Securing Zoey

by Susan Stoker

  Mark took a step forward, getting in her personal space, but Zoey didn’t step back. She clutched his shirt at his sides as he took her face in his hands. “Hear me now—nothing’s going to happen to you.”

  “You can’t guarantee that.”

  “We haven’t talked about everything that happened, in part because I’m waiting to talk to my computer genius friend, Tex, but I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe, Zo.”

  “Do you think we’re still in danger?”

  Instead of shaking his head, Mark shrugged. That didn’t exactly instill confidence in Zoey, but she did her best not to panic.

  “I’m not sure. I mean, if someone targeted us because of Pop’s will, nothing has changed. Except now we know what he left us. But the fact remains that we still got what we got and if someone isn’t happy about that, then they could still want to hurt us. But the good thing is that I’m pretty sure we’re out of their reach now. We’re here, and they’re still there in Alaska. And honestly, the list of people who might want us gone is fairly short, so that makes me even more sure we’re safe here.”

  Zoey nodded. She hated that. Hated it. Because the short list of people who might be upset about Colin’s will was full of people they knew personally. Unless there was someone in Colin’s life who wasn’t included in the will who felt like he or she should have been—and Zoey couldn’t think of a single person—their situation hadn’t changed. The likelihood was high that their potential killer was someone close to them. Which sucked. Big time.

  Mark stared at her for so long, Zoey shifted under his gaze. “What?”

  “The longer I’m around you, the more beautiful you get. How is that possible?”

  His words made her uncomfortable. Zoey knew she wasn’t beautiful. She wasn’t unattractive, but she’d always been somewhat ordinary. Brunette hair that more often than not did its own thing instead of what she wanted it to, boring hazel eyes, a body that was curvier than it should be thanks to her love of carbohydrates.

  “You don’t believe me.” It wasn’t a question.

  She shrugged. “I’m just me,” she said lamely.

  “Yeah, I know,” he said mysteriously. Leaning forward, Mark put his lips on her forehead, and Zoey closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, drawing his scent into her very soul.

  He chuckled. “Are you smelling me?”

  Without thinking, Zoey nodded. Then winced.

  “I like how you smell too,” he said without a trace of embarrassment as he leaned over even more and nuzzled the skin between her neck and shoulder.

  Tilting her head to give him more room, Zoey held on to his shirt for dear life. She felt like she’d melted into a puddle of goo at his feet, but within seconds, Mark stood.

  He smiled down at her. “I don’t know how you do it.”

  “Do what?”

  “Make me forget everything. That I need to get you settled. That you’re tired. That I’m tired. I think I could stand here with you all night and be perfectly happy.”

  “Me too,” Zoey admitted softly.

  “Come on. I know you brought some of your own stuff but if you don’t feel like unpacking anything, you can sleep in one of my T-shirts tonight…if you wanted to.”

  The thought of putting one of his shirts on made her shiver. She nodded.

  “Good. Do you need sweats or socks? I don’t want you to be cold.”

  “I think I’ll be okay. Um…are you staying with me?”

  “Yeah, Zo. I’m sleeping here too.”

  “Okay, then yeah, I should be good. You’re pretty warm.”

  He smiled then, and Zoey knew she’d never get tired of seeing it. “Yeah, I tend to run hot. I’ll keep you warm.” He went to a dresser and pulled out a gray shirt, and Zoey saw the word NAVY across it before he turned and headed to the bathroom. He disappeared inside and was back within seconds. “I’ll head down to get your backpack so you can brush your teeth and finish getting ready for bed after you change. Anything else you need while I’m down there?”

  Zoey shook her head.

  “I’ll be right back.” Then he was gone.

  Zoey exhaled sharply and headed for the bathroom. She had a feeling Mark wouldn’t fuck around and he’d be back in a minute or two.

  It was almost unbelievable how much her life had changed in the last week. She’d left Juneau to visit her mom. Her best friend, Colin, had passed away. She’d been left for dead in the middle of nowhere, she’d reconnected with her high school crush, helped save his life, she’d left her home state for the first time ever, and she’d fallen in love.

