Stranger Mine: a Base Branch novel

by Megan Mitcham

  Ryan turned her butt to the bed and walked her backward until her calves hit the side and she sat. He knelt at the cliff of her knees and released the words.

  “On the contrary. He’s been well cared for. In six months time a ransom demand was to be presented to his family with his index finger as proof of life.”

  Her hand clamped over her mouth, stifling a cry.

  “He was given to a farmer under Gabrone’s control, told to make him work but not to harm him, that he’d be collected in one year.”

  “Where?” she mumbled through covered lips.

  “Why is the better question,” Ryan challenged.

  “Why? I don’t know why. Why do they do any of the shit they do?”

  “You know the answer, Piper. You just don’t want to know it. Think. Who was Matthew’s only tie to the Sinaloa?”

  “Sparrow.” As she said the name her head shook in violent opposition. “No, she wouldn’t. They took Matthew because of her, but she couldn’t…” A sob broke her sentence. Both her hands clamped over her face and she shrugged off his touch. “No. No. No.” She screamed into the barrier, but the denial echoed in his skull. The muscles in her arms flexed and she vibrated with anguish and rage.

  “She’d amassed half a million dollars of debt with the US faction. Matthew cut her off financially. He was well off, but came from a rich family. They knew it. When they offered the deal it was too good to pass up.”

  Her stubbornness buckled as well as her middle. Her forehead sank to his chest and he held her tight with one hand at her nape. Tears tickled his chest and broke his heart, while her closeness healed it.

  “Sparrow sold him in exchange for her debt and a job, collecting and distributing information for the Sinaloa in the States.”

  Her wails shook his frame. Left him feeling as helpless as he had the day his sister died. But he wasn’t helpless. He scooped her against his chest and took her seat on the bed. Back and forth he rocked her. Comforted her.

  “You’re going to hate me for saying this,” she hiccupped.

  “Nah.” When he shook his head she burrowed her face under his jaw.

  “I wish Sparrow had died. I’ve thought it before. But now… And I hate myself for wanting my sister dead. You probably hate me too. Your sister is dead and I’m wishing mine away.”

  “Shhh,” he soothed. His guts twisted and nausea threatened to overtake him. Not because of Piper’s words, but because he’d thought along that vein for the last several hours. Why had it been his sister to die and not Piper’s?

  “I just… When we were younger I used to worry so much about getting the call. The call that would tell me Sparrow had been killed in a car accident, raped and murdered, mugged and left for dead. Then I got older. Every time the phone rang, I’d pray it was the call.”

  She sat and smeared the mixture of tears and snot with a swipe of her hand. Her lower lip quivered. “I just wanted to quit worrying. And that’s the only way I knew it would stop. There’s a special place in hell for me.” Her gaze reached for the heavens.

  “Piper, you were responsible for so much more than you should have been at an extremely early age,” Ryan growled. “You did the best with what you had. The sister who should have helped you only made things worse. Regardless, you didn’t give up on her. You tried and you’re still trying for her.”

  “No, not anymore. I’m trying for Matthew now.” She stood and collected the rest of her tears with a swipe of her hand. “Where is he?”

  23

  “He’s being kept two hours away and you’re just now mentioning it!” she railed.

  “We need sleep, food, and a plan. I’m not risking your life for anyone,” he shot back.

  “My life? Since when do you think you have authority over my life?” The anger boiled inside her, breaching her high walls, and obliterating sane thought. Ryan wasn’t to blame, but he was the only one in easy reach. “You’re a fun fuck, but you don’t control me. Even the sex has been more trouble than it’s worth.”

  “Stop.” Ryan stood, blocking her path to the bathroom or the exit. “You’re mad and I can handle it. But you’re going to regret this.”

  “I already do.” She planted both hands on his chest and shoved. Nothing happened. “Goddammit!” She sagged to the floor, but his strong arms wrapped around her and lowered them both to the rough carpet. She stared into his tense face, those lighter-than-sky blue eyes. “I’m losing my mind. I want to hate her, but I don’t. I don’t want to love you, but I think I do.” She dragged in a breath. “That’s so stupid, isn’t it?”

