Mustang: A Rough Romance (Montana Bad Boys Book 3)

by Piper Stone

  “There’s nothing you can do about it tonight. We’re stuck here.”

  I crouched down, studying her face, hating myself even before I opened my mouth. “Why do I get the feeling that you aren’t telling me everything?”

  “Are you kidding me? I asked you to trust me. I thought you could do that,” she retorted.

  “That’s exactly what I want to do, but some things aren’t adding up. For example. Why have you been smack in the middle of this? Don’t you find it coincidental that the single friend you have used to know me or that you were sent to spy on the ranch I worked at?”

  Flustered, she shrank back. “I don’t know. Yes, it’s odd, but I’d just gotten here, Mustang. I hadn’t met you. I guess I could say isn’t it strange you suddenly found an injured animal and there was nowhere else to go but my clinic?”

  Yeah, she had a good point.

  “Did the caller ask for you by name?”

  She grew even more frustrated, rolling her eyes. “I can’t remember. Why? What the hell are you getting at?”

  “Why? Because every scrap of information is important, Danni.” I realized I’d raised my voice. “At least it is to me. If you want me to trust you, then I need to know every damn detail of what you know, who you talked to, and what you’ve heard. Seems mighty fishy that you were there at the auction, were the person singled out to receive these mysterious phone calls. Then you have this file handy tonight? Were the men hanging outside your door guys you hired to play a part?”

  Danni opened her eyes wide, the shock evident on her face.

  “Look,” I started. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What the hell was I doing?

  “Don’t,” she hissed, throwing out her hand.

  After jerking to her feet, she stepped over the dogs, placing her wine on the table hard enough I was surprised the glass didn’t shatter. I could feel the heat of her anger boiling through her. When she left the room, I dropped my head, chastising myself for being such a freaking ass. Everything about what was going on left a bad taste in my mouth, a reminder of my former life. I was pissed, more so than I could stand.

  I rose to my feet, leaning over the mantel. Even the asshole in me knew that I should go after her. Damn it. What the hell was my problem?

  A few seconds later, I heard her storming into the living room. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed she dumped a blanket and a pillow onto the couch.

  “There. I certainly don’t want you to get cold tonight since you are sleeping on the couch. Good night, Mustang. Since you took my weapon from me, I guess you won’t have to worry about me shooting you in the middle of the night. Come on, Zorro. Let’s go to bed where it’s safe.” Backing away, she turned on her heel, storming toward the stairs.

  “Danni. Don’t.”

  She stopped for a few seconds, turning around abruptly. Even the dim light of the fire allowed me to see that she’d shut down. I had difficulty with trust, and what little we’d gained had just been erased.

  “Don’t what? You know, when I first met you, while thinking you were perhaps the sexiest man I’d ever seen, I could tell you were an asshole. You proved my point more than once. Then, when you brought Rattler in, I could see something else entirely in your eyes. A real person, one who cared about a creature almost as much as I did. I think a tiny part of me fell in love with you at that very moment. When you saved me tonight, I was shocked, so ashamed at my behavior, but you were larger than life, refusing to back down.”

  “Look—”

  “Don’t you dare interrupt me! Then, when you held me after we… fucked, I melted like some lovesick young girl. You aren’t the only person with trust issues. I can’t trust anyone because the single man I thought I could love when I lived in Maryland lied to me. He lied about his work, his life, and the fact he loved me. It had taken me years to be able to trust anyone and he broke it in the matter of six freaking months. Then you. You, larger than life you. A man I thought I could… love. Well, wallow in whatever self-pity you have hung around you like a medal of honor. My bet is that you’re going to end up alone and very lonely. And. You. Deserve. It.”

  When she stopped, her chest rising and falling from her anger, she dared me to say anything.

  And I froze. What the hell could I say? She was right. I’d broken what little trust had been possible between us.

