“I guess this is where we part ways,” Jason said, grinning. “I have a certain receptionist I need to charm.”
Megan gave a surprised laugh and an eye roll. “If she’s got half a brain, she’ll shoot you down flat.”
“Who said I was interested in her brain?”
She smiled. “Who, indeed.”
She opened her office door.
“Hey,” Jason called. “Why don’t you stop by The Barracks later?”
Every day he extended the same invitation to drop by his favorite watering hole; every day she refused.
“Maybe,” she said noncommittally.
“A step up from no,” he said.
She supposed it was, but she wasn’t entirely convinced…
MEGAN’S ONE-BEDROOM apartment on the west side of Colorado Springs had always seemed small, but ever since Dari had left, it felt somehow…too big.
It was eight-thirty and the sun was, for all intents and purposes, down, even though it was more blocked by the Rocky Mountains to the west than truly set. She lay across her double bed in one of the old denim shirts Dari had left behind, staring at the ceiling. She wondered what he was doing that moment. Was he navigating the remote region of Waziristan, seeking out enemies that knew the caves and rugged terrain better than he and his guys ever would? Was he camped out under the starry dome of the sky, one eye on the nearby hill where an enemy combatant could appear any moment?
Was he thinking about her?
She groaned and rolled over, burying her head in his pillow and breathing deeply.
She was pathetic.
Lord knew she had enough to occupy her time.
Then why was she spending so much of it pining after a man who was already hers?
Because she missed him…with every fiber of her being.
She turned her head on the pillow and stared at her cell phone on the nightstand. The ringer was set to High in case he called. Still, she couldn’t stop herself from reaching for the silent piece of technology and lighting the display: no calls, no messages, no texts.
She sighed heavily, suddenly aware of the rumbling of her stomach.
Had she eaten dinner? She couldn’t remember.
Probably not a good sign.
She tried to think of what she had in the kitchen and smiled. Dari would be amused that for the first time she didn’t have much of anything in the refrigerator, solely because she was too distracted to think about shopping before coming home.
She forced herself from the bed and padded barefoot toward the room in question, hauling open the fridge door. Nothing but a half gallon of milk that held all of an inch worth of the liquid, a few wrapped slices of American cheese, a single serving of yogurt that had been in there for God only knew how long and the requisite condiment bottles.
She took out one of the pieces of cheese and unwrapped it, snacking on it as she closed the fridge door and checked out the cabinets. Not a thing she could use to fix herself a decent meal.
She thought of the delivery menus in the drawer…but usually the only time she ordered in was when Dari was over and they were too exhausted after sex to even make themselves a sandwich.
She smiled at the memory and then immediately grimaced.
“Oh, screw it.”
She walked with purpose back into the bedroom, checked her still-silent cell and then got dressed…
MEGAN HADN’T BEEN to The Barracks in four months—not since the night of Dari’s sending-off party. But the thought of spending one more night in her apartment by herself had chased her clean out. That the bar also served burgers was a bonus.
One good thing about a place like this was no matter how long you’d been away, they always remembered you. She caught at least four shouts out to her. She acknowledged them with a friendly smile, looking over what was a decent crowd for a Thursday night. A waving hand caught her attention at the end of the bar and she waved back at Jason.
“Up, Marine,” he said to the young guy on the stool next to him when she stepped up.
Megan was amused by how fast the freshly returned Marine did as ordered. She half expected him to salute Jason, although she could have told him not to bother. Jason hadn’t been honorably discharged; he’d been thrown out of the service and probably had a permanent outline of the boot mark on his behind.
“Thanks,” she said to the Marine as she claimed the stool.
“What about me?” Jason asked with a raised brow before taking a long pull from his beer bottle.
“What? Why didn’t I thank you?”
His grin widened.
“Well, it wasn’t as if you’d given up your stool for me.”
A couple of ohs and ribbing erupted among the others around them.
One of the females spoke up. “A woman expecting a man to give her his chair doesn’t deserve one.”
Megan flashed her a smile. “A woman stupid enough to refuse an offered chair should sit on the floor…or be hit upside the head with one.”
More hoots.
And just like that, she reentered the swing of things, as if she’d been there a few days before instead of a few months.
She placed an order for whatever was on tap, along with a cheeseburger, hold the fries. Jason told the girl to add the fries.
After she left, Megan looked at him. “I hope you plan on eating them.”
“I may have one or two,” he said. “But my plan is to make sure you eat them. Dari’s not going to be pleased when he hears you’ve dropped at least ten.”
Twelve. But who was counting? She accepted the beer and took a nice long sip. “Don’t tell me you guys actually waste time talking about me…”
When you talk. That’s what she’d been prepared to say. Instead, she left the words drift off and took her cell phone out of her purse, placing it prominently on the bar in front of her.
“Are you kidding? If it were up to him, you would be the only thing we talk about.”
