by Lexi Blake
She held out a hand. “It’s okay. That’s all I need to know. I’m going to pack this laptop up before the party gets started. It looks like they’re bringing in the keg now.”
Barry put a hand on her arm. “Give him time. I see the way he looks at you. I don’t think he’ll be able to hold out forever.”
She wasn’t as sure. He was damaged, and maybe beyond repair. One couldn’t fix what was never acknowledged. If he held that pain close to him forever, he would be stuck. The pain would be his mistress, holding if not his affections then most of his attentions.
She couldn’t compete with the past.
“I’ll be back in a minute.” She would check her makeup, ensure the last few minutes of emotional talk didn’t show up on her face. Josh would want to know what was wrong, and she was too tired to make shit up.
Time was spinning and before she knew it her time with him would be up and she would have a serious decision to make. She would have to decide to stay with him and see what happened or go back to London and get on with her life.
The thought of leaving Malibu made her heart ache.
She was turning the corner to head to the locker room when Riley stepped out of the shadows. His eyes traced right and then left before he took her by the elbow.
“Your boy’s on the move.”
“What?”
“Damn it. Deal with that and then find me outside. Hurry.” His whole expression changed. “See you at the party, then.”
Jared had stepped out of the locker room, now dressed in jeans and a Dart T-shirt. With his own face on it. He was a lovable douchebag, but right now he was trouble on two muscular legs.
She gave Riley a smile she didn’t feel in any way. “Absolutely, Master Riley. I’ll be there in a moment.”
Riley disappeared into the front room, mingling with the others.
Jared frowned at her. “I think you should probably stay away from that guy. Josh doesn’t like him.”
That was news to her. How much time did they have? She didn’t want to lose Josh. If he was on the move, something was happening. He wouldn’t leave her without an explanation. But maybe that’s why Jared was here. Maybe Josh had needed something and ran to get it. Condoms. They went through a ton of those.
Why would he leave without his bodyguards? Without telling her?
“Why doesn’t Josh like Riley?”
Jared shrugged. “I don’t know, but I think it’s important that you not spend a lot of time with the dude. Look, Josh can be weird about some things. He gets feelings about people and he tends to follow his instincts. He thinks Master Riley is hiding something. Give him a wide berth. Don’t give Josh a reason to get suspicious.”
“Of me?” She didn’t like the implications.
“He’s not used to being in a relationship and he needs time before he can trust anyone implicitly.”
“I think I should talk to him about it,” she offered.
And that was when Jared wilted like a hothouse flower. His face flushed. “Josh?”
So Jared was in on whatever this was. “Who else would I talk to?”
“Oh, that’s…he’s… He’s in the locker room. He could be in there for a while. Something he had for dinner didn’t sit well on his stomach.” Jared shook his head as though finally picking the story he was going to stick to. “You do not want to go in there, if you know what I mean.”
Nice. He was going with the old irritable bowel syndrome fake out. “That’s terrible. Maybe I should go get something to help him with that.”
Jared shook his head. “Nah, he’s good. He’ll be out in a bit. Wouldn’t want to miss the ice cream.”
Yeah, Jared needed to rethink his story, but she didn’t have time to needle him. Something was happening and it wasn’t innocent. Luckily for her, she wasn’t as terrible a liar as Jared was. She was quite good. “All right, then. I’ll go put my computer up. I need to call my dad, but that shouldn’t take long. I’ll see you at the party.”
He practically sighed in relief. “Awesome. And don’t worry about Josh. Happens all the time.”
She heard him curse under his breath as she walked into the locker room.
As quickly as she could, she slammed the laptop into her backpack, checking to make sure she had everything she needed. SIG, check. Cell phone, check. Nasty knives, check.
Lucky for her she was already in street clothes, but then it was lucky for Josh, too.
He’d planned this. What was he doing? Why had he brought Jared in on it?
God, if Levi was right she would never live it down. Hell, if Levi was right…she didn’t want to think about a world where Joshua Hunt was involved with drug dealers and aiding a man who took out US operatives as fast as he could.
She took a deep breath and slung her backpack over her shoulder. She was taking a chance. She needed to follow Josh and get back here without him knowing she’d been gone. Fuck. Jared would be waiting for her.
She quickly dialed the one number she could think of that might help.
“This is Ferguson,” a deep voice said.
“Kai, it’s Kayla. I need you to call your brother,” she said quickly.
“Fuck. You know I don’t like to get involved in the business side of this crap, Kay,” he replied. “He just started talking to me again. We keep it light. I don’t want to risk him blowing me off.”
She didn’t have time for his family issues. “A CIA operative’s life is at stake and if your brother is involved in this, he’s going to get in trouble. I need you to distract him so I can figure out what we’re dealing with. Please, Kai. He’ll answer your call. I’m running out of time.”
“I’ll do it. Damn it.” He hung up.
She glanced from behind the curtains. Sure enough, Jared’s phone went off and a smile came over his face. He brushed a finger across the screen.
“Hey, Kai. What’s going on?” he said as he walked back into the men’s locker room.
