The disappointment that flashed through him surprised him. Not that he wanted to tough it out in the mountains any more than she did, but he’d thought, for a few minutes, anyway, that Jessica was stronger than she looked. He’d thought she was more of a fighter than she’d shown so far.
She kicked the crate on the floor in front of her. “Why are you trying to talk me out of going with you? Do you think I should surrender to the marshals?”
“Do I think...wait, you still want to go with me? Even without a bathroom?”
Her face flushed an adorable shade of pink. “Surviving in the wilderness without any luxuries isn’t at the top of my list of fun things to do. But it’s still surviving. If it weren’t for you, I would have died at the courthouse. And I doubt too many people would rescue me from a burning house the way you did. I’ll take my chances with you.”
Her little speech surprised him...again. She wasn’t conforming to that neat little check box he’d marked off in his mind when he’d first met her.
“Ryan, will you get in trouble for helping me? Your boss—”
“Let me worry about him. Keeping you safe is more important.”
“Why?”
He frowned. “Why what?”
She took a step closer, so close he could smell the smoke still clinging to her hair. But instead of making him want to step back, it made him want to hold her close and protect her.
“You risked your life for me last night,” Jessica said. “You saved my life.”
He shook his head, ready to argue with her that anyone would have done what he did, but she reached up and cupped his face with her hands.
“If protecting me means losing your job, why would you do it? Why would you continue to risk your life for me?”
The shock of her soft, warm hands on his face had his pulse picking up. His gut tightened, and his gaze seemed to drop against his will to her oh-so-tempting mouth, just inches away. All he had to do was lean down and he could capture her lips with his.
Maybe he should.
If he kissed her now, would that get this insane desire out of his system? He could satisfy his curiosity, slake this desperate need. Then maybe he wouldn’t want her so badly. He wouldn’t be in an almost constant state of arousal around her, as he had been all night while riding the motorcycle, her breasts burning a hole in his back every time the bike bounced over the trail. The only thing holding him back right now was the way her brown eyes stared up at him, so trusting, waiting for his answer.
He ruthlessly reined in his desires, tightening his hands into fists to keep from reaching for her and crushing her against him. She shouldn’t look at him that way, as if maybe she wanted him to kiss her just as badly as he wanted to kiss her. He needed her to want him to keep his distance. He needed her to hate him. It would make everything much simpler that way.
“Ryan?” she prodded, placing her hand on his chest and frowning up at him. “Why are you helping me?”
He took a step back, forcing her to drop her hand. “I told you at the hospital that I’m honor bound to keep you safe,” he said, reminding both of them why he was with her in the first place. “Now that I know that the marshals who died protecting you were double-crossed by someone inside WitSec, I’ve got even more reasons to keep my vow to protect you. I’m not going to let whoever leaked your identity win. I want justice.”
Jessica’s gaze dropped from his and he immediately regretted his harsh answer.
“I want justice, too, for the marshals, for my friend, Natalie,” she said, her voice a bitter whisper in the stillness of the cabin. “And if DeGaullo wants to kill me, I’m not going to make it easy for him. I’m staying with you.”
The first tiny stirrings of respect welled up inside Ryan at Jessica’s brave echo of the same words he’d told her the first time he’d seen her.
Don’t make it easy for him.
He unzipped his jacket and pulled his Glock out of the inside pocket.
She made no attempt to take the gun when he offered it to her. Instead, she narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you trying to give me your gun?”
“I’m going to backtrack, disguise our trail, and see if anyone is following us. This place is isolated. It’s unlikely anyone would stumble across it. But if the worst happens, you’ll have to protect yourself.” He held out the gun again. “There’s no safety. All you do is aim and squeeze.”
Jessica eyed the gun with obvious distaste. “Perhaps you didn’t hear me. I said I was staying with you. You’re not leaving me behind.”
