Kasey nodded and then looked down at Bo and petted him absently. “Okay.”
“What’s the story with that thing?” he asked. She smiled and looked up at him.
“Thing?” She laughed. “This is not a thing, this is Bo. He kept me company for about three months now I guess.”
Ridge nodded and listened as she explained how the small creature had come to be her companion while he was putting things away. He took out a water bottle and handed it to Kasey and watched as she drank most of it. She then gave the monkey the rest slowly.
“You know you can’t…” Ridge started and Kasey interrupted.
“Where is the Sat phone?” she asked. He frowned and then leaned over to grab it out of the other saddlebag and handed it to her. She looked down at it, punched in a number, then put the phone up to her ear, and resumed petting the monkey as she listened to the clicks in her ear. It only took two rings for it to be answered.
She gave her identifying number and then waited while her identity was confirmed and then her boss came on the line. “Kasey?”
“I’m clear and coming home. I need clearance and assistance to come in,” she said and her boss hesitated just enough to piss her off. “What?”
“How did you?” he started.
She frowned and looked up at Ridge and she said, “I had help.”
“From?” he asked.
They didn’t trust she hadn’t been compromised. Fuck. “My brother.”
Her boss didn’t say a word, which meant one of two things, either her father had no idea they were coming to get her, or he had and they didn’t think they would make it. Either way, her father had once again fucked with her, and for the last damn time.
“Do not fuck with me right now,” she said softly and then continued, “I don’t care what you have to do to clear us, but either way you are gonna do it. Because if you don’t, I’ll take the information I have to the grave.”
“What assistance?” her boss asked briskly at her tone. She explained briefly and her boss didn’t say a word. She also explained she wasn’t re-upping her enlistment that was due next month, and still nothing. Then she ended with the information she knew they really wanted; it was important, and it was important enough to give her a little pass on her special request.
“Your package is still present at the place I was being held,” she said.
“You are sure?” he said and she snorted.
“Yeah, since they decided after four months to try to get information out of me in a very unpleasant way.” Her boss was silent and then she added, “I’m coming home with extra baggage and need clearance for it.”
“You’ll get it,” he said and she nodded. “I’ll pass on the information, get your ass out of that place and back on American soil. We’ll deal with the rest when you get home.”
She hung up the phone and then screamed loudly into the air in her frustration. That fucker. How dare he play fast and loose yet again with a family member. It was bad enough knowing he could have saved her mother, which that alone would get him a front row seat on the train to Hell. Add this to it? Tank was going to kill him. Hell, she was going to help. What a fucking bastard.
“What?” Ridge said softly.
She closed her eyes and then took a deep breath and opened them. Carefully blanking out her emotions, because to be honest, there was only so much more a person could take before they went completely nuts.
“Nothing, we’ll deal with it when we get home,” she said and Ridge stepped closer.
“Baby?” he said softly. “Talk to me.”
Dammit, she thought. She looked at him in the eyes and said, “My father is not the one who asked for your help. In fact, if I read my boss right, I think they figured I wasn’t going to be coming home.”
Ridge felt the rage grow inside him. He swore and then pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her. “He doesn’t deserve you.”
She nodded and said, “I know.”
Ridge continued, “I wasn’t done.” She stood silently as he continued to speak, “I know you and your brother have taken a lot from your old man. None of it good but, honey, he doesn’t deserve you. When we get home, he is a memory for you, because he has no idea how precious you are, none.”
She sucked in a breath and he tightened his arms around her and said, “You know, when I saw your name on the request for help I almost lost it. Just the thought of this world being without your beauty was enough to piss me off. So, when I say he is a memory for you, it is because I’m going to make sure he gets the fucking message that he no longer has a daughter. You are now part of a different family, one who wants you.”
She nodded and then allowed his warmth to sink into her skin before she stepped back. Bo was staring up at her, with a look of confusion and maybe a little sadness. She really did think he understood her, mostly because he responded exactly how she needed.
“Okay, listen for Tank to give us an update on Torch. If it is important, I’ll pull over okay?” Ridge said, knowing she needed to digest everything and just think. Best time to do it was on the back of a Harley riding with the wind in your hair.
Chapter Seven
Torch looked at the man who was their contact. When he went to the local police, he had stepped up and watched the Embassy. “A woman and two men took off in an embassy car about an hour ago.”
Torch swore and then hit his earbud, “Tank?”
“Yeah?”
“Three people were seen leaving the embassy in a car about an hour ago. Apparently they were wearing uniforms.”
Tank said, “There is no way they can track them, right?”
Torch shrugged and said, “Man, I don’t know, that they left at all is a little suspicious. Warn them just in case. I’ll see if I can find out anything here. The police said if no one files a complaint, they can’t do shit. The Embassy is acting like everything is hunky dory, so basically they can’t do a damn thing.”
Tank answered, “I’ll give them the heads up to be on the lookout.”
Torch looked at the man and said, “Better to be safe than sorry. I need some more weapons.”
