Soft and low he told her how she took him. His words gave her complete control, soothing the frightened knot low in her soul. Sleep stole over her. Safe in the hold of his arms, she drifted off.
Jas opened her eyes and realized the sun had come up at some point. The next thing she noticed was Blaster splashing out of the water, using his shirt to dry himself off hurriedly. Then she heard it, the distinctive drone of an airboat engine. It was close and coming in fast. She managed to prop herself up on her elbows when the engine cut off below them. Two seconds later a voice bellowed up at them.
“Blaster! Jas! Put your damn clothes on and get out here.”
Jas frowned. Standing, she clamped a hand over each breast and hurried to the low wall to answer. The wall was barely high enough to cover her mound but since Jackson would be looking up it didn’t concern her. Blaster was pulling on his pants when she reached the wall alone.
“What happened?” Jas demanded sharply.
Jackson stood in his airboat, not bothering to even step onto the dock, and gazed up at her in silence.
“Well?” she prompted impatiently.
“I said, put your clothes on,” Jackson repeated, frowning darkly. “How am I supposed to remember a damn thing with you standing there looking like some pinup?”
“Get a grip! This is more than most bikinis. What happened?”
“But you’re holding your…” Jackson shook his head. “You have no idea, do you?”
Blaster strode up behind Jas and draped his damp shirt around the front of her like a straitjacket with the buttons in back. “Now tell us why you’re here,” he directed calmly.
“Jose and Liana are here, so is Gray. Things have changed again and we need to respond. Liana won’t talk until she sees, Jas. Now get dressed and come on!”
Blaster squeezed her shoulders. “Come on, baby. Let’s go.”
Jas whirled away from the wall. Blaster had a hold of the sleeve of his shirt, saving it from falling forgotten to the floor.
Jas grabbed clothes and was yanking them on. She swiftly strapped on holsters for both guns and knives.
They rushed off the patio and back through the house.
“What about the mess we left?” Jas wanted to know as they hurried out the front door.
“Gray will have one of the tribe come out and take care of it. We’ll apologize later.” They were jogging down the path to the dock.
Jackson had the motor running. Soon as Blaster and Jas showed up on the path to the water, he turned and took off. Quickly, they cast off and were traveling Jackson’s wake. The trip back was made at top speed and done in well under an hour.
Skimming across the water at exhilarating speeds, Jas realized she felt whole. Deep in her soul there remained the peace that she’d thought was so fleeting yesterday. Glancing at the man driving, she acknowledged that he’d found a way to pack the gaping wounds her life force had sustained at the cabin. Not replace the loss each kill had cost her, but fill the void with something good.
Somehow he’d become the antidote. Not exactly a cure. There was no cure for death. One had to live with those marks. She already knew that. But being folded into this man’s life brought acceptance and understanding. He knew her. In the short time they’d been in each other’s lives, he’d managed to know her better than any man ever had. Honestly, that wasn’t true. He knew her better than any person ever had.
Jas smiled as she enjoyed the fast ride. The whole concept of a relationship that made the people involved “better” was astounding. It was the mystery of the intricate cut of his life’s experiences that were exactly the right fit to fold over her jagged edges. This fit should have been impossible to find. A quirk of fate had brought them together, Jas realized she would be a fool to treat the opportunity casually. Hillbilly was a rare find but there was no guarantee he felt the same way she did. Needing what he did for her soul made her vulnerable. Jas was uncomfortable with that but unsure what to do next.
Was it to late to pull back? For her it was. Whenever he chose to leave her, it’d be a gut-wrenchingly painful experience. The only thing she could do was minimize the damage from here on out.
At the ranch dock, a scruffy-looking Ford 150 sat waiting for them.
“What happened to that nice Escalade?” Jas wanted to know.
Jackson grinned as he slid into the drier’s side. “We don’t get to be choosy. People aren’t supposed to know I’m driving around Hollywood’s next big starlet.”
“Starving starlet,” Jas corrected him.
Jas slid in to the middle and Blaster followed her. “What’s changed besides Liana and Jose getting in?” Blaster wrapped an arm around Jas and tugged her into his side. It was a blatantly possessive display but he couldn’t help it. He wasn’t about to let her rub up on another man, even if the guy was Jackson.
“I told you Gray was down, right?”
“Yeah, why? What brought the wolf in from the fringes?” Blaster pressed, looking around Jas and using the opportunity to rub his lips over her shoulder.
Jas glanced at him and raised a brow, asking the silent question of why the contact?
Blaster dropped a silent kiss on her lickable skin and gave her a sheepish smile that answered her inquiry. I can’t help it.
Jackson’s eyes became glued to the road as he answered. “Action, what else? Liana’s mom was arrested by Homeland Security around four this morning. We pretty much don’t need Liana’s conformation to pinpoint who Bad Guy is. He just did it for us. Goes to show he has no idea what the Unit is. I wonder if Larkin was holding that information back, you know, as a bargaining chip. Larkin had to know the guy was dangerously close to being finished with him. If I were Larkin, I’d have wanted some leverage. Stop licking her, Blaster.”
