Warrior Mine (16 page)

C
armen fidgeted
with the top of the towel and fussed with the blankets covering her and Sophia.

“It’s fine, Mom,” her daughter whispered. “He’s not a perv.”

“I know that. Otherwise, I’d have picked you up and run the second I got here.”

“Then why the squirming?”

“I’m not squirming,” she protested.

“
Ooooh
,” Sophia crowed in realization.

“
Shhh
!”

“You like him.” The first signs of color rose in her daughter’s cheeks. No matter the cause, Carmen smiled. Which only incited Sophia. “You do. See.”

“Will you just
shush
?”

“If you admit it, I’ll zip my lips.”

“He saved your life. Of course I like him,” she deflected.

“Lame.”

“It’s true.” Carmen cupped Sophia’s cheek. “Twice over.” She leaned in and kissed her cheek. “I love you so much, baby.”

“I love you too, Momma. But that’s not going to get you out of this.”

“Little bulldog.”

“I get it from you,” she shrugged.

“I suppose you do.”

“So,” she said with exaggerated brows, “give up already. I’m younger and more determined. And he’ll be in here in a minute. I’m sure he’d be interested in the answer too.”

“Vicious,” she chided.

Her daughter only shrugged the layers of blanket in return.

“Fine, yes. I like him. What’s not to like? He’s honest, caring, and capable, loyal and hardworking.”

“He’s smokin’ hot too. In an old man kind of way,” Sophia supplied with a little nose wrinkle.

“There are no signs of age on that man’s body,” Carmen protested. “I’ve not seen a finer specimen in all my years. His hair may be silver, but it’s sexy. He’s sexier than—”

Sophia smiled like a clown.

“You goaded me.”

“I knew it already,” she inclined her head. “You just needed to admit it.”

“You are some piece of work, child of mine. Some piece of work.”

“I’ll second that,” Vail chimed in, walking around the corner from the kitchen with a steaming mug, with no shirt, and no towel this time to interrupt her gaze.

Were the gods sculpted as beautifully as this man? Carmen didn’t think so. It wasn’t just his body, but his face too. Artful lines, dips, and sways. That regal jaw and cute nose, serious mouth and soulful eyes. She relaxed back into the sofa, and may have swooned for the first time in her life.

He walked straight for her. Carmen’s body responded in kind. Her heart galloped toward him. Her nipples followed, shamelessly stiffening. She barred her hips from rocking forward. She wasn’t a whore. In fact, next to a nun, she was the furthest thing from one. But her body seemed to have contracted amnesia.

Those hooded, almost-black eyes never shied from her body. They did take the tour though. Twice, lingering at the barest hint of breasts at the top of her towel. When he stood in front of her his gaze lifted, somewhat reluctantly.

“As soon as this hits her stomach she’ll want to sleep. But make sure she drinks at least half. Our coffee will be ready in a minute. How do you take it?”

Any way you want to give it to me.

For the sake of her daughter and her sanity, Carmen stuffed her first response into the recesses of her increasingly naughty mind. “Black.” She said it while staring into his raven eyes, and wondered if he’d get the double meaning. But she wasn’t good at flirting. She’d never done it.

He stared into her eyes—the same almost-onyx as his—and said, “I like mine black too.”

Vail may have been talking strictly coffee, but her blood tripled its flow straight to her lady parts. The edge of his mouth twitched, and then he headed into the kitchen.

“Mom?”

Oh yes, she had a daughter. She had a daughter sitting right next to her while she sat in nothing more than a towel and blanket and lusted over a shirtless man.

Mother of the year. Not.

“Here you go, sweetie.” Carmen snapped out of her stupor and handed her daughter the mug. She kept her hands around Sophia’s and helped her steady the cup to her mouth.

“Mmm,” Sophia sighed.

Mmm, indeed.

Sophia continued to sip. Sure enough her shoulders drooped and she rested back onto the cushion.

“Oh no you don’t. Up, missy, and drink.”

“I just want to sleep, Momma.”

“Drink up. Or I’ll be forced to pour it into your ear,” Vail threatened.

The sleepy girl perked. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Wouldn’t I?” One brow arched.

Sophia took two large gulps.

“You’re going to burn your tongue,” Carmen warned.

“Nah,” both the goofs agreed at the same time.

They all chuckled. That light laughter sheered the edge off the panic still prodding Carmen’s mind. She took the mug Sophia offered, having surpassed the dictate from Vail, and she set it on the end table.

“Just in time for your own.” He settled the piping mug in her hands then sat on the opposite side of Sophia. His huge bare foot propped on his opposite knee and his elbow rested on the arm of the sofa. He looked so at ease in his shirtless beauty. “How you feeling, kiddo?”

“Tired, but you and the other warden won’t let me sleep.”

