by Billi Jean
He’d just met her and already his mind had turned to when she’d leave. She would, too. A woman like that in Wyoming wasn’t something he could picture for the long haul. Trouble was, if he already felt cold and missed her, if he already wished he had thought up some excuse to keep her here longer what would he be like after she left for good?
Obviously, he’d lost his mind somewhere along the way back to coming like a porn star because he didn’t want casual, no strings attached sex with her. He didn’t want that kind of thing at all if it meant she’d leave and he’d never see her again.
He wanted more from her. He wanted her.
He closed his eyes. “God damn, I’m fucked up, aren’t I?”
Yep. I’ve lost my mind. Leave your issues at the door, she said. Only that isn’t so easy, is it?
She’d wanted him to come over and make love anytime and obviously anywhere they could. And what did he do? He turned her down.
She must’ve thought he was the biggest dick in the world and not in the way a man wanted, either. He knew some guys who fucked anyone, anywhere then talked crap about the lady after for being a whore.
Fuck, she probably thinks I think that way.
At the thought he smacked his hat on his thigh, spooking White.
“No shit, asshole,” he muttered, steadying the gelding. What to do about it, though? No way could he let her think that. Shit, why did his brain stop working like this? He knew better. It was like he’d lost the ability to think clearly when he’d lost his leg.
Probably because he hadn’t been thinking too much lately—or talking. Hell, he hadn’t even been around people. He hadn’t wanted to be but now, yeah, now he wanted near one person in particular. Sonya. And of course, now she was gone, he had things to say to her. Questions he wanted to ask, things he wanted to know.
“Hell, maybe I have more issues than she does,” he said.
Jasper barked, probably agreeing.
But hell, he wanted to talk to her. She’d seen pain. He could tell. Any woman that shrugged off a man’s about face like that didn’t get her hopes up for much in life. That came from not getting a lot. But a beautiful woman like Sonya should get anything she wanted, just from lifting her pretty little finger and pointing.
Or her gun.
She had to be some kind of… What? Spy? Terrorist? Agent?
She didn’t strike him as a girl who’d been in the military, but hell, maybe she had been. He couldn’t picture her saluting anyone, let alone taking orders. He grinned at an image of her in camo and couldn’t get her in anything other than one of his old Army T-shirts and nothing else. Of course she’d be hot. He sure the hell wanted to see that because to his way of thinking, when a woman wore a man’s clothes that meant something—ownership of the guy, kinda.
He scratched his jaw and thought about that. Yep. He wanted her. Could see how he was steps away from falling in love with her. He was the kind of man that where his dick went, his heart wasn’t far behind.
Not always, no, but he could tell when he was dangerously into a woman. He’d fucked his share before he’d been engaged and not one of them had ever responded to him the way Sonya had. Cindy hadn’t come near. He’d always been too careful of her. Now that he thought of it, not once in his life had he just gone for it and worked his dick with the only thought being getting his rocks off. Not only had he just done that, but he’d had a double climax. And so had she. That kind of shit didn’t just happen in life. Did it?
It has to mean something.
She had to mean more than a two month sex vacation.
Life didn’t just drop stuff like this in his lap without it meaning something. He knew. The bomb that had ripped into his face and taken his leg had gone off minutes after he’d felt a warning tingle down his spine. He’d shoved his buddy around a corner and they’d both survived that day. Him missing some parts, but Vic had made a clean getaway, then hauled him into base and saved his life.
Maybe he’d been meant to come home, not to wallow in his misery and drink himself nearly to death, but to meet this woman.
It sounded insane, and maybe he was.
The first woman to have sex with him in two years, and he couldn’t just keep it as the hottest, sexiest fuck-fest in the history of mankind.
Why didn’t that surprise him more?
His damn DNA had never made him one of those guys after a trophy fuck and a world record for the most pussy he could nail on his leave. He wasn’t built that way. He liked to know a woman, understand how to rock her world so he could then rock his by pushing her to do more, want more, hell…need more—from him.
Cindy had fucked him over. She’d been the kind of girl next door every soldier wanted to come home to. An angel. So damn sweet, he’d never even raised his voice in front of her. He’d also never fucked her the way he’d ground into Sonya.
Right now, he’d trade every single chance at getting back with Cindy for a way to turn back time so he could end up in a cabin with one sexy, hot redhead.
Insane. He was going insane.
“You just met her,” he grumbled.
True, but I want more.
How was he going to do that now that he’d made up some damn excuse not to go with her? Go after her and say what? I found the cows and all’s good for us to fuck like bunnies? Own up to the fact that I want more?
He didn’t know, but he couldn’t stay away. He already missed her.
Chapter Five
“Well, Blue,” Sonya said to her puppy, giving her a quick caress and getting licked in turn. “It’s just going to be you and me for a while. Sounds like fun, huh?”
Blue wiggled all over the SUV’s leather seat, nearly falling off it in her happiness to get closer.
“Well, you’d be the first to be so thrilled over that, but get back to me after a week or so of being stuck with me.”
The pup gave her a soft woof and settled with her nose on Sonya’s lap, so happy she obviously didn’t take Sonya’s warning seriously.
