CROSSING THE LINE (RANGER SECURITY Book 5)

by Rhonda Russell

  Though she wasn’t what one could call classically beautiful, she had a memorable, unique face. That visage paired with an especially soft, curvy body and an ass that was ripe and lush sent her sexy quotient through the roof.

  He’d taken one look at her and gone uncomfortably hard.

  While he had to admit that wasn’t a first, it was the first time since he’d left puberty behind.

  Had he met her in any other circumstance, he would have been all over her like white on rice. He would have made a play for her faster than she could say condom.

  Unfortunately, charming and witty aside, she didn’t appear to be dealing with a full deck, and that point was never driven home more clearly than in that instant, when she strolled back into the liv­ing room with a rolling suitcase at her side. She’d put a pair of enormous sunglasses on her head and sparkly flip-flops on her feet and a bag big enough to house China over her shoulder.

  “I’m ready,” she announced, as if he should have been expecting this.

  Tanner blinked. “Ready for what?”

  “To go with you, of course.”

  He laughed uncomfortably and looked away before finding her gaze once more. “Er...that’s really not necessary. I’m perfectly capable of—”

  “I know that it’s not necessary,” she said. “It’s expedient. You and I both have the same goal—to find Theo. It’ll go quicker if we help each other.”

  He hated to point out the obvious, but... “I don’t need your help.”

  Nor did he want it. In the first place, she was obviously...different. The word seemed a lot more charitable than crazy. In the second place, this was his first assignment for his new job and he’d just as soon not be distracted. In the third place, she was too damned sexy for his own good. And in the fourth place—damn, this was a long list—she unnerved him.

  Tanner didn’t like being unnerved.

  Her laugh tinkled between them, and that sexy sound settled around his loins. “Yes, you do need me. You just don’t know it yet.”

  Definitely crazy, Will thought. More’s the pity. “In that case, I’ll call you if I need your assis­tance.” He smiled reassuringly and backed toward the door. “Don’t worry. I’ll find him.”

  Her smile turned a bit hard and she expelled a patient breath, as though he were the one being unreasonable. “Look, Mr. Crawford, you seem like a smart man, so I hope that this doesn’t sound too patronizing, but...you don’t know who you’re looking for, and I do. Theo has been over every aspect of the Watson treasure story with me backward and forward. It’s quite possible that you’ll stumble upon a lead and not even realize it.”

  Will paused, looking for a flaw in her logic. He

  supposed even sexy, crazy people had moments of lucidity. “True,” he admitted. “But if that’s the case, then why haven’t you been out looking for him?”

  “I have looked around here, in all the usual places,” she said. “But he’s not in town. If he was, I’d have found him by now. Furthermore, if he was staying close to home, he wouldn’t have needed the cash—that says road trip to me—and he wouldn’t have left me a message telling me not to worry.”

  Tanner’s senses went on point and he felt his gaze narrow. “He left you a message? When? Do you still have it?” He wasn’t aware of any contact with anyone after Watson supposedly disappeared.

  “Of course,” she said. She walked over to her an­swering machine. “He left it three days ago. That’s the last I heard from him.” She pressed the play button.

  “Rhiannon, Tad here. Please stop harassing the Ranger Security people. Finding Dad isn’t going to score you any points with me—”

  She flushed and skipped over the message to the next.

  Ah, Will thought. So that was her game, eh? From the sounds of things she and Tad had had a falling-out and Rhiannon was interested in helping find Theo Watson in order to put herself back in his good graces. He found himself unreasonably disappointed.

  “Ignore him,” she said, her voice throbbing with anger. “He’s an ass.”

  Sour grapes, then? Had Tad taken a woman with him to Italy? Will wondered. His initial impression of Tad painted the man as a selfish, disrespectful boor. Crazy or not, he would have figured she’d have better taste. The thought made him slightly nauseated.

  “Rhi, I think I’ve got it!” an older male voice said over the machine. “Matthew 6:21. ‘For where your treasure is, your heart will be also.’ Don’t you see? I’ve been looking in the wrong place. All this time and it’s been right under my nose. Don’t worry, dear. I’ll be in touch.”