  She stopped dead at that last thought and stared at herself in the mirror in Mark’s bathroom.

  The same old boring eyes stared back, and Zoey couldn’t see any difference in herself since a week ago. She had a bit more color on her cheeks from getting sunburnt while tromping around outdoors, but otherwise she looked exactly the same.

  Which was crazy, because inside, she felt completely different. For the first time in a very long time, she was looking forward to what the next day would bring. Everything seemed new and exciting, rather than the same old boring, day-to-day life she’d been living in Juneau.

  But love? It seemed crazy. She was acting like an old maid who fell for the first man who’d ever paid her some attention. And the last thing she wanted was to be like her mother, constantly falling for a man’s pretty words. But Mark didn’t seem like the kind of man who would lead someone on or use them for his own purposes, as she’d seen men do to her mom. And he’d been extremely handsy since they’d been rescued, always touching her in some way. And would he say some of the things he had if he wasn’t interested in her?

  It was hard to say for sure. She didn’t have a lot of experience with relationships and men. If she were here with Malcom, she could say without a doubt that he would definitely be leading her on, if only to get laid. But she knew Mark wasn’t like that. He’d gone out of his way to make sure she felt comfortable and not to put any pressure on her.

  “Here you go,” Mark said, scaring the crap out of Zoey.

  She jumped and almost tripped over her feet trying to get away from the doorway where Mark had popped in.

  He reached out and grabbed hold of her arm, steadying her. The second she had her footing back, he let go and stepped back, giving her space. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m so sorry.”

  Zoey shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I wasn’t paying attention.”

  “Second thoughts?” Mark asked quietly.

  “No,” she told him immediately, and a little desperately. “Not at all. It’s just been a crazy week.”

  The lines around his eyes smoothed out. “Yeah, it has. Take your time. I’ll go use the other bathroom.” Then he was gone once again.

  This time, Zoey didn’t stand there staring at herself. She quickly changed into his T-shirt, feeling naked standing there in nothing but her panties and the shirt that came down to her upper thighs. She brushed her teeth and headed into the bedroom.

  Mark wasn’t there yet, so she slipped under the covers, taking another deep breath. God, she wasn’t sure she’d survive sleeping in his bed, on his sheets. She hoped and prayed his scent would seep into her skin overnight so she’d have a piece of him to carry with her always.

  Deciding that was weird, and she really was a creeper, she closed her eyes and tried to think about anything other than how right it felt to be in Mark’s bed. And what a freaking miracle it was.

  She heard him come back into the room and, without a word, he pulled back the covers and slid in next to her. His bare legs brushed against hers, and a warmth like she’d never felt moved up and over her body. When he physically moved her around to his liking, and she ended up with her head on his shoulder and her arm lying across his flat stomach, Zoey sighed in contentment.

  “Comfortable?” he asked softly.

  “Yeah.”

  “Sleep well, sweetheart.”

  “You too.”


  She felt his lips touch her temple, and she couldn’t help but turn her own head and kiss his shoulder. His arm tightened around her for a second, then he relaxed once again. She wanted to stay awake. To treasure the moment. But he was too comfortable. And smelled too good. And felt too good under her.

  She was asleep within minutes of closing her eyes.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Bubba reached up and knocked on Jessica Martens’ door. It was eight o’clock, and he couldn’t remember a morning he’d enjoyed more. Merely waking up with Zoey in his arms would’ve done it, but then he’d acted without thinking and kissed her awake, and she’d more than reciprocated. He’d made her a breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon, and it had felt really nice to start the day with someone at his side.

  When Zoey went upstairs to get ready, hearing the water running and knowing she was upstairs in his bathroom, completely naked, turned him on more than anything he could remember. When it was his turn to shower, the room smelled like the girly shit he’d bought her in Anchorage, and he’d had to jerk himself off simply to be able to walk upright.

