Stranger Mine: a Base Branch novel

by Megan Mitcham

  Ryan slipped his fingers beneath her left hand and caressed the top with his thumb. The gesture bulldozed her melancholy. But it also seemed to thicken the tension in the wide-open air. Matt shifted this way and that, then cleared his throat.

  Gabriella stood and flattened her hand over her ample bosom that even Piper admired. “You need more than coffee after an experience like that,” she said in a slightly breathy voice.

  Matt sure didn’t miss her chest, his gaze raking her body. He shifted again and flung his scrutiny at the stars. When she turned he relented, allowing his stare to follow her petite frame and curvaceous bottom to the door. The hug of her sundress couldn't have helped the situation one bit. It snugged her small waist and swayed with her hips, just so.

  Before speaking, Piper cleared her throat. “So, why stay?”

  “At first…” His lips clamped and he picked at a thin spot in his jeans.

  “It’s okay, Matthew. Sparrow is my blood, but rage wouldn’t be a strong enough word for the emotions I feel toward her.”

  Matt laughed, a short, joyless sound. “That’s the thing. When I heard the thugs talking about me being her debt, I didn’t believe it. Thought, no. Surely, my wife would never do that to me. But…” He smacked his palm on the wooden armrest. “I was hurt. Enraged with myself mostly. For not fighting harder. For not keeping her in rehab longer.

  “I finally realized Sparrow is an adult. Responsible for her own choices. I made a promise, for better or worse, till death do us part. The people who made those promises to each other are dead. I gave her all I had and it wasn’t enough. Now, I don’t feel anything toward her. She needs help, but not from me.”

  “You gave her the best years of her life. Really. You pulled her back from the brink and gave me the sister I never knew I had. I felt guilty for a long time too, but we can only do so much. She has to want to change and right now she doesn’t. We can’t let her destroy our lives too.” Piper placed a hand on his forearm, hugging it tight.

  “Thanks for not making me feel like a total asshole,” he said.

  “I don’t think you possess the ability.” Piper patted his hand before settling back. “So the Sinaloa?”

  “They told me and Varrera that if I left, they’d kill Manuel just like they killed his father.” His palm turned to a fist. “Six years ago they soaked him with gasoline and burned him alive in front of his entire family because Varrera refused to grow for the Sinaloa Federation.”

  “Oh my God,” Piper whispered.

  “For a while I didn’t think God visited Mexico. But…the old man treated me like a person, not a piece of equipment. Taught me everything about how to farm.”

  “Quite a task for a rich city boy,” Ryan offered.

  “No kidding,” Matt agreed. “I’d hardly ever touched anything green. Not even broccoli on my plate. The business end was easy to pick up. I actually helped. Taught him a thing or two about bookkeeping and management.”

  The screen door creaked and Matt quieted, it seemed, in reverence of Gabriella’s appearance. She managed another tray filled with a bottle of wine and four glasses through the door and set them on the table with the other beverages.

  “Please, let me.” Matthew stood, filled the glasses, and doled them out. When they all relaxed back he continued. “The first month I spent angry, the next two I spent working or sleeping like a dead person. Around that time Manuel took an interest in the process. Señor Varrera gave me my first pupil. The best too. He has instincts about the plants. It’s in his blood.”

  “It is,” Gabriella agreed. Her thick lips spread into a prideful smile.

  Matthew smiled back and Ryan squeezed her hand. Yep, he felt it too. The awkwardness of being in the room, but completely ignored by the deep connection shared by two people. She glanced at her love and could do the same thing, if she didn’t have so many more questions.

  “So, you can’t leave because of Manuel?”

  The chair creaked as Matthew leaned forward. He planted his elbows on his knees and gave her his full attention. “In the beginning, yes. But now there are other reasons.” His brown green eyes slid to Gabriella and then back. “I’m happy here. Happier than I’ve been in many, many years, maybe ever. I love the work. It’s backbreaking, long hours, but so satisfying watching the seed you nurtured turn into a bottle of wine that will wow an oenophilist.”

  “A what?” Ryan asked.

