Rowan awoke slowly, feeling a large source of heat at her back. A large, human source of heat. One that had a thick arm wrapped around her stomach and the hard ridge of an erection pressed between her ass cheeks. She assumed it was Graham, but the fact that she wasn’t entirely sure made her slut radar spring to life again. Whatever. He was the one who put her in his bed. He just hadn’t mentioned they’d be sharing. But it was early, and she was going to roll with it. She tried to move away, but the arm tightened around her.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Graham’s voice rumbled from behind her, sounding scratchy with sleep.
Okay. One mystery solved. On to the next.
“Why are you in bed with me?”
“You’re in my bed. Where else would I be? I sure as hell wasn’t sleeping on the couch or bunking with Zach.”
“I could have slept on the couch.”
“I wanted you in my bed.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.” Graham smoothed her hair. It must have been all up in his face.
“Could you, I don’t know, maybe let me go? I really need to use the facilities.”
“I like you here. I wouldn’t have pegged you for the cuddling type, but I’d have been wrong.”
“I can’t be held accountable for whatever I did while I was unconscious.” Ro tried to wiggle away, but all she succeeded in doing was rubbing her ass repeatedly over his dick.
“Sweetheart. You might want to stop squirming so much, or we’re going to be getting to know each other a whole hell of a lot better in a few seconds.”
Ro froze. And then elbowed him in the gut. Hard. Graham cursed.
“Jesus, woman, your elbows are lethal. What was that for?”
“I have to pee, and you need to keep it in your pants.”
Graham released her, and Ro slid to the edge of the bed, only to be stopped by his hand on her arm.
“You aren’t getting out of this bed without help. So just hold it for two seconds. You don’t even know where the bathroom is.”
Fair point, but Ro wasn’t about to admit that.
“Where is it? I can hop there. I hopped all the way to the clinic last night. It’s not that big of a deal.”
Ro was yanked back onto the bed, and Graham was on top of her in an instant.
“I wouldn’t be bringing that up if I were you. Not unless you want me to turn your ass red for that stunt.”
“Duly noted, now get off me before you squash my bladder.”
Graham rolled off her and swept her up into his arms. Again. But Ro figured she was lucky he wasn’t tossing her over his shoulder.
He walked to a door on the right side of the room that Ro hadn’t yet noticed. He knocked on it, but when there was no answer, he opened it and carefully lowered her to the floor. She steadied herself with a hand on the counter and asked, “Where does the other door go?” Ro nodded to the door on the opposite side of the bathroom.
“Zach’s room.”
“He lives here, too?”
“We’ve lived together for a long time. It made sense to do the same here. We’ve all doubled up in the cabins.”
“Okay, thanks. You can go.”
“Holler when you’re done. Don’t even think about trying to walk on that ankle, woman.”
Ro huffed, and he left.
She quickly took care of business in what appeared to be a composting toilet. What hadn’t they thought of? She hurried to pull her sweats up, not thrilled about the idea of Zach barging in and seeing her on the toilet. Not a sexy pose.
Wait. Why did she care if Zach thought she was sexy? She tried to tell herself that the errant thought was an anomaly, but she didn’t like to lie, especially not first thing in the morning. It set the wrong tone for the day.
Ro hopped toward the door and opened it, finding Graham waiting on the other side.
As he leaned down to pick her up again, he said, “You don’t listen real well, do you?”
“Oh, I listen. I just still do whatever the hell I want. Thought you’d figured that out by now.”
She was a sassy one, Zach thought, as he met Graham and Rowan in the front room.
“You sick of being carried around yet?” he asked.
“I don’t do meek and helpless very well,” she replied, smiling.
“How about a ride instead?” he offered, making the motions to show that he meant a piggyback ride.
Zach caught Graham’s glare, but focused on Rowan instead.
“Ummm ... sure. Might as well mix it up.”
Zach figured she’d go for it, if for no other reason than to needle Graham. He crouched down in front of where Graham held her in his arms and felt her climb on. Graham didn’t say a word in protest, just made sure she was settled before he let her go. Graham was a good man; one of the very best he’d ever known. And even Graham had to realize Rowan needed to be comfortable with both of them if she were to ever get on board with the plan that was collectively percolating in their brains.
“Hold on tight, sugar. Let’s go get some grub.” She gripped him around the shoulders and neck tighter and wrapped her legs around his waist. He turned to throw a triumphant look at Graham, but Graham was just shaking his head, as if to say, you tricky son of a bitch. Which would be well deserved, because Zach was a tricky SOB.