  While pleasuring himself had taken the edge off, the second he saw Zoey waiting for him downstairs, curled up under one of the throw blankets he had on the back of his couch, he got hard again. He wanted nothing more than to snuggle under it with her and show her exactly how much he liked having her there in his house.

  But Jess and work were waiting. He wouldn’t have been so keen on getting started with his day and parting with Zoey except he wanted to talk to Tex. He needed to get to the bottom of what had happened, and he had a feeling that would start with finding Eve Dane. And that’s where Tex excelled.

  “You ready?” Bubba asked Zoey as they waited for Jess to come to the door.

  “Yeah. Are you sure I look okay?”

  Bubba looked Zoey over from head to toe. She had on a pair of jeans and a short-sleeve green T-shirt they’d picked up in the Anchorage airport. It had a picture of a bear standing on its hind legs and the words, “Juneau what I’m saying?!” around it.

  He’d thought it was funny and had bought it as a surprise present. She’d giggled when she’d seen it, and he’d been thrilled with her joy in the simple gift. She looked as beautiful as ever in it. She’d also been surprised that she didn’t need to wear a jacket, saying that it would take some getting used to, not getting all bundled up every time she went outside.

  The door in front of them creaked as it slowly opened. Bubba smiled at Jess and immediately stepped forward to hug her. He wasn’t surprised when her arms latched around him with a strength that belied her looks.

  “Hi, Jess,” he said into her hair.

  The older woman pulled back and stared up at him. She was tiny compared to him, he had at least a foot on her. But her big personality more than made up for her short stature. “It’s about time you got home,” she nagged. “Look at my grass. It’s way too long, and I think a family of gophers have taken up residence.”

  “I’ll take care of it tonight.” Bubba turned, keeping one arm around Jess to make sure she didn’t lose her balance. “This is Zoey. I told you about her when I called yesterday.”

  Watching with a careful hopefulness, Bubba grinned as Jess turned to Zoey and immediately hugged her. “It’s good to meet you, Zoey. Anyone who can put up with this guy for a week out in the middle of nowhere has to be a saint. Come in, take a load off. I want to hear everything.”

  Bubba tried to follow them inside, but Jess put a hand on his chest and stopped him. “Girls only. Sorry. Besides, it’s late. You need to get to work and do your super-soldier stuff.”

  He heard Zoey cover up a chuckle with her hand, and smiled at Jess. “Okay, I get the hint. I’ll go. Zoey, you’ll call if you need anything?” Rocco had gone to a store in Anchorage and gotten them both replacement phones before they’d left.

  “Of course. But I have a feeling we’ll be fine.”

  “Darn tootin’ we will,” Jess said. “I’ve got the grocery store on speed dial, and that hot young thing with an ass I could bounce quarters off of will bring me whatever I need. So shoo. I need some gossip time with your young lady.”

  Bubba didn’t correct her. Zoey felt like his young lady. Leaning around Jess, he put his hand on the back of Zoey’s neck and pulled her toward him. Bubba kissed her briefly on the lips. It was a short kiss, but he still felt sparks shoot through him as their lips touched. “I’ll text you later,” he told her.

  Zoey licked her lips, and he swore he could see her pupils dilate as she did. “Okay,” she told him.

  “Have fun. Jess, don’t corrupt Zoey too much, okay?”

  “Pish-posh,” she scolded, but smiled as she said it.

  “Bye, Mark,” Zoey told him.

  He gave her a chin lift and turned to head back across the street to his car. He found himself smiling the entire way.

  It was easy to see that Jess liked Zoey on sight, which was a relief. The older woman wasn’t one to beat around the bush, and if she’d sensed something about Zoey that she didn’t like, she wouldn’t have hesitated to tell him that she’d changed her mind and didn’t need Zoey’s help after all.

  His girl was in good hands. It was time to get to the bottom of whoever had fucking tried to kill them once and for all.

