by Dana Marton
“Whatever you’re willing to give, I’m taking.”
Ryder McKay was a dangerous man, she thought, not for the first time. She could see herself falling in love with him. Even if she knew that doing something stupid like that would bring her nothing but pain eventually.
Her judgment was appallingly bad when it came to men. As demonstrated by Dylan.
“I’m not going to hurt you. Ever,” he promised, then kissed the tip of one nipple, then the other.
Electricity zinged through her. “Stop that,” she protested weakly. Then she drew a long breath. “This was—” she swallowed “—the result of an adrenaline rush. A celebration of survival.”
“Whatever you need to tell yourself.” He grinned at her.
“Just don’t expect it to happen again.” She tried to move away but, again, he wouldn’t let her.
“I didn’t think you were the type to run from reality.”
“Reality is, we don’t belong together.”
“How about we give it a try, anyway?”
“You are very stubborn.”
“You’re no slouch yourself.” He grinned.
“It’ll never work.”
“Why?”
“For one, I’m going back home soon.”
“There’s no need for a good veterinarian in Hullett?” he challenged.
“You’ll go away when whatever it is you’re doing here is done,” she countered.
“I might go away for missions from time to time, but with all the trouble along the border, our placement here is permanent.”
“I’m…” She pressed her lips together, unsure how to explain. “Damaged.” She drew another deep breath. “You’re a warrior, and I’m broken in so many ways. I’m not a warrior’s mate.”
“You’re perfect.” His tone was sure and fierce.
Embarrassed by the frank admiration in his gaze, she shifted. And felt him stiffen inside her. He pressed against her, and just like that a tingle of pleasure started where their bodies were joined. “We weren’t going to do this again,” she said, her voice not nearly as sure as she would have liked.
“You said that. I’m here to point out the error of your thinking.” He bent his head to her nipple again, his hands squeezing her buttocks as he gathered her closer.
* * *
SHE WOKE IN HER BED, with him, and for this second time she actually made it to the bathroom. The first time they’d woken, he made love to her again.
He wasn’t far behind her this time, either. And more than ready.
She tore her gaze away.
“I can’t help wanting you.” He didn’t sound the least apologetic.
If she were smart, she would have found some indignation somewhere deep down and sent him away. Instead, she said, “I’m taking a shower.”
“Me, too.” A suggestive grin split his lips.
“Maybe later. First you’re making us breakfast.”
“Great idea. And then you’ll owe me. Word of warning—I always collect.” He padded away with a self-satisfied grin.
She tried not to stare at his well-formed behind as he went, but she failed.
She set the water in the shower a few degrees colder than usual. She’d never known need like this. It bordered on the ridiculous. She needed to focus on something else or they would never leave the ranch again.
She cleaned up and dressed, wondering how Molly was taking the news of Dylan’s death. She must have been told by now. Grace wasn’t sure if going over there would help or make everything worse, since she was involved in his death. Maybe she would give Molly some time. She couldn’t stand the thought that their friendship might be affected. Then she thought of the kids, wished she knew how they were doing. She wanted to ask Ryder to call in and check, but he had the news ready when she walked into the kitchen.
“Border patrol has the children at the crossing station. They already alerted their mother. Esperanza will be there to pick them up around noon. Want to go and see her?”
She looked up into his desert-honey eyes and fell in love. Oh, man. Okay. Wow. Nobody had ever told her it could happen like this. This unexpectedly. This quickly. She sat down hard onto the chair.
“I’d love to go.” She looked at the eggs, at anything but him. “Sure.”
“Grace?”
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
He put his own plate down on the table across from her. “You look a little strange. Are you okay?”
“Umm…mmm.” She made some noise of affirmation around the food in her mouth.
“Last night. I wasn’t too… You’ve been recently hurt.”
“It was fine.” Her cheeks flamed.
“Fine?” He sounded disappointed.
She choked on her eggs. Managed to get them down, then escaped to the sink with her empty plate.
Thankfully, he didn’t push. When he was done with his breakfast, he took a shower. “I should probably go into the office,” he said when he came back down. “After last night, there’ll be some questions I’ll have to answer.”
“Sure,” she said quickly, with relief. She needed some space to gather her thoughts.
“I’ll see you at the border crossing at noon?”
“I’ll be there.”
He strode up to her and pressed a hot kiss on her lips, flashed her another questioning look, but then he walked away.
Chapter Thirteen
“The Mexican authorities found the body of a Dylan Rogers across the border. He was shot last night, apparently.”
“Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir,” Ryder apologized, even if he knew he would do the same all over again. The team leader thing wasn’t nearly as important to him as Grace. Nothing was.
“This wouldn’t have anything to do with that personal business of yours, would it?” the Colonel asked.
“I’m sorry, sir,” he said again.
“You caused a big headache here, soldier. I hope she’s worth it.”
“Yes, sir.”
A few seconds passed on the other end. “Congratulations, soldier.”
He must have missed something. “I don’t understand, sir.”
“I’m making you the team leader of the SDDU’s Texas office. Don’t disappoint me.”
