“We’re going off grid. Rendezvous at the Eagle’s Nest in four days. From there we’ll plan the next leg.” There was a pause. Then, “How is your charge?” Jenna waited patiently, watching his face for a reaction, any reaction. By the time she’d nearly grabbed the phone to ask the question herself, Josh said, “Good. You’ll probably answer for it, but good. I’ll see you in four days. Keep her safe.”
After he hung up, Jenna said, “Well?”
“They haven’t seen anything. So far, so good. He’s going to change locations, but they are getting along well.”
The way he said “getting along well” gave Jenna a flutter. It was hard to read into anything Josh said, so she didn’t try. “What does that mean?”
Josh looked at her and she immediately thought, He’s hiding something. He must have read her mind. “Jax is protecting her, and she is letting him. Unlike you, who resists at every juncture.”
Jenna rolled her eyes. “What am I supposed to do, follow orders to the letter like a good Marine?”
“I’d settle for a Marine, yeah.”
“That’s right, I forgot, you’re a Navy man. Listen here, you are not my alpha dog. I don’t blindly follow orders.”
“I know. I saw your rap sheet.”
“What?” The sharp sting of embarrassment left her speechless for a moment. She’d done all that stuff when she hadn’t cared what her life might become. It was petty and stupid, and a black mark against the person she was today.
She smoothed the hair away from her face, trying to force away the frustrating feeling of defeat. The feeling of betrayal. “Thought you’d have your best buddy Jack spy on me, huh?”
She gave him a moment to deny it. Instead, he calmly stared at her.
The sting turned into a slice.
She huffed, annoyed. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. Judge all you want. It is what it is. I didn’t follow blindly then, and I won’t do it now. And just so we’re clear, we’re even. You helped me out, I helped you out, we shared, we cried, and after the danger subsides, we’ll shake hands and say adios. You can wash your hands of the rich little architect with the attitude problem that jail-hopped throughout her adolescence. Okay? Good?”
Josh went rigid and his eyes became hard. The muscle in his jaw clenched as he looked at her silently. He turned away and said flatly, “Understood. We need to get moving.”
The breath left her in a whoosh.
As Josh set down the light and worked on opening the hatch, she wrung her hands and looked behind them. Those phantom feet were forever following.
“Look, it’s just…” she continued distractedly, barely knowing what she was saying as she peered through the darkness, “I have a life in New York, you know? And your life is here in the boondocks. We don’t even know each other. I’m bad news. Maybe Jax—uh, I mean, Jack was right to show you my past. Maybe it was for the best. I expect too much from men—I push them too hard. You don’t need that. You need a calm, plump woman that likes to eat and does what you tell her. I never would. It’s just better this way, you know? Good sex, then a long goodbye.”
Metal squealed and wood groaned. Jenna’s eyes snapped back to the glowing hole in the ceiling. Josh’s whole body was straining, thick cords of muscle flexing along his frame, as he muscled the door loose. He popped his head up quickly, ignoring her completely. After a still moment where all she could hear was the frantic beating of her heart, he dropped back down.
“You seem to have a faulty memory,” he said as he turned off his phone, “so I will remind you that I am not a plaything.” His eyes hit hers with so much force she took a step back. “I will not be played with. Please keep that in mind when you get bored and horny. Let’s go. I want to get gone while we still have the light.”
She was a bitch, then she was apologetic. He was flatlining and angry. Things were not going well.
She decided to drop it. What was the point? What she had said was true. At the end of the week, that would be it. They were done. This would all be in the past, and hopefully her constant crying with it.
Josh gently helped her out of the tunnel, even though she suspected he wanted to bash her head against a rock. With his help, she crawled into the middle of a tangle of brush and trees.
Josh closed the doors, then fastened a heavy lock to the outside. Hopefully the gunman was down there, because now he’d be trapped.
It gave them time. Lots of time. Of idleness. Together. With all sorts of issues and ghosts standing between them. This was turning into a vacation from hell.
Josh fastened a giant, totally scary serrated knife to his belt. A smaller knife went in a holder on his ankle. He fastened a gun to the other side of his belt in a small holster. He could’ve been a kid putting on his shoes, his movements were so practiced and mundane.
“What’s that?” Jenna pointed to the pocket protector he slipped into his breast pocket.
“Throwing knives.”
“Oh. Do you have ninja throwing stars, too?”
It was meant as a joke. It didn’t lighten the mood.
When he was done, he took out a map and showed it to her. “Are you any good with maps?” he asked.
He knew she was. Why he asked was beyond her.
Biting her lip, she simply nodded.
He went through where they were, where they were going, and ended by handing her a compass.
“I don’t need it,” she said. She already had her bearings and the map information firmly lodged in her head. She could be blindfolded, turned around a hundred times, throw up from dizziness, and still go in the right direction. She wasn’t kidding when she said she no longer got lost.
Regardless, he put it in her bag. He turned and started walking, making his pack look light despite the weight she knew must be in it.
“Wait,” she called, not leaving the protective shelter of the thick brush. He turned and glanced back. She saw impatience cross his face before it smoothed over.
