Down Range (Tungsten Protective Services Book 1)

by Aliyah Burke

  “What the fuck do you mean she’s gone?” Lucifer demanded, body tense and locked for a confrontation.

  “You need to watch your tone, sir. I’m merely informing you of the status. I won’t tell you where or when but she has checked out. She’s no longer in this hospital. Now, if you want to continue to yell at me, I’ll have security escort you out.”

  He longed to punch through the glass near them on the closest door. “What about the woman who was with her? My sister Ruth?”

  “I don’t know where she is. It’s possible she’s in the cafeteria. We have a lot of people who come and go here, sir and I do apologize but I’m unable to keep a personal accounting of where each and every person is located.”

  Her tone said she was anything but sorry. On one hand, he understood, nurses were busy as fuck and never given enough recognition, but on the other, damn it all, he needed to know where Riz had headed. He glanced at his watch and frowned all over again, stepping away from the desk. Where’s Ruth? Digging for is phone, he called her and paced while waiting for her to answer.

  “I don’t know where she is,” she said the second she picked up his call.

  “How the fuck can you not know where she is?”

  “Because I got kicked out of her room for upsetting her. Because I didn’t know all the facts when I went in there and tried to insist on how good a guy you were and how she owed you a second chance. Christ, Ralston, she’s been disowned and threatened by her family for what you did. Why didn’t you tell me this?”

  His heart plummeted. “I didn’t know. I figured they’d be pissed but that was it. Fuck.” He made his way to the door and stepped outside in the muggy Tennessee afternoon. “No wonder she hates me.”

  His sister laughed. “That woman doesn’t hate you. She may be pissed but what she feels is far from hate. She’s still in love with you. I’d bet my degree and practice on it.”

  Light at the end of a dark tunnel. “You think so?”

  “I do this for a living and while I was woefully unprepared to what you sent me in to I know love when I see it. Yes, Rizzo loves you, brother. Now how you handle it and get her back in your life, I couldn’t say how that will work out.”

  “Do you have any idea of where she went?” He had to find her.

  “Nope, she’s got a mouth on her that’s for sure. Isn’t shy of using it either but I don’t know where she would have gone. I highly doubt we’ll ever be good friends.”

  “Stay here in case you see her in a different room for me, will you?”

  “You going to her apartment?”

  “Yes. Razor is hanging out there for the moment but if she needs to run, she’ll head there to grab some things first. She doesn’t have any money, we took all that from her when she was admitted. Or rather, I did, so that it wouldn’t be misplaced.”

  “Sure, so it wouldn’t be misplaced.” Her tone was dry.

  “Don’t work your brain games on me. I have to go. Thanks, Ruth.”

  “Right, I’d at least appreciate an invite to the wedding,” she blurted out as he hung up.

  Lucifer shoved his phone back in his pocket and jogged over to the security desk. Fifteen minutes later, disappointed, he thanked them for their help in allowing him to view the camera footage and headed out to the SUV he’d driven back to the hospital. Three steps into his journey and he slid his glasses down over his eyes blocking out the sunlight. He fiddled with his Blutooth and put it in his ear then dialed Razor.

  “All quiet,” his friend answered.

  “Riz there?”

  A moment of silence. “Thought she was at the hospital with you and Ruth.”

  Yeah, he’d thought that as well. “Not anymore. According to my sister, they began arguing and Ruth got herself kicked out of the room. When I made it back here, Riz was gone. And I don’t have a fucking clue as to where. All I got from the security feed was she walked out on her own power but she vanishes after that.”

  Razor laughed. Lucifer paused and thought about it, he’d heard the man chuckle and occasionally grunt but never a full-fledged, all out laugh.

  “Seriously? Now you laugh?”

  “I really need to meet this woman when she’s awake. I heard she backhanded you when you first found her in the embassy.”

  His chin burned at the memory. “She did. Wasn’t pleased to see me apparently. My fault but still, I was rescuing her.”

