by Meg Ripley
There was something about this woman he didn’t like, and Hudson wasn’t about to go disappear with her. “I can’t actually, but thanks.”
“Ahem.”
He turned at the noise behind him to find Leona standing just outside the sliding glass doors. Her cheeks were pink as she glared at Cathy, and her look wasn’t any more friendly when she riveted it on Hudson. “I think it’s time for us to go, dear.”
“So soon?” Cathy pouted.
He managed to untangle himself from her grasp. “Yes, we’ve got some other things to attend to.” Hudson, glad for the excuse, followed Leona back into the house.
“Kim, I’m afraid we’ve got to get going,” Leona said to their hostess. “Thank you for inviting us.” She didn’t wait for a reply before she headed for the front door.
Hudson had to jog to catch up with her on the sidewalk. They’d chosen to walk to the party, since it was just down the street. It was a gorgeous evening, with a nice breeze blowing away the humidity, but there were also waves of anger billowing off his partner. “Hey, slow down! What’s the hurry?”
She surprised him by stopping in her tracks and whirling on him. “What’s the hurry? Really? Are you actually going to tell me you don’t have a clue what was happening back there?” Leona was a full head shorter than he was, but she’d managed to shove her face within an inch of his as she spoke. Just as quickly as she’d stopped walking, she whirled around and stomped off down the sidewalk again.
Hudson watched her go, allowing himself a chance at a smile. She was clearly pissed, but he only found it flattering. “I don’t see what the big deal is,” he said innocently when he caught up again. “She was just introducing herself and trying to get to know me, and that was the whole point of this adventure anyway, wasn’t it?”
“That woman was trying to do a lot more than get to know you.” Her brows were knitted together, but she refused to look at him now as she charged toward their house.
“Maybe so, but in that case, I should’ve gone with her. I mean, what better way to infiltrate the neighborhood and get a feel for what’s really going on, right?”
He was grinning when she glared up at him again. They were right in front of their place now, and she snorted as she let her shoulders drop slightly in defeat. “It may be funny to you, but for all anyone here knows, we’re together. Mates, married, common law, whatever the hell you might want to call it. It’s rude for someone to assume they can just waltz up and talk to you like that. Takes a lot of balls.” She stormed into the house.
Hudson watched her go, admiring the way the dress swished around her thighs. Leona was crazy if she thought he’d be interested in anyone but her, yet he’d enjoyed yanking her chain a little. Sure, maybe it was just the principle of the thing, but he liked the way jealousy looked on her face.
7
Leona couldn’t stand another minute inside those perfectly painted walls. The house was beautiful. It was the kind of place that most people probably dreamed of living in, and she had no doubt they’d be willing to take on mortgage payments bigger than what they could actually afford just for the status symbol of a nice home in a nice neighborhood. It even had stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, and a stone fireplace.
But she absolutely had to get out of there. Her muscles were getting sore from sitting around listening in on phone conversations and keeping track of the various vehicles and people in the neighborhood. She hadn’t seen anyone but Hudson since the block party. The walls were beginning to close in on her, and it was time to get out.
She rose early, pulled on leggings and a tank top, and dug her favorite shoes out from under the bed. Leona whipped her hair up into a quick ponytail without even bothering to brush it. Coffee could wait until she got back and had time to enjoy it on the porch, but right now, she had something she absolutely had to do.
It was the perfect morning for a jog. The sun was already beginning to rise in the summer sky, but the commuters hadn’t yet left their garages. An old man on the corner was watering his flowers. A dog barked from within a fenced yard. It didn’t look like the sort of place she should be doing recon. That, however, is exactly what she told herself she was doing. She was just another part of the scenery, and she’d seen plenty of other people jogging and walking.
