Silence descended on the woods as Jenna stared Chuck down, willing his crazy to bubble out and mess with hers. She was ready for a showdown, and she didn’t care how big and muscular her opponent was. She was not about to be bullied. By anyone.
Infuriatingly, the edges of his lips quivered, threatening a smile. “Fair enough,” he said in an easy voice. He glanced at the spider and turned away, as if she’d just given an apology that he’d accepted.
She stared after him, incredulous.
Usually all but the largest and toughest of men scampered away with an apology. She’d learned that a large woman like her, unleashing her temper, unsettled almost everyone. From this man, more rugged than most, she’d expected a blast of anger to match her own. That was usually how an alpha personality reacted to someone forcefully laying down the law. But what she hadn’t expected, and had never encountered, was a smirk—or a stone’s equivalent of a smirk—and indifference. Never indifference.
Anger simmered up through her middle, demanding release but having no one to direct it at. Her fingers itched to pick up a rock and throw it at him. The only problem was, he might retaliate, and he probably had a better aim.
“Here, Jenna. Here we go.” Lewis struggled to get the pack over her arms and up to her shoulders. “I’m sure he’s sorry.”
She huffed and shrugged into her pack. “I got it.”
“You should have seen the look on your face.” Erika still bubbled with laughter.
“You guys can all just get bent.” Jenna couldn’t help a tinge of humor ruining her bad mood. Erika never gave two craps about Jenna’s outbursts, and Jenna never commented on Erika’s bitchiness when she was tired or PMSing. It was why their friendship would stand the test of time.
“What did you think we were all looking at?” Lewis asked as they got moving.
Jenna stared a hole into Chuck’s broad back. She hoped it gave him the willies. “I wasn’t paying attention. I was thinking about that beam on the upper left side of the building.”
“What about it?” Erika asked, quickly sobering.
“I’m trying to figure out a way to do it without those braces. If I just angle it a little more, maybe—”
“But that would change the style of the building,” Lewis interjected.
“It wouldn’t change the style, but it would change the profile somewhat. But braces are so ugly.” Jenna chewed her lip.
“Ugly, but safe,” Erika said.
Jenna sighed as they walked into a clearing. Ada and Mike were already there, talking to each other, while Dale stood off to the side staring longingly at Ada’s breasts.
Chuck said, “We’ll break for lunch. Your lunch is in the brown paper bag in your pack. If you consult your pamphlets, you will notice that this area is teeming with colorful birds and other interesting forest animals. Please be careful as you look around.”
Chapter Six
After only a few minutes in the clearing, everyone spread out to take a look around and eat their lunch.
“Coming?” Lewis paused on his way to a half-rotted log. Erika was already there, digging through her pack and retrieving a brown paper bag.
Discomfort pinched Jenna’s stomach. She touched a hand to her hip and stylishly slouched into a pose from her youth, to cover her insecurity. “Nah. I think I’ll just…”
Her mind raced, trying to come up with a logical reason why she didn’t need to eat. Seeing Chuck’s gaze flash toward Dale, and then back to his own lunch, she straightened up again and ran her fingers through her hair. She gave a languid stretch that had Lewis looking at her breasts. “I think I’ll talk to Chuck about Dale,” she said. “Just so he’s in the know. You know?”
She let her hip cock out as her hands fell to her sides, controlling where Lewis’s eyes would roam. He’d insist on going with her to talk to Chuck if she gave him the option, then school her in what she should and shouldn’t eat while he tucked into his lunch. She appreciated that he was only trying to help, but she just didn’t feel like dealing with it right then.
“Hmm.” She gave him a coy smile as she hooked her thumbs into her pockets, standing in a way that was in no way natural, but very distracting.
His mouth hung open. It was almost too easy.
“See you in a minute,” she said.
“Sure, yeah. Okay.” Lewis’s brow furrowed in confusion as she strutted away, leaving him staring after her.
