Damn it, where in the hell was he?
The wind came, bringing a different scent and Kris swallowed. Is this what a rabbit feels like when the hawk is coming down? She could smell him. Light sweat, and the scent of male. All right, if I need to run, now is the time…I am not letting him take me away from here. Damn it I’ve got to finish this.
But it felt as though as her senses had been totally and completely closed off.
Dampened.
He laughed, the sound a little closer. “Awful timid now, Miz Evress. And you were moving so fine through the trees. That would make damn near any op I know weep, how damn pretty and quick you moved through the trees. And then ya gotta and go and get ready to ruin it.”
Slowly, she turned around and stared at a wide chest, lifting her eyes over the wide chest, up the deep olive skin tone of his neck, recognizing the shape of the face even under the paint that had been slathered on it. “Is the face paint really needed for these guys, Raintree?” she asked dryly as she closed her eyes in sheer disbelief at her luck. “How in the hell did you end up here?”
“Your boyfriend,” he said, a wide grin splitting his face. “And lady, you pulled a bad move on Dylan. You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t spank you silly.”
Slowly, she turned around, lifting her chin and staring into a pair of pale gray eyes set in a dark tanned face. “Boyfriend?” she repeated, her brow winging up. It took every damn thing she had to keep her face cool. She was more worried about this guy than she had been facing that sonovabitch in Lexington.
“Yeah, your boyfriend,” he said. “He’s on your ass, you know.”
“Then why don’t you go meet up with him and leave me alone for a little while longer? I need to finish this,” she said quietly.
He laughed, a low, deep chuckle as he reached up and ran a hand through black, silky straight locks that fell nearly to his shoulders. “Well, now why would I leave you be? He was damn nearly out of his mind thinking you’d get grabbed by one of the snakes he’s hunting.”
Kris narrowed her eyes. “He’s hunting? It looks like I beat him here,” she said.
“That’s a fact. So why go and get your neck broken now?”
She angled her chin up at him. “Damn it, Ethan Raintree, I did a damned good job getting here just fine by myself, and I am not going to let you go hauling me out of here. They need me,” she said, unaware of how haunted her eyes were looking.
Ethan sighed and reached up, brushing her hair out of her face. “I’m not hauling you anywhere. But I’m not letting you get yourself killed or hurt either. We’re going to find someplace safe to wait, and to watch, until they get here,” he said, blowing out a frustrated breath. “Something happens to that pretty butt of yours, Dylan would kill me. And I got rather attached to you, seeing how I was tagging you for more than a year. I’d rather you not get injured under my watch.”
Kris flushed, shifting further away from him as subtly as she could. “I’m not under your watch any more—the Army took you off,” she reminded him.
He caught the little slide movement and grinned again. Moving back, he let her have a little more space, propping one shoulder against the rock wall. “Girl, you don’t know a darn thing about us, still, do you? You are Dylan’s. That makes you one of ours. And our watch doesn’t end just because the Army says so. It doesn’t end. Ever.”
“I’m not nervous,” she lied. “I’m—uh, I’m kinda tired. Long drive.”
The surge of protection that gave her was unreal. He was telling her that because of her connection with Dylan, they would always watch out for her. Unsure what to think, confused, dazed, delighted…but now wasn’t the time to think about any of that.
She licked her lips. “Ah, Dylan is coming. Correct? He knows what is going on?” she asked, trying to figure out exactly what had happened. How did Dylan know?
“Yup, he’s coming. You don’t seem very surprised by that, really. For somebody who was doing this under his nose, that is, wanting to be a cowboy. Cowgirl,” he corrected, his eyes sliding back over her. “You sound kind of relieved.”
Kris glanced around again, slowly lowering herself to the ground, her legs still weak and shaky from that steep climb. Just that climb, she insisted. Not scared. Not exactly. “I wasn’t trying to be a cowboy. Or a cowgirl. I didn’t have to do this on my own,” she muttered, drawing her legs to her chest. “But I know things. He doesn’t. I wasn’t being left behind on this, letting him come out here blind. Those girls needed me.”