Vail laughed outright. A sleepy, unguarded quality snuggled the sound. Carmen’s lips curved in utter delight. Then she sipped the coffee. Contentment washed over her. This was all so difficult, but it could be easy. If she let it. If she believed in him. If she believed in herself.

“Give me your hand,” he ordered.

Sophia obeyed with effort. Vail grimaced as he held her daughter’s little hands and studied the jagged edges of her fingernails. “You’re a fighter. Just like your mom.” He pressed at the base of her nail bed, held it for several seconds, and then released it. “Your color’s good.” He fluffed her hair, tangling the knotted mass all the more. “Snooze.”

“Thank you, for everything.” Sophia smiled.

“You already said that,” he scolded.

“And I’ll say it again, and again. Forever. You might as well get used to it.” As if on cue, she yawned like a kitten. She leaned back into the cushion, but Carmen tugged her shoulders.

Sophia allowed Carmen to pillow her head in her lap. She stroked the hair a degree or two softer than her own, even littered with tiny bits of lake debris. Carmen leaned down and smoothed a kiss over her chilly skin. “I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you too, Momma,” she yawned.

Carmen sipped the warm liquid and coddled her daughter. Degree by slow degree Sophia’s tense muscles relaxed. She stretched from her fetal ball, shoving her legs across Vail’s thighs. He smiled, tucked the cover around her exposed feet, and drank from his mug.

By the time Sophia settled and her breaths came long and even, Carmen’s cup sat half full—from her current way of thinking. She set it to the side with the other cup and cut her gaze to Vail. He stared into the fire. As she watched his expression marbled from brooding to happy, and back again.

She shifted her legs toward him, Sophia not so much as stirring. Openly, she eyed him. Her heart jacked from her sternum to her throat. Once. Twice. She swallowed.

Time to go for broke.

“Do you want my help with Carlos or my body more?”

He took another swig from his mug and continued to stare. Maybe she hadn’t said the words she’d intended. Maybe her brain intervened with what her body—and her heart—wanted, and hadn’t let the right words escape. Because one way or another she expected a reaction from him.

Her cheeks had to be fire-engine red by the time he finally turned his head and accosted her with his gaze.

“Your help with Carlos…” her heart pitched “…should be my priority.” She blinked and stared, transfixed by his flexing jaw. “But what I want more than reason is you, Carmen. Not just your body. All of you.” Her mind obviously toyed with her, but she could have sworn his gaze dropped to Sophia. Before she knew it, those intense eyes were on her again. “Every last part of you.”

Vail placed his coffee cup on the floor. The muscles in his back and arms toyed with her pitiful excuse for self-control. He sat back and eyed her. “So tell me, what is it you want, Carmen?”

“I want Sophia to be safe.” He nodded. “And I don’t think she could be safer than when she’s with you.” Carmen took a deep breath to continue, but he cut her off.

“I’ll recommend you a top-notch body guard.” Though his tone slashed with animosity, he cradled Sophia’s feet like a newborn as he rose from the sofa. He settled her and stood.

“Wait,” she begged.

“It’s fine, Carmen. You have noble priorities. Other kids should be so lucky. I’m going to shower. Watch her for a while longer. I’m sure she’s fine, but her wellbeing is the most important thing here,” he said without malice. “I’ll carry her to bed after I’m finished.” Then, as if the coffee gave him super speed, he hurried to the stairs and took them two at a time.

Oh. Hell. No.

“
Y
ou didn’t even let
me finish,” Carmen bellowed over the spray.

This woman had the ability to catch him with his pants around his ankles every damn time. “Well you hardly let me finish either,” he muttered.

“What?”

Vail stepped under the steaming water. It sluiced over his head, shoulders, and chest, rinsing the soap and remnants of the brush with death from his body. He lifted his head from the raining droplets. His gaze locked with Carmen’s through the dingy shower door. One hand slid across his chest, while the other gripped his still-throbbing shaft. Stroking his fully erect cock, he openly removed the sticky evidence of his lust for her and the too quick, too impersonal declaration of life he'd made with his fist and carnal images of her in his mind.

Her pretty mouth hung in an O. The flame red had returned full strength in her cheeks. How a stone-cold woman like Carmen could blush clear to her bones was yet another mystery he’d never solve. She held a sheet of paper in one hand and clutched the towel wrapped around her body in the other. In his fantasy, she’d dropped the towel and joined him, eagerly twining her legs around his waist and accepting every hard inch of him. The white of her knuckles said that was fiction written, edited, and published in his fantasies. Not reality.

“So, finish,” he challenged.

Her lips all but curled into a knot. “All of me, huh? Seems you took only the physical to shower with you.”

“You won’t give me anything else. You won’t give me anything at all.”

“I had to know,” she shouted. “I had to know whether all I was to you was a convenient source of information.”

“Convenient?” Irritation raised his voice, something he rarely experienced. “Nothing about you is convenient. Seducing. Dangerous. Enthralling. Irritating. But not
convenient
.”

