Standing so close she could feel his warmth radiating onto her, she held onto his bicep. “What do you need me to do?” Tate hesitated, and she jumped in to explain. “I know I didn’t react fast, and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you got hurt.”
He wrapped his good arm around her and lifted his other hand to touch her face. “Babe, there was nothing you needed to do. It’s all good. But I can only carry one of them out at a time, so I need you to stand guard over the other one. Can you do that?”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
He nodded toward the gun still in her right hand. “Can you use that if you have to?”
Sucking in a deep breath, she let it out slowly and held his gaze. “You and Nathan taught me how to shoot when I was little. It’s been a while, but I haven’t forgotten. I was caught off guard earlier, but I’m together now. You go do what you’ve got to do, and I’ll take care of what’s in here.”
He grinned and bent forward, and for a second, she thought he was going to kiss her. Instead, he rested his lips on her forehead, and the touch warmed her deep inside. “Go, Tate. I promise, I’m good, and the sooner you go the sooner you can get back to me. I need to take care of your arm.”
Still grinning, he said, “That’s good, Nora. You sound like yourself again.”
She stared in amazement as he hefted Bob onto his good shoulder and stepped through the door, letting in a blast of cold, snowy air. She held the gun on David as he lay on the floor, moaning.
“He ripped open my arm again and you know I’m sick. You’re a goddamn nurse. Help me!”
“You’re right, I am a nurse. But you gave up the right to my medical concern when you kidnapped me, threatened me with a gun, and lastly, put a knife in my man’s arm.” David didn’t reply, but her own words hit her. My man. She had no idea if the sentiment was correct, but it sounded right.
A few minutes later, the front door flung open again and Tate hustled back into the cabin. He scanned the room and grinned as she confidently held the weapon on David who was still on the floor. “That’s my girl.” Once more, she didn’t know if the sentiment was correct, but being called his girl lightened her heart.
19
Tate bent, hefted David onto his good shoulder, and trudged through the heavy snow, glad that neither Bob nor David were overly heavy. With Kenneth still locked inside the larger outbuilding, he had placed Bob in the smaller one. Zip-tied and chained to the wall, he knew Bob was going nowhere.
Now, with David in his arms, he looked around. What I’d really like is to leave him in here to choke on his own meth fumes. The last thing he wanted was for David to find something in the room that could be used as a weapon or a method to get free. It was obvious he could not leave David in the lab, so he turned, spied another building, and grinned. Standing near the edge of the woods was an old-fashioned outhouse.
He jerked open the door and plopped David unceremoniously onto the wooden bench. “You’re out of the weather, but I can’t help if it smells like shit in here. Personally, I think it’s fitting.” Securing him to the wall as well, he knew David was going nowhere. “It won’t kill you to spend the night here and your escort to prison will arrive tomorrow.”
Leaving David sitting on his throne, he walked out, securing the door behind him. David’s curses drifted off with howling winds.
Now, to deal with Kenneth. Looking through the window again, he carefully observed Kenneth inside still working. It had only taken him about fifteen minutes to deal with David and Bob, and it did not appear that Kenneth was aware that anything untoward had happened.
Sliding his knife out of its sheath, he silently cut through the tie, inching the door open. He could see Kenneth had his back to him, still sitting on a stool and hunched over the table. Tate rushed in, knowing his presence would be announced by the cold rush of air when the door was thrown open.
Grabbing Kenneth from behind, he clamped his hand on his mouth and put the knife blade to his throat. Kenneth kicked out, knocking over a small table with jars on top. The noise was muffled by the sounds of the storm outside, but fumes rose in the air. “Give me a fucking reason not to slit your throat right now for taking her.” With his head to the side, he could see the man’s eyes bug out.
“I find out you hurt her in any way or put your hands on her, I will slit your throat. Or maybe I’ll just leave you in this cesspool to choke on the toxic fumes.” Chuckling, he threw out, “Or drag you into the woods and let the animals have you.”