“Yeah, and next you’re going to try to convince me that the b.s. coming out of your mouth is actually the truth.”
She’d meant the words as a joke. But as she looked at him, prepared for a funny comeback, she watched him take another drink from his bottle then run the back of his hand across his mouth, his eyes sober and observant, as if trying to figure something out.
“Are you serious?” She forced herself to laugh.
“As an IED.”
She squinted at him.
Jason shrugged and faced the front of the bar. “I can tell you that he’s probably going crazy right now not being able to talk to you.”
She caught herself staring at her blank cell-phone display and looked away. Well, that made two of them…
“Come on. A great deal of your time has to be spent discussing Lazarus.”
Jason slowly shook his head. “Nope.”
She paused for a long moment, considering what the conversation between the two guys might sound like.
“He says he knows we’ll take care of whatever needs taking over in that regard,” Jason said.
Now that she thought about it, the words sounded like ones Dari would say. He was never one to worry about items over which he had no control. Besides, he probably had his hands full over there. He never shared details, even though she and Jason would not only understand, they’d empathize.
“Hey.”
Megan glanced up from where she’d been staring at her silent cell again. Jason’s younger brother, Jackson, wiped down the bar in front of her and then presented her burger. Jason automatically reached for a couple of fries and she slapped his hand away.
“Hey, yourself, Jax,” she said. “You cook this?”
“Sure did.”
She’d heard it said at the compound that Jackson Savage had been by to apply for a job…and that his brother had refused him out of hand: twice.
“I was hoping you and I could talk sometime soon,” Jax said, looking at her pointedly.
Jason straightened from his slight
ly stooped position. “You and the lady have nothing to discuss.”
Megan took in the exchange. “Sure, Jackson. Give me a call.”
She’d never talked with the younger Savage outside social situations such as this one, but she knew he wouldn’t find it difficult to get her number.
Jax smiled. “Enjoy your burger. I put some bacon on it for you.”
“Thanks.”
She watched as he walked away, and then opened the bun and fished out the pork in question, putting it on the side of her plate closest to Jason. She wasn’t surprised when he immediately snatched the strips up and ate them.
“Shall I ask what just happened?” she said.
Jason narrowed his eyes at her; they glinted dangerously in the dim light. “Ask all you want.”
“Mmm. Just don’t expect to get any answers: is that what you’re saying?”
His grin was slow but ultimately complete. “I always knew there was a reason I liked you.”
For a moment, one brief, irrefutable moment, Megan’s gaze fused with his and a thrill of recognition swept through her—awareness, sexual, full and strong.
She caught her breath.
Jason appeared as puzzled as she did before finally breaking visual contact.
He reached for her fries again and she let him take a couple.
Her cell phone rang shrilly on the bar.
Dari!
She scooped up the phone and slid off the stool, heading toward the door.
“Hi, baby,” she cooed, her heart expanding to fill her entire body….
2
THE FOLLOWING MORNING dawned earlier than it had the day before, or at least it seemed that way.
Megan dragged herself out of bed, went for her usual six-mile run, then showered and dressed for a day at the office rather than at the training facility. She had back-to-back meetings, so any thoughts of working her frustrations out on the firing range or on overly eager new recruits went out the window.
Last night, she’d barely spoken to Dari before the line went dead. After five minutes of trying to get him back, she’d received a text message: Sorry, baby. Situation went south, reception bad. Love you.
She’d finally fallen asleep somewhere around 4:00 a.m., the cell clutched to her chest. But he hadn’t called or texted again.
Feeling marginally better now that she had immediate business to occupy her time, she sat down in her office chair and considered the paperwork on the desk in front of her. She had yet to decorate the room in any way and heard about it from the two secretaries who manned the front, along with the pretty receptionist Jason was trying to charm. Megan’s immediate response was to ask why they weren’t on any of the men to do something about the starkness of their offices.
But maybe she should buy a couple of plants or something. There was good light in this room. And the view of the mountains through the window was great. Not that she spent that much time looking at it.
The telephone buzzed, indicating an internal call rather than an external one. She picked up the receiver.
“You ready?” Jason asked.
“For what?”
“The meeting in ten.”
“I could do this one with my eyes closed.”
“Right. You do realize that a one-year contract that will employ ten, twenty agents hangs in the balance.”
“Mmm. So I’ve been told. By you, as the case may be. Anyway, I figured you have it covered.”
“No, Meg, I think this one’s going to take a woman’s touch.”
Twenty minutes later, she saw what he meant. The two representatives from a chain of area nightclubs they were meeting with were women. And they not only appeared immune to Jason’s charms, they looked a wink away from offended.
This was the type of contract Dari could have finalized with a handshake. Instead, Megan took the reins and convinced them that Lazarus was the firm for the job.
Finally, she and Jason were alone in the conference room.
“Good job,” he said with a grin.