Chuck unceremoniously shoved the remnants of a sandwich into his mouth and balled up the paper bag. He stuffed it into his pack and glanced up again, catching Dale’s movements before he scanned the clearing, checking on everyone’s whereabouts.
It wasn’t until she was three feet from him that he glanced at her, and then away again, clearly not intending to greet her.
Strangely amused by his complete lack of interest, she dropped her pack next to him and stood for a moment. He didn’t look up.
She was a stranger, in his charge, and she had specifically sought out his company. Usually any one of those things would result in some kind of reaction. A smile, a frown, a grimace—something. For all he noticed her, though, she might’ve been invisible.
With an intrigued smile, she dropped down beside him and looked out at the others. Mike and Ada were chatting, each giving Dale annoyed looks as the guy stood looking down at them without speaking in that creepy way he did.
“Ranger Chuck,” she said, nearly laughing.
“I’m not a ranger, Miss Anderson.”
“All the same, I wanted to talk to you about Dale.”
Chuck’s eyes flashed to Dale, who was still staring down at Mike and Ada. Mike was getting visibly flustered.
“Talk.”
“My, my, Ranger Chuck. What brusque manners you have.”
He sat still as a stone, silent. Not the joking type, apparently.
“He is a registered sex offender in the state of New York,” Jenna said. “We employ him because he is extremely intelligent. I’m not sure if he would assault anyone, but I do know that he will do everything he can to try and get a peek, hence the time he got caught in the women’s toilet. He’s on the spectrum, but high-functioning, as you can see. That medical information is confidential, obviously.”
Chuck’s head snapped toward her. His eyes, a beautiful mix of golds and browns with bursts of green, delved into hers. She felt her face heat, and a shiver raked her body. Warmth expanded in her middle, making her eyes flutter and her hand drift toward her chest for no particular reason.
“What?” she asked, strangely out of breath. The force of that stare, and the analysis and calculation she could see behind it, wasn’t normal. He was highly intelligent, she could tell. And extremely intense. Her heart was trying to beat through her ribcage.
He looked away. “Understood. Anything else?”
Well, yes, now there was. Like what the hell was happening to her body. And what mental institution for the criminally rage-ridden had he escaped from, because aside from the hot spark of intelligence, she could still make out the wild thing lurking deep in his eyes, clawing to break free. It wasn’t normal. He wasn’t normal.
She huffed out a breath and brushed her hair with her fingers. “Lewis will keep his eye out—Dale is afraid of Lewis. You need to keep your eye out, too, and let me know if you see anything weird.”
“Is that an order, Miss Anderson?” The way he said it, deep but quiet, almost a whisper, raised the hair on the back of her neck. The challenge in his eyes had a strength that knocked her off kilter. This man did not take orders well. Maybe not at all.
When it came to her safety, though, by God, he would learn!
She took a deep breath and held her ground. “If it keeps us from getting raped, you’re damn right that’s an order, Mr. Ranger.”
His eyes softened and lost their edge. He looked back at Dale, who had moved to the other side of the clearing to stare at Erika and Lewis.
“I’ve already registered the threat,” he said. “As far
as weaknesses, he leans toward you more. He watches you fifty percent of the time. Erika roughly thirty percent, and Ada ten percent. The other ten is divided among the males of the group, but mostly Lewis. You and Lewis are an item?”
Jenna’s mind bowed, and then contracted. She was still processing the statistics. “Yes. How do you know all this?”
Chuck nodded once. “I am responsible for the safety of this group, Miss Anderson. Dale is a very real threat to the women. He is intelligent and cunning. You are correct to be worried. Have no fear—I will keep you safe. Do you and Lewis plan to share a tent?”
When Jenna heard the bit about being safe, it almost brought her to tears. She hadn’t heard that, and actually believed it, for so long, she had forgotten how good it felt. Lately she’d been braving the monsters of life on her own. No big, burly teddy-bear bodyguard to head into danger for her. She’d said goodbye to him when she walked away from that life. But she missed Max acutely. He’d moved to California, where the money was. Last she’d heard, he was protecting some B-level actress and making a fortune.