With a quick movement, Tate put him in a chokehold. Kenneth slumped to the ground, the bottle of liquid in his hand dropping to the side. Tate kicked it out of his way, then quickly pulled out zip ties and secured the man’s arms behind his back before doing the same with his ankles. Pulling out duct tape, he slapped it over Kenneth’s mouth to keep him quiet when he regained consciousness.
Scanning the mess in the room, he grimaced. Leaving Kenneth here with the toxic fumes would certainly kill him, something he was tempted to do. Grabbing him by the arm, he hauled him into the back of the cabin and into the room full of boxes. A quick slice of the tops of several revealed cans of food and household products. Shoving a few boxes to the side and stacking others, he made space on the floor to hold his unconscious prisoner. Unceremoniously dumping the man inside, he closed the door. He fought the urge to set the lab on fire, knowing it would send toxic fumes into the air. I’ll leave this for Levi to deal with.
Stepping back into the hall, he looked toward the kitchen and found Nora standing with Bob’s gun in her hand, her eyes wide. “It’s okay, babe. It’s me.” He kicked the back door shut and hurried to the front of the cabin.
Now, standing in the small room, he watched as Nora rushed toward him. Barely stopping, she threw herself against his chest and burrowed in. Wrapping her in his embrace, he finally let his heartbeat ease.
“Oh, Tate, I kept telling myself you’d come. I just knew you’d try, but then the storm got worse—”
“Babe, you’ve got to know that even a blizzard wouldn’t keep me from getting to you.”
It felt so good to have her cheek pressed against his chest, her body safely tucked in his arms. Everything clicked into place… the past, the present, and what he hoped would be the future.
She leaned back and her gaze landed on his shoulder, concern marring her brow. “Come on. You’ve got to sit down. I need to take a look at this.”
She tried to pull him toward the warmth of the fire, but he stilled her movements. When she looked over her shoulder at him in surprise, he said, “Nora, we’ve got to get out of here.”
Her head jerked slightly as her gaze shot between his face and the dark, snowstorm-filled night outside the window, then back to his face. “We can’t go anywhere now!”
“Honey, there’s a meth lab that’s right behind this cabin. The fumes are dangerous. The materials in there are volatile. And I don’t want you around it any more than you’ve already been exposed.”
Her eyes still wide, she argued, “I can’t make it down the mountain dressed like this! I know you can do anything, but Tate, I can’t!” Her gaze shot to his shoulder again. “And you’re still injured!”
Hit with unprecedented hesitation on a mission, he wrapped his hand around her arm and pulled her gently back to him. “Okay, you can treat my shoulder, but then we have to make a plan and follow it through. I won’t allow you to stay in this meth-infested cabin all night long. I’ll talk to my people and find another cabin close by. It might not be as big, but as long as it’s shelter, I can keep you safe. All you have to do is trust me, Nora.”
He watched as emotions moved across her expressive face before she slowly nodded. “I trust you, Tate.”
Those words shot through him, piercing his heart as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against his chest. “I promise—promise—to take care of you, babe.” They stood embracing for a long moment before she finally stepped back and nodded toward his shoulder.
He allowed
her to pull him over to the sofa where she pushed him gently to sit. She quickly divested his outer shirt and helped him to pull the thermal undershirt over his shoulder so that she could see the extent of the injury. Just as he knew, it was a clean stab wound. He could have dealt with the injury himself but understood she needed to tend to him, giving her something to do while the adrenaline was still coursing through her body. “I’ve got a stocked medical kit in my pack, Nora. Everything you need should be in there.”
“Good,” she said as she jumped up and hurried to his pack. “They had some medical supplies here, but I hated to use it on you unless I had to.” She bent over to dig through his pack and his gaze dropped to her ass. Whirling around, she held it in her hand. “Got it!” Rushing back over, she assessed his wound.
“Tate, you know you’re going to need stitches. I can disinfect the wound and bandage the edges together, but it goes down into the muscle. What I can do is patch it tonight and then, when we get back to town, you’ll need to be seen in the hospital.”
