She cursed the men trying to kill them. Cursed the fact that she was so close to dying and didn’t even know why.
Landon scrambled over the seat, covering her body with his. What he didn’t do was fire. Probably because he didn’t want to risk hitting his cousins or the other deputies. Josh did fire but that was only when the thug tried to put the launcher out the window again.
The shots outside the cruiser continued, one thick blast after another until they blended together into one deafening roar. But even over the roar, Tessa could still hear another sound.
The squeal of the tires, followed by the stench of the rubber burning against the pavement.
The gunmen were getting away.
Chapter Fourteen
Landon knew they’d gotten darn lucky, but it sure didn’t feel like it at the moment.
He’d banged his shoulder when the SUV had first plowed into them, and it was throbbing like a toothache. Josh was limping from a bruised knee. And while Tessa didn’t have any physical injuries, she had that look in her eyes that let him know she was on the verge of losing it.
Landon couldn’t fault her for that. They’d come so close to dying. Hell, lots of people had since the attack could have turned into a bloodbath on Main Street. However, other than Josh’s and his minor injuries, everyone was okay. Again, he qualified that. Everyone was physically okay.
Tessa finished her phone call with the nanny and turned to Landon. “The baby’s fine. No sign of any gunmen at the safe house.”
That was a relief even though he would have been shocked if attackers had found the location. They’d been careful when they’d moved the baby. Of course, Landon thought he’d been careful with the arrangements he’d made for Tessa, and look how they’d turned out.
Now all he could do was regroup and keep her safe. Not that he’d done a stellar job of that so far, and that meant he had to make some changes. Landon had brought her back to the Silver Creek Ranch guesthouse, but this would be their last night here. In the morning he would put her in Holden’s protective custody, and Holden could take her to a real safe house. Then Landon could focus on catching this SOB who kept coming after them.
“Do I need to remind you that the fake-hypnosis plan was my idea?” Tessa said.
She sounded as weary and spent as Landon felt. Maybe even more. He was accustomed to dealing with nightmares like this, but Tessa wasn’t. Though lately she’d had way too much experience in that department.
“I’m the one with the badge,” Landon reminded her. “I should have done a better job.”
“Right, because of those superhero powers you have.”
At first he wasn’t sure if her smart remark was an insult to point out his shortcomings, but then she lifted her eyebrow. “It was my plan,” she repeated. “You got stuck with the mop-up.”
“It was more than mop-up,” he grumbled. But what he meant to say was that she was more than mop-up.
He didn’t.
There was already enough dangerous energy zinging between them without his admitting that he’d been scared spitless at the thought of losing her.
“Besides, I have superhero powers,” he added because he thought they could use some levity. “If we ever have to jump a ditch, you’ll see what I mean. And I can open medicine bottles on the first try.”
She smiled. Which was exactly the response he wanted. But it didn’t last. He saw her bottom lip tremble, and just like that the tears watered her eyes. She blinked them back, of course. Landon stayed put, though. That whole dangerous-energy thing was still there.
“I guess you’ll be leaving soon,” she said, her voice not much louder than a whisper. “Who’ll be babysitting me after you leave?”
Landon hadn’t said a word to her about the arrangements he’d made shortly after the attack, and he was pretty sure she hadn’t heard, because he’d made them when the doctor was checking her. Clearly, Tessa’s superhero power was ESP.
“Holden,” he admitted. “He’ll be here first thing in the morning.”
She didn’t curse, but some of the weariness vanished, and he was pretty sure she wasn’t happy about being traded off to another Ryland. Of course, there couldn’t be much about this situation that pleased her, and it was clear he sucked at keeping her out of harm’s way.
“You know with me tucked away, it’ll be harder for you to catch Emmett’s killer,” she added.
Hell’s bells. He didn’t like the sound of that at all. “You’re not thinking about making yourself bait again.” And it wasn’t a question.
“No. I doubt I could get you or any of your cousins to go along with that. Just reminding you that the killer might just disappear until the dust settles. Or until I come out of hiding.” She paused. “Unless you’re planning to put me in WITSEC.”
Yeah, he was. And since Tessa also hadn’t said it as a question, either she truly did have ESP or else she knew him a lot better than Landon wanted her to know him. It was best if he kept some of his feelings from her. Especially the feeling that he was afraid for her, and there weren’t many times in his life he’d felt like this.
Tessa scrubbed her hands on the sides of her borrowed dress. “Well, I should probably...do something.” She moved as if to go into the kitchen.
And Landon should have let her go. He didn’t.
Landon was certain the only thing he didn’t want about this were the consequences. And there would be a price to pay, all right. A huge one. Because not only would this make him lose focus, it would take him back to a place he swore he’d never go. A place where he had Tessa in his arms. In his bed.
Knowing all of that didn’t stop him from reaching for her.
She was already heading toward him anyway, and it would have been easy to slide right into this without thinking. Landon wanted to think, wanted to remember how he’d felt when she’d walked out on him.
