by Terry Spear
Ryder hurried to greet Mike at his car, shaking his hand and slapping his back in camaraderie. “You came early.”
“Yeah, I figured you needed me here, so I left earlier than I’d planned. How is everything going? I assume the men dressed in black that my headlights showcased were the troublemakers.”
Ryder helped Mike carry in his bags. “Yeah, and we need to get rid of them.”
Mike swung his head around to look at him.
“Not permanently, unless they aim to kill us.”
“Like they were about to do?”
“That was probably on account of me getting rid of their video surveillance.” They entered the cabin, and Ryder locked the door. He motioned to Mike to be silent, then checked over the place for listening bugs and found none. Ryder called Rafe next. “Hey, Lexi Summerfield needs some help with a couple of thugs who aim to kill her dad if he shows up at the resort to meet with her.”
“Her dad was supposed to be dead.”
“He isn’t. He’s in witness protection.”
“Hell, okay. Two guys?”
“Yeah. The meeting’s for tomorrow night at eleven. We don’t want to alert their handler if the guys go missing too early.” Ryder explained what had happened to him, concerning the men planning to cause trouble for him tonight.
“We could helicopter her and her father to a safe place so they could visit without interference.”
“I’ll ask her.”
“All right. Otherwise, I’ll have the men take care of the thugs so they don’t interfere.”
“Thanks, Rafe. I knew I could count on you.”
“Sure thing. Us wolves have to stick together.”
They ended the call, and Ryder said to Mike, “Okay, so you heard what I told Rafe, and what we’re dealing with.”
“Hell, when someone is in that program, they are not supposed to have any contact with family or friends.”
“I know. It must be something really important that he needs to see Lexi about.”
Mike frowned at Ryder. “What’s going on between the two of you? A mating in the works?”
“Not me. I’m just an extra volunteer bodyguard. I’m afraid I don’t have what it takes to be the one for her.” Not that Ryder didn’t wish for more.
“You mean because you don’t have her kind of wealth?”
Ryder knew when two wolves fell for each other, nothing would stand in their way. Still, he did feel money could be a drawback. “Maybe.”
“That has nothing to do with two wolves falling in love with each other,” Mike said.
Ryder thought the same. But would she even give a wolf a chance to prove he was falling for her, not her money? “It’s probably hard for her to see it when she’s being hounded by wolves who have only her wealth in mind.”
“Yeah, I can imagine. The same thing happened to Rafe. There was always some woman trying to catch his attention. They just didn’t know he was a wolf.” Mike walked through the living room. “Which room is mine?”
“Second one down the hall.”
“Okay, thanks. You’re damn lucky you’ve been spending all this time with her.” Mike carried his bags into his room. “Of course, you’re probably not exactly her type.”
Ryder shook his head. “Right. You are.”
Mike laughed. “Yeah. I can’t believe you came out here without me to start the vacation and picked up two hot she-wolves.”
Folding his arms and smiling, Ryder leaned against the doorjamb and watched his friend put his clothes away in the chest of drawers. “I’m glad you’re here early.”
“Are you sure that you don’t want to deal with those men tonight? I’d rather eliminate them before they have a chance to do anything to any of us.”
“I’m afraid their boss would send replacements anyway. At least now we can take turns sleeping and pulling guard duty in case they intend any mischief tonight.”
“Sounds good. What’s the schedule tomorrow?”
“Breakfast with the ladies. A hike. At eleven tomorrow night is when Lexi meets her dad. We might run as wolves before then. Also, Don Morgan is running around here taking pictures of wolves—us—and Lexi and Kate hiking as humans.”
“Great.”
“He knows about the thugs, so he agreed to help harass them.”
Mike smiled. “Sounds like a good job for him.”
“I’ll just let Lexi know you arrived early.”
“Okay, sounds good to me.”
Ryder called Lexi next to give her the news. “Hey, Mike’s here now, and the suited men were all dressed in black, headed for my cabin as if they intended some violence.”
“What are we going to do?” Lexi asked.
“We’ll all sit tight. They backed off when they saw I had reinforcements. We’re going to take turns guarding the place to make sure they don’t make a move.”
“I’m sorry we got you involved in this.” Lexi seemed genuinely upset that she’d entangled him in her troubles.
But he was glad to assist. “Are you kidding? Mike and I live for danger.”
Mike chuckled; Lexi didn’t.
“Seriously, if these guys think they’re going to get the best of us, they have another think coming. Human thugs against wolves? Not happening,” Ryder said.
Lexi didn’t say anything for a moment, but then he heard muffled talking in the background, and he suspected she was telling Kate what was going on. “Okay, we’re joining forces,” Lexi said.
He couldn’t say enough how he didn’t want Lexi in the middle of the danger, but when he opened his mouth to ask for clarification, she said, “Either Kate and I can join you over there, or we stay here and you come stay with us. If you’re going to serve as my bodyguards, we need to be together.”
Hell, yeah! But Ryder was surprised she’d even offered to join forces. “Okay. Do you have a preference?”
“Which place is more secure?”