He knew she was right but didn’t want her to worry. “Just do what you need to do tonight, sweetheart. We’ll figure everything else out tomorrow.”
Using a clean, sterile gauze that he had in his pack, she gently pressed on the wound until she was sure the bleeding had stopped. Her finger traced over the tattoo of a lighthouse on his shoulder. It was not marred by the higher injury. He wondered if she would ask about it, but she remained quiet, simply allowing her delicate touch to trace along the lines.
Her gaze jumped to his and she turned quickly. Not wanting to lose the connection, he said, “All the Keepers have this tattoo.”
Her head tilted slightly as her gaze dropped back to his shoulder.
“There’s a small tracer chip in the light. They can locate us… anywhere in the world.”
Her eyes widened. “Seriously?”
He nodded and her lips curved slightly. “So, if we leave the cabin, someone will still know where we are?”
He lifted his hand and cupped her face again. “Yeah, baby. I promised I’d take care of you.”
She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, then I’d better get your shoulder taken care of.” Turning, she moved back to his bag. “I don’t trust the water coming out of the tap,” she said, pouring hydrogen peroxide over the area, making sure the wound was clean. Using the over-the-counter antibiotic cream before closing it with butterfly bandages, she then wrapped his shoulder with long strips of gauze. Finally, she tied off the ends and carefully looked over her work.
By the time she finished, she was kneeling on the floor between his knees, her hands resting on his thick thighs. Every movement she made captured his attention.
“I heard the scream, Nora.”
Her brow scrunched as she tilted her head slightly.
“The scream from the nurse down the hall. By the time I got there, you were gone. I ran toward the service elevator and there was a window overlooking the parking lot.” He lifted a forefinger and ran it gently over her bruised jaw. “I saw them hit you and throw you into the back of the Jeep.”
She leaned her face into his palm, her gaze never leaving his.
“I’ve never felt so fuckin’ helpless in my entire life. Not even when Nathan died. All I could think about was getting to you.”
“I had no idea what we were doing. I didn’t know where we were going. I had no way of contacting anyone. But I kept telling myself that if anyone could get to me, it would be you.”
He held the back of her head in his hand and leaned forward. With his thumb on her chin, he tilted her face toward his. Hesitating, he wanted to give control over to her. She did not hesitate when she lifted on her knees and settled her lips over his. Thank fuck!
It had been many years since he had tasted her lips but found them just as sweet as he remembered. Kissing Nora had been a favorite pastime of his when they were teenagers, but back then he had little control, and they often ended lying on the hay in the loft of the barn, their hands grasping for each other. By the time they were adults, the kisses were little different but usually led immediately to clothing tossed to the side.
After so many years without her, Tate simply wanted to savor the feel and taste of her. Soft lips, little moans, small hitches in her breaths. His cock swelled, but no longer led by his dick, he had no problem simply losing himself in her lips.
His shoulder stung as he moved his arm, cupping her face with his large hands. Pulling back, he swept her cheeks with his thumbs, reveling in the petal-soft feel of her skin. Her eyes were large and luminous, staring directly into his. Past and present collided, opening up the possibilities of a future.
Moving in for another kiss, he tilted her head slightly so that their noses would not bump as he took her lips again, this time sliding his tongue into her welcoming mouth. Her warmth enveloped him as he both explored the new taste of her while remembering the effects of her mouth on his.
Her tongue tangled with his, hesitantly at first. Sliding his hands from her face to her waist, he leaned back on the sofa, pulling her up with him so that she was soon straddling his lap. Her arms slid around his neck, her breasts pressed against his chest, their lips never separating.
He had no idea how much time passed as they lost themselves in their kiss. After a while, her hips began to move, and she pressed her core against his crotch. One hand moved to the bottom of her shirt, slipping underneath the material and gliding along the skin of her back. The pads of his fingers were calloused, but he could swear there was nothing as soft in the whole world as Nora’s skin.
