The Promise of Love

by Billi Jean

  “Yep, it is. Good, maybe we can play cards, you know, if we’re snowed in.”

  “What? This is Wyoming, they’re used to snow. They have plows for this stuff.”

  “Stuff, huh? Well, I think some of that stuff is going to hit soon.” He spotted the unmistakable tread of a snowmobile. “Who rides up here, I wonder?” he muttered, examining the tracks coming out of the woods on their right. They were up pretty far. Whoever was out here was far from town. A rancher, maybe. He’d not noticed any animal tracks, though, so if it was a rancher, what was the cowboy doing up here? Maybe hunters. Or, hell, some kids out joyriding on snowmobiles.

  “I have no idea, but they packed it down for us.”

  “Yeah, I guess they did,” he said and followed the trail with his eyes up through the denser forest to their left. “You ever snowmobile?”

  “Sure, when I was little. My uncle had them.”

  “Yeah, they can be fun,” he murmured, his concern over the tracks building instead of diminishing.

  “Well? Left, or keep going on this? Did you bring water?” she asked.

  He nodded and turned to show her his pack. She unzipped it, then reached in for the bottles he’d stored away.

  He glanced around at her to see she’d found the sandwiches, too. “Do you want one of these?”

  “Naw, not yet. You help yourself though.”

  “No, I’m good. I ate most of yours,” she offered and waved to the snowmobile tracks. “I vote for the tracks. Easier to walk on, right?”

  “All right,” he agreed, taking the water and waiting while she zipped his pack up. She hummed a little under her breath and he recognized the song she’d skated to, one by John Legend. “You have a good ear for music.”

  “I do?” she asked, handing him the water. “Why do you say that?”

  He took a drink and wiped his mouth. “Well, you can hum a tune, that’s not easy.”

  “Oh, that, yeah, I like that song.”

  The sound of snowmobiles coming down the track had him moving her aside and up onto a higher trail. His instincts warned that this wasn’t the time or place to meet anyone, especially with her here with him. He helped her behind a tree in case the crazy drivers weren’t watching ahead of them. Most accidents on snowmobiles and four by fours were caused by stupid people. Today wasn’t the day to meet any either. He had plans and they didn’t include dealing strangers.

  Seconds later, the noise got loud enough to require headgear. He glanced at Paris to find her covering her ears with her mittens.

  The first snowmobile roared by, carrying a man in white and gray camo with an illegal gun slung over his shoulder. David urged Paris down and around the other side of the mound of snow, following and making sure to keep her out of sight. She didn’t ask what he was doing, and when five more men followed the first, he held his breath as the last one called to the others and stopped. The rest kept on, leaving the lone man behind.

  Fuck. From where he was he could clearly see the tracks he and Paris had left behind. He’d been sloppy, damn sloppy. He eased Paris farther down, moving as slowly as he could so that the guy would have no warning if David had to attack. Paris went, not asking questions, but frowning so hard, he tightened his hand on her arm. The man on the idling snowmobile gunned his engine and took off after only a minute more.

  David swallowed hard and waited until he couldn’t hear the vehicles, then waited longer. Paris didn’t move and she didn’t speak, which he was grateful for, but when he did glance over at her, she was pale, clearly scared by his behavior or the men, possibly both.

  “It’s okay.”

  “Are you…?” She swallowed and frowned harder. “Are you sure?”

  “I am. Damn sloppy, I got sloppy. But we’re okay. We go down, though, not the way they came. Follow me.”

  “Wait one second,” she said firmly and tugged his sleeve. “What do you mean? You got sloppy and now we go this way? What does that mean?” she whispered with some heat.

  “Princess, any other time I’d fill you in, but right now—”

  “Not moving until you explain.” She sat down and crossed her arms, and her legs.

  If he’d been hit upside the head he wouldn’t have been more surprised. He squatted and tipped her stubborn chin up.

  “Look, I can see you’re upset. Hell, I think you have every right to be, but now you and I are walking, and when I’m certain you aren’t in any danger I’ll explain. Until then, come on and trust me.”