Sliding his pale eyes to the cabin, he studied it. “Dylan didn’t find them, did he? You did.”
Lifting her chin, she simply met his eyes.
“Interesting lady,” he murmured, cocking his head as he met her gaze. “Very interesting. But you could have just let Dylan know. He is used to going into things blind. He can handle this shit. He was trained for it. Were you?”
“Maybe not, but I’m the one who found them. And they need me.”
Ethan said nothing else, just studied her for long moments before settling back against the tree, crossing his arms over her chest, his lids lowering over those very disturbing eyes.
The silence of the woods settled around her and Kris felt her lids getting heavy. But she forced herself to keep her gaze focused on the man in front of her. Friend of Dylan’s he may way well be, but that didn’t mean she could trust him.
****
Ethan Raintree had never in his life met a woman that stubborn, that resolved, that intense. Hell, she suited Dylan to a bloody T. Her eyes were heavy with exhaustion and fatigue was written in every line of her body. But she didn’t sleep.
Didn’t trust him enough to do it.
Good thing.
The bastards they were dealing with wouldn’t hesitate to use her once they got their hands on her. And Ethan wasn’t about to see that happen. He waited, feigning sleep, knowing she wouldn’t be able to fight it too much longer. She had expended far too much energy coming up the mountain out of sight the way she had, almost as silent as a whisper. And the adrenaline that had been fueling her was seeping out as an amazing rate. She would lose the fight sooner or later and give into her body.
And what a fine one, Ethan mused. Dylan sure as hell had always been a lucky bastard.
****
Dylan listened to the birdcall, a slow smile spreading across his face. “I’ll be damned.”
Shawn shot him a furious glance and muttered, “Yeah, you ought to be.” Huddled up in a tree like a couple of squirrels, just waiting. “What are we waiting for again?” he whispered gruffly, staring at the house visible through the trees. “I ain’t no fucking cat. I don’t like sleeping in trees.”
“Get over it. You insisted on tagging along. And I’ve spent the night in much worse places.” Dylan sat in the tree like a fucking cat, his back against the trunk, one leg swinging loose, the other drawn up with him resting his elbow on it. But as the second call came whistling through the trees, Dylan cupped one hand next to his mouth, and echoed it.
Shawn’s eyes narrowed. “That isn’t a bird in the trees making that noise,” he said appraisingly, studying Dylan. “This some GI Jones crap?”
Dylan chuckled. “GI Jones crap would include a radio, com units, a surveillance team with me knowing where every damn member of the team was. This is…boy scouts,” Dylan decided as he kicked one leg over the branch and started to slide soundlessly out of the tree.
Shawn tried to imitate it, but he was swearing and convinced half the mountain knew he was there by the time he had his feet planted on the ground. “People aren’t supposed to move that quick,” he said flatly, casting a look up the tree, all the branches and leaves he had knocked loose, as his decidedly unclean clothes, before looking at Dylan, who looked like he was out for an easy, breezy walk. After the hike to get here, after climbing more than thirty feet up in a tree to make sure they were out of sight, and now back on solid ground again, and Dylan hadn’t even broken a damn sweat. Damn it, hadn’t he ret
ired because he wasn’t supposed to be able to keep up with the pace a Ranger would set?
“Ass,” Shawn muttered, shaking his head.
“You know, it wouldn’t do the world a lot of good if a Ranger moved through the woods sounding like a stampeding elephant,” Dylan said, grinning. “But don’t worry about it. I doubt they’d recognize the difference between you and a herd of deer. Even if we were close enough to the house.”
Shawn shook his head and set after Dylan, endeavoring to be a little quieter. But he hadn’t even moved three steps before he felt it, somebody else there with them. Instincts he hadn’t had to use since his teen years suddenly sprang to life as he slid his eyes to the left, and then to the right, tension racing up his spine.
He was turning his gaze back to his brother when he felt him, the silent, looming presence of somebody behind him. He dropped to the ground, spinning out with his leg at the same time, catching somebody at the ankle, sweeping the bastard’s feet out from under him , before he dove forward and leaped to his feet.