  “To answer your question, I was terrified when those men appeared outside my door, honking their horns and hollering at me. Terrified. But it’s just as I thought. You couldn’t give a shit. Good night, Mustang. Thank you for saving my life. Hopefully after tomorrow, we will never see each other again.”

  There was no point in going after her right now. Every muscle was tense, my mind reeling. My God, even my heart ached. I heard the thumping of Rattler’s tail just before he got off the couch, slinking toward me. As I looked down, I realized I’d just lost her. I’d just lost the…

  Woman I loved.

  “Rattler, what the hell am I supposed to do?”

  He woofed, nuzzling against my leg.

  “I know. You can call me an idiot.” I moved toward the couch, grabbing the file before sitting down. There had to be answers, something crucial that I was missing. When I found it, I would crucify the asshole who dared to try to implicate Big Meadow, including my damn best friend. I yanked open the file and began to pore over it, page by page.

  Then by God, I would find a way to get her back.

  I yanked the bottle of wine, pouring the rest into my glass and guzzling almost the entire amount. As if drinking was going to give me any peace. Fuck!

  After a few minutes, I flipped the pages in the file, reading every single line.

  What the information suggested was clear. It would appear that RH Holdings was seeking investors, utilizing the names of several ranches, including Big Meadow as a draw. It was quite possible the other ranchers had no idea that their names were being used, especially since they were out of state. However, given what Hawk had discovered regarding the other auction, my gut confirmed that this was a personal endeavor to bring Big Meadow down. Why? Damn it. Why?

  I kept going back to Tanner’s comments. I could only hope that Hawk had been able to figure out if his brother had been involved in some suspicious activity.

  Tossing the file, I leaned my head against the back of the couch, frustrated as hell. When Rattler placed his head on my leg, immediately closing his eyes, I sat still, rubbing his head. “You know what, little man? You look like a very special pup who belonged to a friend of mine.”

  Rattler’s snort was just about the only thing that could give me a smile at this point.

  Except for her lilting voice.

  The touch of her soft hands.

  The scent of her exotic perfume.

  The taste of her lips and sweet pussy.

  The feel of being inside of her.

  I closed my eyes, trying to catch my breath. What the hell was wrong with me?

  “Go around to the right,” Hawk instructed.

  I glared at Hawk, my hackles raised. I didn’t like this shit at all. It felt like we were walking into a trap.

  “Make certain none of the bastards are coming,” he continued.

  “You certain you want to do this?” I asked half under my breath. Of course I wanted to save Snake. To think he’d been wallowing as a prisoner of war in this freaking hell hole made me sick. It also brought out every ounce of rage. Rage at the system, at the assholes in charge who had refused to give us any goddamn help, and even at Hawk. Everything had been based on info from a damn insurgent informant. Nothing had been checked. Now we had one chance of getting him and all the other freaking prisoners out of here.

  Yeah, like that was going to happen.

  “You fucking second guessing me, Mustang?” Hawk barked.

  “Maybe I am. If we get this wrong, Snake’s death will be on your freaking head!”

  “Shut the fuck up,” Reaper hissed.

  Hawk exhaled. “We’re not going to get this w
rong. I know what I’m doing.”

  Yeah, he knew all right. He’d always been the one to know everything and how to handle every single exercise or decision on contract work. I bristled but was required to follow his orders. Fine.

  Vader and Scorpion moved off, leaving Reaper with me by Hawk’s side. I could barely breathe from the rapid beating of my heart. I was sick, my head reeling with all the ways the mission could go wrong. Damn it. I couldn’t think this way. We would get Snake back. He was going home in a couple of weeks. Hell, maybe he’d even take Apollo with him.

  Hearing a noise, Hawk threw out his hand, stopping our progression. The three of us hunkered down, scanning the perimeter. While we’d calculated the timing of the sentry soldiers who walked the prison compound every night, there was always a possibility that our mission had been compromised.

  Through the night vision goggles, I was unable to detect any sign of movement. A sick feeling remained in the pit of my stomach. It felt like we were being watched.