  She rolled her eyes, but stood when he pulled her up. She skimmed his face for something, but he didn’t give her time to find it, instead he ushered her down and to the left of where the men had come through the dense woods. The snow wasn’t as deep because of the heavy trees holding it up but it was harder to hike because of how densely the forest grew. He held up branches for her and thankfully she hiked, not angry as far as he could tell, but nearly bursting with curiosity.

  “Those men were armed,” he said quietly. “That means they were patrolling this area. There are reasons people patrol. Most are to keep intruders away. Or to keep whatever they are doing secret.”

  She nodded, but didn’t ask whatever she had going on in her head.

  “I was up here getting a lay of the land, not thinking to run into that kind of thing or I’d never have brought you,” he said with some heat. “Now I need to get back and instead of…” He paused, about to share his idea for snow sex, but thought better of it. “Having dinner with you, I have to go check in with Will. I might be gone all night, or I might only be an hour or so.”

  “David, does this mean you might get hurt?”

  Her concerned expression tugged at his heart. “Hurt? No, come on, this is Wyoming.”

  “Those men had bigger guns than you.”

  He laughed and felt the tension ease from his shoulders. “Princess, no one has a bigger gun than me, and you shouldn’t have been peeking at another man’s gun.”

  “David,” she whispered and shook her head. “I’m serious. Those were big guns.”

  “AK-74 millimeter, illegal in this country.”

  “See?”

  “Come on have some faith. I was a SEAL. I can do more than some guys on a snowmobile who didn’t know I was ten feet away.”

  “You were a SEAL? Oh, God,” she muttered and covered her mouth with her fingers.

  “Well, it wasn’t that bad.” He didn’t even earn a smile at that, so tried another angle. “We’ll get you down to the hotel and I’ll bring you some dinner, okay?”

  “I’m okay! David, it’s you I’m worried about.” She added an exasperated huff to her words.

  “Oh ho! I knew it. I’m growing on you after just a few days.”

  “David,” she sighed. “You are growing on me and it hasn’t even been a day.”

  “It’s been a full day, about an hour ago,” he informed her.

  She froze then shook her head. “Just don’t get hurt, okay?” She’d stopped under a pine tree and looked so pretty with her light blue hat on and her blonde hair tied back in a braid he couldn’t resist tugging it.

  “I won’t. I try damn hard not to ever get hurt because I’m a terrible patient.”

  For some reason that made her wince and hug him tightly. Amazed, he held her, wondering what he’d said right, or maybe wrong, this time. She exhaled and pulled away and smiled softly, but it didn’t match the worry in her eyes.

  “Okay, so no getting hurt, and if you’re wondering, that scared me.”

  Hell, he was an ass, wasn’t he? “Sorry, Paris. If I’d thought—”

  “Shh, really, I’m fine, you’re the one going to do… What? Wait, don’t tell me, okay?” She patted his chest with both mittens and smiled brighter, but it was forced. “We’d better go.”

  “Yeah, but I can stop, you know, get you something for dinner, something warm to eat—”

  “David, the hotel has a dining room,” she said with a little more of that heat he thought was damn cute.
<
br />   He didn’t want her down there, alone, eating. That was a single guy’s dream—meeting a lonely hottie in the hotel. No way, no how was that okay.

  “Yeah, but I don’t want you down there alone.”

  “What? Do you think those men will be there?” she whispered, as if they might be nearby and scoop her up.

  He cocked an eyebrow and grinned. “You watch a lot of movies, don’t you?”

  She ducked her head but he saw her smile. “A little, maybe.”

  “Those men are long gone. I simply don’t want any other guys thinking you’re available.”

  That sank in for two seconds then she turned on him and pointed a mitten at the center of his chest. “Just because I went off with you and Will doesn’t mean I—”

  “Whoa there, take a breath. I didn’t think it did, but I don’t want you alone eating dinner either.”

  “Oh?” She arched a pretty eyebrow, and put a whole hell of a lot of oomph in it for such a sweet woman.

