Love Inspired Suspense June 2015 - Box Set 2 of 2: Exit Strategy\Payback\Covert Justice (19 page)

“Yep, but you're not going anywhere on that bum ankle.” He eyed the darkening sky. “I'll call it in.”

“No, there's no time to wait for SAR.”

“Hey, I've got everything we need to stay warm and dry.”

“But the federal agents—”

“Are going to hightail it back down once they sense the storm's coming. Relax. It'll be okay.”

He tried his cell phone but couldn't get a signal. Thankfully, he'd brought his radio.

“Base, this is Aiden, over.” As he waited for a response from resort staff, he studied Nia. She looked younger in her hiking outfit, quite different than her office dress of dark suit and crisp white shirt.

“Why aren't they picking up?” she asked.

“Give them a minute,” he said in a calm voice, to counterbalance her anxiety.

“Base, come in, over,” he tried again.

A few tense seconds passed.

“Read you loud and clear, over,” a voice finally answered.

“Harvey, is that you, over?” Aiden asked.

“Affirmative. I'm helping the new kid organize his marbles, over.”

Aiden smiled to himself. Harvey, the resort's former security manager, was always the jokester, and Aiden appreciated him helping Scott, the new security manager, get acclimated.

“We have a situation,” Aiden said. “Nia came looking for me and took a tumble.”

“How serious, over?”

“I'm fine,” Nia interjected as Aiden was about to answer.

“Injured ankle, so she can't walk, over.”

“You mean you can't carry her down by yourself, over?”

“Very funny, over.”

“Give me your location, over.”

Aiden dug out his topographical map and gave Harvey the coordinates.

“I'll contact the sheriff's department. There was a minor mud slide north of Rockland. I'm guessing most SAR volunteers are headed up there, over.”

“Okay, keep me posted, over.”

“Will do, over and out.”

Aiden turned to Nia. “Let's get you comfortable.”

“This is ridiculous. I can manage to walk down.”

“And make your ankle worse? Not happening. I won't risk losing my best employee to bed rest because she aggravated her injury trying to hike down on a bum ankle.”

She glanced away, her eyes drifting across the horizon.

Way to go, McBride.
He knew he'd sounded concerned for her only as an employee, nothing more. Not what anyone wanted to hear. It wasn't true, but she could never know that.

“I'll set up shelter.” He pulled equipment off his pack and got to work. It didn't make sense to pitch his small tent since the ground wasn't level and there was room for only one. Scanning his surroundings, Aiden figured out a way to anchor the tent fly to surrounding trees.

He was glad he had something to do to distract him from the cute brunette sitting a few feet away. He realized they'd never been alone together for more than a few minutes. They were always surrounded by people at the resort, either guests or employees, and Aiden made it a point to keep his distance from Nia outside of work.

“What if the agents find us?” Nia said softly.

“I doubt they're experienced enough to rappel down here,” he offered.

He got the shelter up and helped her shift beneath it just as the rain started to fall.

“We've got a good sight line from here,” he said. “Plus, the green tent fly offers good camouflage.”

She sighed. “So, maybe the men won't see us.”

He adjusted himself next to her, making sure their bodies didn't touch. “Why did they upset you so much?”

“People often are not what they seem,” she said.

He wondered if she was talking about the agents or someone from her past. “You want to expand on that?”

“The men weren't forthcoming about who they really were when they checked in. Plus, they were trying to get me to say something bad about you.”

“That shouldn't be too hard,” he teased.

She glanced at him. “The one guy said there's more to your service record than has been made public. What did he mean?”

“I have no idea.” And he didn't. Aiden had completed his tour of duty in an honorable fashion. Well, except for not being able to save Yates...

“What if they're not even federal agents?”

“Nia, don't let your imagination hijack your common sense. I'm sure it's nothing sinister.”

The crack of a gunshot echoed across the mountains.

TWO

“A
iden!” Nia cried, gripping his jacket and burying her face against his chest.

Aiden couldn't move for a second, the sound of gunfire paralyzing him. His heart pounding in his chest, he forced himself to take a shallow breath, then another. He gazed down at the top of Nia's head. She needed him to be strong, to be undamaged.

He would not let his trauma prevent him from easing her fear.

“I'll call it in,” he said.

Nia's body trembled against him. He was torn between wanting to console her and being the soldier that could defend them against the enemy. Why would federal agents open fire on them?

“Hang on,” he said. He took off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders, wanting to keep her warm and prevent her from going into shock. She leaned into him again, this time clinging to his sweatshirt. He clenched his jaw.

“Base, this is Aiden,” he said into the radio. “We have an emergency, over.”

Gunshots could sound close but originate from far away. It wouldn't surprise him if the shots came from idiots trying to hunt wild animals, or even a drug deal gone wrong. Everyone knew about the pot farms that occasionally sprang up in the most remote spots of the national park.

“This is Harvey, over.”

“Our situation is serious, Harvey. We heard gunshots—”

“Someone's shooting at you, over?”

“Not sure if they're shooting at us, but they're definitively shooting at something, over.”

“Permission to call in more employees so Scott and I can come out and get you ourselves, over?”

