by Billi Jean
“Yep, she did, but I’d rather she did than she’d hung around longer and then dragged it out and then left. If she had, I might not have Sonya.”
“You have Sonya, huh?” Troy asked, settling his arms on his horse to stare at him.
Cody grinned and put White up, fed him and watered him first, then turned to smack Troy on the back. “I do. She might drag me all over the world for some travel, but I’d like to see some of the better places out there. We’ve seen the worst. It wouldn’t be terrible to see more,” he said and shrugged, thinking of kissing Sonya on top of the Eiffel Tower. “Maybe even see the best of it, too.”
“And you’d just go? With a woman you just met?”
“Sometimes it isn’t how long you know a person, but how well you fit together.”
Troy made a dissatisfied grunt at that. “So you’d take her around the world?”
“If that’s what she wanted. I want us to be here, but I think here, there… Who cares? If she’s with me, then what more do I need?”
“That’s it. You know. That quick you know?”
“I knew—” He stopped, about to say as soon as he got his dick working, but that hadn’t been it. It had been the first moment he pushed that pine branch out of his way and stared into her pretty face. He could picture her face even now. Maybe he always would. He could fill in all the other parts, but her soft green eyes and the shape of her face—those were imprinted on him. “I knew the moment I saw her the first time.”
Troy looked stunned, then disbelieving, but when Cody merely lifted an eyebrow, his buddy shook his head. “Like that, huh?”
“Just like that,” Cody agreed. “So let me get back to her. I’ll—”
“I gotta pick up my truck, remember? And”—he smacked his head with a hand and grimaced. “Shit, I almost forgot to tell you, damn. There was some guy stopped by Ivy’s Diner asking about a redhead. It slipped my mind when—”
“What?” Cody demanded, suddenly stopping and turning to face Troy.
“Shit, it’s important? I thought it was just—”
“Tell me everything, Troy—now.” A shiver raced up Cody’s back, one he hadn’t had in a long, long time. Instincts he’d had before he’d joined the Army but now were refined to a fine point rushed back to working order.
“Tall, scarred face, blond guy with a lot of muscle and driving an expensive SUV. Hell, I thought Ivy was fooling around,” he added. “I mean, you’re blond, scar—”
“Troy, focus on this shit, man!”
“Sorry, Cody. Let me think,” he added, rubbing his head harder. “Ivy thought he was sexy,” Troy snorted. “But he wanted to know if a redhead had come by town a few weeks ago and where he might find a hunting lodge nearby.”
“Fuck, Troy, why didn’t you say this first thing?” he demanded, turning and racing for the truck. His leg gave him some trouble, but he jerked the truck door open and hauled his ass in before he shouted at Troy, “Get in. We gotta go find her. She might be in trouble!”
Ten seconds later he had the truck up and running. He dialed her number but she didn’t pick up. Shit, she might not get service up there. If she was hiking she probably had none at all. Panic, something he wasn’t used to feeling, and sure the hell wasn’t equipped to deal with, rushed him.
“Calm down, Cody. She’s fine, hell, I’m sure the dude wasn’t even talking about her,” Troy said, slamming his door shut.
Cody put it into gear and tore off, not about to slow down when Troy yelled at him.
This was bad. Very, very bad. He’d distracted her into feeling safe, when he knew from those first days she hadn’t been. What if he got her killed because he’d assured her no one came up that side of the mountain?
Chapter Nineteen
Eric shoved the door open to the basement of Ace’s place and studied the floor, walls of canned goods and ceiling. There were fresh tracks to a chest freezer, which he’d already found full of frozen food, but other than that, there was nothing else down here. He’d expected more. Like a hidden room, or something. He shoved the canned food aside and knocked on the wall behind the beans and corn only to hear solid wood echoing back at him.
He’d heard that Ace had gone soft, but this place certainly proved it. He’d gotten in without setting off a signal alarm. The windows were locked, but he’d gotten one open in seconds. The front door hadn’t been locked, but even if it had been, he would have had no trouble unlocking it.