  “A wine connoisseur,” Gabriella said with a smile.

  “Ahh.” Ryan ran a hand through his blond locks.

  “I love Manuel. He’s an amazing kid. And though I’ve tried my damnedest not to, I’m in love with his mother,” Matthew admitted.

  Gabriella gasped.

  After a weighted minute, Ryan stood and tugged Piper’s hand. “We’ve had a long day. If you don’t mind, we’ll crash in the bunk house and talk more in the morning.”

  “That’ll be fine,” Matt agreed with a definite rasp to his voice.

  Piper made a move to set her glass down.

  “Bring it,” Ryan said. He leaned in, grabbed the bottle, and towed her along behind him.

  28

  “Are you okay?” Ryan asked after they’d shed their equipment, weapons, and boots.

  “This isn’t at all what I expected. But he’s alive.” Piper unfastened the button at the top of her shirt, and then the next, all the way to the bottom as she talked. “Hell, he’s thriving and happy. Maybe I should feel upset. He is still married to my sister, but I don’t care.”

  It was all he could do not to rip the rest of her clothes off, much less concentrate on the words coming out of her mouth. But they were important because she was important. The most precious thing in his life. With the will of a saint he tamped down his burgeoning erection and watched the emotions play across her face. Optimism sparkled in her eyes. Concern crooked her brow. Peace pulled her cheeks. And so much more.

  She shrugged and slipped out of the long-sleeve shirt. Next her willowy fingers pulled the band from her hair. Section by twined section, the strands loosened with the help of her deft hands.

  So much for not getting hard.

  “In every way, Matthew has been more of a sibling to me and Ivy than Sparrow ever was. So, I guess, my loyalties lie with him. More than that, it’s like I told him, we—Matt, you, me—can’t let other people’s decisions rule our lives. For Matt it’s Sparrow. For me it’s my mother and her inattentive parenting. If she’d been there for us emotionally, instead of trying to prove to the world a woman could do everything without a man, I think we’d have all been okay. But that’s her decision and I won’t let it ruin me. Not for the right man.”

  She had him by the balls already. So, the sucker-punch to the heart nearly knocked him over backward off the tidy bunk. Ryan shoved his feet back in his boots, stood, and holstered his sidearm. He shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from touching her.

  “Go have a shower. It’s small, but clean. Fresh towels are in the cabinet under the sink. I’ll be right back.” He stepped around her and dug the satphone from the ruck, and then strode past without a look. One glance would shoot his plans out of the air before they got good and formed.

  “Never seen you scared before.” A wounded quality hung in her voice.

  “Not scared.”

  “The way you’re high tailing it after what I said, I’d have to disagree.”

  With one hand on the knob he relented. Over his shoulder he raked her with his gaze, hovering at her breasts and tilting his head to get a better view of her backside. “Not scared. Excited, Piper.”

  “Okay,” she dragged the word over several syllables.

  “Get your shower. Finish your wine and have another glass. Relax. I know you trust me, but I’m going to push you and your trust to the limits tonight.”

  Her lips parted, but he turned and left before she could question him further. The exterior lights at the house had been turned off as well as the interior lights along the front. A billion star
s glittered in the clearing sky, allowing him to see that the tormented lovebirds had vacated the porch. Ten to one odds said they went to bed together. If he didn’t have one more thing to tend to, it’s exactly where he’d be with Piper.

  Ryan hit redial on the satphone and waited for the first beep. “Sierra. Hotel. Echo. Papa. Hotel. Echo. Romeo. Delta. One. Nine. Nine. Six.”

  After a series of tones the perma-calm voice of Rhonda Merk answered. “Voice confirmation complete. Agent Noble, how may I direct your call?”

  “Commander Tucker, please.”

  “He’s…” she faltered, “away from his desk at the moment. May I take a message?”

  Surprise gathered Ryan’s brow. In all his years at the Base Branch, these were the most words in succession he’d ever exchanged with the meek woman. In person or on the phone. It was also the first time he’d ever heard her voice waver.

  “Is Agent Slaughter back?”