Jared liked to pace while he talked on the phone. He would also do numerous squats and lunges. No moment wasted for that boy.
Kayla ran out the back, taking advantage of the quiet. She eased out the door. At least she was going with someone who could get her back in. If she could have sent Declan or Shane…
She had to be honest. She wouldn’t have. Josh was hers. Her lover. Her Master. Her target.
Wheels crunched against the pavement as Riley’s Jeep pulled up. “Get in. We need to go.”
She hauled herself up, closing the door behind her. Riley took off, turning out of the private drive. “How far ahead is he?”
“Five minutes, but I know where he’s going. If Levi asks you saw me leaving and jumped in.”
Damn it. “He wanted to cut me out?”
“He pretty much ordered me to, but I think he’s a dick and I take orders from Big Tag. Big Tag thought you might like to come along.”
Thank god for Big Tag. “In that case, yes, I jumped in the back of the Jeep and you couldn’t get rid of me. What the fuck game is Levi playing? And how do you know where Josh is going? Never mind. You have the phone I duped from his. You’re listening to his calls. Is there a reason you haven’t given me an update? And where exactly are we going?”
He turned on PCH. “You know why. I can’t exactly call you. The house is wired so Levi would know I was talking to you. You can’t call me when you’re outside the house because Josh is already suspicious. I was hoping to talk to you before the play tonight but he never gave you a second alone. I’m worried about him. I think he could be dangerous.”
“So you’ve been listening in. How’d you like the phone sex?”
“I thought it was quite inventive.” He didn’t look at her, keeping his eyes on the road. “I did not put that into my report. Does he really do stuff to your feet?”
Finally she gets a dude who wants to talk and she was too mad at him to do it. Life sucked. And damn it, she wasn’t mad at Riley. She was mad a Josh. He was hiding something, probably so
mething terrible. “What’s he doing out here, Riley?”
“I think he’s making a dead drop.”
Shit. Her stomach threatened to plummet. “To the Commander?”
“I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure. He’s involved in something nasty. The woman he talked to, she implied that this has been going on for a long time. Levi thinks this has something to do with his ties to the drug dealer, but I think it’s pure blackmail.”
That didn’t mean this wasn’t about the Commander and what Josh knew about him. It could be he was being blackmailed because of those ties. “It was a woman?”
“Yes, though she was using voice alteration. I still think the voice was female. She threatened you, Kay. Josh got extremely upset about that. You should know how he talks about you when you’re not around.”
“Hit me.” It would be good to know.
“He talks about you like you’re the sun in the sky. Like he didn’t understand what sunshine was until you walked in. When his publicist told him you might think about getting a little lift in the chest area…well, there’s a reason he’s getting a new publicist.”
Her heart softened. “He didn’t mention that to me.”
“But he’s volatile. He’s a powder keg waiting to go off, and I’m worried you’re going to be too close when he explodes. I know you’re capable of handling yourself, but it’s different when you care about the person. Emotions get in the way and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
“What am I supposed to do? Pretend I don’t care about him? I can do that around Levi, but I can’t around you guys. You’re my team and you have to know everything. I do care about Josh.”
Riley nodded. “Just remember that when the shit hits the fan, and it will. Remember that you’re compromised when it comes to him and you might want to listen to people you trust. Or follow your instincts. Here’s our turnoff. Reach in the back and grab the boots I brought for you.”
She reached around. “Hiking boots?”
“You can’t go running all over Solstice Canyon in those heels. I swear I breathed a massive sigh of relief when you walked in wearing jeans. Tuck them into the socks I brought along. There are lots of snakes where we’re going.”
“Snakes?” The socks were super thick and long. She pulled them up over her jeans. “I hate snakes.”
“Yeah, I don’t think they like us much either, Dr. Jones,” Riley said with a sigh. “But I’ll be happy if snakes are the only predators we have to deal with tonight.”
* * * *
Josh turned the Ducati into the parking lot, lights off because despite what he’d told his blackmailer about night hiking, there wasn’t a lot of activity here in Solstice Canyon. Those adventurous hikers would be looking for city views.
What they would get out here would be a whole lot of nocturnal predators and potential places where a hiker could fall to his very adventurous death.
Of course, that was likely her point. She enjoyed forcing him into nasty situations. Once he had to make the drop in the middle of a tent village in Skid Row. He’d been given specific instructions for that one. He was to leave his vehicle at the outer edges of the “city,” parking it close to the mural proclaiming the city limits and population—Too Many. He had to walk the streets at midnight.
He was sure she’d watched him from some high ground, playing the god who liked to teach the piddling human a lesson.
He’d ghosted in and out of that place without ever bumping into one of the desperate, sometimes violent residents. Did she think he didn’t remember how to go unnoticed? He’d had a lifetime of disappearing into the shadows. Sometimes his life had depended on how well he could hide. Those lessons from his childhood had never left him.
But fuck he hated snakes.
She might have finally found something that really freaked him out. He could handle the dark, deal with being alone and vulnerable and watched. This was something different.
