Packing Heat

by Penny McCall

  Harmony laughed. “Hungover, huh?”

  “My head is pounding, my mouth tastes like a cesspool, and my gut is burning. And what is that smell?”

  “Your breath,” Harmony said, waving a hand in front of her face.

  “The other smell,” he groaned, hands leaving his head to clutch at his stomach.

  Harmony shifted out of the line of fire. “Breakfast. Eggs, toast, and some nice fresh sausage.”

  Cole heaved off the bed, swiping her out of the way with one arm and tearing into the bathroom. She could hear him retching, and it served him right. Then she heard him gargling, and when he came out he smelled like mouthwash, for which she was grateful.

  “I was never much of a drinker, and in jail—”

  “It wasn’t available.”

  “No, it was available. Lots of guys made home brew, but getting drunk was contrary to my personal safety.” He sank onto the bed, smiling weakly. “I guess I’ve lost my tolerance.”

  “How much of last night do you remember?” Harmony asked him, even though she’d sworn she wouldn’t because what she really wanted to know was if he remembered saying he loved her, and what she wanted to ask him was how he’d meant it. Was it a thanks-for-getting-me-home I love you, or a desperate-for-sex I love you? Or did he mean it, from the heart, no strings attached?

  “I remember Nelson giving me a couple swigs of some sort of homemade hooch—”

  “Which you were stupid enough to drink.”

  “There was beer, too.”

  And there went her hopes for a clarification. “Go back to bed and sleep it off.”

  “About last night,” he said, catching her arm before she could do more than stand up.

  Her heart started to race, jumping into her throat. But it wasn’t the explanation she’d been imagining.

  “I’m sorry, Harm,” he said, and although she looked pointedly at his hand still banded around her wrist, he didn’t let her go, “about everything. I shouldn’t have taken your phone and your computer and the car keys. And calling your boss was probably wrong, too. I just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t . . .”

  “Do anything stupid?”

  He gave her a one-shouldered shrug, wincing when even that slight movement made his head pound.

  “I suppose I did overreact a little.”

  “If that’s an apology, it’s a darn poor one.”

  “You want me to apologize for getting angry because you were being an overprotective jerk?”

  “Well, when you put it like that . . .” He dropped her wrist and collapsed back on the bed, pulling a cool pillow under his head.

  When he woke up again, Harmony was gone. His head still throbbed so hard even the suggestion of daylight made him wince. He got up, took four aspirin, drank about a gallon of water, and went back to sleep. The next time he woke up his arms were full of Harmony, and the throbbing had moved south. And he’d apologized, he reminded himself, not to mention she’d crawled into bed with him, so she probably wouldn’t reject him if he woke her up.

  He’d start by kissing her neck just below her ear where she liked it, and then he’d slip his hand up from where it rested at her waist. Or maybe he’d slip it down. Either way he could already predict the way her breath would sigh out, how she’d rub her soft curves against him, how he’d nudge her over onto her back, or maybe her stomach.

  He had it all choreographed, and then a funny thing happened. He relaxed into the mattress again, at least most of him did. He couldn’t bring himself to wake her out of a sound sleep, and not because he was afraid she’d reject him.

  “Are you going to do something”—she shifted carefully onto her back—“or are you just going to think about it?”

  “I don’t want to hurt you. Your ribs . . .”

  “My ribs don’t have a starring role in the kind of performance I’m talking about.”

  Cole feathered his fingertips over the bruise on her cheek. “Your ribs aren’t the only problem.” She still wasn’t a hundred percent. She probably wasn’t seventy-five percent, and if he ever saw that bitch, Irina, again, he was going to rethink his policy on guns.

  “Hey.” She took his chin in her hand and turned his face to hers. “What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know.” Cole slumped onto his back.

  Harmony lifted the blanket and looked underneath it. “There doesn’t seem to be any physical problem.”

