by Sharon Sala
“You don’t need his permission to make love to me,” Ally said.
He grinned. “I don’t?”
“Oh, no. Although he told me he wasn’t sending me to Condor Mountain to persuade you with sex, he did say to do whatever it took to get you back in action.” Then she grinned.
East didn’t know whether to be insulted, or glad she was so damned honest. He decided on the latter.
“You just keep that smile on your face and see what it gets you,” he mumbled. “Now where’s that phone?”
Ally went to retrieve it. As they waited for Jonah to call, they began readying to leave.
“Where do we go from here?” Ally asked.
East pointed to the map. “We’ll hit Highway 93 a little northeast of Vegas. We’re taking it straight north into Idaho.”
Ally sighed. “I hope we’re doing the right thing. This feels so out in left field, you know? We know some stuff, but not definite things. For instance, what about that name Jeff left on the floor? This man Bob? Is he the kidnapper, or just one of the men who took him?”
“I don’t know yet, but I can promise you we will, and the first place we’re heading is Elmore Todd’s hometown of New Township.”
Ally nodded. “You’re right.” Then she glanced at the bank of equipment in front of her and pulled up a small wheeled stool and sat down.
“What are you going to do?” East asked.
“Run some stuff. See if I can make connections between what we know and what we’re just guessing at.”
Before he could comment Ally’s phone began to ring.
It was Jonah.
“Do you have any information?” he asked, leaving East with no opportunity for a polite greeting of hello.
“Nothing firm, but we’re on the road.”
“You need money,” Jonah said, as of matter of fact.
East grinned and looked at Ally. “Actually, we don’t. Let’s just say, I wouldn’t advise anyone to play poker with my partner.”
A rare chuckle echoed in East’s ear.
“So,” Jonah said, “if not money, then what?”
This was where it got tricky. East took a deep breath.
“I need you to really commit treason…at least in the eyes of the world.”
“What the hell?” Jonah muttered.
“I have reason to believe I will be contacted shortly by someone interested in your downfall. I have no way of knowing if it’s who we’re looking for, or just someone who works for him. But if the call comes in, I want something incriminating.”
“No,” Jonah said shortly. “They can arrest me now on what they’ve got before I’ll do that.”
East had expected this. In fact, he would have been surprised if Jonah had agreed.
“I don’t want anything vital sent. Just make it appear that way. Tell the President, or whoever you need to tell to get clearance, but so help me God, if you expect me to do my job, I need that much cooperation from you. I need to trace the communications that are being intercepted, and what better way than to track a piece of top security info.”
There was a long stretch of silence. Finally, Jonah answered.
“I will call you back.”
The line went dead.
East disconnected, his gut in a knot. If Jonah didn’t cooperate, Jeff was as good as dead. And if he told Jonah what was really going on, he would be pulled immediately. Company policy was strict, and Jonah was a company man all the way.
“Is he going to cooperate?” Ally asked, without taking her eyes from the computer screen.
“I hope so,” East said, and sat down in the front seat with a thump. “If he doesn’t, we’re screwed and Jeff’s history.”
A series of text suddenly popped up on the screen. With a satisfied smile, she began to scroll down the lines, scanning the text as she went.
“Maybe not,” she said. “Maybe not.”
“What are you into now?” East asked.
“Back in FBI files.”
He frowned. “Damn woman, don’t they have any safeguards on this stuff?”
“Of course, but I sort of set this file up to begin with, so I know where the back doors are.”
“Back doors?”
She glanced up at him and then smiled. “Just trust me.”
He gripped her shoulders, giving them a quick squeeze. “Honey, I’m already there.”
A couple of minutes passed, in which East paced and she worked. Suddenly, she laughed. He turned to see why.
“Bingo,” she said softly.
He leaned over her shoulder, reading the text on the screen. “Militia groups?”
“Look at how many there are,” she said.
“What exactly are you looking for here.”
“I’ve cross-referenced the known groups with known members named Bob, and then cross-checked those names to see how many times Elmore Todd’s name comes up in conjunction with them.”
“Good job,” East said. “What did you find?”
Her phone rang before she could answer. She pointed at East.
“You might as well answer that. It will be Jonah for you.”
Saying a quick, silent prayer, he answered.
“Yes?”
“Let me know when you want the information,” Jonah said.
East went weak with relief. “Thanks.”
“It is I who should be thanking you,” Jonah said.
A dial tone sounded in East’s ear. He disconnected and handed the phone to Ally.
“Buckle up partner. We’re heading north.”
Jeff moaned in his sleep and woke himself up with the echo of his own voice. His head was hot and achy and it hurt to swallow. When he tried to sit up to get a drink of water, he pitched forward instead, hitting the floor headfirst.
“Son of a bitch,” he mumbled, and crawled back to the cot on his hands and knees, then got back in bed.
Every muscle in his body was trembling and something wet was running from his forehead into his hair. He touched the wet spot, then put his finger to his lips and tasted it.