Maybe if I didn’t hit so hard, or if I’d ignored the sexual chemistry and the hard-on outlined under Cody’s jeans, he’d want to be with me, too. Some men don’t want to have sex just because they’re hard…
“Yeah, right.” She tossed her hair behind her shoulders and frowned at the beautiful scenery as she drove. But most men did.
What is wrong with me? I don’t let shit like this cloud my head—ever.
Lately meaningless sex left her feeling more alone than anything so maybe that was what was wrong. Maybe it was a bit of him, too. Cody. What was he doing searching for cows out here? She could barely see the road she was on, not just from the sun going down, either. The dirt road was overgrown. The whole place was Wild West to the extreme. She bet no one drove up here, at least not since the snow had melted.
Cody has been up here.
Yes, he has.
So some people did get up here. Would he say anything to anyone about her?
Does it matter? She had to go to town and fix the flat, so she would be seen. But that was easy to work out. Just passing through, so on and so on. No one really thought a person was outright making things up like that. Cody could say something and if he did, she might draw more attention than she wanted if her story didn’t match.
Maybe she’d wait and fix the tire after a day or so in a farther town.
“We’ll be there within an hour,” she murmured to Blue. She still had to drive on the navigation system. Ten miles, tops. With the rough road it would take time since she couldn’t go faster than a person could walk. The flat tire had happened close enough that she’d thought of hiking it to the cabin. “Not tomorrow, I’ve had enough driving. We’ll get there, unpack, do a quick tour of the place and by then we’ll be tired enough to sleep.”
Blue gazed up at her like she hung the moon, making Sonya snort. “I don’t know what Ace was thinking, giving me a dog, but I guess if I have to have one, you’re a pretty good one.”
The pup cl
osed her eyes, falling asleep that easily.
“Man, I wish I could do that,” Sonya whispered.
* * * *
Less than forty minutes later the navigation system had her going left and onto a road that was basically a wild animal trail. A few seconds down that bumpy thing then a turn around a groove of pines and a cabin came into view. She stopped the SUV. Ace’s cabin didn’t need any repairs. In fact, it could have been the number one on some top ten best hunting cabins web search. Lovely honey-colored wood lined the porch, making it almost appear as if the house had grown out of the trees surrounding it. The natural feel to the place continued to the walls and roof, even extending out to the framed windows and front door. She’d have bet her last dollar he’d fixed it up when he’d hidden out here with his wife, Lacy. No way had a man built this place without a woman’s input. Lacy was an architect and an artist. Sonya spotted a triangular stained glass window high in the façade and had her answer. She’d heard that Lacy did stained glass. No doubt she’d designed the entire place.
The cabin sat in the perfect location, too. There was a high steep canyon wall behind it. The back of the canyon might’ve even touched it. The reddish orange rocks were slanted so maybe the walls were clear of it by a few feet, but the position of the place hid it. The bends in the trail she’d been on would also make finding this place next to impossible.
The thought that had gone into planning this place had her admiring Ace Ryland all over again. The man was a genius at strategy, and she’d heard he’d hidden his wife when the Russian mob had them both in their sights.
Would Walters know this place existed? She’d only heard Ace was holed up in a cabin—not where or even what state—but she’d never had a need to know. Walters would follow every path he could to kill her. Did he know that Ace had once saved her life? And she’d returned the favor? And since then she had been helping the guys when she could? A man like Walters didn’t value friends, but he understood connections. He might connect her to Ace through Tazz and Dare.
She rubbed Blue’s head as she thought. The puppy nibbled on her fingers, happy as could be. Well, if Walters did find her here, no doubt Ace had enough ammunition in the house to take him out.
“Come on. I guess we should get there, first, huh? Then worry.”
She put the SUV into gear and Blue gave her a soft woof, no doubt ready to run around and play in the high grass. There was no garage, but she parked under the canopy of trees next to the porch where Ace had put down some gravel.
“All right,” she said, suddenly nervous.
She was used to being alone, but alone among millions, not alone among no one. There wasn’t a bar, club, diner, coffee shop or gas station within hours of this location. That wasn’t the only reason she had the jitters. Getting out of the SUV, she was hit by a blast of cold air. She rubbed her arms, wondering if it was the cold, or…the drug. Getting off it out here would be hard and, from what Chung said, painful. She already knew that. She had been off the drug for over six months now, and still it was there, in her system, churning her up into a mess most of the time. Chung said the DNA altering wasn’t permanent, but she had to wonder. She healed quickly and her endurance was high. Even now she’d gone all day driving after only getting a few hours’ sleep at the hotel and still she needed to do more.
The cabin wasn’t large, maybe a thousand square feet, possibly more, but it had huge front windows, which surprised her, but then the view was incredible, so why not? She unlocked the front door and was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t smell all closed in. It smelled fresh, like pine from all the wood.
Lacy had definitely been in charge of the decorating. The furniture was rustic, but tasteful. For some reason she had Ace pegged as a checker kind of guy. Checkered sofa and so on, but there wasn’t a single thing, besides a hunter green blanket along the back of the leather chair, that felt like Ace.