  She eased over so she was draped across his chest and kissed him, lightly, but when she started to pull away, Cole took her face in his hands and kissed her back. She shuddered as his tongue touched hers, feeling the whole hard length of his body against the whole needy length of hers. He slipped his hand underneath her and pulled her completely on top of him, rocking his hips against hers. It felt so good that she wrestled off Sal’s shirt, which was all she’d slept in besides her panties, and rubbed her breasts against his chest. The three points of pleasure collided somewhere in her abdomen, coiling so tight she let herself drop into the pleasure.

  He slid her panties down, eased his hand between her legs and slipped two fingers into her, curling up a little to take her breast into his mouth at the same time. She shattered. The coil in her belly exploded outward, wave overlapping wave until every nerve ending sang and every speck of consciousness focused on the orgasm, her center still tight, holding in the pleasure while the rest of her muscles went loose and shivery.

  She dropped her forehead to Cole’s shoulder and whispered his name, almost silently because she didn’t have enough breath left to get out even that one syllable with any force.

  “Harm,” he groaned, sounding like he was in pain, which he probably was.

  She shifted to one side long enough to help him remove his boxers, long enough for him to put on a condom. Then she straddled him, the flesh between her legs so sensitive she wound up doing a bump and grind routine, wanting him inside her but needing to take it slowly. Her inner muscles stretched and shuddered as she took him into her by agonizing inches.

  “You’re killing me,” Cole said, grabbing her hips and lifting her off him.

  He stacked the pillows, nudged her, chest down, on them, grabbed her hips again, and slid into her from behind, coming hard against something inside her that felt even better than before. And then he began to move, long strokes that made her blood pound and her muscles tremble. His hands were sure at her waist, his mouth hot, his teeth nipping at the place where her shoulder met her neck.

  She fisted her hands in the sheets, nothing to do but lie there as he came into her, again and again. The loss of control was both frustrating and exhilarating, every stroke of his body, every touch of his mouth or hands a surprise that stole her breath and pushed her back toward climax.

  His breath grew ragged and he surged into her harder, one hand moving to her breast as he curved around her so she felt him everywhere, on her and in her. She didn’t know where he left off and she began, and she didn’t have a choice when he feathered his thumb across her nipple as he drove into her one last time, locked himself deep, and dragged her over the edge of reality into that shattered, throbbing place she’d been before, where everything was bright and amazing and filled with pleasure almost too intense to bear.

  She couldn’t say how much time passed while she struggled for sanity, and breath, but it helped when Cole moved his bulk, sprawling onto his back next to her. Then she could bask in the pleasant afterglow.

  “Are you all right?” he asked her.

  “Oh yeah,” she said. “How is your head?”

  “I’m not sure I even have a head.”

  Harmony was sure she had ribs because they were aching, along with every bruise she’d gotten from Irina. But it was worth it because other parts of her ached, too, wonderfully.

  Cole slipped out of bed, and when he came back, he dragged one of the pillows out from under her head, where she’d moved them, and curved himself around her, brushing her hair away from her neck so he could kiss her before he s
ettled into the bed with a satisfied sigh.

  Harmony rested her hand on top of his where it lay across her waist. He twined his fingers with hers, and her heart lurched. She almost told him what he’d mumbled the night before, the words trembling on her lips for just a second before she swallowed them back. The possibility that he hadn’t meant it was too great a risk, so she relaxed against him and settled for what she had. And tried not to think about the fact that she was in love with Cole.

  chapter 24

  HARMONY WOKE UP, HER MIND SHARP BUT HER BODY still humming with afterglow, which might have had something to do with the two additional times they’d made love during the night. Being in Cole’s arms, her head on his shoulder, was just the icing on the cake.

  She eased back so she could see his face, tracing the lines bracketing his mouth, two days’ worth of beard growth tickling her fingertips.