  “No, on both accounts.” His lips softened, but he didn’t smile. He also made no move to kiss her or reciprocate the sentiment.

  She groaned into her hands. “Just give me orders to do something, so I don’t have to think.”

  He stood, pulled her off the floor, and kissed her forehead. “Get us some food and lots of it. There’s a restaurant attached. See if they do room service. If not, order ahead and go pick it up.”

  “Wow, I didn’t mean playing your handmaid. Unless it’s code for something naughty, like my hand on your—”

  “If you want to get Matthew tonight, I have to send my people—as you call them—the data from that computer, we need to eat, nap, and then get going. We need time for recon.”

  He stepped around her and smacked her ass. The playful gesture stung her flesh and rocketed a pulse of awareness to her core.

  “Hop to, sweet. If you stand there much longer, I’m going to die of starvation.”

  She turned and crooked a brow at him.

  His large hand snagged the laptop case from beneath the bed and set it on a small desk. He curved a smile for her. “Because I’m going to fuck you until I prove it’s worth the effort.”

  “Sorry,” she mouthed.

  “It’ll take a lot more than that to hurt my feelings or make me leave, Piper.”

  He opened the case she’d jimmied earlier that morning and slipped the silver laptop from its nook.

  “Unless you’re some sort of computer genius, you’re not getting in.” She pulled the pre-shower T-shirt over her head. “I tried for forty minutes while you were busy with Gabrone. It’s password protected and then some.”

  His smile got Steven-Tyler big.

  Bullshit. Sure it was stereotypical, but no way could someone look as good as he looked, do the kind of work he did, and be a technological whiz.

  Well, it was a damn good thing she hadn’t put money on the bet. Sure as shit, she shoved the door open with her hip, carrying one brimming bag of authentic Mexican take-out and another full of bottled waters, and found Ryan lounging on the bed. Hands behind his head, he watched the upload progress bar stretch across the screen in tiny increments.

  “How? How in the hell are you computer savvy too?” She set the bags on the table and threw her hands up.

  Ryan angled his head toward her. “I was big into sports, until Rebecca died. Then I was into staying quiet and out of my mom’s way. Any time I made a sound she’d hover and smother. Computers were quiet.”

  “Makes sense.” She fought back the guilt of her earlier words. Sorrow also pinched her heart as she imagined Ryan as a young boy, trying to navigate grief and loss when his role models didn’t do a very good job of it themselves.

  Piper arranged their meal on the table, bowed, and swept her hand through the air. “Dinner is served.”

  He rolled from the bed and pulled on a pair of boxer shorts from his bag. Like a gentleman, he dragged the chair from the table and offered her the seat before walking the two feet to his side and sitting.

  “Enjoy.”

  “And you,” he nodded.

  At that point, most anything would have tasted great. But the warm tortilla drizzled with cheese sauce and filled with rice and beans took her breath away. It had been a while since she’d gotten domestic. As far as she was concerned, this was twice she’d fixed Ryan lunch. She hadn’t cooked it, but the overwhelming warmth of ca
ring for another human being settled over her skin. It combined with the heavy meal and sleep deprivation to weight her lids.

  When Ryan cleared his throat she was well on her way to her fifth heaping bite. Piper smoothed her mouth, afraid he’d found a stray dollop of cheese on her lip. Finding no crumbs, she searched his gaze. That mischievous grin bloomed. One of his soft tacos had vanished along with two-thirds of another.

  “You like it?” she asked.

  “A lot. Too much, actually.”

  “Don’t know how you can like Mexican food too much.”

  “I’m not talking about food.” His thumb and index finger toyed with his lower lip, drawing her deeper.

  “What then?”

  “You love me.” Statement. Not a question.

  That sure as hell roused her. Piper’s pulse skyrocketed and her nerves shook like someone set her to vibrate. “That’s not what I said,” she wheezed on a shard of chip.