“The cabins are about the same security-wise, and they’re about the same distance from the thugs’ cabin. If it works for you both, we’ll move over to your place.” He figured it was easier for him and Mike to move since the ladies were already settled into their own bedrooms. “We’ll bring the food too.”
“Okay, see you soon.” Lexi sounded relieved, and he was glad for that.
Smiling, Mike started pulling his clothes back out of the chest of drawers and repacking them in his bag.
Ryder called Rafe. “Hey, the extra bodyguards can stay in our cabin. Mike and I are moving over to Lexi and Kate’s place right now.”
“They’ll be on their way. I had already alerted them that they might be needed.”
“Thanks.” Ryder was glad Rafe was always on top of things. “Okay, Rafe’s sending men and they can stay here,” Ryder told Mike and headed to his room. He began to get his stuff together.
“You don’t want to leave the food for the other guys?” Mike asked.
“I would, but we won’t be here to protect it in case these men decide to poison it or something.”
“Okay.”
Ryder grabbed his bags and headed out the door of his cabin, watching, wary, making sure he didn’t have unwelcome company as he packed his car.
Mike carried his bags out to his car and set them inside, then they both returned to the cabin and packed up the groceries. They hauled the bags of food out to Ryder’s car.
“These guys will have more trouble than they bargained for if they try to come and give us any problems once the other guys get here.” Ryder checked the cabin over once more to ensure they hadn’t left anything behind.
Mike agreed. “They’ll have enough trouble with us too.”
“True. Kate’s also a trained bodyguard. I’m heading over now.”
“I’ll follow you,” Mike said.
R
yder drove over to Lexi’s cabin and parked, and Mike parked behind him.
The women came out to help them move the bags into the cabin.
“I’m Mike Stallings, and I’m glad to meet you Lexi, Kate.” Mike shook their hands.
“Thanks for coming to assist us,” Lexi said, “even though you were supposed to be here on vacation.”
“Anything to help a couple of wolves.” Mike hauled in some of the groceries.
Ryder and Mike would be sleeping on the couch—well, taking turns guarding—while the ladies kept their separate bedrooms.
“Let’s make up the couch, Mike. I’ll take the first watch,” Ryder said.
“I’ll take second,” Kate said.
Mike agreed. “All right, I’ve got third watch.”
“That means I have last watch,” Lexi said.
Ryder didn’t plan on Lexi taking a turn on guard duty. She was the one they were supposed to be protecting. He gave Mike a look that said he would wake him instead. Mike nodded.
“Let’s get some sleep then. We can have a wolf run early in the morning, if you all want, and then have breakfast,” Lexi said.
“We’ve got reinforcements coming too. They’ll be staying at our cabin and watching over your cabin and ours and of course the thugs,” Ryder said.
“Okay, sounds good,” Lexi said.
Then everyone but Ryder went to bed, and he went outside to do a perimeter check. Afterward, he headed over in the dark to check out the thugs’ cabin. He’d rather be there watching for them to leave than observing their sneaky approach to Lexi’s cabin. That’s when he heard footfalls crunching on leaves and twigs, headed in the direction of his cabin. Checking it out? Seeing if they’d really vacated the premises?
He saw the two men peering into the cabin windows. If Ryder had listening bugs or video surveillance of his own, he would have set them up in the thugs’ cabin. But he didn’t think he’d have a mission like this on his vacation.
The men walked over to two different trees and removed the security videos they’d put up to monitor Ryder’s activities. Then the men stole quietly toward Lexi’s cabin, and Ryder followed to observe their actions. They began putting the videos on a couple of new trees. As soon as they headed back to their cabin, Ryder removed and destroyed them. They’d be pissed for sure, but he’d told them they weren’t using them on Lexi. Now the thugs wouldn’t know when the rest of Ryder’s reinforcements arrived.
Ryder returned to Lexi’s cabin and noted Mike was sound asleep on the sofa bed. Ryder watched out the window where he’d destroyed the cameras, waiting to see if the men would return to put up new ones, but they didn’t. He could imagine how angry they’d be. He heard movement behind him and swung around, thinking it was Kate, getting ready to take over guard duty. But it was Lexi.
She joined him at the window. “See anything?”
“They moved the security cameras over here from my place. I destroyed them.”
She smiled. “I’m sure they’re happy about that.”
“They’ll be even happier when they learn more of our men are coming here.” Ryder turned and took ahold of her hand. “I’m worried they might escalate things by attempting to grab you and trying to force you to tell them where your father is.”
“I’m not leaving. And don’t suggest someone else meet with my father.”
“Okay, it was just a thought.”
“Thanks for everything.” She pulled him into her arms and kissed him lightly on the mouth. “I mean it.”
“I’m glad I could help.” He kissed her back, not pressuring her to deepen the kiss, just letting her know he welcomed it. He smelled her she-wolf scent, lavender, her pheromones sucking him in as he heard her heartbeat quicken. Their pheromones couldn’t play tricks on each other. It was the genuine thing.
They heard movement, and he was sure Kate was coming into the room. She was smiling at them as Lexi pulled away from Ryder. At least it wasn’t Don Morgan who’d caught them in the act.
