing. And Everly couldn’t remember the last time she’d been with a man who challenged her like that. It was almost like a game of cat and mouse between them, and damn if she didn’t find it delectably fascinating.
He padded into the master bedroom to dress, and she swallowed half her bottle of water in one gulp, doing her best to dislodge the lump of need from her throat and stop herself from running after him and tackling him to the bed and doing all the wicked things to him that she’d only dreamed of until now. Things like licking every inch of his salty skin, hearing him moan her name, seeing him with his head thrown back, eyes closed, begging her to make him cum…
Everly cleared her constricted throat and focused on the TV, willing her feral libido back into submission. Now wasn’t the time, and this certainly wasn’t the place. Not to mention she was still working on a job. A job that held her future in the balance. She couldn’t mess this up, not for Cam, not for anyone. She couldn’t afford to lose her head or her heart over—
“Whatcha watching?” Cam asked, flopping down on the opposite end of the sofa. He’d put his faded jeans and olive-green T-shirt back on, but his feet were bare and his hair was damp, and damn if all she could think about now was making those bare toes curl in ecstasy.
Everly looked away fast and frowned. “Nothing. The news.”
“Right.” He stretched out and propped his bare feet up on the coffee table, twisting the cap off of a fresh bottle of ale. “So tell me again why you want the Aeon?”
She snorted. “Nice try. I never told you the first time. How about you tell me why you want it?”
He watched her over the rim of his bottle, those green eyes of his far too perceptive.
“Fine. Since you won’t tell me that, tell me how a nice geek like you turned into a robo-soldier.”
Cam swallowed a mouthful of his drink then sighed. “Do you remember what happened to Petey?”
“Pete Marshall, you mean?” Everly frowned. “Yeah, everyone in our neighborhood remembers. Those teens who killed him ended up getting tried as adults.”
“I was there that night. When he died.” Cam’s voice grew quiet, pensive. “He was my best friend. A nerd like me. We were walking home after the school’s science fair with our winning project—a copper clad volcano that erupted baking soda lava. Jesus, we were so proud of that damned thing.”
He gave a wistful laugh and laid his head back against the couch cushions, eyes closed. Everly felt the insane urge to hug him tight, to erase that sharp edge of pain etching his handsome features, but refrained as he continued. “Anyway, we were about three blocks from home when those punks cornered us. They wanted the prize money we’d gotten along with the blue ribbon. It was only fifty bucks, for Christ’s sake.” He rubbed his eyes and shook his head. “Without any kind of defensive training, we were sitting ducks. I tried to defend myself, tried to help Petey but those guys were so strong and we were way outnumbered. When I had a chance I managed to get away and run home to call the cops, but it was too late. Petey was dead.”
“Oh, God. Cam, I’m so sorry.” Everly reached over to take his hand, but he shied away. “I didn’t know you were involved in that. I just knew that Petey was dead and the guys responsible were prosecuted.”
“Yeah, well afterward, I vowed never to be that vulnerable again. I scraped together enough money to enroll in some self-defense classes at the YMCA. Once I tackled those, I was good enough to earn a scholarship to a local dojo. I got my black belt in karate before I graduated high school. Then I joined the Navy. Rest is history.”
“Wow.” Silence stretched between them and her nerves prickled. To ease the awkwardness, Everly tried her question again. Somehow, she felt closer to him now, knowing what had made him the man he was today. “C’mon. It’s just the two of us now. Why do you want the car? You said the security company you work for needs to recover it for the government. What’s their interest in it?”
Cam exhaled, toying with the hem of his T-shirt. Such nice hands, big and smooth with long, tapered fingers that looked like they’d play over a woman’s body just as deftly as they flew over his computer keyboards. He frowned, transforming his cute baby face into darker, deeper emotions. The sound of cracking knuckles filled the air. “It’s the technology,” Cam said at last. “The government’s interested in finding other applications for its use. Since tech is my specialty, I’m perfect for this job.” He fiddled with his drink, then looked up and caught her staring. “All right. I told you. Now you tell me. Why do you need the money from this job?”
Everly did her best to hide her astonishment and failed miserably, if his raised brow was any indication. “You looked at my phone,” she said, hoping her anger would help diffuse the powder keg of attraction she felt for this man before it ignited and burnt her to nothing but a pile of ash. “You spied on me. You had no right to touch my stuff, asshole.”
“True.” Cam sat forward, resting his forearms on his knees, not denying her allegations at all. “But if you tell me the truth, maybe I can help you. If the mafia’s involved then—”
“I don’t need your help.” She pushed to her feet and stalked into the kitchen, not trusting herself not to touch him if she sat there beside him much longer. Why couldn’t he have been the asshole she kept accusing him of being? Instead he had to go and be all nice and sweet and helpful. She clenched her fingers at her sides, battling the rising tide of yearning inside her. No one had cared about her well-being in a long, long time. Not since her dad had gone to prison after a warehouse raid five years prior. And Lord knew Everly’s mom had never cared. Not when Everly was nothing but a big disappointment. All she cared about these days was marrying up in the mob, finding the next big meal ticket to raise her profile amongst the mafia wives.
