by Elle James
Anne nodded. “Are you close to your mom and dad?” Anne asked, switching from bears back to Jack’s family.
Jack smiled. “I am. I try to call them at least once a week, usually on a video call. It’s always good to see their smiling faces.”
“You’re lucky,” Anne said.
Jack nodded. “I know I am. Not everybody I’ve met had a loving home, parents who cared and siblings to torment them. I wouldn’t trade them for anything.”
“I wouldn’t have traded my parents for anything either. I just wished they’d lived a little bit longer. Then none of this would have happened.”
“Then you wouldn’t have met me.” Jack shot a smile her direction.
Anne nodded. “That’s true. You’re the bright spot in this whole fiasco.”
“If we hadn’t met, I wouldn’t have had a fishing partner for the week I’ll be here.”
“I’ll do my best not to be a chatter box,” Anne said. “I understand it disturbs the fish.”
Jack nodded. “It does.”
“Then I’ll be sure not to tell you my life history while our lines are in the water.”
Twenty minutes later, Hank turned off the main highway onto a narrow dirt road.
Jack hadn’t even seen the entrance until Hank pulled into it. The road was rough, and the truck bounced along the rutted path.
Anne pressed a hand to her belly and held on to the oh-shit handle above the door.
Jack slowed a little. “Are you okay?”
She gave him a tight smile. “I’m okay.”
He slowed a bit more. Hank’s Jeep disappeared in the foliage that overhung the road. As long as there wasn’t a fork in the trail, they would eventually emerge at the cabin. At least, Jack hoped they would. The road climbed a small hill, twisted through the trees and descended into a narrow valley. Eventually they emerged into a clearing beside a river where a small cabin stood. Hank’s Jeep was parked beside it.
Jack parked next to Hank’s Jeep, got out and came around to help Anne down.
Hank emerged from the door to the cabin with a grin. “Welcome to your home sweet home for the next week. I think you’ll like it here,” he said. “You’ll have no competition for the fish other than maybe a bear or two. There are quite a few fish out there in that river. Fortunately, it’s pretty shallow this time of year. There’s extra hip waders hanging in the cabin in case Anne would like to fish with you.”
“She will,” Jack said.
Anne nodded. “Jack’s going to show me how to fly fish.”
“Good, then you won’t be too bored being out here on your own. There’s no electricity, no internet and no telephone service, land line or cell. There are a couple of books, a potbellied stove, a stack of firewood and a propane stove if you don’t feel like cooking on the potbelly stove. The twin beds were pushed together for the last time that Sadie and I came out and spent a weekend together. All you have to do is shove them apart again. I can help, if you need me.”
Jack shook his head. “We’ll manage.”
Hank nodded. “There’s a generator in the shed out back. You’ll have to turn it on in order to activate the water pump for the toilet and shower. There are plenty of extra cans of gasoline to power the generator in case we have a sudden cold spell, and you need to stay a little longer. Swede knows where the cabin is if you should get a call from your unit to be activated. He’ll come out and get you as we previously agreed.”
Jack nodded. “I really appreciate this. I wish you would let me pay for the use of the cabin.”
Hank shook his head. “No way. I’m counting on you coming to work for the Brotherhood Protectors, eventually. How many more years do you have on active duty?”
“Six,” Jack said.
“We’ll still be here, and the offer will remain open,” Hank said. “And if you decide to get out earlier, the offer remains open.”
“Are you getting that much work for your company?” Jack asked.
Hank grinned. “Absolutely. Word of mouth and Sadie’s connections keep my guys busy. So busy that I opened a satellite office in Colorado Springs. So, if you decide to come to work for me, you’ll have a choice of what office you want to work out of…the Colorado office or the Montana office. And I even have a guy out in Hawaii, if you prefer the island life.”
“Good to know,” Jack said.
Hank’s grin widened. “How’s my sales job so far?”
“Tempting,” Jack said. “Very tempting. But my team is still relying on me to come back. We’ve already had a couple of them jump ship.”
“It happens. Our priorities in life change. I know mine did. When I got to Montana, I had all intentions of going back to active duty, but I was needed here.” He looked around, as if remembering that day. Then he returned his attention to Jack and Anne.
“Okay, then,” Hank said. “You two are on your own, but remember if you need help, get on that satellite phone. Swede will activate the other Brotherhood Protectors who can break off from their current assignments and come to your assistance. And I can be back within a day.”
“We’ll be okay,” Jack said. “But thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Hank climbed into his Jeep and drove off, leaving Anne and Jack standing there at the cabin, watching as his tires spit up dust behind him.
Then Jack turned to Anne. “Yeah, well, for the next week or so, this is home.” He waved a hand toward the door.
Anne’s brow puckered for a moment. Then she turned, and her brow smoothed. “I think I’m going to like it here.” She entered the cabin.
Jack followed. Strangely enough, even though he’d been looking forward to a quiet escape alone, he was glad she was there, too. And the lonely cabin out in the middle of nowhere didn’t seem so lonely after all.
Chapter 11
Anne carried the plastic bag of clothes that she’d picked up at the department store in Vegas into the cabin and looked around.
