by Lea Hart
There was a commotion at the end of the room, and he turned around to see what was happening. A woman with bright red hair was arguing with someone who worked for the hotel. A bad feeling blew up in his stomach, and he prayed to God that it wasn’t who he thought it was. No way was she that stupid. Turning around quickly, he hoped she was here for someone else. He lifted his drink, took a calming sip, and then studied his phone. If he was lucky, she wouldn’t spot him, and he could avoid the inevitable confrontation. The unholy alliance that he’d created with her was causing more problems than he cared to deal with. A couple of minutes passed, and he hoped that she had left. He kept his eyes focused on his phone until a pair of red pumps came into view. Shit on a shingle. Raising his eyes slowly, he looked into Sherry Lane’s angry green gaze and knew she wouldn’t go quietly. “Hey, Sherry. Long time no see.” He lifted his mouth in what he hoped was a sincere-looking smile.
“Cut the shit, Stuart. I’m not buying it.” She sat in the chair next to him and crossed her legs. “Had a hell of a time getting in here. The bar manger didn’t want me to proposition any of the customers. No one treated me that way when I was with Bill. I was shown some respect.”
Letting his eyes run up her showgirl legs, he let out a breath. It wasn’t respect for her. It was respect for Bill Bellows and his bank account. Everyone understood the power of oil money, and Bill had managed to amass a ton of it over the last ten years. “Things change, Sherry. What can you do?” Ideally, she would say her piece and then leave without making a spectacle of herself. “So, what brings you to the Four Seasons?”
“Your secretary told me where to find you. I decided that I’ve been ignored for long enough.”
First thing he was going to do when he got back to the office was fire that bird-brained girl. Who cared if she was hot? If she couldn’t keep her mouth shut, then she was of no use to him. “What can I do for you?”
Sherry sat back and raked her eyes over him. “I didn’t get the payday that you promised me. I spent a year with that man, and all he left me was a lousy quarter of a million dollars.”
Breathing in and out slowly, he tried to appear patient. “Sherry, I never promised you anything. As I recall, I merely suggested that Bill might enjoy your company.”
“Bullshit,” she hissed.
A couple of people turned around and stared, and he waved. She was going to get herself kicked out in no time. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to fix it. Those two snotty kids got everything. If you won’t help me, then I will have to take matters into my own hands. And if I do that, then I may feel it’s necessary to tell people what you and your daddy are up to.”
He leaned forward and let his façade of good manners fall away. No one threatened him, especially not someone like Sherry. “Listen. To. Me. If you want to enjoy a long life, I suggest you keep your threats to yourself. I have enough money and connections to ensure that you never open your mouth again.” He watched her eyes grow big and her breathing quicken. Good. He had nothing to lose, and he certainly wasn’t going to have this piece of trash extort him. That was for damn sure. “Nod if you understand.”
Sherry nodded, and he stood up and buttoned his jacket. “I hope this is the last time we see each other.” He turned on his heel and strode out of the bar. He’d better be getting good news from his guy in Midland shortly. He needed some. This day had been shit.
“We’ll see about that,” Sherry said to herself as she rose slowly from her seat. “Maybe next time, I’ll show you exactly how tough a girl from south Texas can be.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Saturday
When Ryan started to wake up, he sensed something was wrong. Moving his arm, he realized that Ivy wasn’t within his reach. That was the first time in over a week that she wasn’t snuggled up next to him when he woke, with her hair spilling over his chest. Opening one eye, he saw that she was on the opposite side of the bed and she was facing away from him. Maybe she was still mad. He moved over toward her and wrapped his arm across her middle. That was better.
“Good morning, honey.” He leaned over, pressed his mouth against her neck and let her warm honeysuckle scent fill his lungs. This is what he wanted to wake up to every day. Her warm body wrapped around his. Something about the way he behaved yesterday made her mad enough to sleep on the opposite side of the bed.
Somehow he’d made her think that he didn’t trust her to handle herself with Stuart. Which was as far from the truth as could be. He didn’t trust the sorry son of a bitch, and he didn’t want Ivy anywhere near him. Especially when he was making those veiled bullshit threats. If anything happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. It was overprotective and paranoid, but that’s who he was. The chance of that changing was pretty slim. This was just something that she was going to have to accept about him. He would keep her safe and happy no matter how mad it made her. Running his hand over her warm skin, he felt her move under his caress. Maybe he should make a grand gesture to show her how much he cared. He thought about that story she told him about the baby piglet. Maybe he could get her one and see if that helped.
In the meantime, he could give her some pleasure and see if it would put her in a good mood. Hell, it made his mood damn euphoric. Gently he rolled her on her back and lifted himself over her. He rested his weight on his arms and began running his mouth over her skin. He started at her neck, because that always made her shiver. A small moan escaped her lips as he ran his tongue along her ear. Moaning was good. He continued his assault and moved over her collarbone, her chest, and finally her breast. Taking her nipple into his mouth, he savored her taste. Sweet. Lifting his eyes briefly, he saw that she was looking down. “I’m hungry, so I want you to lie back and let me feast.” A ripple of laughter made her stomach move, and he inched further down her body, kissing a hot trail of kisses.
