Hot Pursuit (33 page)

“Maggie obviously has learned to protect herself. And she protected you, too,” Ben told him, grimacing at the memory of Maggie stopping him and making him toss his boots that day behind the grocery store.

“I’m not worried about Maggie. Although yes, she loves me more than I deserve to be loved.”

Ben might have argued what Micah deserved, but instead he frowned, not seeing what Micah was trying to say. “You’re worried about Zoey?” Was Micah actually considering taking out Cortez? Ben put the thought out of his head immediately. Micah had just said he was retired. As much as his killing Cortez might solve Ben and Zoey’s problem, it would only make matters worse for Micah.

“What I’m trying to say, Ben, is that I’m concerned about you being with Zoey,” Micah said, and scowled when he faced Ben. “You’re condemning yourself to a life just like mine.”

“Zoey isn’t wanted for any crime,” Ben began.

“You already care about her,” Micah deduced, cutting Ben off. “I can see it. The longer you’re with her, the deeper those feelings will run.”

“That’s my business,” Ben said, not seeing what his relationship with Zoey had to do with anything. He’d barely known her a week, and although he wanted to continue seeing her, at the same time there was still a strong part of him that believed jumping into another relationship would be a big mistake. None of that, however, was anything he wanted to discuss with Micah. “I didn’t come here to talk about me.”

This time Micah’s grin was genuine. Humor lit up his face. It took Ben back a minute. This wasn’t an expression or emotion he’d seen in the man before. It would take getting accustomed to. Knowing Micah was happy made Ben want to ensure Wolf never found him.

“Easier to dish out advice than take it?” Micah taunted, although his tone remained light. “You went to the effort to make your reason for coming up here to see me quite clear. Now it’s time for you to listen to why I asked you to come here.”

“What?” Ben asked. In the past he’d always taken to heart anything Micah offered. The man was so well trained Ben had watched closely and learned as much as he could about bounty hunting. Of course, at the time, he hadn’t known how good Micah actually was at hunting. Or that he hunted to kill and not turn people over to the law. “I’m listening.”

“Let her go, Ben,” Micah whispered.

Ben stared at him a moment. “Walk away from Zoey?” he asked. He shook his head. “I do that and her father will scoop her back up in a second.”

“Can you protect her without falling in love with her?”

“What the fuck business is that of yours?” Ben yelled. “Are you worried she’ll learn too much about you, or Maggie?”

“It’s my business because you’re my friend.” Micah stared at the ground and walked to the other side of his shed. He grabbed a rake that had been leaning against it and began idly dragging it over the ground. “As long as she is with you, her father will hunt the two of you. He’ll learn that Zoey is with you, if he doesn’t already know. Don’t underestimate Cortez.”

“Trust me, I’m not,” Ben growled.

Micah didn’t look up but continued dragging the rake over the ground. He bent down, picked up a hand-sized rock, and hurled it into the beautiful backdrop behind his home. Ben watched him do it, noting the ground had been raked before. Micah had been working the land around his work space, making it smooth and flat and free of rocks.

“I think you aren’t seeing the big picture. Cortez won’t ever give up searching for the two of you. Even if he doesn’t want his daughter, letting her go to you, or letting his daughter have say as to when she is free of her father, will mean defeat in Cortez’s eyes. His kind of man doesn’t do defeat. For as long as she is with you, you will be hunted just as I am. It’s not the life you want. You’ve got everything right now, Ben. Don’t fuck that up.”

He hadn’t thought about being with Zoey in that light. Ben considered Micah’s words for a moment. “I get it, man,” he said, still mulling over the picture Micah had just drawn for him. At least he was open-minded enough to see the downside to possible actions or choosing not to act. “You’re jumping the gun a bit, though. Zoey and I don’t have any kind of commitment whatsoever.”

Micah looked up from his task. “Have you slept with her?”

It was on the tip of Ben’s tongue to tell Micah to fuck off. “Not that who I have sex with or, even more so, who Zoey has sex with is any of your business,” he began, straining again for control. Micah was succeeding in pissing him off with damn near everything out of his mouth. “But no, I haven’t.”

He sure as hell wasn’t going to tell Micah that Zoey was a virgin and that Ben had enough scruples to not take that from her. At least not until they were in a committed relationship. Ben blinked, looking away and toward the cabin. His thoughts didn’t need to drift toward being with Zoey long term.