  That index finger tapped on his pursed lips. “Not in so many words. No. You said, think. You don’t want to love me, but you think you do. If there’s anything I’ve learned about you over the past few days, it’s that you’re a confident woman. Sure in your goals, your body, your mind, your heart. Sometimes your mind just needs a minute to catch your body and heart.”

  She blushed clear to her gooey center. “Eat your food, so we can finish your check-list and go, please.”

  And go. Those two words hurt just as much as learning of her sister’s betrayal. Because after they went, after they completed the goal she’d been desperate to reach for the last six months, she may never see Ryan again.

  He shoved the rest of his second taco down the hatch and drank the entire bottle of water in a long gulp. The lean muscles in his neck worked. His Adam’s apple bobbed. Soon Piper found herself gulping too and it had little to do with the third of a burrito in front of her.

  “If I have to eat, and can’t talk—which is one of my favorite things to do, besides you—you have to eat too,” he insisted.

  After they both finished, Ryan cleared their mess, clicked on the computer awhile longer while she paced, and then set the thing back in the case. “Everything they had is ours. Talk about a bad day to be a part of the SF.” He fidgeted with his watch, and then held his hand out toward her. “We have six hours to sleep.”

  When she reached out he drew her close. His hand locked around her ponytail and he caressed her with a kiss. Hard slabs of muscle met her fanned fingers as she slid them around his torso. The rumble of his chest eased the last of her reserve. He tugged the band from her hair, setting the strands free as he had every other time they’d pleasured one another.

  He levered her back and lifted her shirt over her head. “That leaves one for love-making, but I could be convinced to cut our nap back. If the argument was compelling enough.”

  She reached for his boxers to bid her case, but he pinned her forearms in his hands. “Me first.”

  Her body coiled at the command. At the authority in his grasp. It injected carnal lust into her blood and hazed her vision. She fluttered her lids in acquiescence and he released her arms at her sides.

  “Don’t move, unless I say.”

  “Yes,” she moaned.

  Like lightning he struck, flicking her clit with his middle finger. “I need a sir to go with that.”

  The shock slammed into her sensitive flesh, searing the tip for a fraction of a second before the bolt morphed into pure pleasure. It coursed over her nub, bathing it in electricity. “Oh, Ryan,” she panted. “Yes, sir.”

  In tandem her nipples barbed. His mouth sealed over, latching on as though he were thirsty from days spent in the unforgiving desert. After an exquisite minute he released her breast and moved his head to just below her lobe. He sucked hard and her head fell to the side, giving better access. His teeth scraped her skin, then licked and sucked the sting away.

  Piper rubbed her breasts against his hairy chest, rocked her hips into the massive bulge behind his shorts. When she found the angle and rhythm that promised her orgasm in seconds he released her neck and stepped away.

  “Middle of the bed on your hands and knees. You teased me with that fine ass in the Cadillac. It’s mine now.”

  “Yours as in…” Not wanting to say the words, she let the sentence hang.

  “Mine, however I want it. Right?”

  She crawled onto the bed, poked her bottom into the air, and looked over her shoulder. “Yes.”

  The crack echoed in the sparsely decorated space and in her head. A sting from his swift hand licked her pussy. She rocked against the sensation, stoking the heat into an all out blaze. Her lids closed and her head craned toward the sky. “Yes. Sir. Yes. Sir.”

  “It seems you enjoy that a little too much. I may have to change tactics.”

  “No, sir,” she whimpered.

  His palms spread over the swell of her cheeks while his fingers hooked in the curve of her hips. The bed sagged under his weight and his thighs met with the backs of hers. His bare cock nestled in the crack of her ass. Awareness prickled her skin, raising the tiny hairs from her nape to her mons. Despite her apprehension, she pushed against him and rocked on his length.

  Looking over her shoulder, their gazes melded. What a picture he made looming over her. He stalled her hips and eased her from their contact. She didn’t dare complain. Especially when he fisted his dick. He stared at her and pumped the turgid, reddening flesh. Once. Twice. His pace steadied and she lost count. The muscles played along his chest and arms. Crimson tinged the bandage on his shoulder, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  Pre-cum coated his bulbous head and Piper wanted to scream. She bit her lips between her teeth and enjoyed the show, trusting Ryan to make this worth the effort. Several strokes later, he pointed his cock at her and moved closer. The silky lubrication and pliant head circled around her puckered hole, slipped down between her folds to tease her clit, and then back again.