Somehow the dynamics between her and Jack had changed from the time they’d left Hank and Sadie’s ranch to when they arrived at the fishing cabin out in the middle of nowhere Montana.
When the original plan to leave her with Hank had been scrapped, that had meant she would stay with Jack until further notice. Another one of Hank’s Brotherhood Protectors could have been brought up from Colorado to provide the protection she needed against her ex-boyfriend, but Jack had nixed that idea when he’d said he’d take on protection duty for the weeks he’d be at the fishing cabin. Which meant he was stuck with her. She felt better and also more disturbed at the same time.
The more she was with Jack, the more she liked him.
The Navy SEAL was everything Derek was not. Jack was a war hero, who believed in honesty and integrity. He came from a good home, and he was loyal to his team and his family.
On the other hand, Derek had lied to her from the beginning. He’d taken advantage of the fact that she was alone in the world and had manipulated her into moving in with him, then had taken away her money and her freedom. Something he was already skilled at doing, since he hacked into computers, stealing data and money or holding systems for ransom.
Even more telling was the fact that Jack didn’t believe in hitting a woman, his parents having instilled in him a strong sense of right and wrong. Whereas Derek hadn’t even hesitated to raise a hand to her. He’d beaten her so badly she could have died, and all with the hope of making her lose the baby he’d help create. Anne pressed a hand to her belly. He had not succeeded in killing their child. She prayed she could protect the baby from further assaults.
After dropping the bag of clothes on one of the twin beds, she went back out to the truck to help unload. As she walked through the door, Jack met her carrying the box of extra supplies Sadie had packed for them. The fact that Sadie had put vitamins in the box made Anne wonder if she’d guessed that Anne was pregnant. If she had, she hadn’t shared that information with anyone else.
“Pardon me.” Anne moved right to do
dge Jack as he moved in the same direction.
They laughed.
“I’ll go left,” Jack said and moved to his left.
Anne moved the opposite direction, and they passed. She went out to the truck, reached in for a large duffle bag, started to lift it and stopped. It was far too heavy for a pregnant woman to deadlift out of the backseat of a truck. Instead of straining herself, she reached for one of the cases containing his fishing rods. By the time she turned around, Jack was back.
“If we hurry and finish unloading, we can start our first lesson in fly fishing,” Jack said, staring out over the water. “I hear the fishing is pretty good right at dusk.”
“I’m game,” Anne said. Going out to the river would delay being alone with Jack in the cabin. She’d noticed, as Hank had said, that the twin beds had been pushed together to make one king-size bed. Her heart fluttered at the thought of sleeping in the same room with Jack even with the beds pushed apart. It seemed very intimate and made her wonder what kind of lover he would be.
After she’d moved in with Derek, he’d dropped all pretense of being a nice guy. He’d expected her to make love with him whenever he’d wanted it, never taking into account her feelings.
Anne had begun to think there was something wrong with her and her lack of desire. For a while, she’d thought she was being ungrateful after he’d taken her in when she’d nowhere else to go. When he’d suggested that she should move in with him, she’d imagined it was out of love. She’d been so desperate for someone to love her after the death of her parents. Derek had seemed to be that person.
Unfortunately, Anne realized she’d put too much of her own longing into their relationship and had seen more in him than was there. She was afraid her judgement in men was extremely flawed. How, for example, would she know for sure that Jack was the good guy he appeared to be?
She carried the case of fishing rods into the cabin and leaned it against the wall beside the door.
Jack entered behind her with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder as if it weighed nothing and dropped it on the other bed. “Let me grab my tackle box and hip waders. Look around here and see if you can find those hip waders Hank was talking about. If he had Sadie out here fishing, there might be a pair that will fit you.”
There weren’t too many places to look. Anne found hip waders hanging in the tiny bathroom. It was the only other room besides the main one that was the bedroom, kitchen, and living room of the cabin combined. There was a large pair and a smaller pair of waders.
Anne selected the smaller pair, slipped her feet into the boots and pulled the waders up to her hips, securing them in place with the suspenders. She came out of the bathroom at the same time that Jack walked through the door carrying a tackle box, a waterproof bag and a military-looking rifle.
He grinned. “Well, you look the part.” He dug a pair of hip waders out of the waterproof bag, stepped into them, pulled them up and secured the suspenders over his shoulders.
She grinned. “Now, you look the part.”
“You think if we fake it ’til we feel it we’ll get the hang of this fly fishing gig?” he asked with a smile.
Anne’s heartbeat stuttered at his words. She wouldn’t have to fake much to feel something for this man with his infectious grin and easy smile. He made her feel more normal than she had felt in a long time and, at the same time, excited to be with him in a way she had no business thinking about.
Hadn’t she just escaped one relationship that had absolutely no future? Jack wasn’t looking for a long-term commitment. Then again, neither was she. She could fake being on vacation with a good friend and maybe, eventually, she’d feel like that. If only she didn’t have the weight of Derek hanging over her shoulders. What if he showed up again? His knife might hit Jack in a bad place this time. Anne would never forgive herself if something happened to Jack that would end his career or even his life.
Jack frowned at her. “Hey, do I look that bad in this getup?”