“Miss Anderson?”
Jenna snapped back to the present. “Sorry. Yes, we are sharing a tent. I think. How did you know we were together? Is that a problem?”
“Sharing a tent with a male will minimize the threat. I will station myself close to the other two ladies. If Dale leaves his tent, I will hear him. And Lewis dotes on you—it wasn’t hard to deduce.”
Jenna’s face caught fire. Why she should be embarrassed to hear that her boyfriend doted on her, she didn’t know. “Oh, well. Okay. Just wanted you to know that Dale is dangerous.”
“Understood. We will be leaving soon. You might get some chow.”
Jenna’s eyes flicked to Lewis, who was finishing a packet of nuts.
Her stomach gurgled, drawing her hand to it. Her palm hit the padding that shouldn’t be there, making her take her hand away again.
“I’m not hungry.” Jenna rocked forward to get up.
In a quick movement, Chuck grabbed her pack and dug into it. He pulled out a small brown lunch bag and handed it to her. “This is no place to faint from low blood sugar. Eat.”
She pushed the bag away. “I’m not hungry.”
“All the same, you’ll need it. We have half a day’s march before supper. There are hills involved. I’m in no mood to carry you. Eat.”
Her stomach rumbled again in betrayal. The force and power in his gaze had her grabbing the bag and settling it into her lap. She really should eat something. Her self-defense instructor was always harping on her to up her calorie intake so her body didn’t run out of fat and start eating muscle. Chuck was basically saying the same thing.
“I’m too big to carry,” she mumbled, unpacking the sandwich.
Chuck got up. “I’ve carried bigger. Much bigger. For longer. Eat.”
His body moved gracefully as he strode away, his lithe muscles bunching and lengthening in harmony. He really did have a stellar body. She could imagine him throwing her over those giant shoulders, as wide as a shovel was long. That big, broad back would take her weight, and then some.
A shock of electricity zinged through her core, with an answering wetness between her thighs. Down, girl!
This was the wrong reaction to a stranger. Especially a scary, prickly, emotionally comatose stranger. She had a man; he was smart, sweet, and beautiful. She needed to get a grip.
Actually, she needed to get laid.
Josh made his way toward Mike and Erika, putting as much distance between him and Miss Anderson as he could. She was like an intoxicating smell he couldn’t get enough of. The stubborn set of her jaw and the power in her eyes when she’d commanded him hadn’t irritated him as it ought to have. The opposite. He wanted to pit himself against that force and wrestle with it until they climaxed. She would be a wild ride.
He clenched his jaw and swallowed that thought.
He needed to stay the hell away from her, that was what he needed. No need to slip, accidentally rip off her shirt, and then get fired. Prolonged abstinence had never been a good idea, and now he was leading a crew stuffed with fashionable, pretty people. Of course his libido was out of control. Acting on it would be all kinds of wrong. He’d made enough bad decisions for a lifetime—humping his way through the woods was not the way to fix his life.
Josh sighed as his steps ate the distance across the clearing.
Miss Anderson clearly had an eating problem, which, as the guide, made it his problem. A desk job didn’t require many calories. A trek through the mountains was another story. She was borderline anorexic, and he suspected that her loved ones might have something to do with it. Josh recognized the look to her fuckwit boyfriend before she wrongly decided she wasn’t hungry. Sun, fatigue, and low blood sugar were a bad combination.
He walked up behind Erika and Mike, who had paused at a large tree.
“It is a blue jay, you reject,” Erika yelled, gesturing wildly toward the bird high in the tree. “It’s blue. Where do you think they get their names?”
“There are other birds that are blue!” Mike was talking directly at her instead of looking up at the bird.
This crew would argue about anything.
“There is also the bluebird,” Josh helped. They both jumped. “But they don’t generally like this kind of environment. That is, indeed, a blue jay.”
Erika turned around with wide eyes. “Where the hell did you come from, Ranger Bob?”
