Wylde (18 page)

“But Alec, can’t you see that because he’s a lawman, he can’t brawl with Adam!” Noah pulled off his apron. “It’s just not done.” Alec shook his head. “I guess it’s done here. And he’s not just a lawman; he’s
your
man. What else can he do?”

“He can be something other than a small town cliché. Aren’t you concerned?” Noah snatched his keys from the pocket of his pants. “Adam is a very formidable man!”

Alec shrugged, not looking very worried. “I just know Kell.” “I wondered why Adam left so easily!” Noah muttered. “Where did they arrange to meet?”

K
ELL
closed the door of Al’s Road House behind him. This time of night only Daisy and Madras, the owners, were around… along with one stranger to their town.

Adam.

Pushing his silky brown hair out of his eyes with wellmanicured fingers, the big man stood up from the bar as Kell approached.

Madras put up his hands, obviously feeling the heavy atmosphere. “Fellas….”

“I’ll cover any damages, Madras,” Kell told the gray-eyed and string-figured barkeep softly. How often had he come here as a deputy himself and broken up a fight on Saturday nights? He took off his shield and his gun and placed them both on the bar. “It okay if we go outside?” It would be better if they got down to business in the woods out back instead of a public place.

“As long as I get to watch, Kell!” Madras laughed. “No way I’d miss this.”
Kell shook his head, rueful. “Hold onto my personal items for me?”
K
ELL
took a deep breath, taking off his wristwatch and watching Adam do the same. He sized him up as the Seattle man next removed his shirt, revealing a deep chest, furry with hair, heavily muscled.

In contrast, Kell was lighter-bodied, his chest smooth.
Was this really a good idea?
he wondered as he pulled off the T-shirt he’d worn under his uniform shirt. He spent most of his time trying to talk drunken lunkheads out of settling their disputes with their fists… but this, this was different.

Adam had frightened Noah, and no one had been there to protect him. Kell could never go back in time and do it, but he could stand up here, now. Make sure Adam knew how things stood in his town.

Besides, he thought as he shook out his arms, loosening up, he understood Adam; they were both warriors, both trained to fight. And Noah was worth it. Worth bruises or broken teeth. Worth being patient and hoping he’d show up one night in Kell’s bedroom.

N
OAH
strode inside the roadhouse, blinking at the smoky haze as his eyes adjusted. He saw a man and a woman with their arms folded, standing attentively, watching something through the dusty picture windows at the back of the tavern. Guessing what it might be, Noah hurried to join them.

“Oh, no,” Noah murmured when he caught a glimpse. Shirt off, chest heaving, and sporting a bleeding cut over one eye, Kell evaded a kick from Adam, who was also stripped down.

Both men were panting for breath, obviously having been at this for a while; they circled each other, looking for an opening.

Noah’s chest tightened.
Kell!
He was so much smaller than towering Adam, and although he’d belonged to an elite branch of the military, so had Adam.

“Noah say my name when you put it to him?” Adam taunted, as if seeking to anger Kell and shake him from his game.

“He doesn’t usually say words… just a lot of moaning, and ‘oh yeah, baby,
more!
’” Kell smirked.
Lightning fast, Adam struck Kell’s raised forearms. The hard smack of impact made Noah clench his fists.
Oh, God, keep Kell safe.
He flashed back to what it felt to be helpless, crushed close by Adam, feeling sick.

Adam punched Kell, making him reel. He followed up with another wallop, not giving him time to recover. He swatted him again… and
again!

Kell’s leg swung out, and Adam leaped back to avoid it, but he swayed for a moment, and Kell caught him from behind, sinewy tanned arm around his neck as he punched Adam twice to the kidney.

In retaliation, Adam rammed his elbow back, but Kell had already danced away, his eyes holding Adam’s as they circled again, hungry to tear into each other.