Irritation flashed through Ryan when he noted the stubborn set of her jaw. He’d make much faster progress without her clinging to him, and him worrying about her falling off the bike. The woman had obviously never been on a motorcycle before. She didn’t even know to lean into the curves.
“I’m not leaving you behind,” he tried to reassure her. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours, three tops.”
“Why do you have to backtrack at all? Why can’t we just keep going deeper into the mountains?”
Ryan lowered the gun, his frustration level rising as he glanced at his watch. If the gunmen were following them, how close were they now? What if others had been positioned in the mountains before the fire, ready to cut off any avenues of escape? They could be closing in right now.
“Heading into the mountains on a motorcycle wasn’t the smartest thing to do,” he said. “But we didn’t have much of a choice last night. Even an average tracker will be able to follow our tire tracks. Plus, the bike is loud. We’re okay using it a little while longer, if our pursuers aren’t far enough into the mountains to hear it yet. But without knowing how many people are following us, and what directions they’re coming from, I don’t know what strategy to take to elude them. I need to do some scouting. If you’re with me, you’ll just slow me down.”
“It doesn’t make sense for you to have to ride all the way back here to get me once you do whatever you need to do,” she countered, her words rushing together as she took a step forward. “I promise I won’t interfere. Just take me with you. I’ll have your back, keep an eye out so no one sneaks up on you while you do whatever you need to do.”
The fear stamped on her taut face, and the way her gaze had darted toward the door and window, told him far more than the words she’d spoken. Jessica was afraid that if he left, he’d never come back. She was afraid he would abandon her.
Ah, hell. He was going to have to take her with him.
Chapter Eight
After backtracking several miles to lay a false trail, Ryan turned the bike deeper into the forest, bumping over fallen logs and working his way to increasingly higher elevations. Even though he and Stuart had hiked the main trails in this area, he’d never been in this particular section of the mountains before. He had to stop several times to consult his map and GPS tracker to navigate his way to his destination, one of the highest peaks in the Smoky Mountains National Park.
Riding all the way to the top would take far too long, and wasn’t necessary. All he needed to do was find a high enough area not completely covered in trees, so he could get the lay of the land and a view of anyone pursuing them. Fortunately, today was one of the clearer days. The smoky haze that often covered this mountain range was thin enough that he’d be able to see for miles around.
When he reached a rocky rise that would allow him an unobstructed view, he parked the bike beneath a stand of trees and killed the engine.
Jessica started behind him. “Are we there yet?”
Ryan glanced back at her, steadying the bike so she could dismount. He frowned when she hid a yawn behind her hand.
“Did you actually fall asleep while we were riding?” he asked.
She blinked as if trying to focus, reminding him of one of the screech owls so common in this area. “I guess I did.”
The thought of her falling off as the bike bumped over the rocky terrain made his stomach sink. “From now on, you’re riding in front so I can hold on t
o you.”
“O...kay,” she slurred. She slid off the bike and plopped down on the ground. Before Ryan even had the kickstand down, Jessica had slumped against a tree, closed her eyes, and lapsed into soft snores.
So much for her having his back and making sure no one snuck up on him like she’d promised at the shack. Ryan grinned and shook his head.
He squatted down, unsnapped her chinstrap, and cradled her against his chest so he could take off her helmet. When he turned back to face her, he found himself in a lip-lock.
His shock turned into a shudder when her fingers curled into his jacket and her soft mouth moved against his. All his reasons for not trusting her, all the terrible things she’d done in her past, faded beneath the achingly soft fullness of her lips on his. He groaned and clasped her to him, deepening the kiss, urging her to open her mouth.
Her head fell back and she snorted loud enough to startle a bird in the oak tree above them.
She’d fallen asleep while he was kissing her. She was probably asleep the entire time.
His ego took a dive, and his face heated. Served him right for his lack of discipline. He could picture his father and brothers shaking their heads with disapproval, berating him for dishonoring the family’s generations of law-enforcement officers by consorting with the enemy.