When she reached the corner, she took a right and kept going. The park wasn’t far, according to the maps she’d studied. Leona stretched her legs out into longer strides, pumping her arms and expanding her lungs. Her jog had turned into a run, and she was sprinting with all her speed before she knew it. God, it felt good! The wind whistled against her ears and combed through her ponytail, gracing her skin and cooling her sweat. She felt free and real, part of the Earth but not part of it at the same time. She veered into the park and circled it, her feet barely touching the asphalt track as she blasted past an elderly woman who was keeping a much more leisurely pace.
“Good morning!” Leona called cheerily behind her. She wanted to laugh, because she couldn’t remember a time when she felt this good. Yes, she was on a mission. The enemy could be sitting in the house on her right with the blue shutters and proliferating rose bushes. It could just as easily be the paper boy who’d appeared, chucking rolled up newspapers at front doors with a satisfying thunk. When she stopped in at the little convenience store a few blocks further down for a bottle of Gatorade, she knew the bored man behind the counter or the shifty guy near the beer cooler could also be the enemies she was looking for. She almost didn’t care. Leona was happy with any result at the moment. She could kick herself for not getting out and doing this earlier.
Someone was waving at her when she came back around the corner, and Leona noticed it was Kim. She waved back, but Kim was walking toward the fence, waving her down. Leona slowed, catching her breath. “Hey! Beautiful morning!”
“Sure is! I just wanted to check in with you and see if you were doing all right, hun.” Kim was dressed in cropped leggings and a loose-fitting tank top with a sports bra underneath. Her hair was pulled back like Leona’s was, but it was obvious she’d taken a lot more care with it. She’d curled and teased the red strands to a massive pouf. The layers of makeup on her face indicated she wasn’t planning to work out any time soon.
“Sure. I’m fine. Why?” Leona took advantage of the break to stretch. She bent one way and then the other, feeling her muscles gliding under her skin. She’d have to find some time for her other form soon.
Kim made a face, looking concerned. “Well, you and Hank left pretty quickly the other night. Jamie Sandusky said she thought she saw Cathy Cooper talking to your husband, and I was worried. You see, Cathy is quite the flirt. She doesn’t mean to hurt anyone, though.”
“Oh.” Leona was grateful her face was already flushed from her run. She’d been absolutely infuriated when that woman had flirted with Hudson, but that didn’t mean she wanted anyone else to know that. “It’s fine, really. I’m not the jealous type.” How could she be, when she and Hudson weren’t anything but coworkers? Right?
Her neighbor didn’t look ready to accept that. She leaned on the split rail fence between them, her fingers gliding across a nearby lilac bush. “It’s perfectly fine if you are. I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time we’d seen some domestic issues in the neighborhood. Nothing major, mind you, but enough to get people talking. It’s not a huge town, and we do get to know and care about each other.”
“It’s very nice around here. And we really enjoyed ourselves at the block party.” That was true, up to a point. The women Kim had introduced her to had been very kind to Leona. She’d expected them to treat her like an outsider who didn’t know all their secrets and inside jokes, but it wasn’t like that at all. The only thing she had felt excluded from was the “mom talk” from those who had little ones. And then, of course, there had been that Cathy Cooper incident.
“I’m glad. I really was worried, but I didn’t want to rush over there and get in your way. I’m sure your busy with all
the unpacking.”
“No, not really.” Leona wrapped her arm around her head to stretch all the little muscles that hadn’t had a good workout in ages. “It was all taken care of before we moved in.”
“It was?” Kim said with disbelief. “I guess I underestimated the two of you when you said your husband is in computer sales. A service like that costs a lot of money.”
Shit. She was getting too comfortable, and she’d slipped already. “What I mean,” Leona said, “is that we had the movers take care of the furniture, but we didn’t have much else to bring in. We’re sort of minimalists.”
“Oh, yes! I’ve heard of that. I don’t think I could ever do without my shoe collection,” Kim laughed.
Leona laughed along with her, glad she’d gotten out of that one.
Kim smiled happily as she plucked one of the lilacs and held it to her nose. “Now tell me about your plans for the future, Leona. Are the two of you going to have any children?”