“I think the little bitch talks too much. Why else did you look into my background?”
“First….” Kell swung, and Adam dodged, but Kell followed it up with a wicked uppercut, slamming the other man’s chin hard enough to make him bite his tongue so blood frothed from his lips. “Noah is not
anyone’s
bitch. He would have drilled you if you tried to hurt him or his son. You’re fucking lucky I came along when I did and rescued you.”

Adam’s eyes were a flat mud color, primitive in that moment. He rocked back before feinting another attack. Struggling with Kell, lips scraping back over bared teeth, arms locked, he smashed the Chief head first into a picnic table, knocking aside an old tin ashtray full of abandoned butts.

Kell’s head fell back, dripping blood from a gash, and he dropped, snagging one of Adam’s thick legs and using his weight to throw the other man into some stained ivory plastic chairs.

As Noah watched, breathing fast, narrowed eyes burning, gut tight, both men sprang to their feet, blood running freely now.
“H
E DOESN
’
T
need me to protect him. Not from you,” Kell rasped.
Shit, he was hurting! But Adam could deliver all the hurt he could offer—Kell would never back down.

“So why take me on, Boy Scout?” Adam jeered, spitting blood. “Unless you’re afraid he’ll go back to me. What can a hick like you offer a man like Noah?”

“Because you scared him once. Because I want you gone. And Noah seems to like my edges,” Kell said, enjoying the extra emphasis on the last word. He could see that Adam caught his inference.

“The little bitch teased me.”

 

Kell swung, and Adam evaded, before pile-driving Kell in the jaw with a right cross.

Kell blinked, dizzy, his vision shaking. A second later, instinctively he ducked, and Adam missed landing his next punch.
Snarling, Kell went for the body. He was smaller, lighter on his feet, and he figured Adam was used to the advantages of his greater reach, height and power. He might not have the stamina to take the pain and keep going—

Kell hit low to the gut, slamming an elbow just above Adam’s groin into his bladder before striking with stiff fingers into the center of the big man’s chest.

Adam’s eyes widened, and he wheezed, instinctively panicking when his lungs struggled for air.

Merciless and driven by cold, focused rage, Kell swung a smooth back kick, striking the other man in the collar bone. A little higher and he would have smashed Adam’s windpipe, killing him, but he wasn’t trying to kill… not quite.

He wanted to
hurt.

 

Adam toppled, his body heavy as a felled Western Red Cedar as he crashed to the packed earth.

Kell knelt and locked both arms around Adam’s neck while Adam panted to breathe, helpless. One satisfying twist and Kell could break his neck. Blood ran down his face, and he fought his instinctive need to do that. To kill as he had when he was a soldier, to take out this threat once and for all….

“
Kell, don’t!
” And then Noah was there. Cupping Kell’s sweaty cheek, ignoring Adam, who dropped from Kell’s arms like a broken doll.

“He
hurt
you,” Kell gasped, his body battered from the punishment he’d taken, but his blood was singing, so he felt like he could do anything, conquer anyone.

“He’s nothing,” Noah said calmly, as if knowing he had to reach Kell. “Thank you for helping me see that.” Noah tugged Kell to his feet, putting an arm around him to steady him.

Kell looked down at Adam, who glared hate at him. “He’s not a cocktease with the
right
man,” Kell said.
“H
ONEY
,
I think it might be a couple of days before I can chase

you around the room,” Kell groaned as Noah helped him carefully back into his SUV. Noah had abandoned his own Tundra for the moment, since it was clear that Kell was hurting too much to drive himself.
“You
caveman!
” Noah slammed into his seat on the driver’s

side. “What the hell was that supposed to prove? He could have killed you!”

 

Kell blinked, wiping the blood from his eyes. “You care about me, Noah.”

“No, I’m
pissed
at you! Pay attention!” Noah huffed. “Rock for brains, primitive, he-man, hick, barbarian—”
“
I am,
” Kell said, looking smug. “I am paying attention, Noah. Adam said you’d never go for a guy like me.”

Noah paused, hands working the wheel. After a moment, he looked at Kell, who was dripping blood on the dark charcoal car upholstery, who had a large shiner expanding around one eye like an exploding nebula, who was looking at Noah like he was his North Star.

