Point Blank Range

by Em Petrova

  When he set two plates before his ladies, he earned big smiles in return. His heart couldn’t be fuller, nor his stomach as he settled in with half a dozen eggs for himself, bacon and a pile of toast and jam on the side.

  Nealy watched him tuck in, shaking her head. “I’ve never seen a man eat like that.”

  “You don’t know my boys. I had to work two jobs just to keep them fed! The milk we used to go through…” She shook her head, and Nealy laughed.

  “We thought we’d walk out and see the neighbor’s new foal,” Linc said.

  “He’s grown a foot this week, I swear,” his momma said, pushing aside her empty plate. “How long will you be staying?” She looked between them.

  “Just for the day. We’ve gotta get back to the city.”

  “Well, you must enjoy every minute you have out of that rat-race. See the horses, sit a spell on the deck and we’ll have some iced tea I just whipped up this morning.”

  “I can’t imagine anything more lovely,” Nealy said with an earnest tone. Linc studied the fresh bloom in her cheeks and her easy smile. It seemed they both had needed some time away from reality to unwind.

  He took care of the dishes, rinsing them and putting them into the dishwasher. Then he held out his hands, one for each of this ladies, and helped them to their feet. They went outside to see the horses and enjoy the rest of the morning together.

  Chapter Ten

  Nealy had never seen Linc so at ease. His legs kicked out, reclining in a lounge chair, and his eyes half-lidded against the sun in the distance. The shade offered enough cool to keep them happy, as did the ice-cold glasses of tea on a low table between them.

  His momma had sipped hers for a minute with them before getting a phone call from one of her friends. While she was inside, Nealy and Linc just sat in silence.

  She took his hand and squeezed it. He turned his attention to her, lips quirked at the corner. “You’ve been wonderful today, babe,” he said.

  “So have you. I’ve seen a different side to you.”

  He cocked a brow. “I hope that’s a good thing.”

  She nodded. “I think so.”

  “I see a difference in you too.” He released her fingers to lift a hand to her cheek. “You’re more beautiful in the country air.”

  She laughed. “I’m not sure how to take that, since I’m not in the country very often.”

  A crinkle appeared between his brows. “What do you think about the country?”

  “I love it. I admit I haven’t had many experiences with rural living or vacations even.”

  “But what would you say about retiring someplace like this someday?”

  She met his eyes. They burned with the intensity of his question she knew was much more than he was saying to her. She couldn’t speak for a minute.

  “With me,” he added quietly.

  “Linc…”

  He cradled her face, and she leaned into his hand. “I don’t expect you to make a decision right now, but just sayin’… someday, I want this. And I want you with me.”

  A gasp of a breath from behind them had both her and Linc turning to look at his mother standing feet away, her hand over her mouth and eyes wide.

  “Did you just ask her to marry you?”

  Nealy flushed hot, and she knew her face was scorching. “Oh no, he didn’t propose. We were just talking nonsense.”

  Linc sat up.

  Drifted to one knee on the deck.

  And took her by the hands.

  Nealy gaped at him. Surely not. He wouldn’t be proposing to her on the fly like this, in front of his momma, only what… months after their first meeting? They’d only just decided they even liked each other. Up until recently, they’d been at each other’s throats every minute they could be.

  Her heart thudded harder and harder. Linc held her gaze prisoner, and he seemed completely chill as he said, “Nealy, I want you to know how I feel about you. I love you more than I ever believed possible. And I want to spend my life with you. It won’t be easy. We’ll have struggles and worries, especially given our careers. But I want to do it all with you. And with my momma as witness, I’m asking you to be my wife. I promise to be there for you every step you take and love you with every fiber of my being for the rest of my days.”

  The lump in Nealy’s throat cut off any words that she tried to emit. A tear seeped from the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek. “Linc. Oh God, Linc. Yes, I’ll marry you!” She hurled herself at him, knocking him back on the lounge chair that creaked under their weight.

  His lips found hers, and she succumbed to all the emotions flowing through her as she kissed her fiancé for the first time, thinking of how many more kisses and how many more firsts there would be for the two of them.

  Today was the beginning of the rest of their life, and she’d never forget it as long as she lived.

  When they broke away, his momma gave a loud sniff. Laughing, they broke apart to look at the woman, who was as happy for her son as a momma could ever hope to be.

  “I’ve never imagined having a daughter, but if I had, she’d be just like you, Nealy.” She came forward to hug them both.

  * * * * *

  Linc watched Nealy roll her garments and stow them into her carryon bag efficiently. Her hair swung down, partially covering her face, and he had a feeling there was a reason why she hadn’t brushed it away yet.

  He sank to the mattress next to the bag, but she didn’t glance his way.

  When she moved to stuff a pair of panties into the bag, he snatched them out of her hand and brought them to his nose.

  Her jaw dropped—at least he’d gotten a reaction from her.

  Drawing in a deep breath of her panties perfumed with her personal scent, he looked at her over the lace. When her gaze met his, he saw the worry there in the depths as plain as it was to look at a blue sky and then see the sun.

