by Cynthia Eden
He sucked in a deep breath. “For years, I thought they died because of one of us.” It was a dark truth that had eaten away at him for too long.
Davis backed up a step.
“You, me, Grant, Mac, even Sullivan...we were all working different black-ops missions back then. One right after the other.” Because all the McGuire brothers had left the ranch and went right out and gotten lost in danger. Once, Brodie had craved that rush of adrenaline. As a SEAL, he’d always been walking on the edge of death; he’d known that.
But he’d thought the risk was his alone. Until he’d realized that his enemies could follow him home.
“I thought,” Brodie continued, “someone wanted payback because of what we’d done. That our parents were caught in the cross fire because of us.”
He still believed that. Hell, even if Jennifer’s enemies had tracked her to the ranch house in Austin, wasn’t that still on Brodie’s shoulders? He’d been the tie to Jennifer. His parents’ death—
“I thought the same thing.” Davis’s voice was low. “The guilt never stops, does it? They were always there for us, but when they needed our help, when we could have saved them...”
They’d all been too far away.
Brodie’s gaze swung back to the house. “Whoever is after her...that guy was here, taking pictures, days before our parents died. Either he was here his own damn self or he had some flunky doing his dirty work. Maybe her stalker is the one who killed them. Or maybe he saw who did. Either way, I will find that man, and I will make him talk.” Two men had been there the night Brodie’s parents were murdered. The stalker and his flunky? Or someone else?
Brodie marched toward the house.
“She’s planning to leave.”
He swung back around to face Davis.
“She wants me to help her vanish, and I...I gave her the impression I would.”
He stalked right back toward his brother as fury pumped through him. “Want to tell me why the hell you’d do that?” Jennifer can’t vanish. I won’t let her.
I...need her.
“Yeah, I’ll tell you.” Davis rolled back his shoulders and stood toe to toe with Brodie. “Because you keep getting caught in the cross fire when she’s around. I lost my parents. I don’t want to lose my brother, too.”
“You’re not helping her,” Brodie snarled, fighting to keep his fury in check. How could Davis not see the danger? “If she leaves, she’s dead.”
Davis shook his head. “Only if we aren’t keeping an eye on her. Maybe she leaves, and that sicko out there thinks she’s easy pickings. If he goes for her, then we move in on them both.” Davis’s words came out in a rapid-fire burst. “And when we do that, maybe we’ll finally close in on the people who ripped our lives apart.”
“You want her to be bait.” He had to unclench his back teeth in order to force those words out.
Davis didn’t deny the charge. “You got a better idea? I mean, you could always try nearly getting blown to bits again for her, because, you know, that worked out so well for you before.”
His hands were fisted, and it took all his self-control not to take a swing at his twin right then.
“We’d have eyes on her,” Davis continued quickly, as if sensing how close to the edge Brodie might be. “It’s not like she’s a civilian. That woman has training. Let’s use it. Let’s—”
He grabbed Davis by the shirtfront and jerked his brother toward him. “I’m not using her!” His words blasted out. “So come up with a new plan!”
Did Davis really think he’d just put Jennifer at risk? She’d nearly been blown to bits, too. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw that explosion, only in his mind he hadn’t pulled her back quickly enough. She’d screamed for him, and then the world had erupted.
“She is our best plan.” Davis’s voice was soft.
Brodie’s hands fisted in Davis’s shirt. “She’s not yours to risk.” He shoved him back.
Davis swore. “You’re too caught up in her.”
He turned away from his brother. He wasn’t going to argue on this point. Jennifer wouldn’t be put at risk like that. End of damn discussion.
“Why?” Davis called after him. “Why won’t you even consider that this could work?”
“Because she can’t be hurt!”
The lies that she’d told...yeah, he felt the burn of that betrayal. He wouldn’t be trusting her again. But Davis didn’t get it.
I can’t risk her.
