Firestorm (Security Specialists International Book 6)

by Monette Michaels

  "Yes, because I know Tweeter won't let you overdo it," Fee said. "Nor will DJ, who will most likely be flying the chopper."

  DJ nodded. "What she said. Going back to work while you aren't a hundred percent is not what a teammate does."

  Tara's lips twisted. "Yeah, sorry if I worried you all. It's a knee-jerk response. When my brothers didn't want me to do something, I'd do it to prove I could. Guess old patterns are hard to break."

  Keely raised a hand. "As the only girl in my family with five older brothers, I can relate."

  "Speaking as the youngest of those five brothers," Tweeter said, "it was up to me to keep your butt out of trouble, imp. And you found a lot of trouble."

  Keely stuck her tongue out at her brother. Everyone laughed.

  "Well, that's settled." Aidan slapped a hand on the table. "Tara, you want to lead us back to your place and show us around? You said something about picking up your belongings. We can help you pack and move things."

  "That's good," Fee said. "Tara doesn't need to be lifting anything heavy. She also shouldn't be driving yet. She still has pain killers in her system and I don't want her doing anything to pull out those stitches I put in."

  "She can ride with us—" Aidan began.

  "I'll drive her over," Price interrupted. "That way you don't have to bring her back."

  Tara squeezed his hand. He took it as a "thank you."

  Price figured he'd just saved her from a long drive full of lectures from her brothers. He wouldn't fool himself that they'd fully accepted him in Tara's life. But they would.

  Chapter 10

  The trip to her cabin located outside of Elk City was just slightly over an hour-long. Since the ranger station she reported to was also outside of Elk City, living with Price would mean a long commute each day for work.

  "It's worth it," she mumbled.

  "What is?" Price looked over at her.

  "Living with you even though I'll be doing a lot of extra driving to go to work." She gave him a smile.

  "Really?" He sounded pleased.

  She angled toward him, then winced as the shift in position pulled on her stitches, so she readjusted and turned just her head. "Yes, really. For one thing, your house is much nicer than the cabin I rented. You have lots more hot water. A hot tub on the deck overlooking that gorgeous ravine. And your kitchen is a cook's delight. So totally worth the move."

  "So, you're moving in because you like my house?" Price asked, one dark eyebrow raised.

  "That and because," she teased, "the house's owner is a smokin' hot former Navy SEAL with whom I want to have a serious relationship." She squeezed Price's jeans-covered muscled thigh. "FYI, I'd live with you in a one-room shack in the middle of fucking nowhere." She pulled her hand away, then added, "Though your kitchen is really sweet." She giggled at his snort.

  "Glad to know my kitchen clinched the deal." He glanced at her. "You can thank Keely for that. She helped me plan it and told me it would make any woman I had in my life happy."

  "Damn straight. A Wolf dual-fuel range? To die for." She gave him a grin. "And that huge kitchen island?"

  "What about it?" he glanced at her.

  "It's granite."

  "Granite?" The confused look on his face was precious.

  "Everyone knows granite makes the best countertops." She added, a twist to her lips. "Very sturdy."

  Price shook his head. "I think I just missed a lot of subtext, but I'm glad my countertops make you happy. Just as long as I make you happy." He made the turn onto the gravel road that led to her mountainside cabin.

  "You do and will." Hesitating, she went on, "Price, don't let my brothers intimidate you, or worse, let my past make you hesitant about asking for what you need from me. Yeah, I might have triggers, but know this, deep inside I know you, who you are. I trust you or I'd never have moved in with you."

  "First, your brothers don't scare me." One hand steady on the wheel, he grasped her hand and kissed her inner wrist. His touch gave her goose bumps. "Two, I want you to feel safe. To know only pleasure in my arms, in my bed. I'll protect and care for you."

  "I know." She sighed. "All I've been through in this life brought me here…to you. I truly believe we were meant to be."

  "I feel that way, too." He took their clasped hands to his thigh just as he pulled into the only flat area located about a hundred feet downhill from her cabin.

