Chapter 9

 

The drive to Eagle Rock had only taken a few hours, but Owen’s debriefing and the revelations over the days that followed would take Hope weeks to process. Assuming she could eventually make the horror story fit into the context of her new reality. Owen had been manipulated, used, and emotionally and physically abused by a system that seemed impervious to the law.

They’d been warmly welcomed to the ranch by Amelia, a gorgeous woman made more so by the glow of her pregnancy. Her husband, John, had been a bit more cautious until blood tests proved Owen was clear of any UI influence or tracking devices. His enhancements seemed permanent, which she might call a benefit if she hadn’t seen him overwhelmed by the proximity of a small town. Yes, he’d adjust, she just hated that he had to do so. She wanted to help and had never felt so helpless.

While the men compared notes about their experiences with Messenger and the treacherous Unknown Identities agency, Hope grew increasingly aware that time was running out on her assignment for the National Audubon Society. She had less than two weeks to catch the longspur migration. Normally, she’d be eager to get back into the field, now she was reluctant to leave Owen. Beyond how much she’d come to care for him it bothered her that he had nowhere to go. Messenger had destroyed his life and made him a wanted man in several states.

Since they’d arrived, she and Owen had basically been living together in the updated bunkhouse behind the main house of the ranch framed by the rugged foothills of the Crazy Mountains. Amelia had offered her the guest room, but she’d wanted to stay close to Owen. The kisses were tantalizing and conversations intriguing. The man made her smile and laugh and she enjoyed getting to know him as a person. He’d called her remarkable, yet in her eyes, he was the true hero. Even drugged and threatened, he’d kept searching for his humanity, striving to stay in touch with his personal ethics.

She’d taken her camera for long walks and short hikes at all hours, in search of unique images of the wild springtime in an area she’d never before explored. Until today, Owen had been her escort every time she ventured further than the fence line and proved a superb assistant with his enhanced senses. Today, though, Amelia joined her as they walked over to see the new horses at the neighboring ranch where Scott lived with Jaime, a woman he’d met during his first effort to save his friends Owen and Tucker.

“I’m fairly certain Messenger has no idea you were the witness Owen went back to eliminate.”

Put in those words, it still shocked her that the man who’d tried to kill her was the man she’d fallen in love with. As her grandmother said, there was never a shortage of surprises in a full life. Dare she hope that she and Owen might find a full life together?

“Duke went back to your remote site and the campground too,” Amelia continued. “It seems no one has connected you and Owen.”

“That’s great news. For both of us.” Hope forced her mouth into a smile. “He’s been worried that he ruined my life entirely.” She would never be sorry they’d met, no matter how challenging the introduction had been.

“You’ll need to be vigilant,” Amelia warned. “It’s possible UI will figure it out eventually. Unlikely, but possible.”

“I understand.”

“I’m not sure you should go back to fulfill your assignment.”

Hope didn’t like leaving a task undone, but she saw the wisdom of walking away in this case. “I’ll figure something out. Wildlife photography is notoriously unpredictable.”

Amelia chuckled under her breath. “Blame this on motherhood, but I’m curious about the precautions you have in mind.”

“Well, the radios you use are smart,” Hope said. “I can stay in contact, schedule daily check-ins.”

“Yeah, that isn’t going to be enough for me.”

Hope bristled. “I can’t tuck myself away and hide from the world.” She clapped a hand to her mouth. “That’s not what you’re doing. I know that.” She waved her hand as if erasing a chalkboard. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound so ungrateful.”

“Relax.” Amelia smiled, pressing a hand to her baby bump. “We are hiding, in a fashion and with good reason. Life on the run gets old quickly and is utterly impractical with a baby.” She paused to sip from the water bottle she carried. “We took some extreme steps to create this haven. I’m inviting you and Owen to stay close.”

Her heart leapt at the idea of days filled with those mountains and nights filled with Owen. “I don’t know.”

“I understand how important your career is to you, having been there myself.”

“It is.” Hope had worked hard to build up her reputation, honing her natural talent into a refined and marketable skill. In the days since they’d arrived here, she’d considered starting over or creating another persona for her photography. Either solution meant switching styles and probably subject matter too. “How did you walk away from your journalism career?”

“I didn’t have much choice, running for my life,” Amelia replied. “When we survived the immediate threat, against all odds, I channeled my energy into investigating and unraveling the UI agency.”

Hope didn’t know the other woman well, but she recognized a force of nature, and a potential friend, when she met one. She made life-altering decisions sound easy.

“Messenger is taking too many chances trying to rebuild,” Amelia continued. “We’re making progress again.”

“Owen isn’t a threat to me anymore,” she pointed out.

“No, but UI is. They know he’s alive. Based on the measures Messenger employed to find him, I wish you’d rethink your plans to leave, especially if Owen insists on going with you.”