As they headed out of the cabin, he pointed out some of the various buildings to her.
“Over there is the bathhouse, which you saw last night.” He gestured off to the right. “And beyond that, closer to the outside wall, is the greenhouse and the livestock barn.”
He could feel Rowan craning her head for a better look. “We can check it out after breakfast, if you’d like.”
She didn’t respond. “You nodding back there? I can’t hear your head rattle.”
“That’d be fine. What kind of livestock do you keep?”
“A small herd of dairy goats and chickens, mainly. There are a few pigs in a pen just outside the walls, but those won’t be around much longer. It’s almost butchering time. And then there’s the deer.”
“Deer?”
“We’ve got about eighty total. We were just gearing up for hunting season when the grid went down. Another few days and we would have had hunting parties bunking here, too.”
“Hunting season? That doesn’t start until October first. Right?” Ro asked.
Zach slowed and turned his head so he could see her. “This is a whitetail deer ranch, sweetheart. We breed ‘em. They hunt ‘em. And we sell assorted deer products to places like Cabela’s and Gander Mountain.”
He could see the comprehension dawning in her expressive brown eyes, followed by confusion. “That explains the fence, but this place looks like Rambo’s summer camp, not a hoity-toity place for rich guys to stand around and shoot a deer without having to work at it.”
Graham paused beside them.
“That’s not really our style. My uncle prided himself on offering prize bucks in challenging hunts. We’ve continued the tradition. The people who come here, they come expecting to hunt. Not to sightsee and shoot their allotted deer. And we only allow bow hunting. No rifles.”
Ro’s surprise was clear. Her lush mouth had dropped open into a tempting little O that he wanted to do very bad things to. It wasn’t lost on Zach that Graham’s stare was just as stuck on her pouty lips.
“Ask your questions, doll,” Zach said.
“Okay, so you said something about your uncle? Does he live here, too?”
The lust in Graham’s eyes died a quick death. Even after five years, Jerry’s passing was still a subject Graham avoided. Zach didn’t blame him. Jerry had been the only family Graham had ever been able to count on. Hell, besides Graham and the team, Jerry had been the only person that Zach had been able to count on after he’d enlisted. But that was an even darker subject that he didn’t want to contemplate if he could avoid it.
Zach took pity on Graham and stepped in to answer the question. “Graham’s Uncle Jerry has been gone about five years now. We all miss him. He’d let us crash here when we were on leave. Put us to work.”
Ro nodded, as though she was processing that information.
“And the Rambo summer camp look? I can’t picture rich guys coming to rough it here.”
Zach smiled. “We cater to the serious hunters. Not the executives out for a weekend jaunt. The people we draw are more concerned about the quality of our bucks and our terrain.”
Graham finally joined the conversation again. “And this place was a summer camp at one time. It went out of business in the late ‘60s or early ‘70s because it wasn’t on a lake and couldn’t offer watersports like so many others. Uncle Jerry bought it in the late ‘70s and slowly bought up all the land around it that he could and converted it into a whitetail hunting preserve.”
“That’s kind of incredible. Did you spend a lot of time here growing up?”
Zach could tell Graham was uncomfortable with the question, but surprisingly, he answered anyway.
“Ten years. Right up until I enlisted.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize your parents lived here, too.”
Zach cringed.
“My parents were out of the picture by then. It was just Jerry and me.”
Ro’s questions ceased, and an awkward silence descended.
They’d been standing in front of the mess hall for the last five minutes while Rowan asked her questions and scoped out the place. Time to move on.
“Let’s get you some food,” Zach said, reaching for the door.
Rowan took in the three large rectangular wooden dining tables, each surrounded by eight chairs, inside the large room. The plank wood floors looked old, but clean. At one end of the room was a large service window that opened into the kitchen area with a wide counter extending out into the dining room. Right now it looked like it functioned as a buffet for the hot breakfast food. The steam and smells emanating from the platters set off a round of growling in Ro’s stomach.
Zach heard it, or maybe felt it, first. “Here, sugar, take a seat.” He pulled out a chair and squatted down so she could slide onto it.
“Thanks for the ride,” she said with a sincere smile. Zach was easy to like, and the fact that he was gorgeous and saved her from the awkward silence following her nosy questions didn’t hurt.
Ro forced herself to look away from his twinkling amber eyes and take in her fellow companions seated at the table.
