by David, Kori
“Not back then, but definitely since Mexico.”
Lily laughed. “Thank you for being honest.”
“Well, I honestly want to kiss you again.”
Raking her nails over his back, she murmured, “So do I.”
***
The woman in his arms was soft, smelled great and was responsive as hell to his touch. And Jesse wanted to touch her everywhere. Lily moaned so sweetly when his tongue drove into her mouth to taste her.
“You are an amazing kisser,” she said.
“Only because you taste so good.”
He moved his hands down to her hips, cupped her ass and lifted her into his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he walked them into the house. They both needed some sleep but right this moment, he couldn’t think of anything better than Lily in his arms, kissing him passionately.
“Please tell me that you plan to take advantage of me,” she whispered against his mouth.
Jesse paused and kicked the door shut behind them. “Is that what you want?”
“Oh yes.”
“I am sure our mamas would have something to say about that.”
“Shut up, Jesse.”
And then she sealed her lips to his and he couldn’t think of anything else to say. He carried her into his bedroom. Setting her down at the side of the bed, he had her shirt off almost as fast as she tugged his up and over his head. But because he couldn’t stay away from her lips, he leaned in, flattening her soft breasts against his chest while he kissed her.
She touched him everywhere, birdlike strokes that enflamed and aroused him. Her skin was softer than anything he’d ever felt and even though she was small, she was perfect to him. And she was fast. His jeans were unbuttoned and he sucked in a breath when she reached in and palmed him. Inside his jeans.She squeezed him and it took some effort not to rip the rest of her clothes off and have her. Instead he returned the favor, working the button of her jeans loose, before sliding his fingers inside. Lily was wet and ready, stroking him while he explored her.
She kissed him passionately as he pushed a finger inside. Her muscles clenched as she sighed, rubbing herself against him. His own hips were thrusting into her hand as she worked him. He pulled his hand out.
“Don’t stop.” She sighed.
“These pants need to come off. Now.”
The alarm screeched once. Then beeped in a certain sequence. And the phone rang.
Jesse groaned but moved instantly, stepping back from Lily and answering the phone. Only one person would be calling. “It just went off. How many?”
Zach answered, “Four, heavily armed, and being stealthy.”
“How long do I have?”
“Three minutes, tops.”
“Damn it.”
“Get your asses out of there now.”
Jesse glanced at Lily, who once again had her shirt on and was looking somber. He was rock hard with a beautiful woman in his bedroom and someone was messing with that. It pissed him off. “Copy that.”
“Call me once you’re clear and watch your six.”
Jesse hung up and started moving. “We have unfriendly company coming for us.”
Lily nodded. “I figured that might be the case.”
He went to the closet and pulled out a backpack. “Put your stuff in here and clip it securely when you get it on, we need to move fast.”
“Okay.”
When she started transferring items from the bags to the backpack, he retrieved his Go bag and restocked with ammo and food, making sure the rest of his supplies were in place. He looked back at Lily, proud of her that she’d been quick and was ready, backpack on and secured with her leather satchel slung across her body.
“Let’s go.”
Jesse killed all the lights, opened the back sliding door and motioned for Lily to follow. Once they were out, he reset the alarm and pulled her with him down the stairs and out into the trees. “Hold on to the back of my pack, I am not going to risk a flashlight until we get to Zach’s house.”
She pulled his head down for a quick kiss. “I expect you to pick up exactly where you left off, Jess.”
Her whispered comment made him smile in the dark. “The moment we are safe.”
He took off down the path toward his partner’s cabin. If he knew Zach, Beth was already safely underground in a recently added storm shelter built about one hundred yards behind the house. And Zach would be armed and ready for anything.
When Beth had come under attack little more than a year ago, Zach had drawn up plans for the shelter. And while Jesse might like to put Lily there with Beth and fight off the attack, he wasn’t about to put his friends in any more danger. So for now, he’d lead the unfriendlies away and deal with them on his terms.
Lily tugged on Jesse’s backpack, slowing him down after a few minutes. “Where are we going?” she asked, out of breath from the hike.
“Zach has a work truck we can use to get out of here.”
“How were we found?”
Jesse had a couple of ideas but he couldn’t take care of it until they were out of immediate danger. The path was well used and clear of debris, so they made good time. Zach materialized a moment later and Lily let out a startled noise that sounded loud in the dark.
“Took you long enough,” Zach said. He was in all black with an assault rifle slung over his back and a small phone in his hands.
“Set it off,” Jesse said, still moving with Lily right behind him. Zach entered a code into the phone as they passed.
The truck was unlocked with keys in the ignition. Then an alarm went off. His cabin was three miles from Zach’s, but they heard it clearly.
“What in the world is that noise?” Lily asked.
Jesse grinned. “It’s a special alarm we rigged to the house.” Jesse and Zach had set concussion alarms to the house and several of the trees.
“It’s really loud.”
“Imagine how it sounds over there.”
