by Jan Springer
She groaned in frustration when Cade discovered the small gun she kept strapped to the inside of her left calf. He snorted, lifted her pant leg and unclasped the gun from her holster. His soft, amused laughter was a sensual sound that had her body humming despite her being pissed off at his discoveries. He stuffed the gun into another one of his endless coat pockets.
Tell him to fuck you!
Reena shook her head and fought the naughty idea until it faded into the background. Defiance splashed through her like a black wave.
“You’ve signed your death warrant, Outlaw. My people will hunt you down and take you out if you hand me over to whoever you’re working for. You’ll be a corpse within twenty-fours of my death.”
“No one’s going to die, Red,” he said gruffly.
“I’m sure you’ll reconsider that thought when you’re six feet under.”
“Quit with the dramatics, Red. You’re tougher than this. At least that’s what I’ve been told.”
“Oh? And who told you about me? Your brother?”
“I’ll tell you all about it once I have you shackled and near a nice warm fire. You seem to be trembling a little too much. Now come on. We’re moving. I have a camp set up about half a mile due south.”
With a firm hand to the scruff of her neck, he pulled her away from the tree and then angled her toward the south.
Shit! The last thing she needed was to spend a night in a camp with him. Especially when she might need to orgasm. But her being cuffed, shackled, naked…
The thoughts of him dominating her rolled over her in a sensual wave and she stifled a moan. Moving carefully forward, she made sure her thighs didn’t rub together too hard or she’d be moaning out loud for sure. What things had he been told about her? Did he know she was infected? That she’d be begging him for sex pretty soon?
Up until now, she’d managed to keep her infection a secret. Only a handful of her bodyguards knew and a few other trustworthy souls. Hopefully Outlaw didn’t know and she’d be able to escape before she resorted to shameless begging.
Chapter Three
Cade Outlaw wasn’t one who gawked at a woman. He preferred to play it cool. Preferred not to let a woman know he was interested in her until he was really interested. But hell, these days there weren’t many women around because of the virus. He’d trusted women once. Not anymore, compliments of a woman he’d known overseas.
He certainly didn’t trust this one, although she did have all his senses firing up to full alert and his body primed and reacting. Especially when he’d frisked her.
Oh yeah, his male instincts kicked in big-time while patting her down for weapons. Her soft, seductive curves beneath his calloused fingertips as he brushed areas where she might conceal a weapon had him groaning to himself and his cock hardening in appreciation. Everything about her blew him away, and nothing ever blew him away. At least not since he’d been a teenager.
Whenever she spoke, her voice melted over him in delicious waves like the chocolate icing his brother’s woman Laurie poured on the chocolate cake he and his brothers loved so much. Red sounded whispery, bedroom smoky, and she possessed a very strong, determined voice, but then she had to in order to be the leader of the Resistance.
He couldn’t inhale her sweet, sexy female fragrance enough. Her scent was a combination of delicate flowers, soap and prime female. The sight of her flesh affected him, too. When he’d yanked up her jacket, her top had edged up, allowing him a visual of her creamy smooth flesh, not to mention her ringed bellybutton. That sight was the beginning of the end for him. He tensed in awareness every time she so much as shifted.
She sat on a downed log, staring angrily into the crackling fire, her wrists cuffed, ankles shackled, snowflakes lacing the sweet tumble of fluffy, shoulder-length, red hair that peeked from beneath a black wool toque.
This was the first time he’d gotten this close after months of tracking her. He was surprised she’d let him follow her so easily today. She seemed to not have a care in the world. He’d overheard Laurie whispering about Red to Tyler a few mornings ago. They thought Cade was still asleep, but he’d been awake, sneaking around and eavesdropping on their conversation, hoping to learn tidbits about Red. Laurie had said Red was taking a break and would probably end up going to her grandfather’s cabin in the woods.
A few discreet inquiries regarding Reena Wilde, and he’d discovered the name of her late grandparents and where they had a cabin. Hell, if it been this easy for him to find her, he wouldn’t be surprised if there were more bounty hunters on her ass. It was why he should be getting her to the government—pronto—instead of cozying up to her by a campfire in the middle of a snowstorm.
But he was bone weary after barely any sleep over the last few days—in anticipation of capturing her. He could have gone in and gotten her any time since discovering the cabin. But she could have had the place booby trapped or worse, so he’d waited patiently for her to come out into the open and far away from that cabin.
From the way she’d taken off, her reflexes were in top-notch working order and, thankfully, so were his.
Being this close to her had his hormones sizzling like a son of a bitch. Her pictures certainly didn’t do her justice. She was pretty as hell in person, and thinking of wrapping his hands into that flaming red hair and kissing her luscious mouth made his cock scream with need. She had big hazel eyes framed by long lashes and a gentle spattering of freckles over high, rosy cheekbones. Yes, a looker, and past experience proved he needed to beware of these types as they were deceiving.
Instincts told him if he permitted his emotions—make that his hormones—to get the better of him and he let down his guard, she wouldn’t hesitate killing him in order to escape. It had happened once before with another woman during the Terrorist Wars. He’d let down his guard and had the knife scars to prove it.
