Fiancé by Friday

by Catherine Bybee

  “He discounted me because of my gender. I was someone my mother needed to deal with. Not him. When Blake decided to find his own path, I mistakenly thought my father would notice that I was more than an ornament to be introduced to his friends and then set aside. Naive of me. He was an awful husband and father. If he were born a hundred and fifty years ago, he could have fit in quite well.”

  “Sounds like a hard man to live with.”

  She placed more wood on her pile and sat on a fallen log. “He was. I probably shouldn’t speak ill of the dead.”

  Leave it to Gwen to worry about a spirit’s feelings. “I won’t tell.” He took a log and carved into the soft earth to make a small pit for their fire.

  “What about your parents? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk about them.”

  Neil hadn’t thought about his parents in a long time and it had been even longer since he spoke of them. “Mom ran off when I was a kid. My dad raised me. He was a marine. Served for twenty plus years before he died.”

  “When did he pass?”

  “Seven years now. Lung cancer. He chain smoked himself to death.”

  “How awful.”

  Neil shrugged. “It could have been worse. Once he was diagnosed, he went quick. Count your blessings and all that.”

  Gwen smiled and leaned her chin on her folded hands. “What was he like?”

  “He was one of the good guys. Dad didn’t have a lot to say most of the time. I knew he cared for me. He had a good group of friends whose wives helped out with me when I was younger. We moved around a lot in the beginning. Settled here in Colorado when he was close to retiring.” Poor bastard didn’t even have a chance to enjoy his retirement. Neil gathered the smaller pieces of wood, discarding the branches he knew would cause an excessive amount of smoke, and piled them to start the fire.

  “He must be the reason you joined the military.”

  “It’s the only life I knew. Worked for him. I never thought of being something other than a marine.”

  “I’ll bet he was proud of you.”

  Neil remembered the photo of him in full uniform. It sat on his dad’s fireplace mantel. “Yeah. He was.” He sparked a match over dry moss and urged the brush to ignite.

  Gwen sighed. “He never remarried?”

  “Dated a little. But none stuck.” Little by little, the branches caught and Neil piled more on.

  By the time the sun was low on the horizon, the fire was large enough to warm them and the food they planned on eating.

  They’d pulled on their sweatshirts and sat next to the fire roasting marshmallows after they shared a meal. Gwen did the roasting and leaned against him. She asked questions about life in the military and skimmed over his MIA mother. Now there was a person Neil didn’t bother thinking about. He never knew her outside what his father had told him growing up. According to his dad, they were too young to marry and she wasn’t ready for kids and a life of moving around. Neil was sure there was more to it, but his father didn’t go on about her, therefore Neil didn’t ask.

  “I never would have thought I’d be here, like this, with you,” Gwen said as she swirled the stick over the fire.

  “It wasn’t planned.”

  “I can’t say I’m happy about how we got here, but it’s not possible for me to hate it.”

  She leaned her back against his chest and he traced her arm with the tips of his fingers.

  He hoped she felt that way later…when the new Raven was gone.

  Gwen peeled off another marshmallow, twisted toward him, and fed it to him. He opened his mouth and accepted the treat. Her seductive smile grew bigger when he licked her fingers.

  “I’m beginning to believe that you’re like these roasted bits of sugar. A little hard and burned on the outside and all soft and gooey on the inside.”

  He finished chewing and grinned. He wasn’t sure he had a gooey inside. But it if made Gwen look at him with such trust, he’d let her believe it.

  “You’re the one made of pure sugar, Gwen.”

  She relaxed against him once again, this time dropping the stick. “Would you like to know a secret?” When she dropped her head against his chest, he indulged in a sniff of her hair.

  “What secret?”

  She laced her fingers with his as she spoke. “I always wanted to be a bad girl. You know, the kind who wears leather and drinks whiskey straight from the bottle.”

  He couldn’t picture it. “Back of a motorcycle with a tattoo of some guy’s name on your arm?”