She tensed at the sound of Cam’s footsteps coming up behind her.
“Listen, I’m sorry I—”
Everly reacted without thinking, turning fast and using her body weight to shove him hard against the wall. Cam reacted quickly, clasping her wrist and twisting Everly until she was flat beneath him, switching their positions. Back against the wall, she panted, each breath rubbing her sensitive nipples against his chest, while Cam stared down into her face—his gaze flickering from her eyes to her parted lips then back again.
“Tell me the truth, goddammit. I can’t help if you won’t tell me.”
“Why do you want to help?”
He opened his mouth, closed it, then leaned closer, so close his heat penetrated her clothes and seared her skin. Close enough for her to smell his scent—soap and warm, clean male—and see his pupils blown wide with arousal. “I want…”
“What?” she whispered, unable to stop herself from pressing her hips tighter to his, loving the feel of his hardness against her soft heated core. “Tell me what you want, baby.”
“I want you.” The gruff words emerged as little more than a growl. Cam bent his head and his lips hovered over hers, mere millimeters from contact.
Everly raised on tiptoes, wanting to close that small gap between them more than she wanted her next breath. She would’ve done it too, if the sound of an engine pulling up in the driveway, followed by the sound of a slamming car door, hadn’t stopped her.
6
“Shit!” Cam pushed away from the wall and away from Everly despite the fact that every cell in his body screamed for him to stay where h
e was and finish what they’d started. He clenched his fists and switched his brain over to SEAL mode. “We got company. Wait here and don’t move.”
She still stood, back pressed to the wall, just as he’d left her—looking wild and wanton and infinitely desirable. Everly blinked at him several times, her expression dazed.
“Understand?” he said, his tone harsh to break her out of her reverie. “I don’t know who these people are. I need to grab my shoes and jacket and weapon from the bedroom.”
He rushed through the living room and into the hall, ducking low to avoid revealing his moving shadow through the curtained windows. Once he’d reached the bedroom, he yanked his socks on then jammed his feet into his shoes before shrugging into his jacket and grabbing his gun. He cocked it on the way to the window. Sticking close to the wall, he lifted the edge of the curtain to peer out over the front yard and the driveway.
Who the fuck was it?
The guys wouldn’t show up here without a warning call first. Unannounced visits in their line of work were a sure way to end up flat on your ass with a boot to the trachea—or worse. Nope. It wasn’t Loki or Hunter. Cam frowned. Whoever the hell it was drove a big ass Humvee too. Damned thing blocked the entire end of the driveway and half the alley entrance.
Cam sighed. There had to be a tracker on the Aeon somewhere. That was the only thing that made sense. He’d checked the vehicle over as best he could outside that gas station, but he must’ve missed it.
As footsteps neared the front stoop, adrenaline seared through Cam’s nervous system like lit kerosene. Time to get out of here. He ducked and ran down the hall again, scrambling through the living room, just as the front door slammed inward, wood shattering from the impact of a booted foot. He barely caught a glimpse of one of the huge thugs from earlier filling the doorway before Cam veered into the kitchen to haul Everly out the back door and—
She was gone. The backdoor was open, allowing the early morning chill to seep inside.
Son of a—
“Tell us where the fucking car is and we might kill you quick,” one of the thugs growled from behind Cam. “Otherwise, we’ll have some fun first.”
Whatever the hell those two goons had planned for their victims, Cam was one-hundred-percent sure it would never be classified as fun. He fired two rounds blindly into the living room, hoping to buy a little time, then charged through the open back door and down to the small wooden garage in the back yard. The overhead door was open and the lights were on inside the Aeon, but of course the engine wasn’t running. Cam sidled around the passenger side and eased open the door to clamber inside. He cringed at the sound of the Aeon’s beautiful paint job dinging off the rough wood exterior of the garage, but it couldn’t be helped. This was a life or death situation and he’d take his hide over the vehicle’s any day.
Everly gave him an inquiring look from behind the wheel, her hand extended. “Give it to me.”
“What?”
“The passcode.”
“Or we could switch places and I’ll drive us out of here.” Bullets pinged off the outside of the Aeon’s exterior and Cam once more thanked God for bulletproof glass. The silhouettes of the two thugs filled the garage door behind them as they let loose their arsenal. So much for returning the Aeon unblemished. Cam exhaled slow then grabbed his device from his pocket and plugged it into the ignition column of the Aeon. He switched it on then grabbed Everly’s arm to tug her down beside him. The car might be bullet-proof but that didn’t mean all the flying shrapnel didn’t freak him out a bit. “This’ll just take a second.”
The goons moved closer, one with his weapon aimed in the side windows of the vehicle, the other aiming for the tires.
“Fuck.” Everly said, glancing out her side as the thug jiggled the locked door handle. “Anytime now would be awesome, Geek Squad.”
“Don’t call me that,” Cam gritted out as he watched the passcode slowly click into place.
“Open the fucking doors now, assholes, or you’ll regret it,” thug number two yelled.
The distant wail of sirens filled the air and Cam’s already tense shoulders inched a tad higher. One of the neighbors had to have called the cops. Loki was going to have Cam’s nuts in a vice over this shit. First the Aeon got damaged and now their safe house was compromised.