“I think it’s my turn to stand guard,” Kate said.
Ryder told her what was going on with the men, and then he stripped down to his boxer briefs and joined Mike on the sofa bed.
“Don’t steal the covers,” Mike grumbled.
Ryder chuckled. He never stole covers. Then again, what did he know? He always slept alone, and all the covers were his.
Smiling, Lexi said, “Night,” and moved down the hall toward the bedroom.
Man, Ryder wished Lexi was the one telling him not to steal her covers.
* * *
Wishing she could share her bed with Ryder, which was just plain crazy thinking, Lexi sighed. Yet it was the first time she’d been interested in a male wolf like this, and she really did want to take him to her bed! He’d kissed her back, but in a way that said he was allowing her to set the limits. She appreciated that he wasn’t automatically assuming she wanted more. What had surprised her so much was that she smelled the way their pheromones were calling to each other. And that had never happened to her before when she was with a man.
Just think, if she and he were alone here…then she could do what she wanted. She sighed. Thoughts like that were going to get her into trouble. She rested her head against her pillow. Despite worrying about meeting her father, she knew she had to sleep, or she wouldn’t wake when it was time for her to pull guard duty.
Before she knew it, she smelled candied bacon, red velvet pancakes, and coffee brewing. She hurried to get up and dress. She headed into the kitchen where everyone was working on the breakfast.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” she asked Mike, who was supposed to be the last one on guard duty before she took her turn.
“Mike woke me when he climbed back in bed. He’s the one who steals the covers, so I would rather guard than sleep with him,” Ryder said.
Lexi chuckled. “I thought we were supposed to run first thing this morning as wolves.”
“You…slept too late.” Kate smiled. “Ryder figured you needed to sleep.”
Kate gave her a cup of coffee, doctored perfectly just like she liked it. They were soon eating their bacon and pancakes and drinking their coffee.
“Were there any problems last night?” Lexi cut up some more of her pancakes that were just out of this world. She knew if the guys ever wanted to quit their bodyguard jobs, they could open a first-class restaurant.
Kate pointed at her laptop. “Only that our competitor is causing trouble again.”
“What’s that all about?” Ryder asked.
Kate told him all about the trouble Lexi was having with the upstart cosmetic company.
“We can take care of that in a heartbeat,” Mike said.
“We sure can,” Ryder agreed.
“Uh, no, we’re not going to do anything about it.” Lexi waved a piece of bacon at the guys. “We’ll deal with it if we need to. She’ll probably run herself right out of business.” At least Lexi was hoping she would. She didn’t want to look like the bad guy and ruin her own reputation if anyone thought she was harassing the smaller company.
But she caught the looks Ryder and Mike shared with each other, and she suspected they were going to look into it. They’d better not do anything that would affect her business in a negative way!
“I mean it,” she said. She’d read once that if you had to resort to saying you meant what you said, the battle was already lost.
Chapter 12
Ryder knew Lexi was worried about meeting up with her dad, no matter how much she tried to hide it. She sighed again, left the dining room table, and headed for the living room window. Again. She peered out. Then she headed back into the kitchen to refill her water glass.
“You’d think I was on a hike, my throat feels so parched,” she said, while everyone watched her.
Ryder wished he could alleviate her concerns someho
w, but he suspected seeing her father and keeping them both safe was all that would work.
They began to clear away the breakfast dishes. Kate and Mike were cleaning the dishes, while Lexi put away the food.
Ryder was carrying the jelly and butter into the kitchen when he got a call from Edward Manning, one of Rafe’s bodyguards, a Navy SEAL, and the man in charge of the six-man former Special Forces team. “Hey, yeah, you’re at our cabin?” Ryder set the butter and jelly in the fridge.
“Yeah, we just unpacked our bags and did a perimeter search. A couple of our men checked out the thugs’ cabin. The thugs are inside for now.”
“Okay, good. We’re glad you made it.” Ryder turned to speak to Lexi and the others. “The other guys are here.”
Mike gave him a thumbs-up. The women both said, “Good.”
“Hey, how’s everything going with all of you? We’ve got eyes on the two men over there,” Edward said.
“It’s been quiet here,” Ryder said.
“We’ve seen Don Morgan out here too. What’s the deal with him?” Edward asked.
“He got an interview from Lexi. I was hoping that would satisfy him. But he saw us as wolves yesterday, and he might want a story on that. Then again, I told him to bug the thugs for a story, so maybe he’s attempting to harass them further.”
“That could be a dangerous thing to do.”
“I agree, but according to him, danger is his middle name.”
“I wanted to tell him to get lost, but I was afraid that would entice him to stay,” Edward said.
“It would.” Ryder turned to Lexi and asked, “Since the team is watching the thugs, do you want to go for a hike this morning? We can run as wolves tonight well before eleven.” They might as well do some of what they’d planned to do while enjoying their vacation since she couldn’t see her father right away. And it provided a better cover story if the thugs happened to see them hiking. He thought it could also help get Lexi’s mind off the meetup for a while.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” Lexi said.
“I’m up for it,” Mike said.
