“Sleep well.”
He smiled softly. “You too.”
I crawled into bed, wondering what the hell I was doing. One minute I think he’s got a secret. The next, I want to jump into bed with him. Even now, lying there in bed, my hand wrapped around the knife I’d shoved under my pillow, I was tittering between fear and excitement. I was pretty sure I’d seen him before. I was pretty sure that someone followed me to that restaurant that night. It might have been him. It might have been some other person. It could have been anyone. But what were the chances of someone I’d seen far from here had shown up on my doorstep in the middle of a storm?
There was something not right here. But I didn’t know what to do about it.
Chapter 7
Megan
“Grosbeak is off the grid.”
I looked up from my computer, figures I’d been trying to balance dancing around in my head. I stared at Sam, noting how pale she was this morning. She’d been dragging a little lately, having these fainting spells that scared me a little. And now she was pale, not eating. There was something going on with her, but with everything going crazy right now, I couldn’t find the time to set her down and demand to know what was really happening with her.
“Grosbeak? That’s Marcus, right?”
“Yeah.”
I sighed, turning to my computer to pull up the tracking software that I had installed on all Dragon Security vehicles. The one assigned to Marcus was located in the mountains of New Mexico, just outside of Ruidoso.
“Didn’t he say that the target was headed to a cabin in the mountains?”
“He did.”
“Maybe they got snowed in. They were expecting some bad weather in that area last night.”
Sam set a weather map she’d printed on the corner of my desk. “Already looked it up. Blizzard conditions expected until tomorrow afternoon.”
I picked it up and studied it a second. “You’re so thorough. You could have just told me what you already knew.”
“I know. But I like watching you go through your little process.”
“Gee, thanks.”
She started to leave, but hesitated, turning back to me. “So, I’ve been working on that virus that corrupted my computer last week? The one that ruined all of the files Emily Greene had left for Dominic?”
I nodded. There weren’t that many viruses that corrupted our files. Sam was a computer genius, always one step ahead of all the virus software we could potentially buy. This virus was the first to ever affect Dragon computer files. It felt like more than just a random blip. It felt intentional.
“Do you know who or why?”
She shook her head. “I still haven’t figured out where the virus came from, but I’m working on it. I did, however, find some uncorrupted pages of Emily’s files. More names. I emailed them to you so that you and Dominic could check them out when he gets back from his honeymoon.”
“Thanks.”
“And I’m still working on Peter’s hard drive. The virus further complicated that, but I think I can fix that damage.”
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Sam.”
She smiled, looking more like her old self in that moment. I studied her, wondering if it was just the bad light in here that made her look so pale. The last thing I needed was for something to happen to my best friend. There was only so much a person could take in one lifetime, right?
Hayden suddenly burst through the door, his color high with excitement. He started to speak, but then caught sight of Sam.
“Hey, Nana!” he said, so much excitement in his voice the slight insult almost sounded like a term of affection.
“Go to hell, Hayden,” she said, brushing past him and out the door.
He watched her go, a small smile on his full lips.
“What’s up, Hayden?”
“She look a little pale to you?”
I bit my lip, not sure I’d wanted that bit of confirmation. “She’s working too hard.”
“Send her home.”
“I do that and she just works at home. I’d rather she do it here where we can monitor her a little.”
He inclined his head slightly. “So, Dante told me that you were moving me off of the accident investigation? Said you were putting it to rest for the time being?”
“Dante said that?”
“Said you didn’t think there was anything left to look into after his friend decided it was an accident.”
I gritted my teeth. Dante used to work for the New York Police Department and he sent the files on my brother’s car accident to a reconstruction specialist he knew there. The guy sent a report stating that there was no other car involved. That it was simply a one-car accident, which is how the Houston PD had ruled it. But I knew in my gut it was more than that, and Hayden had agreed with me.
“I’m not pulling anyone off of anything. Dante was overstepping his boundaries.”
Hayden studied my face for a long second. “Is there something going on between you and Dante?”
I knew I was blushing, but I met his eye and clenched my jaw.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but no, there’s nothing going on there.”
Hayden was one of the first assets I hired for my business. He knew me, knew Peter before his death. He even knew Luke, my former fiancé. He was my friend.
He studied me a moment longer, then nodded.
“Do you know if Sam has a date for Cole’s wedding?”
The abrupt change of subject was almost dizzying.
“Go ask her.”
He smiled. “She wouldn’t even consider going out with me. But if she’s there alone, and I’m there alone…”
He walked off, whistling under his breath. I got up and watched him flip one of Sam’s braids as he walked past her, causing her to stick her tongue out at him like they were twelve. She watched him walk away and turned back to her monitor, slumping her shoulders forward and raising a hand to her temple. There was something wrong. I could feel it deep in my soul and I was so afraid, too afraid. I started toward her, but Dante suddenly came around the corner of the bullpen.
“Can we talk?” I said.
Sam glanced back at us, a touch of concern in her big, expressive eyes. I gestured for Dante to lead the way into my office, hoping Sam didn’t read anything into my expression, let alone my body language.