  “Of course it was your fault. I like her, don’t know her, but damn it I like her. Find her. I want to meet her.”

  He wasn’t sure what to make of Razor’s praise, the man was just so fucking stoic all the time, this was totally out of his element. A call beeped and Lucifer sighed. “Will do, another call coming in.” He switched over. “Ralston.”

  “Three blocks south, coffee shop.” That was it. Five words and the caller was gone.

  At the sound of his boss’s voice, he struggled to retain his need to refuse and track down his elusive woman, but it wouldn’t do to ignore one of the co-founders of Tungsten Protective Services. Tyson “Cade” Kincade was in town for a reason. So, he listened, hopped in the vehicle and headed to the cafe.

  Cade sat in the back, long legs stretched out before him and fingers cradled around a mug of coffee. No fu-fu drink there, Lucifer would bet his year’s pay that it was nothing more than black coffee with two sugars in it and zero cream. That’s how the man drank it. Settling himself in the chair across from his boss, he stared at the plate there with some crumbs on it.

  “We found the group who took over in the embassy. They’d made a poor decision in thinking they could hold the people in there hostage and get something other than death out of it. Purposefully they went somewhere other than the American embassy hoping it would give them a longer bid at making their point. It’s a group who runs illegal arms trafficking in numerous countries and apparently thought they would be able to hold out and have one of their top dogs released from a prison. Apparently they didn’t realize that any American’s were in the building. Much less one of ours.”

  Ours being a woman to one of the members of Tungsten. Cade didn’t need to verbalize that, it was obvious to him. They took care of their own. And Riz, was one of their own, his, even if she didn’t realize or accept it yet.

  “So they’ve been stopped.” It was a statement. Hell, he didn’t even care of the name of the group, so long as the bastards didn’t return for Riz.

  “Mostly.”

  Interesting.

  “And you’re here telling me this in person why? No offense, Cade, but it could have been done over the phone. What brought you out of Georgia?”

  “I like Tennessee.”

  He leaned back in his seat. “Wife had a show?”

  The softness and love that morphed over Cade’s face nearly had him feeling like an interloper. That woman meant to the world to that man. “Yes. Thought we’d have a week away from the kids.”

  “Who are they with?”

  “Xaria and Hondo. Or rather Xaria as he’s away. She’s teaching them something about the ice, they’re all excited. She’s putting on a class for younger children and said they could just stay over.”

  “So, a week alone with the wife and you’re still here and not with her.”

  “She’s here.” He glanced to his right, Lucifer followed his gaze and found Jayde talking to someone at the counter. “She’ll be here in a moment. She wanted something with whipped cream and sprinkles.”

  “The testament of true love, I can hear the disgust in your voice for treating a drink that way, yet you don’t care. Whatever it takes for her.”

  He shrugged easily. “She’s my world.”

  The words left his mouth without a shred of hesitation and Lucifer just nodded. This man, a deadly and dangerous ex-Navy SEAL had no problem admitting how much he loved his wife.

  “Still not sure why you came here to talk to me. Something else I should know about?”

  “Yes. Jayde knows where she went.”

&nbs
p; His heart stopped then restarted at triple the speed. “How? Where?”

  Cade drank a bit more. “She’ll tell you when she gets back.” The man came across as totally relaxed but Lucifer had no doubt in his mind he had cataloged every single person in this place as a potential threat to his wife. “Don’t push her.”

  “Of course not.”

  He didn’t know Jayde all that well but the few times he’d met her, he’d found her to be charming and a sweet woman. The soft edge for Cade’s hard, sharp, deadly one.

  As she neared, Cade stood and held out a chair for his wife, brushing a kiss along her cheek as he pushed her in to the table. She glanced with gentle eyes to him and smiled. “Hello, Ralston.”

  “Ma’am.” He tracked Cade as he retook his seat.

  “I won’t keep you waiting,” she said as she sucked some whipped cream off her thumb. “I don’t know where she is right this second but I do have a good idea of where she’s going.”