“Jesus! Homeland Security?” Jas gasped. “Where is Carmen? What have they done with her? Can you guys track that?”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure Gray and Rem already have that under control. Nothing is going to happen to Mrs. Allacosta,” Blaster assured Jas. “Bad Guy is just using her to force Liana to meet him. It’s his pattern. He thinks he’s manipulating the events to fit his plan. We need to hear the message he sent Liana to get a handle on what he wants. If he just wants to kill Liana, we’ll change his mind. But I have a feeling it’s way more than that. I wasn’t licking her, and it’s none of your business if I do,” Blaster added.
Jackson scowled out the windshield. “It’s my business because I’m trying to drive casual here. You two are not stable, ya know.”
“Stable? What does stable have to do with anything?” Jas wanted to know.
“Sometimes he’s licking you, sometimes the two of you are ready to throw down arms and sometimes you’re crawling him. I never know which way the wind is blowing ’til it’s too late. Damn unstable if you ask me,” Jackson drawled.
“Yeah, that’s what happens in an intense relationship,” Jas agreed in a sarcastic tone of voice that marveled at Jackson’s ignorance. “What do you expect to happen?”
“I expect an escalating level of affection. Not a rehash of hormonal chaos from when I was sixteen. I might as well be hanging out with horny teenagers in the backseat of a car. I feel as if I should be grounding someone or taking away the car keys.”
“Oh my,” Jas murmured as if she were talking to Blaster. “Who would have guessed he has a ‘daddy’ fetish. What kinky friends you have, Huckleberry.”
“Jasmina! You keep that up and I’ll get a daddy fetish long enough to paddle your behind,” Jackson retorted.
Jas chuckled softly. “Mmm, is he more a Puritan with a spanking fetish? You are a naughty boy, Jackson.”
“You have no idea,” he responded calmly with a slight smile.
“Since when did you become Dr. Jackson, Relationship Coach?” Blaster wanted to know. “Just drive the truck and tell us what happened.”
Jas smiled a little too wide as she wiggled farther under Blaster’s arm. “I think we make him nervous.”
/>
Jackson glanced at Blaster. “Now that Gray knows who it is, he’s done a background. I didn’t hear the rest.”
“What? So who is he?” Blaster frowned.
“Yeah, no idea. I had to go off and find you guys. Took me outta the room, ya know.”
Jackson was driving at a sedate pace, which seemed like crawling after the speed of the airboats. He turned the truck off the dirt track and drove across an open pasture instead of heading toward the ranch. “We’re going to Charlie’s house. In case there is any possibility of Jose and Liana being tailed, we didn’t want the activity around the ranch to alert this guy.”
For Jas, Jackson explained, “Charlie is a Unit member. His place is on a lake that hasn’t been developed yet and it’s isolated enough to make it difficult for surveillance without our knowing.”
On the far side of the pasture, they came to a gate out to a rural paved road. From there they wound around to Charlie’s property, entering it from the side and using another barely visible dirt road ending up at the back of the fifties bungalow Charlie had purchased and remodeled. They drove straight under the massive deck at the back of the house. The area was enclosed. Parked inside was a gleaming black Hummer and another battered pickup. The garage door slid soundlessly shut behind them proving their arrival had been seen by the men upstairs.
“Very Bond,” Jas commented as she slid out of the truck and looked around briefly for cameras. None were visible.
“Better than Bond, baby.” Blaster grinned as they strode to the stairs leading up to the house.
“Well, you boys better have food too. I’m starving,” she shot back at him as they mounted the stairs.
They entered the house via a door in the laundry room. Jackson was in front and strode through the kitchen to what seemed like a large number of men were gathered in the front room-dining room area. Jas was close on his heels with Blaster behind her.
Jas paid no attention to the men as she scanned the living room and found Liana perched on the edge of a huge sofa. Jose stood beside her, his arms folded across his chest and a grim look on his face as he watched the other occupants.
As soon as Liana saw Jas she stood and gasped, the two women were in each other’s arms laughing. They hugged for a long minute as the Unit members greeted Jackson and Blaster.
Over Liana’s shoulder, Jas looked into Blaster’s eyes. He was across the room shaking hands with a tall Native American. Glancing around, Jas realized the multitude of men only numbered six. It’s just that they were all so large, they used more space. Two of them she hadn’t met, but she had no question who they were. The Native American had to be Gray Winston and the incredibly muscled black male was Charlie.
The girls pulled apart and Jas smiled at Jose, who nodded his greeting to her. Jas still held Liana by the shoulders as she examined the exhausted face of her friend.
“You haven’t slept much, I take it?”
“No, I’ve had a bit of trouble with that.” Liana smiled slightly as she looked at Jas. “You look fresh as a spring chicken for a dead person.”
“Dead is amazingly restful.” Jas glanced at Blaster again. “But I’ve had some help relaxing. Meet Blaster. He doesn’t like to admit it, but he’s a high-maintenance boy toy who’s been very handy.” Jas grinned as deep chuckles rippled around the room. “The tall guy behind him is Jackson, who seems to have a Madonna complex about women, which doesn’t make sense because he hangs out with my boy toy.”
