by Susan Stoker
“But it’s safer,” Dakota concluded.
“Yeah. Definitely. There’s no way anyone could follow us…not in a regular car. They’d have to go the long way around,” Slade told her.
“But they could go faster, right? Beat us to Tonopah?”
“It’s a possibility,” Slade agreed. “They won’t be able to fix their gas tank, I put a big-ass hole in it. But if they were able to obtain another vehicle, they could drive like a bat out of hell and get there before us. But, it’ll be much easier to hide, if we need to, once we hit ninety-five. There are small towns all along the way down to Vegas.”
“Let’s take the dirt road,” Dakota said firmly. “If it’s safer, we should do it.”
Slade twisted around so he could see her better. “It’s not going to be comfortable,” he warned. “It’ll be really dusty and I can guarantee before we’re twenty miles down this piece-of-shit thing called a road, you’ll be wishing we’d stayed on the blacktop.”
“Probably,” she agreed. “But there are a lot of things I’ve wished in the last couple of months. I wish I woke up late and didn’t make it to the airport on time. I wish there was a longer line to check in so I wasn’t in the right place at the right time to catch Aziz’s eye. I wish I’d stopped to check to make sure he was dead before I ran. Taking the shorter road here seems like a no-brainer to me. The last thing I want is for us to be caught in the middle of the desert, with nowhere to go and no way to protect ourselves.”
“I never said I couldn’t protect you, Dakota,” Slade said quietly. “I will always protect you.”
She swallowed hard before saying, “I’m looking at this as an adventure. I’ve never ridden a motorcycle, and now’s my chance. Just like I’d never kissed a man with a beard before…and that turned out okay.”
“Just okay?” Slade asked with a smile.
“Maybe a bit better. I need more data to make a definitive decision,” she teased.
He smiled at her response, then leaned in. “You need a break, don’t hesitate to let me know. We have the time. We can stop. Let you walk around.”
“I’ll be fine,” she told him, not sure she would, but trying to be strong. “Slade?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“Do you think we might be able to find a hotel that has a Jacuzzi? If I’m going to be sore, it might be nice to have a warm soak.”
“I’ll make it happen,” Slade vowed.
And somehow, she knew he would. Even if they were in the middle of nowhere, Nevada, somehow Slade would find the one hotel that had a Jacuzzi so she could soak her sore muscles.
“Here,” Slade said, interrupting her thoughts. “Wrap this around your face. It’ll help keep the dust out of your nose and mouth.” He held out a handkerchief.
Dakota didn’t know where he’d pulled it out of, but it didn’t matter. She unbuckled her helmet and tied the cloth around her face. It smelled good. Like Slade. She might be uncomfortable and miserable, but she’d have Slade’s scent in her nose. She could deal with that. As she buckled her helmet again, she noticed that Slade had donned a bandana around his face too, and, even though she couldn’t see his mouth anymore, knew he was smiling at her by the wrinkles around his eyes.
“I’ll make a biker babe out of you yet,” he teased, then ran his gloved fingers down her cheek and turned to face forward again. “Ready?”
“Yup,” Dakota chirped, trying to hide her trepidation. “Drive on, James.”
Slade pulled her arms around him again, taking the time to lift her hand once more, pull down his bandana, and place a kiss in the middle of her palm. Once more, she couldn’t feel his lips through her glove, but the tender gesture made her shiver anyway.
“Here we go,” he told her as he gave the engine some gas. “Hold on.”
An hour later, Dakota thought she was going to die, but she held on, determined not to be a wuss. Slade had warned her, had said it was going to be tough. She thought she’d be able to hack it, but it had become clear about ten minutes down the dirt road that she’d overstated her “hack it” ability.
She didn’t want to be weak. Didn’t want Slade to see how pathetic she was. But this riding-a-motorcycle thing was for the birds. She wanted off. At this point, she’d be willing to walk the rest of the way to San Diego if it meant not having to straddle the beast anymore.
