Hunted (6 page)

“You wanted me?”

He shrugged. “I felt something I couldn’t define. It wasn’t a feeling of sheer lust, but it wasn’t love. I don’t know what it was really. I can’t explain it. I just knew I felt it and I kicked it aside. At least I thought I had. When I came face to face with losing you I guess I just decided to stop trying to fight it.”

“Well I’m all yours…at least I want to be once all this is over. If I live I want to be yours completely.”

“You’re going to live,” his voice lowered to near rage. He was not going to lose her. He had fought protecting this country he sure as hell could protect his woman against a band of mercenary idiots.

“Okay, when I live,” she stressed. “So you can stop calling me kid.”

“Not sure I can, but if it means that much to you, kid, I’ll try.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “You are so not going to be able to stop doing that are you?”

Probably not, he thought before sliding his hands down to her waist and lifting her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he kissed her hard. He walked the few paces to the bed and laid her upon it without breaking their kiss. He rocked atop her as he kissed her and she kissed him back. He had to have her; right here, right now, he had to have her. Judging from the ferocity in her kiss he would say she had to have him too.

He pulled back and got to his feet.

“No, don’t stop,” she moaned.

“Take off your clothes.” His voice was low like rumbling thunder across a midnight sky. He wanted to see her, all of her.

“You first,” she smiled up at him.

“Why don’t you take them off for me?”

She smiled deviously before getting to her knees on the bed. Her slender fingers went straight for the eagle buckle on his belt. Without breaking eye contact with him she unbuckled his belt, unzipped his pants, released the lone button from its hole and then, softly, seductively, she slipped her fingers into the waistband of his pants and slowly pulled them down. He groaned. She was making it hard for him to keep from taking her to the hilt right now, but he had to go slow. She deserved tenderness and he was going to give it to her.

“Take off your clothes, Love. I can handle the rest of mine.”

She didn’t resist she simply started removing her own clothes while he kicked his pants free and tugged his t-shirt over his head. Once she was naked he got her back on her back and got between her legs with haste. He would have tonight with her for tomorrow he was going on the hunt. Jason Porter and his men were about to find out what it felt like to be prey.

Chapter Five

Dreams really did come true, unfortunately for Debbie they were coming true a tad too close to her eminent demise. She believed in Keadon, she really did, but Jason was relentless, ruthless, unethical and beyond legal judgment. No matter what he did he always got away with it. He could hurt anybody he wanted, kill anybody he wanted, and the case just went cold, or closed with the wrong person painted with the guilty brush. She didn’t want to see anything happen to Keadon or Riggs, or anybody else in this town. Jason would stop at nothing to get her back—not even murder. She couldn’t put Keadon at risk, but she didn’t seem to have a choice. He was her only hope for survival now and he didn’t appear to be willing to back down on his mission to protect her. For the first time in her life somebody wanted to keep her safe.

Debbie sighed with contentment as she lay in Keadon’s arms. She couldn’t resist touching him, letting her fingers brush across his firm abs, tracing across his skin muscle by muscle. The man was most definitely in pristine shape. Although she wouldn’t have expected anything less? He ran often, or so she had ascertained from the women in the restaurant where she worked long hours for crap pay. This was not what she envisioned her life to be. Never had she thought, before her mother married Jason, that she would be on the run, moving from one town to the next and working for pennies just to try to survive.

She sighed heavily. “Once upon a time I was going to be somebody, Keadon,” she spoke her words softly. She felt a tear trickle from her eye. “Once upon a time I was going to be a molecular biologist. I had it all planned out. But plans change, dreams die, and the somebody I thought I might be turned into a nobody on the run for her life. Yeah,” she sighed heavily. “Once upon a time I was going to be somebody.”

“You are somebody,” his baritone voice vibrated through her. She tried to sit up, but he tightened his hold on her, locking her in place with her head resting on his chest.

“I didn’t know you were awake.”

He grunted. “You’re somebody, Debbie. But until you believe it I guess it’s not really going to matter what I think; is it?”