“Do you have a gun for me?” she asked.
“Carrying a gun is dangerous. I’ll keep you safe.”
“With all due respect, Mr. Hero, your oath, while touching, is not good enough for me. If we are separated because I am stupid and wander off, I want a gun to protect myself while you track me down.”
After a quick glance around, he stalked over to her, impatience eating through granite like acid. “Shooting to kill is very different to shooting a target. I would much prefer you ran away instead.”
“So I can get shot in the back? I know the difference. I will not balk. If I need to shoot, I will.”
“Jenna…” Impatience won out. He took on the tone of schooling a ten-year-old. “Taking a life is no easy task. It weighs on you. The guilt eats at you. You’ve had a tough life, tougher than most, but seeing someone die is nothing compared to being the grim reaper. I was trained for it. I am an expert at it. You don’t need that on your hands. Clear?”
“Josh, I am not a complete fool. I know the difference.” He gave her a look that said he thought she was a naïve little girl. “Okay, look, you want what wasn’t on my rap sheet? I’ve pulled my gun out more times than I can count. Unregistered nine millimeter. Lightweight and easy to carry. I’ve pointed it to scare people a million times, but I shot it five times. Four of those were to scare, that’s true. And it worked. But the fifth was aimed center mass. He died fast—I am a good shot. Steady. Him or me, and I chose him. It was in the ghetto, I was young and on drugs, and he was homeless so I got out of Dodge. The shooting didn’t even make the paper. Happy?”
Impatience was gone. His eyes were unreadable. That was obviously not what he was expecting.
“Jenna.” It came out half strangled. Those two syllables spoke of a sadness for the life she had lived. It was sympathy; it was kindness; it was understanding. There were no traces of pity.
It was almost her undoing.
Chapter Six
Jenna raised her chin and squared her shoulders. “Don’t feel bad f
or me, Josh. He wanted my score and he wanted my body. I gave him the choice of buggering off or getting shot. He made his choice. I followed through with mine.
“And yes, taking a life is no picnic. It messes you up. Bad. I had nightmares and tremors for years after. Still do, sometimes. But the next time someone tried to get to me and saw the end of my barrel, he also saw resolve. I took that hobo’s life, yes, but I saved my own, and it probably saved a bunch of others when they saw my eyes and knew I would shoot if I had to.
“So don’t try and lecture me. If some gunman tries to shoot me, well, he’s going down first if I have anything to say about it. Then he’s going to disappear. I’m not going to get killed, and I’m not going to jail. I just want to be left alone and allowed to live my life like any normal person. Why is that so hard?”
By the end of her speech, she was shedding angry tears. Josh moved in and put his arms around her, bringing her head to his shoulder and rubbing her back.
She wiped tears away in frustration. She was tired of breaking down. Tired of him taking care of her. She wanted the cold embrace of indifference back. Josh was getting too close and opening up all her sensitive places, letting all the hurt, fear, and sadness ooze out of her depths. She wanted to seal those wounds and shove them from her mind. She was there to survive, not for a dose of healing with Nurse Josh.
She pushed him away with a sigh, which was tough because he weighed as much as a bag of rocks. When he finally backed up, his eyes were mushy.
“Stop it,” she said with a scowl and a raised finger. “You’re getting as bad as Erika. Knock it off.”
“I wish I’d met you sooner. Go back in time and shadow you, keep you safe. Keep you from experiencing all that. No one should have to deal with the things you have. How you are alive is…” He shook his head.
“You’re one to talk. You went to foreign countries, snuck behind enemy lines, or whatever, and got shot at. You wonder how I am alive? You’ve had just as much crap going on. And guess what, we both chose our lives, so more fool us, huh?”
He nodded, his eyes still touching the core of her and trying to unblock the stopper she’d just put in her tear ducts. “I was trained for that life. Hardened for it. You were just a child…” He reached for her again.
She slapped his hands away. “Stop it, Martha. You’re going soft on me. Keep it together. Next thing, you’ll want to make daisy chains and talk about our feelings.”
He smiled a little and dug in his pack. He came out with a gun and handed it to her. She took a deep breath before she took it.
“I hoped never to have to hold one of these again,” she said.
He nodded solemnly.
She pointed it away from him and took her gun-firing stance. Unfortunately, it was like riding a bike. She wished that weren’t the case, but in the light of recent events, it was probably for the best.
“Good stance.” Josh turned on his military voice. “I’d like to show you a better way, but if shit goes down, you can’t second-guess yourself. I don’t want to confuse you.”
“Understood,” she said, using his expression.
He gave her a holster and showed her the important features of the gun, like the safety.
When they started walking, she said, “You need a woman that is not so hopelessly messed up.”
“Then how would she understand me?” Josh asked quietly.
She had to admit, he had a point.
She pushed it out of her mind. Time to get reacquainted with the woods. She had to survive here for a few days, and it was high time she made them part of herself, like she had the ghetto all those many years ago.
By nightfall her feet were starting to hurt again. She kept quiet about it, not wanting an “I told you so” about the boots. Had she known she would land in this predicament, she wouldn’t have bought the damn things. Too late now, though. She had to soldier on, as they said.