She blinked. “What?”
“You’re frowning like somebody kicked your dog.”
She forced her brow to be smooth. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”
“I hope not about me.”
“No,” she shook her head. “About Derek. I hope he can’t find this place.”
“Hell, we wouldn’t have found the place without Hank leading us here.”
She gave him a tight smile. “True.”
“Stop worrying and come on.” He grabbed up the fishing rods case and the tackle box and led the way out of the cabin.
Anne fell in place behind him. The river lay only twenty yards away from the cabin down a slight embankment, sparkling in the late afternoon sun. It was wide and shallow where they stood, the current moving slowly. The water was so clear she could easily see the bottom.
Jack set the tackle box down on a rock, unbuckled the latches on the case with the fishing rods, took out the two that were inside and assembled them. He took a moment to fit the fishing line through the loops on the rods and handed one to her. “Hold that while I get the flies out.”
She did as he asked, and he fit a colorful feather fly on the hook. He handed her the other rod, and she held it in her spare hand while he prepared it the same way. Once he had them both done, he tipped his chin toward the water. “Now, we wade out into the river.”
Anne frowned. “We wade out?”
“That’s why you have hip waders on. Try not to go any deeper than your waders though. They might fill with water. The water in this river comes from snowmelt higher up in the mountains. So, it’s very cold. Try not to fall in.”
She followed him out into the water.
Jack waded in until he was knee-deep. He took one of the rods from her. “Now, I’ve never done this before in a river, but I’ve practiced on the beach in Coronado. From what I learned from an online video, there’s a certain technique to casting the line. You let out about fifteen feet of line, holding a loop in your hand against the rod. Start low and slow, and without bending your wrist, bring the rod back behind you. The line will form a loop. When the loop is almost straight, cast the line forward, not down. The fly on the end will touch the water. The idea is to get the fish interested. They go for the fly and grab the hook with it. Give it a shot. Back up and let me show you how I think it goes.” He cast his line in a fluid motion. The fly on the end skipped across the water. He did it again, displaying a loop that almost straightened, and then flicked the fly out across the water. The fly on the end landed lightly on the water.
Anne watched the way he moved the rod in his hand to cast the line and the way the fly skipped across the water.
“You try it,” he said. “You can move downstream just a little bit so that we don’t get hung up in each other’s lines.”
She inched along the pebbled bed of the river, careful not to let the current knock her legs out from under her. Then with the same motion that she’d seen him use, she cast her line. The fly flew through the air and landed lightly on the water. “Like this?” she whispered loud enough for him to hear, but hopefully not loud enough for the fish to be disturbed.
“That’s right,” he said. “From all the videos I watched, that’s what it looks like.” He cast his line and skipped the fly across the top of the water.
Anne was about to bring hers back out and cast it again when something hit the end of her line.
“Pull back on the rod,” Jack said urgently.
She pulled the pole back fast. Whatever had hit the bait had a firm hold and nearly pulled the rod out of her hands. “What do I do?”
“Fight it,” he said, “You’ve got a live one, and it looks big.”
Her hand gripped the handle tightly as the fish fought to free itself.
Jack waded through the water to her side. “You’ve got it,” he said. “Hang on.”
She did, but the fish had a lot of fight in it. Before long, her arms were aching with the effort to keep at it.
Jack’s free
hand circled around her. He covered her hand with his. “Hang in there,” he said, his breath close to her ear, the warmth stirring something inside her. She almost dropped the rod. If he hadn’t been holding onto her hand, she would have.
Between the two of them, they landed the fish. Jack scooped it up in the fish net he had hanging from his wader and carried it to the shore. He pulled a metal chain with loops on the end of it out of his tackle box, strung the loops through the fish’s gill and mouth, hooked the chain onto his waders and stepped back out into the river, letting the fish drop down into the water. “I can’t believe it,” he said.
“What?” Anne wanted to know.
“First time fly fishing, and the girl catches the big one.” He pressed his lips together. “There’s something not right about that.” He winked.
“I’m sorry, I should have let you catch that.”
He laughed and shook his head. “No, I’m glad you did. That way you won’t get too bored with fishing.”
“Are you kidding?” she said. “That was exciting. I want to do it again.”
“Do it. Here, let me get you set up again.”
“Show me how, and I’ll do it myself.”
“That’s what I like to hear,” he said. “A woman who likes to take charge.”
She smiled at his light tone, glad he had a sense of humor and didn’t get mad when things didn’t go his way. He was nothing like Derek, and she was glad of that.
They cast their lines several more times and nothing hit, she felt bad that she had been the only one to catch something, but Jack didn’t seem to mind.
“That’s a rainbow trout you caught,” he said. “They make for good eating from what I understand. Ready to call it a night? It’s starting to get dark. I’d like to get a fire going before I can’t find the kindling. I don’t suppose you’ve ever started a fire before, have you?”
She shook her head.
“I know,” Jack said, “your dad was a nerd.”
“But he was a good guy.”
“I believe that about your dad, if you’re anything to go by. Come on, I’ll show you how to start a fire, too.” He carried several sticks of firewood into the cabin and had her carry in the kindling.