She shivered in his arms. “Let’s just assume I survive this.” He emitted another one of those angry groans he seemed to be giving her more frequently than not. “What am I supposed to do once I’m free from him? I have nothing. I didn’t go to college because I really couldn’t stay in one place long enough. I have never officially learned any skills other than waiting tables, babysitting, cleaning houses and on the rare occasion, doing run of the mill office work as a temp. Mostly I needed cash paying jobs in places where the people didn’t mind not having a paper trail so I really don’t have anything to show for the work I did. I have nothing, Keadon. I’m lost. I’m truly lost.”

“Then let me be your beacon. Let me help you find your way.”

“How?”

“I can support whatever dreams come your way, Debbie, but the one thing I can’t do is restore your confidence in yourself—that’s on you. You feel lost now, but you’ll only stay that way if you allow it.”

She turned her head so she could place a soft kiss on his chest before returning to her previous position. “You’re right. I know that. I’m trying, Keadon. It’s just years of abuse does not make this change come easily to me.”

“I know. But you have to try.”

“I’m trying.” She was most definitely trying, but she understood Keadon’s words too. She needed to try harder. She was going to make it out of this alive, and so would Keadon. She had to believe that. “You know the first thing I’m going to do once this is over?”

“No; what?”

“Unpack. I don’t have much because I had to travel light being on the run all the time. But I’m going to unpack what I have. I’m going to put down permanent roots and watch them grow.”

“Like a tree,” he laughed and she swatted his shoulder.

“Not funny,” yet she couldn’t stop laughing herself. “No; I just mean I’m going to make this place home for a change. I haven’t been able to do that in a long time. I’m going to find a nice little house, unpack some things and feel safe for the first time since I was fourteen years old.””

“No need to look for a house, Debbie. You can live here with me.”

She wasn’t sure what to make of his words. Did he really understand what he was saying? Or was he just off balance because there was a naked woman in bed with him? “Keadon…I.”

“I would want you to stay here with me, but I guess I should add only if you want to into that sentence.”

“I want to, but are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Stay; please?”

“Okay, then I’m going to unpack here. I’ll even hang my pantyhose over the shower rod to dry.” She laughed. “Be careful what you wish for,” she teased.

“I don’t mind. If they’re hanging over the shower rod that means you’re not wearing them which means I have less to remove when the time arises.”

She laughed softly. “You are such a naughty, naughty man, Keadon Myers.”

He chuckled. “Don’t I know it.” He flipped her on to her back. “Do you want me to show you just how naughty I can be, Debbie?”

Her breathing slowed, her lips parted. Oh yes, she wanted him to show her just that.

“Guess that answers my question.” He leaned in for what she was sure would have been a spectacular kiss had his cell phone not rang. He sighed heavily, rolled off her and grabbed his phone from the night stand.

“Little brother you’re interrupting something.”

She smiled as she leaned on one elbow and rested her head in the palm of her hand. She watched Keadon closely.

“Yeah, I hear you.” His face had lost that playful look of earlier. Now he didn’t look like a man who was thinking about going for glory in bed. He looked like a man who was ready to go to war. “Is Victoria okay?”

Now Debbie was worried. What happened to Victoria to have Keadon asking if she was okay? Had one of Jason’s men gone after her? God she hoped not. Victoria was one of the nicest people Debbie had ever come across. The woman was like honey she was so sweet.

“Bring her, bring your guns too. You’re on protection duty. I’m on hunting duty.” Keadon disconnected the call and sat his phone back on the nightstand.

“What happened?”

“They went after Victoria. They roughed her up a bit. They were about to start cutting off her fingers one by one when Riggs showed up.”

“Oh my God!” She sat up fully, covering herself with the sheet.

“This isn’t your fault so don’t you dare own it.”

“They’re picking on everybody to see who cracks and tells them where I am. Of course this is my fault.”

