Chapter Eleven
Chase held Raine in his arms. Her head was tucked under his chin, and he’d wrapped his legs over hers. She fit into his spaces. He’d have to get up soon but wanted to hold her a little longer. What he felt for her had to be lust. Two people could have simple chemistry between them, but if he dug deeper he might hit what was really happening to him. He felt more than just lust for her. She said what was on her mind. She was tough because whatever had her running didn’t have her whining about it. She knew she was on her own and was doing what she needed to take care of Landon. The subject on how to get a gun threw him a little, but who was he to question her methods? And Landon was a great kid. The reason had to be because of the mother.
“You asleep?” He whispered against her hair.
She snuggled closer pressing her breasts into his chest, and his blood started racing. If she kept that up he’d have an erection in about two seconds. “Don’t want to sleep. There’s a hot guy in my bed.”
“About that. I should go before we both fall asleep.” He didn’t like the idea of leaving the warm bed and unraveling himself from the pretty lady. He did want to wake up beside her though. She was quickly undoing the structured life he’d put together for himself here in Silent Water.
She pushed up on her elbow. Her hair spilled over her shoulder. He wrapped the end around his finger. “I appreciate your practical side.” Her lips brushed against his.
Yup, all his blood ran south. He grabbed her and pulled her on top of him. She squealed.
“Ssh. You don’t want someone knocking on the door.” He splayed his hands over her tight bottom and held her close. His erection pressed against her. He wanted her again, at least one more time before he left.
“I’ve enjoyed this. I really have. You are a…a pleasant surprise, but I think you’re right. You should go. It’s late and I need a couple of hours of sleep before I have to get up and get Landon to school.”
She ran her fingers over his chin.
“That feels nice.” He tilted his chin up to keep her doing anything that included her hands on him.
He slid his hands up and down her back.
“That also feels nice.”
He kissed her shoulder tasting her sweet and salty flavor, and kept his hands kneading the small of her back. She moaned and tilted his head to hers so she could kiss him full on the mouth.
He wasn’t about to protest. Her tongue slid in and out his mouth sending more heat to his center. He let his hands rest on her bottom again, and she pressed her hips into his. He slid his hand over her precious ass and touched her center. She was wet, hot, and ready. He thought he might come on the spot.
He was about to flip her over and drive into her, but she took him in her hands and stroked until white lights flamed behind his eyes. “Raine, that feels so good.”
She pushed up off his chest, aligned his erection with the place he wanted to be most, and slowly took all of him in. She felt so good wrapped around him. He had to think about cleaning the rabbit cage not to explode too soon. She directed their speed rocking her hips back and forth. She arched back and he circled her hard nipples with the tips of his fingers.
“Chase?”
“Hmm?” He didn’t have the strength to say more.
“Can you rock with me?” She’d turned her gaze on him, and he only wanted to see her and nothing else.
“Anything you want.” And he actually meant that in more ways than one. He lifted his hips to match her movements. Desire burned deep into his veins. Her gripped her hips to keep the momentum going.
When she threw her head back again and called out his name he lost control and let the flood gates of heat and desire wallop him. He drove up his hips, pushing further into her wanting to feel every inch of her convulse around him as she finished, and as his release crashed against him until he thought he might drown.
He pulled her against him until their hearts returned to a normal rhythm. He ran his fingers through her silky hair.
“Now, that was amazing,” she said against his chest. “I hate to make you get out of my bed, but now you really need to go.”
He turned them so they were both on their sides facing each other. “I have some friends coming over tomorrow night to play poker. Well, actually I guess it’s really today. Can I see you again…tomorrow?” He wanted to see her today, tonight, and tomorrow. What was happening to him?
“I’d like that, but I’ll have Landon.” She traced the edge of his jaw.
As much as he wanted her hands all over him, he eased her hand away from his face, and kissed her fingers. “Landon can come too.” He might have to work on a reliable, safe babysitter. “Don’t show me out. It’s cold. I’ll come by after my shift at the General.”
She sat up and gathered the blankets around her. She looked beautiful in the dim light from the moon with her hair falling in waves. “I hope you win at poker.”
“Thanks.” But he may have won at something else far better.