He pounded up the steps and shoved open the door. He was aware of Davis following behind him, but he didn’t slow down. He hurried down the hallway and turned toward that second door on the right.
Brodie didn’t waste time knocking. He grabbed the knob, turned it—
Locked.
“Jennifer!” His fist pounded into the door.
She didn’t answer.
Has she already left? “Jennifer!”
Still no response.
So he kicked in that door.
But the room was empty. He ran inside, looking around, searching for her—gone.
He rushed back through the house and nearly knocked Davis to the floor. “She’s gone!”
Davis’s eyes widened. “No...she can’t be—”
She’s gone. “Were you supposed to keep me out there, keep me talking, while she vanished?”
Davis swallowed quickly. “I was going to distract you, but not yet. She would need a ride to get off the ranch and she doesn’t—”
Davis just didn’t seem to understand how determined Jennifer could be. Brodie pushed his brother to the side and ran for the garage. Jennifer didn’t need them to give her car keys. The woman’s whole life was a lie—so Brodie was betting that she knew plenty of handy tricks that would surprise most folks.
Tricks like taking a security system off-line.
The alarm hadn’t sounded when she fled the ranch house, and he’d damn well bet the woman went out one of her bedroom windows.
Tricks like hot-wiring a car.
He ran into the garage and saw a shadow moving inside his SUV. Brodie flew toward that vehicle. He yanked open the driver’s-side door.
Jennifer didn’t even cry out in surprise. She was crouched under the dashboard, her hands working feverishly with the wires. Her head turned slowly toward him.
“Uh, hi there, Brodie...” Jennifer mumbled.
Davis burst into the garage.
Brodie tried to get a stranglehold on his fury. “Going somewhere?” he demanded.
“Um, no.” Her fingers pulled away from the wires. She sat up, rolling her shoulders a bit.
“Jennifer...” Her name was a warning.
“I...might have been going for a little ride.”
Davis hit the lights, and illumination flooded the garage.
Jennifer took one look at Brodie’s face and winced. Then her eyes locked on Davis. “I thought you agreed to keep him busy,” she snapped.
Brodie fired back, saying, “You both thought wrong.”
Her fingers tapped against the wheel.
She looked so damn cute and sexy right then...and he was furious with the woman.
“You walk away from me,” he gritted out, “and you’re a dead woman.”
Jennifer inhaled a sharp breath.
“You came to me because you needed help.” His hands were fisted as he fought the urge to grab her and hold on to her as tightly as he could. “Now you’re running?”
Her gaze rose to meet his. “Now I’m trying to protect you because it seems...” She gave a sad shake of her head. “It’s seems I may have already hurt you enough.”
He stared straight into her eyes. “Leave.”
She blinked. “I, uh, was trying to—”
No, sweetheart, you’re not going any place. “Davis, get out of here now,” he ordered without glancing at his brother. “I’ll deal with you later.”
“Brodie...” Davis wasn’t leaving. Brodie could tell by the sound of his footsteps that his brother was co
ming closer. “I was going to watch her. I was going to—”
He spun toward his brother. “She wasn’t going to wait for you to follow her! She was going to vanish. She was either going to rush right into a trap that stalker has for her out there or she was just going to disappear completely. Become someone new, someplace new.” How could his brother not see that?
Davis’s eyes narrowed. “I just want to help you.”
“Leave us alone, bro. Just leave us alone.”
Davis gave a curt nod and shuffled back. He stopped near the exit and glared at Jennifer. “Not the plan.”
Then he was gone.
Silence.
Brodie tried to yank back his self-control.
“Your brother is angry with me.”
He caught her wrists. Curled his fingers around the delicate bones and pulled her from the vehicle. He had to touch her. Had to know that she was still there, that she hadn’t vanished from his life. “You don’t need to worry about him. Worry about me.”
She yanked away from him.
Brodie slammed the SUV’s door, and before she could flee, he pinned her against the side of the vehicle. “You aren’t going to disappear.”
