Red Zone

by Sherri Hayes

  Rebecca knew she was hovering, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave the room. Eventually, Gage ushered her out of the kitchen with an expression on his face that told her not to argue with him. She could have dug in her heels, but how would that have looked?

  Probably no worse than me standing guard over my sister.

  Suddenly, Rebecca felt the need to get away. She needed space. Without meeting his gaze, she mumbled something about needing some air then walked out the front door as fast as her legs would carry her.

  Once outside, the unpleasant pressure in her chest eased a little, and she took a deep breath, trying to center herself. It was already midmorning, so the temperature wasn’t bad. She probably should have grabbed a jacket, but it was tolerable. Without caring what kind of clothes she was wearing, Rebecca picked up her pace until she was in a full-out run. It had been days since she’d felt the burn in her legs. With every step, she felt a little better, more in control. She knew she couldn’t tell her sister what to do, how to live her life, but she hated seeing Megan hurt.

  Eventually, Rebecca turned back toward the house. Her clothes were soaked with sweat, and she needed a shower, but she felt ten times better. She still wasn’t happy with her sister’s decision, but she was resigned to it. One way or another, Megan would do what she wanted to do. That was always the way it was, and Rebecca doubted that would ever change.

  When she walked through the front door, she found Gage, Elizabeth, and Chloe sitting on the floor playing Candy Land. Gage looked up at her, concern in his eyes. He pushed himself up off the floor and came to stand in front of her, rubbing his hands up and down her arms.

  “Everything all right?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “Are they still in there?” she asked, motioning toward the kitchen.

  “Yeah. They’re still talking. Are you going to be okay with this? Paul wouldn’t hurt Megan, if that’s what has you concerned.”

  “She’s my little sister. I worry.”

  “She’s your twenty-three–year-old, fully grown, adult sister, who can make her own decisions about her life.”

  “I know that—”

  “But you still worry,” he said, pulling her in for a hug.

  “Yeah. I do.” She hugged him back, accepting his comfort and not caring how disgusting she felt at the moment.

  “Hey,” Megan said as she walked into the living room.

  Gage released her and stood to the side as she went to embrace Megan. “You’re positive you want to do this?”

  “It’ll be fine, Becca. I promise. Maybe this is what I need to break my cycle of always picking the wrong men. I’ll be too busy taking care of Chloe to date much for a while.”

  Rebecca laughed. “True.”

  “You’ll be taking care of me?” Chloe asked, confused.

  Megan knelt down to her level. “Yeah. I’m going to be going home with you and your daddy, so I can be there with you when he has to go to work. Is that okay?”

  “You’re coming home with us?”

  Rebecca could see the excitement growing in her little face.

  “Yep.” Megan smiled.

  Chloe launched herself at Megan, nearly choking her as she jumped up and down with joy. “Daddy, Daddy! Megin is coming home with us!”

  Paul leaned against the wall, chuckling. “Yes, I know. I guess I don’t need to ask how you feel about that.”

  “Megin will be my bestest friend in the whole world.”

  They all laughed.

  Mike, Chris, and Trent strolled in from the backyard just in time to hear Chloe. They all looked at each other, confused. “What did we miss?”

  They didn’t end up leaving his parents’ house until around noon. His mother had insisted on feeding them all lunch before they got on the road, and Rebecca hadn’t wanted to leave until she saw Megan off. Gage could still see the concern written all over her face, but she was trying to be strong.

  Once they were finally on the road back to Nashville, Rebecca grew quiet again. He let her be for the first hour of their journey, allowing Rebecca her thoughts. Finally, he couldn’t stand it anymore. “What is it exactly that has you so worried about Megan moving in with Paul and taking care of Chloe?”

  Rebecca turned in her seat to face him. She’d been looking out the window the entire trip, and he’d been concentrating on the road. Instead of the pensive look he expected to see, however, she was alert. He knew instantly Megan wasn’t at the forefront of her mind at the moment.

  “I think we’re being followed.”

  “What?” he asked in disbelief. He checked both mirrors. They were on the freeway moving with traffic. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but everyone was traveling home from the holiday. There were too many cars.

  She shook her head and turned her attention back to the side mirror. He’d been thinking all this time she’d been wallowing in her emotions and looking out the window at the passing scenery.

  “Just keep driving. I’m not sure. It’s just there’s a car that’s been behind us for a while. I didn’t notice it until we reached the highway, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

  “What should we do?”

  “Nothing at the moment. Like I said, keep driving. If they stay with us, I might try something a little closer to home.”

  He followed her instructions, trying not to let his anxiety take over. Yes, he knew someone had been following him for a while—the pictures he kept receiving were proof of that—but this was the first time he’d been aware of it while it was happening. The muscles in his arms and shoulders tightened in preparation for a fight, even though he knew the chances of that happening were slim to none.

  The tension continued to build as they crossed the border into Tennessee. He was trying to be patient, to wait for her to tell him what needed to be done, but the waiting was getting to him. They’d been traveling for almost three hours already, and all she’d done was stare at the side mirror.

  “There’s a rest stop a mile ahead. We’re going to stop and get some snacks.”