Her inner thighs hurt from gripping the seat. Her head hurt from the noise of the engine. Her fingers hurt from clutching each other. Her arms hurt from squeezing Slade’s sides. And finally, even her eyes hurt from squinting and trying to keep the dust and wind out of them.
She was miserable and ready for Aziz to find her and have his way with her just to put her out of her current suffering.
Dakota didn’t even realize Slade was slowing down until he cut the engine and the silence of the desert washed over her. Picking her head up from his shoulder, where she’d rested it miles ago, she blinked and looked around in confusion.
“Are we there?”
“No, sweetheart. But you need a break.”
“But we need to keep going.”
He’d climbed off the bike, unbuckled his helmet, and had removed the bandana around his face. He spoke as he did the same for her. “You’ve held up wonderfully, but if we’re going to make it to Goldfield tonight, you need to walk around. Take a break.”
“I can keep going,” Dakota protested, even though the thought made her wince.
Slade pulled her bandana to rest around her neck and hung her helmet next to his on the handlebars then leaned into her. “I have a feeling you could do anything you put your mind to. But you don’t have to lie to me. In fact, I’d prefer you didn’t. I appreciate your stubbornness, but I know without a doubt you need to stop for a while.”
“How?” She hated that she was so easy to read.
“You were flinching after every pothole. You were gripping me so tight, I know you’ve got to be sore as hell…and we haven’t even gotten halfway to Tonopah. You’re wincing, so it’s obvious your head hurts, and your legs are shaking as you’re sitting there.”
“Darn,” Dakota murmured, looking down at her lap. Sure enough, her legs were trembling as her feet rested on the pegs on the back of the bike.
“Throw your right leg over the front of the bike and turn toward me. Then you can slide off the seat and have both feet on the ground at the same time. Hold on to me. I won’t let you fall.”
“This is gonna suck, isn’t it?” Dakota asked rhetorically under her breath as she followed his orders. She went to scoot off the seat, but Slade stopped her by putting both hands on either side of her neck and tilting her head up toward him.
“I’m proud of you, sweetheart.”
“Why? Because I can’t ride more than an hour without wanting to cry like a baby? Because I feel so weak I know I’m not going to be able to stand by myself? Or because the thought of having to get back on this monster and continue makes me want to lie down right here in the dirt and cry?”
“Because you’re feeling all those things, but you won’t let any of them hold you back. You aren’t the first newbie to be sore after riding, but I daresay others haven’t been on the run from assholes nor ridden for an hour over the worst excuse for a road that they’ve ever seen. You don’t have to worry about standing by yourself, because I’m right here and won’t let you fall. And you might not want to get back on the bike, but you will. And that right there is why, with just one glance at your picture, I knew I wanted you for myself.”
Feeling flustered and hot, Dakota joked, “And the crying?”
“You go right ahead,” Slade told her. “I’m not afraid of a few tears. I hate that you’ll shed them because that means you’re hurting, but if they’ll help release your emotions, then go for it.”
Dakota closed her eyes tightly and took a few deep breaths. She didn’t feel very strong at the moment, but Slade thinking she was went a long way toward making her feel better.
He moved his ha
nds from her neck to her waist and gently lifted her off the seat to stand in front of him. As soon as her feet hit the dusty ground, her knees buckled. She would’ve fallen if he hadn’t been holding her up.
“Easy, Dakota. Just stand there for a moment. Let the blood work its way back to your feet.”
“I can’t believe you do this for fun,” she bitched as her legs tingled from the increased blood flow to her toes.
He chuckled in her ear. “I wouldn’t say driving my Harley on roads like this is fun. This is more something I’d do on my dirt bike.”
“Oh lord. Don’t tell me. You’ve got a garage full of motorcycles at your house.”
“Nope.”
“Thank God.”
“I live in an apartment. They’re in a buddy’s garage,” Slade told her, grinning.