The man nodded and then pulled out his phone and made a call. Torch stared at the bike he had waiting and then pulled out his Sat phone and called Loki to make plans. If they were wrong, it was cool. But Torch had a nagging persistent feeling that Ridge and Kasey were indeed being tracked.
They had ridden for an hour when Ridge pulled over to a gas station, which doubled as a shady looking hotel and restaurant. They didn’t have too many choices so they dealt with it. Ridge filled up the gas, took Bo and set him in the saddlebag gently, while Kasey went into the small convenience store to grab a few things and go to the bathroom to attempt to clean up enough so they could eat without people staring at them.
One of the things she had grabbed was a brush. Tears were streaming down her face as she brushed out the tangles and knots she had in her hair and grumbled the whole damn time. “I need to just cut this shit off,” she said gruffly, damn that fucking hurt. “Or a hot oil treatment.”
It took her a while, and when she looked in the mirror she grimaced, her hair was puffy and stringy, but it was detangled for how. Grabbing a hair tie, she wrapped it all up and tied it on the top of her head in a messy bun. She leaned forward and looked at the bruises. There wasn’t much she could do about them. She looked like she had gone several rounds with a heavy weight. Oh well, she thought and grabbed the paper towel to wet it down. She cleaned herself up as much as possible. In the end she looked like crap, but she looked like better crap than she had before.
When she walked out of the bathroom she stopped and searched for Ridge before she moved. If he was still outside, she would wait in the store for him. But if he was in here, she would join him and decide if they were grabbing snacks and keep moving, or were they eating a meal? Later she would realize, the hesitation, was probably what saved both her and Ridge. He was standing at the bike and she took a step forward whe
n she saw the car pull up outside of the gas station.
She stared at it for a second and was almost ready to move on when the door opened and out popped the dragon lady from the embassy. Really? How the fuck had she found her?
She looked at Ridge who was putting the cap back on the tank, shit. Kasey turned around, went back into the bathroom locking the door quickly, and then hitting the earbud she still had in. “Tank?” she whispered and her brother came on immediately.
“Yeah?”
“Shit, people from the embassy are at the gas station we stopped at,” she said quickly.
“Are you sure?” he asked and she made a noise of impatience.
“Yeah, the lady is the one who had so much fun questioning me,” Kasey said dryly. “I’m pretty sure she is the whore. Ridge is out at the pump, I don’t know if he is coming in.”
Tank swore under his breath and he said, “Is there a back door?”
She grimaced and said, “Not that I can see. Listen, I’m going back out there, going to get Ridge’s attention and get the fuck outta here.”
“I’ll let Torch know you have company,” Tank said. She sucked in a breath and then put the hood back over her head; hopefully they will not see her.
She threw open the door and stepped out. Ridge was still waiting by the bike, so she was going to need to get to him and fast. The car was still there; although, it looked like the woman and the guards had gone into the restaurant first.
She put her head down and moved as fast as she could without drawing attention. When she opened the door and heard the ding she lifted her head up slightly and looked at Ridge who was smiling. He lifted his hand and then frowned when he saw her hoodie and the look on her face. He mounted the bike and flipped the switch. Kasey moved faster and she had made it to the bike when she heard the woman bark out an order. Fuck, they had seen her.
She finished the last couple of feet in a jog and then just jumped on the back of the bike and held on. Fuck, now she was feeling those ribs more. She knew it was coming, and with each time she jarred them she was feeling the pain more and more. “Go!” she yelled and Ridge peeled out and took off down the road. She didn’t turn around, all she did was hang on.
Ridge was looking in the mirror and she saw the look on his face, he was confused and she leaned up and yelled, “What’s wrong?”
“They are not following us,” Ridge said back and she sat back.
“Kasey, give the earpiece to Ridge,” Tank said into her ear and she reached up and dislodged it and then put it back in Ridge’s ear.
“Yeah,” Ridge said.
“They are tracking her,” Tank said.
“Impossible, she changed her clothes and left everything in the bushes,” Ridge said confidently.
“Seriously, they are tracking her,” Tank said and Ridge heard him talking to someone and then he came back. “Torch confirmed it. They are doing it from the embassy. They tapped into the radio frequency.”
Ridge swore and then paused, “Where are you?”
“About twenty miles behind you. I was trying to catch up,” Torch said.
“Okay, well this road is the only one that leads to the border. They already know we are going there. We need to change our meeting point, and get rid of whatever is tracking us,” Ridge said and then Torch swore under his breath because he knew she had changed her clothes. They injected a tracker in her, which meant he had to cut it out.
“Okay, I’ll contact Loki and then get back with where we are meeting. Get that tracker out ASAP, so when we switch directions they won’t know where we’re going,” Torch said and Ridge growled to him.
“Yeah, on it.”
He road fast and hard to the next exit and then pulled off and looked around. It was another gas station though this one was worse than the last. They would be lucky if Kasey didn’t catch something here. He pulled around to the back of the gas station, got off quickly, and pulled out the first aid kit. Bo was looking up at him and Ridge lifted the little thing and handed him to Kasey.
“You have a tracker somewhere, we need to get it out.”