  “Yeah,” he muttered and turned her around to get her moving. “I’ll leave the sandwiches and we’ll have a picnic in the room when I get back, okay?”

  She didn’t respond, but when he glanced at her she was smiling, pretty damn happy about that. The anxiety in his gut eased off and he let out a slow breath. He might suck at this communication shit, but he was more than willing to try, especially with Paris.

  “You can’t leave all the sandwiches, you didn’t really eat. But a picnic in the room sounds fun,” she said, after a while of walking quietly. “I think we might have to, because look”—she pointed to the left, where the trees broke a little—“it’s snowing. Maybe we will get snowed in.”

  She sounded so happy about that, and when she hugged his arm she laughed, that the rest of his worries went right out of the window. One thing was for certain, she liked him. So what if he had to rush off for more of this damn mission? He’d hurry and maybe they would be snowed in together.

  “Yeah, I imagine that would be all kinds of fun. You’d probably beat me in strip poker, huh?”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that.” She laughed then added, “But there’s some good movies we might watch. Or just, I don’t know, we’d think of something,” she said with a sigh he wanted to ditto because he hoped that something meant she was as horny as he was.

  He curled his arm around her waist and brushed a kiss to her temple. She fit him.

  “I like something. I bet I can think of a whole lot to keep you entertained with something,” he added, caressing up her ribs to just below her breasts.

  She stiffened then trailed her hand down to pat him on the ass. “I bet you could.”

  Jesus. How could he walk away from this and go chase down men on snowmobiles?

  “Princess, you keep that up and I’m not going to be able to leave, you know that, right? Then I’ll have even more work to do tomorrow.”

  Reluctantly, he thought, she nodded, but with an evil little smile kept her hand in his back pocket.

  Chapter Seven

  Will glanced up from filling out the last of his stack of forms and frowned. “Jansen.”

  “We have some complications.” David threw his gloves down and shrugged off his jacket.

  “You’re right. We do. I ran into Sara, Paris’ friend.”

  David paused half way out of his jacket. “And?”

  “She was pretty freaked out, but seemed to calm down when I offered her a ride to town.”

  “Wait.” David got the jacket off and sat down. “You took her to a hotel?”

  “Yeah. Not the same one, she wanted near where we had the car.” Will shrugged then spilled the rest of it. “She was given the drug. She was pretty upset, but by the time we got to town, she’d gone quiet. I think she might have had only a small dose, but unasked for. I talked to the boy. He’s aware how wrong that was.” Will left off the ass kicking he’d given the younger man. Sara was sweet, much like Paris, but…somehow different. He’d dropped her off and left, not trusting himself around her.

  “She’s okay, though?”

  Will nodded.

  David exhaled. “Paris will be—”

  “She knows where Paris is, and was glad you were with her. Said to let you two have some time, even.”

  “She did?”

  Will ran a hand over his hair. Sara had smiled only the one time—when he’d informed her that his buddy was staying with Paris. She’d been genuinely happy, he could tell. “Yeah, she said she’d be fine in town and since the car isn’t ready, she’d simply wait.”

  “Hell, that’s nice of her. Sure she doesn’t want to talk to Paris?”

  “She said no.”

  “All right.” David rubbed his face with his hands. “Look we got something else to worry about. I ran into a team of six, armed, and on snowmobiles. North side of town. About five miles out from here.”

  “Shit, and who were they?” Will asked, tossing his pencil down on the desk and stretching his back.

  “I have no idea. Not trained too well. I was ten feet from them and they had no clue. Paris was with me.”

  “What?” he asked, startled that Jansen would ever take the girl on a hike, in the snow. He knew David had it for her, but did his buddy have it this bad? Paris was a keeper, though. He’d not considered his friend—who steered clear of the type—would go down that road. But one glance at David and he’d known the man wanted Paris to himself. He hadn’t needed the subtle—or not so subtle—rebuff on his offer to join them.

  Jansen grimaced and ran his hands over his face again briskly after. The signal meant he had his head in his ass. The fact he was this screwed up he showed it surprised a laugh out of Will. Hell, Jansen was sunk, hook, line and all.