The sound of gunfire could be heard faintly through the concussive noise of the alarm. Jesse started cussing and punched the door of the truck, leaving another dent in the beat up older truck. “Damn it.”
“That’s gunfire, isn’t it?” Lily asked.
“Yes,” Jesse snarled, throwing their gear into the truck before he hoisted Lily into the cab. “They’re shooting up my house.” Damn it. He really loved his house.
“Sounds like that’s going to need a lot of spackle,” Zach said.
“Shut up, Zach.”
His friend had the nerve to grin. “Get going. I have a couple more surprises for them.”
Zach was clearly enjoying himself. “Just don’t set the forest on fire,” Jesse said.
Lily was belted in and looking worried, so he jumped in and fired up the engine. He took off and hoped that however they were being tracked, it showed they were leaving the area.
Once he was on the main road, he turned away from his cabin. Several explosions thundered in the distance.
Zach was definitely having fun.
“I’m so sorry,” Lily said quietly.
“Don’t be.”
“But your cabin—”
“Can be repaired. And Zach is making sure they leave before more damage is done.”
“What if he gets hurt? Or his wife?”
Jesse glanced over to see Lily’s face twisted in remorse. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears, when just a little while ago they were alight with passion and spunk. He hated that someone was doing this to her.
He reached out to hold her hand. It made him feel good that she automatically laced her fingers with his. “Zach has Beth in a safe place and did you get a look at him? He was having fun and it was a good tension release for him. He’s been so worried about the delivery that he’s been growling and snapping at everyone. Now he gets to kick some ass and relieve that stress.”
“But he can still be hurt.”
“Nah. He’s a Marine and one of the most indestructible guys I
know.”
Lily shook her head but she gifted him with a small smile. “Neither one of you are Marines anymore. You’re merely civilians.”
“I should wash your mouth out with soap, woman. Once a Marine, always a Marine.”
“I can pay for any damages your house sustained.”
Jesse glanced over at her. The moonlight illuminated her elven features and made her green eyes dark and mysterious. She was earnest, but he didn’t want her money. He wanted her to trust him with whatever was going on. He hadn’t pressed her, but he wasn’t stupid either. And even though he’d let her distract him before, he wanted some answers. He couldn’t fight the enemy without good intel.
“What I want is for you to tell me what’s really going on.”
Chapter 6
“I don’t want to involve you.”
Lily could see that it was the wrong thing to say. It even felt wrong. He was already involved and had saved her life several times in the last twenty-four hours. Jesse hadn’t even yelled at her about any of it, and she certainly deserved it. Not only was he in danger, but his friends could get hurt too.
“I really think you should drop me off in Phoenix and just leave me there. I can figure out my next move then,” she said.
“You’d be dead within the hour.”
“Then I wouldn’t stay that long, or you can take me to the airport. I can fly home and sort this out.”
He shot her an incredulous look. “Are you being naïve or purposely stupid?”
That stung, especially after their intimate moment, but he was right. She was being mule-headed, but it was only to protect him from her problems. The truth was she had no idea what to do next. Her only thought was to get home and give all her information to the authorities.
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. This whole situation was going to drive her to drink heavily. “You’re right. I am being a little naïve.”
“Why don’t you start with what is really going on. Try and trust me to help you.”
“But I do trust you. You’ve done nothing but help.”
He shifted in his seat and watched the road. There were only a couple other vehicles on the highway with them. His phone buzzed and he stared at the screen a moment and said, “The bad guys are on the road again.”
“Following us?”
He nodded. “That’s my guess.”
“I have a tracking device on me somewhere, don’t I?”
“Yes.”
There was a tic in his jaw that she became fascinated with. “Where?”
“Were you injected with anything at any point during your abduction?”
She really thought about it. She’d been conscious for pretty much everything except at the very beginning when they’d attacked her outside the hotel room. But even then, she’d only been stunned and unable to fight them.
“No, and I’m reasonably sure about that. I was awake the whole time. Besides, isn’t that pretty high-tech stuff? The guys that grabbed me acted like street thugs.”
“I agree, but I thought I’d ask. It’s in your leather satchel, then. It’s the only thing you’ve had with you the entire time.”
“I can’t get rid of it.”
“I don’t want you to. At least not until we get to Phoenix. I want those assholes as far away from Zach and Beth as we can get them. I want them focused on that tracking device.”
“Can we find it and disable it?”
“I’ll call one of my friends and have him meet us somewhere. He’s got some equipment that will locate it and we’ll make sure it’s destroyed.”
She settled herself more comfortably in the seat. It was going to be another long ride. Seemed like she hadn’t been still in the last six months. Between assignments, she’d been doing a bit of investigative journalism. She had a need to prove herself as more than just a little rich girl. She wanted to prove that she was good at something. To her mother and to herself.
She snuck a peek over at her silent companion.
Jesse sat, partially slouched, one hand on the wheel and the other relaxed against his leg. Those hard, calloused hands had been tender as they’d held her…stroked her. And he was patiently waiting for her to tell him what she’d been doing. And why her life was in danger.