  After waiting another thirty seconds, Hawk motioned for Reaper and me to flank the building as he headed toward the door leading inside a long building, the location scouted, Snake’s identity confirmed.

  “Stay down,” Reaper said through clenched teeth.

  “I don’t like this,” I said as quietly as possible. Five seconds ticked by. Ten. Twenty. It seemed like Hawk was taking too much damn time. What the fuck?

  Boom!

  The bright flash was blinding, the force of the explosion tossing us into against the fence. Rattled, I surged forward on instinct until I realized the entire building holding the prisoners was on fire.

  “Jesus!” I managed to say, every part of my body shaking.

  “We have to get out of here,” Reaper added, scrambling toward Hawk.

  “No. We go in!” Hawk insisted, struggling to get to his feet.

  From several sides, I heard the sound of Afghan soldiers, their boots storming toward us. The crackling of wood and the hiss of the fire was paralyzing and for a few seconds, I was unable to move.

  Reaper pushed me forward, his grip remaining on my shoulder. “Get it together, soldier.”

  I instantly snapped out of my fog, jerking forward. There were screams coming from everywhere. As shots rang out, I could tell Hawk was going into the burning building. I raced toward him, yanking his arm. “No!”

  “Let go of me,” Hawk yelled.

  “We can’t get to him, Jake. He’s gone. We have to get out of here.”

  “No. No!”

  Boom… Whoosh!

  Pop. Pop. Pop.

  “No! Damn it, no…”

  Chapter 13

  Danni

  Woof!

  Gggrrr…

  I jerked up, gasping for air and immediately reaching for the light on the nightstand. What the hell had I just heard? As the warm glow filtered into the room, I listened for any additional sounds just as Zorro jumped off the bed, racing toward the stairs. A moment of raw fear settled into my system as I jerked back the covers, trembling as I climbed out of bed. Damn it. I’d allowed the asshole to keep my gun.

  There were no other loud sounds, although I could hear the dogs snorting and woofing. As least there were no additional growls. Moving toward the bathroom, I studied the open door leading to the hallway, hating the darkness.

  I also loathed everything I’d said to Mustang, even though I’d been justified in doing so. Why couldn’t he believe or trust me? I threw on a robe, fighting my nerves as I walked out into the hallway. I glanced over the bannister, barely able to see anything downstairs. Everything was almost completely black, except for a slight highlight as if the fire was barely embers. I padded down the stairs, moving silently into the living room.

  The sight of Mustang hunkered over on the floor, cradling both dogs in his arms, his back heaving from his ragged breathing cut a slice into my heart. What the hell had happened? Then I remembered the dream he’d had the night before. Swallowing hard, I walked further into the room, able to tell that he was extremely distraught. God, I wanted to hate him, but I couldn’t. He’d managed to grab a piece of my heart and letting go wasn’t that easy.

  I crouched down near him, unable to tell if he noticed my presence. When I reached out tentatively, finally taking his hand into mine, I was surprised when he didn’t jerk it away. He continued to cuddle the dogs, refusing to look at me. I rubbed his fingers with my thumb, realizing that his hand was trembling. After at least two minutes passed by, I shifted gears, moving to add some pieces of wood to the fire. Now I was shaking, uncertain of how to deal with this.

  While I wasn’t a medical doctor, I’d taken enough psychology classes to recognize PTSD when I saw it. Whatever he’d gone through was the reason for his night terrors. I eased back down on the rug, remaining close yet allowing him some space.

  “I’m going to keep Rattler,” he said oh-so very quietly, his words so soft that I had to strain to hear him.

  “I knew you would. I can tell how much you love him already.”

  Another full minute of dead quiet passed, but at least his breathing had calmed. “He reminds me of a buddy of mine’s dog.”

  “Hawk?”