  “Not sure about the name, but perhaps something. Maybe a belly button piercing.”

  Now that he could picture, and the image made him hard. “We can have you pierced in Colorado Springs.”

  She giggled. He loved her laugh. “I’d chicken out.”

  “I can get you drunk and you’d wake up with it.”

  She laughed harder. “Count on you to find the idea appealing.”

  “You started it. Belly button piercings are hot.” And when was the last time he’d told a woman anything like this? Never.

  “What of you, Neil? Any secrets?”

  “You’ve seen my ink.”

  “Yes, I have. And I’ll say it is very hot, indeed.” Her accent made it all so clean and proper. “Anything else you didn’t have the nerve to do?”

  He squeezed her hand in his and waited for her to look up at him. When she did he leaned down and placed his lips on hers. He twisted her across his lap and continued their kiss. Her taste exploded on his tongue and heated him thoroughly. When he pulled away, her hooded gaze found his.

  “I’ve always wanted you,” he confessed.

  “You had to know I wanted the same. What stopped you?”

  He pushed away a lock of hair from her eyes. “I’m hard inside and out, Gwen. And you’re a princess who deserves a prince.” Not someone like him. Someone who couldn’t sleep at night because his past wouldn’t let him.

  She cupped his face in the palm of her hand and her smile dropped. “The princess wants the knight and not the prince. She wants someone who knows what he wants and takes risks to get it.”

  “There are no guarantees with me. I’m a risky gamble.”

  She kissed him briefly. “I’ve already rolled the dice, Neil. You can’t talk me out of you.”

  “Is that what I’m doing?” He knew he was.

  She nodded. “Besides, if I wanted guaranteed boredom I would have dated someone in my father’s polo club.”

  “Motorcycles versus ponies?”

  “You do drive one, right?”

  Not in years but he wasn’t about to ruin her fantasy. “At least now I know where you got the leather fetish.”

  “Oh, no. That stems from all the adult films I’ve watched.”

  “Not a proper princess after all,” he said laughing.

  “Certainly not.” Her hand ran down his chest and moved between his legs. “Would you like to see how improper I can be?”

  His smile fell and desire shot through him. “Tent. Now.”

  She scrambled off his lap and he kicked dirt on their fire before joining her to light hers.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Everything moved slowly. Boomer, Robb, and Linden followed Billy through the dark heat. They approached each guard from behind, took them out without a gunfight, and slid their bodies to the ground. Their silent deaths robbed the terrorists of the glory they wanted and for that, Neil was grateful.

  Once the guards were eliminated, Neil signaled for Boomer and Robb to move in first, with Linden close behind. Their job was to flush Raven out and give Billy a clear shot.

  Somewhere in Neil’s head, he felt the dream take hold. He told himself it was just a dream. A distant memory. But worry crawled up his spine as he tried to change the outcome of what came next.

  Boomer and Robb hit the door first, Linden and Billy next. From behind, Mac was sandwiched between Rick and Mickey.

  Raven jumped from a chair at the same time a child ran to him.
They spoke rapidly to each other in a language Mac didn’t understand.

  There was a split-second hesitation and Raven yelled an order to the kid and another child joined the room.

  That’s when Mac noticed the bombs. Strapped to the children. And the kids ran toward them.

  “Take the shot,” Mac ordered. Raven went down, his eyes in a death stare. Billy, Rick, and Mickey ran past Mac. One of the kids grabbed Boomer. Robb pulled the kid off.

  Raven, with his last act in his fucked-up life, reached for something inside his robes. Mac dived to the ground as both bombs strapped to the children went off.

  “Shhh. It’s OK. I’m here.” Gwen’s soothing voice woke him. Her lips sought his with brief kisses. “I’m here.”

  Her slender body snuggled around his in the sleeping bag they shared as she coaxed him awake and chased the dream away.

  At least the dream spared him the image of her blowing up. Still, he felt physical pain in his chest from the memory of his lost friends.