“No, sir.”
“You were always an excellent solider, McKay, but something was missing.”
“Sir?” He had no idea what the man was talking about.
“You always performed your duty, followed all the rules, crossed your t’s and dotted your i’s and then some. But last night’s business showed me you also have a heart. A heart is important in a leader.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I want to be invited to the wedding,” the man said before he hung up on Ryder.
That was the Colonel for you. You could be a tough commando solider all you want, but the man could still pull the rug from under you without half trying.
The wedding.
It sounded right.
Grace Cordero. Who would have thought? She was the exact opposite of the kind of woman he’d planned on marrying. Back when he’d been clueless and stupid.
“She’s the one,” Ryder said out loud, without meaning to.
Ray was at the hospital, having his cast checked. The others were out, scouting the land, trying to identify the traffickers’ plan B. For something this big, they would have one. Possibly even a plan C. The team’s mission was to stay one step ahead of the bad guys.
“Which one?” Mo, the only other guy at the office, asked, lost in his computer. Then he did pause, looked up, his damaged eyebrow sliding way up his forehead. “The one?”
Ryder gave a careful nod and braced himself for merciless ribbing.
“So Grace Cordero is your Vicky?” Mo wanted to clarify.
“Grace is my Grace.” He was hoping to forget the whole Vicky nonsense.
And instead of Mo throwing it into his face and making fun of him, the man gave a wistful sigh. “Good for you.”
Ryder stared at his friend. That was it?
“You two are right together. I see how you look at each other. It’s nice.”
Okay, where did that come from? Mo didn’t have a romantic bone in his body. He wasn’t a ladies’ man, tended to get tongue-tied. But he was great with kids, gentle as anything. Maybe because of his own rough beginnings.
Moses Mann. Named Moses by his adoptive parents because he’d been rescued from the river as a baby. His birth parents had put him in a bag and dropped him from a bridge.
The man shrugged. “You get older, you start thinking about things.”
Huh. They stared at each other for a second, then looked away at the same time. Neither was the type to do the whole, sharing feelings thing.
Ryder pushed to his feet. “I have to go to the crossing station. I have a date with Child Protective Services and Grace.”
The ride over was too short to think everything over. He wanted Grace, for more than a casual affair. But how would he convince her to agree? She wanted away from here. She wanted a new life in the city of Bryan. He was pretty sure she was dealing with some PTSD. She wouldn’t want any sort of action/adventure to be part of her life, and his life consisted of nothing but.
And yet they were going to find a compromise, because he wasn’t going to let go of her.
She was already there when he arrived, in the interview room where they all waited for him. She’d brought a goodie bag for each child: a pretty dress, sweets and a teddy bear for Rosita; sneakers, sweets and a toy car for Miguel. The kids were looking at her as if she were Mrs. Santa Claus.
Everyone was smiling, including the social worker.
“Mr. McKay. Heard a lot about you. Thank you for what you did to save these children.” She held out her hand.
He shook it. “Mostly Grace’s doing.” She was the one who wouldn’t let go, even when she had to put her life on the line.
“From what I understand, the mother has arrived. Ready to walk over?”
The kids hung on to Grace, an odd thing, really, since she was the only one who couldn’t speak their language. But children were perceptive, and they figured out that she cared for them deeply. They somehow knew that she was the one who’d saved them.
As they walked outside, Rosita reached for Ryder’s hand, too, linking him and Grace together. And their eyes met over the little girl. Grace looked away first.
Okay, this was not the time, but they would definitely have to talk later.
A Border Patrol officer joined them to escort them around the long line at the window. They cleared Mexican customs in a few minutes. Calls had been made already, everything set up for this.
The children spotted Esperanza first and screamed with joy as they rushed to their mother. The woman bent and caught them, buried her face against her twins, sobbing loudly, asking them if they were all right. She wore all black. The call that had given her the time and place for today’s meeting had also informed her of her husband’s passing.
An older woman stood behind her, the family resemblance obvious.
“Have you heard anything about the girls who were rescued from the mill?” Grace asked.
“They’ll be returned home by the end of the week. No charges. They were brought here against their will, snagged off the streets in their villages. Smuggled across the border in vans. Apparently there were more, but two suffocated on the way.” He would have loved to have ten minutes privately with the bastards who ran that business, but they were already in police custody.
“Then Mikey Mitzner will be arrested?” She turned to him.
“Already in the can,” he told her with satisfaction. “The man you beat up in the basement gave him up. Mitzner allowed the use of the mill to house smuggled people in transit, for a share of the profits.”
The children turned to their grandmother for another flurry of hugs and, after long minutes, Esperanza walked forward to Grace, looking back after nearly every step to make sure the children were still there.
“Muchas gracias, señora.” She took Grace’s hand and held it.
“De nada.” What Grace couldn’t say in Spanish, she put into her smile.
“Gracias, señor.”
Ryder assured her that no thanks were necessary and expressed his and Grace’s condolences. The young woman nodded, tears in her eyes, but a smile on her lips. The children and their grandmother came up behind her.