****
Chase opened the door to Deke and Max standing on his front porch. They pushed past him into the hallway.
“Christ, it’s cold out there.” Max knocked his booted feet on the tile and rubbed his hands together. His striped knit cap sat back on his almost shaven head, and his flannel coat flapped opened.
“Button your damn coat, then.” He stuck his head out the door to catch a quick glimpse at Raine’s place. Her beat-up Camry was in the carport where it belonged. A sense of ease lay across his shoulders. He closed the door keeping the freezing air outside.
Deke unbuttoned his double-breasted wool coat he’d bought in a second-hand shop because he thought it made him look like Sylvester Stallone in the eighties and hung it on the hook. “I told him he doesn’t know how to dress for winter on the east coast, but he doesn’t listen to me. Here.” He handed over a case of Heineken.
“Stop acting like my momma. I don’t need you to tell me how to dress.” Max made his way into the kitchen as if he’d been in the house a thousand times before.
“Shit. If you’d listen to me, you might get with the ladies once in a while.” Deke yelled after Max.
The laughter bounced off the walls and sounded like music to his soul. He’d missed hanging with these guys. “Thanks for driving up.” They had to have spent eight hours coming from the last operation. “At least you got here ahead of the storm.”
The weather forecasters still talked about a big storm on the way. They were predicting the later part of next week, but meteorologists were never right. He’d been wrong only once in his line of work and it has cost him everything. He wanted a job where he could be wrong most of the time. Even at the General Store he couldn’t screw up too much and not get Jim pissed at him.
The phone rang, and heat spread across his chest. Maybe it was Raine saying she was lying naked in her bed thinking of him. He shook his head. She was a mother who took care of her son. She wasn’t lying around thinking of him.
“I have to take this.” He shouted into the kitchen and turned into the front room where the extra phone sat on a small table. “Shepherd.”
“Chase, it’s Bob Masone down at the ranger station.”
“Hey, Bob. What did you find?” He’d asked Bob for a list of registered campers for the month of January.
“Well, I hope you’re wrong about the fellow you spoke to. I don’t have anyone fitting his description registered to camp. Just Jim and Cindy Marshall. They come out every January for two weeks. I gave a call to Jim to keep an eye out for anyone putting up camp because I’ll go in and drag them out without the proper paperwork. Do you think I’ve got a problem on my hands? I’m short staffed this month. I’ll have to call the county for help.”
He didn’t know what kind of trouble the guy with the man-bun was drumming up, but he didn’t want Bob to worry. “Maybe the weather scared him off.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. But thanks for the heads up. I’ll let you know if he ever shows.”
“Thanks, Bob.”
What was Man-Bun up to? Why the story about the camping trip? Or was he just some guy who didn’t care about the rules, and wanted the adventure? But any prudent camper would want someone to know his location. Especially this time of year when the weather played a huge role in survival. He’d check around town if anyone else had seen this guy. He should stop in at the school to make sure he hadn’t returned.
He joined Deke and Max in the kitchen. They sat around the table drinking beer, eating chips, and betting money they didn’t have. They reminisced about old operations, bad girlfriends, and plenty of their antics over the years. He eased back in the chair and let the comfortable feeling float around him.
“So, Chase, you ready to do that birthday party detail with us? Easy money, man.” Deke tossed his chips into the growing pile in the center of the table.
“How far away is it?”
“We got him.” Max fist-pumped the air.
“Hang on a second.” He sat up straighter. Some of that easy feeling faded away. “I haven’t agreed to anything yet. Where is it? Who’s it for? How many hours? And what’s the drill?” He needed the specifics first before he went back on his promise to himself. He’d already broken the promise of no more women, and now he couldn’t get the image out of his head of Raine above him rocking his world. Okay, he didn’t really want to.
Deke opened another beer. “Simple. The party is in a candy factory in New York City next weekend. It’s for the daughter of some pop star the kids all love. He’s going to have a bunch of his friends there and they want the extra detail in case some fans storm the place or create a crowd outside. We’re basically going to stand around doing nothing because all those musicians travel with their own entourage.”
Seemed easy enough. Deke was right about them probably being extra hands more for show than anything else. “I won’t carry.” He may still go to the gun range to practice, and to help Raine, but he no longer wished to carry a gun on the job. Deke would have to understand that.