He parked the bike at the far edge of the lot and thanked the universe for Jared’s choice of the color black. The bike blended in well and unless someone was looking for it, would likely go unnoticed. He left the helmet on the seat and checked that the laces on the shit kickers he was wearing were well tied. Not his normal loafers, but they were made of thick leather and he could move in them. Leather gloves on his hands and a leather jacket and jeans completed his look for the evening. He liked to call it “dude who didn’t want to get bitten by snakes or covered in poison ivy.”
Fuck. He needed to do this fast. He pulled out a small flashlight. His phone would throw the light far too wide and bright. He needed to be subtle because he didn’t want to attract some curious park ranger.
As quietly as he could, he moved to the north end of the lot where the trail choices were offered. One a nice paved trail. Yeah, that wasn’t his. He got the stairs that led to the dirt path.
The road less traveled.
Thank you, Robert Frost. The road less traveled might have made all the difference to that old poet, but it likely meant rattlesnake bites to him.
How much time had already passed? He’d left the minute he could, throwing on some clothes and hauling ass out. Kay would want a shower. That would take her a while. His boots thudded along the stairs. Off to his right, he could see the Pacific in the distance, illuminated by the full moon. Somewhere down there was his house, the one he shared with Kayla now, the only place in the world he’d ever felt halfway safe.
He turned away and jogged down the trail. Fast. He had to get there, stash the key and get back. Jared was handling Kay. If she came out before he got back, Jared would explain that he was in the locker room taking an important call about the film. Those could last for a nice long time, and Kay understood the rules of the club. She wouldn’t go in there to check on him.
Jared would keep an eye on her and everything would be okay.
Something flashed up ahead of him, twin lights on a face that immediately disappeared into the shadows. He caught the merest glimpse of a big body lumbering along the canyon and back into the trees.
Cougar. That was a fucking cougar.
He crossed the paved road and then turned right. Rising Sun Trail. He could use some sun right about now. He started the climb, the trail cresting and diving, following the lines of the canyon.
The trail began a descent, but Josh stopped, instincts kicking in. He wasn’t alone.
He clicked the flashlight off. There wasn’t a lot to shield him where he was and now he cursed the bright light of the moon.
Was that a person coming up behind him? Or had the fucking cougar decided he was hungry and Josh looked like a halfway decent meal?
He stood for roughly thirty seconds, listening to the sounds around him. Crickets hummed, the underscore to this particular soundtrack. Something crunched through the shrubs to his left, but it was small, likely a prey animal. Everything was silent. Eerie, creepy silence.
Fucking hold on to this feeling. He could use it if he ever did a horror movie.
He clicked his flashlight on again, following the trail down.
Up ahead he could hear a stream flowing. Close. He was getting close. He stayed on the east bank of the stream, jogging now, looking for the steps.
Bingo.
He had no idea why someone had built a shrine to the Virgin Mary out in the middle of the Santa Monica Mountains, but there it was, just to the north of the trail. He breathed a deep sigh of relief.
Almost there.
Almost there.
He hit something in the trail and slipped. Fuck. Pain flared in his right ankle before he fell on his ass.
And that was when he heard it.
Rattle Rattle Rattle.
Shit.
Josh went still. The flashlight had fallen to his side, but it managed to illuminate enough of the path to see a big-ass rattlesnake coiled not four feet in front of him.
His breath stopped in his chest. The thing looked like he was ready to strike at any moment, its diamond
-shaped head up and alert while that rattle on its tail kept its tune.
Keep calm. Assess the threat. Some of that military training he’d taken for various roles started playing through his head. Nothing was done until his heart stopped.
He had to stay still. As long as he was still, that thing seemed happy to remain in pending strike mode. The good news, the first thing he thought the snake would hit was his left shit kicker. That leg was closest to the incredibly large snake. If it struck, it might hit the rubber sole of his boot or the metal tip, both good places for him.
The bad? His ankle hurt like a motherfucker. And his time was definitely running out.
“Don’t move, Josh.”
He tensed but managed to stay where he was. “Kay?”
“Don’t move. I don’t want to hit you.”
He stayed as still as he could. Even when he wanted to look back, to make sure that really was his submissive somewhere behind him and not a park ranger. Please let it be a park ranger with a super-sexy voice. He could deal with that. He could bribe a park ranger. Kay would want her bribe in the form of answers, and he had none for her.
“Get out of here, Kayla. That’s an order.” He wasn’t lucky enough for that to be anyone but the one person he’d been trying to avoid.
“You want me to leave you with the snake?”
“Yes.” He meant it.
A ping sounded through the air and that fucking snake’s head exploded. It was a phenomenal shot, one in a million. Maybe less if you had as much training as she’d had.
Now a different panic threatened to take over. Someone would be out there watching him. Having Kayla even close by meant he was breaking the rules, and his blackmailer didn’t like it when he broke the rules.
“I mean it, Kay. Go away. You’re fired. Get the fuck out of here.”
She knelt down beside him, the scent of her citrusy soap hitting his nose and reminding him of how good she smelled. He would likely never get that scent out of his head. Citrus and sex. Soft and tangy with a bite. “I think I need to get you the fuck out of here. You can fire me later, but I’m doing my job now.”