Even if he could ignore his deep-seated family traditions, he could never reconcile himself to Jessica’s past. She hadn’t just looked the other way when working on the DeGaullo accounts. She had actively helped him, using her accounting skills to cover his money laundering. Ryan could never trust a woman like that. Without trust, there was nothing to build on, no common ground, no possibility of a future.
He shook his head again at his crazy thoughts. It’s not like he had a choice, anyway. Once the mole in the Justice Department was found, Ryan still had to get Jessica off this mountain alive. If he managed that feat, she’d go right back into WitSec. The only way he could be with her then was if he went into WitSec too, which meant never seeing his family again.
That was one sacrifice he would never make.
For anyone.
He gently lowered her to the ground, straightening slowly while he struggled to get his traitorous body back under control. It was several minutes before he could walk again without the pleasure-pain of his erection pressing against his jeans. If Jessica had this kind of effect on him now, he couldn’t imagine what touching her would be like if she were a fully active participant.
It would probably kill him.
He grinned again when she let out another loud snort and rolled over onto her side, snuffling against the pine needles.
Ryan prepared a bed of moss and leaves for Jessica to sleep on while he climbed the rocky rise a few feet away. He covered the makeshift bed with the blanket from one of the bike’s saddlebags. Then he gently lifted her in his arms. He frowned at how light she was, how delicate and vulnerable she seemed. She couldn’t afford to miss many meals. If they were stuck in these mountains for more than a few days, he’d have to hunt for something more substantial than granola bars to keep her strength up.
The dark circles under her eyes told him how exhausted she was, how desperately she needed to sleep, but he had to wake her, at least for a minute. He remembered how panicked she’d been at the shack when she was convinced he was trying to abandon her. If she woke up and found him gone, she might panic again.
He lowered her to the blanket and gave her a gentle shake.
“Wake up, sleeping beauty.”
Her lashes fluttered open, her sleepy lids at half-mast.
“Are we there yet?” she asked, echoing her earlier words.
Ryan’s fingers curled into his palms. This woman was far too adorable for his peace of mind. “I’m going to climb that rise—” he said, pointing off to his left “—to take a look around. I won’t be far. I should be able to hear you if you call out, but take my gun just in case.”
Having realized earlier that Jessica had a strong aversion to guns, Ryan didn’t give her a chance to argue. He swiftly tucked his Glock in her jacket pocket, zipped it closed, and hurried away from that disturbingly tempting mouth of hers.
* * *
JESSICA FROWNED AND stared toward the trees where Ryan had just disappeared. When he’d woken her up, she’d been dreaming that he was kissing her. The dream was so real, his kiss so soft and gentle, it had made her pulse leap crazily in her chest and her belly tighten in response. Even now, the memory of that dream sent a delightful shiver down her spine.
For a moment, she’d thought the dream was real.
It wasn’t of course. Her mind was just fuzzy, drunk from lack of sleep, blending dreams with reality. Ryan would probably be horrified that she’d even considered that he might want to kiss her. He wouldn’t want to taint himself by associating with a woman like her, a woman he considered—by his own words—almost as bad as DeGaullo.
She pressed her lips together. She was far from perfect and had made some terrible mistakes. She might not like that Ryan had prejudged her, like everyone else. But she couldn’t really blame him. Maybe he was right and she was as bad as DeGaullo.
She rubbed her tired eyes and shifted her weight, only now realizing she was lying on a soft blanket. At least Ryan respected her enough as a human being to offer her that small comfort. She wiggled to get comfortable, and her arm bumped against the bulge caused by the gun Ryan had stuffed into her jacket pocket. Her lips curled with distaste. She’d seen firsthand how devastating a gun could be, and she loathed the necessity of having one.
A twig snapped behind her. Jessica bolted upright, clawing for the gun as she squinted into the shadows.
