by Aimée Thurlo
As she went toward the partition, a hand snaked around her from behind, and covered her mouth. Surprised, she froze for a second, but recovered quickly and rammed her elbow into the person’s gut. There was no reaction, not even a grunt.
“It’s me. Why are you sneaking around? What’s wrong?” Kyle whispered in her ear.
“I heard a thump upstairs,” she answered when he uncovered her mouth. “Then I heard another one, coming from somewhere else. I thought someone had managed to break in.”
He relaxed and released her completely. “Sorry. That was me. I went to the upper level to get a power bar and accidently let the hatch go as I was stepping up onto the floor. It thumped pretty loud. You didn’t react, so when I came back down, I assumed I hadn’t woken you up. Then when I heard the roof hatch open and footsteps on the ladder I thought we’d been compromised.”
“I thought the same thing, and I didn’t want to call out and give away my location,” she said.
Even in the dim light, she was aware of everything about him. Kyle looked formidable shirtless and clad in low-slung jeans, pistol tucked into his waistband. His chest was muscular, his hips narrow. A dark line of hair ran down the center of his chest and stomach and disappeared into the regions below.
Her heart was stuck in her throat and her breathing unsteady.
“I’m really sorry I scared you,” he said, lightly brushing his knuckles on her face and stepping closer.
His gaze held hers, and although she knew she should move away, she couldn’t will herself to do so. Reflected in his gaze, she felt powerfully feminine and alive.
Slowly his mouth covered hers. At first, his kiss was gentle and she melted into him, loving his warmth and tenderness. She didn’t want to think, she just wanted to feel.
As Kyle deepened their kiss, he became more insistent and demanding. She pressed herself against him and welcomed his roughness, seduced by that dark passion.
Soon she was lost in a river of fiery sensations. Pleasure rocked her as he moved his hand beneath her shirt, cupping her breast.
Everything in her wanted to surrender, to let nature guide them. She wanted more...of him.
The realization jolted her, and taking an unsteady breath, she stepped out of his arms. “No.”
After an instant’s hesitation, he released her.
“It’s the darkness,” she said, suddenly afraid of what she’d almost let happen. “It’s too...easy to lose control.”
“I’ll turn on the lights,” he said.
She watched him cross the small room. What the heck was happening to her? This rush of emotions, of hormones... She hadn’t felt like this since high school, and look how that had worked out. She’d ended up in an ill-fated marriage that had nearly broken her.
As a teenager she hadn’t known any better, but now she did. She wouldn’t let anything like this happen again.
As Kyle turned around, the lights now on, she could see he was back in control of himself.
“You should go back to your room. I’m going to stay up for a while. I want to check the monitors,” he said, his tone cold and emotionless.
He walked with her to the hatch, climbed up and opened it for her. “You’re safe, Erin,” he said.
Then, as she climbed up the ladder, he added in a quiet voice, “Even from me.”
It had barely been a whisper, but she’d heard him just as she closed the hatch. Her heart still racing, she brought out her penlight and found her way to the bed.
Sometimes the enemy that was hardest to fight was the one within yourself. Kyle Goodluck had saved her life, but now she’d have to safeguard her heart.
Chapter Nine
Kyle walked over to the sleeping bag spread out atop a foam pad. He slept far less often than anyone realized. Whenever he was working a case, he seldom went to bed before three or four in the morning. By then, exhaustion almost always guaranteed him some sleep. During slow times, he made it a point to work out hard. Otherwise, he’d end up staring at the ceiling for hours on end, nightmarish images, memories of a time and place he’d rather forget crowding his mind.
A little over a year ago, he’d been part of an operation that had made him question everything he believed about himself and his work. Knowing good men were needed to keep evil in check, he’d gone into law enforcement ready to meet the challenge, but he’d never realized the cost that battle would exact on him.
Hearing the muted vibration of his cell phone, he picked it up. It was not only encrypted, it would transmit a fake GPS signal that would prevent anyone from tracking him.
He looked at the screen, and seeing the name there, smiled. His brother Daniel was a workaholic and a night owl just like him. How he’d ever found a woman to put up with him remained a mystery. Yet these days Daniel seemed so settled, happy and undeniably at peace.
“Hey, bro, what’s up?” Kyle asked.
“I figured you’d be awake,” Dan said. “I spoke to Clark Duncan at Zia Limited, and he’s given me full access to his inventory records. I’ll get you an accounting of the explosives he’s supposed to have on hand and you can check that list against what’s actually in the warehouse. I’ll have everything you need by tomorrow morning. Clark will be out with his men till late afternoon but he’s instructed the guard at the gate to let you through.”
“Thanks, that’s great.”
“After you’re done there, come by my office. I’m helping HPD process some emails found on the Secure Construction server. Did Erin tell you that she’d emailed her boss once a day while he was overseas?”
“No, anything of interest in those emails?”
“Not so far, but I plan to process them for hidden ciphers.”
“My gut tells me that’s going to be a waste of time. Erin doesn’t fit the profile of someone involved in terrorism.”
