by T. S. Joyce
In Cody’s jacked-up coal-colored truck, Cora leaned her head against the window. The tow truck drove by with Boone’s demolished pickup.
“It’s not fair,” she gritted out as she dashed a tear away with the back of her hand. “You love that truck, and that man is getting off free and clear. Not only does he get away with attempted murder, he doesn’t even have to pay for damages he purposely inflicted on your ride. If you want it repaired, you’ll have to pay for it out of pocket.” She dragged her gaze to Boone who sat beside her in the back seat. “How is any of this right?”
“It’s just a truck.”
“Bullshit. You could drive whatever you want. You’re single and have a good job. You drove that truck because it means something to you, and now it’s all smashed up.”
“Hm,” Boone grunted with a slight furrow to his brow. “For a human, you see a lot.”
“What does that mean?”
“It was our dad’s truck,” Cody said, turning the engine until it roared to life. “Boone got it in the will.”
Rory turned and offered her a sad smile from the passenger seat. “Everything’s going to be okay, Cora.”
It didn’t feel like anything would be okay ever again. She’d known the Kellers had lived a hard, secret life, and she’d felt for their plight, tried to make it easier on them even. But she hadn’t realized it was like this. It was one thing to hear they had trouble with the IESA in their interview at town hall, but it was an entirely different matter to almost be killed at their hands, and just for associating with the Breck Crew.
And Boone…
God, he’d almost died tonight. If he’d been driving a small car or even a small truck, he wouldn’t have walked away from this. That SUV had hit the front end right near him. Just the thought of him being hurt curdled her stomach.
Deny it out loud all she wanted to, but inside, Boone felt like hers.
She leaned over and kissed his shoulder, but his scent was off. It wasn’t sweat, but something…bitter. “You smell different.”
Boone pulled his tired gaze from the road passing under Cody’s headlights to Cora. His nostrils flared as he inhaled near his shoulder. “It’s Dade’s shirt.”
“No, it’s not just that. I can tell the difference in your smell and the smell of the shirt. It’s…anger?”
“Thata girl,” Cody murmured, approval in his voice. “What else?”
She drew in another breath of air near his shoulder, snuggling closer. “Fur and…I don’t know. Something deeper. Different.”
“It’s fear,” Boone said in a somber, defeated voice. “Now you know. We’re not invincible. Getting to us is as easy as trying to steal away the people we care about.”
Cora’s heart thumped hard against her sternum as it tethered to him a little more tightly. He cared. And not just as friends. On some base level, he’d connected with her as she’d connected with him. She wasn’t the only one denying what was happening between them.
“You like me?” She regretted those needy words the second they left her lips. This wasn’t the place, in the car with his brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law. After a wreck and an attack that almost cost them their lives. But then again, perhaps it was. Tonight proved that life was too damned short, and that it could be taken at any moment. And dammit, she was tired of games—tired of him pretending she meant less to him than she really did.
Boone didn’t answer, only stared straight ahead, his body rigid against the side of her arm.
Slowly, she wrapped her arms around his middle and snuggled her cheek against his chest. “I like you back, Boone.”
His body softened, and he released a shaky breath, then pulled her closer and kissed the top of her hair. He lingered there, his lips soft against her scalp. His scent was changing, drifting to the smell she’d grown to adore. The bitterness eased, and though she could still smell the difference in his shirt—a product of Dade’s presence—Boone was coming back to her.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” he murmured. “And about tonight, about the crash, and about everything. It wasn’t ever my intention to complicate your life.”
“Maybe my life needed complicating.”
“Not like this,” he said, shaking his head and resting his chin on her hair.
“It’s done, Boone. Pushing me away isn’t going to make me any safer now.”
“Drawing you in even further isn’t going to make you any safer either.”
And that’s where they disagreed. Boone hadn’t cared about his own safety when he threw himself in front of the shattering glass to protect her. IESA and all the grit that came with being on their radar was scary. But the thought of cutting herself off from the protection Boone and the Breck Crew could provide felt even more dangerous. It was too late to go back to her normal life. Cody had been right when he’d said she was “in this now.” She’d ghosted the sideline, defending a group of people she didn’t know, but now her growing feelings for Boone had thrust her into the thick of it.
Whatever IESA’s next move was, she wasn’t any safer away from Boone.
Chapter Eight
The firehouse was all lit up when Cody stopped in front. Dade parked his truck behind, and they all piled out and made their way toward the open hangar.
Gage and two other men were undressing from their turn-out gear. The two human men working on shift both gave Boone rough hugs and said they were sorry about his dad’s truck. It was clear in this station that bear shifter or human, it made no difference. They were a family, who had probably all saved each other’s lives more than any of them would ever admit.
Boone introduced them as Jimmy and Barret, and they each shook her hand and said they were glad she was okay. One of them even offered to get her a blanket, which she happily agreed to. Though she still felt like she was walking on clouds with the shock of everything, Cora was still in the little black number she’d worn to the bar, and the chill had raised gooseflesh over every inch of her skin. Even the jacket Boone had given her wasn’t enough to keep the frost in her veins at bay, and her teeth chattered on and on.