“Have Scott stay at the resort. See if you can get a sheriff's deputy to accompany you, over.”

“But Scott is an ex-cop, over.”

“Who's still recovering from recent trauma. I don't want to make that worse. See if you can track down Deputy Nate Walsh, over.”

“Roger that. Stay safe, over.”

Aiden clipped the radio to his belt. That was when he realized that although Nia clung to him, he wasn't returning the hug. He hadn't held a woman or comforted a woman since he'd returned from military service three years ago. As he tentatively slid his arm against her back, she pushed away from him.

“Sorry, sorry,” she said.

“For what?”

Nia leveled him with tear-filled eyes. “It's inappropriate.”

“To be scared?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I'm not sure I do.”

“I don't want to make this harder on you.”

“Harder on me?”

“You've got a lot going on, trying to save me, the storm, the gunshots.” She cast him a quick glance. “Are you...okay?”

His breath caught in his throat.

She knew.

Somehow Nia knew his deepest, darkest secret, the one he'd erroneously thought he'd expertly kept hidden from the world.

He ripped his gaze from her sweet brown eyes, ashamed that she knew how broken he was. She probably figured she didn't stand a chance of surviving out here with Aiden as her protector.

“I'm sorry,” she repeated.

“Stop apologizing,” he snapped. He didn't mean to sound so harsh, but it was his default when he came face-to-face with shame.

He grabbed his binoculars and shifted out from beneath the overhang into the rain. He didn't care about getting wet. He needed distance from Nia and to keep watch of the area for signs of trouble.

Slowly scanning the ridge to the left, he calmed his breathing and struggled to figure out how to apologize for his sharp tone. On the other hand, maybe she'd stop being so nice to him if he acted curt, because the nicer she was, the harder it would be for Aiden to stay on his side of the boss line.

As his eyes followed the trail to the south, he spotted two men hovering below. Could these be the men who were looking for Aiden? The men who had frightened Nia?

Aiden watched. Waited. The only weapon he had to defend him and Nia was his knowledge of wilderness survival and military training—training he had tried to forget.

A crack of ominous thunder made the two men look up at the sky. With a nod, the taller man motioned down the trail, back to civilization. They were headed out of the park, away from Nia and Aiden.

Nia shifted behind him, a whimper escaping her lips. His fingers clenched the binoculars. He desperately wanted to ease her pain.

“I'm sorry,” he blurted out.

“What, they've found us?”

“No, I saw two men, but they're headed down.”

“Oh, good.”

He lowered the binoculars and turned to her but held his position outside the tent fly. “I'm apologizing for my tone just now.”

“Oh, that.” She waved her hand dismissively. “It's fine. Come back under the shelter. I won't...you know, do anything that will make you uncomfortable.”

Was that what she thought? That her touch made him uncomfortable? She couldn't be more off base. It wasn't that he was offended by her touch but that he ached for it. And that terrified him on so many levels.

“Please?” Nia said.

Aiden took a deep breath. He crawled under the tent fly and gripped the binoculars as a distraction, a way to break the tension between him and Nia.

Emotional tension.

Which was odd since he'd worked so hard to bottle up his emotions. It was the only way to prevent the shame from rising up and consuming him. He'd walled himself off.

Yet somehow Nia was standing right beside him, inside the fortress.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw her shivering again.

“Let's get you warm.” He pulled a dark gray blanket out of his backpack.

When he turned to her, she glanced away, avoiding eye contact. He didn't blame her. He could be a real jerk. Hadn't his sister told him so on countless occasions?

He flung the blanket around her shoulders and pulled it together in front. “Hold it tight.”

When she reached for the two ends, their fingers touched and a spark of warmth rushed up his arm. He snapped his hands back and shoved them into his pockets.

“Why did you decide not to camp at Pleasant Point?” she asked.

“I was stressing about the staff meeting tomorrow and wanted to get back.”

She cracked a wry smile. “And you accuse me of being a workaholic. We had it all figured out.”

“Base to Aiden, over,” Harvey's voice called over the radio.

Aiden snapped the radio off his belt. “Go ahead, over.”

“Nate, Will and I are on our way up with a litter to carry Nia back. It could take us an hour or two depending on the weather, over.”

“We're not going anywhere, over.”

“Any sign of the shooter, over?”

“Negative, although I spotted two men hiking down the South Ridge trail.”

“Hang tight, over and out.”

Aiden clipped the radio to his belt.

“Do you think they'll get here in time?” Nia said.

“In time for what?”

“Before the agents find us?”

“Nia—” he took one of her hands in his, surprised by his own action “—the two men headed back down were probably the agents. Besides, if they need to question me, they wouldn't want to shoot me, right?”

She nodded but didn't look convinced.

“Maybe they felt threatened by a wild animal and fired off a shot to scare it away,” he said.

“I guess that's possible.” She nibbled at her lower lip and glanced down.

“Hey, look at me.” He would have tipped her chin to look into his eyes, but he was already touching her hand and couldn't risk an even more intimate touch. “Nia? What is it about these men that terrified you so much?”

She looked up. “I don't trust them.”

“Just federal agents, or law enforcement in general?”

“Busted,” she said softly.