  Impatience nipped at his heels like a ravenous pack of feral dogs but he kept it in check. Cade was one of the most laid back men he knew but only an idiot would rush the man’s wife. Personally he’d rather face the armed group at the embassy than the pissed off husband.

  Jayde kept her word and didn’t make him ask. She just continued, “When I saw her picture today, Tyson showed me, I recognized her from a past show. It was up in the mountains and she’d stopped by to pick up an ocean scene for her cabin near Gatlinburg. She wanted to take it to her family place that she’d grown up in. One where she had nothing but fond childhood memories” Another suck of whipped cream off her finger. “Before you ask, the Candela family is well known around Memphis so that’s how I recognized who she was when I saw her that first time.”

  It was true, they were well known there, that’s where he’d first met her. Also where I broke her heart. Now the question was, how would she get there? If her family didn’t want anything to do with her how would she make her way to what she considered a sanctuary. Lucifer got to his feet and pressed a kiss to Jayde’s cheek, ignoring the daggers sent from Cade’s gaze.

  “Thank you.”

  Her smile remained just as kind as it had been the first time he met her. “My pleasure. Hope it helps and you find her.”

  Yeah, he hoped so too. With a nod of thanks to Cade, he strode out of the shop, updated Razor on his next destination, and got back into the SUV. He had a seven to nine hour drive depending on traffic and needed to catch up to her, or be at the cabin first.

  Chapter Six

  Riz inhaled the fresh air. Tennessee was beautiful. Tennessee at night was gorgeous. The Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee at sunset took her breath away. Tears sprang to her eyes as she stood on the front porch to the modest cabin nestled within the mountains. So, she wasn’t supposed to be back here and within the week she had no doubt her family would hear of her staying, but right now this place was the safest for her.

  She breathed deep, using the post supporting the awning to remain on her feet. Exhausted being far to tame of a word to describe her energy level. Bone weary still too bland.

  Regardless of her weakened state, her spirit reacted to the display of nature’s beauty before her. God I’ve missed it here. And she had, this had been her favorite place. Joyful memories. A time of fun and family.

  Now there wasn’t either, but she had the serenity and splendor.

  “I’ll take it.”

  She walked inside as the mountains were shrouded by the black velvet blanket of night. She would stargaze later. Right now, she had to make some plans. With the cool, crisp air moving over her skin via the open windows, she rooted in her bag for the fast food sandwich she’d picked up with the last of her money. Tomorrow she’d root for something in the well-stocked cabin.

  “If Ralston was right,” she muttered around the sandwich bagel bite she’d taken, “And this group is still after me, do I risk going to family? For any kind of assistance? Would they even help or just put a bullet in me because of what happened between us?”

  Either way was dangerous. So basically, she was shit out of luck and on her own.

  Only ‘cause you ran from Ralston.

  Minor detail. He was becoming far too involved and he wasn’t one she could trust.

  He saved you twice now. Not once. Twice.

  “True,” she admitted to her brain. “He did. But he’s not a man for me to depend on. I learned my lesson.” To her trust that had been shattered wasn’t easy to put back together.

  Apparently sex has a different set of rules?

  Her entire body flushed hot at the recollection of his skills. Gulping some water, she rolled her eyes. Damn internal commentary.

  “I’m lucky, sex is sex. Trust is trust. I know he’d never disappoint me with a fuck. Now my heart? Something else entirely.”

  She wiped the back of her mouth then made short work of cleaning up. A cold shower and she was slipping beneath the blankets on the full sized bed in her old room. Tugging the covers up to her chin, she sighed and welcomed the sleep lurking around the corner. She woke pressed against a hard body.

  Panic surged before her brain caught up with what her body already knew. It was well familiar with the man against her. Ralston. He had her tucked against his chest, one strong arm over her waist, anchoring them together. His nose buried in her hair and he breathed deeply, his body relaxed and comforting. Damn it.

  How the hell did he find me? More importantly, how the hell am I going to get away from him?

  “You’re not.”