  Gwen kissed him again, tracked her hand down his hip and thigh. “Let me make it better, Neil.” Her fingers wrapped around him.

  She already was. The dream faded faster than the night before. As if sensing his needs, Gwen slid a condom over him and rolled on top. She wasn’t looking for foreplay. And if he had to guess, she wasn’t even looking for her own fulfillment. And that tore at his heart. He’d never known anyone like her.

  Neil took her hips in both his hands and guided her onto him. Her tight sheath drove away his dream. All that was left was Gwen as her body opened to him. Accepting all that he was.

  Their pace was slow. Gwen coaxed him with sultry unladylike moans as her body moved with his. The hours before they slept had been hot and fast passion that left them sated and exhausted. This was steam and smoke with the promise of prolonged pleasure in the end.

  Gwen sat up on him, making him find an even deeper place inside her. The night air cooled their bodies, but Gwen didn’t seem to notice. Neil took her breasts in his hands and pinched her nipples. “Oh, Neil. Yes.”

  He smiled and replaced his fingers with his lips. Gwen moved faster, until she couldn’t sit up any longer.

  He took advantage and kissed her, all tongue and heat. His balls drew tight and he thought of ice-cold streams in an effort to hold off for her release. The wait wasn’t long. Her nails clawed into his shoulders and her breath held. Her body shuddered around his and the cold stream shot into hot lava.

  He met her moan with his own and floated slowly back to earth.

  Michael was on location for the next week, which gave Karen more time alone than she preferred. Tony, Michael’s manager, offered to accompany her to the Tarzana house so she could gather more of her personal belongings and some of the Alliance files.

  Tony was a friend as well as a manager to Michael’s career. The Italian man stood at five eight and talked with his hands. En route to the Tarzana home, he talked obsessively about Michael’s latest movie. “You’ve met the leading lady, right?”

  “Sandra? Sexy little brunette?”

  Tony eyed her. “Not jealous?”

  Karen snorted a laugh. “Not in my DNA.”

  “You know he’ll be kissing her for the camera.”

  “Nothing says intimacy quite like a crew of what, twenty or more spectators?”

  Tony laughed, pulled onto her street. “You’re a rare woman, Karen.”

  “So Michael keeps telling me.”

  It was early, and the street was free of the many cars the neighbors parked in front of their houses.

  Still, her nerves were a little jumpy as they pulled into the driveway and pushed out of the car.

  The house was quiet as she stepped inside. The alarm buzzed, and she moved to the panel to disengage it. Karen glanced at the camera pointing at the front door and waved. “Hi, Neil…or Dillon…or whoever.”

  Tony stepped in behind her. “Who ya talking to?”

  She glanced at the ceiling. “The camera.”

  It was the first time Tony had been in the house. He turned in a circle, checked out the monitoring equipment outside and inside the front door. “You’re serious about your security.”

  “I’m starting to think everyone who lives in this house finds themselves in need of it.”

  Tony closed the door behind him.

  “Because of the neighbors?”

  Karen moved to the back of the house and looked out the back window. The police had long since left but there was black powder residue on the door handle, as if they were dusting for prints. “Not just the neighbors. When Samantha lived here, someone bugged the place, digging for dirt on her husband. Eliza’s story was all over the news last year.”

  “Witness protection program, right?”

  Karen nodded and opened the refrigerator. She took the milk and a package of steaks and tossed them in the trash. No need for the house to stink up while it’s empty. “Right. Now Gwen’s run off with Neil because of the neighbors. I’m starting to think the house is cursed.”

  Tony smiled. “If the house was cursed then you’d fall prey.”

  She thought of Juan, and his comments the day before. Thought of her phobia with birds and how many of the kids at the center knew about it. Instead of voicing her concerns to Tony, a man she hardly knew, she said, “I guess.”

  “So what are we here to get?” Tony asked.

  Karen moved into their office and turned on the computer. While it booted up she asked Tony to follow her upstairs. There, she removed her clothes from the closet by the armload. Tony made several trips to the car while she uploaded files to zip drives. Her laptop would serve her well, but many of the client files were only on the main system at the house.