  After he shut his Hummer off, he didn't move. He quartered the area, part of his military training and ingrained in him by experience. She did the same thing herself, taught first by her father and then again during her Air Force survival training. The look on his face indicated he was displeased about something.

  "Price, what is it?" Frowning, Tara looked around in an attempt to see what had attracted his attention.

  She swept the now-familiar area, but found only the usual breathtaking scenery—steep mountainsides covered with towering trees and mountain meadows with lush grass and remnants of spring flowers and the beginning of the summer blooms. She'd rented the cabin at first sight because of the views, which also included a spring-fed waterfall on the next mountain over that fed a lake in the valley. She'd often taken the path to the lake and swam nude in it, even though the water was icy cold. It reminded her of the area she and her family lived in Montana.

  "What do you sense, píítaa?" she asked.

  What was she missing?

  "I'm damn glad you're moving in with me." He turned and his face was grim. "Too many places for a sniper to hide. A shot from the next mountainside is less than two thousand feet. A half-assed sniper, which our Saturday one was, could hit you just by luck. Miller's record indicates he could take you out with one shot."

  "Yeah. But the same could be said for your place on Sanctuary. Or anywhere I drive while I do my job. Or just driving to Ma's, a sniper could take me out on the highway." She undid her seat belt and fully turned toward him even as the pull of the stitches made her inhale sharply. She cupped his face. "I can't live my life worrying about what-ifs. We, you and I, will do what we need to do to make life as safe as possible for both of us."

  "Damn straight we will." He held her hand against his face. "You're worried Miller will come after me."

  "Yeah."

  "I hope to fuck he does," Price ground out.

  "He's not sane. He was, for lack of a better word, obsessed with me after I rejected him. Any guy who tried to ask me out was warned off, and since most of them were trainees and under his authority, he isolated me from the others." She grimaced.

  "And your brothers let this happen?" Price's tone was incredulous.

  Tara bit her lip and stared sightlessly through the windshield. "I never told my brothers how long and how hard Miller had been after me. As the only woman in the smokejumper training program I couldn't show weakness. I figured if I kept telling him no, he'd eventually get bored and go find someone else. But he kept coming. I even got physical and put him on his ass a few times when he got grabby with me during training sessions."

  "Why didn't you press the issue after nothing you did stopped him?" he asked. But the knowledge was in his eyes. He knew why; he just wanted her to confirm it.

  "Because he could cause trouble for them. He was a good instructor. Had seniority with the forest service. Had connections, politically. And my brothers and I are Native Americans. In the current administration, the powers-that-be would've sided with the white man over people with red skins." She sighed. "I love my brothers. They served their country with distinction. They're elite smokejumpers, Zulies, the best of the best. I couldn't fuck up their lives just because some pushy, over-indulged white guy was pissed that I wouldn't fuck him."

  "Plus, you thought you could handle it yourself," Price added in a soft tone filled with understanding.

  "Yeah, and that." She wrinkled her nose. "They did eventually talk to him about me not being receptive to dating him—but then he…took me. Guess I handled it all wrong."

  "No, Miller was wrong.
All the way wrong." Price leaned over the center console and brought her face to his. "You're in no way to blame."

  He kissed her, a kiss of restrained passion. When he pulled his mouth away, she moaned, wanting more.

  "Later, sweetheart. We'll take that a bit farther once I get you back to the house with the blinds drawn and we're all alone." He gave her a quick kiss on the tip of her nose and gave her a little shake. "Promise me, if another man ever gets handsy with you and doesn't take no for an answer, you'll tell me. I want to back up your no, got that?"

  "Yeah, píítaa. I got it." She gave him a stern look. "Same goes when some pushy woman goes after you. Got that?"

  Price grinned. "Oh yeah."

  A rap on the passenger-side window drew their attention.

  "Are you two getting out?" Aidan shouted. "Or are you going to make out in broad daylight in front of us?" Calum and Flynn stood on each side of Aidan, grinning.

  "We're getting out," Tara shouted back, then mumbled, "Hell, we were just kissing. I caught Aidan with his pants down and his dick in Mary Ellen Bowman's mouth once."

  "Bet that was an education," Price said.