“Evil,” Dakota told him, easing back a little, trying to stand on her own.
“Come on,” Slade said, putting an arm around her waist and turning them to the side. “Walking will do you good. Get your blood pumping and your muscles working again.”
“I think sitting would be better, or maybe lying down and never moving again,” Dakota told him, wrinkling her nose at the pain when she began to move. She knew she was walking completely bowlegged, but Slade didn’t say anything or make fun of her. She was going to call that a win in her book.
He helped her limp up the side of a small rise. It seemed more like a mountain when they were walking up it, but when they got to the top, Dakota saw that it really was just a tiny hill compared to the mountain range that stretched in front of them.
Slade helped her sit, then settled in behind her, pulling her back to his front and taking her weight. Dakota bent her legs up and put her feet flat on the ground in front of her, relaxing into Slade.
He pointed toward the mountains. “The highest point there is Kawich Peak. It’s about ninety-five hundred feet high.”
“Do people climb it?” Dakota asked, not really caring, but needing to talk about something to keep her mind off of how much her body hurt.
“Not much. It is out here in the middle of nowhere,” he deadpanned.
Dakota chuckled. “True.”
“But more than that, see all these scrub bushes around?”
Dakota nodded.
“I’ve heard the brush gets horrible the higher you go. It gets to a point that it’s a pain in the ass to continue.”
“You’ve talked to someone who climbed it?” Dakota asked, surprised.
“No, but I researched the area before I came out here. I wanted to know what my options were in case we needed to hide.”
She craned her neck and gave him an incredulous look. “You were going to have us climb that mountain?”
He smiled back. “I’m not saying it would’ve been fun, but I’d be an idiot to follow you to the middle of the nowhere and not have a plan in case things went south.”
“So you knew this road was here.”
“I knew this road was here,” he confirmed, then pulled her back against him.
Dakota relaxed as she looked out at the beautiful landscape in front of her. “It feels as if we’re the only people in the world. It’s so quiet and peaceful.”
“Mmmm,” Slade responded.
“You know, at night, the stars look so much brighter out here. I’ve never seen anything as gorgeous in my life.”
“I’ve been in some pretty remote places myself, and I agree.”
“I used to lie on the hood of my car at night, when it was warmer, and look up at the stars and marvel at the fact that we’re so inconsequential. So small. But more than that, I was comforted by the fact my dad could be looking up at the exact same stars at the same time I was. It made me feel closer to him.”
“I’ve done that,” Slade admitted. “When me and my team were in the middle of some desert in the Middle East, I’ve looked up at the stars and wondered who was looking up at them at the exact same time. No one but the government knew where we were, but somehow those stars made me feel not so alone.”
“Yeah, that’s it,” Dakota agreed. “Even though they’re millions of miles away, they somehow bring me closer to my dad. To my old life.”
Slade kissed the top of her head in response to her words.
After several minutes, Dakota asked softly, “What’s going to happen when we get back home? I don’t have any place to go. I literally only have the clothes on my back, no food. Hell, I don’t even have my car anymore. I feel lost, Slade.”
He squeezed her tightly, then ran his hands up and down her arms. “I can’t imagine how you’re feeling,” he told her honestly. “But you said so yourself…things can be replaced. My plan, at the moment, is to stay with my friend, Wolf. He’s a Navy SEAL himself, and he and his wife don’t have any children. They have an apartment set up in their basement that’s mostly private.”
“Will you call and let me know what’s going on?” Dakota asked, strangely disappointed that Slade wouldn’t be taking her back to his place with him.
“You think I’m going to drop you off at a stranger’s house and go about my business?” Slade bit out.
“Oh, well, I—”
“Dakota, I’ll be there with you. I’d take you back to my place in a heartbeat, but I’ve been compromised. After this morning, they know you’re not alone and most likely have someone who knows what he’s doing helping you. It won’t take long for them to figure out who I am and where I live.”
