Isaac got in and covered the floorboards with the blanket they’d slept on last night. She climbed in as he pulled two more protein bars from his pack and placed one beside her. She pulled a shirt and a comb out of her pack. She used a t-shirt to wipe herself off and then handed it to him while she worked a million snarls from her hair. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open while she braided her hair and ate the bar. Isaac moved around the vehicle and was able to roll down the windows to allow a slight breeze to waft through the interior. He lay down, still naked, using his pack as a pillow. He extended his arm and patted the blanket beside him. Lyric's mind had stopped functioning. She was so tired she felt as if she were vibrating. She was naked. Shouldn't she have clothes on?
"Lyric. Come on. Lie down. We need to sleep." He extended his hand, and she took it. Sleep. She was going to sleep naked with him?
"Yes, sweetheart, naked. I'm too tired to do anything but sleep. I promise."
She blinked at him. She didn't know she'd spoken aloud. Her movements slow and jerky, as if her brain weren't communicating with the muscles of her body, she lowered herself next to him. He curled around her back, and his arm wrapped her waist and pulled her into his chest. The hard metal bed of the vehicle felt like heaven.
Chapter 14
A snap of a branch woke him from a dead sleep. He was instantly alert. Another snap, immediately next to the truck, brought him to a crouch, with his rifle lifted and ready for a target. A large hog rooted near the truck followed by a host of piglets. He watched them for several minutes. They were unalarmed and foraging, which was a good sign, particularly after last night. Lowering his weapon, he glanced at the sun. It wasn't noon yet. A breeze circulated through the vehicle. Asp lowered back down onto the thin blanket next to Lyric. She sought him out in her sleep, moving into him.
He let her snuggle into his side while he gazed at the roof of the old SUV. His gut had told him the shack was being watched. Hell, every nerve in his body screamed the building was a deathtrap. He noticed a guard posted on the perimeter of the cabin and easily overpowered him. A search of the body produced American money which meant he was probably a local, hired to kill whoever came to the shack. A silenced bullet sank into the tree next to Asp and startled a bird into the air. The impact was so high it never had a chance of hitting him but did alert him to the position of a second gunman. Asp moved quickly, but instead of retreating, he advanced at a full run. When the shooter stood to fire, he threw himself forward and drove the man into the ground. The rifle dropped to the forest floor. Asp broke the man's neck with practiced ease and turned to the rifle the unfortunate guard had carried. The suppressor on the rifle was homemade. If another round had gone through it, the report would have been heard and more than likely, brought whoever else was in the area on the run. Small graces. Whoever hired these two would be checking in. Asp didn't see any radios on either body, but didn’t he stay long enough to search further. What he needed now was to get him and Lyric as distant from this location as possible.
He’d set a grueling pace, but Lyric kept on his six. They worked long, hard hours to travel not only away from the shack, but in the opposite direction he'd normally go. Whoever pursued him was damn good. His hunter had identified where he'd normally stop, so it was time for Asp to stop behaving normally. He worked them back up the hills, toward the higher elevations, away from his phone and help. The dead bodies he left last night would alert his tracker that he'd been there, and the hunt would begin in earnest. There was no way he and Lyric would be able to reach his vehicle. If it were just him, he would step up and take the fight to the bastard who was playing fucking chess with his life. But it wasn't just him. The woman sleeping next to him depended upon him for protection.
Asp narrowed his eyes as his brain churned through the possibility he’d considered last night. What could he do that was so counterintuitive the bastard would miscalculate? How could he turn the tables and become the hunter? A simplistic answer formed. His only concern? He needed someplace where he could safely hide Lyric. Where would the people hunting for him never look? He smiled at the roof of the vehicle. The plan he’d formed last night was sound.
Asp let himself drift in a semi-sleep state. Resting and comfortable, he heard the hog and her family outside the truck and felt the breeze cool his skin. The birdsong and sounds of the day filtered around him. Peaceful and natural. Lyric's rhythmic breathing fanned across the skin at his neck. He tightened his arm around her. She moved closer to him and settled again. His fingers found her braid and played with the weave, mindlessly following the bumps and hollows. She rolled onto her back, and his eyes followed her. She was spectacularly beautiful.
Asp closed his eyes to stop the visual torture. His body reacted to hers. He ached to have her. He wanted to feel her under him, wanted to stroke the beautiful tan skin he’d memorized when she stood nude before him last night. His cock kicked up at the thought. There was no way he could let that happen, though. Even if he discounted the physical danger it posed to her, he couldn’t afford the emotional cost. Not only to her, but damn it, to him. As strange as it sounded, the intensity of his desire became his strongest deterrent. He wanted her with a soul-deep longing that he couldn’t ease with anything but total denial. Tonight, he'd guide her to safety, or at least to a place that should be safe, and then he'd go on the hunt. If he didn't succeed, she'd at least have a fighting chance.
"You’re thinking too hard." Lyric's voice carried to him.
"Always. It's because of my big brain." He smiled at her inelegant snort.
"What happened last night?" She moved closer to him, and he tightened his arm around her.