  She’d been so quiet that her sudden speech made him jerk in his seat.

  “You’re hungry?” he asked, unable to fathom how she could even be thinking about food. They’d eaten a decent-sized meal before leaving his parents’ house. Not to mention someone was following them. How could she be thinking about food at a time like this?

  Rebecca met his gaze before going back to the mirror. “No. I do, however, want to get confirmation on our tail.”

  Oh.

  Without questioning her further, he followed her instructions and took the off-ramp.

  “Just act normal,” she said.

  “Normal. Right.”

  She directed him to an empty parking space close to a small building that housed the vending machines. Putting the car in gear, he turned off the vehicle and reached for the door. She stopped him. “You wait here. If this is your stalker, we don’t need a replay of what happened in the club parking lot.”

  Before he could respond, Rebecca reached down to lift her pant leg. She released the snap on her holster and removed her gun. He hadn’t even known she was armed.

  After checking to make sure the safety was on, she leaned forward, placed the weapon behind her, and tucked it into the waist of her jeans. She reached for the door. “Stay in the car. I’ll only be gone a minute. What do you want to snack on?” She spoke the words casually, as if neither of them had a care in the world.

  He looked at her dumbfounded.

  She gave him a rueful smile. “I’ll just guess, then.”

  He watched as she stepped out of the SUV and walked to the front. She stopped, turned, and waved back at him, before adjusting her direction and walking swiftly to the building. He was nervous. It was hard to act normal when you knew someone was watching your every move. Rebecca, however, appeared to be calm and collected.

  Rebecca wasted no time at the vending machines. She inserted the money, made her selections,
and gathered her purchases, all in less than three minutes. That had to be a record. With their snacks balanced in one hand, she walked back to where he waited in the parking lot.

  When she was back inside the SUV, Gage started the car and headed toward the exit. She hadn’t said anything yet, and her only movement was to place the snacks between them and to reattach her gun to her ankle. Her silence was grating on him. “Well?”

  Instead of answering him, she removed her cell phone from her jeans pocket.

  Her conversation with Hansen was short, but it gave him his answer. Yes, they were being followed and they were going to try to catch the person in the act. He wasn’t used to this cloak and dagger stuff, but he was more than ready to do something, anything at this point. His stalker was messing with his life. He wanted this over. He wanted his life back.

  As they drew closer to home, Rebecca redialed Hansen’s number and put him on speaker. She gave Gage step-by-step directions, leading him through what felt like a maze to where Hansen would be lying in wait. “Just another two blocks,” she said for both men’s benefit.

  No sooner did the words leave her mouth than the car that had been following them, a dark red sedan, veered sharply to the left and turned out of sight. Rebecca cursed. It was the first expletive Gage had ever heard her utter.

  After that, things got a little confusing. Rebecca and Hansen were talking back and forth quickly. Hansen was apparently trying to locate the car that had suddenly decided to end its pursuit.

  “Where to?” he asked as soon as there was a break in the conversation.

  Rebecca sighed and slouched back in her seat. “Home.”

  “Home? We’re not going to try and look for this guy?”

  She turned her head to look at him. “No. Hansen will try to find the car. If he doesn’t have any luck, we’ll see if we can find any surveillance videos. There’s a reason I had you take the route you did. And unless you saw something I didn’t, we don’t know if the person in that car was male or female.”

  Gage’s fingers clenched and released on the steering wheel. He desperately wanted to punch something.

  “I lost ’em.” Hansen’s voice came through Rebecca’s phone.

  When she answered him, she didn’t sound surprised. She rattled off their route to Hansen, and they made plans for him to come by the house the next day with the recordings. The conversation didn’t help Gage’s mood. As he pulled up to the gate in front of his house, he knew he had to do something with all this pent-up energy coursing through him, or he was going to explode.

  His driveway seemed longer than normal as he drove up the winding path that led to his garage. The doors opened on cue, and he parked his SUV right beside his Mustang. Turning the vehicle off, he let the keys fall to his lap as he closed his eyes and took a much-needed breath.

  Rebecca was motionless beside him, waiting. When he opened his eyes and met her gaze, the questions there quickly turned to something else as she read the look on his face. She opened her mouth to say something, but he didn’t give her a chance.

  Releasing his seatbelt, he rose from his seat, took her face in his hands, and kissed her. It wasn’t gentle. It was anything but. Every emotion he’d felt for the last four hours, combined with his need to have her, collided in that moment.

  “I want you.” His lips barely left hers before going back to the brutal kiss.

  Her hands fisted in his hair as she met his tongue stroke for stroke. At that moment, the house could have burnt down around them. They were completely oblivious to the outside world.

  “Come to bed with me,” he said, finally breaking the kiss but not his hold on her.

  For once, her face displayed all her emotions. Her fingers left his hair and slid down to his chest. She clenched her hands nervously before opening them up again to lie flat. Her right hand rested over his heart, and he knew she could feel it thumping rapidly. All he wanted to do was take her upstairs and ravish her, but he wouldn’t do it unless she gave him the okay.

  Just as he was beginning to lose hope, she shifted in her seat and leaned in to place a brief but demanding kiss on his lips. “Take me to bed, Gage,” she whispered. It was all the encouragement he needed.