Her hands slid down his chest, finally landing at his waist, where she traced his muscles through the material of his shirt. With one hand still on her back, the other slid around to the front, resting at the bottom edge of her bra. His thumb swept upward, over her satin-covered, tight nipple, and her groan nearly caused him to come in his pants.
Maintaining control over his actions was usually easy with his SEAL training, but with Nora, it was all he could do to keep from stripping her naked, worshiping her body, and taking her right there in the cabin.
The cabin. As though he’d jumped into cold, icy water, reality slammed back into him. No way was he going to make love to her on a nasty piece of furniture in a cabin that had been inhabited by a meth head. Pulling back, he loved the little mewl of discontent she made as she pressed forward to continue the kiss. He brought his hands back up to cup her face and hold her in place.
“Nora, there’s nothing I want to do more than keep kissing you, holding you, and doing whatever comes natural, but baby, I respect you too much to subject you to that in this place.” He watched as reality seeped over her, her kiss swollen lips forming a pout as her brow crinkled. Sighing, she offered a slight nod but didn’t move off his lap. That was fine with him because the feel of her so close made the world seem right.
“We’ve got to get ready to leave.”
“Are you hungry?”
Her question caught him off guard and his fingers flexed against her soft hips. “Hungry?”
“If we’re going to go out into the storm, I wondered if we should eat first.” She glanced toward the corner kitchen and crinkled her nose. “They have a lot of food here, but nothing clean to prepare it with.”
“Hop up, babe. I’ve got protein bars in my pack, so we can at least eat something that we won’t be afraid will poison us.”
With a little nod, she slid from his lap and moved over to his pack. While she bent over to rummage inside, the sight of her perfect, heart-shaped ass snagged his attention, and he took the opportunity to adjust his cock in his pants to ease the pain, if not the arousal.
She stood with bars in each hand and turned toward him. “I can offer you peanut butter chocolate or peanut butter chocolate.”
Chuckling, he rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, pretending to think. “Hmm, I guess I’ll take the peanut butter chocolate.” As she bent to gather a water bottle, he glanced down at
the sofa he was sitting on, really seeing it for the first time. Jesus, this thing is ancient… and I don’t even want to know what’s been on it. Jumping to his feet, he accepted the proffered protein bar and they munched in silence for a few minutes, washing it down with their bottled water.
He reached into his pack and pulled out a thermal shirt. Handing it to her, he said, “Put this on over your other tops. It will be large but will help to hold in your body heat.” He pulled out a pair of thick sweatpants and handed them to her as well. “I’m going to call my team, and you work on getting wrapped up.”
She looked at the clothes, a dubious expression on her face, but she acquiesced. Satisfied, he turned and pulled out his phone. “David and his men have been subdued, but this place is a meth lab nightmare. I’m not letting Nora stay here, so you need to find another shelter that I can get to. It doesn’t matter how crude but get the closest one you can. All she’s wearing is nursing scrubs and whatever else I can get on her. Take a look and send me the coordinates. I want to give Clay a call.”
“Will do,” Josh replied.
Disconnecting, he hit another button on his phone, his gaze naturally drawn to Nora. She had pulled on the thick pants over her nursing scrubs, rolled down the waist, and tied them tightly to keep them secure.
“Clay? What’s your location?”
“Met up with Levi. He’s coordinated to have snowmobiles and a snow coach at daybreak tomorrow to go up the mountain. Right now, the FBI and sheriff have set up a base at the rest stop a few miles from the road to get to you.”
“Put me on speaker so Levi can hear as well.”
“Got it.”
“David, Robert Heller, and Kenneth Carlson have been captured. They’re separated and locked in a couple of outbuildings. You saw my feed, so you know the meth lab is right behind the cabin. It’s a fuckin’ mess, completely unstable, and volatile as shit. Josh is getting me the location of another shelter that I can get Nora to for tonight. Something close. As soon as I get there, he’ll get the location to you.”
Tate (Lighthouse Security Investigations Book 6) Page 15