“It’s a normal reaction to what happened. Traumatic events affect everyone differently, and tonight was a lot,” Boone said low after she’d tried to duck and hide the blush in her cheeks. “You’re a tough woman.”
Startled, she jerked her attention to him, just to see if he was teasing. The fire in his eyes had cooled, and they were a stormy blue again, but there was no mockery in his gaze. Just pride.
“You did good handing me that knife when you did,” he murmured against her ear as they followed his brothers past the fire engine and ambulance parked in the hangar.
“Flattery will get you everywhere with me, Boone.” She’d stopped herself from calling him Keller. She hated the way the IESA agent had called him that, and now she understood why Boone had balked against her using his surname. Never again.
A giant brindle-hound mix bounded up to her, tongue lolled out of his mouth in a doggy smile. She couldn’t help the giggle that bubbled up her throat as he bounced around her like an oversize bunny rabbit.
“Tank, cut it out,” Dade commanded, but there was a smile in his voice.
“Who’s a good doggy?” she crooned, scratching under his chin. She’d always wanted a dog, but with her odd work hours at the news station, she hadn’t the time to devote to one. As a result, she ended up playing with any dog she could get her scratching fingers on to make up for an empty home.
“Should’ve pegged you for a dog person,” Dade said, hooking his hands on his hips.
“Why is that?” she asked, squatting down so she could snuggle Tank better. Damn, she needed this after the night she’d had.
“Because you like this animal,” Dade joked, jerking his head toward Boone.
“You know,” she said thoughtfully, “I could run it past the station to do a piece on firehouse dogs. It would do you guys good to be in a couple of shots playing with him. Good for public image.” Cora scratched
behind the dog’s ears and laughed at his toothy mutt grin. “You wanna be famous, Tank?”
The dog perked his ears at his name and gave a little whine as he slurped his tongue back in his mouth.
“See?” Gage said from beside a row of lockers as he kicked out of a pair of heavy trousers. “This is why she’ll be a good addition to the crew. She knows how to spin our image.”
“She isn’t a part of the crew,” Boone gritted out.
Those words slashed against her heart, making her inhale sharply with the pain. Slowly, she stood and nodded. “I’ve had a long night, and I have no clue how long your meetings last. Would you all mind if we started so I can go home and get some rest?”
“Fuck,” Boone muttered as she walked past him, following Cody toward a swinging door.
“Fuck is right,” Rory muttered, pointing at Boone. “Fuck. Face.” Her ruddy eyebrows were arched high, and Cora would’ve been intimidated by how fierce she looked if she could feel anything other than bone-deep confusion right now.
“Boone needs food,” Cody said, guiding them through a hallway and into a large, open recreational room.
“Yeah, food should make him nicer,” Cora grumbled sarcastically.
“No, but it’ll help him heal.”
Cora looked back at where Boone was trailing the crew, shaking his head at the ground. He linked his hands behind his head, and then flung them forward, muttering something she couldn’t quite hear.
“He doesn’t look hurt.”
“Look closely at how he swings his arms. Cracked ribs and bad fractures would be my guess. Boone doesn’t show pain. Never did. Food will get him feeling better. His attitude though? He’s been like this for weeks, and I suspect it has something to do with you. Be patient with him. Boone’s a hard one to crack.”
“I can fuckin’ hear you, Cody,” Boone said, his voice deep and gravelly.
“Good,” Cody snarled, turning so fast Cora almost ran into him. “Then play nice, because like it or not, she is right in the middle of this shit storm now. Pushing her away like you’re doing? If I did that to Rory, she’d filet me. Push Cora, and she’ll do the same damned thing to you.”
“I can fuckin’ hear you, Cody,” Cora repeated Boone’s words in a soft voice, followed by a nervous laugh. She hated creating a riff between the Keller brothers. It didn’t feel right to create fault lines in a family she respected so much.
Cody arched his blond brow and stared at her for a moment, then jammed his finger toward a bathroom sign. “Go clean up, Boone. I can’t stand staring at you when you look like a murder victim.”
Cora turned and gritted her teeth in an apologetic smile. She hadn’t meant to get Boone in trouble with his brother…or no, his alpha. She didn’t really know how all of this worked. The hierarchy was something she was going to have to ask Boone about later when he didn’t have the face of a pissed-off berserker.
Boone dipped his chin to his chest, his hair falling forward across his face, and then lifted his gaze to Cora before he strode off toward the bathroom Cody had pointed to.
“I’ll heat up the food,” Gage said low, head canted and neck exposed to Cody.
Electricity crackled through the air, making the room seem much smaller than it really was. Cora struggled to take a deep breath and took a step back from the alpha of the Breck Crew just to escape the heavy feeling that pressed against her chest.
“I’m going to go check on him,” she whispered, unable to hold Cody’s gaze. She spun and speed-walked after Boone, following him right into the men’s restroom. He’d charged her private bathroom session earlier, so she gave exactly zero fucks if he disapproved now.