“Because by identifying Owen someone can find UI?”

Amelia’s gaze scanned the mountains. “That’s the premise I’ve been working on. With the resources at their disposal, it’s my theory they won’t stop looking for him for a long time. He told us his code name was Pointer and they’d groomed him to be a super-scout.”

It was a ghastly proposition she didn’t want to dwell on. “But he’s healthy now?”

“Yes. By the miracle that was you. If you hadn’t hit him over the head, he most likely would have died from the kill switch.” She blinked away tears. “I get so mad with what they go through. Based on what Owen has said, the program is rushing development. It’s one reason their friend Tucker died.” She sighed. “We will locate the lab and find a way to see justice done,” she said. “What I don’t know or can’t figure out, the others we’ve helped through the years will do without question.”

“How can you be sure of their loyalty?”

“Would you betray us Hope?”

After everything she’d seen, no way and she said so.

“There you go.” Amelia smiled. “I’ve been entertaining another idea that could give you some more breathing space. I can generate some publicity that would establish you well out of the area when Owen ran through.”

“Count me in.” She’d do anything to get back out into the field and the work she loved and it would be far more enjoyable if she had confidence that she and Owen would both be safe.

*

Owen felt more like his old self with each passing day in Eagle Rock. The Noble ranch was close enough to town that he could test his hearing without stressing out. The mountains by day and the sky full of stars by night had him believing he could actually remain free.

Day by day, talking with John and Ben, reconnecting with Scott, helped him trust the recovery and embrace the second chance Hope had given him when she’d knocked him into the creek. With nothing but time, he often walked with Hope when she went out to explore the immediate area. With his face plastered all over law enforcement offices for crimes he didn’t commit, no one was ready to chance him being seen in town, but that wasn’t where he wanted to be anyway.

He wanted to be with Hope. For more than these uncertain days. The more she revealed about herself and her dreams, and the more he watched her work, the more he wanted to share that rare beauty of the future she had planned. Each night, their kisses went a little further, left them both wanting, but he still didn’t trust himself to make love to her. Not until he knew that he could offer her more security than risk. But, dear God, the desire was becoming unbearable.

It was a distraction, if not much of a break, allowing John, Ben, and Scott to pick through the wreckage of his brain day after day. He was determined that his time in that damned cell would serve some good purpose. Scott and Ben were planning another field trip to locate the new UI compound where Owen and Tucker had been put through the initial procedures of the enhancement program.

They were all in agreement that the setup had to be somewhere in the Southwest, hopefully on the U.S. side of the border. Owen didn’t think Arizona was right, if only because that’s where he’d been told to dump the JAG officer’s body. Hard to imagine a man as calculating as Messenger toying with authorities in close proximity to his secret operation. Ben and John, with more experience with Messenger, disagreed, poring over maps of the rural areas.

During a lull in the planning conversation, Owen heard the three women in the family room discussing something about pregnancy, hormones, and nesting. All things he would be happier not hearing. He hoped Ben was right that he’d eventually learn to control his enhancements and dial out the excess sounds he didn’t want to hear.

“How long did it take before Messenger let you guys loose on operations?” Owen asked.

John glared at him. Apparently he’d found the one question that unsettled the UI veteran. “I was rarely in the lab. They only pulled me in to tweak something.”

“You might call John the pilot program,” Ben said, barely visible on the other side of the map spread across the desk. “They didn’t bother with fancy tracking systems or wiping our memories with drugs, they just pumped in the crap to change us.” A glass filled with water rose into the air as Ben paused for a drink. “This is good stuff. One more reason you made an excellent decision here.”

“Glad you approve, Ben,” John said, amused. “Messenger worked the early operatives differently.” He met Owen’s gaze. “Technology and chemistry have helped him up his game.”

“What’s your deal?” Owen asked, curiosity getting the best of him at last.

“Me?” John’s grin was wicked. “I’m bulletproof.”

Owen gaped. “No way.”

“I’ll punch you in the throat if you shoot me,” John said. “Still hurts like hell.”

“Most of the healing stuff came from what they learned from John in the lab,” Ben told him, completely invisible now.

Owen tracked the voice and found the oily smear in the air over at the window seat. “What do you mean?”

“That is so damn cool that you can see me, man. Isn’t it cool, boss?”

“Sure is,” John said, his gaze aimed at Owen. “Ben learned quickly he could use his enhancement against UI. Right up to the point we blew the lab, he was a double agent.”

“Still am when I can get close enough.”

“And we appreciate it,” John assured him.

Owen could tell that John wanted something better for his invisible friend.

Scott piped up, shifting the subject back to the search for the lab. “Why not come with us? With you and Ben we can cover—”

He stopped, his body jerking to the side as if something shoved him. Or someone, Owen thought, as a translucent Ben revealed himself. “It’s your choice, man,” he said. “The boss isn’t a dictator like Messenger. Even with a new ID, the risk is real. If you’re not ready, stay home. We get it.”