All in all, Ace failed at still being top of his game. That’s what happened when men settled down for one woman. Eric fisted his hand and swung his hair off his eyes. He’d left the flight attendant so happy she’d fallen asleep through the landing and hadn’t even woken when he’d left. His reputation was safe, but his body was strung tight with the lack of sex.
He shut the light off and took the stairs two at a time back to the bright, airy kitchen.
Sonya wasn’t here. By the look of the place, she’d been gone all day. There was laundry in the washing machine, and food in the refrigerator, clean plates drying in the rack, but the guest bedroom was clearly lived in.
By more than just her, too.
There’d been men’s shirts in the closet, but those could have been Ace’s for all he knew. The ones in the washing machine weren’t. Plus there was a man’s touch to the place. Had she brought some college geek professor with her?
He spotted a piece of paper under the kitchen counter and bent to pick it up. Sonya’s handwriting saying she was going hiking, to put Blue out and feed her before he left flowed across the page addressed to a Cody.
Didn’t sound like a college geek professor to him. Sounded like a local. Eric walked to the bedroom and stared at the bed. He breathed in deeply, taking in the scents of the room, sex being one of them. The heaviness of it hung on the air, making his body flush hot. Sweat broke out on his back and his cock grew heavy as he brought the pair of sexy gray panties he’d found in the laundry basket to his nose. Yeah, Mindy had made him hard, but Sonya’s had his pole tenting his pants as if he’d never had a problem getting his wood prepped.
“Hell, yeah,” he grunted so hot for it, he unzipped and brought the silk down to his eager dick. Seconds later he shot out a rope of thick cum on her bed, watching as the white spurts landed on her pillow and the blankets in one hell of a good load. Breathless and feeling gloriously alive again, he laughed, savoring what he knew was just the appetizer. Soon he’d have the real deal suffering under him. She’d scream louder than the flight attendant, too.
“Soon,” he promised the empty room. “Soon I’m going to make you lick that up off the floor and beg for more.” His cock shuddered at the image of making the proud little spy do that and much, much more before he took her life.
Up here, alone, with no one to find her or to hear her scream, Sonya would breathe her last painful breath. There was no doubt about that outcome. It turned his cock on all over again just thinking of it, even thinking of doing any of the bitches out there that wanted dick that way had his muscles bunching in preparation for some damage.
He shook the last of his cum off his dick, used the blanket to clean the head and his hands and narrowed his eyes as a man’s sock fell to the floor. He tucked himself away and zipped up. Was some local yokel Cody going to ruin his chances of making the bitch pay?
“Not a chance,” Eric muttered. She’d never know what hit her. He stroked the tranquilizer gun at his belt and laughed. “Not a fucking chance.”
He’d wait in here. When she came home, he’d nail her ass. If her boyfriend came first, he’d kill him. Either way, he’d be here when she got back. By the time the tranquilizer had worn off, she’d be so fucked he might have the best time of his life, right here in bum fuck Wyoming.
He laughed and walked out of the bedroom in search of some food.
Sloppy. She’s gotten sloppy.
Shit like that got you killed.
* * * *
Sonya’s phone rang again before she made it to
her SUV, but she ignored it. Cody. She couldn’t talk to him now, couldn’t chance warning him because he might do something crazy like run off trying to protect her. She opened the door and barely took a step before she remembered she’d set her wallet down on the counter and forgotten it there. She turned and barreled right into a hard, familiar chest.
“Cody!”
“You didn’t answer your phone, Sonya,” he growled, then shocked her by holding her shoulders and examining her from head to toe. “Shit, you dress like this and think I’m letting you go?”
“Cody,” she whispered past the pain in her throat. She’d worn a white sundress, and her tiny jean jacket to hide her gun. She’d also put on her cowboy boots. Obviously, Cody liked what he saw.
