But Viper was on her side. The soldier was on Stone’s.
Uncle Tom had warned her again and again over the years that she had to lay low, that being noticed by the wrong people could have horrible consequences. Why this was an issue, and who those wrong people were, she had no idea, but she’d do anything to please her only family. She figured Tom was a little farther to the “conspiracy theorist” end of the spectrum. Why else would he start a ranch like this?
One day, maybe she’d ask for an explanation. For now, the flash of pain in his eyes if she dared broach the subject of the past was enough to keep her questions to herself. She had a good life. So what if she was, essentially, a nonperson? A ghost.
A ghost who took the risks other people didn’t want to take.
Appeased for the moment, Tom pushed away from the table and went to set the skillets in the sink and run hot water over them.
“I’ll do the dishes.” She rose and took the towel that hung at his shoulder. “You cooked.”
Besides, she owed Tom for much more than breakfast. He’d given her a home, a safe and stable life. Tom, Viper and the others had kept the big bad world away and their attention and their love—expressed through their intense training, preparing her to face some unseen enemy— was all she’d needed. Wasn’t it?
She scrubbed at a pan harder than was required. Maybe she’d go back to Hollywood, after all. Ask more questions. Meet more people. Someone had to have seen Loretta. She’d talk to Mark. Maybe Loretta had tried to use the card again.
She laid the second skillet on the drying rack and drained the sink. “I’m going out.”
“Where?”
“Out.” She relented when he scowled. “Just to the Pit.”
She gave her uncle a quick smile to show him she wasn’t holding on to her anger, and practically jogged to the front door. She needed the wide blue sky, the seemingly limitless boundaries of the ranch, and the four sides of the boxing ring they lovingly called Viper’s Pit, part of the gym Tom and Viper had created in the old barn after they sold off the remaining animals. It was during training sessions in the Pit that she did her best thinking. Detoxing from the anxiety and emotions she’d rather not deal with would be an added bonus. Pushing herself to the point of exhaustion, beyond coherent thoughts, would be ideal.
“Tell Viper I’ll see him later,” Tom called after her.
Outside, she turned her face up to the warm sun, enjoying the contrast with the chill in the spring morning air. Only about an hour’s drive from the Grand Canyon, this area of Arizona boasted pine trees and a high enough elevation to host the occasional spring snowstorm. It was her refuge, and a damn good place to train, or recuperate between jobs. Maybe she should take on a new job rather than pursue Loretta’s connection to Stone. After all, Loretta was probably having the time of her life somewhere. She’d talk to Mark about what he wanted to do next.
But Mark didn’t answer her knock. His cabin appeared to be empty. Perhaps he was out for a run, or had gone off on his own to pursue a lead. She shook her head at the frustration she experienced at that thought. If he’d chosen to go it alone, it was his prerogative.
She pulled out her phone as she crossed the open field toward the barn. No messages from Mark. But she stopped in her tracks as her email inbox popped up.
Hope you survived the chaos on the rooftop, though I have a feeling you’re just fine. I, however, regret that our conversation was interrupted. My boss wants to talk to you. He’ll sweeten the pot. A million dollars. Contact me ASAP.
It was signed Jared Bennigan and had a phone number.
So, her soldier had a name. And some effective resources if he’d found a way to trace her gun and the ranch truck so quickly. But how had he found her email address?
“You getting a workout today or not?” Viper’s voice echoed across the distance and she tucked her phone away.
She stomped down her concerns and sucked in a deep breath. Jared Bennigan could wait while she thought things through. The guy was too cocky for his own good. And insulting, assuming money could buy her loyalty and trust.
She jogged the rest of the way to Viper’s side. “Ready and willing, sir.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” Viper winked and draped an arm across her shoulders, pulling her into the old barn. The building was now a fully equipped training facility. At Three Fortunes, there were plenty of outdoor training programs, too, such as hiking or running on the trails that ran like veins across the several-thousand-acre spread, practicing survivalist skills, or fine-tuning archery or shooting proficiencies. They also arranged to submerse themselves in nature a few times a year, at least once each season, to hone their camping and outdoor survival techniques.
