by April Hunt
Well, that was a first.
Captain Jones looked at Cruz. “My condolences for the loss of your friend. This is the best I can offer you in his memory, for now.”
It would have to be enough.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Minor concussion, if that. Some bad bruising.” Forte packed up his med kit. “Pretty sure you’ll be all right with some real rest. You sure you two don’t want to go to the emergency room?”
Cruz looked at Lyn, who shook her head.
“I just want to stay here.” Lyn had curled up on the couch with Atlas, sitting as close as the big dog could manage on the floor.
“Whatever you need.” Cruz turned to Forte. “Thanks, man.”
“Okay, but if she develops a headache or nausea or starts acting odd at all, she really does need to see a doctor. Call up to the main house if you need anything.” Forte left.
Cruz sighed. “Are you sure you don’t want to go to the emergency room? Forte is EMT certified but he’s not a doctor.”
Lyn shook her head slowly. She was in obvious discomfort and the bruise on the side of her face was blooming into an even more impressive sight as the hours went by. Anger burned Cruz every time he looked at her face.
It was a good thing the man who’d hit her would be in prison.
“It feels a hundred percent better just being here.” She gave him a smile. “And no headache, just some throbbing when I turn my head too fast.”
“Then quit shaking your head.” He gave her a kiss to take the sting away from his retort. She was a trooper, no doubt about it. “You hungry at all?”
She wrinkled her nose.
“I’m not saying I’m going to put a full cheesesteak in front of you piled with fried mushrooms and onions.” David chuckled. He could go for one of those himself, though. “I was thinking maybe I’d exercise my actual cooking skills and make you a cup of soup.”
She stared at him and then blinked slowly. “You mean put powder into a mug and add hot water.”
The idea of grilling for her, though—of putting a whole meal he’d made in front of her—that bore some consideration. He’d never thought it’d be worth the effort before, but for her it’d be more than fun. It’d be fantastic.
He grinned. Best to start simple and try not to burn anything on the property to ash. “Boiling water is cooking 101. We all learn to do it.”
She huffed out a laugh. “I can’t argue with that and some soup does sound pretty good. But do we have any of it here?”
Simple question but there was a tremor beneath her words. She wasn’t quite ready to be left alone yet. Even with Atlas lying on his very own dog bed here in the main living room, she wasn’t ready.
Totally reasonable and he didn’t plan to let her out of his sight. In addition to her comfort, he’d been looking her over from head to toe every few minutes, reassuring himself she was hale and whole and safely with him. “I’ll call and see if Forte can find it in the kitchen. I planned to ask him to include me in the late night order for cheesesteaks anyway.”
The look she gave him was skeptical. “You could’ve told him that before he left.”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t sure what you were eating yet.”
She swatted him on the shoulder. It did his heart good to get her feisty.
It took less than a minute to text Forte with what he wanted.
“I thought you were going to call.” Lyn crawled over from her nest in the pillows and blankets on the couch.
He gathered her into his lap while he waited for Forte to respond. “Sometimes I call up to the main house, but generally I don’t like to blow up someone’s phone with ringing. Heck, when we need to get Rojas late at night we always text anyway because it’s past Boom’s bedtime. Mostly, it’s Forte who calls everyone.”
“Hmm.” She snuggled against him.
He wrapped his arms around her and finally let himself relax. This. This kind of time spent with her meant so much and he’d almost lost her. And he was possibly going to ruin it by sending her away anyway. But she had to go; she had her life, the one she’d built for herself.
After all that’d happened, she’d be wanting to get back to it and he didn’t know if there would be room for him once she took up her old life again.
Chickenshit that he was, he couldn’t make himself ask her.
“Penny for your thoughts.”
He realized she’d been watching him as he’d run around in circles in his own head.
“You scared me today.” First thing he could think to say. And it was the truth, too, because looking at her, all he could do was hold her closer.
She bit her lip. “I hurt you first, then we both ended up scared out of our minds.” She paused, swallowed. “I’m sorry.”
At some point in the past, it might have bothered him for someone to read him so well, to have seen far enough into him to the vulnerability of fear. But this was Lyn.
He shook his head. “No apologies. You have a good head on your shoulders and you did so many things right today.”
“Hello? I got myself kidnapped and dented in the face.”
He tightened his jaw and relaxed it deliberately. Good thing Zuccolin had been taken into custody and would be held accountable for what he’d done to her. Her stepfather had assured them both that all of the men involved, including her two initial attackers and Evans, had been arrested by military police and would be awaiting court-martial. Jones’s mysterious business partner had withdrawn his considerable influence so there would be no easy breaks for those men.
Leaning close, he pressed his lips gently to her good temple. “You foiled the bad guys and saved Atlas.”
“So he could go get you to come save me.” A pause, then her tone turned bitter. “As far as my stepfather is concerned, I am still the clumsy idiot blundering around messing up his well-laid plans.”
All of the history between her and her stepfather was not going to be healed in one day. “I’m glad he was doing the right thing back there. At first, I was thinking the worst.”