The moment we were alone, Dante gathered me into his arms, his mouth on mine. I melted against him for a long moment, loving the taste of him, the feel of his strength wrapped around my smaller frame. It’d been so long since I felt there was someone I could lean on, even if it was in the literal sense rather than the metaphoric. But this was the office and my best friend was right outside the door.
“You’ve got to stop,” I said, pushing at his shoulder. “We can’t do this here.”
“But you feel so good!”
I moaned against his lips. “You don’t feel half bad yourself.”
He laughed, but he didn’t stop. He nuzzled against my throat, stealing a few nips here and there as his hands grazed over my side on their way to cup my breasts.
“Did you tell Hayden I wanted him off Peter’s accident?”
Dante stiffened, slowly stepping back. “I didn’t think you’d want to pursue that after what my buddy in New York said.”
“Don’t you think it’s my place to tell my employees what they should and shouldn’t work on?”
“Of course, I just—“
“Don’t boss my employees around, Dante. It’s not your place.”
He was quiet for a long second, and then he nodded. “You’re right.”
He came back to me, pressing me against the wall. His mouth moved over mine again on the way to the tender flesh just under my chin. I groaned, my hands burying themselves in his hair and his shirt, tugging him closer despite my resolve that this couldn’t happen at the office.
“We’ve got to stop this,” I whispered as he dropped to his knees in
front of me. But who could resist this big, muscular man, this military hero, kneeling in front of them, his hands sliding slowly under that skirt…I wasn’t strong enough. And when his teeth tugged at my panties, sliding them slowly over my thighs…what was I supposed to do? My bones were liquid, my heart barely beating fast enough to keep up with the adrenaline rushing through my veins. And the pleasure? Did anyone out there know there could be this much pleasure in the world? If they did, they never told me.
I melted, barely keeping in the screams as he drove me to heights I never knew existed.
Chapter 8
Cadence
I was shivering so hard that it woke me from a sound sleep. I sat up, tugging the blankets closer to me.
“It would be better if we lay together.”
His voice was deeper, the cold clearly getting to him, too.
“Is there enough wood on the fire?”
“It’s burning as high as it’s going to get. It’s just really cold outside.”
I got up, stumbling across the room to look out the windows. The snow was still falling, adding to the two or three feet that had already fallen. The snow was up over the tires on his SUV now and was still rising.
He came up behind me and rested his hands on my shoulders. “I know you don’t know me and I don’t really know you, but we’ll freeze to death if we don’t keep each other warm.”
“Why do you have a gun?”
I hadn’t really meant to blurt it out like that, but it just kind of came out on its own. I felt his hands stiffen against my shoulders, his fingers digging into my flesh. Then he pulled back, turning to the chair where he’d left his jacket. He lifted the contraption clear, pulling the gun free of its holster, checking it before holding it out by the muzzle to me.
“It’s for protection.”
“What do you do that you need that sort of protection?”
He gestured with the gun. “Take it if it makes you nervous.”
“I don’t like guns.”
He pulled it back, running his thumb over the muzzle before placing it back in the holster.
“I work for a security firm. I offer protection to clients.”
“Seriously?”
“I’ve been doing it for a month now. It’s new and I’m not really that good at it.”
“What are you doing up here, then?”
“Taking a break. Running away from my mistakes.”
He set the gun back over the chair, covering it again with his thin leather jacket. I watched him, wondering why he felt the need to hide it now. Or why he’d hidden it in the first place.
“Do you know Blake Zimmerman?” I asked as an idea popped into my head.
“The football player?”
“Yeah.”
“Just by reputation.”
There was something about the way he said it that made me think he was lying. But there was also something sincere about the way he was looking at me.
“It’s cold. Why don’t we get in the bed together?” He raised his eyebrows. “I promise I won’t try anything inappropriate.”
I shivered again, pulling the blanket I’d brought off the bed with me closer around my shoulders. What choice did I have?
I nodded, leading the way to the bed. He grabbed his pillow and blankets from the couch, following close behind me. It was a little awkward at first, trying to figure out how to arrange our bodies and the blankets, trying to figure out where to put hands and feet, legs and arms. Finally, he just sort of spooned me, a thin blanket between his body and mine. Then he pulled the other blankets over the top of us burying us like some sort of cocoon.
“Comfortable?”
I nodded, trying not to think about his hand resting on the lower portion of my belly or his arm under my head. I tried not to think about his hard chest against my back or his hips pressed into my ass. And I really tried not to wonder what he thought about this, if he was having any of the same problems concentrating on anything other than our bodies like I was.
We lay there in silence for a long time. I was warm, finally. Almost too warm.
“She looked like you a little,” he suddenly said.
“Who?”
“The one who cheated on me. She didn’t have auburn hair like yours, but she had green eyes like yours. And a misleading innocence about her face.”
“You loved her?”
“With everything I had. But she left me at a time when I needed her more than ever. I think…maybe it went one way. Maybe she’d only loved what I could give to her, not me.”