“The food will be done in a few minutes,” he said. His gaze was jolted back to her when she licked her pouty lips while she stared at the frying bacon and eggs. He always celebrated a capture with bacon and eggs. Besides, he was starving.
“I’m not hungry.” Her soft reply spiked his heart rate.
“That’s fine. It’ll leave more for me.”
She grunted in annoyance. Even that sound was sexy.
After a moment of silence, she asked, “Who hired you?”
“I was wondering when curiosity would get the better of you.” He chuckled and she threw him a fierce scowl. He laughed again, enjoying the sweet way his gut clenched as she scrunched her forehead in her pissed off state. Maybe he should let her suffer a little while longer with curiosity. Or maybe he should get this conversation rolling so he could lay all the cards on the table. He opted for the latter.
“I’ve been hired by the United States Government,” he stated. He wasn’t surprised when she laughed first then followed that by cursing him up one side of his body and down the other, telling him what a stupid idiot he was. When she finished cursing, she laughed again and he got the feeling she knew something he didn’t.
“Obviously you find this amusing,” he said as he turned the several strips of bacon with a fork. The bacon was done. Way over done, but with her reaction, he’d lost his appetite.
“I find you amusing. What do your brothers think about you working for the United States Government?” She spat the last three words at him as if they were dirt.
He certainly understood her hatred for the dictatorship, especially when they so actively endorsed removing women’s rights, making rape legal. “My brothers don’t have a problem with how money comes in to pay the bills.”
“Blood money,” she grumbled, her lips twisting in disgust.
“As I said earlier, no one’s going to die.”
She shook her head. “Do you think you can just walk me in without any blood being shed? I’ve got an entourage a mile long waiting to hear back from me, and if I don’t check in by sundown they’ll be on your ass so fast you’ll wish you’d gone thro
ugh that ice out there and drowned.”
“And here I thought you liked me.”
“You’re an asshole.” She rolled her man-killing eyes at him and set her jaw in a firm pout. He’d irritated her with his remark and she stared at him, either trying to gauge if her words had scared him or trying to figure out another avenue of attack.
“You don’t scare easy, do you?” she finally said.
“Nothing to be scared about. Now have yourself some bacon and eggs.”
He forked two strips of bacon and two eggs onto the small aluminum plate he carried with him whenever tracking a bounty.
He was surprised when she lifted her cuffed hands and accepted the plate. He was equally surprised when she turned it, allowing the bacon and eggs to slide off onto the ground between her shackled legs.
Okay, she was trying to irritate the shit out of him. And it was working. She’d wasted some damned good food.
“I said I’m not hungry.” She grinned and then whipped the plate as if it were a Frisbee, off into the looming darkness.
He shrugged, pretending her ruining a perfectly good meal didn’t rub him the wrong way. “Well don’t come crying to me tonight when the wolves decide this place smells good and they drag you off into the woods and eat you.”
Just like he wouldn’t mind eating her.
He ripped a hunk of bread off the loaf Laurie had baked for him after learning he was heading out for a bounty. He hadn’t told her he was going after her friend Reena or she would have laced the bread with rat poison.
Just thinking of Laurie had him smiling. She enjoyed playing mother hen to the four men currently living at the Outlaw farm. Aside from his brother Mac and himself, she also cooked for Tyler and his best friend Hunter—her two lovers.
He sighed at the memories of what happened when darkness descended over the Outlaw farm. That’s when Laurie and Tyler and Hunter headed off to the bedroom the three of them shared. Their guttural moans and her whimpers would send him and Mac scurrying outside to get away from what was going on behind closed doors.
Cade knew something was going on between Hunter and Tyler, too. It was evident in the way the two men looked at each other—expressions filled with caring and need and love.
The two had suffered years of torture in a terrorist prison. They’d also shared a prison cell for several years before being rescued. After returning to the States, they’d seduced Laurie into their bed.
But he and Mac never complained about the erotic groans and moans coming from that bedroom at night, because they knew how lucky they were to have the youngest Outlaw brother back alive. Lucky, too, that Tyler had a strong woman like Laurie to accept him and his male lover.
Cade didn’t know if he would be able to share a woman with another man. Some of his brothers had been able to share. But he wasn’t sure he could do it with a woman he loved. These days, however, men had to adapt. There were so few women to go around. He’d finally come to the conclusion he may not end up with a wife in the traditional sense.
“What’s got you all smiling? Are you picturing me getting ripped apart by wolves? I guess all you really would have to do is bring my head back to get your bounty,” she said coolly from the other side of the fire.
“They want you alive. They just want to talk.”
“See? That’s why I find you amusing. With you being an Outlaw, I wouldn’t have expected you to buy bullshit like that. The government needs me dead.” She reached up with her cuffed wrists and brushed a stray strand of hair off her rosy cheek.
“Actually they want you to come in and negotiate a peace agreement. They’re willing to talk.”
“Over my dead body,” she whispered.
She didn’t believe the government. Hell, he hadn’t believed them either. At first. But a close friend of his who worked inside the government, a man Cade trusted, had confirmed the request was legit.