“True,” Dakota muttered.
“There’s nothing I want more than you in my space. Cooking in my kitchen. Eating at my table. Sleeping in my bed. Watching the waves while we sit on my balcony together. But I won’t knowingly put you in danger. We talked about you not being bait, and taking you to my place would definitely fall in that category. Caroline and Wolf will be happy to let us crash at their place.”
“Won’t that be dangerous for them?” she asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because Wolf is in charge of a SEAL team. One of the best teams I’ve ever known. No matter what the danger is, he’ll protect his wife and I’ll protect you.”
Dakota closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She heard the wind blowing through the scrub bushes surrounding them, but that was about it. There was literally nothing out there with them, nature, and the sky.
“I feel as if I’m a burden to everyone I meet.”
“You’re not a burden.”
He sounded so certain. “What would you be doing right now if you weren’t chasing me down?” she asked.
“I’d be sitting at my desk at the Naval base looking at boring-ass reports and trying to reconcile expenses for the government. I’d go home at the end of the night, make myself dinner, then eat by myself. Maybe watch a movie, or sit on my balcony and watch the surfers or the stars for a while. Then I’d go to sleep in my big bed by myself. If I felt like it, I might think about the woman I hoped was out there somewhere waiting for me and get myself off. Then I’d clean up, go to sleep, and get up the next morning and do it all over again. My life is good, but since I’ve retired from the teams, it’s boring. That was nice at first, but now, quite frankly, I’m lonely.”
Dakota tried to ignore the bolt of lust that swept through her body at the image of Slade lying on a bed stroking himself until he exploded…but she was having a hard time, especially since she was practically sitting in his lap. “You were married, though, right?”
“If you want to call it that, yeah. I met Cynthia at the grocery store, of all places. We got along. But she absolutely couldn’t take what I did for a living.”
“What do you mean?” Dakota asked. “She knew you were a SEAL when she married you, right?”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean she really understood what it meant to be married to one. I think she liked the idea of it better than the reality. I was gone on missions a lot. And I couldn’t talk about what I did with her. Most of them were top secret. I guess she thought she’
d be able to brag to her friends about how I was off saving the world or something, but instead all she could say was that I was at an undisclosed location for an indeterminate period of time doing something top secret.”
“How’d it end? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I don’t mind at all. In fact, I love that you want to know more about me. It wasn’t all that dramatic, really. I came home from a mission. She’d packed all her shit, and told me she didn’t love me anymore and was moving on.”
“Ouch,” Dakota said, wincing. “What a bitch.”
“No, we just weren’t compatible,” Slade told her, not seeming at all affected by the actions of his ex-wife. “I’d fallen out of love with her years before. I was just going through the motions. She married a guy who worked in IT for a local university within a year. Last I heard, they had two kids and had moved to Seattle.”
“Do you miss her?”
“Not like you’re thinking. I miss having someone to talk to. I miss the simple joy of making dinner with another human being. Of sitting on the couch, holding hands, watching TV.”
“Yeah,” Dakota said, knowing exactly what he meant.
“What about you?” Slade asked.
“What about me, what?”
“You haven’t been married, right?”
“No.” Dakota wasn’t sure she wanted to talk about this. But fair was fair. “I dated a few men I thought I could be happy with, but ultimately decided that wasn’t what I wanted.”
“To be happy?” Slade asked.
“To settle,” she said. “I enjoyed being with them, but didn’t feel a bone-deep need to see them. I didn’t think about them in the middle of the day. I wanted a relationship like my parents had. Even though it grossed me out, my dad was always hugging and kissing my mom. They held hands wherever they went. All the time. They weren’t afraid to say ‘I love you’ to each other.”
“What happened to your mom?”
Dakota shrugged. “Cancer. By the time they found it, it was too late to do anything other than give her drugs to make her comfortable. She was gone almost four months to the day she got the diagnosis. It’s been about ten years now.”