  He dropped the panties. “You’re worried.”

  She bit her lower lip, and he tried not to think of towing her down onto the mattress with him and settling her over his cock. There would be plenty of time for that later.

  “Nealy.” He took her hand and squeezed it. “Tell me what’s bugging you.”

  “It’s going back to DC,” she said. “With no resolution, nothing solid to hand to my superiors and say I’ve made progress. Why should they put their faith in me if I haven’t gotten them anything to bite into? Since I’ve taken over the case, I’ve had few arrests, a few hundred guns recovered. Nothing like the number still out there.”

  “You’re only as good as those backing you. If they’re not providing the details you need to nab these assholes, how can you be solely responsible for that?”

  She hesitated and finally shook her head. “I can’t lean on excuses for my failures.”

  He hated seeing the pressure she put on herself, but what could he say to her when he did the same to himself?

  Catching her other hand in his grasp, he drew her closer to stand between his knees. “I know what you’re going through. Do you know how pissed off I am that I haven’t put every last motherfucker from Operation X in cuffs and stuffed in the back of a police van for what they did to me?” He released her hand and rubbed at his thigh, the skin still reddened and crinkled from the burns he’d suffered.

  Her stare locked on his. “Do you think I don’t want justice for what they did to you as well? This isn’t only about my job and a possible promotion down the road, Linc.”

  His heart flooded with love for her. Unable to resist, he pulled her down across his knees, holding her close. “You’re an amazing woman, but you don’t need to fight my battles for me.”

  “And you don’t need to reason away mine by saying I’m not getting enough backing from the ATF.”

  He had to say it. “But why are you working alone on this?”

  She blinked at him. “Because the chief of staff saw something in me and gave me an opportunity.”

  “Is it usual for an agent
to work solo on a case as big as this?”

  She considered the question in silence for a moment. “Because I’m working with Ranger Ops, they’re probably counting on enough backup and support.”

  He nodded. He’d seen that sort of thing with everything from bomb squads to harbor patrols. Once they called in the special forces, they didn’t need their own service to assist.

  He still couldn’t shake some scratchy feeling at the back of his brain about Nealy’s case, though. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Nobody was out to crush her—it was just another agency’s way of doing business, bullshit as it seemed to him.

  When she tipped to her feet and resumed packing, he sat there watching and not saying anything. She seemed so lost in her thoughts that he didn’t want to interrupt in case she was having a stroke of genius.

  After she zipped the bag and lifted the handle, he stood and took it from her.

  “Thanks, hon,” she said with a ghost of a smile.

  He cupped her chin and leaned in to brush his lips across hers. “You’re going back to DC to have a meeting, talk through new intel and get new insights. Then you’ll be coming right back here. And we will finish it.”

  At the hard, gritty tone in his voice, a trace of a smile blew across her beautiful features. But it was gone too soon, and she was solemn again as they locked up the apartment and got into his car.

  On the drive to the airport, she picked at a fingernail so ruthlessly, he thought she might pull it completely off. Reaching across the seats, he covered her hand with his. She looked up at him.

  “What happens to us, Linc? After we finish this, I mean? I can’t be back in DC while you’re here with the team.”

  He’d thought about it a lot—all night, in fact. How her dreams of a promotion would keep her in DC and he’d have some tough decisions to make concerning his own life.

  He fucking loved the Ranger Ops, and the idea of abandoning them or some other asshole taking his spot made him want to grind up a bag of nails between his teeth. He hadn’t shared a bit of his thinking with Nealy, though, knowing she would tune into his distress over it all. He wasn’t going to put her in a position where she would have to choose between something she loved and him. Ever.

  The flight left in an hour, and she had just enough time to get to the airport and check in. So when they slowed, and then crawled to a halt behind a long line of traffic, he felt the crunch of getting her there on time.

  She bounced her knee and took out her phone. “What’s going on?” she asked, flipping open an app to look at the road reports.

  Craning his neck, he said, “I think it’s an accident.”

  “Dammit. How long do you think it will take? How late do you think I can check in? Getting through security takes ages, even carrying a badge.”

  He nodded and sat there a minute, considering his options. He was far from the next street to exit the highway, but there might be a way to do a U-turn, if he skipped across the median, and backtracked a few streets to take another route. He just couldn’t get out to make a turn until the line of traffic moved a bit.

  And that wasn’t happening anytime soon.

  Minutes ticked by.

  Nealy dropped her phone into her lap. “Crap!”

  “I’ll figure something out.”

  She stared at him, obviously losing her cool the longer they sat there. “I can’t miss this meeting. It makes me look incompetent and not at all ready to take over a director position.”

  “Nealy, you’re stuck in an accident, unable to move. Someone’s going to understand—”

  “You don’t know how competitive these positions are, Linc. Add in how damn difficult it is for a woman still in this day and age to move up…” She shook her head, cutting off her words.

  Tightening his lips, he said, “What do you want me to do? I’ll abandon the car right here, right the fuck now and carry you on my shoulders all the way if that’s what you want.”

  They were back to arguing but now that they were engaged, locked into this for the long haul, it just felt like negotiation.