His jaw bulged from clenching his teeth and he shook his head, eyes pinned on her chest, or the little pearl buttons straining to hold her breasts in. He met her eyes and tugged at the top one, reminding her that easily of the other day when he’d driven her wild with how he’d sucked her nipples. No one had ever been able to keep up with hard, perfect strokes while they drew on her like that. Cody did. He did it for her, too, not for his pleasure alone.
“Not a fucking chance,” he growled, shocking her with his language, let alone the fierce frown he wore. “I’m not letting you leave me, Sonya. Get in the damn truck. We’re talking, on the way to wherever you think you’re going, but we’re talking.”
He narrowed his blue eyes when she didn’t immediately say a word. What is there to say? She’d never seen him like this. If he turned her on any more, she might be dragging him in the truck for much more than a talk.
But now wasn’t the time. Not even close to the time for more of him. She had to go.
“Cody,” she finally said, but he ignored her and walked around to the passenger side of the SUV.
“Just get your ass in the truck, firecracker, then you can tell me all about it,” he muttered.
She spotted Troy at a dark brown Ford, but he didn’t come over. He tipped his black hat and stayed where he was with Blue in his arms, she noticed. How did he—?
She guessed that was best. However he got her Blue, it would be better for her pup now to go with someone else. Getting in the truck, she slammed the door, then set the food in the back and sat forward, trembling with such emotion that she gripped the steering wheel unable to turn her head to see Cody.
He exhaled heavily and shoved the console up so it wasn’t between them.
“Someone has found you,” Cody growled. “Troy told me someone was asking around about you in town,” he went on to say when she only winced. “And you think—”
“I think that you’re right. Someone has found me. I have to go, no matter what you say, I have to go, Cody. It’s not safe.”
“Not safe,” he repeated slowly. He didn’t say more, but she didn’t either. Her emotions were too high, the fear and pain mixed up too much for her to think straight.
Cody picked up the bags she’d stowed in the back and rummaged around in them as if she’d not just told him she had to leave.
“You got food,” he murmured and pulled out the clothes, giving them a thorough examination. “And a shirt or two.”
“For you,” she managed.
“I can see that. You even got my size right, which makes me wonder why you think I’m not big enough to protect you from whoever the hell is after you.”
At the harsh sound of his voice she turned to face him. He was angry. Obviously so by the tight lines around his eyes and the grimace he wore.
“It’s not about you,” she began.
He snorted and tossed the clothes back in the bag with an angry gesture. She bit her lip and tried to think of all the reasons she should tell him to get out of the vehicle. There were so many she didn’t know where to start. There were even more to keep him right where he was.
She drank in every hard inch of his face. He stared back at her quietly giving her that serious, pissed off expression she knew meant he wasn’t going to budge.
“I shouldn’t have let you in. I shouldn’t have let you stay, and now, yes, I need to go before you or someone else gets killed.”
He made a move as if to speak, but she shook her head. “I have to meet someone who will take me in and from there I guess I’ll see if I can’t help them bring this guy in. I shouldn’t have left it up to others. That was my mistake. You should go, and I should—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he called out as soon as she turned and started the truck.
Her radio, which she had left on as loud as possible—as was her usual routine—blared Rihanna, and the words of Stay, the song that had haunted her since she’d first heard it, and more, since she’d first met Cody. The lyrics settled over her as if the singer was telling the world Sonya’s deepest secrets.
She slammed her palms on the wheel then quickly reached over to shut the stupid song off.
“Shit!” Wincing, she shoved her butt down in the seat and tightened her hands until her fingers hurt. Pain sliced through her so deeply that she sucked in a ragged breath, knowing she wasn’t going to be able to keep the tears at bay.
What am I supposed to do? I want him. I want him to stay so bad it hurts to think of losing him and worse to think of walking away from him.
“Sonya, baby—”
At his cautious tone, Sonya’s view of the BBQ restaurant’s wooden porch blurred with tears. “You were the broken one,” she cried, “weren’t you? Why do I feel like I’m the one needing to be saved?” she whispered harshly, wiping at her tears. More fell and really, she couldn’t seem to rein them in, so she stopped trying. No one had seen her cry since she was a teenager, but no one had hurt her since then either. This time you’re hurting yourself.