“His name’s Chuck, Erika,” Mike said.
“Same diff.” Erika waved the thought away.
“Erika, I was wondering if I might have a word?” Josh asked.
She flushed and a guilty look stole her features—she probably thought she was in trouble for something. She glanced at Jenna.
Interesting reaction. Either they got in trouble together a lot, or Jenna usually got Erika out of it. Josh filed that away for later consideration.
Hesitantly, she bobbed her head. “Sure.”
“I guess I’ll go over there, then…” Mike wandered away with a scowl.
When they were alone, Josh said, “I noticed your friend, Jenna, has a propensity to skip meals.” Erika’s expression shut down, hiding her emotions. It was a characteristic of deep loyalty and a desire to keep her friend’s secrets. He’d seen that look a few times before. It had taken a while to break the captive and extract intel.
Luckily, this situation wasn’t nearly that dire.
“Now, I know it’s none of my business, but I am apprehensive that with our strenuous hike, and with her being unused to the exertion, she will be short on energy, which could lead to medical complications.”
“You have a great vocabulary for a woods guide, Ranger Bob—no offense.” Erika said, her shoulders hunched, looking back at the tree where the bird had been. “She doesn’t know the extent of her problem. She spent the first half of her life being starved. More than half, actually. Lewis constantly ‘helps’ her keep track of her calorie intake.” Erika shook her head and looked at Jenna again. “I can keep a better eye on her, but she’s hard to persuade. It’s hard to undo that kind of persistent training, you know?”
“Could I help in any way?”
“Do you have a death wish?” Erika laughed darkly.
If only she knew. “What works best with her?”
“Manipulation, but I doubt you’ll find the right angle. She is extremely hard to manipulate. She’s spent most of her life dealing with that too, so she’s sensitive to people on that score. I get away with it some because I know her so well. But you’d probably set all the warning bells off.”
“I might be better than you think, but what else?”
Erika squinted as she looked at him. “Like challenges, do you?”
He took a step back, realizing he was getting too caught up and making a show of himself. He didn’t like people reading him. Hell, he didn’t like people noticing him at all.
“Well,” she continued, “you just have to g
et creative. Sometimes if you just stick food in her face and are irritating enough about it, she’ll think eating is easier than fighting. That’s probably your best angle. But she is pretty good at only eating what is absolutely necessary to function. You don’t have to worry about her dropping dead or anything. She’s a pro at semi-starving herself but still having enough wits to take on an army.”
Josh glanced back at Jenna. The sun highlighted those beautiful blue eyes. She was regal where she sat on the dirty log. She could have been in a ballroom or the king’s court, not out in the middle of nowhere with nature raging around her. What sort of life could she have had where she had been starved and manipulated?
Pageantry made sense.
Josh thanked Erika for her time and slipped into the trees. He scrubbed his fingers through his hair.
Jenna’s eating issues mattered. He needed to make sure she could function properly during the tour, but he felt the hooks of intrigue digging into him. He wanted to know why such a beautiful, charismatic girl, seemingly on top of the world, leading a crew of high-powered architects, would let her fuckwit boyfriend bully her into starvation.
And what was she doing with such a joke? His attempt to claim power over Josh was laughable. Puffing up his chest and snubbing Josh’s choice of employment?
The miserable parasite had no concept of the real world. One look at Josh should’ve told that turd to back down before he ever thought about stepping up. Josh could kill him in a dozen ways, with his bare hands, in under two seconds. Not to mention make him piss and shit himself, break his body, or any manner of things a civilian didn’t want to know were possible.
Josh stilled his body and let a long, slow breath tumble out of his mouth.
He was getting too worked up. Something about that woman messed with his head. It wasn’t just the enigma of her that had him trying to scratch and sniff the riddle, but her soft depths crusted over with a fighter’s mentality. He still maintained that he’d make her cry if he got in a temper, but he’d grossly underestimated the reinforced steel surface. She was a firecracker.
Unexpected Hero (Skyline Trilogy Book 1) Page 5