For now, a dozen men worked out inside the old barn on a variety of weight machines and treadmills, or pumped iron in the free weights area. One man punched at a hanging bag in the corner. The fighting ring, Viper’s Pit, sat in the middle of it all.
Skye greeted the men she passed, noting that Mark was absent. For the next hour, she lost herself in throwing punches at whoever dared to step into the ring with her. When her arms tired, she switched to kickboxing at the hanging bag in the corner and imagined it was an unknown enemy, someone she always felt was out there, waiting, spurring her to be better and stronger, but had never been able to put a face to. Was it her soldier, Jared? Or Robert Stone? Or someone else entirely?
When she still had angst to spare, she dared Viper to test her. Soaked with sweat and muscles quivering with fatigue, she wanted more. The Pit beckoned with its ability to both cause the physical, and numb the mental, pain. Viper soon became a nameless, faceless being that embodied everything she was battling against. Her fears, her failures. The battle made her forget, just for a bit, that she hadn’t found Loretta, or that Jared had cornered her.
She was still losing herself when one of the newer recruits, a man named Tristan, approached the ring. “Message, sir.” Tristan held out the note, catching Skye’s eye. That moment of distraction allowed Viper the winning jab, ending their match. At least she’d winded him. Tristan hurried away the moment Viper took the note.
He scanned it and grunted, then handed it to Skye. “It’s for you. If I’m going to be your secretary, maybe I should put on a skirt and heels.”
“That’s a scary image. And, may I point out, sexist. Women don’t have to wear skirts and heels and men can be secretaries—or personal assistants.”
He gave her a look that said no shit and gestured to the note. “I believe I just proved that. Looks like you’ve got yourself a hot date tonight?”
She squinted at the paper until she could decipher Tristan’s scrawl. All the tension she’d just worked out of her body came flooding back, coiling in the pit of her stomach.
Meet Jared at the Roadhouse tonight, 7:00. Wants to return your rifle and discuss your partnership—on neutral ground, since you’re scared. (His words, not mine.) Tristan had added the last part.
Had Jared just called her a chicken? Damned if that didn’t make her lips twitch with the urge to smile, and her muscles clench again with the need to pummel. And she hadn’t agreed to any damn partnership. It just confirmed her opinion that Jared Bennigan was far too cocky and confident—especially for a guy she’d gotten the better of.
Viper was watching the expressions fly across her face. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Gotta go out tonight.”
“So, it is a date?” His bushy gray eyebrows rose. His disbelief was warranted, considering she rarely dated. And if she did, Viper and Tom didn’t hear about it—usually because there was nothing to hear about. She had yet to meet a man who’d been more important to her than her training or her duties at the ranch, and she doubted she ever would. Men were a means to an end, to gain information for a job she was working or to briefly satisfy a physical hunger.
Jared… She had a feeling he could fall into either category.
Or both.
“Not a date. More like a lead on a job.” Apparently, she hadn’t responded quickly enough to Jared’s email. How had he figured out where she lived, and found the compound’s unlisted phone number? Then she remembered the truck must have been registered to the ranch. It wouldn’t have required too many bribes to trace the license plate.
Her heart thumped harder as she realized Jared was already in Arizona. And that he wasn’t going to give up. Why was he pursuing her? Was he working under Stone’s orders?
“I like him already,” Viper said.
She crossed her arms. “Why? You don’t even know him.” Neither did she, but there was something about him that had intrigued her. At the very least, she grudgingly respected his stalking skills.
“He’s basically daring you to meet him, which means he’s smart.”
“I don’t follow.”
“You’re skilled, darlin’, but you also like to win. He’s throwing down the gauntlet. Might do you some good to have someone shake you up, test those defenses.”
