Kid Chaos (SEAL Team Alpha Book 2)

by Zoe Dawson

  It seemed to trigger hers like a tripwire she couldn’t see or avoid.

  When she glanced into the rearview, his eyes met hers with an unnerving intensity, her still pained gaze holding his. Looking back out the windshield, she tightened her hands on the wheel as the van shifted up into a higher gear to counteract the steep incline.

  The road connected La Paz with the low-lying region of Yungas in the Amazonian rainforest. To do this the road had to be cut into the mighty Cordillera Oriental mountain chain. Beginning at La Paz, the world’s highest capital, the road climbed to La Cumbre Pass, then made a steep descent to the village of Yolosa, the end of the trip. That was a drop of about twelve thousand feet.

  Ashe switched seats to the one right behind her. “How long to the Pass?” he asked.

  “An hour.” She smiled at him in the rearview. “I bet you’re excited.”

  He smiled back at her. “Yeah, I’m stoked.”

  “What other extreme destinations have you done in the past?”

  “I’ve been to a few beautiful and stirring places. Gokyo Ri, a peak in the Khumbu region of the Himalayas was gorgeous. The valley was filled with stone houses, walled pastures, and amazing lakes. Life was easy and peaceful there. We stayed at either tea houses or local lodges in the communities. The highlight was watching the sun rise behind Everest.”

  “Sounds amazing.” Paige hadn’t ever thought about anything but work. She’d thrown herself into advancing her career every day. Here Ashe was her age, and he’d done so much more while holding down a job. Made her wonder at the possibilities.

  He talked on about rock climbing in Morocco and dog sledding in the Yukon. “On this trip to Kilimanjaro, we started off from this little village called Nale Moru where the maize filled farmland merges into the Rongai pine forests. Then after making it to First Cave, a camp at twenty-six thousand feet, the landscape changed from open moorlands that led up to Mawenzi, the second volcanic peak to the moon-like desert area known as the “Saddle” between Mawenzi and Kibo cones. We started the final climb in the dark by torchlight to the rim of the crater with the goal to get there before sunrise. Once I reached the summit, it was like being on top of the world.”

  She had always been about getting ahead with many payoffs. Something her dad had taught her, but now she wondered at how hard it would be to juggle some down time to experience something as personal as what Ashe was describing.

  Once there, he was the first one off. Bryant and Cris exited right behind him, climbing up to the roof to pass down the anchored mountain bikes.

  She exited after all the passengers and headed to the storage unit in the side of the van. Opening it, she began to pass out helmets and orange vests. The cold wind howled across them, plastering their clothes to their bodies. She wanted to talk to him as he checked over the bike and donned the helmet and vest. But he looked so…remote. She barely knew him, yet there was something so compelling, it was hard to keep her eyes away from him. And, it was more than his drop-dead looks.

  Anderson was looking at her, looking at Ashe and she went back to her tasks, her shoulders tight. What was she doing? She took a deep breath, realizing that she had a job to do. Getting justice for the two men who were killed and retrieving the guns should be her number one priorities here, not a man she’d just met. The added pressure of her promotion made this an opportune time to keep her head in the game and not on distractions. So far, her non-existent personal life had served her well. She really had no time to be engaging in…anything with him. No matter how much she wanted to get to know him, and she did. Maybe she could fit in some personal time somewhere as long as it didn’t interfere with her job. Ashe wasn’t going to be here that long.

  She sighed, slammed the storage compartment cover closed and stood waiting while Anderson and Cris outlined the rules and guidelines for the ride.

  Once the blessing of the ride was over by a local guru, she got back in the van and slowly followed after the descending riders.

  She worked at keeping her mind on her investigation, thinking it might be a good idea to check out the warehouse she’d only just discovered after snooping through Anderson’s office. It was located close to the office and apparently was a storage place for supplies and bikes when not in use or waiting for repair. It might be a prime spot for concealing the smuggled guns.