Josh had been silent the whole time, and asked her to be quiet, too. He wanted to hear the woods around them to make sure they were alone. A couple of times he had her walk on as he doubled back to check for any signs of them being followed, and presumably make sure their tracks were mostly gone. Each time he came back, he scowled at her boots.
They finally stopped in a thick band of trees and brush.
“We’ll settle here for the night. It takes two days to walk to where we’re going—three at today’s pace. We have four days to kill, give or take, so as long as we keep moving, we’ll be okay.”
Josh set up camp and the tent with such economy of movement that Jenna just stood dumbfounded. They had a meal of jerky, bread, cheese, and nuts. She made sure to eat plenty, as Josh was watching her. When they were done, they sat in silence without a fire. Josh didn’t want the smoke to give them away while they were still so close to the house.
“So…” Jenna said as she looked around the dark, looming trees. “I’m bored.”
“And probably horny.” Josh stared down at his feet.
“Yup. They kind of go hand in hand, don’t they? Sure you don’t want to quickly get more friendly?”
“No.”
“How about playing doctor?”
“No.”
“Show and tell?”
She could hear the smile when Josh repeated himself. She was sad the shadows obscured it.
She sighed. “Is cuddling against the rules?”
“Depends. Are you going to use it as an excuse to get your hands down my pants?”
“Not anymore.”
“Let’s get some rack.” He stood and stuck out his hand.
“Thank you, good sir.” Electricity shocked through her core as she grabbed his hand. Once she was standing, she threaded her fingers between his before following him to the tent.
He’d set up the sleeping bags so that they were completely open, the zippers detached. One was lying with the fuzzy side up, the other with it down. It was the size of a full-sized bed. He’d been thinking about cuddling before she had brought it up.
Tricky devil.
He took off his sweater and his jeans, and then put on some light sweats. He probably didn’t want to be caught in his boxers if someone showed up in the middle of the night.
She searched through her bag for any sweats or nighties or anything resembling sleep wear. He gave her a flashlight, but that didn’t help conjure up something that obviously wasn’t there.
“Did you pack anything for me to sleep in?” Jenna asked, giving up on her pack.
Josh looked at her from the sleeping bag. His large arms were folded behind his head, showing off his bulging arm muscles. “Uh…”
“So, you don’t want to have sex, but you do want me naked? Are you trying to torture me, or teach me a lesson?”
“Subconscious.”
“I’ll say. Right. Well, it’s not my fault I have to sleep in my underwear. I am not sleeping in dirty clothes.”
She crawled in and molded herself to his warm body. Without hesitation, he rolled onto his side and brought her closer. He nuzzled her ear. The bottom dropped out of her stomach before shivers slid over her skin. She sighed and felt his smooth skin beneath his shirt, marveling at the perfectly sculpted muscle.
“Say you like me and I’ll let you climb on,” he said in a husky voice.
“Say you want to be my windup toy and I’ll let you feel my lady bits.”
He growled something in her ear that sounded like “stubborn.” With one large finger, he turned her chin toward him and lightly kissed her lips. “What am I going to do with you?” he murmured softly.
“By the end of the week you’ll probably want to throw me in the lake.”
“Hmmm.” He continued kissing her delicately, sometimes on her mouth, sometimes her temple, sometimes slipping down to her neck. She was sopping wet, tingling, and desperately wanted to be touched somewhere private.
They were on their sides, facing each other. She slid her leg up the outside of his thigh and hooked it around his leg. With
her hand she felt lower on his stomach, slowly heading south. She figured sudden movements might snap him out of it, and that was the last thing she wanted.
She reached his pant line but stayed on the outside for a moment. He opened her mouth with his and then plunged his tongue in. She moaned as his taste overwhelmed her, savory and wild, raw and uninhibited.
Roaming lower, and then a little lower still, she licked his bottom lip before brushing his cock with her fingers. He moaned softly before rolling onto his back.
As her leg was thrown over his, she rolled with him and was half on him, with her hand rubbing harder now. She inched closer, about to climb on.
It was difficult with his unyielding hand on her shoulder.
“Nope,” he said through gritted teeth.
“I like you,” she said in a pant as she tried to mount him.
“Nice try, princess. I’m turned on, not stupid.”
“Who are you trying to fool? They are the same things.”
He chuckled but didn’t relent.
“C’mon,” she begged. “You want this as badly as I do.”
“More, probably. I want it all. I’m going to withhold until I get it.”
“Who is the chick here, me or you?”
“I am confident enough in my sexuality to admit that yes, I am being the chick. Now you have an appreciation for what we men have to go through.”
“On behalf of women everywhere, I apologize. Now, let’s get down to business.”
He chuckled and rolled toward her, bringing her body in close to his. “Hush. Go to sleep now. It will be a long day tomorrow with those feet of yours.”
“I’m sexually frustrated. How could I possibly go to sleep?”
“You should be used to it. The way it sounded the first couple of days I met you, you were always sexually frustrated.”
Unexpected Danger (Skyline Trilogy Book 2) Page 6