“Which would make her the best kind of operative,” Daniel said. “Don’t lower your guard.”
“We’ll be on the move again in a few hours. I’ll talk to you then.”
He wasn’t sure when he finally drifted off to sleep, but a muted sound close by jolted him awake. All his senses sharp, he sat up, gun in hand. Erin was standing a few feet away, her eyes wide open and the cup of coffee in her hand shaking badly.
He put the gun down immediately. “Sorry. Reflex action. Thanks for the brew,” he said, taking it from her.
“It’s instant, but I found a microwave, so the coffee’s hot.”
He glanced at his watch. It was seven. “You ready to go?”
“Yeah, next place we stay, can we try a safe house with stairs instead of ladders and access to a restaurant that specializes in green-chile cheeseburgers?”
“Sounds like you’re starving,” he said.
“We haven’t eaten a real meal in almost twenty-four hours. Survival bars and candy don’t count. I read some of the labels on the food they keep upstairs on those metal shelves and it sounded awful. I need real food. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy eating. It helps me relax.”
“So you need your chile fix?” he teased.
“You bet, and I know just the place. They have the most amazing milk shakes there, too. Since I’ve saved a gazillion calories lately, I can splurge.”
He checked her up and down slowly. “You don’t look like you have to watch your weight.”
“That’s because I watch what I eat. I’m also active and burn off calories working outside. Of course green-chile burgers are excellent for you—meat and vegetables all at once.”
“You actually want a burger for breakfast?”
“Kyle, normal people eat three meals a day. We can have breakfast and later, lunch, too.” Her smile brightened. “Hey, if you let me go by my house I could pick up some of my own chopped chile. It goes with just about anything. I guarante
e you’ve never had anything like it before.”
“Sorry, we still can’t go to your place. It’s too big a risk. If you need more clothing than what’s available here, give me your size and what you need and I’ll make sure you get it.”
“I already took a clean change and a spare,” she said. “I was just hoping...”
“I know,” he said, and smiled. “When this is over, I’ll take you up on that offer.”
They were on their way less than ten minutes later. They never saw the men that had guarded them through the night, though as they left, the SUV that had been there when they arrived followed them to the highway.
“I’m glad we’re leaving that place,” she said. “It’s like living in a missile silo.”
“For an outdoorsy woman, you’re not that big on roughing it,” he teased.
“I’ve never gone backpacking in my life and have no desire to do so. My work outside is about growing food.”
“My foster dad believed we should all learn to work with Mother Earth. A man who could hunt and grow food would always be able to feed his family,” he said. “One year my brothers all competed to see who could grow the most ears of corn.”
“How did that go?”
“Daniel drowned his plants. I went the opposite direction, trying to mimic the way the old pueblo people grew corn, planting the seeds deep in arroyos and low spots where water collected. Unfortunately, a lot of my plants never made it to the surface. Preston did everything with precision, hand watering each plant, and grew one heckuva garden,” he added.
“Gene followed the advice of the Farmers’ Almanac and his garden was better than Preston’s. Rick and Paul decided to combine forces. One patrolled for weeds, the other watered. Their crop should have been the best, but wasn’t. Gene won.”
“Interesting,” she said.
“Hosteen Silver said it was because Gene understood Mother Earth and worked with her instead of going to war.” He laughed, remembering. “Considering Gene’s got two toddlers a year apart, I’d say he understood nature a little too well,” he added, giving her a playful wink.
“Is he happy with his family?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah. Out of all of us, Gene was the only one who was practically made to settle down.”
“What about Daniel and Preston?”
“Preston got married a month ago. Daniel, about two years ago. They’re both crazy about their wives and family.”
“And the others?”
“You’ll meet Paul sooner rather than later, I think. He owns a share in Daniel’s company. He’s married, too, and has adopted a four-year-old boy.”
“What about your other brother?”
“Rick? He’s single, like me, and out of the country now on assignment. I think we’re the only confirmed bachelors, married to our jobs.”
“Doesn’t it get lonely working the kind of job you do, always traveling, but never staying anywhere for long?”
“I’m always too busy to think about stuff like that.”
Yet, lately, during nights when sleep refused to come, he often found himself taking stock of his life. His work as an NCIS agent just wasn’t a good fit for him anymore and he needed to find a new direction. Of course he’d always be an investigator. It was what he did best, and, fortunately, that left him with plenty of options.
* * *
THEY STOPPED FOR breakfast at a café along the highway, and after a breakfast burrito smothered in cheese and green chile, Erin felt better than she had since coming to work yesterday.
“I know Hank is gone, but it still doesn’t seem real to me,” she said, finishing her coffee and staring blankly out the window into the parking lot.
“Death is hard to accept. It’s particularly difficult when someone you know well dies suddenly.”
She nodded, lost in thought. “Hank was a good boss. He wasn’t perfect, but I respected him and he, me. I’m assuming his brother will want to take care of the funeral arrangements once the body is released, but I really don’t know.”