She let out a slow breath. “So was I.”
Her shoulders slumped with what had to be guilt and she dipped her chin low until it almost rested on her chest.
“Hey.” Cruz freed up one of his hands to slip a finger under her chin and tip her face up so he could see her expressions. “You know the truth now and you can act accordingly.”
“It’s not like I can call him up and say, ‘Sorry for almost screwing up your sting operation.’ I think that’d expose him in all sorts of bad ways.” She rolled her eyes.
Cruz couldn’t help a grin at her sarcastic tone. “I’m sure he’s glad you are intelligent and perceptive enough to know that’s not the way to go.”
It was part of the reason why she attracted him. Things made sense to her without effort or arduous explanation or fighting. She got it. All of it. Or at least as much as he’d managed to share with her so far. It could take a lifetime to open up all there was for her to see.
“So what then? I’m not even sure. There’ll be future military contracts based on what he said. And we’ll have to see how his office manages the press with Atlas disappearing, go along with it. Until then, it’s business as usual, I guess?” There were a couple of questions left unspoken as she waited for his response.
He kissed her, because he didn’t want to hold off on the things they both enjoyed and because he wasn’t sure how she’d feel after he gave her his response. Tasting her, exploring her, enjoying the play of their tongues, he savored every moment. Her hands came up around his face and tangled in his hair.
He wanted this. Working with her, talking, maybe arguing a little, and definitely playing. Filling his days with a mix of these things would be more than he’d ever hoped for in terms of happiness. Fulfillment. All those words he’d taken out of his expectations for himself somewhere in the middle of his time in service.
But if you love something…
* * *
L
yn almost forgot her own question in the midst of their kissing. His hands had wandered too, sliding down her thigh to cup her behind and squeeze. She was wondering if she could coax him into some very gentle intercourse maybe, since she only had a mild concussion.
It’d take her mind off her aches and pains. Medicinal. Really.
But when he drew back, his expression changed from the soft look he only wore for her to a more serious, intense expression.
He hadn’t gone neutral, hadn’t compartmentalized. This was new.
“Here’s the thing.” He ran his hand through her hair and she closed her eyes, enjoying the feel. She relaxed with his touch, listening to the timbre of his voice. As long as it stayed warm like this, didn’t go flat or distant, it’d be okay. “Your life has been turned upside down since day one of you getting here. If we think back on it, a whole lot has happened in almost no time.”
She opened her eyes, sought his gaze. “It happened, we happened.”
Fear pricked at her despite her earlier thoughts. What was he trying to say?
He nodded and kissed her forehead. “We did. I really like us as a thing and I want us to last.”
“Good.” She settled, relaxing back into his embrace. Us. She liked the sound of it.
But he leaned back and tapped her nose with a fingertip. “You might have a different perspective once all the excitement settles down, though. Believe it or not, it gets boring around here. The whole reason Forte chose this location was for the peace and quiet.”
Something she had yet to experience. But the location was tucked away and if you didn’t drive twenty minutes in either direction on the main road, you wouldn’t realize how close it was to the rest of the world.
“With ready access to two major metropolises and several major airports,” she countered. “From what I understand, you all took advantage of the city nightlife on a pretty regular basis. This is not exactly a remote small town hidden away in the middle of nowhere and you get a fair amount of business-related traffic coming on site.”
Not to mention any number of canine personalities running rampant. When they’d arrived back on site, the three new GSDs had been wandering loose from their kennels. Apparently their intellects combined resulted in Houdini-level escape skills. Alex had been about to rip his hair out getting them back on leads. Their recall was good but not 100 percent, so it’d taken a little effort on Alex’s part to get them back into their kennels.
“Point.” He gave her a wry grin. “What I’m trying to say is you’ve been basing all your impressions so far on some high-stress experiences.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but he kissed her. And for a minute—okay, maybe several—she was lost. But she pulled herself together as soon as he let her up for air. “Trying to distract me is futile.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I like a challenge.”
She opened her mouth, closed it, then swatted his shoulder. He only grinned.
“I want you to stay with me, Evelyn Jones,” he whispered. “Here, with me. But I want you to leave first. Get some distance and clear your head. Process all the things that happened to you. You might decide you want to leave it all far away. I will understand, no matter what you decide. But I want you to take the time.”
Her breath left her and it took a long second for her to pull together her first thought. “You’re asking me to go away again.”
Her heart twisted in agony at the thought. She struggled to listen as he continued.
“This isn’t exactly the same. Before I was trying to protect you, and taking away your work was the wrong thing to do.” His arms tightened around her briefly before easing up enough for her to get up out of his lap if she wanted. But he continued, “This, I want for you because what happened to you isn’t easy. You were attacked, shot at, kidnapped, and beaten. Not any one of those things is something you’ll process overnight. Not tomorrow. Not a week from now. Believe me. And staying here might let you hide from it more than deal with it. A big part of your career has you traveling places by yourself.”