He didn’t think, though. Didn’t remember.
One touch of his mouth to hers, and there was no turning back. No remembering.
“You don’t want to do this,” she said, her voice not even a whisper.
“You’re wrong.” And he proved it.
He slipped his hand around the back of her neck, pulled her against him. Until they were body to body. He’d already crossed a huge line, and there weren’t enough superhero powers in the world to make him stop. Tessa seemed to feel the same way, because the moment he deepened the kiss, he felt her surrender. Heck, maybe the surrender had happened even before this. All Landon knew was that this seemed inevitable.
And necessary.
If he’d been given a choice between her and the air he was breathing, he would have chosen Tessa.
Of course, that was the logic of that brainless part of him behind his zipper, but Landon went right along with it. If he was going to screw this up, he might as well make it worth it, even though just being with her seemed to fill the “worth it” bill.
Tessa was still trembling, probably from the adrenaline crash, but Landon upped the trembling by taking the kisses to her neck. Then lower to the tops of her breasts. Even though they had been together but that once, he remembered just how to fire her up.
But Tessa obviously remembered how to do the same to him.
He had her neck at an angle so she couldn’t use that clever mouth on him, but she made good use of her hands. First on his chest. She slid her palm all the way to his stomach. And lower.
Definitely playing dirty.
He already had an erection, but that only made him harder. And hotter. To hell with foreplay. If she wanted that, he could give it to her after he burned off some of this fire that she’d started.
Landon enjoyed the sound of surprise, then pleasure, she made when he shoved up her dress and pulled it off her. Now the body-to-body contact was even better be
cause her nearly bare breasts were there for the kissing. Landon fixed the “nearly” part by ridding her of her bra so he could kiss her the way he wanted.
Man, he was in trouble here.
Tessa was the source of that trouble. “I’m not the only one who’s getting naked here.” And she robbed him of his breath when she shimmied off her panties. “Please tell me you have a condom.”
“In my wallet,” he managed to say.
Tessa obviously took that as a challenge to get it out, and since Landon was distracted by her naked body, he lost focus long enough for her to go after his wallet. Either she was very bad at that task or else she was doing her own version of foreplay, because by the time she was done, Landon was already lowering her to the sofa.
The moment she had his wallet, she went after his clothes. Landon let her because it gave him a chance to kiss some places he’d missed the first time they’d had sex. It slowed her down a little, and she made a sound of pure pleasure that Landon wished he could bottle. But it still seemed to take only the blink of an eye for her to get off his shirt and boots and get him unzipped.
Landon helped with the jeans and his boxers. Even though this was mindless wild sex, he didn’t want anything in between him and her.
And so that was what he got.
He took hold of her, pulling her onto his lap, and in the same motion, he went inside her. Of course, she was familiar, but he still felt that jolt of surprise. Still felt both the relief and the building need. The relief wouldn’t last.
The need would.
“We are so in trouble here,” she whispered.
Even if he’d had the breath to answer, he wouldn’t have argued with her. Because they were. This might be the last time they ever saw each other, and here they were complicating it with sex.
Great sex, at that.
It didn’t take long for them to find the right rhythm. Landon caught on to her hips, and Tessa used the rhythm and motion to slide against him.
Yeah, definitely great sex.
He went deeper, faster. Until he could feel Tessa close. That was when he kissed her. It slowed them down a little, but it was worth it. Worth it, too, to watch her as she climaxed. Definitely not a trace of fear or weariness. Only the pleasure.
Tessa gave it right back to him. She kissed him and gave him exactly what he needed to finish this. Landon gathered her in his arms and let go.
* * *
“HELL,” LANDON SAID under his breath.
Even though it was barely a whisper, Tessa heard it. She’d figured it would at least be a couple of minutes before Landon started regretting this, but apparently not. Hell wasn’t exactly the postsex mutterings she wanted to hear.
“Phone,” he added.
And that was when Tessa heard the buzzing. A buzzing she’d thought was in her head, but apparently not. Landon moved her off him, frantically dug through the pile of clothes that they’d practically ripped off each other and took his phone from his jeans pocket.
She saw Grayson’s name on the screen along with the words Missed Call.
Now it was Tessa who was cursing. This could be something important, a matter of life and death, even.
While he was calling back Grayson, Landon went into the bathroom. She didn’t follow him, and he didn’t stay in there long. By the time he made it back into the living room, Grayson had already answered.
Tessa hurried to get dressed, and she braced herself to hear that there was another intruder on the grounds. Thankfully, Landon put the call on Speaker, but he probably did that to free up his hands so he could get dressed.
“Everything okay?” Grayson asked.
“Yeah,” Landon lied. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Well, nothing other than all the other wrong things that have been going on, but we might have gotten a break.”
Tessa was so relieved that her legs went a little weak. Of course, that reaction might have had something to do with having a half-naked hot cowboy just a few inches from her. It was wrong to still notice that with the danger all around them, but her body just couldn’t forget about Landon.