Three men, all large and wearing long-sleeve thermal shirts and cargo pants in various earth tones, and then one little blonde angel dressed in jeans and a pink sweatshirt that had a giant, purple, glittery flower in the middle. Her pigtails were accented with matching pink ribbons. The largest man at the table, sporting a completely shaved head and light mocha-colored skin, sat next to the little girl and occasionally cut her pancakes into smaller pieces when she tried to shove a giant chunk into her mouth. He would have easily been the most intimidating man in the room, except for maybe Graham, but the look of complete adoration in his eyes when he looked at the little girl effectively derailed the scary vibe. Beau was seated across from the little girl, and a man who Rowan hadn’t seen before sat at the foot of the table. Even seated, Ro could tell that he was also tall and broad, with shoulders fit for a linebacker and looked like he could crush the chair he was sitting in. He had shaggy hair that was more copper than brown and stunning green eyes that were currently making a careful study of her.
Rowan opened her mouth to introduce herself, but Graham beat her to it.
“This is Rowan; she’s a guest. You’ve already met Beau. Next to him is Travis, and across from Travis are Jonah and Grace. What do you want to eat? There are pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, and hash browns, if Allison is going with the usual today.”
Ro looked up at Graham in semi-shock. That might have been the longest string of words she’d heard come out of his mouth yet.
A female voice called from the window in the kitchen, “There’s also toast and blackberry preserves.”
Rowan looked toward the sound of the voice and saw a woman around her age, dressed in what looked to be a homespun blue dress with a white apron. It reminded Ro of what Amish women wore and seemed out of place among the commandos.
From the seat he had pulled up between her and Beau, Zach faux whispered, “That’s Allison. She’s married to that brute across from you, although none of us can figure out why. And that sweet little girl covered in syrup is Grace. Why she’s not terrified of Jonah, we aren’t sure.”
The maligned Jonah threw a piece of bacon at Zach. Zach caught it in flight and popped it into his mouth.
Jonah rolled his eyes and gave Ro a manly chin jerk. “Nice to meet you. I understand you had a bit of a rough trip on the way here.”
Ro looked down to the table and the plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes that was shoved in front of her. A mug of coffee followed. She looked at Graham questioningly, as he seated himself at the head of the table, just to her left. He just shrugged. “Eat. You need it.”
Opting not to argue with him, she answered Jonah. “It wasn’t a picnic, but I did all right.”
Beau spoke up. “How’s your ankle feeling this morning?”
Ro tentatively rotated it in a circle under the table.
“Actually, it feels pretty good. I don’t think it was as bad as it looked last night.”
Graham interrupted, “We’ll let Beau decide that after breakfast.”
Whatever, Ro thought as she dug into her food. It was delicious. The eggs were light and fluffy, the bacon crispy, and the pancakes tasted like her mom’s homemade buttermilk recipe, which Ro hadn’t had since her mom passed away when she was a kid. She blinked back the tears that misted at the memory.
“So,” Travis began, “where ya headed?”
Ro could swear she heard Graham mumble, “Great fucking question.” She ignored him and focused on Travis.
“Home.”
“Care to elaborate? And did you really come all the way from Chicago on foot?”
“I’m a little off my bearings, but my family’s farm shouldn’t be too much farther northeast of here. My dad and sister will be waiting on me. And yeah, I left Chicago pretty quickly after whatever happened, happened.”
Jonah looked up from where he was still helping Grace eat her pancakes. “How did you know to get out of the city that fast? Figuring the distance, walking, you must have left the day the EMP took out the grid, or at least by the day after.”
“So it was an electromagnetic pulse? I wondered.”
Jonah nodded, eyes narrowing.
“I left the city the day it happened.”
“Most people wouldn’t have left that fast. Or known what the hell an EMP was.” He paused, and his assessment made Ro feel self-conscious. “I’ve seen your bag.” He gestured to the corner of the mess hall. Ro looked and was relieved to see her pack on the floor. “You had everything you’d need for the trip in your kit. How’d that come about?”
“As much as I’d like the answer to that question, Rowan needs to eat while her food is still hot,” Graham decreed.
For once, Ro was actually grateful for Graham’s highhanded behavior and took a huge bite. She didn’t really want to explain. After she chewed and swallowed, she asked the question that had been nagging her since she’d arrived, “How do you still have working electronics when no one else does?”
“Just eat, woman,” Graham ordered.
Ro let the question go, for the moment, but only because she was starving. She ignored the stares of the other men as she worked on tucking away her giant breakfast. Whatever, boys. A girl’s gotta eat.