Her dark gaze searched his. “Even if that’s what is best for you?”
“Let me worry about what’s best for me.” His body pressed to hers. Fury was tight within him, but desire was there, too. Whenever he was close to her, need, hunger, lust built within him.
The woman was dangerous. Not to be trusted.
And he wanted her still.
“I don’t want you to get hurt.” Her voice was husky, seeming to stroke right over him.
“And I don’t want you to get killed,” Brodie told her.
Her lashes lifted.
“If you go out there alone,” Brodie pushed, “with no backup, what do you think will happen?” He knew... She’ll die.
Her hands pressed to his chest, as if she’d shove him back. She didn’t, and the heat from her palms seemed to burn right through his shirt.
“I didn’t think about the risk to you,” Jennifer said, voice soft. “I’m so sorry. I—”
His lips took hers. The kiss was angry, because he was angry. Angry and hungry because the woman had twisted him up with fury and desire.
Letting her go wasn’t an option. Davis needed to see that. Jennifer needed to see that. He had to keep her close because if something happened to her, Brodie wasn’t sure what he’d do.
When did she get to me? When did she slip beneath my guard?
She still wasn’t pushing him away. Instead, Jennifer was kissing him back with a fury of her own. She’d risen onto her tiptoes and her hands now curled around his shoulders as she pressed her body to his.
She had to feel his desire. He couldn’t control it and wouldn’t hide it. From now on, there would be no hiding, not for either of them.
“Don’t leave,” he whispered against her lips.
Her head moved back a bit. Her mouth was red from his kiss. Her eyes were wide. “I never meant to hurt you or your family. When I came to the ranch before, years ago, I only wanted to repay my debt to you. I swear that was all I wanted.”
He kissed her again. Pain clawed inside of him as he thought of his family, and he didn’t want to head into that darkness, not then. He wanted to sink into her, to ride the rush of passion between them and to just let everything else go. He wanted to but—
He smelled smoke.
Brodie’s head whipped up.
“Brodie?”
He inhaled deeply. Damn it, that was smoke, and the stalker who was after Jennifer had already proven just how much he liked fires.
He ran out of the garage, and his gaze immediately flew to the ranch house. Part of him had expected to see his home engulfed in flames.
It wasn’t burning. But I smell smoke.
Davis hurried toward him. “What’s happening?”
Brodie spun toward the stables. They looked fine, but he and his brother hurried inside them, checking on the horses just to be safe.
When he turned back around, Jennifer was there. Her arms were wrapped around her stomach as she stood in that open stable doorway.
He blinked, realizing she could have fled. When he’d been distracted by the scent of the smoke, Jennifer could have jumped back into his SUV and raced away.
She hadn’t. She’d come to check on the horses, too.
“The fire isn’t in here,” Brodie said as he marched past her. He reached for her hand and pulled her with him. The night sky was dark—no stars were out, so he couldn’t see anything overhead.
But the scent of smoke was drifting to him on the breeze.
“It’s coming from the east,” Davis muttered.
The Montgomery ranch was to the east. The Montgomerys were the only close neighbors that the McGuires had. If you counted being ten miles away as close.
When Ava had stumbled onto the scene of their parents’ murder years before, she’d saddled her horse and raced like mad toward the Montgomery ranch. Mark Montgomery had protected her, kept her safe—
We owe him.
“Let’s go,” Brodie said. If there was a fire out there, he had to help.
* * *
JENNIFER DIDN’T THINK they were chasing a wildfire. Not with the deadly chain of events that had become her life. So as Brodie drove his SUV toward what he’d called the Montgomery ranch and as the scent of smoke deepened in the air around them, she knew they’d be finding trouble.
Danger.
They drove through a big, open wrought-iron gate and down a long winding road that led to—
“Fire,” Davis snapped. “I can see it. Damn it, his stables are burning!”