"We took a bath." He got an elbow in his ribs for that one. "There were people waiting for us at the shack. They'd been paid to kill me. I don't think they know about you."
"How long until they know we've been there?"
Asp glanced at the sun. It was descending. Maybe four o'clock in the afternoon. "They know by now."
"What are we going to do? Will they track us?"
He could hear the tremor in her voice. Her bravado was convincing, but he'd heard it. She was scared. As well she should be. "I doubled back several times. If I'm not mistaken, the stream we bathed in last night is the stream that feeds the shower at the cave."
Lyric lifted up on her elbow and blinked the sleep from her eyes. "You mean we've gone in a circle?"
"Intentionally. After dark, we are going to slip back into the cave, coming in from the back. We have the advantage. We know the area." Asp's plan firmed in his mind. He liked it. It gave them both a chance.
"Won't they be looking for us?" Her voice rose to an incredulous squeak.
"Yes, but they'll have found the valley by now, found their man and retrieved him. If they made the connection to your grandfather, they have already been to the farm to question him. There is no reason for them to remain in the valley. They are out here, searching for me."
A furrow formed between her brows. "What's your plan?"
"I'm taking you back to the cave, make sure you're safe, and then I'm taking the hunt to the hunter."
"What does that mean?" She stared intently at him.
"It means I'm done running." Taking her back was the only thing that made sense. To his knowledge, nobody knew he'd been assisted. The cave had been sanitized, tracks had been obliterated. They weren't seen the first night. The second night his position would have been pinpointed. When he ran with Lyric, it went against every instinct he had. He'd tried to confuse those who'd tried to trap him, and in doing so, he'd given himself one chance to take out the bastard hunting him.
"You're leaving me in the cave." She dropped onto her back and rolled away from him. He rolled onto his side and ran his hand down her arm, keeping the touch reassuring, not sexual.
"I want you to stay there for three days. That will give me time to get where I'm going, get set up, and take out the bastard hunting me." He leaned over and kissed her shoulder softly.
"I'll either succeed and eliminate any threat against you, or they will have been successful and stopped searching. Either way, you won't need to worry about the FARC roaming the hills looking for me. Go home and live your life."
"If you get the man hunting you, you won't come back." Her whispered statement burned like acid, but it was the truth.
He dropped his forehead against her shoulder. "I can't." He felt her tighten at his admission. He'd tried to be indifferent to her—to stay away. God knew he'd tried to warn her not to feel anything for him. But fuck him, she was his idea of perfection, and he'd taken a small sip of heaven. He'd realized too late a sip would never be enough to satisfy his thirst. Lyric lightened the darkness that surrounded him. She was the music he longed to listen to every day of his life, to cherish and embrace, but because of his choices, she was the melody he'd never hear again.
She rolled over, facing him. Her eyes held tears, and she swiped one away as it fell. "I've always known that. But we have now, don't we?"
He interrupted her ramblings with a finger to her lips. The temptation was too great. "We have now." God help him, they had now. He rolled on top of her, his cock hardening at the contact of her chest against his. She was soft and fit against him perfectly. They both groaned when she lifted her legs around his hips, and he pushed his cock against her sex, rubbing the length against her pubic bone. He didn't want to dry hump her. Fuck, he wanted to be inside her heat, but without protection...
She cupped his head and pulled him up from her neck where he'd been working his way toward her breast. "Make love to me." She shook her head when he started to close his eyes, in preparation to deny her. "No, I want you inside me. I need this. Pull out when you get close."
"That isn't foolproof." Hell, it wasn't even safe. He wouldn't leave her with a baby to raise by herself. He'd heard what Sky had to go through to raise Kadey alone. There was a real chance he wasn't walking away from this mission.
"I'm a big girl, Isaac. I know how to take care of myself, how to take care of my body. I want you inside me. I want you to make love to me. Pull out when you are close. Let's pretend we can be together. Let's pretend we have forever."
His mind screamed no, don't take the chance of ruining this woman's life. His heart, however, took her offer and ran with it, leaving the objections of his rational mind in the dust. He lowered for a kiss and got lost in her unique taste. He pulled away only to breathe. Her hands traveled his body, and he felt every nerve ending fire and respond to the feel of her small hands. He worked his way down her neck and paid homage to her breasts before he moved back up and centered between her legs. He fingered her and devoured her mouth, capturing the delightful gasps, whimpers, and moans. He lifted his leg, forcing her leg up and over his thigh, opening her for his cock. He ran his arms under her shoulders and captured her head with his hands, holding her steady, so he could watch her as he entered.
She locked eyes with him and nodded. He slid forward, retreated and slid forward again, deeper into her tight, wet heat. The next thrust seated him against her and both of them closed their eyes. He'd had good sex before, but nothing compared to what he was feeling right now. It wasn’t just the physical. The emotional connection they shared put this experience into a category all its own. Was he a fucking idiot? Hell yes, but if it meant five minutes with Lyric, like this, he'd make the same mistakes again. All of them. He wouldn't change a thing, because she was goodness, and happiness and love—the essence of light that momentarily illuminated his dark-as-fuck world.