“Aw, baby, come on now,” he murmured so softly that she barely heard him. He took her hands off the steering wheel and tugged at her until she let him hug her tightly to his chest. “Sonya, come on now. That song isn’t that bad. I like it. Besides, baby, I am staying. Don’t worry your pretty little head over that. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Cody,” she cried and hit him on the shoulder.
“Baby, come on. Don’t cry. Hell, I can’t take that. Yell, shout, hit me, but don’t do this, okay?”
She cried harder, holding his shirt tightly so he couldn’t get away. Baby. He’d never called her that before. He smelled so good, like horses and leather and the fresh pine scent of his aftershave. Cody. He smelled like Cody.
“I know for a fact we don’t have time for this,” he murmured, but held her closer and stroked her back with his warm hand. “I have to get my Ranger gear out of storage so I can save your ass, right?”
That made her laugh and cry but she tried to slow the tears. Gradually they eased enough for her to catch her breath and her ragged breathing. Cody’s heartbeat was a warm comfort against her cheek, soothing her even more as the emotions roiling through her began to settle.
“There, see? I’m going to take care of this, all of it, okay? Trust me a little. Besides, Rihanna has it right. I’m staying,” he said, pressing a kiss to her hair.
“I don’t even know what that last line means, caving. I looked it up on the Internet. She is saying it, caving. I don’t get how going underground fits with all the other things,” she said knowing she sounded crazy but unable to keep silent. The words just tumbled from her mouth when she knew more important and deadly things were about to jeopardize this thing she’d begun with Cody.
Cody chuckled, sounding surprised. He tipped her head so that she could see he was serious. He brushed her hair off her face. “If you’ve never seen the light, it’s hard to know which one of us is caving?”
She sniffed and nodded suspiciously. “Are you saying you listen to Rihanna?”
His half smile lit his worried face and he shrugged. “I might. It references The Allegory of the Cave. You know it?”
When she narrowed her eyes, assessing, he hugged her tighter. “Don’t cry anymore and I’ll tell
you. Jesus, don’t ever cry again. That’s not something I want to see, okay? You’re just too damn sweet to cry.”
“Sweet?” she asked, unable to believe he thought such a thing about her.
“Hell, yeah, mostly,” he amended. “Just no more tears.”
She nodded and hugged him closer. His heartbeat was a steady, even rhythm that calmed her more than she could understand.
He ran his hand down her hair repeatedly but after a moment he said, “Yeah, well, the story is between Socrates and Plato, if I remember right, but yeah, basically there are these people who are in a cave, chained to a wall, and only see shadows displayed on it from things passing in front of a fire. They never know that what they see is shadows of what can be,” he said. After a bit of brushing his hand over her hair, he added, “I think whoever wrote that song was pretty talented. I never knew how good being in a relationship could feel until I met you. Hell, I never knew there was someone like you.”
She took that in and more tears blurred her vision. “Yeah,” she agreed, “I never knew, before you, what this could be like. I don’t want to go—”
“Then don’t. Stay.”
“Cody—”
He pulled her back and stared at her face with an angry, firm expression that she knew meant he wasn’t kidding around any longer.
“I am a Ranger, baby. Use it. If some sick-o is after you, no matter how trained he is, he’s not a Ranger.”
“No, he’s not. He’s an ex-SEAL still on the drug that they gave us. He wants me dead for trying to get him killed.”
He lifted an eyebrow, but his cocky grin grew. “Well now, that sounds like a challenge.” He rubbed the tears off her face gently and pulled her up to kiss her. “I like that you got me food and clothes. Will you wear that T-shirt for me?”
“Cody,” she muttered but let him kiss her until she was breathless. There were still things between them, things she suddenly had to get out so he could also get out of this if he wanted to. “The drug also made me wicked horny, but I didn’t turn into a ho, no matter what Walters says. He never touched me and—”