  “She’s inbound, but still a couple of hours out, sir.”

  “Where’s Tucker? Is he okay?”

  “Well,” she breathed into the line. Ryan imagined her little mouth pursing as she waffled.

  “Just spit it out, Rhonda.”

  “He’s still in interrogation,” she whispered.

  “Jesus, how long has it been?”

  “Too long. For him and Ruez.”

  “I’d worry more about the snitch,” Ryan comforted, though his mind reeled. No one ever lasted that long against the Commander. His cold gaze leveled even the hardest criminals in minutes. And if that didn’t work, his practiced hands made them despise their own resolve. Not many people lasted in the business as long as Tucker had. But it seemed time only sharpened his skills to a brutal point.

  “You’re right. He’s fine. Everything’s fine.”

  “Are you okay?”

  Though recently engaged, Ryan always suspected the woman had a thing for their commanding officer. He’d been glad when a couple of the female operatives took her out to celebrate her relational milestone. Because no way would anyone’s fortitude break through the layers-thick wall of metal Vail Tucker placed between himself and any excuse for a personal life.

  “Fine,” she squeaked. “It’s just, I’m used to the chaos of thirty people running around me, trying to save the world. With everyone on mission at the same time, it’s quiet here. Too quiet.”

  “Sounds to me like you need something to keep you busy and I have just the thing, if you’re up for it.”

  “Me? I don’t know if I can help, but I’ll try.”

  “Log into the server and—”

  “I don’t have access. I just answer the phones and get the Commander’s coffee.”

  “Use mine.” He led her into the system and through the maze of files. “You’re looking for one of the most recent files. I don’t know how he labeled it, or if he even did, but search the key words Sinaloa and Gabrone.”

  “Okay. How about Sinaloa Hub 187 Gabrone Bookeeping?”

  “Sounds promising.”

  “Now what am I looking for?”

  “The name Matthew Reece. I want to know who, besides Gabrone, handled him. I need to know any hub and any person who knows Reece’s current location. I also need to know who is in line to gain control of the Hermosillo area for the cartel.”

  “Give me a minute.” Back in her no-nonsense mode, Rhonda didn’t make a sound as she searched for the information he’d requested. “Okay, give me ten. There’s a sea of names and numbers to go through.”

  “I’ll call back in ten,” Ryan agreed.

  “Great and thanks. I needed something useful to do.”

  “Happy to help.”

  He hung up and headed for the exterior shower attached to the front of the bunkhouse. Ryan opened the cedar door. He’d been prepared for a hose and bar of soap setting in the dirt. The sight of an actual showerhead with smooth stones underneath, a series of narrow shelves, and a stack of terry cloth on the high one nearly had him whooping with joy. He slung one towel over the top, close to the nozzle. Next, he set the phone and his H&K—after checking the safety—on the remaining heap. Then he got to work stripping and getting clean for Piper.

  “Izar Torres!” Rhonda Merk hollered the name as opposed to her usual, “Voice confirmation complete,” greeting. “He lives in Santa Ana, just south of Caborca.”

  “Yeah, we drove through it yesterday.”

  “We?” Her mousey voice pitched up two decibels.

  He ignored the question.

  “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to…anyway, Torres also has a house in Phoenix.”

  “Arizona?”

  “Yeah. That’s where he is now.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Phone records.”

  “Nice work. Tucker needs to put you to better use.” Ryan winced at the awkward potential for double meaning, but she didn’t seem to notice.

  “Thanks. This is fun. Now what?”

  “As soon as he gets out of that room, tell the boss to call me.”

  “Oh.” Her disappointment dripped through the phone line. “All right, I will.”

  “Thanks again, Rhonda.”

  “Oh, wait. Here he is.” All the excitement of a new recruit swirled in her tone. “Commander Tucker!” she yelled. “Sorry to holler in your ear, but he was heading for the lockers.” A moment of complete silence passed. Apparently remembering herself in the presence of the commander, Rhonda calmed her tone. “One moment, Agent Noble, and I’ll transfer your call.”

  When she put him on hold he laughed, and then snugged the towel hanging around his waist.