  Excitement and affection rang in every syllable in Theo’s voice and it was quite obvious that he adored Rhiannon Palmer. The fact that he would leave her a message advising her not to worry, but didn’t bestow the same courtesy on his son told Tanner that he either didn’t care whether Tad worried or not, or didn’t expect him to be concerned in the first place. And considering that Tad was in Italy and Rhiannon was here, determined to go with him to help find Watson...

  Well, clearly the older man was an excellent judge of character.

  Nevertheless, it didn’t change the fact that she couldn’t tag along with him. Granted, he was new to the security business, but he didn’t think that was proper protocol at all. After more than a decade of following orders and procedures, Tanner had learned to appreciate not only the chain of command, but the boundaries it put into place.

  She was over the line.

  “Does Tad know about this message?” Tanner asked. “He didn’t mention it.”

  She lifted her chin. “No, I didn’t tell Tad. He thinks his father is a ridiculous old fool and has evidenced his true concern by not changing his vacation plans.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t owe Tad anything. Furthermore, if Theo had wanted to call him, he could have.”

  “True.” He considered her thoughtfully and finally asked the question that was driving him nuts. Ridiculous. He ought not even care. It didn’t matter. And yet... “So you and Tad are a thing?”

  She snorted and rolled her eyes. “I went out with Tad because Theo had grand dreams of me being able to turn his spoiled, shallow son into some sort of a redeemable facsimile of a man. The minute Tad realized that I was not going to fall into bed with him, he dumped me—via Facebook—and has continued with the false delusion that my greatest desire is our reconciliation.” Her brows formed a straight line. “It is not.” Her expression softened with genuine affection. “I do, however, utterly adore his father—he’s been a better father to me than my own—and I am desperately worried about him.”

  Maybe she wasn’t on medication after all, Tanner decided. Maybe she was just a little odd. Charm­ingly so, he had to confess. Charming + sexy = Trouble, he thought, tearing his gaze away from her ripe mouth. Another thought struck.

  “My information says he’s of sound mind and in good health. Is that wrong?”

  She hesitated long enough for him to notice. “It is.”

  He waited. “But...” he prodded.

  Her shrewd gaze probed his, evidently deliberat­ing how to answer him. “Are you obligated to pass along any information I give you to Tad?”

  A warning bell went off in his head. She was hiding something from him. Something that he instinctively knew was crucial to his case. “That would be at my discretion, of course.”

  She winced, disappointed. “That’s not the answer I was hoping for.”

  Tanner leveled a gaze at her. “If there are extenuat­ing circumstances that I am not aware of regarding Mr. Watson, then I would urge you to tell me.”

  “Only if I can trust you not to mention this to Tad. The last thing he needs is more ammunition to try and put his father into a home.” An ominous

  expression settled over her face, putting him in mind of an angry kitten. “I won’t give it to him.”

  Senile and dementia and diminished capac­ity, Tanner thought, Payne’s words coming back to him.

  “He’s fine,
really,” she said. “He’s just...” She trailed off, seemingly unwilling to finish.

  “I will not mention this to Tad,” Tanner said, hoping he wasn’t going to regret making that rash promise. For reasons that eluded him, he wanted her to confide in him.

  She melted, and the relieved smile that slid over her lips made him feel as if he’d just battled a dragon on her behalf. “He’s recently been diag­nosed with diabetes and isn’t taking it seriously,” she confessed. “He’s prone to skip meals and not check his sugar. It makes me a nervous wreck,” she said, her brow clouding with concern. “Obviously he doesn’t want Tad to know. It would just be one more reason to try and get him into a home where he could be ‘properly looked after.’” Bitter sarcasm coated her last words.

  Tanner frowned. This changed things. His grandmother—he made a mental note to call her later—was diabetic and Tanner knew firsthand how quickly things could go south with the illness. He’d had to get her a hard candy or a quick glass of orange juice more times than he cared to count.