Except when she pushed open the swinging door, Boone didn’t stop walking until he reached the other side of a row of urinals. He shoved another door open and left the bathroom. “Oooh, disobeying Cody’s orders,” she sang out low. She had the distinct feeling Cody could hold his own in a row with Boone, even after she’d seen him fight that IESA agent with deadly accuracy.
Boone didn’t look back at her, though he must have known she was following. She was basically a drunken rhino when she walked, and her legs still felt wobbly on her high heels. He disappeared through a door but left it open.
Turning the corner, she halted, uncertain, then stepped slowly inside. It was a small room with a single bed and a closet. White walls and white tile ceilings, and the entire place looked sterile and bland.
Inside, Boone searched in a potted plant and then under the single table and desk chair. He narrowed his eyes and froze, head angled as if he was listening to something above her senses.
She closed the door with a soft click and leaned against it as Boone dragged the chair to the middle of the room and stood on it. He pushed a ceiling tile out of the way and yanked out something too small for her to identify. When Boone dropped it to the floor, she gasped at the small bug someone had planted in here. He stomped on it once, shattering it to dust, then slapped the back of the chair, blasting it against the wall.
She jumped at the explosive sound, but held her ground. Boone sank down onto the naked mattress and put his face in his hands. Back tensed, he screamed against his palms.
She hated seeing him like this because he was hurting.
She loved seeing him like this because he was allowing her to see him hurt.
“I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.”
“I fucking deserved it.” His voice came out hoarse, tugging at her heart. With a sigh, he admitted, “I don’t know what to do.”
“About me?”
“About anything. That was my dad’s truck. The only thing I have left of him. He died and left us reeling, but when he was here, me and him fixed that stupid thing up together. I should be broken up about it, but all I can think about, over and over, was the fear in your eyes right before we were hit.”
“You’re scared to get attached to me because it would hurt to lose me.”
Boone cast her an angry glance over his shoulder, but his irritation wasn’t with her. She could tell. It was with himself.
“You don’t want to like me.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to, Cora. It feels so fucking good to be around you. It’s that I’m scared of what will happen. Two tours and a dangerous job, and I’ve never been afraid. Not like this.”
“Cody was right, though. Pushing me away isn’t going to fix any of this. It’ll only hurt me.”
“You don’t even know me. You don’t know the man I am or the shit I’ve been through.” His voice dipped low. “The shit I’ve done.”
“Then explain it all to me.”
“So you can run? So you can look scared and see me like everyone else—a monster?” He was shaking now, the acrid scent of his anger and fear filling the room until it was hard to breathe.
She fought her instinct to give him space and kicked off her heels, then settled them neatly against the wall. With a deep, steadying breath, she stepped around the bed and straddled his lap. Heart in her throat, she slid her arms out of the sleeves of his oversize jacket, then wrapped it around them like a blanket. Resting her cheek carefully against his taut chest, she whispered, “Boone Leland Keller, I’m not going anywhere. Pushing me away won’t work.”
His whole body trembled under her as he slid his hands under the jacket and around her waist. Dragging her closer, he searched her eyes, as if questioning whether she knew what she was doing.
“I’m scared, too,” she murmured, cupping his cheeks. “It’s okay. Tonight was terrifying and eye-opening, but we’re okay. Now, let me see.”
A muscle twitched under his eye, and she thought he would deny her. Instead, he eased back just far enough to pull Dade’s sweater over his head.
She gasped as she saw the smooth skin over his ribcage, all red and blue, bruised badly from the indentation between his six pack to his side. “Boone,” she whispered, running her finger softly around the outside of the dark coloring.
“This proves
that dick was IESA. This is a move Krueger taught all his recruits. I should’ve protected that side better, but I was fighting distracted. I kept wanting to draw him closer to you, just so I could make sure there wasn’t a second agent waiting in the wings.”
Cora shrugged out of his jacket and set it on the bare mattress next to him. His perfect little nipples drew up in the cold vent air, and she smiled as she leaned down and pulled one into her mouth.
“Damn, woman,” he groaned, rocking his hips against her.
The little black dress she was wearing had slipped up her thighs when she’d straddled him, and now her panties and his jeans were the only barrier between them.
Boone leaned back on his locked arms and stretched back, giving her more room to work as she moved to his other nipple and drew it into her mouth. Tiny sucks followed by a nibble, and he rolled against her again.
Drawing up suddenly, he captured her lips with his and drove his tongue into her mouth. A helpless sound wrenched from her chest as she rocked against him.
Angling his head, he deepened the kiss and cupped her sex with his hand. She should’ve been embarrassed by how wet her panties already were, but she couldn’t conjure enough energy for shame. She’d almost died tonight. No time was promised to anyone, and she wanted Boone to settle the fear that had constricted her chest since the wreck.
Damn, Boone was big. Even like this, she could tell his erection was long and thick. Intimidatingly so, but she still wanted him worse than anything right now.
“Touch me,” she demanded, gripping his hair in the back.
He didn’t even wince as she brushed his ribs. His pupils were so dilated, his eyes were almost black. Without hesitation, he pulled her panties to the side and brushed a sensitive spot that made her gasp and arch her back.
“You said you never came with a man before,” Boone said in a soft voice.
“I haven’t.”