He held her tenderly as he thrust forward, taking them both to a shattering point, one that acknowledged their desires for each other and at the same time signaled the beginning of the end for a passion he couldn’t permit. She clenched around him. Her hips lifted under him as she worked her body, meeting and seizing her need. Her orgasm swallowed him, and he pulled out, reared up, and stroked himself once before he exploded over her, painting her slight frame with stripes of his cum. He held himself up with one hand as they struggled to catch their breath.
She reached up and put her hand over his lips. "If you say one word about this not being a permanent thing, I'll rack you.” She lifted her knee settling it against the underside of his ball sack.
He couldn't help his smile. "Fair enough, I deserve that."
"You most certainly do. Now find me that t-shirt we toweled off with last night and a bottle of water." Lyric waved a dismissive hand at him.
He leaned down and kissed her smiling face before doing as she bid. But only because it was the gentlemanly thing to do.
Chapter 15
The moon provided the only light as Asp sat down on the slab of rock that formed the overhang of the waterfall and lowered himself down into the blackness of the sheltered area of the cave. It seemed like a lifetime ago he'd sat in front of Anubis' desk and been handed the folder detailing Halo One-One's demise. In reality, it had been just over two months. Taking out Halo had settled some kind of cosmic sense of justice—justice that he’d needed more than he'd realized. That bastard was gone, but his people still moved. The machine that Cavanaugh had started may have stalled, but with men still out there like the hunter currently after Asp, people like Lyric and her family would never be safe. Drug trafficking was too profitable for those in control.
He turned around and waited as Lyric handed down his rifle, stock first. He took it and set it to the side along with the two backpacks she dropped one at a time. She sat down, and he reached up, grabbing her waist as she dropped, controlling her descent against his body. She leaned into him, and he wrapped his arms around her for a moment.
"I'll go first. You stay here and wait." If there was a sentry in the area, Asp would need to skirt him so as not to reveal their return. She nodded against his chest. He kissed the top of her head and stepped away. He'd have to go blind through the larger cavern that held the pool of water, but he had a good recollection of the walls, shelves, and pathways of the cave. His eyes were adjusted to the moonlight, but the pitch black of the cave forced him to close his eyes and react to his memories of the cavern and the feel of the walls under his fingers. He took small steps, quietly placing each foot as he traveled toward the other entrance.
The front cave received a small amount of light. Asp sat on his heels inside the larger cavern and listened. The emptiness of the area echoed around him. There were no sounds to make him cautious, yet something felt off. He waited ten more minutes before he entered the main cavern. The neat area he'd left with Lyric two days ago had been trashed. Garbage littered the floor, and as he approached the cave entrance, the stench of human feces assaulted his senses. At the mouth of the cave he examined the small area of the valley that he could see. He ghosted out of the entrance and made his way to where he'd concealed the dead body. The corpse was gone. He continued down the face of the rock and pushed through the marmalade bushes as far from the entrance as he could go. He lay down and started a strip and grid search of the entire area, looking for anything that would register as different or foreign since the last time he’d looked across to the ridge. He paused about halfway through the search. A large mound at the base of the shrine Lyric's grandfather had built caught his attention. He carefully pulled back from under the bush and moved silently to a better observation point. There. He carefully pushed through the bush. A grave. Large rocks were placed on top of the mound of dirt. It was intended to be a permanent resting place. Whoever buried him wouldn't return.
Asp pushed back and made his way to the mouth of the cave. He curled his nose in disgust at the piles of shit. When he entered the back cavern, he reached into his pocket and withdrew a chemical stick. The rod snapped under the pressure of his fingers, and he shook the vial, creating a pale glow. The only footprints were his and Lyrics. The interior of the cavern hadn't been disturbed. Before he went to get her, he retrieved the buried equipment they'd left. He found a container that would work and headed back to the front of the cave. He couldn't bring her back to that mess.
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It took fifteen minutes to make the cave livable. He moved the rocks that made up the fire ring back toward the larger chamber and built them pallets to lie on. He covered hers with the blanket he'd buried their equipment in after he shook out the dirt. He wasn't going to take any chances that she'd be seen, but he wanted her to be comfortable for the next three days. The fire took a few minutes to build and light. He waited until it caught before he went back for Lyric.
She hadn't moved from where he'd left her. She appeared exhausted—and worried. Her usual vibrancy and, hell, he didn't know...inner light, maybe, had diminished. He hated the part he’d had in that loss. "Come on." He extended his hand to her. She stood and grabbed her pack and his. "Leave that. I have a fire going. Come inside, you need to rest."
Lyric shook her head and walked past him, carrying both packs. "I'm not an irresponsible child. Get your gun. I've got these."
Asp drew a deep breath and rolled his shoulders after she slipped down the fissure that led to the front of the cave. The woman made him crazy. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and followed her. His priorities shifted as he crossed a safe shelter for Lyric off the list. Next came food, sleep and then at dark, he'd once again become the man who delivered death. Lyric would be free. Hopefully, her family had survived any inquisition by the idiots who found the body—if they’d even put two and two together. He wasn't so sure, but it wouldn't do to underestimate them. Underestimating them would put Lyric at greater risk, and that he wasn't willing to do.
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