But what do I really know of Ace?
Not much, she realized after going through the house quickly. She would take the spare room and use the bath down that hallway, rather than the huge bed upstairs with the walk in shower. Besides, the downstairs bathroom had a shelf she could sit on and let the water just pour over her. She checked the water pressure, and let it run for a bit when it came out a bit rusty.
Afterward, she used her key to go downstairs to the part of the house she assumed was built just by Ace. The door took three keys, for one, and even then she had a code she had to punch into a hidden keypad at the back of the small basement. The basement was good, well taken care of, too, but she bet Ace spent more time behind the swinging shelf of canned goods more. She punched in the code and held her breath at what lay beyond.
An arsenal was pretty close to the right word for what Ace had. Good God, the man was ready for WWIII. She stepped in and the door slid closed silently behind her. Lights came on automatically. The two computer screens across from her on the large wooden desk lit up and within seconds, the whirl of their fans was audible. The air in the room was fresh, so it must’ve been pumped in from somewhere, but the ceiling was tight so the air must have come in through another entrance.
The room held shelves of weapons—all kinds of weapons, some of them illegal off a military base. Some weren’t even legal there. She wasn’t using them. Walters wouldn’t come for her up here. If he did, chances are he’d shoot her from long range. There wouldn’t be a warning. She’d just be dead.
Would that be so bad? Who would really care?
From above her, she heard Blue barking.
Well, yeah, Blue would but look how fast the pup fell in love. It wasn’t real. Not that fast. She’d fall for some other human. Sonya shook her head at her thoughts. Her mood made her antsy for exercise, but she sat down and signed into the computers easily enough with the code Ace had shared. She had a photographic memory even without the DNA cocktail. Now she never forgot a number.
Her inbox was empty, which was good. She signed into a more secure network, read Ace’s message on the meat in the freezer and a note on not using the majority of his guns because they weren’t typically allowed off a military installation and would cause more problems than they were worth.
She sent him a quick reply thanking him, but made sure he knew she wasn’t going to use anything. No doubt he’d grumble, but really, she wasn’t here to engage Walters in a battle. She hoped he never found her. More and more she just wanted done with it all. The constant anxiety, worry and stress had worn her out. Now all she wanted was… An image of Tazz dancing with Kristen flashed through her thoughts, quickly followed by Cody’s half grin.
Is that what I want? A cowboy I just met?
She laughed softly at her own thoughts. Someday maybe, but not this time around.
A quick inventory of the rest of the room and she guessed Lacy hated this part of the cabin. She knew she did. Guns, dying, death… They were overrated. She’d experienced enough to last the rest of her life.
With one more glance around, she paused at the door.
Cody Johnson. It wouldn’t hurt to do some research.
She walked over and sat back down at the computer and opened a private search with her agency password. Seconds later she was reading about Cody Johnson, formerly part of the highly trained unit known as the Regimental Reconnaissance Detachment. He’d been part of three four-man teams that had gone into Kabul for information and suffered a direct strike while getting out. Cody had saved his teammates’ lives. They’d taken him into the nearest base of operations but by then part of his leg had had to be removed. He’d suffered third-degree burns from the blast on his chest, shoulder and face.
She frowned over his service record. He’d been an officer and had been offered a good position within the Army, which he’d turned down two years ago, but his file still had him marked as active, pending his response to another offer.
So not only a soldier—a hero.
She knew the Ranger creed. They were tough guys, some of them jackasses, but most
decent men, like Dare, Ace and Tazz. She narrowed her eyes. Yeah, he’s a good guy.
She’d pegged that right away, which explained why he’d felt bad over the hot sex.
And why he isn’t suited to me.
No, Cody wasn’t her reward for years of sacrifice, and she sure wasn’t his. He had things right—go get his cows, head home and get as far away from her as he could.
She’d never been one for relationships anyway—not that she’d ever allowed herself to have one. Maybe someday she’d be worthy of a man like Cody, but not now. Especially not now.
* * * *
“Damn,” Eric grumbled. “Watch the bumps,” he added when Mindy hit another.
“It’s the road, Eric,” she said, surprising him.
He glanced over at her and narrowed his eyes at how tight her grip was on the wheel. She didn’t glance over but he knew she was aware of his attention.
“Turn left at the next street,” he reminded her, letting it go. They were almost there—LA and a step closer to getting his face repaired. And the drug he’d had Mindy steal from Duke to a chemist who could do some pretty fancy shit with enough money.
Or the right motivation.
He didn’t need Duke to make his millions. He could do that all on his own. He knew that now. With enough samples, he’d have buyers lined up and not just the upper crust, but anyone with the right cash. He wasn’t picky. There was no need to be, not when he knew what a jackpot he had on his hands. His chemist—a kid—was a freak of the first order. Bat shit crazy, really. He’d have to go hard on him to get what he wanted, otherwise the too-smart geek would try to screw him over. It was amazing what people would do when their lives were the ones on the line. Motivation—that was the key.
“This guy is crazy,” he warned Mindy, remembering what he had planned to inspire him.