“He’s right. I don’t mean to push.” Scott propped his elbows on the desktop, rubbing his temples. “I just think it would help to have you with us. You might recognize something.”

The stress on his face was so familiar from their Army days, Owen blew out a long sigh. “You’re not pushing.” He clapped Scott on the shoulder. “None of this is your fault, Scott. We were all manipulated from the start.”

“You were at UI’s mercy for months.”

“Come on, kid,” Ben began, “We’ve talked about this. You can’t still believe the bastard would have kept his word about that one-kill-and-you-all-go-free deal.”

“No.” Scott lifted his eyes to Owen’s. “I swear we’ve been trying to find you.”

“I know.” Owen paced to the window, staring out at the dark mountains stretching toward the star-spangled sky. “When I think of going out there with you… Hell when I think of picking up a gun again, I’m sick.” He pressed a hand to his stomach. “I know that’s ridiculous considering what the Army asked of me, but it’s true.”

“You could get even,” Scott pointed out. “Better offense than defense, right?”

“Sometimes,” Owen allowed. “Strategic retreat isn’t the worst thing.”

“Especially in this case,” Ben agreed. “If he’s not ready for action, it’s cool if he goes walkabout.”

“And what if UI catches up with you?” Scott demanded. “You need someone at your back.”

Owen shrugged. “I’ll call it in. Defend myself.”

Scott swore. “If I could have taken your place, I would have,” he said.

Emotion churned in Owen’s gut, rising dangerously close to his heart. “Cut yourself some slack. And have a little faith in me.”

“I still say you’re better sticking with us than wandering off alone.”

Maybe there was a happy medium. A way to stay out of the public eye and still lend a hand when needed.

“Rushing back into the fray before you’re ready is a mistake,” John said. “And we all know UI will pull out the big guns now that two of three recent recruits are out in less than six months.” He turned to Owen. “Wherever you want to be, take the time to recover. There will be plenty of action if and when you’re ready to pick up a gun again.”

Scott turned on John. “And if UI finds him?” he repeated. “What then?”

“Then we’ve failed,” John replied baldly. “This property is the line the three of us drew in the sand.” His gaze, locked on Scott wasn’t unkind, but it was clear to Owen the discussion was closed.

“I’ll check in,” he assured his friend. “My theory is if I’m out in the wild I’ll hear and see them long before they see me. Eventually they’ll give up. And if they send resources after me, it gives you and Ben better odds.”

“He has a point, kid.”

In the other room, the women burst into raucous laughter and the tension bracketing Scott’s eyes eased. The man was so determined to fix a problem he hadn’t created, but meeting Jaime gave him something bigger, something to come home to. Seeing those relationships encouraged Owen. After spending a week with Scott and the others, he realized a somewhat normal life was possible. The challenge was to stop inserting Hope into that role in his life. She might not want a bodyguard tagging along as a sorry excuse for an assistant. Without her, he didn’t have a clue what his new normal would look like.

First he needed to get comfortable in his own skin again. He needed to believe in his heart and his head that he was free. Free of the drug, the poison, and the controlling man in the gray suit.

“Go on.” John gave his shoulder a shake. “Wander. Shake off the crap you’ve been through. You have the radio and you’ll always have friends here listening.”

“Thanks.” He felt an obligation to Scott and John and the others but he couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for facing off with UI any time soon.

He ducked out the back door and headed for the bunkhouse, wondering how to start the conversation with Hope. How could he ask her to take a chance on him? When he walked in, he found her sorting gear into her new day pack and a bigger pack that had been ordered from a supplier in Bozeman.

“I thought you were still at the house,” he said, surprised.

She smiled up at him. “Just wanted to play with my new gear.”

“You’re leaving?” His heart pounded against his ribs.

She sat back on her heels. “I need to get back out there. Audubon isn’t the only group waiting on pictures and…” Her voice trailed off, her gaze adrift.

“And you need to prove you can.”

She glanced up at him. “Pretty much. Did you come to a decision about searching for the lab?”

“Pretty much.” He dropped to a knee beside her. “I can’t help them hunt for UI, not yet.” He pushed a hand through his hair, the lives he’d taken on UI’s orders once more marching though his head. “Noble says I can stay here as long as it takes. No obligation.”

“That’s generous.”

“Yeah.” It still amazed him than anyone who’d been subject to Messenger for years could be so well-adjusted. Normal. Despite his enhancement, the man was having a kid soon and it was clear how much Amelia loved him, regardless of what they’d been through. What they might yet face.

“It’s good you’re taking the time, Owen. What you were subjected to was unthinkable, especially for a man so honorable at the core.”

Her assessment set him back. His behavior had been despicable. Hell, he’d nearly killed her simply because a voice in his ear had told him to.