He pressed her legs apart and he held her open. “Mmmmm.” He slid his finger through slick folds and felt her move under his touch. Even if she was mad, it didn’t stop what happened between them. The evidence of her desire told him that. Sliding his tongue from back to front, he swirled his tongue over her tight bud. Her hips moved against his mouth, and he continued to torture her with his tongue and lap at her sweet honey. Pushing a finger inside, he felt her clamp down. “Show me, Ivy. I want to feel you lose control.” Sliding his mouth over her bud again, he sucked hard, pushed a second finger in and searched for the spot that would unravel her mind. One more lash of his tongue and a stroke of his finger had her exploding. He lapped up her juice, lifted himself above her, and pushed into her wet heat in one thrust. The last of her orgasm milked him as he began to move in and out slowly.
This was heaven. “This is the best place in the world, and I want to have this with you every day.” Her eyes widened at his statement, and he didn’t care if it was too much. It was true. She owned him and needed to know. When her legs tightened around his waist as her fingers dug into his shoulders, he picked up the pace. The tension built in his spine and he was seconds away from emptying himself. “Come,” he shouted as her body contracted around him. Big jerking motions were all he was capable of as his orgasm exploded through his body. Waves of exquisite pleasure rolled over him as he emptied himself into her welcoming womb. His arms almost gave out as he collapsed next to her with his face buried in her hair. “Mornin’.”
“Yes,” she mumbled. Her hand rested against his back and he closed his eyes. If they started off this way every day, then whatever happened in the middle wouldn’t matter. They had to start off connected, so when he screwed up, it wouldn’t be a big deal.
“Waffles,” Ivy said as she rolled on her side.
“Okay.” A smile formed on his mouth, because whatever he did had been forgiven. If you made waffles for someone, it meant that you weren’t mad anymore.
***
The sound of Ivy’s phone ringing woke Ryan up. Lifting his head, he glanced at the clock and noticed that they�
��d been asleep for over an hour. Ivy buried her head into her pillow and pulled the sheet over her head. He picked up her phone and saw that it was someone from Bellows Energy. He answered the call. “Ivy Bellows’s phone. Yeah, hold on.”
He pulled the sheet away from her head and patted her arm. “Honey, it’s Ken, who runs security for the company. It’s an emergency.” That got her attention, and she sat up and shoved her hair out of her face. He handed her the phone and waited.
“This is Ivy. Oh, my God. Is anyone hurt? Okay. Thank you for calling. I’ll be down as soon as I can.” She turned the phone off and let it drop into her lap. “Two of the wells in the Regan Field have blown up and are on fire.”
“Maybe Stuart was serious about his threats,” Ryan said, as he got out of bed and grabbed his phone. “I’ll put a team together and get down there.”
Ivy jumped out of bed and threw her hands on her hips. “Maybe you should ask me what I want to do?”
“I see that we’re not done with our fight from yesterday, and I expect it’s going to be a big one as soon as we have time. Right now you have some oil wells on fire, and I know a thing or two about that, considering I’ve spent most of the last ten years in the Middle East. I also happen to have some friends who were there with me. Rick lives on his family ranch, which is about an hour from here, and has a helo. So, if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to call him and get down to Midland and see what’s up.”
“All you have to do is explain things to me. I’m fairly intelligent and I process information quickly.” Stomping around him, she went into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
“That didn’t go well,” he mumbled to himself. He dialed Rick and hoped he was available. When he’d gotten into town, he’d touched base with him and asked if he’d run back up if he needed it. Maybe he could run up and get Mac and one of his dogs on their way to Midland. They could have Ken give them the lay of the land and then secure the wells. What a shit storm. Things just went from bad to worse, and on top of it, Ivy was mad at him. They didn’t have the luxury of working it out right away, but eventually they would.
***
Ryan sat at the kitchen table with Ivy, Colin, and Phoebe. He had about an hour before he had to be at the Blakely Ranch Airfield. He’d spoken with Ken, and he was going to meet them at the Bellows Energy corporate offices. There was a helipad on the roof where they could pick him up. “I’ll meet you at your dad’s house tonight.”
Ivy spared him a glance and nodded. “Phoebe is monitoring the information coming in from the company working with the fire department to put out the two fires. We’ll stop at the hospital and visit with the men who’ve been injured and then go over to Daddy’s house in Midland. It has seven bedrooms, so there should be plenty of room for everyone. I’ve arranged for a rental car to be delivered to the offices, so you’ll have transportation.”
Colin looked at his tablet. “Garret got me in touch with a private investigator, and they have someone tailing both Nelson and Stuart. We’ll be aware of their movements from here on out.”
“We’re coming in like the four horsemen of the apocalypse,” Ivy said quietly. “I don’t know what else to do. We have too many moving parts, and we don’t know who to trust. We need to go through everyone’s records and then decide who we should terminate. Stuart didn’t do this on his own. Let’s make sure that he didn’t have someone on the inside.”
“Agreed,” Colin said.
Ivy stood and looked at the table. “Let’s go clean this mess up.” She turned and walked back into the bedroom, and Ryan followed.