“There’s something you should know, Red. Your father is now working with the people you hate so much, and he’s been able to convince the president that having you on their side would be more productive than having you dead and a martyr…or in prison. So they’ve asked me to bring you in so you and the president can come up with some compromise.”
He’d expected her to be surprised at the news of her father being involved. Or at least doubtful. Instead she merely shook her head.
“My father is dead,” she said softly.
“Well, he was very much alive when I left him several days ago. If something’s happened in the meantime that I should know about—”
“He’s dead to me,” she clarified.
She raised her head and looked straight at him. The pain shining in her eyes unexpectedly rocked him.
Cade inhaled slowly, trying to settle his composure. He hadn’t figured he would be in the middle of some family dispute. Whatever her father had done, she wasn’t happy about it. Her father had reassured him that once she found out he was involved, she wouldn’t be a problem. Looked like daddykins didn’t know his daughter as well as he thought. Or maybe her father wanted her dead just like the others? No, the guy seemed sincere. His face had glowed with love and even remorse. His voice had filled with regret when he’d told Cade he’d been away from his daughter too long. His wife was dead and Reena was the only thing left in his life. Sincerity like that couldn’t be faked.
“Okay, so you two had a falling out. He still wants to talk and I still need to bring you in.”
She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. The woman remained totally pissed at him. He could tell by the way her mouth twisted tight and the muscles in her jaw twitched.
“We’ll have to spend the night here.”
Her head snapped up. Surprise and panic flared in her eyes. “Why can’t we head back to my cabin? I’m sure I can find it in the dark.”
He shook his head. Roaming around in the storm could prove fatal. They could get lost, one of them could trip and break a bone and, besides, he had no idea how many weapons she had in that cabin. She could have anticipated getting captured and set a trap.
Call him paranoid, but she was a resourceful woman and he wouldn’t put anything past her. Even if they did make it to the cabin and he permitted her to call her Resistance friends as she’d said she needed to do, she could call at a predetermined time and give them some sort of code indicating trouble. Nope, it was better this way.
“We’ll leave at first light. That’s final.”
“Oh, come on. It’s cold out here.”
“You’ve got me to keep you warm,” he teased, but her cold glare had him dashing any such hopes of snuggling under the covers with her.
Sighing, he grabbed a tin cup from his packsack. He’d have to eat his supper out of the cup and retrieve his plate later. He doubted he could find it. There was already a thin layer of snow covering everything.
As he scooped his dinner into his cup, she merely rolled her eyes at him—indicating he was a hopeless case—shook her head and focused her attention back to the fire. Okay, so she was giving him the cold shoulder treatment. Figures. He’d finally caught himself an unattached and very attractive woman and she wouldn’t give him the time of day. Man, sometimes he just had the most rotten luck.
While he ate in silence, she sat quietly, not saying a word, not taking her cold gaze from the fire, and he shivered involuntarily at her icy stare. When he finished, he unpacked the emergency plastic to place over the nearby lean-to he’d constructed last night. They would use this shelter tonight. Hopefully by morning she would be a little more receptive to a warm meal.
* * * * *
Since the night Will Blade had entertained that succulent red-haired woman, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. He’d tasted her that evening. She’d been as sweet as sin and sexy as hell. The erotic way she gazed at him when he’d kneeled between her naked thighs, her strawberry-red hair tumbling to just above her plump, pink nipples, her succulent lips parted as she panted and waited expectantly for
him to take her pussy into his mouth had made him so damned aroused he hadn’t been able to sleep for several nights after the encounter.
Heck, who was he kidding? He hadn’t had a proper night sleep since seeing her that first time. Why he hadn’t taken more time pleasuring her eluded him—fucking her up against the door, pumping fiercely into her, her cries of arousal undoing the cold tight lid on his emotions. He hadn’t been able to tie up the fact he wanted to take her again and again. That’s why he needed to kill her and get some peace.
He stood behind a tree, his finger on the trigger of his rifle, keeping an eye on Reena Wilde and Cade Outlaw as they spoke around a fire. His last encounter with Cade was still fresh in his mind, despite it being several weeks ago. Cade had made it clear he would kill Blade if he went near Red again. He might have to take out Cade as well tonight.
He’d been floored when his boss Bev White had given him the assassination assignment against Red. Not because he had to kill someone, but because Reena was Red, the notorious leader of the Resistance.
He’d known she was different. Her strength showed in the defiant way she’d carried herself when he’d first seen her at the Pleasure Palace, and then again when he’d met her at the safe house after she’d been rescued.
Blade shook his head and tried to remember back to a time before the Wars. To before the X-virus. When a normal evening meant taking a woman out to dinner and then to his bed. Where a regular work day meant performing pap smears, breast exams and informing a patient of her pregnancy, then moving to the adjoining examination room to tell another patient she had stage four ovarian cancer.
Fuck, his life had all been so normal. So routine he’d even pondered the idea of settling and marrying a sweet, quiet nurse he’d been dating. And then the X-virus had come along and screwed his world. Hell, it had screwed everyone’s world.
Yet even in this crappy new States there were still jewels. Sexy women like his boss Bev and Tyler’s woman Laura…and now Reena.