  As she switched off the computer, the jarring ring of the phone made her jump. She didn’t recognize the number but decided to answer it anyway.

  “Hello?”

  “Karen?”

  “Gwen? Holy cow, Gwen where are you? Are you OK?” The last thing Karen expected was a call from the missing woman.

  “I’m not OK, I’m fabulous. Neil and I…oh, I can’t wait to tell you everything. I don’t have a lot of time right now.”

  There wasn’t an ounce of concern in Gwen’s voice. That didn’t settle with Karen.

  “Is Neil right there?”

  “He stepped into the gas station restroom. How is everything there?”

  “Confusing. Dean’s running around trying to make sense of what Neil is doing. Do you have a clue?”

  “The crows weren’t an accident, Karen. They were planted.”

  “Probably. But some things have happened here since you left that makes me think the birds have more to do with me than Neil.”

  Gwen hesitated. “I trust him, Karen.”

  “You sure that’s not the sex talking?”

  “It’s more than sex.”

  Well that answers that question. “Neil’s time in the military made him more than a little paranoid, Gwen. You know that.”

  “Even if that were true, that doesn’t change the fact that our neighbors are dead and someone bugged the houses.”

  “We haven’t found the bugs.” Karen talked quickly.

  “They’ll be found.” Yet Gwen’s voice wavered. “Listen, I’ve got to go. Didn’t want you to worry.”

  “Where are you?”

  “North. Close to the Canadian border. I’ll be in touch in a few days. Tell everyone not to worry.”

  “Be safe.”

  “I have my own bodyguard.” And then Gwen hung up.

  Karen stared at the phone, stunned.

  “Who was that?” Tony asked from the doorway.

  “Gwen. She said she was on her way to Canada.”

  “Was she OK?”

  Almost too much so.

  He removed the ear fobs and tossed them into the passenger seat of his car. “Leave it to a woman to blow your cover, Mac.”

  He ignored the fact that he hadn’t slept in days…not peacefully an
yway, and turned over the engine in his car. Eventually someone would say something. Waiting had paid off. Not only did he know where Neil’s general direction had turned, but he knew he was fucking his woman.

  And that was useful indeed.

  Before he left town he needed to plant one more bird…He’d do his best to assure that Neil’s friends doubted his sanity. Not only would their tongues loosen in the bugged locations, Neil’s death would appear a tragic accident, and not that of a hero trying to rescue his woman.

  “We’re good?” Neil asked when he returned from the bathroom.

  Gwen handed him the prepaid phone and smiled. “Karen was home. I told her what you said.”

  “Did she question it?”

  “Not at all. Sounds like they are all concerned back home. I hate to worry everyone.”

  Neil leaned against the car. “A little worry now’s better than tragedy later.”

  She nodded, agreeing with him, but wasn’t completely convinced.

  “Where are we going next?” she asked.

  “Another night of camping and then we should be able to find that bed and shower you love so much.”

  “You like ’em, too.”

  He opened the car door for her. “The chilly stream was better than caffeine.”

  The stream had been ice-cold. Turned her fingers blue within seconds. “I’m fond of warmer water.”

  Neil tucked behind the wheel and slid his sunglasses over his eyes. “Not much longer, Gwen.”

  “Where are we headed tomorrow?”

  They were at a gas station in a small town tucked in the mountains. From the map, Gwen had seen they were close to several larger cities.

  “Colorado Springs,” Neil said as he pulled out of the station.

  “Isn’t that just down the hill?”

  “It is.”

  “Then why not go down there now? Much as I enjoyed the tent, it isn’t my favorite place to sleep with you.”

  “Tomorrow. Tonight we’ll be more visible up here. I need our guy to think we’re both up here…hiding out.”

  “You’re setting a trap?”

  “Baiting a trap. But don’t worry. You’ll be long gone before he shows up.”

  Her skin chilled. “What about you? Where will you be?”