There was a lot of truth to what Viper said. Pride had always been one of her weaknesses, and it was one of the deadly sins. But how could Jared have discovered that about her in their brief few minutes together? Either he was psychic or she had done a piss-poor job of disguising her reactions to him.
Viper tipped his head. “I’m guessing you like this guy, too, or he wouldn’t have your rifle. You don’t loan your precious to anyone.”
“Yeah, well, he won’t have it long.” She scowled. I’ll get it back. Of course, she’d have to meet him and he’d expect something in return. But why mention a partnership? Perhaps he’d discovered she’d been asking questions around town about Loretta. Maybe he’d seen Loretta and Stone together, especially since he was one of Stone’s bodyguards. The thought had her suddenly eager to see him again. So she could grill him for answers.
“Hey, do you know what intrepidus vive ferociter ludeque means?” she asked Viper. On the back of the scrap of paper that held Jared’s message, she wrote the words down as she’d memorized them from Loretta’s good-bye note.
Without his reading glasses, he had to lean forward and squint to read the foreign words. “I’m a little rusty. I’d guess it means something about living life and playing hard? No, live fearlessly and play ferociously. That’s the more accurate translation, I think.”
“No shit?”
He raised his eyebrows at her, objecting to her language. An ex-Ranger who didn’t like curse words. Or maybe he just didn’t like hearing them from her. Though she’d done her best to disabuse him of the notion she was a dainty flower, she was still blessed with a set of ovaries instead of balls, and was therefore held to a slightly different standard—when she wasn’t in the ring.
“No shit,” he echoed.
“You speak Latin?” She’d already looked the phrase up online, but hadn’t been certain of the correct translation.
“Nobody speaks it, sweetheart. It’s a dead language.”
“But they spoke it when you were a kid?” She smirked.
He tried to scowl, but the twitch of his lips gave him away. “I learned some back in high school. You know, back when I studied by torchlight. The military loves Latin phrases. That stuff’s everywhere. A lot of units have their own mottos. Is your guy military?” Viper perked up at the thought of a comrade in arms.
She thought about her soldier. Jared had a military bearing, but this phrase didn’t originate with him. It was something Loretta had learned, but from whom?
Live fearlessly and play ferociously. A mantra or a threat? She rolled the words around in her head, along with what little she’d learned about Stone. Seemingly intent on living the high life, he could have adopted the phrase as his personal credo. Is that where Loretta had heard it? But how the hell had a man of Stone’s stature met a girl from the ranch? She supposed he could be shooting a movie in the area. Or maybe Loretta had initiated contact with Stone in pursuit of an acting career and he’d told her to come out to Los Angeles.
She patted Viper’s rock-hard pecs. “You’re a man of infinite skills, Viper.”
He snorted. “Get moving. Don’t you have other things to do today, like get ready for a date? That typically takes women hours.”
“See, you are a great secretary, toots. Thanks for keeping me on schedule.”
He glared and, grinning, she trotted out of the barn and back to the house to shower and decide how to get her duffel bag back and ask her questions while keeping Jared Bennigan at a distance. This time, she’d have the home field advantage. And she’d get her rifle back.
Chapter Five
“It’s about time you returned my call.” Finn didn’t bother to temper his frustration with a polite hello. He hated being out of the loop, especially when that loop might tighten around his neck and strangle him. If that bitch Loretta had said anything to her father about meeting him…
“You were right,” his source on the inside said. Tristan was uniquely qualified for the task. He was the loner, tough-guy type that fit in perfectly at Three Fortunes without anyone asking questions, but he and Finn also had similar ideas when it came to pleasurable pursuits. Finn had chosen him from among the Redemption Club members months ago, when first learning Stone owned a stake in Three Fortunes. Together, Finn and Tristan had laid the foundation for the special project on a distant, isolated portion of the ranch. That parcel had become the Hunting Grounds. Tristan kept an eye on the occupied portion of the ranch, to be sure nobody was the wiser about their activities.
