“Charlotte thinks it would be better if you were focused and busy, that it would probably help you in the long run. There’s no sense in holing up. You’d go stir-crazy.”
“She’s right about that,” Dev muttered grudgingly, her plate clean. Pushing it aside, she slid her hands around the warm mug of coffee. “I thought that by leaving my other ranger station out East, I’d get the break I needed.”
“But he’s followed you. So there’s really no safe place to hide from him, Dev. It’s better that you’re here with me. And the other rangers who will be with you while you’re on duty? They will know the lay of the land. I don’t think Gordon is going to attack you while someone else is with you. He’s got a bully mentality. His kind likes to pick on vulnerable or unarmed women who are alone with no way to call for backup or help.”
“I was that way once,” Dev said, frowning. “He caught me completely off guard in that barn. And I wasn’t defenseless. I got away. I’m not going to let that happen again, Sloan.”
“No, you won’t.” He slid his hand down her forearm. “Let’s talk about something good, sugar. Let’s talk about us. About what happened last night.”
Dev turned her hand over, lacing her fingers between his. Euphoria stole through her heart as she drowned in Sloan’s stormy blue eyes. “I loved it.” I love you. The words hung sweetly in front of Dev. How badly she wanted to say them to Sloan, but she didn’t dare. Everything was so new, so different between them. Her maturity told her it would be wiser to wait.
Sloan cupped her hand between his, moving a finger slowly around her open palm. “Last night was special for me, too, Dev.”
She felt the roughness of his fingers, sending the fire skittering from her palm into her lower arm. “I’m still high from it,” she admitted shyly. “I’ve never been loved so well, Sloan.” His eyes glittered with male pride and it made Dev feel good to give him a compliment he deserved. “I know I’m rough around the edges. I’m not exactly superskilled like you are.”
“When you love someone, Dev, that shouldn’t matter one whit,” he said thickly. “It should be about one heart meeting the other. When that happens, things will just magically work out between us as we go along. They sure did last night.”
“You make me feel so good, Sloan…thank you. When I was younger, I lived in fear of not meeting anyone’s expectations of me.” She gave a painful shrug. “And I never did…”
Lifting his hand, Sloan caressed her hair. “You are perfect for me just the way you are. You need to know that.”
Sloan’s quietly spoken honesty, the sincerity in his eyes and voice, washed across Dev. He released her hand and she already missed his amazing touch that had sent her into another world of nothing but burning arousal and pleasure.
“Thanks,” she whispered, giving him a look of relief.
“I don’t take what happened as an invite to be with you nightly, Dev. To be honest, I never expected what happened last night.” One corner of his mouth tipped upward. “Well…that’s not exactly true. I’ve been dreaming of loving you from the moment I met you. I just never thought it could come true…”
Her heart stuttered as she held his frank gaze. The men she’d known before didn’t have Sloan’s maturity. Dev understood he was giving her control of the situation. “I couldn’t keep my eyes off you out there at the horse trailer,” she admitted, giving him a wry glance.
“You too, huh?” He grinned a little, leaning back in the chair, warmly studying her.
“I’ve always been drawn to you, Sloan.”
“Same here.”
“So? What does that make us?” Dev felt her throat tighten with fear of rejection.
“A work in progress?”
She smiled a little. “That’s about right.”
“I know things have been a little compressed because of the situation,” Sloan said. “You have to stay with me until we can find Gordon. It’s not safe for you to live by yourself right now. He got into your apartment too easily.”
Dev didn’t disagree. “Can we take this a day at a time, Sloan? I’m torn up enough about everything. And it’s not fair to you or me under the circumstances. I can’t put my whole heart and focus into us right now even though that’s where I want to be.” She held his understanding gaze. There was no recrimination in Sloan’s face, but she felt his reaction. Sadness, yearning, though he was man enough, mature enough, to give her space and allow her to set the pace.
“It’s a crappy situation,” he agreed. And then, he smiled a little. “So, I’ll stay on the couch until or if you want some company. Fair enough, gal?”