Biting her lip, she held her initial retort. He’d been through these things, seen friends go through them. The look in his eyes, the earnest sincerity in his voice, the way he held her against him spoke of how much he cared about her.
“If you give life a chance to get back on track, you’ll have perspective. See clearly. And then when you decide what you want, we’ll both know it’s because it’s the right thing for you.” He nuzzled her ear. “And you’d be welcome back here if that’s what you want. I’ll stay by you and work with you through every one of your nightmares. But you’ll at least have had a chance to think it all through. Your choice.”
Hers. He always made sure to let her know it was her choice. And it meant everything. The biggest difference between him and her stepfather was the way David respected her right to choose. The confidence he had in her ability to make the right decision.
“Don’t say anything now.” He tucked her head under his chin. “I want you to take your time, go out on a couple of client trips, get back into the rhythm of your career, and then decide. Is that fair?”
Lyn stared at him as her temper simmered. “No.”
He blinked, stilled.
Oh, everything he said made sense, especially the consideration of her traveling alone. She’d already had issues glancing out the windows of the cabin into the falling darkness. Reflections on the windowpanes startled her, like strangers staring in for the first few moments before she really looked at what was there. Tonight was not going to be an easy night and she was glad to have the secure warmth of his arms around her with Atlas nearby.
That was her point, though. She didn’t need time alone or distance from him to process.
“I don’t leave things unfinished.” Rising out of his embrace momentarily, she turned and straddled his lap. Resting her hands on his chest, she looked deep into his gaze.
He waited, silent. Listening.
Listening was something her stepfather had never done. At least, it’d never felt like he had. But David always did. He’d taken the time to hear her out every time she’d had something to say while they worked together. And here he was now.
“You’re right about there being a lot of things to process. But”—she tipped her head to the side—“I don’t need solitude to think straight or see my way clearly and I definitely don’t need to go back to my old life to figure out how I want to live my days. If there’s one thing I learned from you here, it’s that you can’t ever go back and being too stuck in the past doesn’t work.”
A muscle twitched along the side of his jaw. She’d hit a nerve. But that was okay. She leaned forward, her hands flat against his chest, and kissed the spot on his jaw. When she straightened, his lips had softened from the hard line and he settled his hands on her hips.
“I was so caught up in proving to my stepfather that I could be out on my own, I didn’t even realize I’d established myself already. I was just…running, charging forward to prove a point.” She gave him a smile and warmth spread through her chest when he smiled in return. “Working with you and Atlas gave me perspective. And maybe I needed some chaos to knock me off my train tracks and really think about what I’m doing, where I’m headed.”
She paused and he held his peace, patient. It was never a race to get a word in edgewise with him and for that, she was grateful.
He gave her so many things. Time, consideration, caring.
“What happened is going to give me issues for a good while.” She smoothed her hands over his chest, taking comfort from the hard muscles under her palms. “But whatever steps I’m going to take toward recovering from this won’t be backward to resuming my old life. I’m moving forward and I want to do that with you.”
She held her breath.
His hands tightened on her hips. “You sure?”
“I love you, David Cruz.” She kept her gaze steady on his. “And you remember I was first to say it.”
He
laughed. “I’d have said it first if you needed me to.”
“Well, now’s a good time.” Because she did need to hear it.
He sat up straighter and kissed her first, his mouth sliding over hers in a dizzying, intense kiss. Heat seared through her and she clutched at his shoulders as his arms tightened around her waist, pulling her in snug against him. And still he kissed her, drowning them until they were both breathless. “I love you, Evelyn Jones. Since I don’t even know when. I want you in my life and I’ll wait forever if you need me to.”
She pressed her forehead to his and closed her eyes. “No more waiting. I’m done waiting for my choices to feel like mine.”
His arms tightened around her in a fierce hug, then loosened enough to relax again. “So what’s next, Miss Jones?”
His teasing tone made her smile wider. Wow, had she ever been this happy? It bubbled up inside her and she barely knew what to do with it all. “Well, we’ve got some administrative stuff to work through here with wrapping up the contract paperwork and submitting any reports they’ll need.”
He nodded, running his hands up and down her thighs. There was a naughty gleam in his eyes and she narrowed hers as she put in the extra effort to remember what she was saying.
“And you were right about my having other clients. I’ve got people who need me to work with them and their dogs.”
Atlas barked.
She glanced over at him, sitting close, his tail sweeping the floor in a happy wag. Reaching over, she gave him an affectionate scratch behind one ear.
“I think he’s going to have to accept it’s a part of your job.” David chuckled. “He’s got to learn to share you.”
“Mmm.” She looked back to David. “I’ll still be traveling some and next time I leave, there should be texts. Texts from you, pictures of Atlas, maybe we should create accounts on a couple of social media apps. Whatever it takes to feel connected.”
“But you could use this as a home base.” He made the offer quietly.
Her words caught in her throat for a moment and she bit her lip as she nodded. It seemed impossible in such a short time, but this cabin and Hope’s Crossing Kennels had come to feel like a home in ways her actual apartment way back on the West Coast never did.