“You’ve got to get back in the saddle. The past is the past. You were cleared. You are the best shot, and the best team leader I know, man. Don’t let one dumb mistake take your life from you.” Max tossed his cards on the table and scratched at his buzz cut hair.
“Max, shut the fuck up.” Deke glared at him.
Max slid his gaze away. “Sorry. I’m just speaking the truth.”
“It’s all right. I’m happy here. I like my life. Simple. Quiet. The way I want it.”
Max turned his attention back to the table. “You deserve more than this.”
“I don’t want anything else. I got burnt out, and that means mistakes. What if the next time something happened to either one of you because I fuck up again? I won’t have that on my conscience.” His voice rumbled into the room. He pushed back from the table and shoved open the back door.
The cold air hit him like a hammer. Maybe that’s what he needed to knock some sense into him. Max picked at the scab he tried to pretend didn’t exist, and Deke kept inviting him back hoping he’d finally say yes. He stole a glance in the direction of Raine’s house. What would she say if he told her who he really was?
The door clicked closed behind him. He didn’t turn, but Deke handed him another beer. “I tied Max to a chair and wrapped duct tape around his head.”
In spite of himself, he laughed. “Thanks.”
“He means well. He misses you. So do I.” Deke’s voice was a whisper in the wind.
He swigged the beer feeling the cold draft run down his throat and into his stomach. If only it could freeze his emotions. “Yeah, me too.” He hated to admit it out loud because then missing the job, and missing his teammates was real.
“I haven’t told Max yet, but I resigned from Omega Team two days ago.”
“What?” He nearly dropped the beer.
“I’m starting my own private security firm and I want you to come work with me. If I can talk that butt head into it, I want him too. What do you think of this piece of shit town for a headquarters?”
“Are you serious?”
“Never more. I’m ready to move on. Have something of my own. Omega Team is great, and it’s been good to me, but I want something else. Maybe your quiet life rubbed off on me. I don’t know.”
“I can’t get my head around this. You leaving Omega never seemed possible.”
“No, bro, you leaving never seemed possible, but here you are still standing. I know you hate cooking in that joint no matter what you say. When you’re ready, come work with me.”
“Deke, I can’t carry.”
“You won’t carry. Not the same thing. Don’t decide tonight. Just agree to the birthday party gig. It’s so easy and stupid it’s almost a joke, but it’s great for my business having a client like that.”
He took a deep breath and another swig of the beer. “Okay. I’ll do it.”
“Excellent. We’ll leave from your place next Saturday afternoon. One more thing, I ran that check on Raine Kennedy.”
“And?” A small shiver ran down the back of his neck.
“I found something.”
“Are you two ass hats done hugging it out and coming back inside? Christ, it’s freezing out here.” Max slammed the door.
The beer sloshed around in his stomach. Once he heard what Deke had to say, there was no going back. He could tell him to forget it. He didn’t need to know more than she was willing to share. Not after last night and this morning. “What did you find?”
“I couldn’t believe it at first. I thought what are the odds this Raine Kennedy would be connected to one of my cases.”
His heart picked up speed, and the beer went sour in his mouth. “Tell me what you found.”
Deke narrowed his eyes. “Kennedy is her grandmother’s maiden name. Her real name is Raine Garcia. She’s married to Mateo Garcia.”
The bottle slipped from his icy fingers and bounced off the deck somewhere in the dark grass. Blood roared in his ears. He heard wrong. He had to have heard Deke wrong. “Are you sure?”
“I triple checked based on the description and age range you gave me. I included a son in the search too assuming your missing person you asked about first was her and her boy. Mateo Garcia’s wife and son disappeared two months ago. Her Lexus was found in a bus terminal. He never reported them missing. The story he’s telling is they’re having some marriage problems and she’s gone to stay with her parents in Florida for the winter. Her parents died in an accident when she was ten.”
He should’ve listened to his gut and stayed away from her. He should’ve insisted Badger drag her off the property the minute he laid eyes on her. He shouldn’t have slept with her. He wiped his face with his hands.
“What made you want that search? Why this woman? Because after what happened six months ago I thought the last thing you’d want was to get anywhere near another drug cartel.”