“You want to tell me why you have a thing against police officers?”

She shrugged. A few seconds passed. He would not push her.

“My stepfather was a cop and...” Her voice trailed off. She released a huge breath. “He wasn't a very nice guy. Then there was the cop that arrested my little brother.” She shook her head. “They planted drugs on Danny to manipulate him into helping them nail a drug dealer. I guess you could say I haven't had the greatest experiences with cops.”

“I'm sorry.”

She shrugged. “I've been praying for God to open my heart so I wouldn't be prejudiced against
all
cops, and it's helped. But when the FBI agents came looking for you, my protective instincts overruled my compassion, I guess.”

“At least God hears you,” he let slip.

“I'm sorry?” She frowned as if she didn't understand his words.

“Nothing.”

“God hears us all, Aiden.”

“Or maybe some of us aren't worth His effort.” He wanted to yank the words back, but they were out there, exposed for Nia to analyze.

Instead of responding with some trite comment, she placed her hand on top of his and offered a warm smile. “Would you mind if I lay down until the team gets here?”

“You trust me to keep watch?”

“Completely.”

* * *

Nia didn't pursue Aiden's comment about not being worth God's attention. Arguing theology wasn't the way she wanted to pass the time while they awaited rescue. Besides, she knew his words were born of emotional trauma from the war. Eventually God would heal that, too.

She decided to cherish her time alone with Aiden, time she'd probably never experience again. Aiden was a master at keeping his distance from Nia. She used to think he didn't like her. But that couldn't be it. After all, he'd hired her. Sure, he'd hired her for her professionalism, and organizational and customer-service skills. Nothing more.

But she thought it odd that they rarely spent more than a few minutes alone together at work, and never outside work. They were always surrounded by people at various employee functions. Even at his mom's Christmas open house, they were crowded into a room full of neighbors and church friends.

The only time they'd been alone was the day she'd heard him cry out in pain and went to investigate, the day she'd spied through his bedroom window and watched him writhe in emotional pain, calling out a name:
Yates
.

She'd wanted to snap him out of the terrorizing nightmare and pounded on his front door to interrupt the torture. When he opened it, he stood there for a good five seconds, looking at Nia as if he didn't recognize her. His shirt was soaked with sweat and his eyes were bloodshot.

That was the moment in which she'd realized Aiden's gruffness was a cover for something else. Her heart ached for him, and she'd abandoned thoughts of quitting her job because she'd thought she'd fallen into a familiar pattern of working with another domineering male.

At that moment she'd wanted so desperately to ease his pain, go inside his cottage and make him a hot cup of green tea. But instinct warned her not to let on she knew the truth, so she made up some lame excuse for knocking on the door, politely excused herself and took off.

As she lay beside him studying his strong profile, Nia took comfort in the fact that he was determined to protect her, even though she sensed he didn't think himself up to the task.

What had happened in Iraq that haunted him so?

She considered the agent's comment about there being more to Aiden's service record than was made public. Had whatever traumatized Aiden caught up to him? If that was the case, she'd better sharpen her observation skills and respect her intuition even more in order to protect him.

Protect him? How was she going to do that when she couldn't even walk? She yawned, realizing the adrenaline rush must have worn off because she was suddenly exhausted. She forced her eyes open, fighting sleep, but her eyelids fluttered shut again.

As random thoughts drifted across her mind, she could have sworn she felt Aiden gently touching her forehead. Maybe it was a dream, or maybe it was real. She felt grounded when he was near, even if he didn't seem to want to touch her, like before, when the gunshot echoed across the mountains and she'd thrown herself into his arms.

Talk about a dumb move. It obviously made him uneasy, which was the last thing she wanted to do. Yet only a minute ago he'd held her hand so gently. She could still feel the warmth from his touch, a touch that lit her insides.

Get a grip, Nia.
This is your boss, not your boyfriend.

Nor could he be anything more than her boss. He'd made it clear on many occasions that his plate was full with work and family. Romance was not in his future.

Romance, something Nia ached for yet wouldn't risk with just any man, especially after her dismal track record of picking the absolute wrong men to spend time with.

The sound of rain tapping against the tent fly relaxed her even more. She drifted off into a lovely daydream about she and Aiden taking a boat out onto Lake Hawthorne, warmed by the sunshine as they enjoyed the subtle, rhythmic movement against the calm waters. They held hands, shared secrets and even laughed.

Suddenly a large speedboat headed in their direction, aiming right for them. Grabbing the oars, they tried to paddle away but weren't fast enough. The speedboat was barreling down on them...

“Nia!”

She gasped, opening her eyes. Aiden's handsome face stared down at her.

“They're here,” he said.

“Who...what?”

“Harvey and his team, remember?”

“Oh, right.” She sat up.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“Bad dream?”

“Yep.”

Because she feared that the boat in her dream represented the ultimate destruction of anything good in her life.

And in this case, anything she could share with Aiden.

* * *

Later that evening, Nia was embarrassed by all the attention she was getting, especially from Aiden. He hadn't left her side since they brought her down from the mountain. Aiden stayed close at the hospital, questioning medical staff about Nia's injuries and course of treatment.