  He started awake, instantly alert, his eyes narrowing on her face. Their gazes held, his hand came up to press her palm to his check, just for a second, before he pulled away. Harmony told herself she didn’t see something . . . soft in his eyes. But his fingers curled around hers, and his voice, when he spoke, was gentle, even gruff with sleep.

  “Insatiable,” he said, “not that I’m complaining.”

  “I didn’t wake you up for that. I didn’t intend to wake you up at all. You’ve been sleeping for thirty-six hours—”

  “Not exactly true.”

  “—and you were just ready to wake up.”

  “You got the ready part right.”

  “I don’t think I can walk now, let alone if we—Ohhhhh,” she said, because he’d kissed her neck while she was talking, nibbling his way down her shoulder to her breast, drawing her nipple into his mouth, lifting her knee and sliding into her at the same time.

  He took it slow this time, achingly slow, his mouth gentle but insistent at her breast, his body moving surely on hers, pleasure building to a climax that broke over her as softly as a spring rain. Cole followed her over, gathering her close, barely breathing hard as he settled beside her. In seconds his breathing deepened, verging on full-fledged snore.

  Harmony shoved him. “You are not going to sleep again.”

  Cole yawned, blinking his eyes rapidly as he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “If you want me to get up and stay up, I’m going to need a shower first.”

  “Make it cold,” Harmony said, putting her foot on his butt and helping him on his way to the bathroom. She wanted him up, but not up. Any more up and she’d really have troubling walking. She hadn’t been kidding about that.

  As soon as she heard the water stop running, she eased out of the bed, favoring more than her ribs. She pulled on one of Cole’s T-shirts because she was pretty sure whatever control they’d gained by separating would be destroyed if she was naked when he ran into her again.

  She shouldn’t have worried.

  Cole came out of the tiny bathroom and met her in the narrow hallway. They both turned sideways, Cole slowing as they tried to pass one another and their bodies brushed. His eyes dropped to her mouth, and for a moment she thought he might kiss her. He didn’t, just shifted away and went into the bedroom. Considering what she’d been feeling last night, it was the distance she needed, and if it stung a little, it was nothing to the pain she was facing if she didn’t get her heart straightened out.

  The shower helped, not only pulling her out of the intimacy of the last nine hours, but easing her sore muscles. And when she dug into her duffel to get some clothes, she noticed her phones and laptop had been returned.

  “We should talk about our plans,” she said when she came out of the bathroom, fully dressed and combing her wet hair. “We’ve been here two days already. Today makes it three.”

  “And you think it’s time to get on the road.”

  “I think it’s past time.”

  Cole didn’t say anything for a minute. “Let’s talk it over with Larkin,” he finally said. “We can’t go off half-cocked again. I know we can’t prepare for every possibility, but if we think this through before we get on the road again, we’ll have a better shot at success.”

  Considering how hard it must have been for him to even consider consulting Conn, let alone returning her phones before they’d agreed on what to do, Harmony figured the least she could do was compromise. Besides, his suggestion was reasonable and cautious. But there were limits. “Fine, we make a plan,” she said. “But the first part is that I’m leaving today. Whatever you need to do to get comfortable with that, you need to do it.”

  “You’d leave without me?”

  “There’s enough money—”

  The RV door opened and Connor Larkin stepped in, easing the door shut behind him. “There’s a police cruiser pulling in,” he said, which not only derailed their argument, it brought them to instant accord.

  Harmony went to the door, looking through the window behind Conn’s bulk to where two uniformed Colorado State Police officers were talking to Annie and Nelson. They must have mentioned her name, because Corey Brewer, who was standing not far away, perked right up. So did one of the cops. He left his partner with the Blisses, walked over to the little girl, and stooped down in front of her. Cindy Brewer stepped between them. Even from a hundred yards away Harmony could see the trooper trying to badger his way through the mother to get to the child, who must’ve already spilled the beans about Lady Harmony.