  She bit her bottom lip. “I’m sure he’s probably fine, but knowing that he could let his sugar drop too low, that he could fall or get hurt and not knowing where he is...” She made a low, frustrated noise in her throat. “It’s driving me crazy. I could throttle him, truly. So you see, that’s why I have to go. I can’t just stay here. I can help you. I know you don’t think so right now—I can tell,” she added with a small knowing smile that completely unnerved him. “But I can.”

  While he understood her concern and knew it was genuine, Tanner shook his head, albeit more reluctantly. He was relatively certain taking her along was against company policy, and even if it wasn’t, it would be better for his sanity if she remained here. She was too damned tempting and, though he’d always prided himself on his self-control, there was no point in putting himself through hell to hang on to it. “Ms. Palmer—”

  “Rhiannon, please.”

  “Rhiannon, I’m going to level with you. This is my first assignment for Ranger Security—”

  Her eyes widened. “Then you definitely don’t want to screw it up.”

  “And I really don’t want to risk it by allowing you to accompany me. I’m sure you understand.” You also scare the hell out of me, he silently added. And it’s been too long since I’ve properly bedded a woman and you are too tempting by half. Note to self—get laid ASAP after this assignment.

  She drew back and leveled a long look at him, one that felt as if she was probing the hid­den recesses of his mind. It made him distinctly uncomfortable.

  Finally she released a fatalistic sigh. “The hard way, then?” She nodded once, as though agreeing with herself. “Fine.”

  Charmingly unhinged, Tanner thought again.

  But he’d won.

  For the moment, anyway.

  * * *

  She should have been a private investigator, Rhiannon thought as she watched Tanner Crawford disappear into the bank. This “tailing” thing was ridiculously easy. And he’d even gotten a head start. She’d had to make sure Keno had enough food and water until Elizabeth came by to pick her up, lock up the house and load her things into the car.

  Of course, she’d imagined that he’d go straight to the Watson Plantation and she’d been right. She’d merely waited for him to come out—twinkling her fingers at his astonished face as he’d made his way back to his car—then followed him here. She glanced at the clock and winced when her stomach growled. One o’clock. She hoped he got hungry soon. She could use a bit of lunch, and the special today at Willie’s Diner was meat loaf—her favorite.

  In the meantime she decided to give Elizabeth a try again. Her friend was a gymnastics instructor, and the only time she could catch her during the day was between classes. Thankfully, this was one of those times.

  “Twinkle Toes,” Elizabeth answered. The sound of rowdy children and dance music bled through the line.

  Rhiannon dug through her purse until she found a granola bar. “Hey, it’s me.” She tore into the packet with her teeth.

  “I saw where you’d called earlier. Sorry I missed you. Any news on Theo?”

  “A little,” Rhiannon told her, and relayed the in­formation she’d gotten from Will. “He’s definitely on the move. The eternal question, of course, is to where?”

  “You would know better than anyone else,” Liz said.

  Rhiannon rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you tell that to Mr. Security Expert? He wasn’t exactly receptive to my join-forces plan.”

  She chuckled. “He’s a man. Did you really expect him to be?”

  “I expected him to be logical.”

  “He’s got a penis. He’s incapable of being logical.” A bitter undertone colored her voice and Rhiannon instantly became annoyed on her friend’s behalf.

  Her lips twisted. “Speaking of dicks, any word from Mark?”

  “Not one,” Elizabeth replied.

  She tsked sympathetically. “Sorry, Liz. He’s a total idiot. You know that, right?”

  She chuckled sadly. “True,” she said. “But I was the bigger fool for ever falling for him to start with.”

  “Nah,” Rhiannon said, though in truth she quite honestly had never understood Mark’s appeal. He was relatively handsome, she supposed, but left a lot to be desired when it came to intelligence. Then again, though she was a bit of an expert when it came to emotions, Rhiannon had never fully understood love.

  Of course, considering she’d never actually been in love, how could she possibly understand it?