  “Damn, you sorry bastard, you have the worst timing. Hands down, the absolute worst timing.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know,” Jansen snapped and jerked a chair around and sat down in it with his arms hanging over the back. “She’s in the hotel now, but we have to go check this out and there’s what? Two hours of daylight left.”

  “Did you even sleep last night?”

  “Yes, I slept, what do you think? I fucked all night?”

  “Well…” Will considered the pissed off expression on Jansen’s face and held his tongue. He’d left when the two of them had made it pretty clear they’d forgotten all about him. Not that he’d minded. Jansen needed some downtime. The man was too intense most of the time to loosen up. Not that meeting Paris had lessened that. “No, I guess you’re playing it slow, trying to show a bit more…tact?”

  “Paris isn’t the point. Besides, if we go out now, we might be able to follow them in the snow. The tracks are pretty clear. You set?”

  Will stood and rubbed his buzz cut. He needed to get it trimmed, but he could maybe go a few more days. “I’m ready. The men are useless. The facility is good, though, and with some training we could have them mission ready in six months.”

  “Hell, really? That long? What are they? Gym bunnies?”

  “About,” he agreed. “What do we need?”

  “Just what we’ve got, not a big deal, I think. We follow this and find out what’s going on. Should we ask Duke if it’s his damn men out there?” Jansen asked.

  Will paused and thought about the men he’d seen so far. None of them could navigate the mountains, and they sure couldn’t handle a firearm. “We can, but I doubt it. Let’s call en route, because that storm and the sunset are fast approaching.”

  “Right.” Jansen grabbed his jacket.

  The rooms were warm, almost too much warm. It was probably because a lot of the men were training in the gyms and wore shorts, but the place must all be rigged for one central heating system, because it was damn uncomfortable. He’d marked that up as an issue, along with the gym. He didn’t plan on being here long enough for it to be a real problem though.

  Jansen scanned the room, then him. “Looks like your day sucked,” Jansen commented with a smirk.

  “I
t was my turn, I guess.” Will smacked Jansen on the back. “I did have that babe down south, so maybe this is payback.”

  “Paris is more than a babe, Will.”

  Will lifted his eyebrows and scanned Jansen’s profile as they walked. “Right, about that. You’re sore about last night?”

  “What?” Jansen asked, shoving the door to the garage open. “No, hell no, that was hot, besides, you know as well as I do that we pushed her.”

  “But it was only last night,” Will remarked, earning a frown. He agreed they’d pushed, but she’d gone, and willingly. His bet was because of the man scowling at him right now. David had been her focus. He might as well have been a couch for all she’d noticed. Although she hadn’t been rude, or even aloof, just consumed with David to the point he’d watched the two of them and gotten himself off on the show.

  “Maybe, yeah, unless something comes up,” David said vaguely.

  “Like what? My dick?”

  Jansen slugged him, hard, in the arm, but Will grinned and took it. “Sorry, but hell, you never go hot after a girl, it’s a bit, well, fucked up.”

  “Why? Can’t I find someone that’s more than a one-nighter? And weren’t you the one just telling me you were tired of this shit and wanted to hand in your gun, find a nice girl and all that?”

  “Sure, hell yeah, you’re due yours, man.” Will took the passenger side so Jansen could drive and wondered what had Jansen so jumpy. “How’s it going, then? You still dig her?”

  “It’s been a day. Sure, I like her.”

  “Nothing coming up as a red alert?”

  His buddy scowled at him as if he’d lost his mind and started the truck before he shook his head. “Not a damn thing.”

  Jansen said that as if it that was bad, which Will could understand. Jansen was a loner. They were close, but there were things about his buddy he didn’t know, and things about him he knew he was the only one to know. Jansen had been raised in the foster system, and that kind of shit had left a mark. He trusted very few, held on to every damn thing he ever bought, or earned for that matter, or found, and he didn’t form tight bonds with many. Will was one of the very few men who could say David Jansen was a friend. But David would come to anyone’s rescue. In a fight Will knew that Jansen would have his back without question.