Reaching out, Dev slid her fingers across his arm, feeling the muscles tense beneath his flesh. Already, her body was aching to love Sloan once more. “Yes… I’m sorry, Sloan…”
“Hey, there’s nothing for you to apologize for.” He gave her fingers a slight squeeze. “We’re in a dangerous situation. We need our focus. There will be other times when you’re finally out from under this threat. No hard feelings from my end. Okay?”
Her throat tightened. Of all the people in her life, Sloan had been the most loyal. He deserved better. Dev wanted to extend her relationship with him. Anger chilled her as she thought about Gordon, and how he was once more staining her life. “Okay,” she whispered, giving him a look of longing. “But I worry Gordon might attack us here in this apartment once he finds out I’m not over at mine.”
“The dogs will give us early warning of his presence,” Sloan soothed. “Especially Mouse.”
“But if it was that easy to break into my apartment, Gordon could get in here just as easily.” A shadow came to Sloan’s eyes as he absorbed her worry.
“He could. But there are ways to know if someone has entered this place. And if we’re home, the dogs will be our alarm.”
Sipping her coffee, Dev muttered, “I still wish there was a place I could go and hide.”
“If we find Gordon has broken into this apartment, then we need to consider that option.”
“Where could I go?”
Sloan moved uncomfortably. “I had a discussion with Cade Garner about that earlier, Dev. He thinks that you could go hide out at the Bar H. He’s already talked to Miss Gus about the situation and how it’s escalating. And Griff and Val McPherson want to keep you out there at their ranch. They are all for it. But it would mean you would have to stay on the ranch, not go into town where you might be spotted by Gordon for any reason.”
Frowning, Dev said, “But that puts them in Gordon’s sights, too. I can’t do that, Sloan. I won’t place them in jeopardy.”
“If you left here under cover of night, we could pull it off. And they know the score. Val was once an Air Force intelligence officer. She knows how to handle a gun. Griff was on the Olympic pistol team at one time, and he’s an excellent shot, even though he never went into the military.” Sloan tried to lighten her anxiety. “And who in their right mind wants to go up against Gus Hunter? She’s mean with that twelve-gauge shotgun of hers.”
Trying to smile, but failing, Dev said wearily, “I love all those people so much, but it still surprises me they’d open themselves up to Gordon possibly finding me out there and putting all of them in danger.”
“Cade feels you’d be very safe out there.”
Searching Sloan’s grim face, she asked, “How do you feel about it?”
With a hitch of his shoulder, Sloan murmured, “Well, my answer is purely selfish, gal. I’d much rather have you here, with me. I like your company. I know I can defend you. But if I find that Gordon has broken into this place, you will have to go to the Bar H.”
Shaking her head, Dev felt miserable. She didn’t want to put anyone else in danger. “Gordon would kill them, Sloan. Think of Sophia, their little girl. My God…”
“Look, at the ranch next to them, the Triple H, there’s a number of black ops men there who fought in Afghanistan. Talon Holt is a former Navy SEAL. Cass is a former Special Forces soldier. And he has a foreman t
here who was Delta Force at one time. All Gus has to do is call them, and they’ll be over there in minutes. There’s more protection for you there than you realize, Dev.”
Glumly, she shook her head. “All of you are putting yourself at risk for me.”
Sloan gave her a gentle look. “Back East, no one had your back, sugar. This is the West. We protect our own. It was smart of you to move out here.”
“Then I need to talk to my supervisor about all of this.”
“Already done,” Sloan said. “Cade called her and told her the lay of the land.”
“Is Charlotte in agreement with me taking a sabbatical if I must?”
“She’s in agreement. She understands this is an extraordinary event in your life, Dev. She knows you are the victim here, and she wants to protect you as much as the rest of us do.”
Sloan was right: things were different this time around. A tiny thread of relief wound through Dev. “Well…okay…”
“Charlotte said you can come back to work tomorrow, if you feel up to it. If this threat escalates, then she’ll suspend you with pay until we nab Gordon.”
Rubbing her face, Dev muttered, “God, I hope it doesn’t take long, Sloan. I hate living in a limbo like this. Hate that other good people are in the cross fire, as well.”