  "Yeah. I was only ten years old and he was seventeen. Momma wasn't at all pleased when I asked her why anyone would want to put a penis in her mouth. You could've heard my Momma drilling Aidan a new one all over the valley over that incident."

  Price threw back his head and laughed.

  Tara turned and stuck her tongue out at Aidan who yelled, "What did you just tell him?"

  She just gave her brother her middle finger and blew him a kiss.

  * * * *

  Price chuckled and eyed her brothers as they led the way up the trail to her cabin. "Will he get you back?"

  He was walking next to her, a hand on her lower back. With the uneven walking surface and the trail's steep incline, she was happy for his support. Even without an injury, she often tripped or stumbled over loose rocks and old tree roots from back when the incline had been tree-covered. It wasn't a path you could take your attention off of, especially when you were trying not to jar one side.

  "He can try." She shot him an impish look. "But you've got my back, right?"

  "Always." Price shook his head at Calum and Flynn who were ribbing Aidan over the memories of the Mary Ellen incident. "What kind of retaliation should I be watching for and how soon?"

  "It'll be subtle. And he'll wait." Tara shook her head. "Aidan is like the proverbial elephant and has a long memory. But he won't get back at me in front of strangers."

  "I'm not a stranger, so I'll be on high alert." He rubbed her back.

  "Yeah, you're definitely not." She scrunched her nose. "It won't be anything too bad. Since I told an embarrassing story from his past, he'll retaliate with something similar from mine. Aidan fights fair. Though Calum and Flynn are asking for a beat-down by teasing him." She laughed. "My brothers love a good fight, just keep that in mind. You're now fair game."

  "I can handle a bunch of prissy Marines," Price assured her.

  Tara shook her head. "Uh-huh. Tell me that later when they gang up on you."

  As they neared the cabin's front porch, Price stiffened next to her and stopped. "Hold up, Aidan." He put her in front of him and guided her off the path into a stand of newly planted trees on the west side of the cabin. "Damn, there's no fucking cover here. We need to keep moving."

  "Price, what is it?" Then she felt it. The skin at the nape of her neck prickled. "We're being watched."

  "Yeah. Off to the east of us. In the denser part of the forest." Price urged her farther into the spindly new growth, keeping his body between her and whoever was out there.

  She'd have protested, but he'd still shield her. The most important thing was to get farther away and present as small a target as possible.

  Price continued, "I caught a glimmer of light reflected off some binoculars or, worse, a rifle scope."

  Aidan and the others came down the incline to join them. "What's up? Why in the fuck are we taking a tour of Tara's side yard."

  "We're being watched," Price said. "Wanted to get Tara out of a potential line of fire until I can check the situation out."

  "Good idea," Calum said. "Flynn can stay with her while me and Aidan help you scout around."

  "Me? Why me?" Flynn snarled. "Why not you, asshole?"

  "I'm older," snapped Calum. "That's why."

  "Shut it, you two," Aidan ordered as they moved farther away from the cabin.

  Calum and Flynn shut their mouths, but Aidan would catch hell later. It was a pattern from their childhood and they'd never outgrown it.

  "Aidan, are you smelling what I'm smelling?" Price asked as he urged her behind an outcropping of rocks and then helped lower her to the ground. "Easy, sweetheart. Let me do all the work here."

  "What smell?" she asked. With Price helping her, she didn't even feel a twinge as she settled on the ground with her back against the rock. She shivered. It was cool and damp from morning dew.

  "Propane. Maybe some gasoline." Price placed his jacket around her. "Better?"

  She nodded. The man was very observant; that could be both a blessing and a curse. Right now, she was grateful. His jacket was warm and it smelled like him.

  "Yeah, it's stronger here. Must be the direction the breeze is blowing." Aidan nodded. "Shit. Just like Afghanistan. The Taliban always spying on us, waiting for us to walk into one of their hellish traps, which would then explode in our faces. Pisses me the fuck off."

  Tara took a deep breath and wrinkled her nose. Lots of gas.

  "It's the propane tank," she said. "It's on this side of the cabin, in the backyard. They must've opened up the drains."