  Chapter 21

  As soon as they were in the house, Gage grabbed hold of her hand and didn’t let go. He climbed the stairs up to his room two at a time. It took effort on her part to keep up, but she wasn’t complaining. She felt as though everything that had happened between them since her arrival had been leading them to this moment.

  Walking through the doorway into his bedroom, he immediately pulled her against him. He thrust his hands into her hair, holding her head in place and kissing her to within an inch of her life. She met every bruising stroke of his mouth with equal intensity. Fire burned through her veins. She wanted more.

  Gage didn’t waste any time removing her clothes. He released his hands from her head, only to slide them under the hem of her shirt. The fabric bunched under her arms as he pushed it up, revealing her bra. Seconds later, his lips were gone as he pulled the shirt over her head and threw it across the room. Then his mouth was back.

  He reached behind her and quickly unsnapped her bra, then worked it down her arms, making her temporarily relinquish her hold on him. Gratefully, she hadn’t needed to stop kissing him.

  Rebecca ran her palms down his chest and around to his back. She slipped her hands under the hem of his shirt and began to inch it up his torso. Gage had the most amazing chest, broad and toned with just the slightest dusting of dark brown hair. She’d been dying to explore his chest with her hands. She raked her fingernails up over his stomach, causing him to suck in a deep breath and break their kiss.

  “You’re going to kill me, woman.”

  She chuckled, her breasts rubbing against the material of his shirt. Little shockwaves moved through her from where they were connected to the junction between her legs. She needed more. She wanted the feel of skin against skin.

  As if reading her mind, Gage released his hold on her and removed his shirt. She wanted to stare, to take in his body, but he didn’t give her a chance. His right hand came up to cup the back of her neck, tilting her head back, while his left arm wrapped around her waist molding their bodies together. Skin met skin for the first time, and they moaned into each other’s mouths.

  He backed her up to his bed, their mouths fused together. Rebecca couldn’t ever remember feeling so alive. It was as if all the nerve endings in her body had come to life at the same time.

  Wanting to feel more, she reached for the button on his jeans and quickly undid them. Realizing what she was doing, he reached to unbutton her pants as well. Arms tangled, and some giggles were exchanged, but they were eventually standing in only their underwear.

  Their underwear and her gun.

  Bracing her leg up on the bed, she quickly removed her gun and holster, eager to get back to exploring Gage. She made sure the safety was on and placed the weapon on top of the nightstand.

  Gage smirked as he leaned in to kiss her again, wrapping her in his arms. He guided her back on the bed, his body poised over hers. Inch by inch, they worked their way to the center of the bed. Their destination would have been much easier to reach had they broken the kiss, but neither seemed willing to do that.

  His weight rested on top of her as he held her face between his hands and stared down at her. “You are so beautiful, Rebecca.”

  When his lips met hers again, they were more gentle but no less potent. What had before been a building inferno was now a slow burn. She wasn’t sure which was worse . . . or better. Every lick of his tongue, every nip of his teeth, sent her body screaming for more of him.

  She ran her hands along his back, urging him, pleading with him, to go faster, kiss her harder. When that didn’t work, she wrapped her legs around his waist, lifting her hips to brush against him, hoping that once he felt her urgency, her need, he’d do something about it.

  He groaned but still refused to
pick up the pace.

  Finally, she had enough. She needed more. Using her self-defense knowledge, she took hold of his wrists. Exerting an exact amount of force on his pressure points forced him to release his grip on her. The moment she was free, she bucked her hips, and twisted. The result had her freed from his hold and him lying bewildered beside her.

  Rebecca immediately climbed on top of him. “What—”

  She cut him off with a hard kiss.

  “I’ve had enough of slow.”

  Instead of being mad, he let out a huge belly laugh. She joined him. Not that she found the situation overly funny. More that his laughter was contagious.

  Once their laughter began to die down, he grabbed her hips, grinding her against him. That action put an end to any amusement she’d been feeling. She laid her palms flat against his chest and repeated the motion. Gage moaned and held her firmly in place.

  “These,” he said, taking hold of each side of her panties, “have to go.”

  Rebecca smiled, raising her hips. He happily pushed the silky material down her thighs, and she kicked them off.

  Figuring it was only fair, she reached for the waistband of his underwear and tugged. He lifted his hips off the bed and allowed her to get rid of the last bit of clothing that was between them.

  Reaching into the drawer of his nightstand, Gage removed a condom and opened it. Within seconds, it was covering him, and Rebecca had a flash of curiosity wash over her, wondering just how many times he’d done that, and with how many woman.

  He sat up, noticing her distress. “If you don’t want to—”

  “No. I mean, yes. I do. Want to.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked, brushing the hair away from her face and looking into her eyes.

  She nodded. No matter what had happened in his past, Rebecca knew she wanted this, wanted him. She reached out, running a hand down his chest and lower.

  He smiled, jerking his hips up into her hand.

  He pulled her down, her mouth to his as he rekindled that fire deep inside. For some reason, it grew faster than it had before. She gripped his shoulders, holding on, ready to embrace whatever came next.