  When they reached halfway, they stopped for a snack. This was the beginning of the most challenging part of the ride—the narrow dirt road cut precariously into the side of the mountain.

  Kid bit into the power bar and chewed, downing almost half the water as he walked to the edge of the road where they had stopped for a break. The wind eddied and flowed around him, bringing with it the fragrant scent of vegetation, a warm, almost humid breeze from the valley below where the Amazonian rain forest spread out in a lush sprawl.

  The ride was everything he was hoping it would be, exhilarating, challenging, and scenic. Although he had to keep his eyes on the road in front of him, the sheer drop-off to the left and the towering rock walls to the right, his mind was busy thinking once again about Paige.

  He looked over at her. The wind was whipping her hair around, and she gathered it, holding it back off her face in an intrinsically feminine pose, the soft curve of her arm limned by the sun. Her eyes, hazel and intense, turned toward him.

  Reacting to her as a woman was making it difficult to keep his distance. Without even trying to fight it, he walked toward her.

  Anderson cut across his path, slapping him on the back. “Enjoying the ride?” he asked with a smile. Kid bristled at the guy’s interruption, but it was more than that. Anderson rubbed him the wrong way almost from the moment he laid eyes on him. The familiarity with him was also grating.

  Kid stepped away and said, “It’s one of the best experiences I’ve had so far this year.” He went to go around him, but Anderson either was dense or was blocking his way on purpose. “So, it’s a small world, huh?”

  He sighed and Paige gave him a sympathetic look. “It is.” His thirst for information about his dad warred with the image he had already built. He was a war hero, and Kid worked every day to be like him. He didn’t need this guy telling him who his dad was.

  When he didn’t initiate any more conversation, Anderson asked, “It’s been how many years now that your dad died?”

  “Eighteen,” Kid ground out. When Anderson opened his mouth again, Kid interrupted, “I’m sure you knew him and that’s good for you, but I don’t talk about my dad. With anyone.”

  Anderson held up his hands at Kid’s brittle tone. “Hey, okay. I get it. But if you ever want to know anything, I’m your man.”

  “Sure. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

  He brushed past the big man who had probably forty pounds of muscle on Kid. He might be lean, but he was fast and lethal. He figured the bigger they were, the harder they fell. Not that he was going to get into a dust up with Anderson. As long as the guy heeded his wish regarding his dad, they really had nothing to talk about. Anderson reminded Kid of the mercs he’d seen while deployed. Ruthless, unscrupulous, and out for one thing only—themselves. Anderson had that merc air about him and Kid wasn’t fond of mercenaries, even ones who looked like they were running a legit business.

  He wondered briefly how someone as personable and easy-going as Cris, Paige’s boss had hooked up and partnered with this guy. They seemed worlds apart.

  Enough about Anderson as he got closer to his original destination—Paige.

  She’d pulled off the hoodie and had it tied around her waist. The white tank top she wore curved around her breasts, and white lace peeked out from under one of the shoulder straps.

  Lace bra.

  He was definitely a lace kind of guy, the delicate fabric scalloped around the edges, disappearing under the white cotton was tantalizing.

  Initially, after Mia, Kid had gone on a sex spree, not proud of his drunken prowling. That had lasted about a month, then he’d been deployed again, and i
t had been some time since he’d kissed a woman. Since he’d gotten one buck assed naked and soft against him.

  He took an uneven breath. He hadn’t thought about it much lately, which was telling. He sure as hell hadn’t thought about it since Mia had dumped him. At first, he’d been too busted up. Then his head had to be in the SEAL game or he wouldn’t last a minute in the field. He’d pushed everything into a box and closed it tight.

  “Everything okay?” she asked as he came up to her.

  Damn, she was beautiful.

  “Yeah, he’s persistent. I’ll give him that.”

  She glanced over at Anderson who was now talking with one of the other riders. She crinkled up her face. “Was he acting like he’s your best friend again?”