Blood.
A shudder racked his body as he reached for the covers, but felt nothing but air. He had enough medical experience to suspect he was on the verge of pneumonia. The constant chill, the damp, weeping walls and the lack of nourishing food and warmth were all taking their toll.
Almost twenty-four hours after they’d pulled out of the casino parking lot, they stopped at a place just outside of Boaz, Nevada. The sign on the truck stop was peeling and hanging by only one hinge, but the café was still open and they offered hookups for RVs. As tired as East was, it couldn’t get much better than that.
Ally hadn’t spoken in over three hours and was still in the back, doodling with the notes she’d downloaded. He stood and stretched.
“I’ll go see about hookups. Be back in a bit.”
She nodded without looking up.
A short while later he came back, moved the RV to the designated location and got out again to hook up the utilities. As he stepped back inside, he saw the concentration on her face, and opted to go buy some dinner. Chances were he’d be back before she ever knew he was gone.
Sometime later, Ally became aware that they’d stopped moving. She turned to look for East, but he was gone. Shoving aside the files, she stood up, and as she did, stumbled, then sat down in the floor with a thump.
“Oh, great,” she mumbled, then started to laugh at herself as she took off her shoes.
East found her on the floor, barefoot and still chuckling. He set aside the food he was carrying and hurried toward her.
“Ally, are you all right?”
“I can’t feel my foot. I sat there so long it went to sleep and I didn’t even know it.”
“Did you fall? Are you hurt?”
“Only my pride. Help me up,” then added, “please.”
He took her by the hands and pulled, hauling her off her butt and into his arms, then nuzzled the side of her neck before planting a
kiss on the side of her cheek.
“Is this foreplay?” she asked.
Her question rocked his intentions. He looked at her and grinned.
“Do you want it to be?”
When she frowned, actually contemplating the question, he grinned.
“If you have to think about it, then your answer should be no,” he said. “How about dinner, instead?”
Her eyes widened in appreciation. “Yes, please. I’m starved.”
“Wash up,” he said. “Hope you like what I chose, and I’ll warn you, there’s no money in the bottom of my sack, only napkins and ketchup.”
She peeked into the sack on her way past, sniffing in appreciation.
“Mmm, hamburgers and fries. Did you put onions on mine?”
“They’re loaded,” he said. “You can take off whatever you want.”
“I don’t want to take anything off,” she said, and hastened toward the bath.
East watched her go, her hips swaying to a feminine rhythm that only women can hear. He eyed her jeans and her shirt, wondering how long their food would stay hot if he followed his inclinations. She might not want anything removed, but he damn sure did.
Yet when she came back, he was the perfect gentleman, food laid out and waiting for her to dig in. It wasn’t until bedtime that things began to sizzle again.
East was lying stretched out on his mattress, his eyes closed and his hands folded beneath his head. The sounds of Ally’s shower were all but drowned out by the soft, country tune playing in the background from the clock radio he’d set by his bed. A woman’s voice was weaving a plaintive story within the melody about a man who’d done her wrong. His conscience pricked with every note she sang. If he followed his instincts, would he do Ally wrong? He was in love with her. Flat out, deep down in his soul, forever in love. He could think of nothing better than to make a home with her, even make babies with her. But was this dream a selfish one? She was young—not even at the peak of her career with SPEAR. Maybe she didn’t want to settle down. He had no idea how she felt about marriage or babies. And if she did come to love him, would she want to retire from active duty? Could he live with the knowledge that at any given time, on any operation, she might never come home.
He rolled over on his belly and gave his pillow a thump, bunching it beneath his chin and closing his eyes. The whole thing was a mess from beginning to end. He couldn’t help thinking that if it hadn’t been for Jonah, Jeff’s life would not be in danger right now. But then, had it not been for Jonah’s situation, East would never have met Ally. He thumped his pillow again just to punctuate his frustration. As he did, the song ended and so did Ally’s shower. He heard the bathroom door open, then the sound of her bare feet upon the floor. He heard her hesitate, then heard her sigh. A few seconds later, the sound of shifting covers and the mattress scooting a bit on the floor told him that she’d crawled into her own bed. His gut knotted, just thinking about her lying beside him. All he had to do was turn, take her in his arms and—
“Are you asleep?”
He jumped, then stifled a wry grin before raising up on his elbows.
“Not now,” he said, looking with great appreciation at the damp tendrils of her hair and her freshly scrubbed face.
Her eyebrows knotted across her forehead. “Well…were you asleep before?”
He couldn’t find it in himself to lie, even though it would have been easier.
“No, I wasn’t asleep.”
“Then why pretend?”
He rolled over on his side, raised up on one elbow, and gazed down into those wide, questioning eyes.
“So I don’t have to face the fact that I want to make love to you.”
Ally sat up, her bare legs crossed, bracing herself with her elbows as she leaned a bit forward.