After she was finished, she pushed away from the table and went to stand, momentarily forgetting about her ankle. Surprisingly, the two seconds she put weight on it before Graham shoved her back down onto the chair, she felt only a twinge of pain.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Calm down, Conan. I’m fine.”
The other men at the table bit back grins at her nickname for Graham. She hadn’t actually meant to let that slip out.
Beau intervened before she and Graham could square off and verbally spar.
“Let me take a look at it.” He turned her chair so he could crouch in front of her and peeled off her sock. He unwrapped the bandage and manipulated her ankle. The bruising was still there, but the swelling was almost completely gone.
“It actually looks a hell of a lot better. Definitely better than I expected. You sprain your ankle fairly often?” he asked, looking up at Ro.
“Yeah, it happens. I’ve broken both of them, and I’m not sure they’ve ever been totally right since. I bounce back pretty quickly though. I figured more than a day or two off it would be completely unnecessary. I can probably walk on it today and be fine.”
“Doll, how about you let the good doctor here make that determination,” Zach said. “So, Beau, what’s the verdict?”
Ro waited with great anticipation as Beau continued to manipulate her ankle. “Does that hurt?”
There was a twinge, okay, maybe a slice, of pain, but nothing Ro couldn’t handle. “Feels fine.”
“Don’t lie to him,” Graham said, dropping a heavy hand on her shoulder. “You won’t like the consequences.”
“It’s fine. Barely a twinge. Don’t get your panties in a twist,” Ro shot back. She didn’t take well to threats.
“Beau?”
“I’d suggest staying off it for the rest of the day today, at the very least. And preferably tomorrow, too. You might as well give it a chance to heal up right this time. Especially if you’re planning on walking on it eight hours a day like you’ve probably been doing.”
More like ten or twelve hours a day, Rowan thought.
“She’s not going anywhere,” Graham decreed. Rowan’s temper flared like a Roman candle.
“Excuse me? I’m headed out today, whether you like it or not. I don’t have time to screw around. I need to be somewhere, and I’ve got people waiting on me, and whether I stay or go is not your call.” Ro had put her family last on her list of priorities too many times during the last decade. They were first on her list now, and any desire to stay—regardless of the reason—had to be ruthlessly shoved to the bottom.
“How exactly do you think you’re getting out of here? Not a single person here is going to open the gate for you. You’re going to stay put until you’re healed up completely and I figure out what the hell to do with you.”
Zach spoke up then, as if sensing that Graham’s words were just pissing Rowan off more. Which would be an accurate assumption. “Sweetheart, it’s not safe for you to be out on the road alone. I know you made it this far, but we can’t in good conscience let you leave by yourself. We’d be throwing you to the wolves.”
“I’ll be fine. And regardless, I’m not your problem. I’m not far from where I’m going. It’ll only take me another day, maybe two, to get home.”
“I don’t care if you’re only crossing the street, you’re not going anywhere. And that’s final.” Graham reached down to pluck Rowan off the chair, but she shoved his shoulders back.
“I don’t know how things usually work around here, and I don’t really care, but this whole what I say goes attitude you’ve got going on doesn’t work for me. So just let me grab my pack and I’ll be on my way. You won’t need to trouble yourself with me again.”
Graham cursed, spun, and left the mess hall, slamming the door behind him.
“I think Mr. Graham is mad, Daddy,” Grace said to Jonah. “I think he doesn’t want Miss Rowan to go because he likes her like you like Mommy.”
Ro dropped her head into her hands. From the mouth of babes and all.
Zach lifted her chin and dropped a quick, and completely surprising, kiss on her lips. “Been wanting to do that since I saw you covered in mud. I’ll talk to Graham. We’ll figure something out.”
Zach left the mess hall and spotted Graham heading for the command post. He jogged to catch up.
“That could have gone better.”
Graham shot him an annoyed look. “No shit.”
“You got a plan besides telling her she ain’t leaving?”
“I’m still working on that.”
“Because she seems pretty damn determined to get on her way. I want her to stay as much as you do, but we can’t force her.”
“Says who?”
“Seriously, G. Don’t you want a willing woman in your bed?”
“As long as she’s in my bed, I don’t much care.”
Zach knew posturing when he saw it, especially in his best friend.
“There’s got to be some middle ground here.” And Zach was determined to find it. After all, he wanted her to stay, but even more, he wanted her to want to stay.
“You think she’ll figure a way out of the camp?”
“Not a chance in hell,” Graham said confidently.
“She’s a firecracker, all right. Might surprise you.”