One goddamned passcode number to go.
“Get ready,” he said to Everly.
“For what?” she snarled. “They’ve got us fucking trapped in here like a couple of rats.”
His device beeped and Cam reached past her to push the Start button. The Aeon’s engine revved to life and he shoved Everly behind the wheel. “Go!”
“Where?”
He darted a look to the back wall of the garage then back to her.
“Jesus!” She gripped the wheel in a white-knuckled grip. “You can’t be serious.”
“You got a better idea?” Cam asked. “Either we bust out of here or they’ll kill us.”
The thugs began slamming the butts of their guns on the windows and the whole vehicle shook.
“Floor it, goddammit, or we’re both dead!” Cam yelled, hating the way she flinched but needing to break her out of the shock she was obviously in. “Do it! Now!”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she murmured over and over as she slid the transmission into Drive then jammed the accelerator pedal to the floor. The Aeon lurched forward then careened through the back of the garage. The thugs leapt away from the sides of the vehicle, covering their heads as shattered wood flew through the air. Everly veered out into the alleyway in a screech of tires and burning rubber, hurtling at breakneck speed for the open end of the pothole-riddled road. “I can’t believe I just did that.”
Cam peered over the back of his seat to see the two thugs running for their Humvee. “Keep going, they’ll be right on our tail soon.”
“Where am I headed?”
“Away,” Cam sat back and prayed the huge vehicle wouldn’t fit down the narrow alleyway. The Aeon was much slimmer and barely made it. “Just get us away from here.”
They swerved out onto the main thoroughfare then drove for what seemed like hours, but couldn’t have been that long. The sun had finally risen above the horizon by the time they’d exited Fredericksburg and were back amongst the cornfields again.
“Pull off on the next access road,” Cam said, still checking periodically over his shoulder to see if the Humvee was gaining on them. Luckily, it seemed his prayers had paid off and they hadn’t followed. That didn’t mean they were safe yet though, not with a damned tracker on the Aeon.
Everly did as he asked and they ended up in the middle of tall stalks of yellowing corn. Not the most impressive hideout ever, but perfect for what he needed. Cam got out to search the area behind their seats. Hopefully there’d be some kind of emergency kit they could use.
“What are we doing here?” Everly asked, standing beside the vehicle. “Anything I can help with?”
“Yeah,” Cam said, handing her a flashlight. “There’s a tracker on the car. I’m sure of it. Help me find it. We won’t be able to lose those thugs until we do.”
“Right.” She took off for the front of the Aeon while he searched the back using the flashlight app on his cell phone. Unfortunately, that was about the only thing the device was good for at that point since he had no bars of service out here in the middle of fuck all.
“I think I found it,” Everly called a few minutes later.
Cam trudged up to where she was crouched near the corner of the front bumper. He peered underneath and spotted the small black rectangle with a tiny flashing red light. Yep. Damned tracker all right. How he’d missed that the first time he’d looked at the gas station, Cam wasn’t sure. He’d searched every inch of the underbody. Meaning Everly was either very lucky, or she’d known exactly where it was the whole time. He yanked the tracker off the vehicle, then straightened to meet her gaze.
His suspicions must’ve been written all over his face, because s
he backed up a step or two and crossed her arms defensively. “Listen, I had no idea where that damned thing was, I swear.” When he didn’t respond, she continued. “You asked me before why I was in my dad’s garage, alone, at two in the morning trying to steal this car. Well, I’ll tell you. Because I’m trying to escape the mob too. I’ve got a new garage space waiting for me. All I have to do to afford it is get this Aeon for my buyer. I do that and I’ll make enough to afford the rent and escape this shithole life of thieving. Believe me, you won’t find anyone who wants to help you get this car out of the mafia’s hands any more than me. But you need to trust me.”
“Trust you?” He snorted and shook his head. She was on the passenger side of the vehicle now, he near the drivers’ side door. It would be easy to toss the tracker her way, hop inside the still running car and leave her in the dust. That would be the smart thing. The safe thing. But for some reason that he didn’t want to examine too closely at the moment, he couldn’t do it. Maybe it was the almost-kiss they’d shared in the safe-house kitchen. Maybe it was all those years of fantasies he’d harbored about her. Maybe it was the way she’d lit up when talking about her dreams for the future and the passion in her voice when she talked about owning her own garage.
Whatever the hell it was, Cam found himself dropping the tiny tracker to the ground and crushing it beneath his heel before yanking open the Aeon’s door and leaning his arm on the car’s top. “Get in.”
“What?” She hesitated. “You mean you trust me?”
“I didn’t say that, sweetheart.” He tapped his fingertips against the cool metal. “All I know at this point is that you’ve got skills that might prove useful.” Cam allowed his gaze to flicker down to her lips and chest before returning to her wide dark eyes. His skin still tingled from the feel of her pressed tight against him and damn if he was ready to let that go yet without exploring all those delicious possibilities. “Right now, I don’t know what to believe about you. But either you get in the car and we figure this out as we go, or you stay here amongst the corn and walk a mile or so to find help. Either way, I’m taking off. Your choice.”