“But why?”
He sighed. “I want to ask you something. How do you feel about me?”
“I like you very much,” she said promptly.
He smiled, but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.
“Thank you, honey, but that’s not what I meant.” He tried coming at the subject from a different way. “If the only reason you want to make love is because you’re curious about the act, then I don’t think I’m the man for the job.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” she said quickly. “I think I knew all along that it wouldn’t happen. I mean…why would someone like you be interested in an oddball like me…especially in that way?”
She managed a smile, but he saw the pain in her eyes before she looked away. That, above everything else, hurt his heart. He couldn’t bear to think that he was causing her pain. So when she lay down with her back to him and pulled the covers up around her shoulders, he kicked his own covers aside, then crawled over to her mattress and stretched out behind her, aligning himself against her backside and then pulling her tightly against him until they were separated by nothing more than a blanket and sheet.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Ally muttered.
“I think I’m falling for you,” he said softly. “Now go to sleep.”
There was a long moment of silence and then Ally started to cry. Not loud, ugly sobs; just quiet tears of joy and disbelief.
East felt her trembling and raised up again and leaned over her, peering intently through the shadows at her face. The glitter of tears on her cheeks made him groan.
“Ally…honey…for God’s sake, don’t cry. Whatever I said, I take back.”
She rolled over on her back and locked her arms around his neck before he could move.
“Don’t you dare,” she said fiercely. “Nobody has ever said that to me before, so don’t you dare take it back.”
“Ah sweetheart,” East muttered, and slid his hands beneath her shoulders, lifting her close, then closer still. “You have less than ten seconds to change my mind before I show you what this is about.”
“Show me,” she begged, and lifted her mouth for his kiss.
He did as she asked, starting with the kiss. The covers between them came next as he tossed them aside, then her nightshirt and his gym shorts followed until they were naked to each other’s sight. It was her innocence, as much as her charm, that sent his head in a spin.
“Can I touch you?” she whispered.
He grinned wryly. “Honey, you can do anything you damn well please to me and it will be okay.”
“Truly?”
He pressed a kiss between her breasts and at the base of her neck, then on the center of her mouth.
“Truly,” he said.
She pushed him until he was lying on his back, then splayed her hands across the middle of his chest. When those long, slender fingers began a foray across his chest, then moved lower toward his belly, he took a deep breath. As she hesitated at the juncture of his thighs then encircled him slowly, he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. Never in his life had he experienced anything as seductive as her hesitant exploration. Within seconds, his manhood began to expand, and as it did, he heard a slight gasp, then a whispered, “Oh my.”
He exhaled slowly and looked up. Her gaze was locked upon him, and then on his face. He couldn’t tell if she was scared to death, or utterly fascinated by his response to her.
“My turn,” he said, and rolled her onto her back before she could argue.
With a tenderness and patience he would not have believed himself capable of, he loved her to the point of insanity. Within minutes, he had her writhing beneath his caress, rocking with the rhythm of his fingers.
Ally’s heart was pounding, her blood racing like flood waters toward an overflowing dam. It was at once, the most wonderful and the most frightening thing she had ever experienced. Never in her life had she been so out of control, or so bound to another’s spell. The panic that came with it was almost more than she could bear, and it was instinct that made her reach for East, holding on to him to keep from dying.
“Let it go, honey,” he whispered. “Just let go. I won’t let you fall.”
She opened her eyes to find him above her, looking down at her with love on his face. She lifted her arms to him, pulling him down until his weight was pressing her through the mattress to the floor, and it was still not close enough. Bits and pieces of things that she’d read began to filter through her mind as she yearned to give back to him that most wonderful thing that he’d just given her. She shifted slightly and lifted her legs, wrapping them around his waist and pulling him even closer still.
He groaned. And when she moved again, then again, then again, he groaned even more. To her joy, she could feel him coming undone and the power of his release filled her long-empty heart.
When East could talk without stuttering, he rolled, taking her with him and holding her close.
“Wow,” he said. “I thought you’d never done this before.”
She smiled against the warmth of his chest and snuggled a little bit closer.
“I read a book,” she stated.
“Have mercy. You read all that in a book?”
She nodded.
He managed a grin, thinking to himself that he’d just possibly uncovered the mother lode.
“And what book would that have been?”
“It was actually two. One was the Kama Sutra, and the other was by a retired madame from the Chicken Ranch in Nevada.”
East started to laugh.
Embarrassed, Ally tried to pull away, but East stopped her, holding her even closer and then smothering her face with kisses.
“What is so funny?” she finally managed to ask.
“You are the most marvelous mix of femininity I’ve ever encountered in my life, and all I can say is…education is a wonderful thing.”
Chapter 13
“The time is seven o’clock and if you’re heading out to work early, there is a wreck at the off-ramp of Interstate 80 and Highway 93. The eastbound lanes of I-80 are partially blocked, so take it slow out there people, and keep it safe.”