“Everything that woman does surprises me. Can you imagine her setting out without any protection to walk home? Over a hundred miles?” Graham shook his head. “Un-fucking believable.”
“You have fire watch this morning?”
“Shit. I have a shift in the command post.” Graham looked down at his watch. “Which started five minutes ago.”
Graham took off for his post, and Zach called after him, “You ever been late before, G?”
Graham shot up his middle finger before he disappeared into the building.
Rowan waited at the table until the other men gave her apologetic looks and left to go about their business. Jonah took Grace into the kitchen to sit with Allison, and cleaned up and set the leftovers aside for those who hadn't made it in for breakfast yet.
Room empty, and the others occupied, Rowan spied her backpack in the front corner. She stood, gingerly putting weight on her ankle. Only a twinge, okay, more than a twinge, but still, she was satisfied that she could walk. At least a little. Thankfully, both of her boots were sitting next to her bag. She dragged the bag to the nearest chair and attempted to fit her wrapped ankle into the hiking boot. Not happening. She pulled her sock off and unwrapped the ace bandage and shoved it in the bag and then pulled the boot on and laced it. Standing, she took a few tentative steps. The pressure from the boot definitely helped. She wouldn’t get ten hours in today, but she’d get a few. She shouldered the pack and slipped out of the mess hall.
Outside, Ro ducked around the side of the building and took a look around. The whole area seemed to be enclosed in the shape of a hexagon. The twelve-foot corrugated steel walls topped with wicked looking razor wire were impressive. Very twenty-first century, barbarian stronghold chic. And not what she’d expect from a simple, rustic hunting retreat. She surveyed her surroundings and racked her brain to figure the best way to get the hell out. Graham was undoubtedly right that none of his guys were going to be opening the door for her to leave.
A few of the giant oaks that shaded the interior of the compound had platforms built into the high branches, forming covered camouflaged lookout posts that probably gave a good view outside the walls. If she hadn’t known to look for them, she wouldn’t have even noticed they were there. It was possible someone was using one for watch. She didn’t see anyone, but it didn’t mean someone wasn’t there. On the far side of the compound, she could see the goats Zach mentioned munching away at the grass growing in a wire-fenced pen. A lean-to type barn provided shelter from the elements, and a large chicken coop sat off to the right of the goat pen. Rowan couldn’t count how many chickens fluttered around, but she estimated a few dozen. What looked to be some type of vertical garden, with plants growing out of pallet-like wooden shelves and metal mesh arches flourished not far from the livestock. A greenhouse about thirty feet long ran alongside the vertical garden. And a decent size stream ran across one corner of the camp, snaking under the walls to make its way in and out.
Bingo.
If she tried to scale the wall somehow and make her way over the razor wire, she’d end up sliced to ribbons, but the stream had definite potential. She just needed it to be a few feet deep, and she could swim right under the wall and out of Graham’s little kingdom. She didn’t look forward to starting her hike soaking wet, but it was better than bleeding from razor wire. She didn’t allow herself to consider the possibility of staying. Family first. That had become her mantra. And one added bonus: she’d be proving Graham wrong. Something Ro figured didn’t happen very often. Humility. Learn it, Conan. Checking the trees again for lookouts and coming up clear, as far as she could tell, Ro made her decision and hefted her bag. She hobbled toward the stream and the wall it flowed under, careful to keep as much weight off her now-burning ankle as possible. A pine tree offered decent cover, so Ro dropped her bag and started to unlace her boots. Might as well keep as much of her stuff dry as possible. She peeled off her socks and then stripped off the borrowed sweatpants and hoody. She kept the t-shirt on because otherwise she’d be skinny-dipping. She tied her hiking boots onto her backpack and shoved the clothes inside. She heaved the pack upward as hard as she could, watching it sail over the razor wire. The thump on the other side meant she was committed. Ro studied the stream. She really, really hoped it was deep enough.
Ro took a steadying breath and looked around the branches of the pine to make sure no one had noticed her. Not seeing anyone paying attention to her or her impromptu strip show, Ro stepped barefoot into the stream, shivering at the icy cold and—hell, yes!—hip-deep water. She slipped on the rock bottom and winced as a jagged edge gouged into the side of her right foot. Another tentative step toward the wall and Ro almost lost her balance on the moss-covered rocks. She felt a sharp stab of pain as her ankle rolled and swallowed her curse. Fuck it, she was determined. Taking a deep breath, Ro slid beneath the surface and pulled herself under the wall.