He smiled faintly and captured her hand in his. “You’re such a worrywart, Miss McGuire.”
Rallying beneath the dark warmth of his voice, Dev said, “I can’t help it, Sloan.”
“Don’t change a hair on your head, gal. We’ll muddle through this together with you. You have a lot of people who love you and think the world of you. They’re more than ready to stand with you in this showdown with Gordon. Okay?”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“HEY, JOHN,” Dev called as she hesitated at the door to the main office at ranger HQ, “I need to go to the bathroom. I’ll be back in a minute.”
John Welborn, working nearby at his desk, grinned. “Yeah, I don’t think I need to follow you into the bathroom, do I, Dev?”
She laughed. “No way! I’ll be right back.” Dev turned and hurried down the white tiled hall to the first floor of the long rectangular two-story building. It was 10:00 a.m., and it felt good to be back at work. Yesterday she’d spent the day with Sloan, which hadn’t been bad at all. They’d made love yesterday afternoon and even now her body glowed from his skilled hands and mouth. The man knew how to tune her body like a finely honed instrument of utter pleasure, no question. And she’d slept with Sloan last night because it felt so right. They belonged together. He’d left it up to her to decide, and she appreciated that Sloan wasn’t pressuring her.
As she walked down the hall, she passed several people from the same office, coffee cups in hand. It felt good to be wearing her dark green gabardine trousers, her long-sleeved tan shirt and black leather boots. She’d been wearing a uniform one way or another since she was eighteen. Dev aimed herself toward the last door located near the outside entrance to the rear of the building. She kept a watchful eye, however. Sloan had warned her that Bart Gordon could still get inside the park. He had been a ranger at one time himself, and he knew how to sneak past the gate entrances.
John, who was in his forties, a father of two girls and happily married for thirteen years to his wife, Susan, had been a great watchdog for Dev. He had been a Marine at one time before joining the Forest Service. And he knew how to use the pistol he carried on his hip. Best of all, John was easygoing, much like Sloan was, and it had served to allow Dev to relax, despite the circumstances. As she pushed the light green door to the women’s restroom open, her boots sounded hollowly against the tiled floor. She leaned down, looking to see if anyone else was present. There were ten stalls, but they were all unoccupied. She was the only one in the facility.
Her heart lingered on Sloan. Today, he was out at the corral of Grand Teton Park, shoeing six mules. She was glad that he was nearby. Dev was going to go to lunch with him at a nearby restaurant within the park. Her heart sang with happiness. She washed her hands in the sink afterward. She stared at herself in the mirror. Her green eyes were clear and she saw gold flecks of happiness deep within them, put there by Sloan loving her. She’d never made love in the afternoon before, and it had been a delicious experience. Never had Dev laughed so hard as when they lay in one another’s arms afterward. Sloan had a wonderful sense of humor. He got to talking about his growing-up years as a boy in the woods of the Allegheny Mountains, sharing some of his silly adventures.
I love him.
There, she admitted it as she dried her hands on the paper towels. Her black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, so it was out of the way. Wishing she didn’t have to wear a pistol, but knowing she always had to, Dev wished the threat of Gordon’s would just go away. How badly she hoped Cade and the Teton Sheriff’s Department would spot and capture him. Throwing the paper towels into the receptacle, she turned to go to the door.
A scream lodged in her throat.
Bart Gordon stood five feet away from her, his face dark and intense. He held a Glock 19 pistol directly at her.
“Well, good morning to you, too, Dev,” he snarled. “Don’t make a sound. If you do, I’ll kill you right where you stand.”
Dev felt her heartbeat roaring in her ears. Felt the shattering effect of adrenaline crashing through her bloodstream. Oh, God! Her mind whirled with a hundred questions. How had Gordon gotten in here? Why hadn’t she heard him enter the restroom? Her eyes were wide with fear, her mouth going dry. She saw satisfaction burning in his dark brown eyes. He was dressed like a civilian. Instantly she noticed he’d dyed his red hair and beard a brown color. The beard, now scraggly, made him look even more dangerous. On his back was a big black knapsack bulging with unknown gear. He had a long knife on one hip, a holster on the other. Everything he wore was camo colored. The boonie hat on his head fit the camouflage of the rest of his attire.