“I understand that.”
“Yeah?”
“I thought I was in love once. But when he realized I wasn’t interested in investing in his crazy ideas, he left me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. I think we all deserve love. I think we all deserve someone willing to put us first. And I believe that if I’m patient, I’ll find that one meant for me.”
“Like soul mates?”
“Not exactly. But close.”
“I don’t. I believe that we are drawn to each other because of the things we have to offer one another. I just need to find someone who wants more than what Kelly wanted.”
“Maybe.”
His hand moved against my belly. I wasn’t sure if it was a caress, exactly, but it was nice.
I wondered about this Kelly, wondered what it was he liked most about her. Did he see those things in me? Was it possible…? But he had a gun. And a secret. I could feel it deep in my belly. There was something about him, something not quite right. He was hiding something and that something could destroy my sense of wellbeing. I just…I knew it.
He drew me a little closer to him, and then rested his head on the pillows he’d fluffed up under out heads. In a moment, I heard him slowly drift off to sleep, heard his breathing change, and felt the tension slowly leave his body. I took the opportunity to move deeper against him, closing my eyes as I pretended he was holding me because he wanted to, not because we were stuck in the middle of a snowstorm.
I began to drift off to sleep, too, but my thigh began to ache. The doctor had said there was bruising to the muscles and it would hurt for a while. But this ache was one that felt as though nothing could ever soothe it. I closed my eyes, trying to ignore it.
The memory of the shooting began to play out in my mind: the back glass of my car imploding, and the shower of glass bursting around me. And then, like in slow motion, I turned, my eyes seeking out the source of the explosion. The car, a little four-door sedan, dark green, driving surprisingly slow as the driver pointed a gun toward me. Sunglasses on his face. Big sunglasses, like the kind a woman in the sixties or seventies might have worn. They covered his face, but I could see his hair, that dark blond that was like browned butter in a skillet. And the wide jaw…like the man sitting at the bar, the cute one who was clearly broken, a man fresh out of the military. And that man had the most intense blue eyes…
Fuck!
That’s how I knew him! That’s why he seemed so familiar!
I pushed at his arm and tried to pull away, but he was sleeping heavily, his arm weighing a ton where it rested over my side. I sat up, shoving him away from me, rushing away from the bed. He woke as I grabbed his gun, fear tearing through me. What was he doing here? What did he want from me?
“What are you doing?”
I ran to the door and he was out of the bed, grabbing me just as I managed to get the door open. There was snow on the deck that surrounded the cabin, blocking the door, but I shoved my full weight against it, pushing it back. He had my arms, but I managed to break free, running out into the snow. Barefoot. I hadn’t really thought this out, I just knew I had to get away from him.
The Escape was under the carport, protected from the worst of the snow. But there was nearly a yard of deep snow between it and me.
“Cadence!” he called. “You’ll freeze to death!”
I didn’t answer him, but fear rushed through me at the reali
zation that he’d said my name. I’d never told him my name.
Why did he know my name?
I ran, slipping on the ice, the wet snow, and fell as I rushed over the edge of the deck too fast, missing the steps that were buried in the snow. I fell forward into a high bank, lost in a sea of white before I realized the mistake I’d made.
I was going to die. But I’d rather die in the snow than to have him do whatever he’d come to do.
Chapter 9
Marcus
I went back inside to grab my shoes and jacket, deciding one of us should avoid frostbite if at all possible. By the time I got back out the door, she’d disappeared.
“Cadence!”
She didn’t answer.
I followed her footprints on the deck, the hole she left in the snow bank up against the side of the cabin. I climbed down, careful to watch my footing, searching for her in the snow like searching for a spider in a pile of dark yarn. But my hand brushed a piece of cloth and I grabbed hold of it, twisting it around my hand before I yanked her up. She was unconscious, her lips blue.
“Damn stupid thing to do!”
I carried her inside, holding her close in the hope that my body heat would have some effect on her. Once in the house, I slammed the door, locking it against the weather, and then set her on the edge of the couch in front of the fire. She fell over, her body convulsing as it tried to warm her. The fire was as high as it was going to get, but it wasn’t putting off nearly enough heat to warm her as quickly as she needed to be warmed. The bathtub seemed the only choice.
I only hoped that the pipes hadn’t frozen.
Fortunately, the cabin had a gas water heater and the water warmed quickly. I set it at about body temperature, not wanting to heat her so fast that it would shock her heart. When the tub was full, I went back to her, hesitating as I studied her. She was still unconscious. There wasn’t time for modesty.
I carefully undressed her, lifting her oversized tee over her head and carefully pulling her shorts from her hips. I ignored my body’s instant reaction to the sight of her, to the closeness of her when I lifted her and carried her to the bath. She moaned as I carefully slid her into the water, her head rolling back on her spine like one of those bobble heads that people like to put in their cars. I set her head back against the side of the tub, careful not to hurt her. Then I grabbed a rag out of the bathroom and carefully began to rub her frozen skin back to life.
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