“Mother fuck!” the man swore in a low furious whispered.
Shawn met a pair of cool blue eyes as the man slowly sat up, staring at Shawn, and then at Dylan with narrowed eyes. “This the way you says thanks, Kline?” Jerry Sears asked.
“Not exactly,” Dylan said as he moved back up to where his former commander was rising to his feet, staring at Shawn with icy eyes.
“I’d be tempted to take offense, if I wasn’t so impressed,” Jerry said, waiting for Shawn to do some thing other than scowl at him. When he didn’t, Jerry studied him more closely and finally decided, “Shit, Dylan. He’s a fucking kid.”
“And he’s louder than a damn water buffalo,” Dylan said agreeably. “But I really can’t think of anybody I trust more than him. Other than you. And he invited himself along. I wasn’t wasting time trying to talk him out of it.”
“If his head is anything like yours—”
Shawn made a rude sound finally, interrupting Jerry with a loud snort. “My head is nowhere near that thick, thanks.” He moved back off the path and out of the way as folded his arms.
“Damn, he even has your attitude,” Jerry said, moving around Shawn and studying the house through the trees. “Raintree is here already. He was already in Kentucky. Probably betting in Lexington at the track and maybe his wallet even fatter. Now he was supposed to vacate the Midwest more than a week ago, but…he doesn’t always listen to his commanding officer very well. In this case, it might be a good thing he didn’t. He got here within an hour of you calling and has been haunting the woods since then. He’s not talking on his radio, though. Don’t know if he’s too close to the house or just ignoring me.” He pushed a hand through his hair, the thick straight locks sliding through his fingers, before he cupped a hand over the back of his neck.
Dylan smiled. “Knowing Ethan? Probably both,” he summed up as he took point and started to work through the dense underbrush. Hot anticipation was filling him, the hunger for battle, something he had forgotten he missed. And the desire to throttle the stubborn redhead who was putting him through hell.
He’d find her.
Get to the house, check it out, put his brother in a tree where he couldn’t do too much damage, and then he’d find her.
****
Renee had left her truck behind a good two miles. She knew these woods. Granted, it had been years since she had done any hiking here, but she could get to Whispering Arch and take a spot.
Not that anybody had told her not to, but Renee was pretty sure that the men would scowl and try to placate her with something a little more—out of the way. So she had just placed herself out of the way and let them think that was what she was doing.
Not, she thought with a snort, following the faint trail through the trees. Not too many people took the steeper trails in this out of the area loop, which worked for her advantage. Of course, she wasn’t too fond of how quiet it was. The wind moving through the trees and the calls of birds was the only noise she heard.
She jumped when a branch broke and froze, placing her back against a tree and leveling her gun, feeling like an idiot. “I’m drawing on Bambi, most likely.”
“Nah. Bambi is more graceful. That was probably Thumper,” a low easy going voice said from the side.
Renee swallowed the yelp that rose in her throat and closed her eyes.
“Now how smart is it for a woman to be hiking these trails alone?”
Opening her eyes, she leveled the gun in the direction of the voice and said, “I’m not out hiking for pleasure, sugar. Get on back to where you came from and be quick about it.”
The cool breeze tickled her hair, her face, every bit of skin it touched as she waited. The voice laughed and trees just a few inches to the right of where she had the gun trained rustled only slightly before a man, roughly five-foot seven, with an olive complexion and chocolate brown eyes slid out to stand face to face with her.
“Miz Renee, I presume? Renee Whittaker who is supposed to be sitting on her fine ass in her truck, according to a kid by the name of Shawn Kline,” he said, a slow smile spreading over his mouth.
Leveling the gun at him, she said, “I don’t like when people know so much about me. Particularly when I know nothing of them. Go, get on now.”
Renee had barely registered the fact that he had moved and he already had her tucked against him, one hand wrapped securely around hers, aiming the gun safely at the ground. Then she started to swear in a low, heated voice, his amused chuckle only adding fuel to the fire.
“You’re one of Dylan Kline’s friends,” she said, closing her eyes.