  Kid nodded because she hit so close to home there. “Yeah.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “About what?”

  “Your dad. That must have been so hard.”

  “It was.” He shifted and looked out over the valley below. “The truth of the matter is—it had been hard and I was proud of my dad. Who wouldn’t be? He died a hero. But I would have rather had the flesh and blood man all these years, not a piece of metal and the memory of him.” His voice hitched and he had to swallow down the bitterness and feeling of being cheated of something many people took for granted. “All those father and son things, even the inevitable teenage angst and arguments from, ‘how the hell do you shave your face’ to ‘how to be the kind of man he would be proud of’ was something I had to muddle through without him.”

  She closed her eyes and he was shocked at how easy it was to talk to her, this woman he barely knew, about something that was so personal, so intimate, it made him want to get closer to her, feel her skin, breathe her in. Tell her more about how he felt. It was freaking crazy, but since batshit crazy was in his arsenal, he was pretty sure that just normal, everyday crazy wasn’t any stretch of the imagination.

  She didn’t answer, and after a moment, he realized she couldn’t. She was trying too hard to control whatever emotion had caused her to pull in on herself. She turned to look at him, the softness in her eyes, the compassion for him was something that went deep inside her, hit her hard at the very core of her. He was sorry for her pain, but damn he loved that she cared about what had happened with his dad. Things he could tell her, this stranger that he couldn’t say to his mom or sister. Things that had been trapped inside for too many years. Truthfully, things he had internalized and used to propel him not only in his career, but his life. A deep-seated need to know him, really know his father, the man who had lived and died in the short ten years of his life. Her gaze slid away from him, looking out over the valley, too, but seeing nothing of what was right in front of her, nothing but her own internal landscape.

  She heaved a big sigh and brushed at the hair at her temple, then folded her arms across her chest. “My mom left when I was twelve, so I know a little about an absent parent.” Her uneven voice was low and strained.

  “I’m sorry about your mom,” he said, realizing that the biggest influence on his life would have been the masculine energy that would have come from his dad and for her, it had been the feminine. He’d been nurtured by his mom, and she’d tried hard to be both mother and father, but no one could really pull that off. “My dad didn’t leave voluntarily.”

  “No, of course not. I was just saying—”

  “I know what you were saying, and I appreciate it,” he said. “But she chose to leave, so that’s fucked up, Paige. Really fucked up.”

  She turned to him, startled, the look on her face registering every word he said, and they stared at each other for a couple of heartbeats. Whatever he’d been about to say was lost in the rumble, like the crack of thunder in the distance. He stiffened and went to turn around, but the rumble became a snapping and popping.

  Falling rock!

  He whipped around to see small boulders heading right for them, pounding down onto the road, rolling death.

  He hit Paige hard, pushing them both out of the path of the rockslide. They slammed to the ground, the impact felt in every muscle of his body. But they were too close to the edge of the chasm, and she went over, dropping toward the abyss in the blink of an eye, her scream lost in the roar and cascade of broken earth.

  In a lightning streak of movement, he grabbed onto her hand and held tight. For a moment she dangled in mid-air, her only anchor was his grip. Her face contorted in terror, her eyes frantic, but he felt nothing but calm. He didn’t think about them both going over, he didn’t think about dropping her. No freaking way was he letting go of her. Everything, his breathing, his timing, his thought process all slowed down into milliseconds as he fought to brace himself. Using his legs as if they were spring-loaded, he heaved backwards, jettisoning her like a rocket as he fell onto his back and she collided against him from chest to groin.

  This isn’t how he pictured full body contact with her, pulling her from certain death off the side of a cliff. Yeah, last night he’d had this fleeting fantasy of her plastered against him, her long legs tangled with his, her generous breasts pressed against his chest, her beautiful, astounding face so close he could have kissed her.

  He had his arm around her waist, and he was painfully aware of exactly how recklessly he was holding her, how recklessly he needed to hold her.