  Or foreplay.

  He was getting hard.

  “Stop looking at me like that!”

  “Like what?”

  “Like you want to get into the back seat and—”

  “Lick your pussy till everyone in this traffic jam hears you scream? I fucking do.”

  “Oh my God, Linc…” She wasn’t unaffected either. Her nipple hardened to a gumdrop beneath her plain white blouse that was her usual uniform attire.

  “Babe, I’m here to please. If you want me to toss you in the back and rip off your clothes, that’s what I’ll do.”

  She looked at him, and he gave her a grin. Ducking her head, she bit back her own smile. “I want that too, but I’ll never forgive myself if I miss this flight. If you could find a Marine buddy with a helicopter to drop a cable and lift me out of this mess and take me to the airport, that’d be good.”

  His mind stuttered to a stop. He took out his phone and punched in a contact.

  She stared at him. “Tell me you’re joking.”

  “I can’t get a chopper, but I might be able to get something just as good.”

  A minute later, the first flashing lights came up from behind the line of traffic, forcing every car off to the side in order to clear enough roadway to drive.

  “Holy shit, Linc. I wasn’t serious about you pulling some hero strings!” Nealy twisted in excitement to look out the back window.

  When the flashing lights of a Texas Rangers patrol car passed, Linc pulled out. Another patrol car slipped in behind him, escorting them to the head of the traffic jam, where a firetruck and some medic units were attending to the crash victims.

  Once they were out of the line and able to hit the junction for the airport, Nealy let out a scream of victory and pumped her fist into the air. She reached over the seat, grabbed his head and yanked him in for a kiss.

  With one eye on the road and his tongue in her mouth, he hadn’t felt happier all day.

  She plunked back into her seat. “There’s nothing you wouldn’t do for me, is there, Linc?”

  He sent her a long look. “Now you’ve got the idea. You’re my woman now, and I’ll move fucking hills and mountains for you, babe.”

  * * * * *

  Nealy rested her head against the back of the cab seat and tried to adjust to touching down in DC. It wasn’t far from Texas to Washington, but she felt jet-lagged. Maybe it was the change of scenery. The loss of the big Texas sky she’d gazed at with such tranquility back at Linc’s momma’s house.

  They’d found the horse and its new foal, and they were tamed enough to let her and Linc get closer. Though the mother wouldn’t allow them to touch her baby, Nealy had been thrilled by the foal’s long eyelashes and gangly legs, and the way it trotted with so much wild abandon had her wishing for more out of life.

  Was this city, with its constant political blanket cloaking the people, the concrete jungle and government offices what she wanted forever? If she got a promotion, she’d be locked in. Trapped in the ATF office and out of the field.

  As the cab crept through the heavy traffic, she couldn’t help but think she might have escaped the executioner’s blade when the promotion was given to Mark Mitchum.

  “Can we go any faster?” she asked the cabbie.

  He threw her an amused look. “You know anything about this city at all, lady?”

  She sighed and avoided glancing at her watch. “Yes, I do.”

  She knew it wasn’t a small town in Texas and she didn’t have Linc at her side.

  Shaking her head, she thought of him calling in a Texas Rangers escort through the traffic in order to get her to the airport in time.

  She still couldn’t believe it.

  The fact she was engaged to a man like that was even more stunning.

  Or the idea that he’d actually proposed in front of his momma. It spoke of how close he was to the woman, and how he wanted to bring
Nealy into that world he loved.

  In that moment when he’d slipped onto one knee and taken Nealy’s hand in his, he’d inducted her into his life and she still felt the effects warming her heart.

  A horn blast raised her from her thoughts, reminding her she was far from Texas.

  There were ATF offices in about a dozen locations in the Lonestar state. Would she be happy with a sideways move?

  To be with Linc, she might be.

  The only other option for keeping a relationship going between them was for him to leave Ranger Ops. How could she ask such a thing of a man who’d built a homemade bomb, knowing he would be blowing himself up, just to get back to them?

  Each of them would have to make some sacrifice or another. But she didn’t really see making a transition to one of the Texas offices as ditching her dreams. Just making a step in another direction, which in time might lead to other opportunities.

  She had some time to make up her mind, but the decision felt halfway made, if she was honest with herself.

  With that concern set aside, she had time to focus on the meeting she was about to walk into.

  Mitchum’s order to return had caught her off guard, but of course after their failure to make the arrest on their last mission, action must be taken.

  She was either in for an ass-chewing or this was only a meeting to touch base and refresh her goals, provide new information. Why it couldn’t be shared by phone or their encoded system was the big question in her mind, though.

  They wanted her in person, and there must be a reason for that.

  When she finally got into the ATF floor, she straightened her shoulders and strode through the office to Mitchum’s door, ignoring everyone. She walked right into his office without being invited and dropped her bag to the floor.

  “You called and I’m here.”

  He looked up at her, brow arched. “Hello, Agent Alexander. Glad you could make it.”

  She eased into a chair and crossed her legs. The only way to get through this was to dig deep and find her self-confidence. “You wanted to see me.”