After he zipped his duffel, he waited for Ivy to finish packing. “We don’t have a lot of history together, so I know you don’t trust me yet. Something like that takes time. It was true when I was in the Navy and I know it’s true in civilian life. As SEALs we learn from the moment we walk onto the base in Coronado that our success is predicated on how well we function as a team. Every exercise, every moment is dedicated to that idea. Working together and trusting that your brother is doing his job and has your back is why we’re so successful at our job.
“You and I are a new team, so we have some kinks to work out. Please know that every action I take is with your safety and happiness as my first priority. I know you’re capable of doing everything yourself. I just need you to let me do what I’m good at. I can’t let anything happen to you because it would break me.”
“This is an extreme situation, and I have a lot to learn,” she said quietly.
“We have a lot to learn together.”
He grabbed her suitcase and his bag and started to walk out. Stopping at the door, he looked over his shoulder. “Did Colin spend the night in the guest house?”
“Yes, he did.” Ivy lifted her bag on her shoulder. “He better not screw it up, because a woman like Phoebe comes along only once.”
“I have a feeling he knows that,” Ryan responded as he walked down the hall. He recognized that Ivy was his shot at happiness and they were meant to be together. He silently congratulated himself, because he knew it before she did. Not bad for a dumb sailor.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Saturday Afternoon
Ryan climbed into the Bell helicopter and greeted his buddies. “God damn, it’s good to see you guys.”
Mac shook his hand and thumped him on his back. “Brother, it has been far too long.”
“Last time I saw your ugly mug, you were being airlifted off the medical ship.”
“They put me back together and I made it another before a bullet in my knee kept me out for good.”
Ryan turned toward his friend Rick, who was sitting in the pilot’s seat. “Thank you for offering to help out. I can’t thank you enough.”
Rick let out a low chuckle. “Family helps each other out, and we’re brothers forever.”
Sitting back, he slid the door closed and put his headphones on. “Ready when you are.”
Rick turned the engine on, and the whine of the rotors filled the air. “No better sound,” he said into his headset. “How many times has that sound signaled that you were going to live to fight another day?”
“Too many,” Mac answered.
Ryan leaned over to pet Mac’s dog lying on the floor in front of their seats. “What’s his name?”
“This is Rocko. He’s my personal dog and trained to detect explosives. I figured if someone is blowing up wells, it might be a good idea to bring him along. He’s also a hell of a guard dog. He’ll let us know if someone’s coming up on our six.”
“Where we headed?” Rick asked as he lifted the bird into the air.
“Bellows Energy has a helipad on the roof, and Ken, the head of security, is going to meet us there.”
“Can’t be too good at his job if wells are being blown up,” Mac commented, as they headed west toward Midland.
“Phoebe ran a full check on him, and I know what kind of cereal the guy buys. He seems legit, no skeletons in his closet. When I spoke with him an hour ago, he said he had a lot to tell me. Apparently, he’s been trying to update the well security for a year and the COO has blocked everything he’s submitted.”
“So maybe this Stuart kid had some help from the inside,” Rick said, as he flew them across his family’s ranch.
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Ryan said. Looking out the window, he saw a herd of cattle the color of pennies. “How big is your family’s operation?”
“It’s about three hundred thousand acres.”
“So, a small one?” Mac laughed into his headset.
“Were not the biggest ranch in Texas,” Rick responded.
“Did you always know that this is where you’d end up after retiring?” Ryan asked.
“Yeah. It’s in my blood. Couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”
Ryan looked out the window as the Texas landscape spread out before him. Where did he belong? He had no clue. All he knew for sure was that he wanted to end up with Ivy. They definitely had to work out some th
ings between them, but he looked forward to it. He just hoped that she felt the same way.
Ryan felt Mac’s eyes on him, and he looked over at his old friend. “What?”
“Just remembering that time you tried dip right before we went out on the boats. I’ve never seen someone puke that much.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t a lot of fun.” Ryan laughed. “I remember that day as the one that I assumed the roles of pretty much all of my qualifications. That mission, I worked point, sniper, comms, JTAC, SAW gunner, and all around hilarious dude.”
Rick laughed from the front seat. “That was a hell of a day. We almost died a couple of times.”
“I miss the shit out it,” Mac responded solemnly.
“Me too,” Ryan said. “It’s been only about six months and I still feel like I’m going to get the call for wheels up, and then I remember that it isn’t coming.” He shook his head and looked out the window. “Working for SAI is giving me hope, though. I was on a rescue op a couple of weeks ago and it made me feel like I had a future. The other thing that’s helping is a tiny Texas dynamo.”
“Figured there had to be a girl involved. That stupid smile on your face isn’t ‘cause we’re hanging together,” Mac said as he punched him in the arm.
“It’s not a girl, it’s the girl,” Ryan said.
“Congratulations, man,” Rick said. “Didn’t think there was one out there who would fall for your ugly face. Guess there’s no accounting for taste.”
Everyone laughed, and it felt great to be in the company of his brothers. He loved nothing more than to be out here with them, fixing problems. “Thanks again for coming out to help.”