He growled harshly and cut her a look that had her eyes going wide until he simmered down some. “It’s not your fault. Victoria’s okay. Five of Jason’s men met their maker in hell this morning and Riggs is going to bring her over here so I can make sure the rest of them have the same fate. I’m going to hit the shower. Don’t go anywhere.” He looked her over suspiciously. “On second thought, you could use a shower too. Come on.” He took hold of her hand and pulled her out the bed without giving her an option. The next thing she knew she was in the shower with him. She would imagine that meant he didn’t trust her not to run from him. He might have had good cause to feel that way. She really was thinking her leaving would be best for everybody in town, but she wouldn’t have left. She knew he was right. Where would she go if she did try to run? Her car was still at her place and Keadon’s was locked up so tight that she knew she wouldn’t have been able to take his car even if she wanted to. No, she was going to trust him. She was going to make his fight for her easier. He shouldn’t have to worry that she was going to run scared. She shouldn’t make him think that because his being worried about her while trying to stave off Jason’s men could get him killed.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said to him as she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her head against his back. “I promise.”

He placed one hand against hers before unwrapping her arms from his body and turning to face her. He looked down at her. “I know that,” he winked as he pulled her into his arms. “But that still doesn’t mean I’m letting you out of this shower before I’m done.”

She shook her head and laughed. “Well then I guess I’ll make myself useful in here.” She took the soap from his hand and lathered the rag before rubbing it over his body. She loved him and he knew that part. She was also in love with him, something she figured was vastly different because she had loved her friends, she had even, in a crazy way, loved her mother despite what she allowed to happen to her, but what she felt for Keadon was a different kind of love. Did he know she felt in love with him? Did he know the brightest part of her days working in that restaurant-café was seeing him come in each morning? Did he know when he didn’t come she ached for him? That was more than love. That was a deep seated love that surpassed romantic love. The love she felt for him was so much more, so deep, so strong, that it scared her too. But she couldn’t tell him that. She knew it was crazy. She could die, but assuming she did survive this she didn’t want to scare him away from her by telling him how deeply she felt for him. He had just admitted that he felt something more for her than just a platonic relationship. Something more did not mean something as strong as what she felt.

When she had arrived in town and met Keadon there was just something about him that called to her. She couldn’t explain it, but he was the first and only man she had felt that instant attraction to, that instant desire for. Her stomach had done the summersault that she thought only happened in fiction. And when he spoke his first words to her the deep timbers of his voice had sent shockwaves through her body—until he called her kid that is. Once he had called her kid she realized he looked at her, not as the woman she was, but as a kid in need of nothing more than a helping hand. She had made it her mission to change that. Going to watch him work was twofold—she had a chance to see him, but she also had a chance to learn how to fix cars. She knew she would need that bit of information if she had to leave again. Her car wasn’t new to begin with, but running had definitely built up the millage and trying to find a shop while traveling through some of the cities could be dangerous. She knew Jason’s reach extended past Vegas, but she wasn’t sure just how far that reach extended. Small towns were safe, or so she thought, but clearly even Jason’s minions could find her in the middle of nowhere mountain town Idaho.

“Are you okay?” Keadon reached for the soap and a fresh rag from the bar on the wall behind them before starting to wash her body as she had washed his. “You’ve gone really sullen looking on me, kid.”

She laughed hard. “Keadon, when I’m naked and in the shower with you you really can’t call me kid.”

He chuckled. “I got a laugh out of you didn’t I?”

That he had. She was just thinking what if she did die without telling him the depth of her feelings. What if he never really knew? No, that wasn’t acceptable to her. “I was just thinking.”

“About what?”

“About how deeply in love with you I am.”

“Yeah,” he grinned at her. “How deep is that?” He slid the rag over her shoulder.

“So deep that if you weren’t in my life I know I would ache for you. So deep that I would give my last breath for you, Keadon. So deep that sometimes it feels like the only thing keeping my heart beating is knowing you’re there, that I’ll see you. I’m in love with you—more than words can ever express.”