Chapter Ten
“Holy shit,” Kini whispered, her jaw hanging open for a moment.
Smoke had to agree. “Time to go.”
“Let me grab my stuff.” She led the way through the kitchen, picking up her purse and collection kit as she walked toward the front door.
None of the cops said anything to them or even cast a curious glance their way.
Kini put her equipment in her rental car then paused with the driver’s door open and one foot on the floorboard. “Meet you at the next address?”
“We’re not going back to the hospital?” he asked.
“I need these samples to show or refute a pattern and, hopefully, a timeline of infection. I need to find the source. Dr. Flett’s infection is significant, but so is this.”
Smoke wasn’t sure he agreed. “Okay, you’re the boss.”
She frowned at him then started the car’s engine and departed the yard about thirty miles an hour too fast. He waited a minute for the dust from the gravel road to settle before starting his hog and riding after her.
It was about ten minutes before he pulled up to another ranch-style home. Unfortunately, this place seemed just as quiet and serene as the last one. Except, the last one had a dead body in it and a little girl who was probably going to rule the world when she grew up.
Smoke scanned the house and yard. Kini wasn’t visible anywhere. The car was here, but she wasn’t.
He walked to the front door and knocked. Feminine laughter echoed through the house. He could hear more than two people in there having a conversation.
Footsteps alerted him a second or two before the door opened. A woman in her forties scanned him then shouted over her shoulder, “Kini, I think your man is here.”
“My what?” Kini’s voice came from deeper inside the house, out of sight, and sounded scandalized. “I distinctly recall not acquiring one of those while visiting your fair state.”
Yes, she had.
“What I acquired was a babysitter. A fist for hire, really.”
“Ooh! You’re paying a mercenary to take care of you?” The woman sounded more and more excited with every word she spoke. “That’s hot.”
“It’s annoying, is what it is. He won’t let me go anywhere alone.”
“A guy like this could take me anyplace and I’d be happy.”
He was standing right in front of her. How could she talk about him like he was some kind of…object?
Or was this some sort of cosmic karma wherein he got heckled as a stand-in for all the men in the world?
“Kini?” Smoke called out. “Done?”
“Give me two minutes.”
“Two words?” the woman asked. “You only used two words, yet she was able to understand what you meant.” The woman looked him up and down again. “I could get used to that.”
Holy shit, it sounded like this lady was about to proposition him.
“Kini?” he repeated. He’d faced armed militants, terrorists, and men driven insane by loss and hate without flinching, but this woman scared him.
He took a step back from the door then spied Kini walking toward him.
“It’s going to take me another ten minutes to finish here. Feel free to head back to town,” she said.
“I’ll just wait…” He cleared his throat and managed not to glance at the woman while he pointed at his motorcycle.
“Suit yourself.”
Smoke moved away, letting himself lean on his ride and study the landscape. Their enemy was too small to see and too quiet to hear, and no amount of hypervigilance could change that. He was wound right up, and nothing would loosen until this shit was over.
The worst kind of war.
Maybe he shouldn’t have taken the job River offered. Nah, he’d be here doing the same thing, job or not. Kini needed someone to support her. Protect her. That’s all he was good for now.
Her voice reached across the yard, pulling his attention back to the house.
“Thanks, Mary, for taking the time out of your day to answer my questions and provide a blood sample.”
Smoke met Kini as she stepped out of the house.
“No problem.” Mary smiled and pointed at Smoke. “The scenery was worth it.”
He kept pace with Kini as she strode to her car. Very close pace.
She gave him a frown and sidled away from him, but he followed.
From the house came the sound of laughter. Wicked, naughty laughter.
“What’s the matter with you?” she asked him.
“I don’t want Mary to think I’m available for…whatever she’s laughing about.”
“You can’t tell me women haven’t hit on you before. I won’t believe it.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re everything a woman looks for in a man.”
Smoke forgot Mary. Forgot the illness they were investigating and forgot the dead body Kini had found not an hour ago.
She kept talking, her hand indicating all of him. “Big, muscular…”
He stepped toward her, one hand coming up to play with a tendril of hair that had escaped her ponytail.
Her words fizzled out as her face grew red. “Never mind.”
Oh no. She’d started this explanation, she was going to finish it. “Keep going.”
Her breathing sped up, and she licked her lips. “Um, what was I saying? Oh, right, you’re big, muscular, and…” This time, she stopped talking to breathe. Hard.
He waited, his hand stroking over her cheek then tucking the tendril behind her ear. “And what?”
“Hot,” she said. Her tongue darted out to wet her bottom lip.
He couldn’t stop himself from lowering his head so his tongue could follow the path of hers.
Her bottom lip was as plump and sweet as it looked. Better. He tasted her again, just to be sure. Fuck, she was sweet and tart at the same time. A flavor that gave him an adrenaline hit and his body demanded more.
His hand slid behind her head, cradling it at just the right angle for him to kiss her deep and long.