“That info Joel gave us panned out,” Grayson went on. “Though we can’t use it as evidence to get Quincy, Dade was able to find a criminal informant who verified that the illegal arms transactions did happen on the dates that were on that paper. Even better, the CI gave us the name of a witness. The transaction happened in San Antonio PD’s jurisdiction, so Nate’s on his way now to question the witness.”
“How credible is this witness?” Landon asked.
“Credible enough. He’s a businessman, no record. It appears he didn’t know what was going on with the deal and that he got out of it as soon as he realized it was illegal.”
It took Tessa a moment to process that, and while it wasn’t a guarantee that it would get Quincy out of their lives, it was a start.
“As a minimum,” Grayson went on, “this witness can put Quincy in the company of known felons, and that means he can be arrested for a parole violation. If we get lucky, we could have Quincy behind bars tonight, where he’ll have to finish out the rest of a twenty-year sentence.”
That would mean one of their suspects was off the streets. But Tessa immediately felt the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that even that wouldn’t help. So far their attacker had only sent thugs after them, and Quincy could still certainly do that from behind bars.
“Is that troubled expression for me or for something else?” Landon asked her the moment he ended the call.
“You and everything else,” Tessa admitted. She sank down on the sofa to have “the talk” with him. “What just happened between us doesn’t have to mean anything.”
He didn’t say anything. Landon just waited, as if expecting her to add a but. She didn’t, because Tessa didn’t want him to feel hemmed in, especially since her life was in the air right now.
Landon dropped down on the sofa next to her, took his time putting on his boots and then turned to her. She tried to prepare herself for anything from a thanks to some profanity for what Landon might see as a huge lapse in judgment.
That didn’t happen, though.
He kissed her. Not a quick peck of reassurance, either. This was a real kiss. Long and scalding hot. A reminder that what’d just happened did mean something. Well, to her, anyway. It was possible that the kiss was just a leftover response to the attraction.
“Questions?” he asked after he finished that mind-numbing kiss.
Plenty. But she kept them to herself. Good thing, too, because his phone buzzed again. Not Grayson this time. It was Courtney. Landon answered it right away.
“What the hell is going on?” he demanded before Courtney even got a word in.
“I’m sorry,” Courtney said after a long pause. “Is Samantha okay?”
“Yes. She’s at a safe house. Now, talk.”
Courtney didn’t do that. Not right away, anyway. “Everything I’ve done has been to protect my daughter, and I hate that I put you in danger. But I’d do it again if it kept her safe.”
“What did you do?” Tessa asked. “And is Emmett really Samantha’s father?”
She heard Courtney take a long breath. “I don’t want to get into this over the phone. Meet me and we’ll talk.”
“Talk first and then we’ll consider meeting you,” Landon countered, and he sounded very much like the lawman that he was. “But I’m not taking Tessa anywhere until I know what’s going on, and maybe not even then. You know someone tried to kill her again?”
“Yes, I know. And I’m sorry. So sorry.”
“I’m not looking for apologies,” Landon snapped. “Answers. Now.”
Courtney took another deep breath. “I’m a Justice Department operative.” And that was all she said for several long moments
. “But you might have already guessed that.”
“It was one of the theories. I figured that might be why you had Samantha’s DNA results suppressed.”
“It was. Partly,” Courtney added. “And I also had them suppressed because the DNA sample you took from Samantha will prove that Quincy is her father.”
Landon didn’t say anything, but Tessa could see the relief Landon was feeling because this meant Emmett hadn’t cheated on his wife. But she could also see the confusion.
“Right before Emmett was killed,” Courtney went on, “he agreed that he would say Samantha was his so that Quincy couldn’t get her.”
That sounded like something Emmett would do, and that might have been what Emmett and Courtney had been discussing when she’d seen them together.
“You knew Emmett well?” Landon asked.
“Yes. We’d worked together on some investigations. I’m so sorry he’s dead.”
They all were. But Tessa hoped Courtney could give them some answers. “Do you know who killed him?”
“No,” Courtney quickly answered, “and if I did, I would be figuring out a way to make sure his killer gets some payback.”
Hard to do that with killers on their trails. “How the heck did you ever get involved with Quincy?”
“I was on a deep-cover assignment, and he helped me make some contacts. Ward introduced us.”
That was not a connection that Tessa wanted to hear. “Ward knows you’re an agent?” Tessa asked.
“No.” Courtney groaned. “Maybe. But he’s not supposed to know. I was posing as a criminal informant when I met him. I’m a Jane operative, and there aren’t any records about me in any of the regular Justice Department databases, but it’s possible Ward hacked into the classified files and found out my real identity. Maybe that’s why all of this happened.”
“What did happen?” Landon pressed.
Again, Courtney paused. “A little over nine months ago, Quincy arranged a meeting with me, and he drugged me. Rohypnol, I think. I blacked out, and when I woke up, I was naked and in bed with him.”
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