“We’ll be paying Joe Pacheco a visit this morning. Maybe he’ll have heard something about that. Afterward, we’ll go to Zia Limited,” he said.
“Would you like me to call Joe on our way there just to make sure he’ll be home?” she asked.
“No. I don’t want to give him time to think about his answers. I need hard facts from him, not opinions based on the bits and pieces he’s heard.”
* * *
“JOE’S HOME IS the third house on the right,” Erin said as they drove up the residential street. Four elementary school children with backpacks were standing on the sidewalk, talking, as they passed by.
“So you’ve been here before?”
“Not inside his home, no, but I dropped Joe off one afternoon when he couldn’t get his pickup started,” she said, as Kyle parked at the curb beside the house. “There’s his oldest boy, Joe Junior, coming out now.”
Joe came out onto the porch just then, looked over at the SUV, then ordered his son back inside.
“Dad, I’ll miss the bus!” the boy protested.
“Don’t worry about it, Junior. Your mother will take you to school. Now go inside.”
The boy, curious, slowed to take a look at them, then hurried past his dad and went inside.
“I wondered how long it would take an officer to come by,” he said, walking across the lawn and looking at Kyle, who’d exited the vehicle. Glancing at Erin, who was stepping down from the high profile SUV, he added, “But I didn’t expect to see you.”
“It’s a long story,” she answered.
Kyle flashed his badge, but Joe’s laser-sharp gaze took in the details quickly. “Federal,” he said, “but not FBI. Do you have a photo ID?”
“If you need further confirmation, go ahead and call the Hartley P.D.,” Kyle said.
“Don’t mind if I do,” he said, stepping away. Joe had a cell phone in his hand, and quickly touched the screen, calling up a number. He spoke hurriedly to someone on the other end, waited several seconds, then apparently talked to someone else. After a short time he ended the call and walked over to join them.
“So the feds have taken over the homicide case, but it’s not in the Bureau’s hands. What’s going on? Drugs? Smuggling? Something else?”
“We were hoping you’d have some of the answers, Joe,” Erin said.
Joe gave her a long, hard look. “He’s hauling you around?” he asked, not expecting an answer. “Is it protective custody, or is he using you as bait?” he added, then looked at Kyle.
Erin stared at Joe for a moment. His statement had been brutally blunt, more so than Joe normally was. Maybe he was trying to push Kyle’s buttons.
Kyle didn’t react, except with his eyes, which narrowed slightly.
“Maybe we should take this inside?” she suggested, trying to break the tension she felt building between the two men.
“Once my wife leaves with my son. I want to keep them out of this.”
Kyle’s gaze dropped. “You packing?”
“You bet,” he said without hesitation. “I’ve got a concealed carry permit,” Joe added. “There’s something bad going on. I can smell it, and there’s no way it’s going to touch my family.”
“What’s sending you warning signs?” Kyle pressed.
“Several weeks ago there was an article in the local paper about Secure Construction and how it was one of the community’s top-grossing companies. The reporter also mentioned that Hank had landed a big government contract building safe rooms at a U.S. naval base in Spain. Then, less than twenty-four hours after the boss returns home, someone tries to kidnap him and he gets killed. No way those things aren’t connected.”
Joe’s observations were on target. With everything that had happened, Erin ha
d forgotten all about that article. Everyone in town knew Hank’s business.
A moment later, an SUV carrying a woman and a boy backed out onto the driveway. Once they’d disappeared around the corner of the residential street, Joe led Kyle and Erin inside.
“Actually, I’m glad to see you, Erin. I’ve been waiting to hear what’s going to happen to our jobs,” he said, taking them to the dining area, and picking up a mug of coffee off the table. “Should my men finish the on-site work we’re doing now, or put everything on hold?”
“I’m not sure. I haven’t had a chance to speak to Moe Jenner and ask him what’s in Hank’s will.”
“I tried calling Moe earlier. He’s on a fishing trip in the Gulf of California. Ron Mora, his paralegal, told me he doesn’t know how to get hold of him. All he can do is leave voice mail and hope Moe comes ashore at a place with cell service.”
“Moe always gives his paralegals a special code whenever he goes on vacation in case there’s an emergency. He told me that himself,” Erin replied.
“Why don’t you talk to Ron then?” Joe said. “You’re bound to get further with that little weasel than I did. I told him what happened and tried to convince him to track Moe down, but he said something like this could wait another week.”
“Ron’s new, and I think Moe intimidates the heck out of him. You, too, Joe,” Erin answered. “Maybe it’s the ex-cop in you. I’ll give him a call, but not with you two listening to every word I say. It’ll make me self-conscious, and Ron’s bound to notice.”
“Use the portable phone in the den,” Joe said, waving her to the next room.
“Thanks,” she said, and walked off.
* * *
AS SOON AS she’d stepped out of the room, Joe’s eyes locked with Kyle’s. “Okay, what’s going on, and why is an NCIS agent investigating a case in New Mexico?”
Chapter Ten
Kyle, though surprised, kept his poker face on. “I’m what?”