  Four hours later, after being caught up on what he’d missed at work over the last week, after reassuring his commander that he really was all right and explaining everything that had happened while he’d been in the wilderness more times than he could count to some of the other SEALs he came across, after he’d taken calls from Malcom and Sean with questions about the business up in Juneau, and after he’d called Zoey to make sure she was all right and her helping Jess was going to work out, Bubba dialed Tex’s number and put the phone on speaker before placing it on the table top in front of him.

  Rocco, Gumby, Ace, Rex, and Phantom were in the room with him, and everyone was eager to hear what the computer guru had to say.

  “Tex here.”

  “Hey, Tex. It’s Bubba.”

  “God, it’s good to hear from you, man,” Tex said. “It’s frustrating as hell not to be able to do anything to find a person when they’re literally in the middle of nowhere with no technology so I can track them and no witnesses to interview.”

  Bubba couldn’t help but chuckle. “I can imagine.”

  “I wish you guys would reconsider wearing one of my fucking trackers. I could’ve pinpointed your location within ten feet and sent a helicopter to you that first night,” Tex bitched.

  Bubba and the rest of his team had always turned down Tex when he’d offered up one of his infamous trackers in the past. But after what he just went through, Bubba was seriously considering it. “I’ll let you know about that.”

  “About fucking time,” Tex muttered.

  “What have you found out about Eve Dane or her plane?” Rocco asked. “Last we talked, you were still looking for both.”

  “Amazingly, she did a very good job of hiding in plain sight for an amateur,” Tex said.

  “You found her?” Rex asked excitedly.

  “Yes, finally. But the bad news is that she’s in the wind again.”

  “Fuck,” Bubba muttered.

  “Exactly. But it’s only a matter of time, because she’s not in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. She’s got to be using credit cards, driving a car, and eventually using a phone. I’ll find her.”

  “Good. We need to know who hired her and why,” Phantom said.

  “You want to hear what I was able to find out?” Tex asked.

  “Yes,” all six SEALs said at the same time.

  The other man chuckled then got serious. “Right. First of all, her name isn’t Eve Dane. It’s Eva Dawkins. Took a lot of luck to find her too. Most of the time when people use a fake name, they try to keep it as close to their real name as possible. So I looked at all female pilots in Alaska who are around twenty to thirty years old and whose names stared with an E. That
got it down to about two hundred and fifty people. Narrowed that down to about ten people, but when I found out Eva Dawkins was the only one out of the bunch who’d disappeared off the radar completely, no credit card or cell phone usage in the last week, I figured she was the one. She’s twenty-four years old and has two kids.”

  “Jesus!” Ace exclaimed. “Why the fuck would she do something so stupid? She’s gonna get charged with attempted murder and ruin her life, her kids’ lives, and probably her family’s too.”

  “Well, she ran away from home when she was fifteen, never finished high school. Then hooked up with one bad motherfucker. One of the kids is his, the other she had before she started dating him. She got her pilot’s license when she lived in Anchorage because she needed money to feed her kids, because her boyfriend sure wasn’t giving her any. I guess there was some sort of free program that taught people how to fly. Since it’s such a necessary mode of transportation up there, it’s almost as common as learning to drive. Anyway, her asshole boyfriend was too busy selling meth to give a shit about her or her kids.”

  “Holy shit,” Gumby breathed.

  “Yeah, that’s not at all close to the story she told us,” Bubba said.

  “Yeah. Anyway, she got good at flying,” Tex continued. “Got hired on by a private company and was doing pretty well for herself. Then her boyfriend decided he wanted her to help him move his drugs. Expand his operations. For whatever asinine reason, she agreed.”

  “Let me guess,” Bubba said. “She got caught.”

  “Yup. Got fired. She decided enough was enough and finally broke up with her boyfriend, but he didn’t take that very well. Even though it was his drugs she’d gotten caught transporting, she had no proof. He used her arrest against her and got temporary custody of her kids.”

  “That’s fucked up,” Phantom said.

  “Uh-huh. So there she was, no job, no kids, and pissed off at the world. And I’m guessing her ex is probably blackmailing her somehow.”

  “Right, then along comes someone who needs a pilot, and she needs money,” Rex said.