It wasn’t easy.
“Six months ago I was in Tucson for Arizona Highways magazine, shooting a local festival. I was just taking shots of the crowds and the surrounding buildings. There wasn’t anything unusual about the day.” She sighed. “It wasn’t until I started developing the pictures, three days later, that I saw something suspicious.”
“What was that?”
“It was an exchange. At first I thought it was drugs or something so I threw the picture in the discard pile and didn’t look at it again until the next week. But something about that shot bothered me. Maybe it was the body language or the expressions, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
“You recognized someone in the exchange?”
She nodded. It was like he could read her mind. “Yes, but at first I couldn’t remember from where. It was a bit of a puzzle for a couple more days. One of those things that's right at the edge of your consciousness. And then it came to me. He was at one of my mother’s political rallies several years ago. When she made her first bid for Governor.”
She remembered him because he’d been in a military uniform, standing erect and formal with a group of her mother’s supporters. Then he and her stepfather had excused themselves into the study, only to remain there for hours. The only reason Lily had even been there was because she’d been in town for a visit and her mother expected her to “make an appearance” as a proper daughter should.
“I did some digging and found out that he’s a one-star Army General. His name is Alton Maddox and he runs the Army base outside of Sweet Hill, and became one of my mother’s supporters when she lobbied to save the base from being closed down.”
“So who was he meeting in Tucson?”
“Ramon Garcia.”
“Who is Ramon Garcia?”
Lily grimaced. Just saying his name was scary, the rest was downright terrifying. “He’s the Huerta drug cartel’s enforcer.”
Jesse glanced at her but didn’t look surprised.
“You already knew that.”
“About which cartel was involved, yes. Zach looked into it and found out they basically own everything in the town you were held in. How did you find out about this Ramon?”
“I’ve made some interesting friends over the years. I showed a couple of people a copy of the picture with the General cut out. And the one that gave me the information looked like he was going to shake out of his boots when he saw the picture.”
“Well, then Ramon is likely involved if he’s an enforcer. I really hate dealing with psychopaths.”
Lily snorted. “You sound like you have experience.”
“There are only three kinds of people that join the military.” He held up his index finger. “The screw-up that is avoiding jail and wants to blow shit up.” A second finger went up. “The kid who wants to do his mandatory time and get college paid for.” Then he paused.
“And the third kind of person?”
His knuckles tensed on the steering wheel. “The third type of person is there to kill people. Men, women, children—it doesn’t matter. And they’re smart enough to do it legally. Sanctioned by the U.S. Government. From what Zach found out, this cartel specializes in torture and murder. Heavy emphasis on the torture. I’ve had my share of run-ins with the third kind.”
Lily was curious enough to want details, but smart enough to recognize a conversation thread that was off limits. Instead she sought to lighten the mood. “And did you get to blow stuff up?”
That pulled a reluctant smile out of him. “Damn straight.”
***
Jesse parked at a rest stop surrounded by desert just north of Phoenix. The bright lights of the city glowed in the distance. He hadn’t wanted to give w
hoever was chasing them any indication of where they were headed, so he’d had Mike Hansen rendezvous with him outside the city. “Little” Mike Hansen might have been shorter than Jesse, but he was one of those naturally muscled guys. Put him in a suit and he looked like a mafia thug or a nightclub bouncer.
He certainly didn’t look like a sergeant with the police department. “So what’s your next step?” Mike asked.
“Find a decent motel and get some sleep,” Jesse said. He’d left Lily deeply asleep in the front seat of the truck. He didn’t have the heart to wake her up until he could offer them both a bed to sleep in.
“You look worse than you did during that Op in Baghdad.”
Jesse chuckled and leaned on the tailgate while he watched Mike. “I was only tired because I had to pull your wounded ass out of that mess.” “Earning a purple heart and a first class chew-out by the CO in the process.”
“Our Commanding Officer,” he said with a snarl, “was a fucking retard.”
Mike shook his head while he set up his equipment and began going over Lily’s leather satchel, one square inch at a time. “Outlaw Jesse James. How many times did you lose rank because of your mouth?”
“He’s lucky I didn’t break his neck for almost getting us killed.”
“Yeah, well, my whole company is lucky to be alive thanks to your problem with authority.”
Jesse slapped his friend on the shoulder. “Pulling you out of bed in the middle of the night to chase down some bugs is payback, buddy.”
The wand beeped and Mike dug into the black lining of the case with a pocket knife to pull out a silver disc no bigger than the size of a small battery. “And here it is. The rest of the case is clear.”
The camera was large and looked expensive, albeit well used. Mike had five different lenses and extenders pulled out as he swept all the surfaces with his wand. “Camera is clear as well,” he said, pocketing the tracking device.
“What are you going to do with it?” Jesse asked.
Mike grinned while he continued putting Lily’s equipment back in place. “I’m going to put it in the middle of the main police station and see if they’re dumb enough to come and get it.”