“Not exactly. I know him, know a lady friend of his. We did some training together, but we never went out for a beer together or anything,” he said, still keeping his fingers wrapped firmly around her gun. “Don’t think you could rightly say we’re friends. But one of my bestfriends is a friend of his, so when he called, I figured I might as well come. Now why don’t you let me have the gun? It’s not a good idea to play with them anyway.”
Renee kept the Glock firmly in her hand and ignored him.
“You know, that doesn’t exactly look police issue to me,” he said, his breath feathering through her hair, tickling her neck, her ears, as he arched his head around, resting his chin on her shoulder. The sounds of the forest seemed to fade away as he mused, “No. Not police issue, at all. Makes you wonder what exactly you are up to, pretty cop, walking around alone in the woods when she knows what kind of scum are here…and carrying that kind of firepower.”
She didn’t answer. The gun was registered and perfectly legal. So what if it wasn’t police issue? Setting her jaw, Renee tried a little harder to pretend he wasn’t there.
A soft chuckle drifted from him and he rubbed his chin back and forth over her shoulder. “Stubborn lady. Okay, I’ll tell ya what. I’ll let your hand go if you put that gun’s safety on, and slide it back on out of sight. Then maybe we can talk. But if you try to pull a fast on me…I’ll get testy.”
“I’m not being set out of the way, or sent along home just because of a group of big tough Rangers showed up to help out a friend of theirs. I can damn well take care of myself,” she said in a cold, stony voice. “But if putting it out of sight will get your hands off of me, you jackass, I’ll do it.”
“Hell, I’m almost tempted to say screw that. I think I like having my hands on you,” he murmured, even as he released her other hand, sliding his hand up her arm, her neck, brushing a few stray strands of blonde hair aside.
Renee felt her heart stutter to a stop and she cursed the minute shaking in her hands at that soft comment, the light touch of his fingers on her. Oh, no…
Gritting her teeth, she slid the safety on and his arms slowly fell away, letting her tuck the Glock out of sight under her shirt as she slowly turned and stared at him. He winked, quick and friendly. “Good girl,” he told her. “Now since I know I’d be wasting my time trying to talk you out of this, I’m no
t going to bother. Let’s just get on moving. Sears is calling people to order and he and Kline are running the show around here.”
Licking her lips, she settled on the path after him. “Isn’t it kind of foolish of you to turn your back on somebody you don’t know?” she asked.
One well-muscled shoulder lifted in a shrug. “No more foolish than you putting that gun away. Fair is fair.”
****
Dylan was standing in front of seven men, five of which he had bled, sweated, and nearly died with. The seventh met his eyes and nodded, and said nothing, as the cop standing beside him fumed and crossed her arms in front of her, glaring at Dylan. Dylan could feel the stubbornness radiating off her and cocked a brow at Luciano, meeting his gaze and holding it for a long second. “She’s pretty insistent she be here, Dylan.” Luc glanced at the cop and then at Dylan, a slight smile lurking at his mouth.
“I can see that,” Dylan mused.
Dylan didn’t miss this life. He missed the friends, and should have not cut himself so badly. He’d mourn Dom and Dally every day for the rest of his life, and Nick, he’d pray for some kind of miracle.
But he didn’t miss the Army.
He didn’t miss being a Ranger. The life he had built here had come to mean more, and he had a bigger purpose in life than a Ranger. And his woman was somewhere in these huge forest, alone. And the kids…always the kids.
“So exactly what are we doing here?”
Dylan grinned. “Short and to the point, aren’t you, Luc? Where’s Raintree? I’d rather just explain this once, but I don’t want to wait for the bastard to slide out of the leaves before we start looking.”
“Boo.”
Dylan had barely had time to step back out of the way before the tall, rangy Native American dropped out of the tree over them, with a wide grin on his face as he saw Renee jump and Shawn swear, one hand going behind his back. “I hope you didn’t give the baby brother a gun, Dylan. He looks a little too jumpy,” Ethan said.
ALWAYS YOURS Page 21