“Don’t do this,” she whispered unsteadily, tense, wanting to run. But there was no place to run. A gleam of triumph came to his slitted eyes.
“Why not? You put me in jail, doll face. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to extract my special revenge on you. Walk toward me. And if you try anything, I’ll kill you. This pistol has a silencer on it. They’ll just find you dead in here in the restroom at some point.”
Dev believed him, and her knees suddenly started to go shaky. Try to escape? Or go with Gordon and be raped and then be killed? The hatred in his eyes guaranteed that was a possibility. Her cell phone was in her back pocket. She had a Buck knife on her belt. But it was a small knife in comparison to the one he carried. Forcing her feet forward, Dev walked toward him.
“Stop. Turn around.”
Her heart was pounding so loud Dev could barely hear his low order. She halted, slowly turning her back to him. Gordon yanked the safety off her pistol and removed it from her holster. He unsnapped the case that carried her Buck knife, removing it, as well. Dropping both of them in a washbasin, he returned, raking her from head to toe with his gaze.
“Any other weapons on you?”
“N-no…” Dev felt his hatred wash over her as he loomed over her. Gordon was six feet tall and heavily muscled. She remembered the last time he’d attacked her from the rear, his brute strength and power. And he’d shoot to kill. The drive to stay alive filled her terrorized mind. Somewhere in her tumbling thoughts, Dev knew if she stayed alive, she might be able to escape. Maybe…
The instant his hands roughly began groping at the top of her shirt, moving across her breasts and back, searching her, Dev jerked away in reaction.
“Damn you,” he hissed, grabbing her by her ponytail. “Stand still!”
Muffling a cry, Dev was yanked against Gordon as he continued his frisking of her, even the insides of her trouser legs. Humiliation and embarrassment shot through her. Stiffening, Dev tried to evade his hand between her thighs and heard him growl a warning.
“Bitch.”
Her scalp bu
rned with pain as he held her head against him with her ponytail. After he leaned down, thoroughly checking her back pockets and finally around her ankles, he released her.
“Now,” he said, glaring at her, “you’re going to turn right and go out the rear door. I’ll be right behind you. If you so much as make a sound, it’ll be the last one you make. Got it?”
Giving a jerky nod, Dev started for the door on wobbling legs. She had to think! She had to get a grip on her escaping emotions! Tears burned in her eyes. Oh, God, Sloan! She loved him! She hadn’t told him! Her hands flattened on the door, pushing it open. Gordon was so close it nauseated her as she walked into the hall. Glancing swiftly down it toward the office where John was, she saw him with his head bent over his paperwork. There was no one else in the hall. Without hesitating, Dev made a right turn and pushed open the glass door.
The moment they were outside, she swiftly glanced around, looking for help. The rear exit was backed up to a long black asphalt parking lot. There were thirty or so cars and pickups parked in it. But no one was out there. It was deserted. Gulping, her throat tight with terror, she felt the grip of Gordon’s hand wrapping tightly around her upper right arm.
“This way,” he hissed, shoving her ahead of him, aiming for the nearby line of trees.
Dev moved quickly. Gordon’s breath was rancid, making her nauseous. His fingers dug hard into her arm and she whimpered in pain. He practically shoved her into the dark, thick woods. She stumbled, and he caught her and jerked her back onto her feet. Pain arced up Dev’s arm, her shoulder burning from the wrenching power of his strength.
“Straight ahead,” he ordered.
The forest closed in around them, hiding them. Dev knew she was lost now. No one would see her. No one.
“Where?” she demanded breathlessly, Gordon forcing her into a trot.
“The river.”
The Snake River. It was only about a hundred yards from the building. Her mind twisted. Why there? Did he have a raft? That was all that was allowed in this area of the river. And then, it hit Dev. Gordon would never be able to drive in or out of the park because he knew they were looking for him. He’d somehow found a raft and would float out beyond the boundaries of the park, home free. And her with him.
Out Rider Page 23