“I wonder what they’re talking about in there,” he muttered, changing the subject.

“Maggie is telling Zoey about me,” Micah said.

Ben jerked his head toward his friend. “Telling her what?”

“Maggie thinks it will help Zoey if she knows she’s not alone. You see, I do trust Zoey. So does Maggie. Zoey is young,
real
young,” Micah stressed, looking hard at Ben. “Maggie knows Zoey’s pain. The two of them have known each other almost as long as we’ve lived here. Maggie adores Zoey and has wished many times that Zoey could undo the shackles her father has put her in. Maggie was so ecstatic when she found out Zoey had finally become strong enough to take that first step. It took a lot to walk out her father’s door. I couldn’t deny Maggie having her friend out here.” Micah’s tone dropped a bit when he added, “Even when I knew that by her walking, Zoey would be hunted down like a wild animal whose hunter only covets the head over his mantel.”

Ben cringed at the awful analogy. Then another thought hit him. Maybe Micah already knew Zoey was a virgin. Zoey might have told Maggie. Ladies talked about things like that. It hadn’t occurred to Ben until now, but it was a strong possibility. Micah and Maggie probably talked to each other about everything. In an isolated life like this, all they had were each other. Maggie wouldn’t have thought it a violation of her friendship with Zoey to tell Micah, especially when they probably didn’t have any secrets from each other.

Suddenly Ben envied Micah for that. A relationship could be a lifeline. Ben had always viewed it as something to tread through lightly, if he had to endure it at all. He’d never thought of embracing a relationship and doing everything in his power to make sure what he had with another person was always strong. Up until now, anytime things got sticky with a lady Ben knew it was time to walk. Although the women Ben had known weren’t anyone he could imagine spending his life with.

But Zoey—she was perfect in so many ways. Zoey was definitely a lady meant for a lifelong relationship. But was he meant for one as well?

“There are few people on this planet I trust that well.”

Ben realized Micah had been talking and looked up from where he’d been scowling at the ground. “I appreciate the trust.”

“My concern with you and Zoey doesn’t have anything to do with not trusting her, or Maggie wouldn’t be explaining our history,” Micah continued, apparently having not noticed that Ben had drifted off on his own speculative journey for a moment.

“Wait a minute, whose history?” Ben’s mouth went dry as he shot a worried look at the only cabin window in view. “Is Maggie telling Zoey about me? About you and me working together?”

Micah shook his head slowly. “Only what Maggie knows.”

“Damn it,” Ben cursed under his breath, and started toward the cabin before thinking through what he would do.

Maybe it wasn’t as bad as he feared it might be. If Maggie mentioned Ben was a bounty hunter, maybe she wouldn’t add that Ben was also currently employed and up here simply to give a message to Micah. There would be time to explain everything to Zoey. Possibly once Maggie told her about Micah, it would be clear why Ben hadn’t been up-front with her.

Without waiting for Micah, Ben pushed open the heavy wooden front door he’d seen the ladies go through. Ben instantly noticed the security panel on the wall just inside the cabin. It wasn’t the type of security system that fed out to a service that monitored the home. Instinctively he glanced around and looked up. One of the first things he’d learned as a bounty hunter, professional criminals always rigged their homes.

Ben spotted the barely noticeable camera almost above his head. Looking farther, he was sure he spotted something shiny in a vent on the wall. Micah’s rustic, cozy little cabin was wired to the hilt. Ben would bet good money there was an extensive camera system in this home with monitors, possibly in Micah and Maggie’s bedroom, allowing them to see and record every inch of every room. There were probably remote weapons built into his home. That was more than likely what Ben had seen in the vent at the front door. If anyone entered who wasn’t welcome, they would be shot.

“I don’t believe it!” Zoey exclaimed, and the scraping of a chair across the floor gave away her location.

Ben stepped farther into the home. He was only a few steps into a very comfortable-looking living room when he quit scouring the place for more traps and twisted his head in Zoey’s direction.

“Zoey,” he breathed, hurrying to her when he saw how puffy her eyes were from crying.

“Don’t.”

Her one word froze him in his tracks.