  “I’ll handle it,” Conn said, fending Harmony off when she tried to brush past him and go to the little girl’s defense. He pulled out his cell and dialed. Annie Bliss wandered away from the cops, surreptitiously reaching into her pocket.

  “She always keeps her phone on vibrate,” Cole explained. “Says the ringing is disruptive to her chakras, whatever the hell that means.” He held up a finger, listened for a few seconds, then said, “Got it, thanks,” and disconnected. “Annie says the state police received an anonymous tip that an escaped felon and his accomplice were hiding out here. They had your names.”

  “You think one of the people here made the call?” Harmony asked him.

  “Nope. Cops are disruptive to their chakras, too. Besides, none of them know your last names, and even if your mug shots were still being shown on the tube, these people aren’t big TV watchers. The tip had to come from somewhere else, which means you might be in bigger trouble than a couple of state cops. Get your stuff together and hightail it out the back. I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

  “You’re going to get arrested,” Cole said, coming up behind Harmony with their bags in his hands.

  “Exactly. And guess to whom my one phone call will be?”

  Harmony put a hand on his arm, stopping before he opened the door. “I’m sorry, Conn.”

  “Mike will get me out of this without blowing my cover.” He looked over her shoulder and said to Cole, “Take care of her.”

  “That sounds like a threat, which is overkill since your friend Mike already covered that ground with me.”

  “The only threat that matters is the one from the kidnappers,” Harmony said. “And I can take care of myself.”

  Conn ruffled her hair, which was very brotherly, and left her both annoyed and touched, before he stepped out of the RV, stretching and yawning like he’d just gotten out of bed.

  Harmony peeked through the window long enough to see him pretend to catch sight of the cops and change direction. When the officers saw him coming, both right hands moved to rest on the butts of both guns and they put a little distance between them. For a second she thought they were going to draw their weapons, but Conn spread his hands, it was clear he wasn’t armed, and the immediate threat passed.

  “Here,” Cole said, and when Harmony looked back at him, he had her laptop case slung over his shoulder and he was holding out her duffel.

  Harmony took it and followed him to the cab of the RV, staying out of sight of the passenger window when he slid into the driver’s seat. The RV’s were parked bumpe
r to tailgate, like a parade of elephants single file, tail-in-trunk. The big side door, which was also on the passenger side of the vehicle, faced the inner part of the RV circle. That meant that the driver’s side door led to the outside of the circle. Cole slid into the driver’s seat, eased the door open, and stepped out.

  Harmony slipped out behind him, her feet barely touching the ground before something thunked into the RV beside her head. Instinct sent her to the ground almost before her brain could shriek bullet, another plinking into the RV right where her chest would have been.

  Cole dragged her to her feet and they ran flat out into the wooded area just behind the RV park, where Conn had moved the GT the day they’d arrived. Bullets cut through the branches and leaves around them, splintering bark and getting steadily closer until she swore she could feel the wind of their passage on the back of her neck. The shots stopped before they made it to the car, probably because the GT was hidden in a fairly thick patch of trees and the shooters had lost sight of them.

  Harmony found herself at the driver’s-side door before she realized she didn’t have the keys. She looked up just as Cole flipped them to her. Her surprise must have shown because he said, “Just drive,” and folded his long body into the passenger seat.

  She got behind the wheel, taking a precious second to adjust the seat before she turned the key and jammed the car into gear. She hit the gas, shooting out of the underbrush and into the road, almost colliding with the police cruiser.

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw Cole brace himself between the armrest and the console as the car fishtailed and she fought for control. The tires finally caught pavement with a screech that rocketed them forward, Cole yelling, “Holy shit!”

  “Getting deeper all the time,” Harmony said, her eyes on the rearview.

  Cole twisted around. “There’s another car behind the cops,” he said needlessly since Harmony had already seen it swing in on the cruiser’s rear bumper. “It’s keeping pace.”

  Which was saying something since they were already doing seventy-five, and on a curvy, two-lane road that was just asking for trouble.