“You might consider working on your skills when it comes to female clients.”
“Why? I have you for that.”
She gathered her items together and started to leave the office.
“You sitting in on the next one?” Jason asked.
“Women again?”
His grin widened. “No, men. But I think you’d be equally effective…albeit in a different way.”
“I think I’ll pass.”
She heard voices and the tinny sound of a television coming from the front. She put her papers on her desk and went to investigate, unsurprised to find Jason already there.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
The three women were gathered around a flatscreen TV usually reserved for training videos. They parted like the Red Sea, allowing her a clear view of live news coverage.
“Missing girl,” Jason said, crossing his arms.
In Florida.
A missing girl who was so sweet-looking the case had garnered national attention. She picked up the remote to check. Sure enough, another national news channel was playing the same footage.
She and Jason turned toward their offices at the same time.
“Do you want to call or should I?” Jason asked, passing her open doorway where she already had a telephone in hand.
“You work your contacts, I’ll work mine.” She shouted for one of the secretaries, requesting she get the other available partners on the job. “First one to the finish wins….”
3
CHALLENGE WAS JASON Savage’s middle name and had been ever since he was an unwanted kid. Never one to wallow in the past, he rarely thought about an upbringing that would make anyone gasp…and he certainly never used it to elicit sympathy from the opposite sex. He could count on three fingers the number of people who knew what motivated him…and the first two only because they’d gone through it with him.
The third…well, he was in Afghanistan now.
Speaking of which…
Jason had no sooner pulled the rented SUV to a stop in front of the motel the Lazarus group would call home base in central Florida than Darius’s girl hopped out of the passenger’s seat, her polished combat boots hitting the ground running.
He shook his head, put the car in park and shut off the engine, leaving the keys in the ignition in case it was needed fast.
Jason stared after her, thinking of his friend. In the four months since Dari’d shipped off, he’d been impressed with Megan at every turn. Oh, sure, he knew she was a Marine, and that allowed for a measure of capability, but she surpassed his expectations.
She was strong and smart and knew her way around a minefield.
He’d no sooner made his own contact regarding the missing kid than she’d popped up in his open doorway with one of her own. In his case, it was an old college buddy who’d gone into intelligence and was something or other in the FBI.
Hers was the local sheriff who appeared to be happy for any professional help.
Within four hours the team was on the ground, motel rooms and transportation arranged, and a game plan sketched out.
Jason suddenly realized that his gaze was glued to Megan’s ass under the khaki of her pants. Damn, but the girl had a body on her.
He swallowed thickly and got out of the truck.
While it wasn’t the first time he’d appreciated her curves—sometimes even in front of Dari—for some reason, his attention seemed inappropriate now.
Megan turned toward him. “Jason Savage, this is Deputy Adams. He’s going to be acting as liaison between us and the sheriff’s office.”
He shook the deputy’s hand, friendly enough but instantly dismissing the kid. Jason knew he wasn’t going to be any help at all. He’d be lucky to find his johnson in a windstorm.
“This the place?” he said unnecessarily, since he already knew it was. But it gave him an excuse to round the deputy. He was Megan’s contact; she could handle him.
A
nd if the way the deputy hiked up his pants in disdain at his obvious dismissal was any indication, Jason had the feeling she was going to have her work cut out for her.
Locals.
But it was important for the hazards team to have an in there. The sheriff and his personnel could cause them a lot of grief if they weren’t playing on the same side.
He stepped up to the motel sidewalk and walked to the first room, pushing open the door. “Central command,” he said. “Everybody stow their stuff and meet here in ten.” He then walked over to the second room, where he planned to claim as his own quarters.
He wasn’t surprised to see Megan choose the next room down, and the rest of the five-person team they’d brought with them following suit down the line.
He left his door open and dropped his duffel on the foot of the bed before going into the small bathroom in the back and washing his face. No matter where he was, the feel of cold water always gave him the sensation of being in control. It helped shrug off the dirt and hassles from travel and regroup for the task at hand.
And right now that happened to be finding little Finley Szymanski….
WITHIN TWENTY MINUTES a large swivel whiteboard had been brought in that boasted a corkboard on the other side, along with other organizational equipment. Megan walked in front of it, tacking photos of the missing seven-year-old to the board along with physical characteristics, while Jason pinned up a map, indicating where the girl had gone missing and the location of her house.
“According to the report, she was out bike riding at around seven the last anyone saw her,” Jason said.
“Was the bike found?”
“No.”
“Who saw her?”
“A neighbor.”
“The last time she had contact with a family member?”
“Five-thirty, just after dinner. Her sister.”
“How old is the sister?”
“Ten.”
“Friends?”
Jason uncapped a marker and enlarged dots already made on the map. “These are where her friends live…”
The last one he circled edged a large thatch of forest.
They all leaned back and groaned.
Reckless Pleasures Page 2