Zoey pointed at him. “Maggie has already said I could stay here. I’m done with men using me. I’ll never have another man lie to me, or believe me too gullible or stupid to handle a secret if need be. I want you to leave, Ben. I don’t ever want to see you again!” she shouted, her shrill cry with her words slicing through his heart like a very sharp knife.

“Zoey, wait a minute,” Ben managed, his throat almost closing and making it really hard to talk.

“No!” Zoey spun around and ignored him. “Leave, Ben,” she choked, apparently crying again.

Maggie looked over Zoey’s shoulders as she took Zoey in her arms and gave him a scornful look. “You should leave,” she said quietly.

Ben realized Micah stood right behind him and glanced at him before turning to the door and walking back outside. He didn’t want to just walk away.

“Give her some time,” Micah said, patting Ben’s shoulder once they were outside.

Ben stared at the Taurus, parked as the trees ended and Micah and Maggie’s yard began. “She can’t stay here with you.”

“Why not? Don’t think I can protect her?”

Ben shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. What if she wants to go into town?” What if she wanted to come to him? He didn’t say the last question out loud but felt it hang in the air between them. “Wolf has already seen your car,” he indicated, nodding at the car parked next to the Taurus. “If Zoey drives it, or either of you take her anywhere in it, that could be suicide for all of you.”

Micah thought about it a moment. “You’ve got your Harley,” he said. “I’ll take you to the cabin where you two were staying in the Taurus. Then Zoey will have it if she needs to go anywhere.”

*   *   *

As much as the two of them had argued while Ben was at Micah’s, the ride was that quiet on the way back to the cabin. Ben was sick inside. At the same time, a growing, warring argument started in his head and wouldn’t stop.

Ben had come to Zounds to warn Micah about Wolf Marley. He had found Micah, had told him about Wolf, and Ben’s reason for being here was done. Micah was right. He could protect Zoey. In fact, there probably wasn’t a safer place for Zoey anywhere than with Maggie and Micah. Ben should take Micah’s advice to heart. Maybe in time, once Zoey had completely severed herself from Cortez, she and Ben might have a chance. And maybe after she’d lost her virginity to someone else.

Ben’s stomach twisted brutally at that last thought. He didn’t want to think about another man ever touching her.

“You’ve got company,” Micah said, slowing when they reached the cabin.

“Crap, it’s Wolf!” Ben hissed, a sense of fear just as unpleasant as his previous thoughts tearing into his insides. There was no way this little Taurus would be able to outrun Wolf’s Escalade.

“Good to know.” Micah continued staring out his driver’s side window as he pulled off the highway, blocked the entrance to the cabin, and stopped directly in front of Wolf’s SUV.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Ben demanded, but kept his voice low as he watched Wolf roll down his driver’s side window. “He’s sitting in his Escalade. Are you insane?”

When Micah looked away from Wolf and focused on Ben, the pleasant look on his face was unnerving. But not as unnerving as the realization that Micah not only loved the hunt but also embraced the thought of out-thinking another hunter. Ben stared at Micah, unable to figure out what his next move would be.

“You and Zoey went to one of her friends. Use any name but Maggie. You got in a fight. She told you to start walking, so you did. The people in Zounds are friendly enough. I saw you walking and gave you a lift.” Micah’s expression didn’t change as he spoke. “Wolf hasn’t seen this rental car, right?”

“Right,” Ben agreed, scrambling to adjust gears fast enough to keep up with Micah’s cool train of thought.

Micah whispered, and a chilling smile crossed his face. “Wolf Marley will never know he sat in his high-priced Cadillac and stared at the Mulligan Stew assassin.”

“You’re insane,” Ben muttered, shaking his head and reaching for the door handle. Maybe his smartest move would be to wash his hands of everyone up here and return to L.A. right now.

“I’m sane,” Micah told him, taking his comment seriously. “I didn’t plan to run into Wolf. But here we are. If I don’t stay alert and plan according to every possible scenario as it occurs, it will all be over. Do you see any flaws in telling Wolf you accepted a ride from a stranger?”

Ben opened the passenger door but looked over at Micah. He was right. This was his life. Micah had told Ben that he didn’t wish this life on him. And it would be a life that sucked. Always having to watch your back. Looking over your shoulder with your every move. Never letting your guard down, and being ready to come up with a plan of action on a moment’s notice, like right now. Ben didn’t want that life. Who would?