Brodie braked to a fast stop. Everyone jumped out of the vehicle and rushed toward the blaze. Jennifer could see men struggling to lead blindfolded horses out of what was quickly turning into an inferno, even as two other men tried to spray water onto the growing flames.
Davis and Brodie—they were running right toward the fire.
“Brodie!” she yelled.
He didn’t stop. He ran forward. Grabbed the reins of a blindfolded horse. “I’ve got him, Mark,” he told the man who’d been pulling the horse.
Mark immediately ran back into the flames. Davis was at his heels.
Jennifer hurried to help Brodie secure the horse, moving the animal well away from the flames. She could hear the sound of the fire crackling around her. The horses still inside the stable were screaming, terrible, desperate sounds.
She counted five horses that had been removed from the stables. How many were still inside?
Davis ran out with another horse.
The screaming continued.
While Davis brought the horse toward her, Brodie sped into the burning stables.
No!
Davis tied the horse to the tree. He coughed a bit. “I think there are four more in—”
She ran past him and into the blaze. The flames were so hot, she could feel the fire lancing over her skin. Jennifer coughed, choking on the smoke, and she crouched low as she tried to get access to clearer air. The horses were screaming, the flames still crackling—the sound eerily like laughter—and, above her, Jennifer could hear the creak and groan of wood. Was that roof about to break? To snap apart?
Fire was racing everywhere—up the walls, tearing through the hay. She fought her way to the stall on the right. A black foal was in there, huddled near the back of the stall. The foal’s eyes were rolling and when she tried to approach the horse, it struck out at her.
“Easy,” Jennifer whispered as she put up her hands. Could the animal even hear her over the flames? “I’m just trying to get us both out of here alive.”
The foal wasn’t harnessed. Jennifer grabbed for a blanket on the right, and she tried to cover the foal’s eyes. The animal was shuddering and still kicking, but Jennifer managed to steer it out of the stall.
“Get out of here!” Brodie was at Jennifer’s side. His face w
as streaked with black ash. “The roof is going to fall in!”
She pulled the foal with her. “Come on,” Jennifer whispered to the foal. “Come...”
Brodie yanked the foal forward. They all tumbled outside, and Jennifer gulped in fresh air greedily. Her lungs were aching, and she couldn’t seem to suck that air in fast enough—not with the coughs that racked her.
A young male—it looked as if he was in his teens—hurried forward and took the foal.
Brodie grabbed her arms. “Are you okay?”
“Y-yes...”
“What were you thinking? Why would you go in there?”
He was angry? Seriously? Because she was helping? “Why would you go in?” she yelled right back at him. “Because I didn’t want to listen to those poor animals die!”
“You don’t—”
“Brodie!” Davis called for his brother. “Mark is still inside. The roof is about to go, and he’s in there!”
Jennifer’s gaze swung toward Davis. He was running into the fire.
“No,” Brodie whispered.
But Davis had gone inside.
“Brodie...”
He tore away from Jennifer and ran after his brother. Jennifer rushed forward, running behind him. Brodie had just cleared the gaping entrance to the stables when the roof collapsed.
A ball of flames seemed to fly into the dark sky.
“Brodie!” Jennifer screamed and headed right for the fire.
Hard arms grabbed her from behind. She was pulled away from the burning stables even as she fought to get inside. “Stop!” she screamed. “I need to get in there! Brodie’s inside! Davis is in there and—”
“I want my brothers out, too,” a rough voice growled behind her, “but I can’t let you die for them.”
Her head turned. She saw Mac McGuire staring back at her with wild eyes. He was as big as Brodie, just as muscled and with a grip that was just as powerful—and unbreakable.
She stopped struggling.
“Stay here,” Mac ordered. “Or Brodie will kill me.”
If he isn’t already dead...
Then Mac freed her and shot right toward the flames. Wait, he thought she’d just stand there while he faced death? While Brodie burned? The guy didn’t know her at all. But then...none of them did. No one had ever really known her.