A low moan came out of her throat, then her hands were on his shoulders, hanging on to him like he was the only reason gravity hadn’t pulled her flat to the earth.
Raucous laughter from the house had her jerking away from him, but he didn’t let her go. Not when her face drained of all color right before his eyes.
She tried to retreat, but at some point during their kiss, he’d put his other hand on the small of her back and pressed her to him. He most definitely didn’t want her going anywhere.
“Smoke,” she said, breathing heavy, eyes glassy. “Let me go.”
Those words dumped ice water over his head, and he released her suddenly. She staggered, and he grabbed her by the shoulders to steady her.
“Sorry,” he said, though it came out as more of a mumble.
She nodded, the movement jerky.
Smoke cleared his throat. “Now what?”
“We get these samples packaged up and on their way to Atlanta.” She blew out a shaky breath. “I’ll meet you at your grandparent’s house?”
Smoke nodded and watched her get in the car and drive off.
He wanted her.
He’d wanted her since waking up with her on his chest, but this want was different. He wanted more than a hookup or even a short-term fling. He wanted to kiss her with no time limit, no audience, and no distractions. That first taste would never be enough. He was already addicted to her sweet-tart flavor.
Yeah, like he was relationship material. Liam’s mother, Lacey, had complained bitterly about how he was never around when she needed him. When his son needed him. No matter how much he wanted to be a part of their lives, he hadn’t been able to take that last step to total commitment. It had felt like a noose around his neck, choking the life right out of him.
Kini wasn’t anything like Lacey, though. She wasn’t looking for happily ever after, and maybe happy right now might last long enough to work her out of his system.
He got on his hog and roared after her. Her reaction this morning told him he’d have to be cautious and careful as he found a way through her emotional defenses. She’d been hurt, to the bone, by someone she trusted. That trust wasn’t something she offered lightly to anyone, if she offered it to anyone at all.
At the house, Tommy was outside talking to Kini, the two of them standing next to the young man’s jeep. Kini held a box in her hands. As he joined them, she opened the box and began explaining what made this box different.
“It’s not made of regular cardboard. It’s composed of plastic-coated cardboard designed to resist punctures and tears. It also has a Styrofoam interior that protects the tubes of blood and includes freezer packs to keep them cold.”
“So, if I drop it…?”
“I would try to avoid that if possible, but if you do drop it, the samples will probably be fine.”
“No drop kicking it through the goal posts. Got it.”
“Give me your phone, and I’ll enter the address for the courier.”
He did, and she put in the information into his contacts.
“Drive safe,” Smoke said. “You get stopped by the cops, you tell them to call me.”
Tommy got in his jeep and drove away.
Kini was standing close. Close enough that if Smoke reached out he could put his arm around her shoulders and pull her to him.
Resisting the urge to touch her, he asked, “Next?”
Kini turned to him then had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze, but she didn’t back away.
She took in a breath and opened her mouth.
“Smoke, Kini?” his grandmother called to them from the front door of the house. “You’d better come in and see this.” She retreated inside.
Smoke followed Kini into the living room where his grandfather was watching the TV.
“…received a video from an unknown source claiming to be from a group called Free America From Oppression. In the video the FAFO threatens to use biological weapons to achieve its goal to force state and federal authorities to scrap the national health care plan. They have this message for state and federal law enforcement: We will not be cowed into silence or inaction. The government’s attempt to manipulate and control the free marketplace and personal liberty is as insidious as a virus. It is criminal and must be stopped. This is the only warning you will get. Continue to interfere and you will learn the true meaning of the word plague.”
Domestic terrorists.
Holy fuck.
Kini’s cell phone began to ring. As she reached for it, Smoke’s rang, too.
He pulled it out of a pocket and accepted the call. “Smoke.”
“River. We’ve got a problem.”
“Free America From Oppression?”
“You saw the news report?”
“Yeah. Idiots.”
“Idiots who are fucked in at least two different ways.”
Smoke grunted his agreement. “You think they’re here in Small Blind?”
“Don’t know, man, but we’re not taking any chances. Did Kini get those samples?”
“They’re on their way. My cousin Tommy is driving into Las Vegas and dropping them off at the courier.”
“Good. The powers that be here are chomping at the bit to get their hands on them.”
“We’re not seeing an obvious pattern to the infection,” Smoke told him.
“So no way to know how the sick came in contact with the virus?”
“No, but before anyone even suspected the hantavirus, there was a rumor going around town that Kini and the CDC had deliberately gotten people sick. Three people have died in the past couple of weeks. Another person died today.”
“We need to know if this is hantavirus or some other pathogen.”
“I might tangle with local law enforcement.”
“I’ll see if I can keep you out of jail. It would help if you didn’t kill anyone.”
“No promises.” Smoke hung up.
Kini had hung up a few seconds before him and looked at him. “No promises?”
Smoke shrugged. “Not to kill anyone.”