The wrinkled old woman looked at him, then at Grace, then said a few words before she turned to walk away with her family.
“What did she say?” Grace wanted to know.
“She’s the medicine woman in her village.” He looked after her, stunned. “She said we’ll have a long and happy life and lots of children together.”
Since Grace didn’t want that, he expected her to protest and scrambled to marshal a few good points in favor of all that. But instead of protesting, a smile stretched her face.
“You don’t hate the idea?” he asked with caution.
She tilted her head, searching his face. “Do you?”
He didn’t have to think about it. “Best idea I’ve heard all…ever.”
He stepped forward. She stepped toward him and they met in the middle, sharing a hot kiss. People coming across the border cheered, approving whistles splitting the air.
“I think we’re making a spectacle of ourselves,” she murmured against his lips.
“I don’t mind.” He stole another kiss.
But she pulled away. “Aren’t you here in an official capacity?”
He shook his head. “Now you’re a stickler for rules?”
They walked back across the border together. The social worker was already gone.
He walked her to her pickup at the far end of the lot, happiness soaring through him. He pulled her to him and kissed her with all the love and passion he felt for her. The kiss left both of them breathless.
“Ryder,” she protested weakly.
He flashed her a grin. “My shift just ended.” He nudged her toward the pickup. “Get in.”
Her eyes went round, her cheeks turning pink. “Not in a crowded parking lot!”
He laughed out loud. “I’m going home with you.”
“What about your SUV?”
“I’ll ask Mo to pick it up. I need some one on one time with you right now.”
She blushed even harder. Then got in. “Okay. But I’m driving.”
Bigger battles lay ahead, so he went around to the passenger seat. “The kids are negotiable,” he said, hoping she got the hint that the two of them together wasn’t. No way was he going to let her walk away from him.
“To be honest,” she said casually as she started the engine. “I think I’d be okay with kids.”
Pleasure flooded him. “Bryan is not that far. We can make this work.”
She glanced at him. “I’ll go back to Bryan when I need to for exams but—” she shook her head “—I can’t leave the ranch now. I have patients here. I have a bushel of cats.”
“I got a promotion. I’m going to be the team leader. Permanently stationed here.”
“Are you ever going to be able to tell me what it is exactly that you’re doing?”
“Probably not.” He thought for a second. “Can you handle that?”
“I’m not a great fan of mysterious government men with secret agendas. So, just tell me what you can.”
“I’ve done a lot of things, working mostly overseas until recently—gathering information, then acting on it.”
“Like a spy?”
“More like a cross between a spy and a commando soldier.”
She considered his words, taking her time.
The long silence made him nervous. “Do you think you could come to accept that someday?” Because he definitely had long-term plans for her in his life.
A slow smile spread across her face. “I could fall in love with you, Ryder McKay.”
Could? “What would it take to push you over the edge?”
She wiggled her eyebrows in a suggestive manner that sent his blood racing.
“Take the back roads that go through your land,” he ordered.
“The county road is faster. We’re almost at the ranch, anyway.”
He unclicked his seat belt and slid over, dropped his lips right to her ear and nibbled the sensitive lobe before he said, “I don’t think we’re going to make it.”
* * *
SHE WOKE TO A GLORIOUS morning, happier than she could remember ever being. Ryder was in the shower. She padded downstairs to start coffee. She was grabbing her mug from the dishwasher when the phone rang. Shane.
“Sorry for calling so early, Gracie honey. I’m glad you’re okay. I want to swing by this morning to talk about some of that stuff that went down last night. Mostly about Dylan. Wanted to make sure you were home before I headed out that way.”
She hesitated for a moment, looking through the window at the endless ranch. “I’m going to lay Tommy to rest this morning.” The time seemed right somehow, suddenly.
“Of course,” Shane said. “We can talk whenever you’re ready.”
Ryder was coming into the kitchen by the time she hung up. He wore blue jeans with a black shirt and Tommy’s boots. He wore the spurs, too, jingling all the way down. He flashed her a sheepish look. “There’s just something satisfying about spurs. In a John Wayne kind of way. I’ll take them off in a minute.”
“If you don’t watch it, you’re going to turn into a Texan one of these days.”
He gave a slow nod, watching her. “It’s the kind of place that gets right under your skin, isn’t it?”
She watched him do his manly cowboy swagger as he came to her, and her heart turned over in her chest.
“I’m going to lay Tommy to rest today,” she told him, feeling at peace with the decision.
He gave her a gentle kiss and gathered her into his arms.
“You probably have to get to work,” she mumbled into his shirt.
She’d always meant to say goodbye to Tommy privately. But suddenly she didn’t want to be alone.
“I’d like to stay if you don’t mind.” Ryder kissed her forehead and kept holding her.
She laid her cheek against his shoulder. “Okay.”
“Would you mind if the guys came out, too? They’ve all been in the military one time or the other. They’ve gotten to know you and they like you. I’m pretty sure they’d want to be here, unless you’d rather not have anyone.”