  To be completely honest, the emotion sort of terrified her. She’d seen people do strange things, completely lose their own identity, sacrifice their self-respect, their dignity over the puzzlingly powerful emotion. And the jealousy it inspired? Sweet hell, she never wanted to deal with that.

  Her own parents had an extremely volatile relationship—screaming and crying one minute, kissing the next. It was a roller coaster of emo­tions that had completely drained her as a child and young adult...and she’d just been a bystander. She genuinely didn’t know how they stood it. How they bore that kind of emotional upheaval all the time. And for what?

  Love.

  Well, no thank you, Rhiannon thought. She would pass. At least on romantic love. She had experienced the other sorts. The love of friendship, for instance. Like Elizabeth. Like Theo. And she loved her parents, as well, but there was a small part of her that was thankful they’d retired to Florida and taken their emotional maelstrom with them.

  That was the problem with being an empath— she felt everything much more strongly. The good and the bad.

  Though she knew Theo and Elizabeth worried about her, Rhiannon was quite content on her own. When she wanted sex, she had sex. She was choosy, of course, and didn’t invite just any old guy into her body. But she always purposely chose men who were interested in the same thing she was—a brief physical relationship only. No strings, no expectations, no declarations of undying love.

  That was precisely what she was trying to avoid.

  Rhiannon was secure enough in her own skin and happy enough with her own company. Did she occasionally experience a pang of longing to be in love and loved in return? Yes. After she watched a romantic comedy or when she passed nuzzling couples on the street. But the sensation quickly passed, or it used to, rather.

  Much as she loathed admitting it, those bouts of longing for a deeper connection to another person were growing more frequent of late. She wasn’t exactly sure what was bringing on the desire and, while a big proponent of El—which was, in part, learning to identify and deal with your emotions properly—Rhiannon found herself a little reluctant to tap too fully into that part of herself.

  Tanner Crawford exited the bank, and his step faltered when he saw her car. His gaze tangled with hers and the strangest sensation fluttered through her middle—expectation, maybe? De­sire, definitely. But something more. Something she couldn’t readily identify, which was almost more disconcerting than the feeling
itself.

  “You’re sure you don’t mind keeping my dog for a few days?” Rhiannon asked Elizabeth distractedly, though she knew the answer.

  “Not at all,” she said. “I’ll pick her up this afternoon when I leave the studio.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

  “So...if he won’t let you come with him, then what exactly are you going to do?”

  Rhiannon smiled as she watched him make his way to his car. She could feel his irritation roll­ing at her in annoyed waves of displeasure. “I’m following him. It’s driving him nuts,” she said cheerfully.

  Elizabeth laughed. “What? How do you know?”

  “Because he keeps glaring at me.” She got the impression that Tanner Crawford was used to calling the shots and hated having his plans thwarted. She pegged him as a methodical list maker who balked at the idea of spontaneity. He was too regimented, too controlled, and she had the irrational urge to shake him up.

  Liz chuckled again. “Intimidated?”

  “Not in the least.”

  “I didn’t think so. So tell me about this guy. I’m picturing Columbo. Short, stocky, bad suit, needs a shave.”

  Rhiannon’s gaze lingered on Will’s mouthwater­ing ass, and another grin slid over her lips. “Er...not exactly. Go look up tall, dark and handsome,” she said. “His picture will be there.”

  “Oh, really?” Elizabeth replied, an ooo-la-la in her voice.

  “Pure eye candy, Liz. Utterly gorgeous.” And that was putting it mildly. He was magnificently handsome, sinfully sexy. While she’d never been strictly in love, she’d been in lust a few times.

  The tingly heat that had flooded her body the instant she’d laid eyes on Tanner Crawford was com­pletely out of the realm of her experience. Even the bottoms of her feet had buzzed.

  “Deets,” Elizabeth demanded. “I need details. Hair?”

  “Brown. Short. Classic military high and tight.” Aha, Rhiannon thought. The hair, the demeanor, the attention to detail. He was probably former military. That sure as hell made sense. She could certainly see that in his character.