  Split second timing, a little slower off the mark, and he would have lost her before he’d even had a chance to know her. That made him sick.

  Her heart was racing, her breath coming fast and shallow, and she was shaking, an all-out quaking.

  “Ashe,” she whispered his name and he gave a short nod, letting her know he’d heard her and was ready to receive any information she was ready to say to him.

  “Ashe,” A short sob escaped her, and every cell in his body went on instant alert. She was breaking down.

  When she sobbed again and wrapped her arms around his neck, his arms tightened around her reflexively as he went into pure caveman mode, protecting what was his, pulling her in close, lamination-level close, and holding her even tighter.

  Fuck. That drop was…too damn real.

  “It’s okay, babe. You’re safe now,” he whispered a promise he could keep. “I’m here. I’ve got you.”

  She crumpled against him, holding him like she wasn’t ever going to let him go. Which suited him just fine. He was so into this sweet babe.

  He waited until he felt her begin to relax; then he eased his hold. After a heartbeat, she raised her head. Her black lashes matted, her mouth not quite steady, she looked at him, her eyes so dilated there was hardly any color. Their connection sizzled between them, in the depths of her eyes was her thanks and something else that made his heartbeat speed up, something more potent and immediate that not even a rockslide and the possibility of plunging to his death could do. The air felt thick between them, heavy and filled with a texture that was so fine and arousing, he almost forgot where he was. Her gaze softened, her mouth relaxing. He lifted his head, homing in on her lips.

  “Dios mío!” Are you two all right?” Cris Oyola shouted as he approached them. Anderson was right behind him, looking just as concerned, but in a detached way like he was calculating how much this would cost him in liability.

  Hands reached down to help her up and off him and even though he knew it was coming, he’d been lost in the moment. He was disappointed and he wanted to be alone with her. He wanted that damn sexy mouth. Even better yet, she’d wanted his.

  She was dirty, and she’d lost her hoodie, the tights torn at the thigh. She had a small gash on her forehead, but other than that, she looked pretty damn good.

  He saw her get control like a general moving all her troops into formation, the tightening of her jaw, the squaring of her shoulders and the way her chin lifted. Wow. He was blown away by her.

  She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, and he unzipped and took off his own hoodie, wrapping it around her.

  They cleared the slide and
found the others and the van all intact, nothing but a few rocks and debris in the road. Anderson was on the phone most likely reporting it. Cris touched Paige’s shoulder. “Are you all right to drive?”

  She nodded, but Cris looked skeptical. He walked to the van and dug around inside, pulling out a first aid kit. “I got this,” Kid said and took the kit. “Attend to the other riders. I can drive the van.”

  “That’s not necessary.” Her mouth tightened, her eyes going stormy.

  Cris nodded and said, “You will miss the rest of the ride.”

  Anderson chimed in. “Aren’t you a hero?”

  Kid ignored him. “No problem. You’ll owe me another trip,” Kid said.

  Paige stood by not looking as grateful as he expected. Cris took her shoulders in his hands, staring into her eyes with affection, then embraced her. “Dios, I am so glad you are all right.” She hugged him back. Then he pulled away and looked sternly in her eyes until she relented. “You will let him drive the van. You’ve been through enough for one day. I want you to take it easy for a few days, and they will be free days for you with pay.” He held up his hand when she went to open her mouth. “No arguments.”

  Anderson looked sour for a moment as if Cris was too coddling. Kid wanted to deck the guy right there. Just haul off and cold-cock him. Kid’s whole body went tight when Anderson tried to do the same thing as Cris, but Paige stiffened and sidestepped his attempt to embrace her. It turned into an awkward pat on her shoulder, and he marched away, calling out that the break and show were over.

  When she didn’t move, he took her arm and then made her sit down on the van steps. He opened the box, took out an alcohol pad and swiped at her cut. She flinched and bit her lip, but that was all she did.

  “Anderson is a piece of work,” he said softly. Her eyes hardened and she nodded.