Kasey’s eyebrows raised and she said, “I don’t remember…”
“You do, trust me,” Ridge said. She nodded, got off the bike, and set Bo down on the seat. She lifted up her shirt without a bit of embarrassment. She felt him run his hands over her slowly, trying to feel for a bump, a scar, anything to tell them where they had put a tracker on her. “Nothing,” he said and she nodded and then pulled her arms out and held them in front of her. He shook his head and said, “Nothing.” Kasey put the shirt back on and then dropped her black pants as fast as she could. “Here,” he said as he was feeling her left hip. She ran a hand back and grimaced when she felt it.
“Dammit, how long has it been in there?” she asked.
“There is a scar, no other mark. So I would bet since you were captured,” he said absently. He then opened the first aid kit, pulled out a knife from his back pocket, and began to clean it. Then poured alcohol on it, wiped it clean, and repeated a few times. She stood and braced herself, knowing this was just going to be another sore area on her body. Fuck.
He looked up at her and said, “Ready?”
“Yep.” She gritted and then looked down at Bo who was staring at Ridge while he crouched on his knees and touched her hip. Then he looked up at her and held her eyes. How strange, she thought. He was a monkey, but he was so in tune with her.
She felt the sting on her skin but didn’t flinch. Instead she thought about something she had dared not to think about since she had been captured: their night together, and the fact that even though she said she only wanted one night, she wanted so much more. They had connected since the first time they met. She wasn’t stupid. She knew the man had his demons. Hell who didn’t. So that night she had really thought it would be enough for her. She would sleep with him and go about her business. And in the end and they would remain friends.
It, however, hadn’t worked out like that. Mostly because in the morning, when she woke up next to him, his arm flung over her body possessively felt right. She laid there for an hour just relishing his touch. And when he stirred, rolled over, and stared at her, Kasey knew one night wouldn’t be enough.
“Hey, baby,” he had whispered. “What time you flying out?”
“Noon,” she replied.
Then he sighed, leaned over, and kissed her softly and said, “Come one, let’s grab some breakfast, so you can spend your last few hours with Tank. He said last night he wanted to take you on a ride down the coast before you left.”
She laughed. “Yeah, he is trying to convince me to move here.”
Ridge smiled and then kissed her again. “You should, then you would be close to family.”
She knew he had been talking about Tank, but the way he said it, sounded like he included himself in that. And when she left, her brother had hugged her and whispered into her ear, “If there is anyone who needs to have someone who understands him it is Ridge. Sucks to say, but it will take a special woman to do that. Not sure if there is one out there. But if there is, I hope he finds her.”
She frowned, not getting what he was saying, but her brother only kissed her on the forehead and told her to call him when she had the chance. That had been the end of the conversation, but it gave her something to think about. She knew his family had been killed and it fucked with his head. But could she be the one who could give him what he needs?
She also knew his PTSD was nothing to fuck around with, especially since her brother himself had similar issues. Hell, now she was going to have her own issues; they could all be fucked up together apparently.
“Almost,” Ridge said and she grimaced as the pinch and pain on her hip began to grow. Fuck, she thought as she sucked in a breath. When he finally took his hands off her hip she looked down at the tweezers he was holding.
“Well shit,” she said. He stood up and put in on the ground and smashed it with his heel.
“Come on
, they will have known we are here,” Ridge said while cleaning up her hip and then put everything away.
Chapter Eight
The detour they were taking was too long to do in one day. Since Nepal had eight out of the ten highest mountains in the world, and the country wasn’t that big to begin with, it pretty much meant they were going to need a place to crash. Riding a bike needed a lot of concentration, especially driving in the mountains, but doing it sleep deprived was fucking nuts.
So Torch who had finally caught up to them when they were doubling back to take a different route, arranged for their accommodations, which turned out to be a nice little house that was nestled at the base of one of the mountains. When Kasey climbed off the bike, she almost moaned in relief, her ass hurt, her hip hurt, hell even her hair hurt, but then again, it wasn’t surprising.
Ridge pushed her to the front door and said he would secure the bike before he came in. She was too tired to give a shit. So she grabbed Bo, who was shivering in the cold night air, and walked into the house.
It was charming, she thought as she wandered the two level home. There were two bedrooms one on the main floor, which was the master, and one of the top floor which had a great deck and amazing view. Still, Kasey chose the main level so she didn’t need to keep walking up and down the stairs, once was more than enough. Bo seemed to not care what the place looked like. When she set him down on the large master bedroom bed, the little guy had crawled up and snuggled into one of the fluffy pillows and promptly fallen asleep.
She heard Ridge and Torch come into the house and drop the bags right at the door. She wandered out into the main living area, and saw both men weren’t looking around the place like a normal tourist would. Nope, they had a small key board next to the front door, she hadn’t seen opened and were apparently setting an alarm.
“I’m assuming you know the owners then?” she smirked and Torch turned and looked at her with a serious expression. Hell, that was the same look he had every single time she saw him. She wondered if he had a sense of humor at all. She really didn’t think so, he was a bit, well intense.
Shattered (Furies Book 2) Page 7