Holding Out For A Hero: SEALs, Soldiers, Spies, Cops, FBI Agents and Rangers

by Piñeiro, Caridad

  He still looked doubtful and she laughed. “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”

  She stooped before the mushroom patch that covered several feet of ground and examined the crop. She plucked several plump specimens and placed them in the bowl. She shot to her feet. “Next.”

  “Next?”

  “Let’s see what else we can find.” She walked on, leaving Burke to follow. When he fell into step beside her again she looked up at him. “How long have you been coming here?”

  “I bought the place about ten years ago.”

  “Are you from West Virginia?”

  “Chicago.”

  “So tell me, since you weren’t hatched and like dogs, do you have family?”

  He smiled. “Parents. Younger sister. Older brother. My brother has a big, noisy family.”

  Big, noisy family. She felt a pang. Once she’d hoped to have a big, noisy family of her own.

  “You okay?” Burke asked.

  She’d come to a stop. Eve put the wistful thought from her mind. “I’m fine.”

  She dropped the subject of family and focused on her reason for being in these woods. She spotted a circle of wild chives and bent over them. Perfect. She added several to the bowl. A few steps away, dandelions sprouted. She picked a handful of them as well.

  At Burke’s arched eyebrow, Eve grinned. “Boil dandelion stems and they taste like spinach.”

  “Hard to believe.”

  “You’ll be eating those words. Literally. We have enough. We can head back.”

  Back at Burke’s cabin, Eve filled a pot with water then set it on the stove to boil. She took the skillet she’d washed from the drainer, poured a dollop of oil into the pan, then set it on the stove as well. She dumped the contents of the bowl she’d filled from the forest into the sink and treated her pickings to a thorough cleansing. That done, she chopped the vegetables and plopped them into the skillet.

  The aroma of sautéing vegetables and rich tomato sauce filled the air. Eve transferred the contents of the skillet, now gently browned, to the bubbling sauce and lowered the heat. The water reached boiling point and she unwrapped the pasta and placed it in the pot.

  Fifteen minutes later, Eve turned to Burke. With a flourish, she said, “Dinner is served.”

  She drained the dandelions she’d boiled, added salt and pepper and offered the bowl to Burke. From her place across the table from him, Eve watched him taste a stem.

  His brows arched and his wary expression became one of surprise. “I’ll never look at dandelions in the same way again.”

  Eve smiled. “Told ‘ya.”

  Burke forked up a portion of sauce and vegetable coated pasta. “Where did you learn to cook like this?”

  The smile left Eve’s face. She lowered her gaze to her plate. “My daughter Emily had several food allergies. I consulted an herbalist on how to make her meals more palatable using spices and herbs that she didn’t react to. We didn’t live near a wooded area and some things were unavailable in grocery or health food stores, so Em and I started a garden in our yard and grew only the things that she could eat. She loved to discover new things we could plant there.”

  Eve felt Burke’s gaze on her, but couldn’t meet his eyes yet. She rose to her feet, seized her plate and the now empty bowl of dandelion greens from the table and dashed to the sink.

  Burke’s chair scraped across the wood floor. He came up behind her and placed his hand on hers, now immersed in soapy water.

  “I know that your daughter was killed in a car accident five years ago. I’m sorry,” he said softly, linking their fingers beneath the suds.

  Five years had not dulled the pain of Emily’s death. Tears burned her eyes. She wanted to be alone when they fell.

  “It’s been a long day.” The words tumbled out of Eve’s mouth in her urgency to flee. “I’ll do the dishes in the morning. Good night.”

  * * *

  He felt a surge of anger and took another turn around the hotel room he’d been staying in since the start of the chemist’s conference. His cover had served him well, providing him with the opportunity he needed to remain close to his prey.

  Until recently. His prey had eluded him.

  He clenched his fists. Where were they? All of his efforts so far had failed to turn up where Eve Collins and Burke had gone to ground.