“No way,” she answered automatically. “It would really interfere with my job.”
The neighbor’s auburn brows knitted together. She laughed uncomfortably. “I’m sorry. I could swear you told me at the party that you stay at home.”
“I did. I mean, I do.” Shit. How could she be screwing this up so badly. Leona had successfully performed numerous undercover missions that required her to successfully infiltrate enemy territory. This one should be much easier, and yet it was somehow proving to be the complete opposite. “I do stay at home right now, but I plan to get a job soon. I like to get out and interact with the world.”
“Oh, I see. I understand. It’s not always easy taking care of my own and never having any time for myself, but I manage here and there. You really should think about children, though. They’re so wonderful. I don’t know how I ever managed without them.” Just then, two kids came tumbling through the front door and onto the porch. Leona recognized them as Kim’s offspring, who were introduced at the block party, but she couldn’t remember their names.
The oldest had his younger brother in a headlock. “Mom! He took my tablet and he won’t give it back!”
“I only took it because he took mine first!” the younger one squealed. He might’ve looked like he had the disadvantage with his older brother’s arm around his neck, but one quick stomp to the instep and he was free. Leona had to smile at that.
A little girl poked her head out the door and, seeing that her older siblings were otherwise occupied, stepped down off the porch and began picking flowers from the bushes in the landscaping. She was still in her bright pink pajamas.
“Boys! Stop that right now!” Kim’s fists curled at the arrival of her kids, and she turned an embarrassed smile to Leona. “Like I said, such angels. I’d better get them off to school before they kill each other. See you later!”
Leona jogged on home catching the angry undertones from her neighbor as she got onto her children. Kim had brought up an interesting point. Leona hadn’t worried much about having children. Her career had always been first, and she’d always known it would be. But what, exactly, was her career now? Would working with the SOS Force preclude her from becoming a mother? Was that something she even wanted? It was an idea she’d never allowed herself to ponder before.
Hudson met her at the door, the muscles of his jaw twitching as he pressed his teeth together. “There you are!”
“Yes, here I am!” she exploded. Even the strange conversation with Kim hadn’t ruined the good mood from her jog. “You should get out and see this neighborhood. It’s like something from a movie. That really bothered me at first, but I’m starting to like it. Is there any coffee?” She headed into the kitchen.
“There is.” His presence was like a heavy shadow behind her, and when Leona finished pouring, she turned to see him still glowering. “Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving the house?”
“Excuse me?” Leona slowly stirred her creamer into her coffee, smiling at the sheer audacity of this man.
“You heard me. You can’t just disappear, Leona. I had no idea where you were or what happened to you. You didn’t even take your phone!” He put his hands on his hips as he paced the kitchen. “You clearly don’t know just how important this mission is.”
“I do,” she countered. Her muscles tensed despite her efforts to keep calm, and she felt the good effects of her jog swiftly being undone. “In fact, that’s exactly why I left. I needed to get out of here before I went crazy. It wouldn’t look normal if I never left the house. And it was a good chance for recon.”
“And for nearly giving away our secret to the nosiest neighbor,” Hudson retorted.
“Wait, what?” She stared at him for a moment before it dawned on her. “You were using the surveillance equipment to spy on me?” Leona was used to having a life that was less than private. Her position as a Green Beret meant she’d spent plenty of time being poked, prodded, and watched. That was all right, because she’d agreed to it. This was different.
Hudson threw one hand in the air, fingers spread. “What choice did you leave me? I woke up and you were just gone! I had no idea when you were coming back, or even if you’d left of your own free will! I heard you talking to Kim, and that was the only thing that kept me from calling in the rest of the Force to track you down.”
“Wow.” Leona set her mug on the counter and rubbed her knuckles against her thigh, feeling the itch of her claws threatening to make their appearance. They were desperate to break through and scratch him right across his face for his comments and his arrogance. “You’ve got some nerve. You might be my commanding officer, for all intents and purposes, but you don’t run my life. If I want to go for a jog, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do. And if I want to talk to the neighbor, then I’m going to do that as well. And I’ve also decided that I need to have a job while I’m here.”