She scooted closer, her hands warm as she cradled his jaw. “You’re strong, Owen, mind and body.” Her palms dropped to his shoulders cruised down over his arms and back up in a long, slow caress. “UI never owned you and they’ll never be able to divide you again.”

It wasn’t the first time she’d said it since they reached the Noble ranch and it was finally sinking in. “You believe that.” It was almost too much to bear.

“I believe in you. You’ll get past this.”

“I only got this far because of you, Hope.”

Her lips tilted, parted. Whatever she might have said, he silenced her with a kiss that went from soft to blazing need in the span of a single heartbeat. Scooping her into his arms, he carried her to the bed and laid her back.

Everything he’d held back since their first kiss, he set loose now. He tuned all of his senses to her, reading every sigh and moan, layering pleasure upon pleasure. Hands and mouths met, coaxed, teased until she arched into a gorgeous climax that left him trembling with need. He gazed down at her lovely, willowy body as longing poured through him. His only desire was to make this moment last a lifetime—for both of them.

She drew him into her heat, deep, and deeper still, her arms and legs holding him close, closer. Nothing had ever felt so right and he knew nothing ever would. When she quaked, her body clinging, he joined her in that stunning, incomparable release.

He stretched out beside her, belatedly realizing the sun had set while they’d been distracted. Legs tangled, heart thudding, and her fingers tracing indecipherable patterns over his chest, he’d never felt so content. Happy. In the UI labs, mind blurred by drugs, he’d never thought to be happy again.

He patiently waited until her fingers stopped moving and her breath went deep and calm before he said the words pulsing through his system. “I love you, Hope.” The words had been on his heart for days. It was too soon to say them even now, in this quiet aftermath, but he didn’t want her to walk away without them.

Her fingers curled into her palm, away from his skin as she propped herself up to stare at him. In the faint light, he wondered what she hoped to see. His enhancement gave him a good look at the wide-eyed shock in her eyes and the little gasp that slipped past lips swollen from their kisses.

“You mean that.”

Apparently her vision was excellent as well. “Yes.” He swallowed. “Did I say it too soon?”

She brushed her mouth across his. “I don’t think it’s possible.”

“The words or the timing?” It hadn’t escaped his notice that she hadn’t aimed the same sentiment his way.

She shook her head, her black hair streaming over his skin. “I don’t think love has a perfect timeline,” she murmured, her voice plush as velvet. “It just is. I love you too, Owen.”

He tucked her hair behind her ear, savoring the miracle of her words, drinking in the moment. Bringing her close, his mouth found hers, staking a claim and surrendering at the same time. She was where he belonged, both touchstone and freedom. Whatever came next, she’d given him more than he deserved.

*

She was dozing, her body spent and languid, when his voice rumbled across her senses.

“What do you need, I wonder.”

He was merely thinking aloud, assuming she was asleep, but she roused enough to answer him anyway. “Sleep.” Clearly his enhancements meant he needed less sleep than she did.

He chuckled. “I sort of meant professionally.” He kissed her hair. “We can talk in the morning.”

 “Hmm.” The first answer that occurred to her was that she simply needed to be with him. She dragged her mind back from satiated contentment to give him a real answer. “I need to get out in the field. Researchers are counting on me, even if I can’t fulfill the longspur migration this season.”

“Did my intrusion make you afraid of hiking out alone?”

He’d been with her on every short hike so far, giving her no time to figure that out. “I don’t think so.” His spotting her in that deadly state had certainly derailed her primary assignment, but she didn’t feel trepidation or fear about going back out. “You’re a once in a lifetime experience.” She smoothed a hand over his sculpted abs. “I’ll be okay once I’m back at it. Will you be okay here on the ranch?”

“Not without you,” he stated simply.

His candid reply resonated through her. And here she’d been worried about being too clingy.

“I’d rather go with you. If you trust me,” he said. “I know you’re probably not in any danger, but I’d feel better if I was there to fall on any stray bullets.”

“Owen,” Of course she trusted him. She traced the hard line of his jaw. “There isn’t love without trust.”

His eyebrows pinched in a skeptical frown. “I love being free of UI, but I don’t trust that freedom yet.”

“That’s different,” she said.

“Maybe.” His palm caressed her shoulder, bringing her closer. “What if having me around throws you off and disrupts your rhythm?”

She hid her laughter behind kisses to his chest. “So far my rhythm feels perfect with you,” she said, deliberately embracing the double meaning. “I’m sure it will be the same in the field.”

“You’ll let me tag along?”

His eagerness warmed her. “I’d rather be out there with you than alone.”

“Then we’ll leave tomorrow.”

“Now pretend you need some rest,” Hope said, snuggling into his comforting embrace. She couldn’t imagine how they might explain how they met to their children and grandchildren, but thanks to Scott and the others they had years to figure it out.