  Her head lolled between her shoulders in desperation, and she found a wholly different view of the entertainment. His now-purple head peeked from between her wet lips before disappearing. “Oh, Ryan. Yes, please. I want to come.”

  “But you don’t need to. You’ll be insane with need before I’m done with you.”

  She snapped her head in his direction. “I need to, now. Oh, please.”

  He rubbed his index finger over his tip, and then skated it over her pulsing rosette. “Are you sure you need to come?”

  Adrenaline rode her heart like a jockey spurring his horse down the final stretch. Sweat slicked her palm and she gripped the bedspread. Her tongue swelled. She couldn’t speak.

  Ryan wedged the head of his cock into her greedy cunt. She shoved back, trying to take him, but his left hand halted her efforts. He fucked her with his gaze while he rolled his hips in tiny waves, taunting her with a centimeter at a time.

  “I need to come. Yes, sir. I need to. I trust you.”

  His finger steadily massaged the ultra sensitive opening of her ass. “If you’re not ready, use your word.” With that he breeched her, dick and digit.

  The invasion left her panting. Her entire body went oddly numb and acutely attuned to those two areas. His thick penis pumped home at a frantic pace, piercing her womb at an angle. The smack of his balls against her clit filled the room. The squeak of the bed joined in the chorus. Piper bowed and gave herself over to the experience. The tightness in her ass eased. He worked his finger in and out with slow, measured strokes.

  The contradictory paces clashed into one blinding orgasm. The world around her went white and Ryan disappeared from sight. His touch remained persistent. It increased. Bore deeper. Pumped harder.

  “Fuck. Piper. Fuck,” he roared as he filled her. Overflowed her. His thrusts slowed, but he didn't withdraw. He collapsed atop her, and then rolled, curling around her as he’d done before. “You know, I find I’m harboring terrifying feelings of affection toward you too.”

  24

  Wh
at in the hell did that mean? Seven and a half hours and about eighty-four miles later, Piper still didn’t know what to make of Ryan’s comment. She knew she’d been pecking at the words for far too long, attacking the same simple sentence from this way and that. Life and death was once again preparing to hang in the balance, flap in the wind, teeter off the cliff, and all the other sayings for being possibly fucked. And not in a satisfying kind of way. Time to focus.

  Outside, the last shred of light slipped behind the horizon, plunging the desert to absolute darkness. They left the land of streetlights long ago. The SUV provided the only blip in the night for miles around. Its display screen and lit dials combatted the murk.

  Even though they’d had to detangle their limbs when his alarm jarred them both from sleep, Piper had made a valiant effort at ignoring him on the long ride. But once they’d turned onto the narrow highway and left the crowded streets of Hermosillo behind, he demanded her hand. Of course, she’d given it all too willingly.

  For the first time since they’d climbed into the Escalade, she turned toward Ryan and found his gaze. He’d been on the phone half the time with his super-secret people, talking about super-secret things, but he didn't’ seem to worry she’d blab. His fingers tightened around her hand, released it, and then he straightened in his seat.

  “Tucker said the vineyard is seventy acres with three structures. The processing and storage building sits near the road and is the largest of the three. We’ll clear it first. The main house is on the top of a small elevation, but we’ll reach the worker bunk first. It’s only fifty yards to the east from processing. Our objective is Matthew. Find him and get him out as quietly as possible. We have no way of knowing how many men the Sinaloa have guarding it. Could be none to twenty. We’ll hope they only grow grapes and not weed or coca. Those crops come with way more guns.

  “Farms eat up the land in the area. I have coordinates to keep us straight. We’ll turn off of Highway 26 in fifteen miles. Two miles from the turn, the vines brush the dirt road. We’ll park behind them and advance on foot, weapons ready. We lay low and watch, until I say go. Do you understand?