  “No, Hawk hasn’t decided to get a pup for his little girl yet, well, his niece but he’s now her guardian. It was a buddy we all went to boot camp with, and Snake and I even served a tour together. We ended up working out of the same base in Afghanistan years later as contractors, along with the other guys who were considered the bad boys of Montana.” He laughed bitterly, as if the memory was too painful.

  I remained quiet, trying to figure out why Sandra wouldn’t tell me the damn truth. Was she jealous or just riddled with guilt?

  “Anyway, Snake found this dog one day wandering on the outskirts of the base and brought him back to our quarters. Named him Apollo. God, the dog was so damn skinny you could see his bones at first. He’d been abused and Snake took him in, determined to make him healthy and happy.”

  “Did it work?”

  A slight smile crossed his face. “Yeah. Snake babied that dog to death and they were inseparable. I was kind of jealous how close they were. I think Snake planned on bringing him back to the States.”

  “You don’t know what happened?” I asked, realizing instantly that Snake’s death was part of the reason for Mustang’s disturbing nightmares.

  “He… We lost him in a combat mission a couple months before I came back for the last time.”

  “But I thought you were contractors by then.”

  He nodded, darting a single glance in my direction before turning to stare at the fire. “That doesn’t mean that we weren’t assigned combat missions when necessary. We were tasked with a mission, but the insurgents were tipped off to our location. Snake was one of those guys that refused to stop pushing, even when ordered.”

  When he hesitated, I dared to move closer, rubbing Rattler’s head, hoping my presence was giving Mustang some kind of comfort.

  “Anyway, he was captured, taken prisoner of war, but we had a plan to get him out, only our superiors thought the mission was too risky. The rest of the unit went back anyway.” He ran his hand through his hair several times, once again having difficulty breathing. “Hawk had developed a plan. He was our squad leader, a man who took shit from no one. We all talked and refused to allow Snake to die at one of those fucking places. We’d heard there were other prisoners there as well. We thought we were doing the right thing.”

  He reached for what was left of the wine, gulping the entire glass.

  “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I said quietly.

  “It’s okay. You deserve to know why I’m such a freaking asshole.”

  “You’re not an asshole, Mustang, just a man uncertain of what the hell is going on.”

  Snorting, he darted another look in my direction. “No, you pretty much read me.”

  I gave him additional space, my heart racing. I could only imagine the torment, the vivid
images that played out night after night.

  “The mission failed, the prisoner camp blown up by the insurgents. They couldn’t have cared less about the soldiers inside, the men and women who lost their lives. We took our one shot. We thought we knew what we were doing. I’ll never forget the intensity of the fire or the horrible screams coming from the goddamn building. We tried to free them. God knows we tried, but the fire was too hot, the enemy soldiers blasting us with bullets. In the end, we were lucky to get out alive.”

  “You did all you could do. You can’t blame yourself.”

  He ran his hand through his hair, shaking his head several times. “That’s not what we were told and I do blame the fact that I was paralyzed for at least a full minute. If only I’d been able to help Hawk break through the door then maybe Snake would be alive.”

  “My God. You can’t do that to yourself. All of you were heroes.”

  The way he laughed was gut-wrenching. “Our superiors thought otherwise.”

  I thought about what he was saying, another round of sadness overwhelming. “You were blamed for the incident.”

  “Oh, you bet. The five of us were lucky that we didn’t end up in a military prison for the rest of our lives. While a firestorm had been created initially, every action we took scrutinized over a period of two weeks, suddenly, they lost interest, although every one of our contracts were either terminated or allowed to end.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  He turned his head slowly, locking eyes with mine. “I don’t honestly know. I’m not entirely certain any of us asked. We were too heartbroken. I was far too angry to give a shit. When I was asked to accompany Snake’s body back to the States, I wanted to refuse. Jesus. I wasn’t entirely certain I could stand protecting his casket on a long flight.”

  “Then why did you?”

  He seemed to think about my question. “Because Snake was one of the most honorable men I’d ever known and because I felt I owed it to him.”

  I could tell he was hesitating, additional reasons furrowing into his mind.