  Several shots sounded loudly in the quiet of the forest. They came from the east.

  "Take cover!" Price shouted as he hovered over Tara.

  Her brothers dove to the ground and then crawled over to surround the two of them.

  A loud explosion made the ground heave, rocked everything around them. Birds flew out of trees, crying as they winged away. Thuds of debris sounded all around them even as the echoes of the explosion reverberated off a rock wall to the west. Price's body flinched above her. Flynn cursed.

  "Are you hit?" she cried out. "Price? Flynn? Aidan, are they okay?"

  Once the explosion detritus stopped dropping on them, the men moved away from her.

  Price looked her over. "You okay?"

  "I'm fine," she snapped. "What hit you?" She looked at Flynn who was being checked out by Calum and Aidan. "Aidan, look at Price's back."

  But when she turned to look at Price, he was gone. She saw the back of him as he melded into the denser trees further downhill. Muttering under her breath, she looked at Aidan. "What the hell are you standing there for? Go with him."

  Aidan nodded and set off after Price.

  Tara looked at Calum and Flynn. "Well, what are you two waiting on? Go flank the bastard from the north. There's a ravine off to the back of the cabin. You can use it for cover."

  Calum saluted. "Yes, ma'am." Then he was off.

  "Flynn, go with him. I have a weapon." She held it up. "So yell before coming in, because my finger is itchy."

  "At least you warned me." Flynn tugged her braid. "Don't shoot the bros or lover boy, okay? Call for fire assistance and the sheriff while you're sitting there."

  "Yeah, good idea. Now, why didn't I think of it? Move it, Marine." Tara leaned against the rock and pulled Price's jacket around her. "Fuck. Just fuck."

  She called emergency services, then settled back and went silent. Ignoring the throbbing wound on her side, she scanned the area around her, watching for movement that shouldn't be there. Listening for sounds that shouldn't be there. And all the while, she caressed the trigger. She'd already chambered a round. Anyone but her men would get their asses shot.

  * * * *

  Price paralleled the trail, winding his way between trees and scrub, as he worked his way south before crossing the trail and heading east. He
heard one of Tara's brother on his ass. The other two were probably doing what he was, but to the north.

  Good, they'd flank the bastard in a pincer movement. If the shooter was even still there. If it'd been Price, he'd have bailed as soon as the cabin went up.

  "He's not going to be there," mumbled Aidan. "His targets were gone, so he blew the cabin to make a point. He's gonna be long gone."

  "Yeah, but we play it by the numbers," Price said. "Did anyone call emergency services?"

  He looked toward Tara's rental. It was fully engulfed.

  The only good news was the area around the cabin was cleared of brush and had no landscaping. The small trees in which they'd taken shelter were young and still green and wouldn't burn as easily.

  "I called as I followed you. The emergency operator said Ranger Nightwalker had already called it in." Aidan grunted. "There's some small grass fires to each side of the approach to Tara's cabin. But we can contain those since Tara had no landscaping to speak of."

  "After we check out the shooter's hide," muttered Price.

  "Once we clear the area," Aidan said, "you get to Tara. Take her back to your place. Me and the boys can help the locals make sure the fire is contained."

  "My neck isn't itching any longer," Price said.

  "Yeah, he's gone." Aidan paced Price now. "So? Is this the Saturday sniper?"

  "I'd bet on it," Price said. "I saw Miller's military file. While he wasn't a sniper, he wasn't a shit shot, either. He could easily have taken one of us out."

  "Or it could be Miller playing with Tara and us," Aidan suggested.

  "Yeah, but it doesn't feel like that." Price looked over at Tara's oldest brother and saw a darkness on the man's face that probably mirrored Price's own expression. "It feels like Saturday. Almost gleeful in a mean and nasty way. I'm getting Miller isn't the gleeful type."

  "I'd say you're right," Aidan said.

  Price raised a fist and then signaled Aidan to go to the left as he went to the right. As they approached a man-made hide of tree limbs and branches, Price heard and saw nothing.

  "He's gone all right." Price approached the hide cautiously just in case the fucker had set a trap, but there was nothing. "The coward shot and ran."