“What?” He blinked, thrown off by the last demand.
“You just decided when we planned out this mission that I would be a housewife. That’s not going to work for me. None of these people know who I really am, but that means I can be whomever I want to be. Maybe I’ve got my degree in education and I want to be a teacher. Maybe I’m a really good artist and I sell my paintings online.” The possibilities seemed endless to her now that she was thinking about it, and she liked them more and more as she spoke. There wasn’t anything to stop her.
Except him, apparently. Hudson let out an impatient sigh as he stepped around the breakfast bar toward her. “We didn’t plan for that because it wasn’t important. It’s still not.”
“It is to me.” She narrowed her eyes as she looked up at him, fully aware at just how far she’d thrust her chin forward.
Another step, and she could feel the heat off his body as he loomed over her. “It’s not important to the mission, and it’s not happening. You know as well as I do that we can’t go changing things in the middle of the mission.”
“I’ll do what I want,” she asserted. The tension was building between them, a thick force in the air that was nearly palpable. Leona felt her lioness thrashing and clawing inside her, insisting that she continue this fight against such a stubborn male.
“You won’t,” he snarled. “You’ll do as I tell you. Nothing more and nothing less.”
“Don’t you dare tell me what to do.” They were face to face now, their skin only an inch apart.
“I just did.” Hudson emitted a low growl.
It reverberated through her body. She felt every breath she took, the air being pulled out of her lungs as every cell of her body came to life. Her hands and feet sparked with a pulsing energy that made her body difficult to control. It was too much. Her tongue pressed against her teeth as she tried to decide if she would burst with the overload of being so close to her destiny or if she would lash out against him for making her feel this way.
Deep down, Leona knew the true answer. Her body and the universe were telling her one thing, but her job demanded something different.
It didn’t matter how attracted she was to Hudson, or if he was attracted to her. He was difficult and possessive and just plain impossible, but he was very right about one thing. They were on a mission. That came first. She could tamp down everything else and worry about it later.
She sidestepped to the left, snatched the small bag from the corner store and tossed it at him as she walked away. “I bought you some hair gel. I’m taking a shower.” Leona stormed out of the room and down the hall, not knowing how the hell she was going to get through this.
8
Hudson had been buried in the “guest” bedroom for a long time. He couldn’t be sure just how much time had passed, considering how little had been happening. The neighborhood had been eerily quiet, and he didn’t like it. He’d spent all day listening to husbands and wives bidding each other goodbye before they went to work. Some of them were loving and sweet, and some of them fought (with promises to continue the fight that evening). He heard kids talking about their crushes at school. During that time, at least, there had been something to listen to. The middle of the day in the neighborhood had only produced a few daytime soap operas. He monitored internet traffic and cell phone conversations without finding much that was more exciting. As the day moved toward the afternoon, he heard those same children coming home from school and those same husbands and wives reuniting as they returned home from work. Some of them did continue their arguments, and others made up.
It was at that point that Hudson realized he’d spent far too long sitting in one spot. His body ached, and he was irritated.
The lack of intelligence was irritating, but even more than that, he was still pissed at Leona. It’d been a full day since their argument. There was no reason to stay mad about it. It was over. But he couldn’t seem to let it go.
If it was anyone else, he wouldn’t be thinking about it anymore. He wasn’t the kind to hold a grudge. He dealt with his problems and then he moved on. But there was something so completely different between him and Leona. He’d absolutely panicked when he’d gotten up the previous morning and found her missing. He’d gone through the entire house looking for her, sure that she couldn’t have just left. She knew what this mission was all about. She knew how important it was. She knew what was on the line, including her permanent position with the Force. And if she hadn’t just left on her own, that meant something else had happened to her.