“Right about what, specifically?” Finn’s patience was near the breaking point.
“The Malibu incident is related to Loretta. Mark Sheldon is her father. He must have hired Skye Hamilton to find her.”
“Skye Hamilton? Was she gunning for someone?” Had she been aiming for him? No. She would have been after Stone, since Finn had made sure all roads led to the other man, and away from Finn Tucker. Unless Loretta had described Finn to Skye.
“I got him skunked when he got back last night. He’s probably still passed out cold. He told me he was the one who fired that shot, to save Skye from the bodyguard. She’s a friend of Loretta’s.”
“She’s going to an awful lot of trouble to find her friend.” Despite Tristan’s using Mark’s credit card at several hot spots around Vegas where no one would remember a face in the crowd, Skye had persisted. That kind of determined hunter deserved respect, and excited Finn in a new way, as he recalled Ryan’s demand for a high-quality target in the next hunt. Perhaps he had a use for Skye after all. “Tell me more about her.”
“She’s unlike any woman I’ve ever known,” Tristan said. “Her accuracy with both guns and knives is amazing.”
“Knives?”
“Throwing them. I’ve seen her practice with a crossbow, too. Don’t get on her bad side.”
“She sounds fascinating. Where did she come from?”
“Grew up here, on Three Fortunes. Her uncle runs the place. Otherwise, she mostly keeps to herself.”
“Except for befriending Loretta, apparently.” Finn had told Loretta not to say a word or the deal was off. It was his own damn fault for trusting a sheltered, desperate seventeen-year-old girl to keep a secret. But damn, she was hot. He’d make sure she paid for this slipup. His lips curved as he contemplated the ways she could redeem herself. After all, the Redemption Club was all about payback, which was, often, a bitch. Loretta would learn that lesson well.
“Is Skye planning to resume the search?”
“Don’t know. I think using Mark’s credit card drew them away from Stone, and she and Mark are at the ranch now, but I don’t think they’ll give up.”
“One problem at a time.”
“Unfortunately, the problems are piling up.” Tristan’s attitude was grim. “I took a phone message for Skye from a man named Jared Bennigan. He intends to meet with her tonight.”
Bennigan. One of Stone’s bodyguards�
�the one who’d thrown Erica out of the party. “Stone’s probably looking for the woman who was lurking near his property, and the man who fired a weapon that created chaos. He’s nervous because he’s being blackmailed.” Which was Ryan’s fault, damn him. He wanted his father’s money now, instead of waiting for the guy to die, so they’d hatched the Hunting Grounds plan using Stone’s stake in the ranch, as well as a blackmail scheme. Both were lucrative but risked Stone’s wrath if he found out. “If Jared Bennigan connects with Skye, he’ll be on our asses next.” Finn thought up a few more ways to pay Loretta back, just to restrain his temper.
“Lucky for you, I intercepted the call and have the details.” Tristan listed the place and time. “It’s not far from the ranch.”
“Describe Skye.”
“She’s a knockout. Athletic build. Long brown hair, blue eyes. And a great shot. She can best most of the men around here in competition. Then again, she’s been training her whole life.”
Finn felt himself grew hard at the thought of a woman like that in his stable. She’d bring in the big bucks, like Ryan wanted. Hunters would pay handsomely for the privilege to hunt a huntress. If he didn’t keep her for himself. “Text me a picture if you can get one, and any other details you can think of. I’ll have someone at the Roadhouse to keep Bennigan from getting his hooks into her or learning anything important.” They had to protect themselves at any cost. “But, there’s another loose end to snip. We can’t have Mark Sheldon looking for his daughter anymore. There are too many people poking around our turf as it is. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Absolutely.”
Finn relaxed. He’d picked the right man for the job. “If you do your part, I think it’s worthy of an extra turn at the Hunting Grounds.”
“Sounds good to me.” There was a grin in Tristan’s voice. “Especially if Skye’s the target.”
Stacking the Deck (Redemption Club Book 1) Page 5