  His deep rumble was pure sexual temptation. Her clit throbbed and her nipples beaded tight. The skin beneath his hand already had goosebumps on it.

  “I’m not what?” she demanded, ignoring that it may be better for her to pretend sleep.

  “Getting away from me again.” He flexed his fingers along her belly, creating more waves of desire that slammed into her, ripping away her wall of resistance leaving behind raw exposed nerves of want.

  She wanted to fight but she clamped her mouth shut on the tempestuous response flying up courtesy of her temper. It was still dark out and she wanted more sleep. So she opted to wait until daylight to confront this problem. Like usual, Ralston had figured her out and realized she wasn’t going to fight this right now. He inched closer to her, as if it were possible, and brushed a light kiss along the shell of her ear.

  Riz shut her eyes once more and accepted the sleep dangling over her. Like she’d admitted before, she trusted this man with fuck but she also trusted him with her life, just not her heart. She could sleep, he’d keep her safe. His scent combined with the fresh air, easily lured her back under.

  αβ

  Grand waves of pleasure flowed over her, causing her to cry out and arch her back off the mattress. Riz struggled to open her eyes and when she managed that feat, she saw Ralston’s red head between her legs. His strong fingers held open her thighs allowing him all the access he could want. He stroked, laved, and licked with his tongue, keeping her on the edge of release. She fisted her hands in the bedding and whimpered.

  He glanced up at her, mouth around her highly sensitive clit, and stared as he hummed. The tremor shot through her body, teetering her on the edge but he wouldn’t let her fall into the abyss of release.

  “Ralston,” she begged, moving her hands to grip his hair, sliding her fingers through the silken strands, anchoring him to her. She wriggled her hips best she could trying for more contact with his hungry mouth, but he was to strong and held her where he wanted her. Slow licks, fast licks he kept her on edge and trying to push closer. Still, he kept her locked where she was, all she could do was tug on his hair and she did. All the while her moans grew.

  Releasing her legs, he pushed two fingers deep inside her pussy, his tongue continuing to torment her clit.

  “Fuck!” she cried, hips bucking.

  He didn’t speak, just pistoned his wrist, driving his digits in deep. She let go of his hair to tug on her taut nipples. Clo
sing her eyes, she pinched and rolled them as he pushed her all the closer to the precipice she desperately wanted to fall over.

  She pulled on her tips once more than grabbed his head, holding him to her. He didn’t disappoint. He thrust his tongue deep along with his fingers, lapping at her cream. She wriggled, cried, and begged but ignored her. He backed away and looked at her, sexy eyes from beneath his hooded gaze.

  “Roll over.”

  She wasn’t sure she possessed the energy to do that, but she found a way. He slid an arm under her and lifted her, mindful of the healing injury along her midsection. She wriggled her ass and he popped her sharply.

  “Wait.”

  Riz didn’t want to wait, she was desperate for his cock to be sunk deep inside her. She captured her lower lip in her teeth as he pushed the broad head of his dick against her pussy. He slid inside her with a single stroke. Her entire body rocked forward as she gasped in raw pleasure.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes,” she moaned. “Don’t stop.”

  He gripped her waist, strong fingers digging into the flesh. “I don’t plan on it.”

  Somewhere in the back of her mind, beyond all the passion and need for this man was a tiny little figure waving its arms around in warning. Reminding her that this was how he got her to drop her guard. Ralston withdrew and pushed forward once more and her cry drowned out anything the teeny figure could hope to say to her. Dropping her head to the mattress, she turned herself over to his touch and the pleasure he brought her.

  Ralston never failed to ensure she had reached completion first. This time was no different in that aspect. He worked her sweaty body until she came hard on his cock, only then did he release his own seed inside her. He carefully lowered her to the mattress, positioning her over him, so her injuries wouldn’t be pressed against the bed.

  “Riz,” he muttered as she lay listening to his heartbeat slow.

  “Don’t say anything, you’ll ruin the moment.”

  “Then deal with it. I have to tell you something.”