Hoarsely, he admitted, “I don’t want to lose you now I’ve found you.”

“I knew you’d take to me,” Kell crowed. He lifted one battered fist in a victory sign. “
Yes!”
Noah muttered more words in an undertone as he pulled free of the tavern’s parking lot.

“You think we could swing by the twenty-four hour market for a steak?” Kell asked, holding his sore eye.

“No,” Noah said flatly.
“No?” Kell gave him a sad look.
“No, we don’t need to. I stocked up on eggs, bacon, and steak

yesterday.”

 

A
DAM
D
RUMMOND
opened the door to his motel room, holding

ice over his swelling eye. That goddamn hick Chief. He’d been so fucking solicitous after their set to, insisting that Adam seek medical care and offering to pay for it. He’d even been upfront that if Adam wanted to file a complaint, he could do so. Almost daring him to do it!

He didn’t need to resort to those tactics. He’d settle with Kell Farraday. If he couldn’t take him out with his fists, a bullet would do just as nicely, but he could wait, do the smart thing and give it a few months, make it look like a hunting accident when he dealt with him. “Yeah, what?” he growled, glaring at the stranger slouching outside.

His visitor had his face turned away from the street, a rakish fedora shielding his features. “I’m Mylar Anderson, and I believe we can help each other,” the man announced. “May I come inside?”

“Not unless you can serve me up the local Chief as shredded dog meat,” Adam muttered, still in a bad mood.

 

“I’m afraid that is where your talents come in, Mr. Drummond.”

Adam’s eyes narrowed. “How’d you know about me?” “It’s a small town. After I heard about the fight at the tavern earlier, I called a friend who works for
The Seattle Times
and then Googled you. I think you being in town is a happy coincidence. May I come in?”
B
ODY
aching like one huge pulsing bruise, stripped down to the robe that Noah had lent him after he’d suggested Kell soak in the hot

tub while he made him a late dinner, Kell leaned against the hallway wall, listening—spying, probably, if you split hairs, but he couldn’t give a shit. This was about Noah. This was important.

Noah was in the kitchen, using his wok while sharing with Josh an abbreviated story of Adam, about why Noah had chosen to move to Sullivan’s Mountain in the first place.

Kell’s chest constricted, but he forced himself to let Noah do this. He knew the more people he talked to about it, the better he would heal. But it was so fucking hard to listen to him expose the embarrassment and self-doubt caused by that creep.

There was no doubt in Kell’s mind that Noah had done the right thing. His instincts told him that Adam was a wrong guy and he would have hurt Noah badly, maybe even Josh as well, if Noah hadn’t moved them away.

N
OAH
was saying while stirring freshly chopped onions into his sizzling wok, “I dated Adam after your mother died. But I didn’t want you to know we were involved at first because I was worried about the….”

“The gay thing. Dad, I told you that doesn’t matter to me. Mom, uh, told me before she died that you might date a guy someday.”

“Oh.” Noah swallowed. Of course, she’d known, but he’d tried to be a good husband and father, putting his family first. He’d believed in fidelity, so as long as she’d lived, he’d never sought out the kind of attention he might have wished for in another life. “Well, it was kind of like that. I missed your Mom and I met Adam. Do you remember how I told you he was just my friend?”

Josh raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. But you were like, so lame about it, as if I wouldn’t figure it out. I mean you went to plays and shit with him.”

“Plays and shit translate into dating, huh?” Noah observed wryly.

 

“Why else would you go?” Josh asked.

K
ELL
could imagine Noah blushing at Josh’s blunt words, which made him rub a reluctant smile from his lips. God, he didn’t just want Noah in his life, he realized. He wanted
Josh
too. Wanted him enough that he hoped Noah would allow him into the family, just a little.

“Adam gave me a bad feeling,” Noah finally confessed. “He showed up at our condo sometimes when I was working out of the blue. He called me all the time. At first I was flattered but….” Noah bit his lip. “Well, one night it got a bit much.”