  “Tucker,” the man answered.

  “One hell of an informational,” Ryan said.

  “He’s been trained and he’s a stubborn, prideful man.”

  “Aren’t we all.”

  “I suppose. But he cracked. We wouldn’t.”

  “No, sir.”

  “Still a ways to go though. What do you need, Noble? Extraction?”

  “I need a team on Izar Torres.”

  “Why?”

  “The situation with Reece is unusual. Guzman and Gabrone stashed the guy with a family they terrorized for loyalty. They were to retrieve him after a year to make ransom demands on Reece’s family. If he leaves, they’ll burn a young boy to death for the offense.” Ryan scrubbed a hand through his damp hair. “I need all the records of Matthew Reece as a cartel asset erased. Torres is the last with any link to him. I’d do it. Hell, I’d love to do it. But I can’t risk leaving them open to attack.”

  “When do you need it?”

  “Yesterday, but as soon as possible will do.”

  “We’re thin at home base, but I can reroute an incoming team. Consider it done in twenty-four hours. Then wrap it up and get back here. I have a mountain of paperwork for you to complete on this joyride of yours.”

  “Yes, sir. I earned it.”

  “And then some.”

  “You heading back into the room?”

  “Seems I’ll be in there for the rest of my life. He’s let off a lot. Copped to knowing about the cargo load you intercepted and two others at a northern site. I had to send teams there too. But he’s holding back on something.”

  “If anyone can get it out of him, you can.”

  “Quit kissing my ass, Noble.”

  “Yes, sir.” He had a much finer one in mind for that.

  29

  Piper licked wine from her lower lip and considered the gulp of burgundy liquid swirling inside the crystal goblet. The oak, pepper, and berry of the full-bodied fiesta settled on her tongue before she swallowed. Her finger rubbed the glass rim. A whine resonated deep in the cubby of the bottom bunk. She relaxed back, part on the pillow and part on the wall. Her feet tapped together in reined anticipation. Glancing across the room at Ryan’s glass, she moaned. If he didn’t hurry, she’d have an entire crystalline melody prepared. She’d already towel-dried her hair, combed the tangled mass, and even done a few yoga poses to loosen h
er tight muscles.

  Chained to the wall, she’d learned the value of patience. Yet, where Ryan was concerned the skill fled her altogether. She eyed the red ring around her wrist. The cool room soothed the wound. The freedom from the bandage alleviated some of the insane itch the healing process incited.

  Done waiting, Piper gulped the last of her wine, set the glass by the wall, and stood to find Ryan. Perhaps her state of undress could persuade him from whatever task he’d set upon. As she reached for the door handle, it swung wide, away from her grasp. The open door displayed a mental feast of orgasm-inducing man. White terry cloth hung low on Ryan’s lean hips, accentuating the rigid V of his abs.

  The fuzzy warmth of a quarter bottle of wine morphed into fireside heat as he groaned. Anticipation obliterated her breezy calm, riding her neurons like leather-wearing bikers. Her nipples beaded. Piper wanted to beg him to order her around. To tell her exactly what he wanted and how he wanted it. Thanks to him, she knew how to do it without a word.

  She walked to the foot of the first bed, opposite the door, turned toward Ryan, and surrendered herself. Mind. Body. Soul. Back straight, shoulders relaxed, Piper knelt and rested her hands on her thighs. Dropping her gaze from his body stung. She longed to watch his diamond-blue gaze rove her body. To watch his muscles tighten in response. Just as her body coiled for his. But the reward far outweighed the temporary gratification.

  Out of her periphery she saw Ryan step inside and drop his clothes into a heap. The door thunked closed. Step by slow step he walked past her. Higher and higher thrill whirled inside. The gallop of her heart challenged that of a wild stallion. He moved behind her and placed two things on the floor beside the bed. Then the vibration of his breath tickled her ear.

  “Like a unicorn or a repeat triple crown, I didn’t think you existed. And here you are. So powerful and strong-willed. So beautifully submissive.” His big, bare feet stopped in front of her. “Look at me, Piper.”