  Eve Collins was proving to have as many lives as a cat. She’d cheated death—twice. His attempts to kill her had failed. The last attempt that should have gotten the job done had, instead, put Eve and Burke on alert. Sent them into hiding. He swung around and slammed his fist into the nearest wall.

  His efforts had also failed to turn up the formula.

  Time was running out. The people he worked for were getting anxious for their product. He swallowed and broke out in a sweat. It wouldn’t do to keep these people waiting.

  He took a calming breath. It was time to finish this—to get the formula and to get rid of the loose end that was Eve Collins—and he knew just how to do it.

  Imposter: Chapter Nine

  Burke knocked on his bedroom door. An image of Eve, sprawled across his bed, her glorious hair wild as it had been yesterday when she’d awakened, flashed in his mind and he broke into a sweat. He shook his head to clear it, then knocked again, louder.

  “Eve, wake up.”

  His tone came out sharper than he’d intended. Hurried footsteps thudded across the wood floor then the door was flung open.

  “What’s happened?”

  Her taut expression reflected her alarm. He shook his head and smiled to reassure her.

  “Nothing. Yet. Get dressed, we’re going out.”

  “Burke, it’s five o’clock in the morning. We’re in the middle of nowhere. Where do you suggest we go?”

  She had one hand on her head, clutching the wild mane of hair. The impact to his senses was diffused but only slightly. Burke could feel himself reacting to her again and forced his thoughts back to why he was at her door.

  “Fishing.”

  “What?”

  “It’ll be light in an hour. I warn you, it’s cold on the lake at this time of the morning. Dress warm.”

  Eve blew a breath at a hunk of hair that lay across her eyes then turned away from Burke. “The only place I’m going is back to bed.” Feet dragging, she followed up her words with action.

  Burke trailed Eve back into his bedroom, and yanked a pair of sweat pants, a sweat shirt with a logo for the Chicago Bears and a pair of thick socks out of the armoire. “Put these on. I doubt you have anything warm enough in your bag.”

  He left without a backward glance to check, closing the door behind him. She hadn’t balked at the invitation. It occurred to him that she might. Maybe she hadn’t because she needed a distraction from the worry and fear of her situation.

  He had to be out of his mind to suggest this. The last thing he needed was to spend more time in her company when the sight of her had his insides tightening.

  To further torment him, an image of her standing as she had just been, fresh from his bed came to him. But on the heels of it came another image: Eve’s face, ravaged, as she spoke of her daughter’s death. Five years later, her hurt was still raw. Her pain had stayed with him long after she’d fled the kitchen to find what solace she could on her own.

  He blew out a breath. Inviting her company was a mistake—a mistake he hadn’t been able to stop himself from making.

  He filled a thermos with coffee and she still hadn’t emerged from his bedroom. Had he been wrong and she wasn’t coming? He returned to the bedroom.

  Two swift taps against the door then Burke called out, “The fish are waiting. You ready?”

  Eve opened the door. She was holding a three-inch high shoe. “You’ll have to go without me. I didn’t pack shoes suitable for this occasion.”

  Burke’s gaze lingered on her, taking her in. She was wearing the clothes he’d tossed at her, after rolling the shirt sleeves and the pant legs back several ti
mes. She looked adorable in his oversized clothing and sexy as hell. As she neared, he caught the scent of the lemon laundry detergent and an underlying fragrance that he was coming to identify as uniquely Eve.

  He looked away from her and went back to the armoire. “I have another pair of athletic shoes. We’ll put a sock inside to shorten them and since you’ll be sitting in the boat, and not walking, they should serve well enough.”

  Sure enough, they did. Burke added one of his jackets to her ensemble and twenty minutes later, Eve sat across from him in his small fishing boat while he motored across a lake as smooth as glass. A rim of pink tinged the sky in the east.

  Burke dropped anchor then cut the engine. Without the roar, he became aware of the buzz of an insect nearby, the cry of gulls, and the gentle lapping of the water against the hull. He reached into a tackle box that held tiny trays with lures and pulled out a black one. He spun the silver tail and caught the light. He pulled out a second lure that was lime green and held up both for Eve’s inspection.