“Well, I’m sorry I can’t just spread my legs for you like all the others. You may not think highly of me, but I’m not a whore.”

Rage nearly lifted him off his feet. This woman got to him in ways that scared him piss-less. He’d never been angry with a woman. Upset, yes. But not roaring mad. He swiveled and flung the shower door wide so she wouldn’t miss a word.

“There are no others. There is no one else. When my wife died she took my heart with her to the grave, and it’s never stirred for anyone else. Until you. You, Goddammit.” He viced his head in his hands, and if his hair were longer he’d have pulled it out. “I deal with difficult shit every day. Life and death, and evil. I know good when I see it, Carmen, and I'm staring right at it. If you can’t see that, fine. We all have our own demons to carry on our backs or slay. Do with yours what you will, but don’t for one minute think I see you as anything other than what you are—devoted, and as beautiful on your walled-off inside as you are on the outside.”

Her mouth did the gape and shut thing for several seconds, but not a word left her lips. He couldn’t stand in front of her for another minute without ripping the towel from her grip, pinning her to the wall, and driving into her. And if he did, she’d come, and then hate him for treating her like an object only for pleasure. He yanked the towel from the rack and skirted her, heading for the door, not even taking the time to wrap it around his body.

“Shower’s all yours. I’ll get dressed and carry Sophia to her bed.”

She didn’t speak, but she thrust the paper into his hand. It crinkled under his furious grip. He charged through the door and down the hallway to the bedroom where he’d slept the last few nights. Managing not to rattle the door off its hinges took restraint that only came from a lifetime of training. He flung the towel and paper onto the neatly made bed and ground his fists against his forehead.

“Son-of-a-fucking-bitch,” he growled at himself more than anyone. He was a big picture guy. A cool, collected planner. So, why the hell couldn’t he see past Carmen and Sophie?

Because he’d never wanted anything since he’d failed Ellie. Guts in a ball, he collapsed onto the bed. Water beaded across his skin, pooled and dripped at random onto the sheets. The comforter was downstairs, warming Sophie. No matter his horny irritation with Carmen, and himself, he needed to go check on Sophie.

He lay there, seeking his steely calm. He found resignation, bitter and ashy in his mouth. A huff blew through his lips. Like any good soldier, he forged on, shoving from the bed. He yanked the towel so forcefully it
cracked
the air. The dry fabric troubled his freshly shaven face. While he blotted the rest of his body he glared at the crumpled ball of white paper on the backdrop of ugly green flannel sheets. By the time he finished dressing he could have been classified a gawker.

What the hell did she have to say that she couldn’t just say? Speak, as in words? He shoved forward on bare feet, dropped the towel, and snatched the note. Creases polluted every inch, but the information on it was plain enough to see. On one side, she’d diagramed the Ruez estate in Baja California Sur and the facilities in Ensenada and Hermosillo. She’d noted guard schedules, locations, and cargo housed for each site. He flipped the paper and his jaw plummeted.

Bank accounts, maybe fifty, were listed in tiny print. For each she’d scrawled the names of the banks, amounts in each, routing, and account numbers. Carlos’s army roster took up the bottom half of the page. Names, ranks, and posts were detailed.

Jesus.

No wonder Carlos had been so desperate to keep her. She held the keys to his empire in her beautiful brain. And the rat bastard had extorted her one weakness to gain her cooperation.

Carmen had given him everything he needed to protect his people and take down Carlos Ruez. But… She hadn’t given him what he wanted most.

To keep from stewing and reigniting the anger that shot through his veins like a drug, he laid the page on the bed, snapped pictures of the front and back, and sent it to Khani with a message. “Carmen Ruez shot me, then saved me, and now she’s saving our asses. Get our people in and out. Double time, before they blow.”

She responded, “Well, fuck. Yes, sir.”

He carried the smirk from Khani’s colorfully blunt response down the stairs. When he reached Sophie’s side and the covers rose and fell gently his mouth widened. With a bend and scoop he hugged her close. Those long lashed didn’t even flutter. She weighed next to nothing now that his muscles weren’t frozen to his bones. He toted her up the steps and settled her onto the twin bed where she’d sat days ago and had that frank and fearless conversation with him. She’d had every right to be afraid, but had shown the instincts of a seasoned warrior. He didn’t wish that life for her. Her future should be filled with peace and love. Not battle.

“Don’t scare me like that again, kiddo.” He kissed her hair. His heart squeezed. Carlos was about to be a powerless schmuck and they were free to start anew. Without him.

Anger flared high and hideous in his chest. Icy impassivity used to keep him warm at night. He guessed rage would do from now on.

Quietly, he slunk from Sophie’s room, past the open bathroom door, past Carmen’s closed door, down the hall to his cubical. Because he was, in fact, at work. Nothing personal here.

But…there was something very personal on his bed.