* * *
WHEN RYAN REACHED the crest of the rocky incline, he belly-crawled across the top. If someone was on the trails below and looked up, he didn’t want them to see his silhouette against the bright blue sky behind him.
Tugging on the string looped around his neck, he pulled out his binoculars from where he’d tucked them inside his jacket. The mountains blazed with autumn color. Dozens of hiking paths snaked out in every direction, forming a network of gold lines amongst the trees.
From this vantage point, he could just barely make out the shed he and Jessica had been in earlier this morning, as well as a handful of other structures scattered around the mountain range. Most were abandoned, their doors sagging open, the aged gray wood warped or missing.
But not all of them were abandoned.
Some of them had cars parked out front, and cool-weather flowers spilling out of planters beside the front doors. Although he and Jessica had come a long way from his house, which was too far away to see, they still hadn’t escaped the dangers of civilization.
He debated ditching the noisy bike, worried that the sound might carry in the mountains. But he needed to get Jessica to a more secluded, defensible position, with only unoccupied mountains at his back. The only way to get deep enough into the mountains to find a place like that, quickly, was on the bike. For now, he decided the benefits outweighed the risks. He’d hold on to the motorcycle a bit longer.
Half an hour passed and he still hadn’t seen anyone following them on the trails. He risked a quick phone call to the one person nearby that he trusted, a man who’d been his best friend growing up in Colorado, and who’d fought by his side on too many missions to count—Stuart Lanier.
Stuart readily agreed to snoop around and use his contacts to try to find out who the major players in the WitSec fiasco might be.
“Tell me where you are,” Stuart said. “I can send some of my men to pick you up. You can hide out at my place until this blows over.”
“I’m disobeying a direct order by not turning Jessica over to the Justice Department right now,” Ryan said. “I don’t want to get you in trouble with the law by giving us safe haven. Just dig around, see what you can find out. That’s the kind of help I need right now.”
“Fair enough. But you’ve got my number.”
�
��I owe you,” Ryan said.
“Nah, you’ve saved my butt more times than I can count. Later, man.”
Ryan hung up with a promise to call back tomorrow. He stowed the phone, then took one last look around. He was just about to put his binoculars away when he spotted movement. Off to the west, a few miles away, a couple walked hand in hand along the edge of a stream. Ryan traced his binoculars behind them to see where they’d come from. He located their campsite, little more than a half mile from where he was. The couple definitely wasn’t roughing it. They had an enormous camper hooked to the back of their pickup truck. Next to that, they’d strung a clothesline high up in the trees with a full load of laundry drying in the sun.
Scanning back to the couple again, Ryan considered the woman’s size. She wasn’t quite as petite as Jessica, but she was close enough for his purposes.
Time to go shopping.
* * *
JESSICA SCREAMED AGAINST the hand covering her mouth.
“Hush, it’s me, Ryan.”
She slumped in relief, pressing her hand against her chest as Ryan released her.
“Why did you sneak up on me?” she whispered furiously, her embarrassment at her reaction making her voice much harsher than she’d intended.
Ryan’s eyes widened and he plucked the gun from her hands. “You do realize that thing is loaded, right?” He examined the gun before shoving it into his jacket pocket.
Jessica flushed. “Well, of course I know it’s loaded, not that I realized I was pointing it at you. I keep hearing noises in the woods. I’ve been waiting an eternity for you to come back, scared to death a bear or a mountain lion would come along and eat me.”
Ryan’s mouth tilted up at the corner. “Lions and bears? Were there tigers, too?”
“Do not make fun of me,” she warned.
He held a hand across his heart in mock horror. “Wouldn’t dream of it. And I was only gone for two hours, not an eternity. Here.” He picked something up off the ground and held it out to her.
“Clothes! Oh, my gosh, jeans and a shirt!” Jessica grabbed them from him, but her pleasure at having clean girl clothes instead of Ryan’s baggy hand-me-downs faded as suspicion took hold. “Did you steal these?”
The Marshal's Witness Page 7