  “Which would you like? Now I warn you, each has its merits and will attract different kinds of fish. For example, this lake is noted for its Bass, Walleye and Catfish. Some Bass fishermen will tell you that Bass like bright colors, like this orange.” He raised the lure as he spoke. “The Walleye, on the other hand, sees most colors as either red or green so won’t be influenced at all by color but goes for sparkle. Under the water, this silver tail glitters like a mirror. Another factor to consider when making your selection is daylight and water depth. Both will alter the activity of the fish and the appearance of the lure. Walleye are more active in dim light.”

  Eve’s lips twitched. “I can see you’ve made a thorough study.”

  “Absolutely, I’m a thorough man.”

  He gave her a bland look and was rewarded when Eve’s smile broadened.

  “I have no doubt.” She was fighting laughter. “But, I’d rather choose my own lure.”

  Her smile prompted one from Burke.

  “Go for it.” His smile widened to a grin.

  She leaned over the box, examining the contents. “I’ll take that gold one.” She pointed to her choice.

  Burke attached the lure to one of the two rods leaning against the side of the boat then got to his feet. When Eve did the same he moved to stand behind her and positioned her hands on the rod. He kept his hold loose, kept a foot of distance between their bodies to curb his reaction to her nearness. Fat chance. He raised her arms slowly, tossed back the fishing rod over her shoulder and sent out a cast that glided across the air, before softly plopping into the water.

  Burke gave a satisfied sigh. He released Eve and prepared his own rod.

  “How did you come across this place?” she asked.

  “When I was a kid, my family used to come here for a week every summer, camping and fishing. The place stuck in my mind and one day I just said what the hell and bought a place for myself.”

  “You said you have an older brother and a younger sister?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Makes it nice at holiday time.”

  He didn’t miss the wistful note in her voice. “I don’t always make it to holidays, but yeah, it’s nice when I do.”

  “They back in Chicago? Home of the Bears.”

  Burke’s gaze sharpened. “You a fan?”

  Eve grinned. “No, but I also have brothers and they are.”

  “Actually, my brother and his family are there. My sister, Mallory, is a federal agent. She’s assigned to the New York Bureau office.”

  “You and she must talk a lot of shop when you get together.”

  He could have shrugged off the statement and left it at that, didn’t know why he added. “Some shop talk. I haven’t heard from her in a while. With my work and her work, we don’t keep in touch as much as we’d like.” He’d give her a call as soon as this assignment was over and he was back at Langley.

  “Any chance of getting a cup of that coffee?” Eve asked.

  Burke leaned his rod against the ledge of the boat and uncapped a thermos. Steam rose into the air along with the aroma of coffee. He poured into two mugs and held one out to her which she accepted with an enthusiastic thanks.

  Burke couldn’t resist teasing her. He gave her a sideways glance. “Got any eye of newt we can add to the coffee?”

  Eve laughed.

  They sipped then fished in a companionable silence. She wasn’t chatty on the lake. Burke appreciated that. He enjoyed the quiet and stillness of the water. The sun rose higher. The lake looked a clear blue. Eve finished her coffee, shook her head at a refill then took a seat, leaning against the padded back. The boat rocked gently with the current. She took a deep audible breath. Her eyes drifted closed. Burke watched her. He was watching her so closely, at first he didn’t see the tip of her rod take a dip.

  “Eve?” His tone was soft.

  “Mmm.”

  “You have a bite.”

  Her eyes flew open. “Oh!”

  * * *

  Burke stood against the door of the cabin, gazing out at the moonlit night. Eve moved to stand beside him. Moonlight filtered through the leaves of the trees that rose above the cabin, dappling the earth with light. Crickets chirped nearby.

  “Do you get out here much,” Eve asked.

  “Not as much as I’d like.”

  Eve took a deep breath of the crisp night air. “I can certainly understand your fondness for this place.”

  Burke turned to her, a smile tugging at his lips.

  “You look surprised.”

  He gestured to her silk blouse and heels. “I didn’t take you for being much for the great outdoors.”