Liana laughed and held out her hand to Blaster who now stood beside Jas. “I’m not high maintenance and I keep telling this woman she has to refer to me as a man toy,” he defended himself easily while smiling into Liana’s face. “I’m very happy to meet you, Miss Allacosta. More than I can tell you.”
“I assume you’ve met the other guys here?” Jas continued as Liana nodded. “They are what they say they are, Liana. We can trust them.”
Gray Winston held out his hand to Jas. His amazingly pale eyes crinkled at the corners in a smile that didn’t touch his lips. “Ms. Carson,” he greeted her with a firm shake, “glad you made it.” He nodded at Liana. “Miss Allacosta, we’re the Unit, however one is missing. Miguel is on a job and couldn’t join us.”
“We agreed I’d be Jas and you’d be Gray. Don’t make me hurt you so you can remember that,” Jas responded to the humor she saw in his face. Gray was a man she wanted to trust it seemed. Blaster had purchased her respect for all these men and now that she’d met them, she wasn’t disappointed.
“I live in fear, Jas.” Gray actually grinned this time.
Jas turned to the large black man who was leaning casually against the doorjamb that led out to the deck and a spectacular view of his lake. Sitting beside him was a large German Shepherd. Alert with ears pricked, the dog watched Jas, ignoring the two men who’d entered with her. “Mr. Campbell, thank you for having us.”
“Entirely my pleasure, Ms. Carson,” he smiled and murmured back.
Jas took two steps toward him and dropped to haunches, holding out a hand below the dog’s muzzle for sniffing. “And who is this?” she asked with a smile.
“Friend,” Charlie murmured to the dog, releasing him to get acquainted with the woman asking for an introduction.
At his master’s release, the magnificent dog didn’t move but his tail wagged twice in acknowledgement. He leaned his long nose forward to investigate Jas’ hand. She remained perfectly still, letting the dog come to her if he wished.
“This is Apollo,” Charlie said as he watched Jas greet the dog correctly, not trying to pet him until Apollo was ready. Everything about her radiated pleasure as Apollo finally got up and walked into her reach with tail wagging, ears back in doggy approval and joy at having a new friend.
Charlie made no move to touch her. In fact none of the men had except Gray, who’d shaken her hand.
Standing after her introduction to Apollo, Jas glanced at Blaster and resisted a private smile. His friends were good men. The respect they extended to her was the same brand Blaster handed out. But more impressive was the respect they displayed for her hillbilly. Not touching his woman unless invited to in old-fashioned deference. A level of feudal regard she wouldn’t have understood a few days ago.
“Everyone has been introduced, right?” Jas asked as she looked around. Standing in the room were Samuel—Blaster—Calloway, Jackson St. James, Remington Morgan, Gray Winston and Charlie Campbell. Beside the couch where Liana had been sitting was Jose, who hadn’t moved. A more intimidating group it’d be hard to find.
“Yes.” Liana nodded.
“Good, ’coz I’m starved. Can we move the discussion to the kitchen? I’ll eat cereal if you have any?” Jas looked at Charlie.
Charlie chuckled and turned to the kitchen. “No chance, Carson. Dry cereal will wither your bones. Come on in here and we’ll see what we have. Anyone else hungry?” He received assenting noises from all the men and they followed him into the kitchen.
In the remodel of the bungalow, Charlie had preserved the beautiful, fifties-style kitchen while expanding it to modern proportions. It was large with two back doors, one to the Florida room on the deck and one to the laundry room, which also had an outside door. In middle of the floor was a large chrome and Formica table with six matching chairs. There was plenty of counter space and the sink was under a bay window that looked over the lake.
Charlie went straight to the oversized refrigerator and pulled out two double cartons of eggs, a couple packages of bacon, and from the freezer, an oversized bag of hash browns and two more packages of breakfast sausages. The food created a pile on the counter that looked a bit mountainous to Jas.
Jackson efficiently retrieved mixing bowls and skillets from cupboards while Rem took charge of the eggs. Charlie, Rem and Jackson moved around the kitchen smoothly while the rest of them pulled out chairs at the table.
Jas sat with Liana on one side and Blaster on her other. Jose didn’t seem comfortable enough to sit. He leaned in the do
orjamb, watching the activity. Gray sat across from the girls. Apollo stretched out in middle of the space below the wide table.
“Miss Allacosta, I realize this is difficult but while we’re waiting for the chefs, could you tell us the events of the last couple days from your perspective. The Unit has been involved with Jas and we’ve heard about the events several years ago that started this. We’d like to assist in ending it for you two ladies.”
“It’s time to tell us, Liana.” Jas smiled into the tired face of her friend. None of the men spoke, obviously listening to the conversation at the table.
Liana nodded and took a deep breath. “He’s some sort of important person in Homeland Security. Now you see why I say we’re not safe anywhere?” Liana leaned forward to emphasize her point. “He can find us anywhere and arrest us for anything.”
Wanna Play (Ghost Unit, Book Three) Page 19