  Acknowledging his point, Eve returned his smile. “Remember I mentioned that I have brothers? I have four of them. Vacations in the great outdoors were a regular thing in my house.”

  She hadn’t planned on saying more on the subject, but Burke appeared intrigued.

  She shrugged. “One year, I think I was about nine, my dad planned a camping trip with the boys. It was supposed to be some adventure—a man thing—my oldest brother told me. There was just enough of a challenge in his voice that there was no way I was going to be excluded from the trip. I went to my dad,” her voice softened with the memory, “and asked him to take me along. He’d not meant to exclude me, he said, which I knew was the truth. He’d just presumed that I wouldn’t be interested. Frankly, he was thrilled that I wanted to go along. My brothers put up a fuss, of course, but Dad would not have left me behind if I wanted to go along.

  “That trip was four days in a bush with no amenities. Dad planned fishing and a nature hike and so our scent would blend with our natural surroundings, we didn’t bathe in that time.” Eve rolled her eyes. “We were pretty ripe by the end of it.”

  Burke smiled and leaned toward her. He sniffed audibly. “You smell wonderful.”

  Eve’s smile spread. “This scent is one of my blends. I have to admit it’s one of my favorites.”

  “It’s great.”

  “We also develop men’s aftershave.”

  Burke laughed. A rich sound she’d not heard from him. “I’ll have to check that out.”

  “Burke . . . it was nice . . . today. Thank you.”

  “Day’s not over. It’s a beautiful night for a swim. How about it?”

  “Why not?”

  * * *

  She’d packed a modest one piece swimsuit, intending to spend some time at the hotel’s pool in between the events she’d registered for at the conference. She slipped into it and returned to the living room. When Burke emerged from the bathroom, clad only in black swim trunks, Eve was treated to the view of his magnificent body. Broad shoulders. Clearly defined abdominal muscles. Long, hard muscled legs. It had been a long time since Eve had taken inventory of a man’s body. Somewhere in the last five years, since Emily’s death, and the end of her marriage, Eve had lost interest in men. Interest in sex.

  She averted her gaze from Burke. In one hand
he carried his cell phone. With the other hand, he held the door open for her to precede him and they walked out into the night. Moon light silvered the water that lapped softly against a floating dock anchored to a post and the aluminum hull of Burke’s fishing boat.

  Burke stepped onto the dock. It pitched and swayed with his weight. He reached back and held out his hand for her. Eve placed her hand in his for an instant as she stepped onto the dock then, gaining her balance, hastily withdrew it. If Burke noticed her abrupt end to the contact with him, he said nothing.

  She walked to the edge of the dock and lowered her foot into the water. She hastily withdrew it. In comparison to the warm, balmy air, the water felt ice cold.

  “That’s not the way to do it.” Burke placed his cell phone on the dock then smiled like a shark. “This is the way.”

  He scooped her into his arms. Eve knew what was coming. She shrieked and grabbed his neck. Burke laughed and stepped off the dock with her in his arms.

  She came up sputtering, arms flailing. But Burke hadn’t left her once they’d gone under water. One arm had remained around her waist, was still around her waist, as he emerged, bringing her to the surface with him.

  “I’m okay,” she said.

  He released her and she treaded water. “It’s nice once you’re in.”

  Burke’s grin gleamed in the moonlight. “Told ‘ya.”

  Eve laughed as he repeated the phrase she’d spoken to him about the dandelions.

  Burke dove below the surface. As Eve watched the water ripple gently in his wake, she thought, he was right: It was a beautiful night for a swim and just what she needed to ease some of the tension twisting her into knots.

  Somewhere on land crickets chirped. She found the sound rhythmic and oddly soothing.

  Burke broke the surface, coming up beside her. She felt in the mood to stretch her legs. In the distance, a trio of buoys, tied to a rope, bobbed in the water.

  “Race you to the buoys and back,” she said. She could feel the wide smile on her face. “Be warned, though, I competed in college.” She wiggled her brows. “And I always won.”